Vampires were the most hated species on Glitnir. That was what Viktora's father, Lord Ronak, had taught her since childhood. The other races did not uand vampires, and what they did not uand, they feared. That fear fermented into hatred, and their exile was iable. Here, in Castle Emberhearth and the nds it trolled, they were safe to live as they were wont. Beyond the mountains, however, y nothing but death and misery for their kind, as the records of old had told.
Vampires really weren't all that different from the other races, if you could get past their unusual tastes. trary to what the records said about outsiders' beliefs about them, vampires had o drink blood and they certainly couldn't turn a being of another rato a vampire by biting them. They were not immortal, they had no fear of the sun or of blessed water, they were not undead or cursed, and the taste of garlic was quite appealing to them.
What the outsiders had gotten correct was that vampires were a race apart from the rest. They had marble white skin; not just skin the same shade as the white part of marble, but rather skin that had a marbled pattern of white, grays, and sometimes bck. They had incredibly long lives, thought they still succumbed to the passage of time around their eight huh birthday. They had supernatural strength, speed, reflexes, and senses. Even on the darkest of nights, vampires could see as well as if it were noontime.
They also had an appetite for blood, which was the basis of much of the fear and shunning that pgued their race before they'd been exiled. It was not a necessary part of their diet, but it was like ar to them. No other drink tasted quite as good as the warm, sticky, salty, metallic sap of a living being's veins. Some of them had a taste for animal blood, but they were outliers to the norm. The blood of se races was most appealing to the vast majority of vampires, and the fresher it was, the better it tasted. Still, even week-old blood, if it hadn't gealed, was better than water.
Vampires, like other races, reproduced ally. There were certain ceremonies and rituals that could be performed to turn a member of another rato a vampire, but there were many ditions that had to be fulfilled for the transformation to be successful, he willing cooperation of the oo be ged.
The biggest difference, perhaps, between vampires and the rest of the se races, was the fact that they were strictly forbidden from procreating with anyone who wasn't a vampire, even though the offspring of such retionships was always a full vampire. If someone fell in love with one of theirs and desired a family, they were required to gh the rites and join them in their hallowed haunts. Failing that, if a vampire was discovered to have entered into a al retionship with an outsider, they were either executed or forced to give up their vampiric powers, and a simir ritual would turn them into the race of their lover.
This was sidered to be the single most shameful thing a vampire could do. They were the blessed race of the god Aczotz. Their gifts, their inborn abilities, made them superior to the outsiders in every way. To abandon that was to decre that you held nothing but pt for their god's gifts, and that you would rather debase yourself to live among filth than tain your own lusts. Many who were caught s with outsiders chose execution rather than transformation. In fact, Viktora had only ever been told about two who had opted to live amongst the other races.
Owing to this sort of 'racial sing', nearly every vampire in their nds was reted, in some form or fashion, to every other vampire. Their blessings from Aczotz kept them healthy and whole despite this inbreeding. The o breed within their own people also rendered another oddity that set vampires apart; they only had two genders. The third gender, as the records called it, had never been seen in vampires. At least, it hadn't before Viktora's birth.
Upon seeing her daughter's unique anatomy, Viktora's mother, Emilia, had extracted oaths of secrecy from the only other person in the room; the wet nurse who had helped deliver her. Shortly thereafter, the a vampiress had fallen ill and passed away. Emilia had raised Viktora exclusively by herself, not allowing ao so much as hold the child. To have her secret uncovered would not only make her an outcast, but it would shine light upon Emilia's own iy.
Emilia had told Viktora the truth on her sixteenth birthday, when she was finally old enough to truly prehend the dahat the both of them were in because of Emilia's unfaithfulness. She had discovered a Third human while expl a new cave in the Bo Mountains. The cave system apparently led all the way through the mountain, and this human had been mapping it out. Emilia was so smitten with her geous appearahat she hadn't noticed the woman was looking directly at her until it was too te.
Tentatively, they had entered into an agreement. The human would e no further into the cave, and Emilia would prevent any of her kin from disc these tunnels. The human had set up a campsite iunnel, and Emilia brought her the supplies to exteay. They exged stories and information from and about their nds and peoples, and it had awakened in Emilia the desire to see more of the world, to explore beyond the mountains.
They made love, and spired to rid Emilia of the shackles bindio Emberhearth Castle. When Emilia went to meet her love the day to start their journey south, she found Lord Ronak standing over her lover's body, drenched in her blood. He'd accused her of sleeping with the woman, but Emilia dehe charge, saying that she only wao leave because she no longer felt loved or wanted in Emberhearth. Ronak took her that night, givihe mueeded evidehat the child which had e of her union with the Third, Viktora, was actually Ronak's.
Viktora had been shocked to learn of her mother's affair, and it suddenly painted her life in a whole new light. Ronak had sired many children before Viktora, so she was nowhere even close to being in line for the Obsidian Throne. Even so, he'd always seemed tard her with a certain amount of disdain not shown to his other children. Perhaps he suspected her true ins. Perhaps she reminded him of her mother's attempt to leave.
Whatever the reason, his estra meant that she was free of the troubles pguing the vampiric court. She wasn't forced to wear the ridiculous dresses other noblewomen were expected to don. She didn't have matters of state that required her attention, or diplomatic affairs to attend to. her, however, did she have the full bag of the Obsidian Throne. She and her mother were left to their own devices, and they preferred it that way.
They lived in a cottage oskirts of the castle; close enough to be called upon, though they never were, but far enough apart that their lives were their own. Emilia taught her daughter the secrets of alchemy and herblore in the expansive garden abutting the cottage, and fostered within Viktora an appreciation for all growing things. She told Viktora of the knowledge imparted to her by her secret lover, and created the same desire for advehat she'd been pgued with.
It was this desire that had led to their undoing. Viktora had, with her mother's blessing, ventured out to explore the caves of the Bo Mountains on her seveh birthday. As she traveled towards them, she came upon a clearing in the wooded foothills and stopped for a bath. While she bathed, the most accursed bck luck tainted her otherwise joyful day.
She was seen by a member of Lord Ronak's court. She begged and pleaded with him to not reveal her secret, and the man used her desperation to fulfill his own al lusts. When she had given herself to him, he informed Lord Ronak anyways. In a fit e, the lord went to their cottage and razed it and their garden to the ground.
He took Viktora and Emilia prisoner, ahem in his dungeons for months without trial or appeal. When he finally deigo hear Emilia's expnations, he gathered the full court and used it as an excuse to humiliate ale her. He made it clear to all in attendahat he had no love for Viktora's mother, and that she should be prosecuted to the full extent of their ws for her crimes.
So it was that, before Viktora had even unlocked her css, she was forced to watch her own mother burn at the stake. As vampires were naturally resistant to heat, this articurly cruel form of execution. While resistant, even a vampire couldn't walk through fmes with impunity. They still burned, just slower. The fires were stoked high and had to be kept burning fht days in order to kill Emilia.
Viktora was ed to a stake in the courtyard as a form of preventative corre, to show her what happeo those who desired anything to do with outsiders. She was forced to listen to her mother's cries for mercy, her pleading apologies, her screams of agony. Day and night she listeo her mother being burned alive until she feared she would never be able to rid her ears of the abominable sounds.
After her mother's execution, Viktora was made a sve in Lord Ronak's castle. She was not allowed to wear any clothing, so that all who met her would know of her shame. Her duties were the most disgusting tasks that nobody else would do; ing chamberpots with nothing but her hands and a bucket of water, removing stains from the blood tithe cages, catg rats and other vermin, and mug out the stalls of their livestock by hand.
All the while, Lord Ronak enced anyone who saw Viktora to physically abuse her until her entire body stantly felt like one big bruise. On the rare occasion that she was allowed to rest, she cried herself to sleep, where the echoes of her mother's st days tormented her. This living hell was the state she found herself in when she came of age and unlocked her css.
Nightstalker
Your vampirieage be traced to the first vampirescreated by Aczotz. Embrace this power to enhance yourabilities and bee the greatest of your kind.
She had ughed bitterly upon seeing what the gods had offered her. The Nightstalker css had been given to only three others in all of their recorded history, who had all turned out to be the stro vampires of their time. It was quite ironic, as all vampires could trace their lineage back to those directly created by Aczotz. To obtain this sacred css when she was being punished for beihan a "true vampire" simply because of the circumstances of her birth. She couldn't tell if the gods were blessing her or mog her.
When anded by her lord to tell him what css she had chosen, she'd lied. She said she had chosen an alchemist's css, as her mother had wanted her to. This refereo Ronak's most shameful e earned her a week without food and three days' burning at the stake. She had cherished every moment of it.
Though she could not rid her nightmares of her mother's screams, she chose to remember Emilia as the proud, indepe, and fiercely protective mother that had raised her. A week without food and three days at the stake were a small price to pay to remind Ronak of what he had taken from her.
Still, while she had been given a most powerful css, she had no way of training it. She had not leveled up on the seven years since she'd unlocked it. She was never allowed any ons, and she was forced to wear silver bracelets that inhibited her natural abilities. She was weaker even than a human, and would never be able to defeat a monster. heless, she prayed from dawn to dusk to every goddess she had ever been told or read about; prayers of deliverao set her free from her life of servitude. They had never answered, of course, but they were her only hope of escape.
Viktet your zy ass in here! Lord Ronak's voice echoed in her mind. She sighed, leaving the particurly stubborn stain which she had been scraping off with her fingernails and heading for his bedchambers. The dawn light streamed in through the windows as she tried not to think about what was n on her hands. She passed only one person in these early hours of the m, which meant she only had to endure a few puo her body and one scathing remark about her abnormality before she reached the royal chambers.
She knocked upon the door and announced herself. "Viktora, here at the request of Lord Ronak."
"You think I don't know that, you foolish girl? e in and fix this mess." His bark of anger rang out, causio flinch. The st eight years of her life had taught her to associate raised voices with immi pain. She opened his door and found the lord dressing himself sloppily. He still looked half-drunk from the party st night, and the es who had apanied him to bed were ying all over the room. A few of them had grumbled at the volume he addressed Viktora with, but none of them were roused.
"What may I assist you with, my lord?" Viktora asked, standing stock-still and looking at her feet, her hands at her sides. She had long ago given up any idea of modesty.
" this mess up." Ronak growled, gesturing at the room. "It's absolutely filthy in here."
Viktora refrained from sighing in exasperation. She had ed this room to a spotless, shining state yesterday, and his single night of wanton debauchery had ruihe eight hours of scrubbing that she had done. After gng around the room, she nodded ond lowered her gaze to her feet again.
"Yes, my lord. As you and."
"Filthy freak." Ronak muttered as he passed her. She heard the door open and almost rexed her posture, almost breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had left without hittihen pain nced across her back as he sshed her with a dagger. He was the only one allowed to draw blood from her, and he'd had two others executed for doing so actally. Thus, the impressive, if macabre, tableau of scar tissue criss-crossing her back was all his own work. His "masterpiece", as he liked to call it.
Ronak stepped around to her front, and she forced her whimpers to cease, looking up at him with tear-streaked eyes. He wordlessly held the dagger up, and she licked it of her blood before he sheathed it at his waist again. Then he reached his right hand bad spped her so hard it sent her sprawling into the er of a vanity. She sobbed ohen got to her feet. By the time she was vertical again, he was gone.
