August Ruthven, a vampire lord wielding centuries of political clout, first emerged as a scholarly moderate promoting human-vampire coexistence during wartime. He mentored disciples like Louise and Éric, whose betrayal at peace negotiations triggered a massacre that claimed his right eye and fractured his psyche. This trauma reshaped him into a Machiavellian tactician, abandoning diplomacy for calculated manipulation. To consolidate authority, he forged power through adoption into the Oriflamme dynasty, aligning with Queen Faustina to claim a senate seat. His schemes brokered the 1702 armistice exiling vampires to Altus and banning hunts, yet his shadow alliances with the Charlatan cabal—colluding with Naenia’s malnomen plagues and Moreau’s curse-bearer experiments—exposed a ruthless undercurrent. Interpersonal ties reveal layered contradictions: veiled paternalism toward Jeanne, orphaned daughter of his traitorous pupils, balancing exploitation of her Bourreau role with sporadic gestures like shielding her with his coat. Guardianship of Luca Oriflamme intertwined protective instincts with calculated control, positioning the boy as both pawn and protected figure. Former ally Chloé d’Apchier became a target when he schemed to curse her for the World Formula Alteration Device, reflecting his unresolved crusade to recalibrate interspecies power. Ruthven’s cunning crescendoed in psychological warfare—epitomized by compelling Noé Archiviste’s unbreakable oath of future obedience—and combat prowess wielding black flames. Naenia-induced hallucinations hint at fissures between his eroding ideals and merciless pragmatism. His aesthetic mirrors duality: formal aristocratic garb contrasts a black eyepatch masking his scarred past, while his demeanor oscillates between velvet charm and ice-cold strategizing. An undeclared feud with the Shapeless One, Faustina’s enigmatic associate, teases at ideological fault lines beneath his political chessboard. Documented maneuvers—stage-managing Luca’s near-murder, weaponizing curse outbreaks—paint him as an inscrutable antagonist. His trajectory charts a descent from visionary idealism to morally nebulous realpolitik, driven by betrayal’s scars and power’s corruptions, leaving his cryptic endgame suspended between shattered benevolence and ruthless ambition.