My DND campaign's villain is a vampire, so I had to come up with some lore for how vampires are created in my world a while back. A lot of this has greater bearings on the plot of the campaign as well; and gave a place for the Raven Queen to exist in my mythos for Shadow Elves (Shadar Kai in DND 5E parlance), as one of my players is a Shadow Elf Monk.
Vampires are born of a curse, and are granted their powers by Kerriddin (pronounced Care-rith-in), the god of the Night.
Kerriddin granted his first blessing of vampirism to a human female, named Keria Greyling. Keria was one of the first mortals to stumble upon Kerriddin's dominion, the realm of Cad.
Cad can be reached by looking upon a perfectly still lake (known as the Black Lake by locals) in the Herritharn Mountains of the south eastern continent under a blood moon. Prolonged staring into the lake will put you in a trancelike state, and you will be ushered into the lake gently by a ghostly apparition that pulls you by both hands.
Kerriddin is an ethereal entity, and was willed into existence by The Weaver at the beginning of time. The Weaver pulled ethereal essence from the Elysium sea to create the threads of existence that much of the natural phenomena that exists in the material plane are derived from. At the moment the Weaver pulled Kerriddin's essence from the sea, Kerriddin was granted a self, becoming a distinct entity from the swirling mass of energy within Elysium. Kerriddin has developed over the millennia that have passed since the Weaver began weaving, regularly taking on a physical form more akin to that of a large high elf, and his domain has become home to beings he has willed into existence. Creatures such as the Black Dragons, Nightwalkers and Doppelgangers are believed to have originated from the realm of Cad. When mortals enter Cad, their bodies are often torn asunder by the pure ethereal winds that inhabit the realm, much like the other basic threads of existence. Those that are born of the night however are blessed by Kerriddin, and although unremarkable in the material plane, are not phased by the raw cosmic energy of the night realm.
When Keria entered Cad, Kerriddin welcomed her. Unknowingly, Keria was a child born on The Dark, a night when all stars in the night sky are at their dimmest on the material plane, when the space between Cad and the mortal realms is weakest. Kerriddin granted Keria all manner of gift for having been the first mortal to ever step foot on his plane of existence. Keria was happy to accept, and lived amongst Kerriddin and his creations for several months, waited on hand and foot. Kerriddin took this opportunity to learn as much about the material plane as possible, and although Keria, being an adult woman, had experienced much on the material plane, Kerriddin grew restless at her lack of answers to his questions. One night, Kerriddin was scorned by Keria for continuing a seemingly never ending barrage of questions. Kerriddin, never having experienced rejection before, was incensed. Kerriddin stripped Keria of her name and her memories, and cast her back into the mortal realm. When Keria awoke at the edge of the Black Lake, dazed and confused, the morning sun began to sear her skin. Keria's final gift from Kerriddin was the blessing of the night, Vampirism. Cursed to live alone, in the dark, for an eternity. Keria came to be known as Inoris, The Lady of the Night, and lived in solitude in the Herritharn mountains.
Kerriddin's rage at mortals from the material plane has yet to cease, and when mortals call upon the realm of Cad, Kerriddin will confer his curse on the mortal. Despite Vampirism's apparent disadvantages, over the ages people have been known to seek out the curse due to its conference of immortality, innate regeneration and incredible strength.
If you'd like to participate too, today's worldbuilding prompt can be found here: https://ecency.com/hive-191038/@worldbuilder/worldbuilding-prompt-33-undead
not much of a curse when they consider it a blessing. foolish god! the irony. fits him perfectly. but then again, I guess he's just like the huge dino from Jurassic Park's newer movie... he "grew up" sociopathic due to never interacting with anyone.
Would you mind using the #proofofbrain tag in your next post? You would probably throughly enjoy it. Both the community and the token's value. It's a tribe. I'm trying to only upvote those who are in on it. Please use it. https://proofofbrain.io/
Will try to remember to include it from now on!
Oh, your post showed up in this front end. Great!
I really like the worldbuilding in this! Great job. The way that the Black Lake works is really nice, and definitely has a horror feel to it!
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