The Strain: Another Season
Episode 9
Creatures of the Twilight
Chapter Two
Northern Russia - seventeenth century BC
The first Ancient, Primus' Sire, becomes feared throughout the frozen land as Erlik, the principal evil spirit in the Siberian pantheon. Erlik was said to have been human once and even to have helped in the creation of the earth but when he rebelled against Ulgen, the creator god, he was punished by him and cursed to be forever the god of the Dead. Erlik was believed to control a number of lesser evil spirits who brought him the souls of sinners.
The first Ancient revelled in this inverted worship and adopted the name and the mantle of Erlik with diabolical pride.
Eastern Europe - 1506 BC
The second Ancient arises from remains buried in modern day Ukraine in a place that was later named because of the characteristic blight that the cadaver inflicts on the land. This Ancient styles himself "Wormwood" - the common name of the scrubby Artemisia absinthium plants that grow on the dry rocky slopes of the mountains where he first finds sanctuary from the daylight in a cave.
China - 1302 BC
Another eclipse prompts the blood from the third part of the buried cadaver to seek a host. Its origin site has also turned black from despoilment and becomes known as Hēitŭ or black earth. This third Ancient is also deified - as Yama, a wrathful god from East Asian mythology believed to have judged the dead.
The second Born, Secunda, is inadvertently created by Yama of China very soon after he arises. Secunda's mother, like Primus', is infected very late in pregnancy and during her turning process she leaves the infant at the bottom of a dry well.
Peasant village in Bronze Age China
The King's vassals who rule over these farmers are a wealthy middle-aged couple, selected from minor nobility for the task. Their contentment is complete, apart from an aching vacuum caused by childlessness. They are better landlords than most, judging disputes fairly and turning the occasional blind eye when hungry peasants keep more food than their allowance. They have even been known to provide gifts of food, blankets and fuel if a family has a sick child.
Knowing that their overlords are humane, one farmer calls them for help when pitiful cries are heard from an old well. The peasant family are too poor to raise another child but hope that their master will help.
The nobleman organises the rescue and melts when he sees the bald baby girl. She has alabaster skin with almond-shaped Asian eyes as blue as Quinlan's. She is very strong and healthy despite her lengthy abandonment but squirms and bawls lustily in the bright light of day.
The lord wraps her in his cloak, making the screams recede. Then, to everyone's horror, her tiny stinger thrusts out and fastens on to his wrist.
She is only small and, since halfbreeds can breathe, she draws from the vein rather than the artery. The panicked farmer applies pressure to the tiny wounds and the flow is swiftly staunched. The overlord's paternal affection is undiminished by this aberrant behaviour. Rather it seems to amplify his nurturing instinct much as breastfeeding a human baby does for a new mother. He pays the farmer handsomely to stay silent and takes the baby girl home.
His wife's reaction is immediate and even stronger than his. The lord and lady pass Secunda off as their child and they give her the name Lĭpĭn, or Gift.
Secunda's childhood is very much like that of a female Clarke Kent but silver is her kryptonite. From the first, she has a dislike of strong sunlight and a fear of crossing running water although this manifests as an extreme phobia rather than the seizures a pureblood strigoi experiences. Her adoptive parents raise her to be good and moral and upright. As soon as she is old enough to understand they tell her everything they know about her origins. Unlike Primus, she goes unnoticed by her sire because, desiring only to do good, she is no threat to him. She becomes a kind of minor Supergirl.
Further eclipses trigger the creation of three more Ancient ones: in Kush (modern day Sudan), in the mountains of Kashmir and then finally (or so they thought) in a part of the Babylonian empire situated somewhere in modern day Iran. These Ancients assume the respective names: Kush, Ravana of India and Babylon.
For the first few millennia of the Kashmiri ancient's existence, there was no state of Pakistan and Kashmir was only a barren and insignificant portion of the subcontinent that came to be known as India. So, while Kush and Babylon retain the identities of their natal sites, the fifth Ancient becomes associated with the character Ravana from the Hindu epic Ramayana.
The poem's story appeals to him and he relates to the Ravana persona in particular. Portrayed as a powerful rakshasa (demon king or man-eater), Ravana was known for disturbing the penances of rishis (saints or sages). Punished severely for thousands of years by the creator god, Brahma, the creature Ravana was finally offered a boon. Denied the immortality he asked for, Ravana begged absolute invulnerability from gods, beasts and other rakshasas. Contemptuous of mortal men, he did not ask for protection from these. He was granted his requests along with great strength.
Yes, unimaginable power and virtual invulnerability - Ravana it shall be.
In 1357, Babylon and Ravana of India are the only Ancients with no Born.
The Master is the only one with two.
Kaffa - 1357
Hostia Sexta is listening with rapt attention but when she hears this nugget she exclaims, 'Is it me, Quintus? Am I the Master's other Born? Am I your sister?'
She seems oddly disturbed by this notion and relieved when Quinlan finally stops examining her face and shakes his head.
'No, child. You are no more my sister than you are my daughter. Most of the Born were created soon after their Sire's naissance, when the Ancient was still inexperienced and careless. Tertia was the same.'
Northeastern America – sixth century BC
In the middle of the first millennium BC, a total eclipse appears over the Atlantic and tracks Northwest over modern day New England and the Great Lakes.
The final Ancient, the youngest and thirstiest - the Master, takes the form of an Onondaga brave. The third Born, Tertia, is the daughter of an Oneida woman kidnapped as a baby to replace an Onondaga woman slain in battle and raised as one of the Onondaga.
This time the mother's pregnancy is less advanced when the newly risen Master raids the sleeping village for food. The entire tribe, including the expectant mother, follow The Master as his first minions.
When the baby is born, her turned mother raises her as Quintus' mother did. The Master watches Tertia and studies her – wondering if she can be a host/vessel for crossing the water back to the other Ancients. He realises she can't be controlled and that his control over her mother is weak – like Quintus' mother - but his arrogance doesn't allow him to register this as a potential threat.
The Master tests Tertia with streams. She hates it as much as Secunda, so she resists. He pushes and pushes, desperate to reunite with the other Ancients, until Tertia freaks out and attacks him. He has to kill her.
Kaffa – 1357
'But how do you know all this?' Hostia Sexta asks into another pause. 'Especially, Tertia's story. It happened so far away - no one alive could have told the tale.'
Quinlan gives her a tiny smile and, stepping back, he gestures at the work on his desk introducing it simply as, 'Filii de opacare, The Sons of Twilight.' She goes to examine it, glancing up at Quinlan as she passes in front of him.
Fragments of papyrus have been pieced together and he is transcribing the text into a leather-bound book. She looks back at him, puzzled and slightly disappointed. 'It's all in Latin, Quintus. Why have you never taught me that?'
'It is the language of religious cant and intransigence, Sexta. You do not need it.'
'It's the language of scholars and the learned,' she argues. Then in a more conciliatory tone she adds, 'It's your language. I would like to know it.'
Quinlan looks at her for a moment and then changes the subject, saying, 'Don't you want to hear about Quarta?'
Meroë, Nubia (modern day Sudan) – 310 BC
The Ancient known as Kush is already nearly a thousand years old when Quarta is Born.
The kingdom of Kush is now known as Nubia and the capital city, Meroë, lies at the confluence of two rivers with desert stretching away for many leagues in all other directions.
One night, deep in the shadows beneath the city walls, a prostitute touts for business whilst trying to avoid the attention of patrolling guards. One of Kush's spawn skitters out of the desert and over the wall. Fortunately the girl hears the hungry nickering of the strigoi and turns in time to dodge its attack. This strigoi is immature and desperate enough that the girl can evade it and sprint out of her alley, screaming for help.
A gallant stranger comes to her aid, engaging the monster in combat and eventually slicing the top of its head off. Unfortunately, the strigoi managed to nick the hero before its demise and the man is already infected when the rescued damsel shows her gratitude up against a wall and in a variety of other locales. Finally, the rescuer's infection is so far advanced that, just like Gabriel Bolivar, he is no longer able to maintain an erection. Unlike Bolivar with his groupies, he has not yet reached the stage of experimenting with blood-drinking. He wanders off - one lust sated and another yet to take hold. He leaves his virus-laden seed within the prostitute totally unaware of what has been conceived.
The virus present in the semen combines with the newly-formed zygote's DNA from the very moment of fertilisation and something entirely new is created.
Primus is a troubled, dissipated young man; Secunda is a heroic champion; Tertia is dead. But Quarta will be the root of many problems - for all the Ancients, not just for her Sire.
