Nicolai Morvant

Nicolai Morvant was, in ancient times past, a human member of The Photismencium. In 1614 when the organization began falling apart, many among the leadership began to fear a violent uprising and fled. This led directly to the founding of The Pious Union of the Awakened, The Verum Imperium, and the successor organization, The Gnosis Protectorate. Some joined these movements, while others struck out on their own. Nicolai Morvant was one of these, bringing his wife, Ana, with him on his travels.   Heading far to the south of the Cradle, Morvant came across not only the expected scattered Beastfolk settlements, but also remnants of an ancient war among the Dragons. The first of this he came across was the massive dragon skull at the settlement that would later come to be known as Drakerest. Morvant was intrigued by this huge skull, desiring to study it. He was forbidden from doing so by the Beastfolk druids who settled near the great skull, and an altercation arose that led to Morvant killing all of them, to Ana's horror. An inscription on the Standing Stones at Drakerest led Morvant to crave more knowledge of the power that could kill such mighty creatures.   His travels brought him to the frozen wastes of the far south, where he found yet more evidence of the great War of the Dragons. His hunger for knowledge and power consumed him. From high above in the moon of Phanos, Chernobog the Omnimortuus, biding his time and plotting his schemes, saw in Morvant an agent who could pass freely among the new Awakened folk of Yorth. Though Morvant had proven himself a powerful mage, Chernobog knew he would require yet more followers if, as he planned, he were to some day build the Bridge of Bones from Phanos to Yorth to reclaim the planet he viewed as rightfully his own, and to bring to it a complete unlife in his image.   Chernobog contacted Morvant, eventually revealing himself as the bringer of death to so many of dragonkind, and offered Morvant eternal unlife for his services. A dark, secret ritual at the end of the Brumal Tundra, where now is located the Osseous Citadel itself, the Chernobog granted this gift, Morvant becoming the first vampire. Morvant had recently fathered a child with Ana in the wastes, and she begged him to bring her and her child, Isabel, to some place of comfort. By that time explorers from the beginnings of The Verum Imperium had begun to settle further south. In such a settlement, Morvant established himself as something of a minor noble, having a vast estate built for himself, and making connections with the Imperium. After several years, Morvant's charms, both natural and a part of Chernobog's gift, caused his gaze to wander to other women, and his wife grew suspicious of this and his increasingly nocturnal lifestyle.   Eventually, Morvant was caught by Ana in the act of feeding on one of his victims, when she followed him suspicious of him having an affair. She had expressed her suspicions to Morvant several times previously, suggesting that her ageing body and wrinkled face no longer appealed to him, who strangely maintained his relative youth. Upon seeing him feeding, Ana was at first mortified; but Nicolai was able to calm her by telling her, as Chernobog had recently told him, that he could pass on his gift to others through ritual mutual feeding. Ana reluctantly accepted this gift, on the condition that they should keep their secret hidden from their daughter, Isabel, and when she was old enough, offer her the same gift so that their family might stay together forever.   On the last night of the ritual mutual feeding, Isabel, who had equally grown suspicious, saw her father feeding on her mother in ecstasy. In a rage, Isabel, now becoming a young woman herself, attacked her father. Ashamed, he could not dare to defend himself from her blows, suffering her violence. Ana, now aroused from her turning, attempted to calm Isabel, pulling Isabel from the whimpering and beaten Nicolai, leading her to her room to explain what had happened. Unable to control her newfound thirst, Ana began to feed on Isabel as they embraced, draining her dry. A defeated Nicolai entered the room to console them both, only to be horrified to see the newly turned Ana drinking the last drops of blood from Isabel's veins. In a fit of rage, he attacked Ana, unable to hold back his strength, tearing her body to pieces.   Morvant screamed his agony at Chernobog for burdening him with such a curse, laying the blame at his feet. For centuries, Chernobog has made excellent use of the tortured mind of his servant Nicolai Morvant, promising to bring back his beloved wife and daughter to life at Morvant's side forever in the undead paradise that Chernobog would bring to Yorth should Morvant succeed in his mission: to build the Bridge of Bones, a massive arcane gateway from Phanos to Yorth capable of transporting all of Chernobog's undead legions that he has been accumulating for all these thousands of years.   The time draws ever nearer, as the Great War between The Verum Imperium and The Kingdom of Zelaya generates corpses beyond measure for Chernobog's Bone Hunters to harvest, threatening to spill over into Ordland, The Pious Union of the Awakened and beyond, bringing untold death to the continent, swelling Chernobog's armies for his inevitable conquest of Yorth.