War-Blood: Preface

It wasn't as if the War-Bloods didn't exist before there were vampires. They had to, or there couldn't have been any life-stealers to begin with.

Centuries earlier, the Seven Kingdoms vied for dominance in the Fertile Belt for so long that the land itself bore scars. War between them created the desert and steppes to the south, the winding river separating the two northern kingdoms, and the arc of mountains cutting them off from the eastern kingdom. Or so said the myths from before all the lands unified under the Blood Empire.

Which hadn't been very bloody at all; but then, that wasn't where the name came from.

A canyon--crossable only by the ridiculously narrow bridge considered the singular greatest feat of architecture and magic--cutting off the peninsula of the final kingdom was what made it the seat of the Empire. The terms permitted each kingdom to retain its autonomy, but forced them to share the lush central plains veined with protective woodland. Thus, the Empire ended up looking a lot like a wagon wheel, from above.

Amongst the people, though, everything looked basically the same as before the unification. Kingdoms that had once featured their specific Bloods as some of their greatest warriors scrambled to turn their rage to policing and skirmishes on a much smaller scale. But it was the Bloods, themselves, who governed the Empire, even back then when they were looked upon as subhuman. They just did it from the shadows, in those days.

As they must, now, when War-Bloods have for so long been considered synonymous with vampires that anyone having magic is considered one of the life-stealers.

But when this history begins, the Empire was still fairly new, and its diverse Bloods sought a way to unify the Seven Kingdoms more permanently.

While Bloods had been quite common, in those times, War-Bloods were still rare. More accurately, they were still evolving, and had only really been considered separate from the other Bloods for a few decades. The common theme of ordinary Bloods is that they need permission in order to directly affect others. The WarBloods...don't. Not as far as their specialized abilities are concerned. These focuses existed long before the Bloods had been bred to become weapons, but it was only in the last centuries that they were sought specifically. And each kingdom had developed one more fully than any other--if they had the others, at all.

Ghardeil's War-Blood Line produced Power Bloods, whose bursts of physical power made them deal terrifying damage;

Hennilea's produced Strength Bloods, with unnatural strength, such as that needed to heft impossible weapons;

Cardan's produced Endurance Bloods, capable of tirelessly continuing without fading from physical or mental exhaustion;

Myderia's produced Speed Bloods, unable to do much of anything at speeds anywhere near as slow as naturally available;

Tipili's produced Knowledge Bloods, impossibly able to glimpse, glean, learn, retain, filter, and sort endlessly useful information and evidence;

Sion's produced Control Bloods, always calmly in charge of the situation and people around them;

and Xa's produced Manipulation Bloods, whose effect is more insidious, widespread, and brainwashing.

For some reason, Manipulation Bloods are the most feared, even though they're the only War-Blood that tend not to fight. Of course, they hardly have to, when nearly every warrior their charm touches would jump at the chance to do it for them.

The War Bloods were so powerful that humans were burnt out and died before a decade of actively using their powers, which meant most never reached thirty. There were variances--for instance, Speed Bloods tended to burn out sooner, and Power Bloods could last longer by rationing usage of their ability. But all died relatively young, if they used their abilities with any regularity. That was why the Bloods forbade youngest children from Blood Use, and desperately sought a cure for the problem facing those wielding such power.

The powers also required at least a decade of training to use, which meant few were able to effectively use them even by fifteen, but that’s merely a side note. Of import is that there were few enough to begin with, only seven family lines consistently producing War-Bloods, and only one Blood per Line. Until the culmination of their research into strengthening Blood Line traits and increasing Blood longevity .

The Last Emperor combined every War-Blood trait, never burned out or aged past a certain point, and did not suffer the Blood Madness.

If he had only passed these characteristics on to his children...well, an entirely different set of sacrifices would have been required.