History Literature / Drachenfels

** Before settling with ''Drachenfels'', Detlef Sierck goes through various {{Working Title}}s for his play, including ''[[Franchise/TheThreeMusketeers Man in the Iron Mask]]'' and ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''.

** The creepy actor brought in to take the role of Drachenfels is named Laszlo Lowenstein, the birth name of Creator/PeterLorre.

* EyeScream: All the people who die on the way to Castle Drachenfels have their eyes removed... [[spoiler:and then Laszlo Lowenstein ''eats'' them as part of a ritual to turn himself into Constamt Drachenfels]].

* CanonDiscontinuity: Changes to ''Warhammer'' canon made after the novel's publication have rendered quite a lot of it incompatible with it, but people love it anyway. Other authors continue to reference it, creating the bizarre situation wherein Drachenfels himself is never brought up but his castle and Detlef Sierck's plays are. ''The End Times'' reintroduces elements of the novels in BroadStrokes, with a resurrected (although amnesiac) Drahenfels serving as one of Nagash's generals against the Hordes of Chaos. An unidentified vampire heavily hinted to be Genevieve also pops up a few times to give the heroes significant intelligence.

* CreepySouvenir: Drahenfels kept the victims of the poisoned feast in his dining room, among many, many other things.

* HeelFaceMole: Part of the backstory. Drachenfels once faked a HeelFaceTurn, invited everyone to a banquet...then froze them in place there until they died of starvation. [[TooDumbToLive And they brought their kids along.]]

* PrimaDonnaDirector: Detlef. Guy managed to run up a kings ransom in debt from refusing to compromise on secial effects on his last play.

* PretenderDiss: One of the signs of Drachenfels' arrogance is having a sort of parody shrine mocking [[EldritchAbomination ''Khorne'']] of all entities, considering him an amateur in the pursuit of evil.

* PretenderDiss: One of the sifns of Drachenfels' arrogance is having a sort of parody shrine mocking [[EldritchAbomination ''Khorne'']] of all entities, considering him an amateur in the pursuit of evil.

%%* PrimaDonnaDirector: Detlef.

''Drachenfels'' is a ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' novel by Creator/KimNewman under his Jack Yeovil pen name, first published back in 1989. It occupies a bizarre place in the ''Warhammer'' canon, suffering from a huge, setting-wide case of CharacterizationMarchesOn. Constant Drachenfels hasn't been mentioned in the background for years, having long since been displaced by Nagash the Black as the setting's necromantic BigBad. Details like goblins being willing to work for humans and vampires mingling relatively openly in Imperial society will look like massive errors to anyone who got into the fandom any time after the early nineties. Thing is, people ''really'' like it, so Creator/GamesWorkshop keeps it in print and other authors give it {{Shout Out}}s on a regular basis.

''Drachenfels'' is a ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' novel by Creator/KimNewman under his Jack Yeovil pen name, first published back in 1989. It occupies a bizarre place in the ''Warhammer'' canon, suffering from a huge, setting-wide case of CharacterizationMarchesOn. Constant Drachenfels hasn't been mentioned in the background for years, having long since been displaced by Nagash the Black as the setting's necromantic BigBad. Details like goblins being willing to work for humans and vampires mingling relatively openly in Imperial society will look like massive errors to anyone who got into the fandom any time after the early nineties. Thing is, people ''really'' like it, so Creator/GamesWorkshop keep it in print and other authors give it {{Shout Out}}s on a regular basis.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Genevieve muses on how many different kinds there are in the ''Warhammer'' universe (aside from the four you usually run into in the game). She herself seems to be a unique type, but has not seen fit to sire more of her kind.

* CanonDiscontinuity: Pretty much, but people love it anyway. Other authors continue to reference it, creating the bizarre situation wherein Drachenfels himself is never brought up but Detlef Sierck's plays are.
** Though the 7th edition sourcebook for the Empire does mention Castle Drachenfels a few times; it shows up in the timeline as notable for the year 2203, and is depicted on the map of the Empire as being in the Grey Mountains, near Axebite Pass.
** As of the End Times books they seem to be back in continuity (at least in BroadStrokes), with a resurrected (although amnesiac) Drahenfels serving as one of Nagash's generals against the Hordes of Chaos. He's ultimately destroyed by holy power in the last book, but it's not like it's the first time. An unidentified vampire heavily hinted to be Genevieve also pops up a few times to give the heroes significant intelligence.
** Castle Drachenfels [[spoiler:(long after Constant Drachenfels' death)]] also shows up in ''VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'' as a DLC area, now infested with Skaven.
** Blackstone Point, the home of Heinrich Kemmler's Barrow Legion, is built on (or around) the ruins of Castle Drachenfels in VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII DLC.
*** Drachenfels (or rather, an envoy of his) also appears in the Epilogue of Cylostra Direfin's campaign in the same game.
* ContinuitySnarl: The later stories name drop Literature/GotrekAndFelix as contemporary heroes and ''Beasts in Velvet'' follows up on plot threads from ''Skavenslayer'', but this series is treated as having happened before Felix's lifetime there.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The feat which Oswald is famous for throughout the Empire - finally killing the Great Enchanter Drachenfels. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, Detlef, of all people, does it for real.]]
* DwindlingParty: Twice, for different reasons.

* EyeRemember: [[spoiler:As Lowenstein eats the eyes of those who once ventured into the castle, he sees their last moments from their point of view, all of which had Constant Drachenfels present]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Drachenfels, mostly just to mess with people.

* SerialKiller: [[spoiler:Laszlo Lowenstein has a need to dissect people alive, which makes him useful for Drachenfel's plan to return and claim the empire]].

A RagtagBunchOfMisfits travel to the HauntedCastle of the EvilOverlord Constant Drachenfels. One by one they fall to his minions and his {{Death Trap}}s, until only the [[PrinceCharming brave prince]] remains to fight the sorcerer and vanquish him at last.

That's just the ''prologue''. Twenty five years later, Detlef Sierck, the Empire's greatest playwright, is rescued from debtor's prison by the Crown Prince Oswald. Oswald, the aforementioned brave prince, has a simple proposition for Detlef: he wants to produce a play about his defeat of the Great Enchanter Drachenfels, and he wants Detlef to write and star in it. The surviving members of the original band who traveled with Oswald are reunited for the play's premiere, a one-time performance staged in the very walls of Drachenfels' abandoned fortress, attended by all the nobility of the Empire. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* AffablyEvil: Drachenfels, mostly just to mess with people.

The protagonist of ''Drachenfels'', the vampire Genevieve, went on to have a small role in the novel ''Literature/BeastsInVelvet'' and then to star in a collection of three novellas called ''Literature/GenevieveUndead'' and a short story collection called ''Silver Nails''.

The protagonist of ''Drachenfels'', the vampire Genevieve, went on to have a small role in the novel ''Literature/BeastsInVelvet'' and then to star in a collection of three novellas called ''Genevieve Undead'' and a short story collection called ''Silver Nails''.

The protagonist of ''Drachenfels'', the vampire Genevieve, went on to have a small role in the novel ''Beasts in Velvet'' and then to star in a collection of three novellas called ''Genevieve Undead'' and a short story collection called ''Silver Nails''.

* WhereAreTheyNowEnding: The final chapter briefly describes the clean-up and then details the later lives of many of the surviving characters.