Emil Bollenbach
Emil Bollenbach is the premier crafter of golems in the Land of Mists.
His native language is Darkonese so he is presumably Darkonian. He probably learned Lamordian at a young again age and also commands Balok, Mordentish, and Zherisian. Money never seems to be much a problem for him yet he has none of the manners of the nobly born. 
A fairly wealthy middle class background is conceivable.
Emil was a gifted young medical student studying in Darkon when, in 734 BC, he attended a lecture by the visiting Dr. Rudolph Van Richten on the question of golems. Fascinated, Emil volonteered to help the doctor and divided his time for the next two year between the good fight and his studies. In 736 BC Emil was driven mad when a murderous golem was tracked back to his medical school, one of his professors proved to be its creator, and the golem's head turned out to be that of a close friend who had gone missing. The confrontation between the golem and van Ritchen in the professor's laboratory touched off an explosion that not only covered the maddened flight of Emil into the night but invited the ideas that had been consumed by it.
The gifted but now insane medical student put his new learnt skills to work on a project of utter folly. He would rid the world of golems by building golems, or more precisely, a super-golem. The Dark Powers were impressed and have underwritten his efforts ever since. It is dark desire rewarded, far more than medicial talents, that accounts for the results he has been able to produce.
By 738 BC Emil was performing successfully cross-species tranplantations and fleshcrafting the likes of which would make Easan the Mad proud. He had managed to invent an electrical generator that was a significant advance on Mordenheim's lightning box. And he had a cadre of flesh golem guards. His crowning achievement and completion of his life's work, however, was to be the completion of his super-golem which wanted only for a suitably intelligent brain. That of Rudolph van Richten was choosen and he was kidnapped. Fortunately, recent acquaintances of the good doctor intervened, saved his life, and put Bollenback to flight from his base of operations outside of Neufurchtenberg in Lamordia.
Employment was found for a time with Strahd von Zarovich, culuminating in the 750 BC poisoning of Lyssa von Zarovich. A human looking golem by the name of Tom was created and pumped full of the alchemical poison for Stradh's grandniece to sample.
By 752 BC Emil had decided on a slightly different approach to the matter of ridding the world of golems. Making his super-golem more intelligent than other golems was less useful than giving it the ability to make the strength of its enemies its own. His super-golem would be a doppelganger golem. Remarkably, he found a band of doppelgangers who were willing to hunt down their own to supply the needed raw materials. Hero's again arrive at the crucial moment and were able to prevail, the doctor fleeing for parts unknown.
In 753 BC Emil Bollenbach was lured to Paridon and recruited by Sodo. Indeed, the previous doppelgangers were probably his agents. The darklord offrered the doctor the alchemical, technological and physical resources of Paridon for the construction his perfect golem in return for its use for one week. Emil agreed and perhaps feeling inspired by his doppelganger allies, somewhat unnecessarily infiltrated the City Guard as the new coroner. He proved to be brilliant in the job, setting new standards for the practice of autopsy in Paridon.
When 755 BC arrived it was time for the 14th killing spree of Bloody Jack. The doppelganger golem that Emil was construcing was to be borrowed for one week to play the part of Blood Jack.
Mangrum's Timeline
734 Emil Bollenbach, a young medical student, attends a lecture by Dr. Van Richten on the topic of golems, and volunteers to aid the good doctor. [CotN:C pg. 49]
736 Dr. Van Richten & Emil Bollenbach track down the murderous creator of a flesh golem; the horrors Emil witnesses drive him mad. Although Emil is thought to have died in the fiery destruction of the golem creator’s lab, he survives, dedicated to the insane goal of creating a “super-golem” to destroy all Created. [CotN:C pp. 49-50]
738 Emil Bollenbach creates his first “super-golem,” but fortunately his attempt to tranplant Dr. Van Richten’s brain into his creation is thwarted by adventurers. Emil escapes death, but keeps a low profile for more than a decade. (Chilling Tales: “The Surgeon’s Blade”) [CotN:C pg. 50; CT pg. 32 places this adventure 8 years after Emil’s disappearance (i.e., 746), but the dating used in CotN:C fits VR’s chronology better.]
Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue
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Children of the Night: Vampires |
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Children of the Night: The Created - p49 | |
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Children of the Night: The Created - pp49-50 | |
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Children of the Night: Vampires - p21 |
