Vampire

The vampire, is an intelligent type of creature that appears across Kaanaeus. Most infamously, they are known for feeding on other creatures essence.

Origin

The first vampire was bestowed the curse of vampirism during the age of decay. As the Morose affliction spread across Kaanaeus, the food supply began to dwindle. A mortal killed and consumed the flesh of another mortal in an act of desperation. Upon witnessing this, Aphion cursed this mortal to die with an unsatiable hunger. However, as this event occurred in the Fall, the curse was partially influenced by Phylena. Phylena, unable to stop the curse from bearing effect, instead granted upon them a boon. A means to subsist and thrive as a creature feeding off of life itself, taking revenge at Aphion and her overstep. And thus, the undead and the vampire were born.

Vampires cannot reproduce through normal mortal mechanical means. Instead they must be inflicted with the curse of vampirism, the curse can be spread similarly to a blood-borne disease. After being feasted upon by a vampire, but left to live, there is a chance that the feastee becomes a vampire.

During the Age of Decay, a young ambitious vampire under the employ of a dragon, named Yegoro was granted his own plot of land within The Zukhaya. He was patroned to be a threat upon the Giants living within the mountains.

Forming within pockets of the ruins, a society of vampires. Yegoro grows in power as he continues to harass the mountains. Yegoro gets "The Crown-Earner", and is granted the powers of Mykolo's Herald, granting them an affinity for heat, fire, stone, and ash. Thereby granting them an immunity to the sun. Yegoro is able to grant unto his followers, The Old Bloods, a lesser form of the gift.

Eventually, a Hero from Mitmyzsis rises to prominence, and frees his peoples from the Giants. Subjected again to the threat of the undead, the Hero, a paladin of Mykolo joined forces with a cleric of Tulon, to create a means to defeat the vampires. Yegoro happens upon the pair, and attempts to dispatch them. The Heroes, and their followers, escape underground, into the ruins of civilizations past.

As such, they lock themselves inside, as the Morose Affliction spreads on the surface, granting them safety. For roughly 30 years, the pair continued to evade the vampires searching for them, building maze-like labyrinths within the mountains. Eventually, the group became split between the two heroes. The paladin, to the surface rallies survivors to attack the Vampire on the surface, whereas the cleric formulates a ritual to perform to prevent the curse from spreading further.

As the two work towards similar goals, the cleric and her followers create large obelisks, granting unto the lands a resistance to curses. As they travel around Dravia erecting these obelisks. The paladin, creates a force of which to attack and hopefully destroy Yegoro. Ultimately, succeeding in capturing, but not destroying Yegoro. Upon the paladin's mortal wound, he seals the two in a crypt underneath Mitmyzsis.

In visions, the cleric witnesses the paladin's martyrdom, and instructs her followers to prevent Yegoro from coming back to power.

As such, The Minstrel rods of Dravia prevent the spread of vampirism.