Heike is the proud daughter of Albrecht and Sieglinde Eisen. Such an address, declaring oneself to be the proud son or daughter of one's parents, is typical for Reikhurstans, who by and large hold a very traditional, conscientious, family-oriented worldview, and Heike was certainly no exception. The Eisen family was well-to-do, living on the illustrious Vale Street; her father Albrecht was a renowned carpenter and her mother Sieglinde, a jewelcrafter, had done work on Queen Karaliene's diadem prior to King Rommel's election ceremony. So Heike and her brothers and sisters did not want, did not know hardship in their childhoods.

But Heike aspired to something difficult and rigorous: to become a Knight of the Golden Blade, Reikhurst's elite and prestigious knightly Order. This she had wanted ever since first seeing them on parade down upon The King's Avenue. To take up arms in defense and service to Reikhurst was a high honor indeed, and with it came the title of "Citizen and Warrior" and earning the privilege to vote. Heike, a true Reikhurstan who believed in the tenets of honor, duty, and order above all else, wanted this more than anything.

As the years got closer to her seventh birthday--the earliest she could enter military service--her mother rejected the idea more and more obstinately. But Heike's father eventually convinced her, and with the blessing of both of her parents, Heike was allowed to enter initiation into the Order of the Golden Blade.


Heike trained extensively while she was sixteen years old, doing all that she could to prepare her body for the trials that would await her during her initiation. Even so, her initiation was the most difficult ordeal at that point in her life, absolutely draining, both mentally and physically. Her knight-superiors, Herr Dieter Roth and Herr Elias Schulze, pushed her and the other squires of her class to be at their pinnacle and beyond. A good number of them quit, and Heike came very close to quitting herself on several occasions, when her body was worn and shattered and her willpower near exhausted in its entirety. But she persevered. One day at a time. She kept on going until she was one of the few women who passed the Order's demanding initiation.

And it was a moment of great joy and pride to kneel down before King Rommel himself, to accept her Accolade, to rise after the anointing sword had touched both of her shoulders and to swear before him the Trinity of Oaths central to the Order: the Oath of Truth, the Oath of Justice, and the Oath of Honor.

She was now Herr Heike Eisen, Knight-Gallant of Reikhurst. A Citizen and Warrior.


Heike would go on to serve Reikhurst and the Order in many battles, both small and large, both defensive and offensive, and would rise to the rank of Knight-Valiant, in command of her own errantry of Gallants.

And she would bear terrible witness to the most devastating catastrophe in Reikhurst's history, a massive attack, well-planned and coordinated, by a veritable army of vampires that would leave Reikhurst decimated and its population massacred or scattered across the continent of Epressa in the year of 364. Unbeknownst to Heike at the time, it was led by the Third King of Reikhurst himself, Jürgen Kaiser, who had mysteriously vanished some four hundred years ago. Heike was taken captive by the vampires and forced to watch the massacre and the destruction throughout the night, and then she was turned and left for dead.

She awoke in the gray morning after, ashes all about her, and as one of the very monsters which had so wrought this tragedy: a Slaughtern vampire.

Thinking the slaughter to be complete, that she was the final Knight of the Golden Blade and perhaps even the last Reikhurstan, her despair in those first few days was immense. But, as she had done, as she had learned to do during her initiation, she persevered, and did so in the only way she could now. She became a vigilante. For over five years, Heike struck a balance between hunting down the guilty and the monstrous and sating the abhorrent thirst of vampirism that she was now afflicted with. And all the while, she carried in her heart the mementos of a better time, a time of family, home, and love. When she had her humanity. That was the real her.

And then hope arrived.

Heike discovered that not all of the Knights of the Golden Blade were dead. She discovered the immensity of the diaspora of Reikhurstans across Epressa. She discovered the name and truth of her enemy, the Third King, and the terrifying artifact which gave him his formidable strength. The hope of a Reikhurst restored from ash and ruin was real. Faint, but real.


The first step in her quest to restore Reikhurst would be to rid herself of her vampirism. And this, as one might rightly think, was no easy task. The search alone for a viable cure was difficult enough, and Heike could not do it alone. She sought out help and found it in high places, found it among those who would have been well within their rights to slay her on sight.

But, with the aid of the Alanthis Trade and Co. and of the Templar Chapters of the White Ravens, The Night Watchmen, and a Pariah, Heike saw herself at long last be cured of her vampirism. It had come with a high cost, but it was done, and she could face her people once again. She could be the beacon of hope around which the shattered and dispersed people of Reikhurst could rally, could take heart, and could be led to retake their city and their Kingdom.

And this road will be a long one.

Heike need only persevere once again.

The Lion and the Giant
Hellsfeld (A bounty, and losing a friend.)

Of Wine and Blood

Set Upon (Attempting to care for the orphan Ella.)

An Open Hand (Vengeance and rage, unbefitting a knight.)

Hunted or Be Hunted

The Adventurous Seven (Accepted. Learns of a possible cure for vampirism.)

Nicht Alle Tot (Rumors of the Golden Blade surviving.)

Always the Thirst (The quest to restore Reikhurst begins.)

Kenne deinen Feind (Aware of Jürgen Kaiser and the Bloodstone.)

Oddities (Citizen and Warrior.)

The Town of Gorinsbin

The War of the Kinniger Duchy (A disagreement of morals in war.)

What Remains

Winter (Maria, and what happened to her.)

Verhandeln (Honoring the fallen, accompanied by Szesh.)

What has happened

The Proud Daughter (Failed attempt at a cure for vampirism.)

The Path of Purity (Cured of her vampirism by Templar.)

A Fated Reunion (A meeting with Tzuriel Alanthis, a supporter of her cause.)

The Fog

Preventing Disaster (The Portal Stone Crisis. A spy of King Jürgen's finds out about Heike.)

Whose Deeds Are Daring

Slayers of the Wicked

Valor

Oathbound