Count Noctilus, captain of the Bloody Reaver and leader of the Dreadfleet
Captain of the Bloody Reaver and undisputed master of the Dreadfleet, Count Noctilus is behind the events that have led to Jaego Roth's crusade of vengeance at the head of the Grand Alliance fleet.[1b]
Noctilus was once known by another name - Nyklaus von Carstein, whose own home was the distant land of Sylvania.[1a]
Nyklaus sought the maelstrom festering in the distant heart of the ocean, a skull-strewn vortex that was a tempest of magic which drew the dead to it like a lodestone. Mastering the art of Shadow Magic, one particularly baleful Geheimnisnacht he enacted a mighty ritual that translocated not only Nyklaus himself, but also his castle and all his Undead minions. Feasting upon the dark magic of the Maelstrom, Nyklaus raised up the shattered remains of dead warships to form the hull of the Bloody Reaver, and just as his realm was reborn within the Galleon's Graveyard, so too was Nyklaus reborn as Count Noctilus.[1a]