Blood Breed

The **Blood Breed** are an ancient race of humanoids of extradimensional orgin, stemming from what the race considers to be another "World". While the race has made contact with humanity over the eras, chronicling and cataloguing the advancements of humanity from the beginning of the Age of Man, the Blood Breed only inhabited the world today in the numbers they have after the Great War, in an event called the Exile. Due to being inherently extraterrestrial, while the common member of the race was very knowledgeable on humanity due to their ability to quite easily blend in to human society, not very much is known about them in particular, a mystery that it would appear the Blood Breed have a cultural focus on preserving.

## History

#### Paradigm Shift

Originally, the proto-Blood Breed arose in their dimension at the same time as the beginning of the Age of Man in the world of Requiem, the historical texts remaining from this dimension in the von Reinhardt library claiming that the first Blood Breed was created by a being known as the "Red Man", from the unexplained essence in the core of their world. While this may entirely be a sort of initial religion of the Blood Breed and a creation story passed down, there is no evidence that this is truly historical fact. However, ever since the creation of the proto-Blood Breed, the beings populated their dimensions and quickly advanced into a civilization, progressing extremely quickly relatively to humanity. With natural longevity and mental capabilities, the proto-Blood Breed civilization quickly became hedonistic, seeking pleasures that grew increasingly exotic.

Utilizing the power of their inherent magical affinities, as well as relying on the power of a being that may or may not be the Red Man of historical texts, 13 of the proto-Blood Breed, bound by blood as siblings would begin to create a singular anchor between their world and Requiem, allowing them to enter the world of man, sending a singular one into the strange world. Seeing their counterparts as an alien delicacy on first contact, a singular proto-Blood Breed bit into their first human victim, undergoing a massive physiological shift. They demonstrated physical abilities beyond the comprehension of most, their basic mystical affinities grew into full scale magical powers, demonstrated a mastery over blood, regenerative capabilities, and displayed this to their other brothers, numbered twelve. These proto-Blood Breed became the Original 13 Blood Breed, the first generation of the **Elder 13**.

Going back to their realm, these newly christened, modern Blood Breed demonstrated what could become of their race if they consumed human blood, using their powers to claim dominion over the governance of the species, and effectively controlling the evolution of their species, until the traits obtained by the Elder 13 by consuming human blood were prevalent among their species to a lesser extent.

During this time, the Continuity ritual was created to pass the knowledge of the Elder 13 down the generation, maintaining the guidance of the Elder 13 and keeping the knowledge and intellect they would have acquired throughout their lifetimes and passing it on to their heirs.

#### Hostile Neutrality

During the Great War, the Blood Breed became sweeped up in a conflict they originally had no stakes in. Originally planning to return to their world and wait the conflict out, during the events of the War their anchor became destabilized as their world began to suddenly become inhospitable, fading and collapsing right after shunting out the survivors into the world of Requiem.

This process is the Exile of the Blood Breed, and marked the stage in their history where they inhabited a planet where humanity was the dominant species of the world. Having to fight in the battle to defend themselves, considered to be forces of some of the beings that opposed humanity in the Great War, the Blood Breed spread out across the world, fracturing the dominion of the Elder 13 who vowed to one day restore the Blood Breed to the status they once held.

Many attempts were made to do so, before settling on attemping to make Blood Breed heirs of the Elder 13 with the power of the OGene, the genetic abnormality that gave some humans the ability to fight on par with if not entirely surpass a Blood Breed soldier. However, there are rumours that this was not a choice, but a necessity, for similarly cryptic reasons as their entire history finds itself in.