History of Vampires (General)

The origin of the vampiric race has never been traced back to the root source. Vampire-like creatures exist in all histories, the earliest accounts found in Babylonian demonology. The Lilu, as they were called, were wandering male spirits that possessed qualities similar to those found in vampires. In Jewish demonology, there was the female demon, named Lilith, who is considered to be the mother of all vampires. She was portrayed as a night demon that had a taste for killing all male children. In the Egyptian legends, there was the Ancient Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet, who suffered from blood lust, and only slacked her thirst for blood with the drinking of blood coloured alcohol. In Roman mythology, through Homer's Odyssey, there were the shades of the Underworld, which the Romans could attract by fresh meat and blood. The Roman's also possessed a mythical creature called a strix. The strix was a nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood, and, from the strix, came the Strigoi morşi, or the Romanian form of the vampire. Strigoi morşi were dead souls that rose from their graves to drink the blood of family, livestock, and neighbours. Though all these vampiric spirits share traits with the vampires of today, the vampires found in early Slavic folklore are those that we are most accustomed to hearing about. These vampires, called vampir from the original German root, drank blood to survive, feared silver, and could be destroyed by decapitation and a wooden stake through the heart. Chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh documented the earliest English legends of vampires in the 12th century.

General vampire history © Wikipedia.org.

History of Vital Vampires

The creation story of our vampires is not fancy or terribly mystical. In fact, it is so simple that it can be summed up in a single sentence.

Vampires evolved alongside humanity.

It is still unknown how, precisely, this separate race came to exist. There are theories among the ancients who know of their true origin that the race came about as an evolutionary precaution, as if Mother Nature knew that humanity needed one true natural predator to keep it in check. Others argue that it is simply a fluke in evolution; a virus that should have ceased existing when its original hosts died out.

Whatever the reason, archaeological truth held securely in the care of the Council shows a record of fanged bipeds terrorizing early humans, painted on cave walls in explicit pictographs.

There is also the undeniable fact of the Father.

The Father is not the first vampire, despite his title. In fact, he is not even one of the first vampires. He is simply the only vampire from prehistoric times to have managed to survive to the modern age. All others preceding him, and the high majority following him for many millennia, including all of his direct fledglings, perished as they found themselves entirely unable to adapt to the new, civilized ages.

Despite the low survival rate of the first generations of vampire themselves, they did manage to exist long enough to continue to pass on the assorted strains of abilities and immortality itself to fledglings who, eventually, learned to adapt and survive despite the constant change of time.

The Father

As already stated, the Father is a vampire of prehistorical origin. At best guess, the Council is able to place him at over 30, 000 years of age. His memories are not whole, and how he has survived for such a daunting span is a mystery. Again, theories are rampant among the ancients, the most popular one being that he slept beneath the earth for a long while, using a gift that only he is known to have to unconsciously draw life from the organisms found in the very ground itself to preserve himself.

So far as abilities and temperament are concerned, the Father is most closely related to the Tarepha, suggesting that he is one of the first members of that particular ability set. This in no way makes him supportive of this coven, however; he has no patience for any one or thing that brutalizes a kill unnecessarily, or slaughters without need.

He is also strongly gifted psychically, and for sheer telepathic power he outmatches all vampires in existence. His technique and ability to control his talent are, however, lacking severely.

The Father could never exist on his own in modern society, and for this reason lives in seclusion in a castle in wild Greenland. Those of the Council who are not abroad reside with him, keeping his existence a closely guarded secret, and protecting the wealth of power flowing through his veins with every fiber of their being so as to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

The Council

The Council is, essentially, a collection of vampires independent of all covens who are over three thousand years in age. Their main duty is to guard the Father, and secondarily they will discreetly intervene in any vampiric activity that they perceive as an imminent and dire threat to the species’ survival. Rarely do they dispense this intervention personally, preferring instead to temporarily align themselves with one or more vampires outside of the group to settle the problem that concerns them. Usually, these vampires are of the Amman coven.

Due to their general distaste toward modern vampires and humanity outside of necessity, 80% of those in the Council live permanently with the Father in Greenland. The rest are scattered world-wide, acting as scouts and informants for the Father.

The Council is, first and foremost, a secret society. Its existence is not known outside of its members, with the exception of those few who they have used to settle concerning situations. The existence of the Father is even less well-known among the vampire population.

History of the Covens

Just as the history of the vampire is unknown, the histories of the five different covens of vampires are left in the shadows. It is known, however, that the first coven (Pronounced both as ku-ven and ko-ven) was formed on the eve of St. Georges Day (April 22), somewhere in Europe. This group, named after their leader, Amund, was said to offer protection against the lynchings that were beginning to come about in the early 1500s. During this time period, witch trials brought about the word coven, which means a gathering of 13 witches. Thirteen became a spiritually important number to the early vampiric race, and thirteen became the number of sects of the first coven, until they all dispersed into separate covens. Through a series of coven wars, thirteen was whittled down to six: the Amund, named for the original leader, the Enniche, named for their "natural placement in the ecological world," the Ishak, named for a blood poison that they supposedly spread that stained skin blue, the Nephilim, named for their religious roots, and their believes that they were the children of angels and mortals, and the Terefah, who took their name from their lack of conformity to the laws of both men and immortals. The last group were considered the Outcasts, or all those who did not want the protection of a coven. Over the next 500 years, the covens evolved in beliefs, roles, and names.

Amman: After the death of Amund, the coven changed the name to the Amman, due to a scandal their leader was involved in that resulted in his murder. The Amman was known as being the original coven, and, with this title, they took on the responsibilities of leading the rest of the vampires in the world. With this grave responsibility, many fledglings joined into the Amman, thinking this gave them police force privileges. These fledglings caused the Amman to be the least respected of all the covens, and, after a great fight between the other four covens and the Original Coven, the Amman was to be no more. A band of millennia plus eternals made a pact with the remaining four covens that no vampires under the age of 1000 years would be permitted to join, and, with large sums of money, the mess was cleaned up, the covens satisfied in their greed, and the Amman standing tall once again. Ever since this event, the Amman coven has only grown more powerful and respectable.

Enashe: The Enniche quickly became the most populous coven. Many fledglings joined with them because this coven offered a security in a near-mortal life that no other coven even tried to offer. They taught all their new recruits to hold mortals as their equals, which led to an accepting and very personable coven. Due to the volume of members, the Enniche lost their name in translations and a series of mispronouncements, which led to today’s name of the Enashe. The human-like habits that the coven possesses have helped keep this coven as the most populous of all the covens, second only to the Independents.

Nephim: The Nephilim were the most devout of all covens, making religion mandatory to all members, specifically, the Christian religion. They embraced the cross and the figure of Jesus, the Bible and stories of God whole-heartedly, and made churches their homes. Traditionally, all Nephilim coven sects had to be located in the catacombs of a church. This religious fervour caused the Nephilim to be a holier-than-thou coven, and, after many skirmishes with the other covens, renounced their mandatory Christian faith and changed the name to the Nephim, which they claim means "Children of the Demonic Angelics". This name has lost its older religious context, though to this day, all Nephim sects are formed under the floors of abandoned churches. They are similar to the Enashe in that they respect mortals, but deviate from them in degree of respect. The Nephim have recently become known to be more amorous towards mortals, using them not just as a source of food, but as a source of pleasure.

Ishak: The most classic of all the vampire covens, the Ishak revelled in the blame that was laid upon their kind. Named after a blood related illness, the Ishak were proud of who they were and what they had become, taking pride in flaunting their power over the mortal race. They do not consider their behaviour evil or menacing, but consider themselves patriotic in their newly acquired heritage. This patriotism came with an ingrown hatred from the Amman, Enashe, and Nephim, as they saw the Ishak as a threat to the secrecy of the vampiric race. It was plotted amongst these three covens to massacre the Ishak, and on All Hollow’s Eve, the covens struck. These covens marched into the main Ishak sec with torches and crosses, attempting to use the oldest of all vampire irradiation methods known to man to defeat this coven: exorcism. This massacre went according to plan, except for one minor detail. The Terefah had never agreed to this massacre, and, with greedy thoughts on their minds, helped the Ishak escape total obliteration. With that done, the Amman, Enashe, and Nephim cursed the Ishak to forever bear the burden of the cross, which is why the typical Ishak is burned and can be killed by the Christian cross.

Tarepha: The Terefah was a historically non-conformist group, which caused repeated acts of savage behaviour on their part against the Amman. While the Amman attempted to prove that they were the dominant vampires in play, the Terefah continually acted as the thorn in their side. These vampires, along with the Ishak, displayed a sense of pride in the unholy creatures that they had become. Unlike the Ishak, the Terefah were not only cruel, but also distasteful and malicious. They enjoyed making a statement, especially one that displeased the Amman. Favourites were disembowelments, rapes, multiple homicides, leaving the corpses in explicit positions, and other acts that left the general public in shock and pandemonium. It was this over-inhuman behaviour that led to a low joining rate to the coven, and this coven continues to be the least populous of all the covens. Over recent years, their distasteful behaviour has lessened, and they have changed their name to the Tarepha in order to mask some of the previously associated hate with their kind.

Covens in Demaitre

All of these covens exist throughout the world, from Jerusalem to Hong Kong to San Francisco. Demaitre, however, became a vampire hotspot. In 1813, just twenty years after Demaitre was recognized as a city, the current Nephim leader, Father Joseph Bacilos, opened up St. Mary’s church. After a while, there seemed to be more vampire than human activity in the small city, as Nephim from all over moved from persecution in other cities to the safe haven Demaitre had become for them. This heavy Nephim population lured Ishak and Tarepha, who were suspicious of such a high level of Nephim activity in the town. With Ishak and Tarepha around, conflicts arose between the original Nephim and the new vampiric populations. This drew the attention of the Amman, and, after a short time, a small-scale fight erupted between the Nephim, Ishak, and Tarepha. This fight was subdued over ten years time by the Amman population and by the martyrdom of Nephim leader Father Bacilos. Left leaderless, many Nephim disbanded from the coven in order to avoid the terrors of the Ishak and the Tarepha. Most switched into the Enashe coven, which was quickly establishing itself in the town, and the rest became Independents. Even after the fighting had stopped, tensions remained high. The Amman quickly begged for a meeting among all leaders, to be held in Demaitre. While the Nephim left an empty seat at this meeting, in honour of their leader of late, all other leaders came to the city and participated actively in the first Conclave. At this meeting, all four covens in attendance brought forth concerns they had about the frequent coven uprisings. After four nights of discussion, coven laws were established, giving the coven leaders an immense amount of power to decide what was and was not acceptable, so long as one rule was included by all: An end to the intercoven fights.

It took thirty odd years, and millions of showcase sacrifices, before a general peace was established between all covens. The leaders began to meet yearly, and took up residence in Demaitre to do such. After this uneasy peace was established, the Conclave meetings became more and more infrequent, until they disappeared all together. The flood of vampiric immigrants to Demaitre slowed drastically and the population has been slowly declining in recent years. However, the leaders of the covens have kept alive the tradition of living in the city of Demaitre, able to remain in close contact.

With the invention of world-wide communication, the coven branches outside of Demaitre are now controlled by Deputy Coven Leaders. These leaders answer primarily to the Master Leaders of Demaitre, but are encouraged to settle trivial matters within their own jurisdiction without requiring constant approval from the masters.

Coven History Written by Coleslaw, with infinite gratitude from Marcus.