Vampire

Lore
After centuries of persecution, the Vampires of Nosgoth now revel in their place at the top of the food chain. Their dark gift grants them spectacular physical strength and speed, and they see no reason to temper it. Having become the undisputed masters of the land under Kain’s imperial rule, Nosgoth’s Vampires see Humans as cattle. They prey on Humans for blood, but they also recognise Humanity’s potential to become extremely powerful warriors, having launched numerous crusades against Vampire-kind in ages past.

With Kain having seemingly absconded his throne and with Raziel, his first-raised, cast into the Abyss, the Vampires are now ruled by Kain’s five remaining lieutenants – Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah – each having sired a Clan of their own Vampiric progeny. Each Clan is named after its respective lieutenant-patriarch; each is in possession of jealously guarded territory.

Over time, the Lieutenants and their Clans have developed powers and skills of their own, changing and evolving to become different, distinct close-range killers. Some of these mutations stemmed from the curse placed on Kain’s soul, but not all of these changes occurred naturally, with some Clans forcefully inducing their own terrible metamorphoses through eldritch magic and ritual self-mutilation. These differences were one reason for the civil war that sparked between the Vampire Clans, each claiming superiority over the other.

The other reason was pure decadence; this civilisation had everything, but wanted more. Without Kain to command them, Vampire fledglings forgot the deaths of earlier generation and focused on pleasure and power.

Kain had allowed the Legions their intrigues, even tolerating assassinations, but he forbade outright warfare between the Clans – it was wasteful and could lead to Humans having dangerous ideas. Kain, as ever, had been characteristically prescient.

With the Razielim now bereft of a leader, the other Clans fell upon their territory – some wanting to seek glory by mirroring their Emperor’s actions, others to expand their influence by seizing precious land and resources, and a few simply to settle pernicious old scores. Once hunting season was declared on Raziel’s brood and in the absence of Kain’s vice-like grip on events, it did not take much for the latent hostility between the self-serving Clans to erupt in full-blown civil war.

Time passes fleetingly for Vampires who, in their arrogance, paid little attention to breeches in the now poorly guarded blood farms and breeding pens. Only a couple of centuries after escaping, new generations of Humanity had settled and then flourished in territories outside of the Lieutenants’ direct control. Soon they had raised an army. It took the devastating loss of a few outposts for the Vampires to realise that Humanity’s resurgence was no mere nuisance, but a formidable threat to their civilisation.

And so the Clans have put their differences aside, at least for now, as the Vampires fight to stop the bloody march of man and to re-establish their hard-won dominance over Nosgoth.