Alea Mechant

Alea Mechant is a nobleman and former Count. He is seen throughout the Empire as a heroic figure and almost mythical in stature, as he has not been seen in the public eye in almost fifty years. Alea's claim to fame is his valiant sacrifice in the face of his province's direst need.
  Long ago, the Mechant family had spurned a traveling witch, who was seeking food and shelter. Seeing nothing but a dirty old woman with nothing of value, the Mechants gave her nothing, and her spite for them led her to cast a curse upon their lands.

So as you refuse to feed this pauper, your lands will now hunger. Thy people shall suffer the weight of your apathy, thy lands will wither and bear no fruit.

The lands of the Mechant family were cursed with infertility; no matter what anyone had tried, no crops would grow properly. Their people had to rely on the kindness of the neighboring lands, causing the county to fall into deep poverty. When Alea ascended to the title ten years into this affair, he decided his people could suffer no longer. He prayed to Delain for a solution. The goddess, sympathetic to his cause, could not immediately resolve the curse, but could instead change its target. Alea pleaded to her to redirect the curse to him. Delain did so, and the curse that once starved Alea's land now imbued him with the sinister curse of vampirism. Upon receiving this curse, Alea secluded himself and abdicated his title, swearing to isolate his condition and not let it affect anyone else for as long as he drew breath. He refuses to die, as he fears his death would mean the curse would return to the lands he saved. As such, he slakes his vampiric hunger on criminals, and continues to pray to Delain daily for salvation.