Damien Sephiran

For the most part Damien did not have an unhappy life, unlike so many of his kind before him.  While it was most definitely an isolated existence, his mother did not fear him nor did she instill any sort of fear in him.  It could even be said that he had a relatively happy childhood.

You see his mother was very careful about how and where she raised him.  She had purchased land not far from the main town and made sure that this was Damien’s world.  It was about a half a days ride to and from so that if needed she could go out during the day and return in the same day, but it was far enough away that one would have to try very hard to actually visit their family.

She had few trusted friends she knew and even then most did not know the secret of her child, only that she was an unwed mother.  Not an uncommon thing, but also not the most optimal for raising a small child. She had fled her home town after it had been decimated.  What she failed to mention to the townspeople and to most of the world was that she brought back something else from her home.

Her home had become ravaged by a local vampire.  A group of unfortunate adventures happened upon his lair in search of treasures, but instead they unleashed a hungry storm upon the surrounding lands. She had escaped only because she had been out collecting mushrooms for that evening's dinner, little did she know she would return to a massacre.  Sated the Vampire took his time playing with Gabriela.

There was no beautiful love story, just a terrifying reality she left behind her.  She escaped, taking what jewels and gold she could carry, and went as far as her feet could take her.  She would have gone further, but it was two weeks later when she realized something was wrong. She did not leave the ordeal unscathed.  An old gypsy woman passing by had simply looked at her and told her, that she carried the undead with in her.

She had considered finding a way to destroy the child, but as quickly as she thought it she felt shame.  It shouldn’t be punished for the sins of the father. She had decided to settle in this place. She was able to buy a small farm outside of the town and it was there that she raised Damien in secret.  She had protected him and given him as normal a childhood as she could.

That was until his tenth birthday when a traveling Paladin saw him and attempted to kill him.  It was only by happenstance that a soldier had been there to stop him from killing the young boy, but reality taught the young mother that she couldn’t hide her child’s fate.  She paid the warrior to begin apprenticing her son and it was on his 16th birthday that she would tell him exactly why. He had already been having strange occurrences. A blood lust that could never be satiated.  Sleepless nights and groggy days. One could chock it up to being a teenager, but a mother knows when things aren’t right.

Luckily the Soldier didn’t seem to mind.  In fact the soldier took a peculiar interest in her son.  Nothing to alarming, but he was not phased by her son’s strange appearance.  He had come from a distant land (though he never specified where) and had recently retired.  He was gaunt, and his flesh was marred by years of battle. He went by the name Coterin Vondenton, but there were times when she wondered if that was his real name.  He would sometimes not respond to it. But, he seemed to know more about her son's condition than he let on, but at the same time, he was still managing to teach her son basic skills. Skills he would likely need to survive.  In face he was very fervent that her son learn to protect himself. He would eventually become a normal part of the family, in many ways becoming the father Damien never had.

However, as with all children he would eventually grow up and like most of his kind, he outlived his mother.  She was buried in the local cemetery and soon he found himself alone in the woods. With nothing but time, he eventually rented the home to Coterin, and went off to join the military himself.  He spent ten years in the local lords militia, and rather enjoyed his work. However, as he got older it became more and more apparent that he was not aging like those around him and his condition was becoming more and more noticable.

In some ways he was unsettling to some because while his mother never told him, he looked more and more like his father the older he got.  A man he had never met nor had any desire to meet, but he was not fueled by any desire or hatred to go after him. As far as he knew he was still alive somewhere but he could really care less about a man who raped and experimented on his mom, though he did have to thank him for the money his mom stole from him.  They were still living off many of the riches that she had gained.

However there was one thing that she did not pawn off.  She did manage to steal one of the vampire’s signet rings.  Originally she had planned to melt it and sell the gold, but when she realized she was pregnant, it became something she could use just in case.  Something so that her son would know where he came from. That he was the son of a vampire and that for a month he had tortured her and experimented on her.  It was in a strange moment of hubris that the vampire forgot to secure her chains before he went to sleep at night. She had allowed him to believe that was broken. That she was now no more than a pile of flesh, with no mind of her own.  He didn’t see her pawn off the key. He didn’t see her hide it, and he would certainly be surprised when he woke up.

She managed to unchain herself and escape the room he had been keeping her in early that morning after he went to sleep.  She grabbed a bag and filled it with whatever she could on her way out and she ran. She ran on foot throughout the day till she found the remains of her hometown of Dresden.  There was nothing left, but many of the animals who had escaped had returned and wandered around hopelessly lost. She managed to find some left over items and a horse and took the horse further out riding till her and the horse were exhausted.

Thus eventually ending up here she was now.  She knew that the Vampire’s name was Draxus Von Terpesh, but nothing more.  Most of the villagers didn’t even know that he still existed till he was awakened.

Time would pass and the young Dhampir would eventually outlive his mother.  He would bury her in a local cemetery then join the local military. He enjoyed it for the most part and stayed for 20 years, till it became apparent that his fellow men and women weren’t comfortable with sharing their time with him.  Indeed it became more and more apparent as he got older, since he barely aged and all the people around him were growing much older. Not really wanting to mess with dealing with the whispers he left and took up life as a Mercenary for hire.  It paid well and kept him moving throughout the lands.