Heinrich Kramer, his authorship of the 1486 Malleus Maleficarum, the Cologne faculty's 1487 condemnation of parts of the work, and its outsized later influence are all real, well-documented history. Valerius I's identity as Kramer's past-life predecessor is a wholly fictional narrative device created for this series — no claim is made that Kramer believed himself, or was documented by any historical source, to be a reincarnated 6th-century Frankish figure. Kramer himself is a real historical author; Valerius I is not a historical person.