Prince of Strelitz, and Constanza Bethlen’s guardian — who responded to her flight by sending a priest and Phoenix Knights into another kingdom to have her burned for witchcraft. Murdered by unknown persons in Spring 1734.
What We Know (all GM)
- One of the three Princes of Morrschatten; his princedom, Strelitz, is the only one that borders Averoigne.
- Constanza Bethlen was his charge. In Spring/Summer 1731 she appealed to visiting owl knights for aid and they got her out of Morrschatten to Vyones.
- Summer 1731: he sends his personal priest and several Phoenix Knights to Vyones to accuse her of witchcraft. Madeline Foussard takes charge of the case and declines to execute her.
- Summer 1731: skirmishes between the princes begin the War of the Three Princes.
- Spring 1734: murdered by unknown persons, widely presumed to be assassins sent by one of his rival Princes. Succeeded by his son Gunter.
Why He Matters
He is the first link in the whole western chain: his ward’s flight is what put owl knights, Constanza, and Madeline Foussard in the same city in the same season as the murder of Averoigne’s heir. And he had Phoenix Knights at his disposal to send abroad on a private matter — which says something about how close the Order of the Phoenix stood to at least one Prince of Morrschatten.
Why He Was Raising Her (GM, Madeline’s speculation)
Constanza has a better blood claim to Morrschatten than any of the three princes. Madeline’s read is that Matthias was raising her in secret to bolster his own claim through marriage — not sheltering a ward but cultivating a title.
That reframes the witchcraft accusation entirely. He did not lose a bride; he lost control of a claim. Free, she is a legitimist rallying point any rival prince could marry instead — or that the Church could burn, which at least denies her to everyone. Sending a priest and Phoenix knights to have her executed in another kingdom’s capital is, on this reading, the rational move.
Contradictions & Oddities
The chronology problem about the intended groom.Retracted (GM): Madeline never said Constanza fled after the prince died — the wiki inserted that. Without it the dates are consistent, and Matthias may simply be the intended groom: he was raising her, Madeline’s own read is that he meant to bolster his claim through marriage, and he was murdered in Spring 1734 — three years after she fled, which is no longer a problem for anything. See Constanza Bethlen.- A guardian who loses a bride he spent fifteen years raising in secret sends men to kill her, not to fetch her.
The Court Magician (S6)
Amalricht von-Haup — court magician and tutor to House Bethlen before their 1720 massacre — entered Matthias Melnich’s service afterwards. (Aaron confirms the session’s “Prince Mathias” is Matthias Melnich.)
Uncle and Ismad speculate that von-Haup might have been capable of the Kraus’s Folly warp-circle ritual. Nothing confirms this (GM) — it is their guess at who in that world could do such a thing, not a finding. He is reported dead ~1736.
Speculation
Melnich did not merely acquire an orphaned Bethlen infant in 1720 — he acquired the Bethlens’ household magician as well. A man who takes in the surviving child and the man who taught the family is not stumbling into a ward; he is collecting an estate. This does not establish that Melnich was behind the massacre, and nothing yet does. It does mean he was close enough to the wreckage to pick up two pieces of it.
Speculation — rests on an unsupported "if"
If von-Haup built the Folly’s circle — which nothing establishes, and which Uncle and Ismad were only guessing at — then he built it while in Melnich’s service or after, and a Melnich-adjacent wizard’s circle in the ruin where a rumour of Constanza led would be how her guardian’s reach crossed the Circle Sea. Recorded for shape only. See The Lord of Kraus’s Folly.
Relationships
- Constanza Bethlen — his charge; the girl he tried to have burned.
- Amalricht von-Haup — the Bethlens’ court magician, later in his service. (S6)
- Gunter Melnich — his son and successor.
- Order of the Phoenix — supplied knights for his accusation.