Shane von Shane – Dracula / Atticus Shane? / Count Strahd von Zarovich
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Shane_von_Shane_(Star)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula
https://vampirediaries.fandom.com/wiki/Atticus_Shane
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Strahd_von_Zarovich
Shane von Shane is the Lord of Castle Darkmoor, the ancestral home of his family of Vampires. His authority was usurped by Malistaire the Undying, who had come to Darkmoor to invoke the Law of Kan Davasi, challenging the Wizard to a duel. In exchange for service to Malistaire he sought to have Tatyana, his true love, restored to him and for them both to live in bliss.
Shane von Shane’s Monsterology Tome Entry: When you’re a rich and powerful noble from a land of horrors and nightmares, you can afford a magical mech-suit.
“Is it not obvious, Mistress Drake? Malistaire adores you too much to let you drift apart. He’ll hang onto you forever. But you, Wizard… for you, hanging forever would be too kind. You seek to separate me from my beloved Tatyana. Would you cleave the sun from the rose? The moon from the stars? Would you extinguish music from the Spiral? By what right do you break Tatyana’s Phylactery and threaten to send her spirit into the Outer Void? We are meant to be joined, forevermore. And you, you miserable creature, when I shatter your body and deliver your broken form to Malistaire, all my desires will be rewarded. Malistaire can restore my Tatyana to life so that we can be together. Now Wizard, let’s see what you have the second time around.”
Shane von Shane
first American edition,
Doubleday & McClure, New York
Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian noble, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunt Dracula and, in the end, kill him.
Dracula was mostly written in the 1890s. Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes for the novel, drawing extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker’s notes mention neither figure. He found the name Dracula in Whitby’s public library while holidaying there, picking it because he thought it meant devil in Romanian.
Following its publication, Dracula was positively received by reviewers who pointed to its effective use of horror. In contrast, reviewers who wrote negatively of the novel regarded it as excessively frightening. Comparisons to other works of Gothic fiction were common, including its structural similarity to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White (1859). In the past century, Dracula has been situated as a piece of Gothic fiction. Modern scholars explore the novel within its historical context—the Victorian era—and discuss its depiction of gender roles, sexuality, and race.
Dracula is one of the most famous pieces of English literature. Many of the book’s characters have entered popular culture as archetypal versions of their characters; for example, Count Dracula as the quintessential vampire, and Abraham Van Helsing as an iconic vampire hunter. The novel, which is in the public domain, has been adapted for film over 30 times, and its characters have made numerous appearances in virtually all media.
The character, Shane von Shane is an obvious allusion to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but why did the Wizard101 team choose the name Shane von Shane? I came across this reference from season four of the Vampire Diaries. The name is there as are the motivations and the character was introduced to The Vampire Diaries right when Darkmoor was in development. I cannot say for certain this is what the KI Wizard101 writers had in mind, but it is far to similar to be a coincidence.
Atticus Shane was a major recurring character and antagonist who first appeared in the fourth episode of the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries. He was a professor of the Occult at Whitmore College, with Sheila Bennett as a predecessor. He knew “a thing or two” about the paranormal and worked quite closely with Sheila’s granddaughter Bonnie.
Atticus Shane had a wife, Caitlin, who was also a witch. They had a son named Sam. When Sam died in a tragic accident, a grief stricken Caitlin used Expression magic to try to revive him but instead it backfired and killed her. This left Shane alone and desperate to find a way to reclaim his dead family.
Kayla pointed out that Shane von Shane shares some character traits and backstory with Count Strahd von Zarovich from the Dungeons & Dragons Curse of Strahd campaign.
Count Strahd von Zarovich was a vampire and the dark lord of the valley of Barovia, one of the Domains of Dread located in a remote corner of the Shadowfell, part of the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons and Dragons.
“I am the Ancient, I am the Land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I am not dead. Nor am I alive. I am undead, forever.”
— Tome of Strahd
The current list of all the Wizard City references can be found here.
Shane von Shane image is from Wizard101, and is (c) KingsIsle Entertainment.
It is being used in a way that qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Cover of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is borrowed from Wikipedia and is in the public domain.
Bela Lugosi as Dracula is (c)1931 Universal Pictures
Atticus Shane photo is (c)2012 The CW, CBS Television Studios, and Warner Bros. Television
Count Strahd von Zarovich is borrowed from the Forgotten Realms wiki and is copyright Wizards of the Coast
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Vulcan Stev's Database 