The Bound One

Also known as: Eldest Brother, the Forbidden God, the Unspoken God, the Blinded God Originally one of the Blood Gods of the vampiric pantheon, the Bound One is the god of vengeance. Eldest of the five siblings, he was betrayed and imprisoned in a place called the Crossroads by his brothers and sisters. His worship is strictly forbidden. Whatever the original nature of the god known as the Bound One, it's long since been lost to time along with his true name. As he currently exists, he's completely consumed by a burning hatred for the siblings that betrayed him and has little purpose other than to free himself and destroy them and their creations.

Depictions

The Bound One is very rarely mentioned or represented within vampiric society, but what few depictions of him do exist are vague; they show a massive being in a vampire's true, inhuman form suspended upside-down in darkness and bound with chains. Both of the Bound One's eyes are gouged out, with blood running down his face, and his holy symbol is carved into his chest. For unknown reasons, the god is typically shown with three sets of arms spread wide by his restraints, though whether this is meant to be literal or symbolic is not known. Due to his imprisonment and the secrecy of his worship, depictions of the Bound One are often crude and nondescript. There are few, if any, formal works that show him with the same degree of detail and reverence as his divine siblings.

Typical Chosen

Unlike the rest of the Blood Gods, the Bound One doesn't have the ability to offer a bond to newly formed vampires; he alone is limited to making converts of vampires originally chosen by his siblings, who he slowly wins over via the ability any of the Blood Gods have to speak in the minds of mortal vampires. As a result, his following is small but deeply devoted. Their ranks are typically formed of vampires who have a deep resentment or hatred of their own kind, or those who resent the inherent limitations that come with the rules governing vampiric society and seek the greater power the Bound One offers. Becoming one of his chosen in no small thing; since his worship is forbidden, being uncovered as a follower of the Bound One is an automatic death sentence among vampires and even the process of conversion risks discovery and destruction from a vampire's original bonded god. Aside from the vindictive nature of the Blood Gods, followers of the Bound One are considered dangerous and heretical because they engage in the highly taboo practice of feeding on other vampires' blood. Since this dangerously unsettles the hierarchy of power, it's absolutely forbidden within vampiric society and is treated as the ultimate betrayal of their own kind; however, the massive power gain of feeding in this way means that followers of the Bound One can be individually very powerful when compared to an average vampire of their age. They're also the only ones able to sustain themselves in this way, since none of the Blood Gods will accept a vampire's blood as part of the communion that forms an individual's pact.