Heinrich Kemmler

Heinrich Kemmler was a male human, a dark wizard and necromancer. He is first mentioned in Dead Beat.

Description
Kemmler is considered to be one of the most powerful warlocks and necromancers of all time. He practiced what he called 'true magic' in which magic is used to control life and death. His main focus was necromancy, for which he was renowned. He was deemed such a risk that the entire White Council hunted him down in 1961.

Character

 * 1) Bob said Kemmler was "sick, evil",  "insane", which says a lot coming from Bob who doesn't comprehend evil.

About / Details

 * Kemmler once owned Bob for forty years, whose mindset he warped considerably.
 * He had power over the dead and demons, pals with most of the Vampire courts, every "nasty" in Europe,  and some of the scarier Faeries.  p32
 * Bob chose to forget most of his time with Kemmler—or was compelled to.  p32
 * He had his own cadre  of apprentices and thugs: "Baby Kemmlers".  p32
 * Kemmler had several people who followed in his footsteps and practiced the darker arts.

The Heirs of Kemmler

 * Cowl
 * Capriocorpus (Corpsetaker)
 * Grevane

Kemmler History, Backstory
Kemmler's power was so great that, in 1961, it took the entire White Council: the Merlin the Senior Council, the Wardens, and the "brute squad" out of Archangel, plus every wizards and ally that they could find in order to destroy him. They had killed him several times. After the time the White Council killed him in the early ninteenth century, they chose not to take any chances.

Kemmler has been killed by the White Council several times, the first being in 1890's, again the conclusion of WW2 and most recently in 1961. Bob also claimed that Kemmler is largely responsible for both World Wars.

He was responsible for WWI, the whole thing. There was about 150 years of history behind it and Kemmler had his hand hin several fascets of it. He vanished after WWI then reappeared in WWII when he animated mass graves and rampaged through Eastern Europe. It's uncertain how many he actually killed. p31

Justin DuMorne, a Warden at the time that the council destroyed Kemmler, pulled Bob out of the ruins of  Kemmler's lab—subsequently, Harry  pulled Bob out of the ruins of  DuMorne's lab. p32

Books Authored
He wrote, and self published magical texts:


 * The Word of Heinrich Kemmler


 * The Blood of Kemmler


 * The Mind of Kemmler


 * The Heart of Kemmler

In The Word of Kemmler he spelled out the recipe for the Darkhallow. It is unknown whether or not Kemmler himself managed a Darkhallow, although it would explain his resilience. (ref?)

In the Series Notes
In Ghost Story, during a conversation with Evil Bob, Harry was told that Kemmler would have been interested in him as a disciple, implying that they may have been similar when younger.

In Ghost Story, Kemmler is mentioned because one of Kemmler's Heirs—Corpsetaker—is back as the Grey Ghost seeking to take over Mortimer Lindquist's body by torturing him into giving his consent.

Darkhallow
Rite of Ascension

Quotes
Evil Bob: The Word of Kemmler contains: "Knowledge. Truth. Power. The master wrote down his teachings, wizard, so that those who came after him could learn from him. Could learn about the true power of Magic. What you call magic is nothing more than parlor ticks beside the power to master life and death itself."

Speculation
Kemmler is possibly named after the master necromancer of the same name from the Warhammer fantasy table top game.

Kemmler may also be partially based on William Kemmler- who on August 6th, 1890, was the first man executed through the use of the electric chair.

Perhaps Kemmler is named after Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Hitler's S.S., given the tendency in Anglicized pronunciation to say "Heinrick Hemmler" which sounds similar to "Heinrich Kemmler".

In Cold Days, Harry learns that the Darkhallow is a ritual to turn a wizard into an Immortal. An Immortal can only be created or killed on Halloween night—the night when the locked statsis of immortality becomes malleable.(chapter Ref?) Given that Kemmler was killed carefully on Halloween night in 1961, it is possible that he became an Immortal on Halloween long before he attempetd the Darkhallow. This could explain why in Ghost Story(chapter Ref?) that the White Council killed Kemmler seven times before it became permanent- the last and final one being on Halloween night in 1961 which happens the only night of the year that Immortals can be truly killed.—Note: Harry first learned of the Darkhallow in Dead Beat. — (needs Chapter references To make a ref tag, copy paste an existing one, change the title & numbers to match the right book & chapter)—Note: Harry first learned of the Darkhallow in Dead Beat.