Bad Blood

Chapter 4: Condensed History Lesson

.condensed.history.lesson.

Before I continue, there are some things you need to know about the vampire world. It will make understanding the rest of my tale much easier. I'll warn you that vampire history and politics stretch over several hundred years. Our world is also very complex as we are complex creatures; I'll do my best to paraphrase. So, here we go...

I'll start with our history, as in: How did vampires become a thing? Where did we come from? Well, that's simple; we came from the follies of man and their foolish endeavors of messing with dark magics. Vampires didn't exist until almost one thousand years ago. Shocked? So was I. Here's what happened, I'll try to repeat what Tristin told me. He has an excellent understanding of that time. I mean he should; he was there after all.

It was during The Crusades, just before the Second Crusades to be exact, so we're talking late 1000's, early 1100's here. The Church at this time was conducting experiments in Vatican City with dark magics, and the possibilities for creating the perfect crusader knight. One that wouldn't get exhausted and need to stop to eat or rest. A crusader that would be stronger, faster, and more inclined to use deadly force on those heathens refuse the Lord. Dark times, The Crusades, or at least I'm told, but pick up a history book for yourself if you want to read about one of the bloodiest moments in human history in the name of religion. I'm getting sidetracked, but seriously do it, educate yourself. Anyway, continuing on...

So while the Vatican is messing with the dark arts, in a small village in what today would be France, there was a young man with Tuberculosis. Tristin Cabelle was dying at 25, his family was desperate and looked to The Church. Luckily, The Church had a "miracle cure" for any ailment at the time. When Tristin was well enough to travel, his family sent him to his death. Now, I don't know much about the details of what happened there before he became what he is, he won't talk about it. What he did tell me was that the Vatican found out how to tie a demon to a human body and soul, making them one whole entity. What they got was a new type of earthly demon that was exactly what they wanted; a creature that was unyielding, agile, and endurant. Vampires.

One side effect, though, one they didn't count on; the and intense need to feed off of human blood. This made them too unpredictable and unusable for the cause. The vampires, including Tristin, were kept under the city in secret. Until about 1125, when Tristin lead the famous vampire rebellion and escaped Vatican City. He's proud of that. Tristin was there since day one basically, he helped establish order and government. I'm sure he's made countless mistakes and had the power to hide it. There is so much more to our history but it's important to know the basics, Tristin brings it up a lot, including the rules of the government. Speaking of which let's get into some politics...

The vampire world is an Aristocratic Oligarchy. That means we are governed by a hand full of more elite, older, and powerful vampires. Yes, those vampires also have more cash than you could shake a stick at. That's one of the ways we stay in power and stay secret. These elite vampires rule over different territories around the world. I believe there are about 40 of these territories, roughly split up according to time zones. The territories each have their set of lifestyles, and laws according to the vampires that founded them. There are three major rules that all vampires follow, however.

       -No unnecessary hunting or killing of humans. If we go on too many sprees, they will get suspicious and start another rash of vampire hunts. According to Tristin, it was a nightmare trying to convince the humans of the 1600's and 1700's that vampires didn't exist.

       -We should not arbitrarily create new vampires. It is also heavily suggested that those who are in the top five generations from the Original Bloodline are the only ones who can sire. (I'll get into Bloodlines and generations in a minute, so just remember those terms for now.) This prevents overpopulation and disease. Also, means that A.) My sire broke the law, and B.) Since I was still "Prole," (a slang term for vampire's who haven't outlived a human life span; Italian for "offspring") I could not sire anyone for a few decades. (There are so many small rules for siring, this is just the main one)