The Vampire

None are certain how long vampires have stalked the shadows of Malorum. Since history has been recorded, there have been writings of the children of the night, immortals that preyed upon the blood of the living. Yet even before written word, when history was passed down through oral tradition, there were tales of blood-drinking shapeshifters, monsters that wore the form of men as easily as the form of beasts. Across time, men warred against vampires with varying success, striking by day when their powers were weakened, and hiding within fortifications or magical wards by night. But with the rise of Deadhaus, these battles shifted in favor of the vampires, and the war became a massacre.
By nature, vampires are solitary predators, save for a few human slaves to attend to tasks beneath their attention. Though they might commune with one another in instances of mutual interest, they prefer to stake out their own territory as a personal hunting ground. At times, they might create others of their kind by feeding their blood to mortals, but most of these progeny would set out on their own once they became powerful enough. For most of history, it was this solitary nature that prevented any meaningfully concerted effort against mankind, but with Deadhaus came Ngaztak, the Black Hand, and by his fury were the dead united. For the first time, a vast number of vampires rallied under a single banner, and the moon rose on a new era for them, just as the sun set on those who would oppose them.
Within Deadhaus, the vampires’ cunning and predatory instincts drove them to form an aristocracy. Most consider themselves superior, not only to the living, but other types of undead, yet their arrogance and scheming is more than compensated by their abilities. Their shapeshifting alone allows them to infiltrate human settlements to gather intelligence, support the frontlines as fearsome beasts, or escape from harm as clouds of mist. Their blood pulses with dark magic, making them formidable sorcerers, and with a blade in hand, a vampire becomes a blur of whirling bloodshed.