Dare you reach a hand into the darkness, to pull another into the light?

Since time immemorial...there has been war.

There has always been Humans, and Vampires. The children of the day and night who have forever battled for supremacy over their home world. When the Vampire menace appeared is not fully known, a fact lost as a victim of over three millennia of warfare, but what is known, is that they came from the mountains. From caves so dark as to be impenetrable to sighted creatures, Man had always known to fear the Dark Dwellers of the Mountains...but they never believed such an ancient evil lived beside them in their world.

Why the Vampires moved from their caverns in the bowls of the Earth will never be fully known, but when they breached the surface under the cover of night...death followed them.

Whole cities were destroyed. People ripped to tattered shards of bleeding flesh as the Vampires feasted, revelling in the slaughter through which they found sustenance. The only stalwart defence against them, was the Sun. But this alone was not enough. Early Man used fire to defend themselves...this was not enough. The Vampires are faster than Man, stronger with infinitely better senses and absolutely no remorse. Humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction; their only salvation was the invention of the blade. Of bronze and iron and steel.

These new weapons gave Man a brief advantage over the Vampire...but still, it was not enough. Only the invention of black powder gave Humanity enough power to reclaim their lands that had long rested in the claws of the Vampire menace. For a time, Humanity was winning. But Vampires are unprecedented in the art of adaptation. They soon learned to move faster to avoid the aiming sights of a musket, the learned to kill the Men with guns first, they learned...we did not.

In humanity's darkest hour, when they only had the Church and God to turn too...the Church revealed their ultimate weapon against the Vampire.

Clerics.

Warrior Priests ordained by God with gifts honed over decades of ceaseless training enabling them to kill Vampires. Clerics were chosen from birth and raised by the Church to be nothing more than Holy Angels of Death. They, and they alone, turned the tide of the war in Humanity's favour. Blessed with sacred blades and unnatural martial prowess the Clerics formed an army and over many decades pushed the Vampire's back into their mountain hives. Reclaiming the world back for Humanity...so it has been for many centuries.

The strength of the Clerics, once numbering in their thousands, has now been bled to only a few dozen. Their powers not as necessary as they once were. With the war ended Man entered a golden age, building great marble cities and coastal strongholds all controlled by the Holy power of the Church. And although Vampires are rarely seen beyond the twilit passes of their mountains...they still exist. And the Clerics maintain a constant watch over the cities of Man, their coming both a blessing and a curse wherever they tread. For a an Angel of Death to walk amongst the adverage kin of the cities or villages, means a Vampire's fangs will never be far from biting distance. 

Written in the Holy Scriptures of History, atributed to Holy Scribe Bartholomew, circa 1543

To go against the Church is to go against God.

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Author guidance for This exercise

*Closed Collab between Lilley and rhetoric*

In a world where Man and Vampire have long been at war the Clerics are Humanity's only truly great weapon against the Vampire. But when the Vampires are fleeing from their mountain strongholds one Cleric must turn his back on the society that raised him...and side with his ancient enemy in order to avoid a full scale war.

But the new enemy they find themselves fighting against, is like nothing either species has seen before...

Name: Cleric Aquila

Age: 25

Sect: High Lord Cleric of the Church

Personality: Highly dedicated to the Church, a loyal friend, mighty warrior and caring teacher Aquilam has all the advantages of youth and age combined in one body. Wise beyond his years due to the teaching of his deceased Master Aquila has been High Lord Cleric for four years and under his rule the Cleric's have regained some of the status they once held. Sombre and quiet when alone he is haunted by the horrors of the war he's been forced to fight in since birth. But knows the light of the Church is always behind him and he is God's ordained warrior against the Vampire Menace.

Appearance: Six foot four inches tall, spiked blonde hair beneath a cowl of cream and gold fabric, dark haunted brown eyes, wide face with a strong jaw, clean shaven, blade like nose, with the golden cross of the Cleric's tattooed across his brow and bridge of his nose, broad and well muscled from years of training, chest and arms laced with scars from Vampiric claws and the blades of their Familiars.

Background: The sole survivor of one of the largest Vampire incursions in the last century how Aquila survived his whole village being slaughtered when nothing but an infant in his mother's arms is a mystery. But his survival was seen as a sign from God by the Church and the young infant was taken and trained under the then High Lord Cleric. With unnatural skill at arms and sharp innate reflexes the High Lord Cleric took a special interest in his newest disciple, training him day and night as well as teaching him the arts of literature, painting, philosophy and spirituality. His Master died when Aquilam was only eighteen and he was left abandoned in the world of men, but the young Cleric quickly proved his abilities at tracking Familiars and killing Vampires. So at the young age of twenty-one he was made High Lord Cleric, the youngest in the history of the Church, and a position he has taken to with a great amount of dedication.

Name: Eolian [Ee-ohh-lee-an]

Age: 25

Sect: Familiar to the Queen

Personality: Roguish and arrogant.

Temperamental, easily provoked, and restless; snide disposition with ego-maniacal tendencies; severe authority complex, bloated sense of self-worth, and a notable lack of conscience. More greedy than generous, with a disturbing black-hole where he should have concern for others.

Appearance: Hard set features, long jaw; slate grey eyes, slightly crooked, thin nose, narrow mouth. Short-cropped raven black hair, usually somewhat scruffy/unshaven; hyper-extended canines. Naturally stoic default expression. Roughly six-foot-four; lean and muscular; broad-shouldered, with a narrow waist. Scars littering his arms and back; one long scar along the left side of his neck.

Background: Forced into being a Familiar after his last remaining relative is killed, Eolian has lived on the brink of self-destruction for the greater part of his life. Never quite able to come to grips with the tragedies littering his past, he spends most of his time desperately seeking the secret of his narrow survival. Trapped in servitude to a Queen he fears more than he loves, he finds himself the superior beast in a herd of domesticated pets. Eolian is a high-functioning machine, and more often than not, he is certain that is all he is capable of being.

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updated Mar 1 by Lilley