Aliases : Niccolai Tepes, Louis DuBois, Richard Rallstone, Dimitri Romanov
Base of Operations : Gotham City
Tag : the monk
Important Plots : The Vampires Cometh
Journal(s) : jla_undead
Status : Available

Powers and Abilities : A true vampire, the Monk possesses a number of superhuman abilities. His strength, speed, and endurance are all far superior to even the strongest human, and his body heals from minor injuries very quickly. He is virtually immortal – only a small handful of methods and weapons are able to harm him, much less destroy him.

The Monk also possessed advanced hypnotic powers. He is able to enthrall animals such as bats and wolves to do his bidding with but a thought, and he is also capable of hypnotizing human beings. However, he requires direct contact with a human victim to hypnotize them, and can usually only enthrall one human at a time. By tasting the blood of his victim with a bite, the Monk is able to extend the strength and longevity of his control. The Monk prefers to enthrall women in this way, but he is capable of hypnotizing men too.

The Monk is capable of turning others into vampires as well. Vampires created by the Monk are usually weaker than him, and can be enthralled into his service as easily as the beasts that patrol his lair. These lesser vampires cannot in turn create more vampires – only the Monk himself can spread the vampiric seed.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Monk also possesses shapeshifting capabilities. He has so far demonstrated the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a bat, but may have additional transformations. The Monk is capable of prowling during the day in this transformed state without being damaged by sunlight.

Weaknesses : Though gifted with great power as a result of his vampiric nature, the Monk also inherited all of the vulnerabilities of the transformation. Though immortal, the Monk can be weakened or even destroyed by extended exposure to sunlight. While most conventional weapons do not harm him, he is vulnerable to silver - though not quite as vulnerable as one might expect. Silver can wound him, but it will probably not kill him. Folklore holds that vampires are vulnerable to religious objects, but this theory has not been tested on the Monk.

The Monk is dependent on blood to live. He must consume human blood in regular intervals to survive, and while he possesses advanced healing properties, they are dependent on a regular supply of blood as well.

Finally, the Monk can be destroyed by an elaborate ritual. His heart must be pierced, but unlike most vampires, this alone will not destroy him. He must then be beheaded, and his body burned. To prevent the Monk from resurrecting, his ashes must be scattered. Only this prolonged method can truly destroy the Monk.

History : The true history of the Monk is largely unknown. He is at least decades old, and possibly even centuries. He has gone by many names and aliases over the years, different lives with the same goal all – to sate the Monk’s immortal thirst. It is not even known if ‘Niccolai Tepes’ is the Monk’s original name.

The Monk first made his presence known in Gotham many years ago, when Bruce Wayne was first beginning his crime-fighting career as the Batman. Operating in Europe, the Monk met Richard Rallstone, a dilettante scion of Gotham’s wealthy (and corrupt) Rallstone family. Taking the weak-minded young man under his thrall, the Monk traveled back to Gotham City with him, wasting little time in commandeering the Rallstone fortune and castle for his own use. Once everything was his, the Monk allowed his benefactor the honor of serving him personally one last time.

The Monk then ordered Dala, a devout follower who accompanied him to Gotham from Europe, to begin recruiting followers to serve him. Almost single-handedly, Dala put together the Brotherhood – a sinister cult that worshiped only the night. Driven to perform bloody sacrifices to sate their master’s thirst, the Brotherhood began abducting foolish young girls from all across Gotham.

Eventually, the exsanguinated bodies drew the notice of first Jim Gordon (then still just a captain in Gotham’s police force) and then the fledgling Caped Crusader himself. Early attempts to uncover the mystery behind the bloodless bodies proved fruitless for Batman, as even after finally locating one of the low-level Brotherhood enforcers Batman was unable to terrify the thug into giving up answers. The Monk’s cruel punishments were well known, and even Batman’s visage could not match the fear the Monk had instilled in his followers.

As Batman sniffed at his heels, however, the Monk was attending other business. Ever-loyal Dala had brought a new maiden to his chamber – Julie Madison, a wealthy heiress. Of course, Julie Madison was also the current fiancée of Bruce Wayne – and ignorant of Wayne’s identity as Batman, neither Dala nor the Monk hesitated to make Madison their prey. Rather than simply drain the heiress dry, the Monk placed Madison under his hypnotic control, intending for her to sign her millions of dollars in savings and assets over to him. With her wealth coupled with the Rallstone fortune, the Monk intended to spread the reach of the Brotherhood across America.

Under the Monk’s thrall, Madison signed over her assets to him, but before she could be sacrificed, Batman crashed the offering get-together, driving the Batmobile into and through the walls of Rallstone Castle. In the ensuing inferno, most of the Brotherhood’s members were killed. Heedless, the Monk lured Batman into his lair for a confrontation. Employing a medieval mace and spear against the Caped Crusader, the Monk held the upper hand for most of the fight. In a last-ditch effort, Batman took the fight to the roof of the burning castle, and as he intended, the Monk’s steel spear unintentionally acted as a lightning rod, causing the Monk to be struck by a bolt of lightning. The seared Monk fell from the roof of Rallstone Castle, and while Batman recovered the villain’s hood, he never found a body.

For many years, the Monk was never heard from again. Recently, however, a rash of exsanguination murders have begun to plague Gotham once again. In a meeting in Gotham City’s 3rd Avenue Nite Club, the villain Prometheus met with the Monk, who is apparently the culprit behind these murders, aided by a number of vampiric ‘offspring.’ Proposing a pooling of resources, Prometheus secured an alliance with the Monk, promising him the space he needs to amass a vampiric army.

Other Sources :

• The Monk at the DC Database Project
• The Monk at Wikipedia
  

Divergences : No significant divergences.

Disclaimer - unless otherwise noted, all characters are property of DC Comics, used here only for roleplaying purposes.