Born an only child to two wealthy northern european parents Manfred, and Issabella Carstein, his father a member of the Russian ministry of magic, his mother a Black Hunter (the scandanavian equivalent of an auror) he had a good life to begin with. At the age of 6 his mother was killed in norther Russia by vampires. His father was distraught, and sent Vlad to a Prep school for wizards near Oslo. Vlad saw his father, who was becomeing more and more obsessed with his work, rarely. Vlad made friends at the school, and was annoyed and surprised when his father sent Vlad to Wicklow rather than Durmstrang as originally planned, owing to Manfred becomeing northern European ambassador to the British ministry of Magic, working in London.

Vlad is quiet, friendly, and vaguely confident without knowing it. He will always stand up for his friends when the time requires, but otherwise can be quite insular except to a select few. He has been raised to be very polite, sometimes overly so.

He is rather clumsy, save when riding a broom, which his does with great enjoyment, He rides a customised Shooting Star broom, and owns a giant snow owl called Anya.

He is pretty tall for his age, and has the awkwardness to go with it, he has longish black hair (think snape with less grease), shining blue eyes and pale skin.