Dark Legends

The roots of vampirism are lost to history, despite the long-lived natures of those cursed with the condition. The stories defining their origins are numerous, but still only speculation, many of which were created by superstitious and uneducated humans who sought a way to explain the existence of living dead with remarkable strengths and unusual weaknesses. Some examples include:

• Cain & Abel - As punishment for killing his brother Abel, Cain was cursed by God to live for eternity. For the blood he spilled, he would be doomed to drinking it from others in order to survive. He would be revealed as the monster he was. People would fear and flee from him, and he would be a creature to hunt the dark, skulking and slithering about. This life would never allow him to get close to another person so that he might feel the loss of his brother forever more, and should he venture to create relationships, he would relive the pain of loss when the chosen mortal died.
• Ambrogio & Selena - According to the myth, Ambrogio fell in love with Selena, but when he visited the Oracle temple of Apollo, Apollo desired her for his own. Apollo cursed Ambrogio's skin to burn whenever it was exposed to sunlight to dissuade him from pursuing Selena. In desperation, Ambrogio struck a bargain with Hades and stole Artemis' bow for him. Artemis cursed Ambrogio so that silver would burn his skin, but later showed him mercy in the form of super strength, immortality, and fangs to kill beasts in order to use their blood to write love poems for Selena. Eventually Selena escaped Apollo and reunited with Ambrogio. According to Artemis, he could make his love immortal through drinking her blood, and their combined blood could turn anyone who drank it into a vampire.
• Judas Iscariot - When the apostle Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver, it revealed the identity of Jesus to the crowd that came to arrest him. As Jesus was taken to be crucified, Judas attempted to repent for his sin of betraying innocent blood and tried to return the silver to those who paid him. They refused the money and Judas left the temple, and then hung himself. God condemned Judas to walk the earth until the final days, fearing the sun and cursed to roam the land in darkness. He would never know the comfort of death and be damned to feed on the blood of living humans for eternity. The vampire's reaction to silver and holy objects stem from Judas' knowledge of the divine and his own faith.
• Romanian King - After seeing his people continually subjigated by the Turks, a Prince-turned-King of Romania made a bargain with a malevolent being and sealed it in shared blood. The King returned home, slept through the day, and when he woke in the evening, he felt an incredible thirst for human blood, but so too did he find himself imbued with supernatural strength and speed which he used to save his people as he tore through the enemy camp while their soldiers slept and slaked his thirst.
• Demon Remnants - Before the earth became a paradise, it was home for demons. They walked it for eons until eventually losing their purchase on this reality, which made the way for mortals - animals and mankind alike. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magics, certain creatures. Vampires are remnants of these Old Ones, the last demons that inhabited the Earth before they were driven out by new, younger races. The last demon fed off a human and mixed their blood, infecting the human form with the demon's soul. He bit another and another, and so they walked the Earth, feeding and killing and turning others, waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to return.
• A Mother's Love - A witch who loved her family beyond all measure lived in a small village surrounded by wild woods. Vicious beasts devoured villagers who wandered too deep into the forest. At night, they stole from the cover of trees into the village and snatched people from their homes, leaving bones and scraps of the person behind. The witch did not want to see her children suffer the same fate, so she performed a ritual that enhanced their physical forms and gave them immortality, but as with all magic, there was a price to pay. Just as the beasts they were intended to stand against, the witch's children became beasts of the night themselves and their first taste of blood became a craving that drove them from that moment forward.

Marmee Noir

Marmee Noir, also known as The Sweet Dark, Mother of All Darkness, and Dark Mother, has claimed to be the first vampire, existing long before Homo Sapiens evolved. Yet, she is both vampire and lycanthrope, leading many to consider her a different type of monster with vampiric traits. In that regard, Marmee Noir is credited with creating the rules and culture that governs the vampire race, suggesting that is is the metaphorical, rather than literal, mother of all vampires.

For centuries, Marmee Noir lay in torpor, waking only recently for unknown reasons, although it is likely that she was conscious enough in this state to be aware of the world and reports that came to her about the people and events of interest, and rose when things sufficiently peaked her curiosity. Marmee, who was leader of the Vampire Council, resumed an active role upon waking, dipping her fingers into the flow of current events and influencing the actions of humans and vampires alike.

Bullshit. Most of it anyways. You humans and your need to explain things your pathetic little brains can't comprehend. Not that it's any better with the vampires who think that living a few millennia makes them some kind of glorified historian. Vampires weren't made by some accidental collision of magic or by some god trying to impart justice for wrongs done. They were fucking made by us demons.

Yeah, that's right. Demons made vampires. And, we didn't just make one who shared their blood like some venereal disease to create all the rest. And it wasn't a whim just to see what our powers could do or for our amusements. We had a purpose and we hand-picked our targets, choosing those who would best serve our ambitions. Those of us who stood with Lucifer knew that humans could never be as perfect as us angels and didn't deserve to be revered in the way our Father demanded. What were they but laughable shadows of our glory? Nothing more than the animals they scampered around with. Ants with so many flaws and frailities that it should have been fucking obvious from the beginning.

But, you know what happens when you love your Father beyond all else and still try to point out that his faith in humanity is misplaced? He sees your truth as an affront and kicks you out of the fucking house. It can't be his mistake, right? And it can't be a failing in his precious humans. So, it has to be your fault. Most of us still held hope that we could prove mankind's unworthiness. So, we looked for examples among humanity that displayed these flaws, then helped create opportunities where they could show their true natures in order to highlight mankind's failings. When Adam and Eve were tempted in Eden, we touched their curiosity so that they demonstrated their disobedience, pride, and arrogance to think they were above obeying. When Cain was jealous of his brother's offering, it was one of us that nudged the hatred in his heart so that he slew Abel. Lust, love, anger, fear, pride. In dreams and the waking world. We helped humans show it all.

Of course, the angels were sent to dole out punishments, often killing the human, which kinda proves the point, right? Their crime was so grievous that Heaven had to exterminate them? That's when we stepped in, returning them to life with a touch of our "corrupted" grace. The results were vampires who seemed to cling to whatever thoughts and feelings held them before death, which..well, it did produce some surprising effects.

In the end, it didn't matter though, did it? All these sins manifested, showcasing humanity's fragility and flaws, and we were still disowned and damned, denied our Father's love, banished from his presence. How many examples does He need before He admits that humans suck? How long must we atone before He welcomes us back? It's been eons. Most of us have forgotten what heaven was like, but, we keep helping humans show their inadequacy. And now? Well, let's just say we've found other uses for our vampires...

Excerpt from the writings of Abbott Anastasius chronicling interactions with the demon Corassus, c. 547 CE. Translated by Aldus of Mercia, c. 824 CE. Modern translation by James F. Baker in "Divine Influence: Origins of the Supernatural", 2001 CE.