Of Changes and Development

Most vampires accelerate their aging. They don't even realise they are doing it, the vampire ability to alter ones own appearance once learnt could not be forgotten. Vampires who developed preconceptions of the aging process before learning this skill? They age at the speed they believed they should. It left their souls lagging behind waiting to catch up. It was a common occurrence for these preconceptions were so wide spread. The only accurate age limit in vampire community was the age of majority, it had been set before the preconception developed, and vampires were only taught shifting after that limit was past.

Cadis Etrama di Raizel had never learnt to change his personal appearance, he had no peers that he could remember. He was older than the preconception that affected most of vampire kind. He was likely, as the only one who had never learnt shifting, the only reason it was most not all vampire kind.

'Don't act like you don't know vampires can shift, how many stories have them turn into bats or mist to escape stacking or sun light?'

Having existed from the time his kind had territories in the human world and drank without killing. The appearance of the Lord, a position that he had never heard of before came as a shock, no, the reality of other vampires having 'positions' was a shock.

Apparently as he had dwelled in his house sustained by animal blood there had been many changes in the world at large.

XOX

'Some criminals had taken advantage of their current powers to get more power over humans; giving our race a bad name.'

"What are criminals?"

"You will learn later let me finish"

'Our kind had become prosecuted everywhere except an island, original territory of the lords clan, where vampires were known to the local humans very well. So well the rumours couldn't take hold or their existence be forgotten. Seeking refuge the other decent vampires placed themselves in the clan Leaders' mercy, making her the Lord, so they could live in that territory. At human suggestion a monarchy had been formed.'

"Humans are precious,"

"Yes, as you say."

'You are now in the presence of the vampire Lord, a rank equalling human emperor, and expected to listen to what I say. Or be branded a criminal by the majority of our people and the law.'

Cadis looked around his house; it was too lonely to be called a home. His last visitor was over millennia ago, it was accidental to. He would not mind being in a place with more people. Going to this 'Lukedona' as the blond vampire told him to.

The lord had realised through the course of their conversation that Cadis was far too ignorant to be the rebellious youth he appeared to be. Remembering the rumours that had led him here were recorded centuries ago and only investigated because they had continued to persist. Found he needed to ask a question. The rumours had been so mild that he would be forgiven for thinking it a revival of an old story instead of a new one.

He had only come himself because the sensitive knights had been too overwhelmed by the aura of power to approach, when he had finally sent some to investigate.

"Would you submit to an age test?"

The reclusive soul agreed, curious to what this 'test' consisted of. Only to have a reflective surface placed in front of him.

His reflection matched his appearance as always with the addition of the wounds in his soul. The loss of all those he had know, the lack of company, made his appearance neglected. The Lords reflection in the same mirror was of the same age as Cadis' but bore signs of responsibilities hardening, even though the lord looked physically older in reality.

It meant nothing to Cadis but the Lord was shocked.

This youth had existed longer than Lukedona had, the lord would know he had reached his majority the same year Lukedona declared its sovereignty as a kingdom. He had aged slower than most of the vampire population, far slower than the human population. He had realised early that his people were aging too fast. It seemed he still had not aged slowly enough.

How had this only come to his attention now? The mirror age test was completely accurate, not mostly. He had thought the youth of his reflection was the youth of his heart. It was so, but not in the way he had believed.

XOX

The Lord ordered a mansion built for his discovery and gave him the position of his counter, a rank equal to his. To have an apparent youth be called an equal to the lord? Then there were the vampires with skill in feeling the level of their opponents' power avoiding confrontation. Where everyone was aware they served the lord for his authority, providence and oaths generations old. This youth must have been given an equal position for sheer power. So Cadis was known to the rest of Lukedona.

XOX

Moving locations had not given Cadis more company. Everyone was afraid of him, so the vampire youth of an age greater than any of his kind, save the current lord, was trapped by their fear to remain in the mansion the lord had built for him. He was left with the power to veto the lord and his descendents. After all he had never sworn to their ancestor, he was a guest.

Staying in his old house would be better than this, so the lord invested much time in improving Cadis situation. The plans had varying degrees of success and failure. Little did the lord know that none of his plans addressed the real wound the change had caused in Cadis' soul.

There you have the Lord and the Noblesse of vampire society.

Vampire AU history, a part of it at least.