Dassem Luqman
Lord of the Nosferatu Dassem Luqman
Dassem Luqman is an ancient vampire and rumoured to be one of the originators of the Children of the Nazarene. He is hundreds if not thousands of years old and some postulate that he is responsible for the Nosferatu strain of vampirism. His name is Persian meaning 'Unknown Wise one'.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
To call Dassem Luqman as lithe would be to compliment him. Usually appearing almost corpse-like would be more in line with his looks.
Body Features
Dassem is a gaunt humanlike being with tight skin, reddish blood-like parts showing and bloodred eyes.
Identifying Characteristics
Parts of Dassem's body looks as if they are red raw. His eyes are blood red in colour, and his skin appears tight on him, and his gaunt appearance fools his strength and intellect. His clothing and jewellery are bonded or covering parts of him and appear as if sunk into his tissue.
Special abilities
Strength, and the ability to see in the dark are just two abilities he has. Dassem can easily climb walls and has a superior ability to shapeshift that he can bestow on any creature linked to him by blood. He seems to not be affected by sunlight though doesn't like it and can easily traverse moving water. He has the ability to mentally link & summon any of his minions that are close by. As long as he has a sarcophagus close enough by, he can turn to a mist and return to it if injured or 'killed'.
Apparel & Accessories
Clothing and what looks like precious metal bars cover many parts of his body, and he regularly wears pantaloons or a loincloth. Sandals are worn at times. A belt with pouches is regularly worn too.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Dassem Luqman is an ancient vampire of high importance to the Children of the Nazarene. His is one of high standing and referred as a "Pureblood". This in part is due to his mythical beginnings and his intellect. Luqman seems to have a link to both the Blood Drinker vampire strain and the Nosferatu vampire strain and thought to have been the forefather of both.
Born when hominids started to travel outside Africa, he is thousands of years old and both parents were pureblood vampires. He comes from a line that stretches all the way back to Lilith & Samael. Demonic blood runs through his veins and has tasted the blood of many sentient species over the millennia. A few he has turned, and some experimented upon to increase & improve the vampire species.
He has existed long enough to have buried his lair in the same set of caves as the Vampiric Godhead. The two regularly interact and only the latter will openly override Luqman or go against him without consequence. The rest of the Children of the Nazarene voted him into the position when they found out about the experiments he carried out led to the creation (or should it be birth) of the Blood Drinker Vampires & Nosferatu variant species. Unfortunately, the Blood Drinkers would become over-confident & arrogant to a fault due to not being hindered by sunlight. When they rebelled and most escaped to the world of Ravnica, the council became distrustful of Luqman. Only by dint of him being favoured by the Vampiric Godhead and his supreme intellect did he hold onto power.
During the creation of the Nosferatu, he had been experimenting on Jinn and tried to invest the vampiric bloodline into them. Whether by accident or design it didn't take and the Nosferatu lineage was forever cursed with a chaotic bestial trait that turns the strain animalistic in nature. After a number of centuries, humanity arose and arrived in the region that helped this strain develop further. This led to some standardisation that allowed both Luqman & the council to develop the lineage as a form of shock troop.
Luqman keeps many abominations deep in the dungeons of the ziggurat that marks the holiest of holies for the Children of the Nazarene. The most stable creations are allowed to roam around the Underdark caverns here, acting as spies, assassins and guards preventing all but the most determined or foolish making it as far as the cult's headquarters.
His pureblood lineage makes it hard to reach Luqman, as he has many vampires & minions surrounding him. When he went to war to defend his people, he regularly was able to draw upon massive reserves. He regularly makes deals with others of his kind, usually looking for choice subjects to work on, and is quite willing to make deals with both Jackalweres and Ghouls, Ghasts, and similar monsters. He hates the Necrocult and would happily destroy it if he could. Though saying this, he would happily make compacts with them to carry out research and if the two are after similar goals.
Education
Dassem Luqman has been trained extensively in the history of the vampirekin, and all they know about the nature of life & death. His lineage has thankfully proved useful leading to him practising medicine, languages, anatomy, and dark magic. He understands the connection between his people and the devilish / demonic nature of his ancestry, and he makes a point of keeping up with the goings on with these entities.
Accomplishments & Achievements
He has succeeded many centuries if not millennia ago, created the Blood Drinker Vampire & Nosferatu subspecies of vampire. Many believe he holds the secret to how to create the creatures called Strigori, and when asked he always replies with a wry smile that some things are best left unanswered. He is rumoured to also have created magical charms that contain an element of his own blood allowing for shapeshifting & a telepathic link to a creature that he has fed on.
Failures & Embarrassments
He has never been able to truly work out how or why the Blood Drinker variety rebelled and been unable to rectify this process since. Also, after studying the Dhampir, he has never found a way to stop this happening.
Intellectual Characteristics
Methodical, cool, and devious are the best ways to describe Luqman. He will happily spend centuries playing out his magical & medicinal experiments along with any battle of wits against opponents. He will probe for any weakness, even at his minion's expense. As a magic user, at least at a high enough level he regularly will dabble in its use to create devices that can benefit vampirekin.
Morality & Philosophy
To put it mildly, Luqman has no moral compass. He views all life as a source of food or experimental subjects. As for his own kind, he would welcome the death of all of them if it meant he was left as the sole survivor. The Vampiric Godhead is the only 'living' entity that he has any respect for besides himself.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Dassem Luqman is motivated by his own desires for true immortality at the expense of all others, even his own species. At the same time, he knows that at least some of his own kind may need to survive for protection. He also knows that most living species will have to survive too in some form or another to allow for a source of blood and as 'lab rats'.
Social
Contacts & Relations
As part of the ruling class of the Children of the Nazarene, he has a vast network of vampiric creatures at his beck and call. He has spies & living minions spread throughout many settlements especially in the Middle East & the Silk Road. His family consists of one strand of the pureblood vampires that trace their origins back to Lilith & Samael. This basically means that his parentage came from two pureblood vampires that bred true., as their parents did as well.
Family Ties
His parents are still alive and have retired from active life in the Children of the Nazarene. They are treated as nobility and will occasionally be relied upon to step forward & take over certain duties as required by the ruling council. His aunts & uncles follow the same pattern, and his cousins fulfil similar roles in vampire society. He has a few children of his own that fill ranks in the Children in different ways, such as soldiers, hunters, librarians, attendants to name but a few.
Religious Views
He is a worshipper of the Vampiric Godhead and its parents Lilith & Samael.
Social Aptitude
As a pureblood of his kind, he is treated as nobility and unless over-ruled by the Godhead, family, or council, his rule is law in his own domain. This rankles him if done, as he has a self-centred attitude (like any vampire). Expert at manipulating and acting in court, when need be. He can be quite aggressive but keeps it in check. At the same time, he can appear aloft when deep in thoght.
Wealth & Financial state
Luqman is extremely wealthy, having spent millennia building up resources to allow for his own comfort.
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Current Location
Species
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Age
Unknown but millennia old
Children
Gender
Male
Presentation
Strange jewellery and loin cloth in natural form
Eyes
Blood Red and at times glowing
Hair
None
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale pallor
Height
5 ft 11inches
Weight
200 lb
Belief/Deity
Follower of the Vampire Godhead / Lilith & Samael
Aligned Organization
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