The City Of Vampires

The City of Vampires
compiled by Thanis Ianakussis

Some four and a half thousand years ago, civilisation dawned on the Warhammer World. Where primitive tribes once squabbled amongst themselves, towns and cities were built. Harsh lands were tamed, foes were defeated, and humanity prospered, under the initial guidance and protection of their elven and dwarfen allies. South of the Old World, in the land nestled between Araby and the Badlands, was raised a rich kingdom, named Nehekhara. Priest-kings, exercising both religious and political rule over their subjects, ruled the realm from the capital city of Khemri, and upon their death, were mummified and entombed in mighty pyramids, wonders of the World's architecture to this day.

A particularly influential and important priest-king, who the ancient texts name Nagash, is said to have learned the secrets of dark magic from a captive dark elf sorceress, the sole survivor of an ill-fated raid on Khemri by her kin. He then started a thorough study of this, the vilest of magic lores, to achieve his greatest ambition: immortality, and the power over life and death. Nagash had a powerful intellect and implacable willpower and determination, and after long years of research and experiment, he created a new form of sorcery, calling upon the Winds of Shyish (or Amethyst magic energy), a sorcery which defied the physical laws of death. Eventually, Nagash was able to reanimate corpses, and return them to life. This new art, Nagash named Necromancy.

His new-found knowledge gave him the key to ultimate power, and he soon grew to be Nehekhara's sole ruler, the people of the kingdom turning to his side out of sheer terror, while any potential rivals died victims to the dark magics Nagash had learned to command. However, necromancy was not a perfected art. While Nagash had succeeded in prolonging his own life, his magics could only keep the spirit alive, and not the body, and his flesh slowly succumbed to the vagaries of Time. At first he tried to preserve his body with the secret oils and balms the priests used for mummification of those most important; after two centuries, however, Nagash could not hide the decay of his body, and eventually found himself driven insane by the supernatural changes affecting him.

Nagash's rule became weaker, and the people rebelled. Priest-kings, elected in neighbouring cities, oversaw a bitter war against Nagash and his apprentices. The father of necromancy was defeated, and fled towards the World's Edge Mountains with a few remaining acolytes. many are the dread tales told of Nagash the Black, and his subsequent wars of vengeance and his Rituals of Summoning, and the havoc he wreaked in revenge on Nehekhara and man-kind; these however, are held in other tomes.

In nine huge tomes of parchment Nagash recorded all his knowledge and findings, books made of human skin and written in blood. These were not destroyed as the priest-kings wished. Some were lost, and one was taken in secret to the city of Lahmia, the second most powerful city in Nehekhara. There, the ruling Queen found herself seduced by the promise of immortality which she found in the grimoires, and the quest of eternal life began anew. The queen learned of the dark spells of animating the dead, of restoring their life-force through the means of dark magic, and she too, became a powerful necromancer. She studied hard, and succeeded where Nagash had failed. An immortal body could be created with the Elixir of Life. It is said that the secret of this enchanted brew was learned after a pact had been struck with a dark force; Chaotic, and evil, and whose name is best left unspoken, as it is blasphemous.

After the drinking the potion, the queen's heart stopped its beat. The mortal shell which housed the spirit of the now immortal woman could remain deceptively young and supple if it were fuelled with the blood of the living. The first Vampire had been created, the name taken from a mythical Khemrian beast which drained bodies of blood to feed. The queen chose eleven individuals from amongst her servants whom she considered worthy, and to each she gave a sup of the elixir. They were the first of their kind, and were to be known as Master, or Elder, Vampires, and the queen as the Mother of Vampires. Once again, unliving Priest-kings and Queens ruled over Nehekhara. Soon, select mortal men and women were made lesser vampires, given tainted Master blood to drink; an act which would later become known as the Blood Kiss, which in turned was passed from the new vampires to other willing (and sometimes unwilling) mortals, and thus the undead numbers swelled. The Master Vampires were blessed with extraordinary strength and resilience, and were unnaturally quick and skilled at the art of necromancy, doubtlessly side-effects of the Elixir, and traits which varied from vampire to vampire. With each new generation however, the newbloods' tainted blood became weaker, and less pure, and the vampires created were far less powerful than their ancestors.

The vampires ruled over Lahmia for centuries, and filled their courts with an immortal aristocracy, who took sport and pleasure in preying on the unfortunate citizens of the city. Eventually, just as with Nagash, the Nehekharans rose up against their rulers, and, this time with allies from neighbouring Araby and the Hellene city-states. The Lahmian dynasty was defeated, after a long struggle, and its city razed to the ground.

Of the Master Vampires, only seven survived the sacking of Lahmia; it is written that Jhorran, the Queen's favourite, only succumbed after slaying a hundred horsemen, the wooden shaft of a lance driven through his unbeating heart; Lady Keena perished when the eastern wing of Neferata's Palace collapsed, even vampiric strength and resilience failing to save her. The survivors fled north with their retinues, and seperated on reaching the borders of the Old World. One, Neelin (or Nayleen as some scripts name him) went east, perhaps to Cathay or Inja, and Hajeet disappeared into the Wastelands. Four, among them Queen Neferata, infiltrated the human settlements of the Old World, and the tragic story of Ushoran of Strigos is recorded elsewhere. Each of these vampires' individuals traits is reflected in the subsequent bloodlines they formed, and from which all Warhammer vampires are descended.

Thus came to be the Warhammer World vampires.

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