Excerpt from a Treatise on Vampyres by Brother Heward w/ handwritten notes added by Master of Historical Divination Salvatore Devalance, unpublished, original work dated ~900s ME

  In vampyre study, too often history becomes inextricably enmeshed in folklore. This chapter presents all the known history of the undead- while also relating and discussing the validity of each source, drawing cross references when different sources confer or contradict.

  (Very forward thinking, Fra. My thanks.)

  The earliest recorded instance of a vampyre was in a battle with Aaja the huntress during the Age of Heroes. (Bronze dark age, modern divinations point to the legendary figure of Aaja living some time during the early collapse of the elven city states. Mixed accounts of her race and parentage have led some to suggest the semi-mythical figure may be a conglomeration of many women- some Aaja stories appear to take place centuries later than others, post city-state collapse.)

  This encounter is related in solar and lunar scriptures, and referenced in the holy books of many other gods, thus we may know with certainty that it is factually true. (Ha!) However, many of the common elaborations to the story have been added by later sources. The Helian account, for instance, only says that Aaja went to the human tribes of the south seas, (Whitegate and southern Velois.) who were haunted by a striga, which Aaja pulled into the daylight and destroyed.

  The most complete account comes from the lunar scriptures, where it is recounted in the Book of the Maiden, the Book of the Wanderer, and briefly mentioned in the Book of the Mother and Book of the Widow. (Wanderer is the traditional name, the oldest discovered copy of the original elven source of this story can actually be more literally translated as ‘Holy Verses of Luna the Warrior.’)

  Aaja was guided to the south on her travels by Luna, as a response to the prayers of Her followers, who pleaded with the goddess to alleviate their plight. The exact forms of this prayer are recorded in the Thesmian Book of Rituals. (Reproduced here in its entirety by the Fra, this should probably be omitted from a modern edition. Anyone can easily pull their Old Form Bible from the shelf and look it up for themselves, if they wish.)

  When Aaja arrived, the elders of the tribes told her of the striga who had been haunting them. Aaja prayed to Luna for guidance. (“In the White Wood before battle, Aaja prayed to Luna the Mother for wisdom.” That verse is the only mention of Aaja in the entire Book of the Mother. It’s also seemingly contradicted by other retellings, in that the moon is a waxing maiden at the time of this story according to all other scriptural accounts. The Fra infers Aaja’s later knowledge about vampyres is divinely inspired here. Other sources have claimed it was Aaja’s biological mother who sent Aaja south to destroy the striga and told her how it was to be done.)

  Luna then spoke to Aaja, explaining that the striga was a blasphemous creature, and would be obliterated by Her Husband’s gaze. However, the monster knew this, and hid from His sight by day. Yet, when it would leave its lair to hunt by night, it was seen by Luna who knew where it was hidden.

  The next day, Luna the Wanderer showed Herself in the sky. Aaja followed Luna, and was led deep into the Whitewoods. There she met the creature’s servant in battle, a hound of hell. (Probably an animal being ridden by a bound fae or daemon.) The battle was fierce, and the sword-brother who had accompanied her was injured.

  Still, with Luna’s protection, Aaja slew the hellhound. We are told she banished its spirit and put its ashes to the eight winds. Finally, she dug up the sleeping vampyre and exposed it to sunlight.

  That evening, as the remains smoldered, Aaja collected the vampyre’s ashes in a sealed jar, to trap any remaining malevolence. (The good Fra provides us a complete recipe for sanctifying such a ritual jar. The last portion comes verbatim from the Book of the Widow, and this jar is only mentioned in that solitary account. Unclear what purpose this jar could have, all empirical evidence suggests incineration is enough to utterly destroy any vampyre’s essential essence.)

  Later stories have expanded upon many of the details, but most of them contradict scriptural sources on one or more points, thus they must be treated as factually suspect. (Must they? Ah, but here I am debating with a man who died hundreds of years ago.)

  The next reliable chronicle to mention a vampyre does not appear until the Imperial Era. The wealth of documents from the time gives us many accounts of vampyres and vampyric activity.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The universal recourse at the time was to call upon the local chapter for the Imperial Order of Dragon-Slayers. This was not part of the slayers' original charter, but they were the best trained hunters in the empire holding the finest arms and armor. All throughout this time of the original Catholic Imperium, it was common for any vampyre sighting to be reported to them. The slayers' hunt thus extended to include vampyres, loup garou, and other monstrosities which threatened the growing empire.

  (The Fra’s interpretation is broadly correct. However, he makes the transition sound more immediate than it was. Written records always prioritize the accounts of the upper classes, who also had the political pull to demand action of the Imperial Dragon-Slayers. Modern historical divination suggests common people relied on informal mobs and local cunning women to combat vampyres until late in the Imperial Era- when exterminating all undead became a public health concern to the emperor.)

  We know that many vampyres were already ancient at this time, and some were nearly as powerful as dragons themselves. It is unclear if one or more of these creatures was the ‘original’ vampyre or vampyres. While many accounts of the first vampyre claim a basis in scripture, all are actually folklore without previous record, which seem to begin in the mid to late Imperial Era.

  (Impressive work by the Fra. He’s completely correct, the only point to add is that modern occultism has essentially discarded the ‘original vampyre’ hypothesis, in light of studies showing the potential for naturally occurring embodied undead to slowly regain cognitive functions over centuries. Cave paintings discovered after the Fra’s time seem to depict confrontations between early hominines and undead, both ethereal and embodied, originating from pre-history.)

  The most common story of the vampyre’s origin is some variation of the Tale of the Tower of Flies, also called the Tower at Tu-Rak. The story does, of course, appear in the scriptures, but contains no actual mention of vampyres.

  The elven mage-lords of Tu-Rak wished to build a tower which reached the celestial palace itself. When no such structure could be completed, they filled the interior of their castle with the slaughtered offal of their worker slaves. They believed that if they sealed the tower with the trapped souls of ten thousand humans, they could harness that power to open a portal into heaven.

  The account appears in the holy books of many gods, but most only go so far as to say that the mage-lords were cast down and destroyed by the gods for their hubris. Our own Goddesses’ Book of Proverbs goes the furthest in telling us that the roof of the tower collapsed under them during their final ritual. They then drowned in the rotting slurry of their decomposing victims.

  Many of the folkloric tales claim that it was the curse of the gods which transformed one or more of the mage-lords into the first vampyres, but this interpretation is clearly contradicted by scriptures, which state that none of its architects survived the tower they constructed. We do know that the vampyres were hunted nearly to extinction during the Imperial Era, so it is likely that whomever the eldest vampyres were, they were destroyed at that time.

  (The Fra’s point is well-made. Modern divination suggest that vampiric infiltration of the Imperial aristocracy has made this early vampiric ‘extinction’ seem more complete than it really was, but a serious culling of the eldest does seem to have occurred.)

  The oldest known vampyre to survive the Imperial Era was the infamous Black Palatine. He was a close servant of the emperor before his death, and by the collapse of the original Imperium he was the most powerful force among the remaining vampyres, who took shelter in the far north where the nights were long, and they were beyond Imperial borders.

  (Interesting! We’ll need to put a firmer date on exactly when this was written. Heward himself was recorded as present in person by the chronicles when the Marquis de Fer discovered an even older vampyre, this piece must pre-date that discovery. I suspect it must have been written either just before, or just after, the death of the Dame de Loix.)

  As the slayer academies fell into decay while the Imperium declined, the vampyre population began to grow again. The situation eventually became central to the Pontifex of the Veiled One’s choice to form a church-militant and combat them. A general crusade was called on all undead everywhere. Secular authorities were quick to support the effort, and soon the successor kingdoms freed themselves from the vampyric blight.

  Still, vampyres rule openly many places in the far north to this day. The battle against them is now waged primarily by templars and secular crusaders, however the Order of Slayers does remain active out of their final academy. (!)

  I myself may personally attest, that it was the slayer and cunning woman Dame Veronique de Loix who finally destroyed the Black Palatine. In the midst of his attempt to seize the crown of Teutonia. (!!!)

  This war has ever been a vital one to all living creatures, fought only by a small coalition of the willing. And, I suspect, it always shall be.

  (Fascinating, we must find the rest of this book the Fra has written. Popular history readers love the Dame de Loix story, my book about her was the only one that came close to sniffing the bestsellers list. My publisher is likely to kiss me if I bring him a proposal for a sequel.

  Get back in contact with that Alex fellow. If this tract proves to be authentic, then I would be very interested in seeing what else is in this archive of his. When he’s finished kissing me, I’ll ask my publisher for an aeroplane ticket to Umbria, and meet this local historian personally.)

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