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Vampyric Wars
The Vampyric Wars began in the year 803. The beginnings of the war lie shrouded in mystery, but it is generally agreed that the instigator was the mighty Vampyre Lord, Vhadxi, wielder of Fell Blade. The immortal vampyre had amassed an army tens of thousands strong, burning and pillaging the lands of the twelve realms. Coming at a time of internal strife in many of the realms, entire nations fell before their organized onslaught. With every fallen nation, the ranks of the Vampyres swelled.
A council consisting of delegates from Graha, Mandleclang, and Blee convened to attempt to unite to meet the Vampyric threat, but unbeknownst to the nations, the Vampyre agent Radamarst infiltrated their conference. Radamarst spread discontent and distrust amongst the delegates, ensuring the twelve realms eventual division and conquest.
The first slowing of the vampyric onslaught was the betrayal by Vhadxi's queen, Adhnaten. Not content to play second fiddle in Vhadxi's vast empire, she stabbed him during a moment of intimacy and claimed the throne as her own. The ensuing conflict between loyalists to Vhadxi or Adhnaten stalled the growth of the empire. Vhadxi was not really dead, however, and soon rose from his dreadcoffin and deposed his treacherous queen. No one is sure what happened to her, but it is said that her tortured screams and sensuous moans could be heard from the dungeon in Vhadxi's citadel of Blackest Minathok.
Eventually the forces of the nation of Kelembad, lead by Alnwein and Vulthar, launched a last-ditch assault on the vampyric forces known as the Last Battle of the Vampyric Wars. The army of Kelembad took advantage of the rare stellar alignment of the Moon with the constellation O'nv'ience'C, allowing them to battle the Vampyric forces under no less than eight solid months of an unwaning full moon (Note: For those readers who have been negligent in their readings, Vampyres are most vulnerable under the light of the full moon, as was explained in Chapter 7c of Book 6 of The Elemenstor Cycle). This epicest of epic struggles (for its time) culminated in a pitched battle at the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow. The leaders of Kelembad found that Vhadxi's unlife was too strong, and he could not be killed. There was hastily constructed, after the end of the war, the massive CryptoCrypt to contain him. This was yet one more horror to be hidden deep in the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow, and it was long indeed before Vhadxi rose again.
This calamity destroyed the last remaining nations of the twelve realms, but finally brought the vampyric threat to an end.
It is said to this day that, in the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow, a kind-hearted child can hear the howls of the Footstool Brigade as they throw themselves off Lemmings' Bluff to avoid surrendering their talents to the dark mahogany stains of the mighty Vampyre Lord, Vhadxi.
The fall of the twelve realms of Antior is largely chronicled in The Twilight Vampyres, a book in the The ElemenstorLance Series. The first chapter of the book was printed in ELotH:TES Magazine under the title of The Vampyric Wars Begin three months before the full novel was published. It is believed that the entire rest of the novel was written in that three months. The final days of the war are recorded in Garth Ennis Presents: The Vampyric Wars and The Lost Tales of Shattered Kelembad.
Excerpt from The Vampyric Wars Begin
It was year 790, early evening, in a large torch lit circular chamber known as the
High Vault, the meeting place of
The Kings Council.
Two kings stood and spoke in hushed tones, awaiting the arrival of the others.
"You are not the man your father was, Ronard," a tired and somehow stretched looking Draxle said to the other king. He continued in a hushed tone, "These are dark times and the storm clouds of war gather on the horizon. There are those within my court who wish to steal my throne from me and other enemies are drawing near. I fear that I shall not much longer sit on the throne of The Vampyre Kingdom."
"Don't speak of such things, old one. The alliances that stand between our nations have put an end to war as it once was. Not for nigh on a thousand years has there been mighty battles which have raged across the face of The Greater Island. The alliances will hold."
Important Vampyres of the Vampyric Wars include:
- Lord Vhadxi, leader of the Vampyres
- Adhnaten, former consort of Lord Vhadxi
- Radamarst, Vampyre spy
- Mo-pi, Vampyre general and one-time possessor of the Necrowombicon
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