As the CEO of The Aeon Institute, Dr. John Conrad is a world-renowned humanitarian. His non-profit organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life throughout the world, for all peoples. They are heavily invested in the developing world, building hospitals, water treatment facilities, and schools. John, himself, is a skilled transplant surgeon who has pioneered some of the most innovative procedures in the field.

He is also a several centuries old, mass murdering, mad scientist who wants to replace, not save humanity. Centuries ago, John Conrad was born Johann Konrad Dippel on August 10, 1673 at Castle Frankenstein. He studied theology, philosophy, and alchemy at the University of Ingolstadt. He was eventually imprisoned for heresy, where he served a seven-year sentence. He created “Dippel’s oil”, which was supposed to be the equivalent to the alchemists’ dream of the “elixir of life”, and the means to exorcize demons through potions. He practiced alchemy and anatomy, performing experiments with cadavers, in which he attempted to transfer the soul of one cadaver into another. Dippel was accused of grave robbing, experimenting on cadavers, and keeping company with the Devil.

He supposedly died at Castle Wittgenstein near Bad Laasphe. A year before his death, he wrote a pamphlet in which he claimed to have discovered an elixir that would keep him alive until the age of 135. In fact, his elixir did work, and he continued to live as Dr Frankenstein and Percy Bysshe Shelley, among others. His story was once recorded by Mary Shelley, Dippel’s second wife, although was twisted to hide his evil and paint his first creation as a ravaging monster. Shelly altered almost all the facts to seem as if the creature created by him was a terrible monster, bent on revenge. Dippel’s hope was that the creature would be hunted down and destroyed, saving him the trouble of personally cleaning up that mistake. The truth is that the creature never did any of those terrible things. The creature, upon his awakening, and hearing Dippel’s mad schemes, refused to aide him in any way.

Using eldritch science, he managed to revive the dead into something more, something stronger. John has long sought to create a master race which would never know death, fear, or human frailty. The murders blamed on the creature in the book were perpetrated by John, convinced that he had found the secret to eternal life and was reworking his victims into more evolved beings. The creature, now named Adam, has opposed him ever since.

Dippel has spent his time through the centuries well, enhancing and repairing his own body through the years with artificial mediums of his own design, part science, part alchemy. These days, he only appears human while possessing an unnatural vitality greater than any of his lesser creations. In addition to his other ‘interests’, John longs to have a woman worthy of his attentions and gifts. He has created a handful of brides over the years, only to grow bored and destroy them.

While the Aeon Institute does come into disaster areas and offer their services for free, their goals are not benevolent. They plunder the dead and take advantage of those that can be made to disappear, with Dr Conrad taking the bodies and working his fiendish experiments on them. Since Adam’s creation, Dippel has handled the problem of free will in his creations, producing super strong creations whose loyalty is without question. John has also led major pushes through his corporation to expand the scientific mediums he has grown to use such as stem cell research, artificial organs, and cloning.

Dr Conrad has brought the Aeon Institute to New Orleans in Katrina’s wake, investing millions upon millions of dollars in rebuilding Tulane Medical Center and University. He has created jobs and is almost always on the television, attending fundraisers and pressing for the rebuilding of New Orleans. He is playing the role of white knight, although one can be certain he has darker designs.