Ivan Zerstoiten was born in 1854, the only son of an impoverished Roumanian noble family. At an early age he began to develop psionic powers and soon learned how to use them to his best advantage, becoming a completely spoilt, and arrogant child. At the age of about seventeen he took over the family estates after his parents died in a sudden 'accident' and soon began to terrorise the locals (rather than just his parents and the servants in the castle) with his psionic powers. After several months, an exceptionally brutal use of his powers in a 'hunting accident' (Ivan always loved to hunt from earliest childhood) finally caused a backlash from the local populace. Branding Ivan a witch they stormed the family castle and he discovered that there were too many of them for his powers to be fully effective. He only narrowly escaped death and managed to flee as the castle burned behind him.
For years Ivan wandered Europe, living off various rich people who he mentally controlled, and using them to re-establish his fortune. Early in 1881 he heard about the first Overmen, and saw a few of them in action in his travels. He had the idea of combining these Overmen with his love of hunting, especially after seeing one or two of the physically altered Overmen who existed. Taking over an abandoned chateau in France he began to scour Europe for Overmen who fitted his plans. Within eighteen months he had assembled a group of six physically altered Overmen from across Europe - Harpy (a fully functional bird-woman with edged metallic feathers), Ironwood (an immensely strong man whose body appeared to made of wood), Chimera (a permanently desolid mute ball of light), Der Wilde (an ape-man), Were (a cat-man), Seraph (an angel-like man with healing powers) and Lamprey (a woman who could turn herself into a giant lamprey-like creature). With these people, who he called his Pack, he began to hunt again - this time hunting people through the woods around the chateau. However, this time he was more careful, using only people who would not be missed and using his mental powers to divert all suspicion of his activities.
During this time he also made contact with the leaders of the Order of the Silver Twilight, Patrick and James Vandaleur (Nadir and Abyss respectively) as they each saw the other as kindred souls. Early in 1883 Patrick Vandaleur offered him the woman who became known as Greymalkin as an addition to the Pack - she was an opponent of the Order who had been turned into a cat-woman by Patricks magic. Ivan gladly accepted. This proved to be a mistake when she resisted his attempts to alter her mind and managed to escape with Seraph (real name Marcus), in the process burning down the chateau and causing Ivan to become horribly scarred after he became trapped.
After re-locating, later in 1883 Ivan became involved with another of the Orders schemes, this one to assassinate most of the British Royal Family and replace the Queen with a puppet ruler of their own. Ivan loaned the Order the Pack for use in carrying out this scheme, but again it failed, with the Pack ending up captured and the Order disbanded, with Chimera defecting to the Royal Elite Guard upon persuasion by Greymalkin. At this time Ivan vowed never to associate himself with other Overmen leaders again. Later in 1883 the members of the Pack were released as a diversion in an attack on the Royal Elite Guard and managed to escape, rejoining Ivan later.
For the next two-and-a-half decades Ivan kept a low profile, using his pack merely for his own amusement. In 1898 he married the Pack member Lamprey (who had a normal human form, unlike the other members of the Pack), and in 1901 his first child, Erich, was born. In 1907 his second child, a daughter, Andrea, was born. Both of the children showed signs of superhuman powers almost from birth, and were groomed by their father to succeed him. In late 1908 Ivan began to show signs of incurable illness, and by early 1909 he was nearly dead. In a desperate attempt to save his life he had the Pack kidnap English Rose away from the Royal Elite Guard and used his powers to coerce her into aiding him. Although his illness was cured, the Royal Elite Guard arrived soon after and, using the Pack as a diversion he, Lamprey, Erich and Andrea fled (the rest of the Pack was captured and imprisoned and later some of them, after psychiatric treatment by Greymalkin, became members of the Royal Elite Guard).
After re-establishing himself elsewhere Ivan kept a low profile, throwing himself into training his children. In 1912 his third and last child, Albert was born. Unlike his older siblings he did not exhibit any superhuman powers and for this Ivan ignored and reviled him, despite his huge intellect.
As the years went by Ivan gradually slipped into madness, dreaming of past glory, but he was still powerful enough to keep control of his children until, quite suddenly, in the summer of 1930, he died, leaving all his worldly goods to Erich and Andrea and none at all to Albert.
Originally Ivan Zerstoiten was a handsome, charismatic young man with dark blonde hair and piercing grey eyes. After the fire his extensive scarring made him hideous to look upon, and did nothing for his sanity. His injuries also meant that he was forced to walk with the aid of a cane. In addition to being one of the first people known to have psionic powers Ivan bears the dubious distinction of being the first person to organise a team of what later became known as super-villains.