Before she traded her soul for immortality, the Mistress was known as Doctor Hildegard Grau, practitioner of medical arts. Though medical science as we know it today is quite advanced, the Old Ways were crude and unproven. Simple maladies were often treated with superstitions and phials of swill. Complicated ailments were cured with the bonesaw. Doctor Grau decided to follow a less orthodox path, studying a new branch of medicine involving the dissection of patients as they live and breathe, manipulating their innards to achieve the healthful outcome. Surgery was regarded with suspicion in those days, but it was hard to argue with the results.
Doctor Grau quickly mastered the scalpel and the needle, and before long, she developed a reputation as a habitual rule-breaker amongst the medical community. Eager to explore her passion, she began to perform unconventional treatments in limb grafting and organ replacement on the infirm. Few of her peers had her academic expertise, and most were hesitant to question her revolutionary methods in public, but privately, they seethed. They saw her ambitions as perverse, a stain on their noble profession. As Doctor Grau pushed the boundaries of their field, they felt the limits of their knowledge weigh heavy on their pride. In hindsight, their decision to shun her and banish her work would be recognized as the first step on her path of ascension.
Free to pursue her whims, and no longer bound by rules or precedent, the Doctor decided to blend her studies. Alchemic and occult wisdom became sources of profound interest, and as her research deepened, so too did her seclusion. Once hopeful to help mankind with the tip of her knife, her jaded heart now sought to remake it.
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