Eternal War The Eternal War , also known as the Vampire Wars , was a protracted and bloody conflict fought against the Great Vampire s early in the history of the Time Lord s . History . Because the story of the Eternal War was never recorded in the Matrix , there were varying accounts of its start . ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) According to a transmission which Samantha Jones received on Anathema ( and which may have been influenced by Faction Paradox propaganda ) , the war began when Rassilon first opened a black hole in an attempt to draw power from other planes of existence . The black hole reached through to an inhabited plane , and monsters with great leathery wings and bat - like heads swarmed through the opening . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) According to " The Book of the War " , the Yssgaroth escaped into Spiral Politic during the anchoring of the thread . They destroyed the machinery responsible for the anchoring , creating the caldera . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) According to " The Thousand and Second Night " , the djinn survived the destruction of their world " before the first time " ; the " cauldron of creation " also survived from this " world before the world " , and Allah filled it with an infinite black emptiness in which he could dissolve the current world and create a new one . Iblis , the leader of the djinn , wanted Allah ' s power for himself , so he convinced the djinn to help him steal the cauldron and bring it from Jannat to Jahannam . Allah formed his angel s into five great tribe s and many smaller tribe s and sent them to defend the cauldron . ( PROSE : " Head of State " ) Whatever the cause , the ferocity and resilience of the Vampires made their defeat very difficult , even for the Time Lords . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) They drank the angels ' blood and feasted on their power . ( PROSE : " Head of State " ) Conventional weapons were virtually useless . Rassilon ordered the construction of bowship s to exploit the Vampires ' vulnerability to being impaled through the heart . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Led by Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu , the Time Lords pushed the Yssgaroth back into their own universe over a thousand years , though billions of people were killed and whole star systems were destroyed . ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) Eventually , all but one — the swarm leader — were found and destroyed . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) The node points in the metastructure of history that were outlets to the Yssgaroth ' s universe were blocked and reinforced by forced - matter shells disguised as planet s — unless someone attempted to drill to the planet ' s core . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) These planets included the Althosian system ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) and Earth . ( PROSE : " Interference " , " Head of State " ) The djinn could not reach the cauldron hidden within the Earth , so they mixed with human women and created the Mal ' akh , who lay in wait until the angels returned to take the cauldron back to Jannat . ( PROSE : " Head of State " ) Iphigenia was also located on a universal ley line as protection against the Great Vampires . ( PROSE : " So Vile a Sin " ) The Fourth Doctor ended the war by killing the King Vampire , who had fled into E - Space . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Legacy . The war became a legend throughout the universe , with few exact details known . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Vampire legends existed in many cultures , including Earth . ( PROSE : " Goth Opera " , PROSE : " Vampire Science " ) Vampires were viewed as extremely scary by Gallifreyan s . ( PROSE : " World Game " ) Every Type 40 time vessel included a message from Rassilon saying that it was a Time Lord ' s solemn duty to lay down his life to kill the King Vampire . The war caused such widespread loss of life that the Time Lords rejected the use of violence forever . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) General Mirraflex , the founder of House Mirraflex , achieved notability during the war . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Rassilon rose to power during the war . ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) One of his titles was " Conqueror of the Yssgaroth " , ( AUDIO : " Zagreus " ) and his throne was made of the bones of giant bats . ( PROSE : " Christmas on a Rational Planet " )