Vampires
"There are few creatures in the world more harrowing to encounter unprepared than the Vampyr. These undead abominations have supernatural strength, and agility that even the most accomplished swordsman could not compete with. Their immortality and the secrecy they operate under in order to infiltrate the societies of the living make them cunning, and experienced oponents to both detect, and accuse. They possess unnatural magical abilities to sway the mind, possess the very blood of the body, and enthrall lesser beings. The danger that such terrible creatures pose to mortals in unprecedented. We should be thankful that they rarely consider us threatening enough to outright destroy, and that they guard their curse with jealousy.
Bloodline Vampires
While the origins of vampirism are steeped in mythic history, and profane bargains with unknowable, dark powers called the Lords Who Lie Below... the Bloodline Vampire is a very real threat of the current age that has infiltrated nearly every society, and which is as monsterous as it is alluring. They proliferate their power, and their brood, by creating thralls, and inducting them into their covenants. These undead viziers are common attendants of royal courts throughout the realms, and often collect prestigious titles, holdings, businesses, and social credit. The bloodline vampire is named for its ability to pass on not just the curse of undeath which binds it to this world, but many unique attributes which have influenced its curse. This selective, supernatural evolution has made the bloodline vampire an incredibly difficult creature to hunt, and slay, for many of its abilities are unknown and in fact, many of its weaknesses are likely to be rumors which the vampire itself has had a hand in designing. Bloodline vampires form tightly knit covenants with their spawn, and their thralls. They work to protect not just themselves, but their families of fellow vampires, and to this end they are even willing to sacrifice themselves if it means protecting the covenant as a whole. If even one vampire of a bloodline survives, it is likely that in generations to come that bloodline will return to full power, and will often seek vengeance against those who dealt such a viscious blow to the covenant. There are many bloodlines of vampire in the world that have remained hidden in the shadows of history, but there are some which have been drawn into the light and are now reconginized, and feared:
- Balikan Bloodline: The Balikan vampires were discovered in the lands of Iskandar where they rode under the banner of the Knights of Saerl. Balikan had been a member of that sacred order of slayers, but after en encounter with a vampiric entity, was turned. Rather than drive himself on the sword, or turn against his house and country, Balikan and his covenant hunted the evils of Iskandar with a new, supernatural ferocity. The Balikan vampires became nearly impervious to harm, save for a grave weakness to silver, and silvered weapons. They can quickly regenerate from nearly any wound, and even entire limbs that have been severed from a Balikan vampire will eventually grow back.
- Galledarc Bloodline: The Galledarc vampires were discovered in the northern territories of Drin where they had infiltrated a dwarven Vahl, and brought nearly an entire population into thrall beneath them. When King Drin became aware of this, he summoned the full might of his Iron Legion, and rather than risk even one vampire surviving, had the entire Vahl put to the sword before completing a controlled demolition that destroyed the mountain hold. The Galledarc vampires wielded extremely potent illusionary magic, and had methods of enchanting the minds and hearts of their thralls that no other vampire covenant had displayed before, or since. Whether the covenant was really destroyed by Drin's armies, or managed to slip through the King's hands is unknown, but many fear what retribution the vampires would seek if they ever returned, and how many lives they may already rule over.
- Lafayette Bloodline: The vampires of the Valenruun (The Thornwilds) in the Freelands take their name from their devilish progenitor, the wicked Alkrest Lafayette. These sylvan vampires have the ability to merge themselves with trees, and other flora like the ancient dryads, the ability to walk on water, and transform themselves into fields of mist to escape pursuers.
- Zarcan Bloodline: The vampires of the deset wastes of Zarcanian have the ability to control other forms of lesser undead, to raise bodies nearly at will, and the ability to pass on their curse of undeath through magical ritual. However the Zarcan vampires most famous attribute is that they do not possess a weakness to sunlight like their lesser kin.
Higher Vampires & The Dread Realms
There are many ways that a mortal might become a vampire, but 'true' vampires, or higher vampires (sometimes refered to as 'Vampyr' by slayers) are created by curses of avarice, and pride. Those afflicted by it are punished for their insatiable appetites. Their unquenchable lusts, their gluttonous greed, their tyrannical desires for power; and their inconsolable want for admiration, and prestige. This is called The Hunger, and it is often what drives vampires mad, for while they may have gained immortality to hunt their desire, their spirits are never truly satisified. Over centuries, and millenia, this ceaseless want continues to errode their senses, and their minds, until they are transformed into little more than craven beasts. Higher vampires physically manifest the nature of their curse. They often become bestial abominations with powers, and abilities that make their lesser kin seem timid in comparison. Such monstrous entities have a thirst for maleviolence and destruction that makes it impossible for them to remain hidden within society. If such a vampire can maintain its sense of reason long enough, they may attempt to flee into the deep wilderness of the world, but eventually they will always return and draw forth the necessity for mortals to destroy them.
Dhampir
The Dhampir is an especially accursed, and tragic creature. They are as reviled as the vampires that created them in many societies, though they did nothing to earn the ire of mortals. Many Dhampir must live as secretly as the vampires themselves, for the average citizen of the realms can scarcely tell them, and the ignoble beasts that created them apart. Dhampir's are born of two ways: An unholy union between a mortal woman, and vampiric father (a 'romantic' coupling that often leads to the mother's death Or a being enthralled by these creatures, but resistant to the vampiric curse. The nature of what makes someone resistant to the curse is unknown. Some believe it to be a blessing of the Endless, others believe it to be a inheritted trait similar to the evolution of the bloodline vampires perhaps passed down by ancestors who came into contact with vampiric magic. Regardless, a Dhampir, by its very nature is irrevocably drawn into the fate of the vampire, its victims, and its slayers. Their resistance to the vampiric curse, and many of the supernatural abilities passed on to them make Dhampir some of the most famously successful vampire hunters of the world.
The first Vampires of the world of Orr were the rulers of the Zarcanian deserts in the lands of Nausica. Before it became a wasteland, Zarcania was once a capital of undeath and necromancy whose high preisthood comuned with the powers of The Lords Who Lie Below and were granted the curse of undeath, as well as the secrets of many profane, and necromantic arts that the wizards of Orr still cannot replicate. With these dark miracles, the Zarcanian royalty, and its priests ruled over a tyranical undead dynasty that lasted for several thousand years during the Age of Tyrannis, and to this very day the ruins of that desert are filled with hidden crypts where the Vampires of that gilded age of blood, and shadow await the return to their thrones.
Origin/Ancestry
Curse
Comments