Ch 6: The Treacherous Past
Three centuries went by, and after so long a time, much has changed. Kain's conquest spread as far as the Avernus Cathedral and Uschtenheim. But despite our efforts, the Blood Hunters still persisted. Each time we defeated one leader, another leader rise within the next three years. This time, they took control of Willendorf City and heavily fortified it.
My brethren have all evolved a bit, like myself. When I last awoke from my dormant state, my pupils changed from hazel to bright yellow. We each have developed pointy ears to enhance our whisper ability. My skin took on a paler shade, but I could withstand the extreme temperatures of Nosgoth. We have also developed our own abilities to sire vampires, but since it costs much energy and effort, we choose those who we deemed worthy of such gift. As a motivation for our troops, we granted it as the ultimate promotion among their ranks. Whoever that served their masters faithfully and valiantly, will be rewarded immortality and power. I now understand why we are the dark gods of this world.
With our own fledglings and our vast territories, we each claimed a piece of Nosgoth as our own. There, we created huge edifices in our image, and claimed our own clan symbol. Nicholas, being the most faithful of my officers throughout his mortal years, was now my right hand vampire general. Nathaniel and Ezra each claimed a private sanctum.
In her attempt to deified Kain, Ezra has accepted a small amount of humans as her apprentice sorcerers and vampire worshipers. She has also become the head priestess of the Meridian City Cathedral. My brethren and I paid her religion no regards, and much less acknowledged her followers. To us, they were merely dogs in human form. As for Nathaniel, he declined Kain's offer when he was granted an army, and instead, requested solitude whenever he desired, his intensions, we shall never know.
As more vampires were created, we were aware of our weaknesses, if our entire forces are vampires; we would be powerless in daylight. And so, to solve this problem, Kain constructed a mechanical tower that would harvest the molten lava near the Dark Eden, and belched out dark smoke that would shroud the world from the light.
Ever since the day Kain have declared his final defilement of Nosgoth by blocking out the sun, the world have devolved. In the heart of the Lake of the Dead, an endlessly swirling whirlpool was born. Looking down into the whirlpool, it makes one feel as if looking at the entrance of the underworld itself, and by all means of irony, we called it the "Abyss". This was where we held our executions, humans and vampires alike, were cast in. The weak, and the treacherous, those who Kain deemed unworthy of our high blood and of our empire, were ultimately fed into the everlasting whirlpool. Of all my brethren, Zephon enjoyed the sight of old peasants drowning, or weak vampire fledglings burning in the water the most. But to be honest, seeing them twisting and screaming in agony does amuses me sometimes. The fate of anyone in our empire belonged in our hands.
In my own spare time, I read the relic I found in Vorador's keep. It depicts the history of a fanatical order of human warriors called the Sarafans, who had once tried to exterminate the world of vampires. These knights stood by a code of honor and were protecting the common people from our kind. Although their purpose seemed noble, but nonetheless they were enemies to us, I could not draw a similar comparison between these knights and those lowly dogs of the Blood Hunters. Times before, they raided our towns in hit and run warfare, in attempt to cripple our empire, and even worst, they used all sorts of schemes to bribe our own man into deflection. Traitors like those were later found of treason and executed by throwing them into the Abyss.
In the later half of the chronicle, Vorador wrote of the new Sarafan Age, how Kain claimed city after city after he defeated the Sarafan Lord. These events were more familiar to me, since Kain have told me of his glorious past before. My original intention was to find out about Nathaniel, and when I thought my search was at last without results, I was rewarded for my persistence. For at the last section of the chronicle, Vorador wrote about his final stand to Kain. When Kain had killed the rest of his children, Vorador flee to his mansion with his last son Nathaniel. Hoping that his last fledging will be strong enough to fend off Kain, Vorador forced his brides to sacrifice themselves to enhance his powers. Vorador himself was badly wounded from a prior battle, and feared that his days were numbered. And with his last entry, he concluded with a final line of hope that Nathaniel will rid the world of Kain's insane ambition and carry on his bloodline.
I smirked at the last page when Vorador placed all his hopes into his son, only to be betrayed in the very end. What a decadent old fool. I wished I could go back in time and see the look on his face when Kain disposed of him. Nathaniel said to me that night before I set out for the Termogent Forest, it takes ambition to rule the world, and it was true. However, all things aside, I do not trust Nathaniel, and after knowing his treachery to Vorador, I distrust him even more. If he ever showed a slight hint of treason, I will report to Kain about his treachery.