The Children of Kain

The firstborn of Kain's lieutenants was Raziel, once the very same inquisitor who had torn Janos Audron's heart free from his chest. Gifted with the largest portion of Kain's soul, Raziel's power was matched only by his beauty and vanity. As Kain's right hand, he was afforded unique opportunities to sway his lord's position on any matter, a fact that drew both the respect and jealousy of his brothers.

The second of Kain's progeny, Turel prided himself on being a warrior. While Raziel leveraged his firstborn status into privilege, Turel exceled and advanced by his strength alone and deemed himself and his clan as superior to the others by this fact. This arrogance often put him at odds with his brethren.

Dumah, the third child of Kain, was a vicious and precise predator. He and his own clan of vampires took great pleasure in the hunt, even going so far as to construct a great labyrinth within which to release humans, adding an element of sport to feeding time. It was common for Dumah to clash with his brother Turel over matters of territory and power awarded in Kain's empire.

Kain's fourth son, Rahab, was a tactical beast. Noting that humans often saved themselves by fleeing across rivers or encircling their settlements with great moats, Rahab endeavored to overcome the innate vampiric susceptibility to water. Eventually through magical means and endurance training, he gained a measure of success in this objective, developing gills and a scaly skin to acclimate to the depths. And with that success came great value to the empire. Where humans were protected by stagnant moats or flowing waters, untouchable by the other vampires, Rahab and his clan would be called to wage the final assault.

The penultimate offspring, Zephon and his clan thrived at deception and trickery. Physically weaker than many of his siblings, Zephon sought to shape his evolution through unique bodily experimentations. He also encouraged this practice amongst his clan, the Zephonim. In time, this manifested in the growth of new limbs with which he found he and his clan could traverse new areas, climbing along walls or clinging to overhangs of rock, becoming masters of ambush tactics in the Empire's conflicts.

Melchiah, sixth and last of Kain's unholy brood, was viewed with some disdain by his siblings and father alike. Raised from death with the smallest portion of Kain's soul, Melchiah availed himself of all the powers granted by his new vampiric state. Unfortunately, the relative weakness of his vampire spirit had repercussions. While Melchiah and his clan were undying just like the others, their weaker souls could not sustain this immortality. Their flesh, rather than being stabilized by Kain's gift, continued to decompose upon their very bones.

In a court of vain monsters, this was viewed as nothing short of repulsive and the Melchahim tried various methods to stem this decay, from alchemy to tampering with the underworld. Yet they also discovered an intriguing benefit: They could graft new flesh upon themselves, and assimilate it into their nervous systems. In effect, they could alter their physical forms on a whim, gaining and disposing of new pieces at will. And with their ever-rotting bodies maintaining only a tenuous link to the living realms, they could even shift temporarily into the lands of the dead, traversing distances unseen to surprise their enemies.