Born sometime around 1000 C.E., Balthazar has no memory of his beginnings. The earliest events he can recall are being taught to read, sing and write in the halls of a Christian Church in The Holy Roman Empire, the union of Germany and the northern Italian principalities under a German emperor. He was raised by Priests and Sisters who had sworn an oath to the teachings of Christ in what is now Germany. He grew up in the church, not questioning his fate, but simply knowing he had no choice but to become a priest like the men that raised him. He was well educated and well-traveled during the first few decades of his life.
Around his fortieth year, he was traveling to a meeting with the Archchancellor of Germany, a meeting to which gifts to the church were amassed in route. Known for carrying sums of gold, it was not unheard of for religious caravans to be attacked and so, even men of the cloth were trained to defend themselves. When they were attacked upon the road, however, they were grossly outnumbered. He and his fellow clergy put up a fight, but it was to no avail. He awoke in the mud, covered in dirt and dry blood, but seemingly unharmed. His fellow men of the cloth were dead around him, their carriage and gold was gone. He made his way to the nearest town for aid. His peers were grated a funeral and burial on Holy Ground and Balthazar continued on alone to the meeting with the Archchancellor. Seeing his lone survival as surely a sign from God, Balthazar was elevated in status and given his own church to lead.
Curious, however, about his inability to remain injured, Balthazar could only assume this was a gift from God and a sign he was to help spread the word of God. When the planning to launch a military campaign for the liberation of the Holy Land began, he was one of the first to volunteer. In November 1095, the mobilization of Western Europe to go to the Holy Land began. The preaching of the First Crusade inspired an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence. In parts of France and Germany, Jews were perceived as just as much of an enemy as Muslims: they were held responsible for the crucifixion, and they were more immediately visible than the distant Muslims. Many people wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already non-believers closer to home. The Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade of 1096, were a series of mass murders of Jews perpetrated by mobs of French and German Christians of the People's Crusade in the year 1096 C.E.
Witnessing these events on his own home soil rattled Balthazar's faith. He had been raised to believe the non-believers were lesser people, but to kill men, women and children alike did not align with Christ's teachings. However, when he began to question the wisdom of men higher up than him, he was threatened with dismissal. Or worse. He knew that now, he was being watched as a potential 'non-believer' himself, but it was quite the opposite, his faith in the teachings of Christ were never stronger, but he believed those teachings told men like him to educate the masses, not slaughter them.
Still, any attempt to speak out was met with questions and threats. Eventually, he held his tongue for fear of the consequences.
During the long war, he met a strange man named Paradox who informed him there were others like him – others who healed in a brief moment and revived after death. This man, however, had a watchful overlord who he called his ‘teacher’ who did not want him to talk to Balthazar. When they did speak, it was in private.
Once the city of Jerusalem was retuned to Christian rule, he returned home to his church to preach what he believed to be true: their mission was to convert people, not kill them. But blood was on his hands and he struggled to reconcile his beliefs with what was happening in the world around him. He managed to avoid the Second Crusade due to his higher status, but he found it harder and harder to pretend he did not care. When he was offered the chance to join the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, he took it and escaped him homeland. Headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Knights managed a German hospital which accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local language nor Latin. They aided pilgrims verses killing non-believers and here Balthazar found himself less conflicted. He stayed here for a long time. Perhaps too long.
Members of the order became unsettled by the fact Balthazar did not appear age and yet, by all accounts, he should have been well over one hundred and fifty years old. To avoid conflict, Balthazar left the Kingdom of Jerusalem and headed back to Germany.
In the years following his return to Germany, he traveled much of Europe. He had to keep moving to avoid suspicion about his lack of aging. It remained mostly mystery to him, but he feared it being seen as the devil’s work and avoided forming relationships.
Until, he met a woman in 1350 whose very presence vibrated with life. The quickening, she called it. Jocelyn D'Arcy explained to him that their kind was immortal and being immortal came with a set of rules. She didn’t have all the answers, but she had enough. In order to train, he traveled with her to England and stayed with her for several years.
In 1665, while traveling with Jocelyn D'Arcy, they began to see plague victims and with each passing town, the illness seemed to grow worse and worse. This great plague, coupled with his weariness of war, the knowledge of immorality and the church's lack thereof, Balthazar faith was nearly gone. What loving God would allow so much death and destruction? Was it all a lie? A means to control mankind? He aided the sick knowing he could not become ill himself. He heard rumors of a man who might be to 'blame' for the plague and realized through the description (that of a snow white skilled, white haired young man) that this was his friend from the Crusades - the one that first time him of immortality. He immediately went in search of Paradox and once he found him, he informed him of the danger and helped him escape unharmed.
He saw the end of the plague come too late for many.
He remained in Europe for a time, training with his teacher and eventually traveled to Asia alone where he studied other faiths. The more he learned, the less he believed in a one true God. If one religion was real, than all others were false and he came to the conclusion they were all manmade. Wishful thinking at best. Immortality was perhaps a fluke of nature and nothing more. He returned to Europe a faithless man. He was changed, but still his heart and soul focused on charity and improving the lives of others. Even if that meant stealing from those who had their lion's share to feed those who had nothing.
These acts of defiance and a thief from a very well-connected wealthy man landed him a one way ticket to Sydney Cover, in what is now Australia, in 1788. It was Britain's first penal colony and there, he was ordered to work on timber and developing houses for the English colony. He felt the forced labor was an fair, if not light, punishment for all his earlier missteps in life. He embraced the punishment as deserved. He served his ten-year sentence without complains and accepted his freedom almost reluctantly. He had no idea what came next. But as a convict, work came hard to come by and while he loved the land in Australia, he took the first ship he could find out of colony, leaving behind his convict title.
He ended up in the Americas by the early 1800s. He remained out of conflicts until he simply could no longer turn a blind eye. He entered the Civil War as a Union Soldier. He had not spoken up when innocent people were killed and enslaved in mass in his youth, he simply could not stand by passively any longer. During this time, he befriended an immortal Eloise Bennett.
Once the war was through, he headed West, escaping the cities of the East and embracing the great wide open. It was not until the first World War that he returned East to enlist. He went on to serve in the second World War but his military investment ended there. World War II had broken him. He was nearly a thousand years old and nothing had changed. A strong German power was still slaughtering Jewish people. No one had learned anything.
Following his return to the states, he bought property in the Mountains of Western, Maryland and hid away from the world. He lived off the land, hunting and fishing and avoided human interaction for over fifty years. No radio, no television, no knowledge of the outside world.
But, recently... odd dreams had been keeping him awake at night. Dreams of an old black woman and someone or something else. The lack of sleep was taking a toll which is why it took him a few days to realize that no cars had come up or down the main road which was barely visible from his cabin. In fact, he hadn't seen a plane or car in over a week....
