GENESIS

In the very beginning of the world of Nosgoth's history, there existed three races. There were first of all, the Hylden. The Hylden were a race of powerful and devious warriors, who evoked their own unique brand of magic powers and cunning methods to strengthen their empire. They created giant constructions of metal machinery deep beneath the surface of Nosgoth that held magnificent powers. These devices could be abandoned for ages and still retain their functionality if they were ever needed again. Above all else, the Hylden prided themselves on their ingenuity. Their greatest achievement came when they put into effect the plans that would create a massive device capable of harnessing the powers of an ancient creature they had captured known as the Mass. This creature had the power to instantly destroy any other living creature with a single thought, and by creating a device that could make its powers controllable, the Hylden hoped to build a weapon that they could use against any enemy that would dare to challenge them. However, the plans for the device were never finished, and both it and the Mass were abandoned deep underneath Nosgoth's surface for generations.

There existed another race of nobler warriors as well. These proud creatures bore a light blue skin and were graced with feathered wings like angels, where as the Hylden were more reptilian and demonic in appearance with scaly skin and deep hissing voices. The noble race valued knowledge and was deeply involved in the religious and chivalrous arts of war, as opposed to the underhanded and tricky methods of the Hylden. This race of winged nobles operated out of a mighty citadel that they constructed in the center of Nosgoth's eastern most lake.

The final third race was that of mankind. By far the weakest and most fragile, humans grew very rapidly in spiritual strength and magical powers in order to survive. Both the Hylden and the winged race paid the humans little to no heed however, regarding them as somewhat lesser beings and not worth troubling themselves with.

In this time of the three great races, there also existed an entity that could govern and manipulate the forces of life, death and afterlife. This entity was omnipresent, and fed off the "wheel of fate", which it prophesied was the engine of existence to which all souls were destined to return to after they had lived out their first life in order to be reborn into their next. When a living being died its soul passed into the spectral realm where this elder god and its minions dwelled. Once consumed by one of the elder god's minions, the soul was liberated into its next life and the Elder god was thus fed the soul's energy.

The elder god spoke both to the Hylden and the noble race of the winged warriors, preaching its ideas and commands from the secluded spiritual underworld. Like the two great races, this god wasn't concerned with involving itself with the humans. Due to their short lifespan and feeble minds, it simply left them to their own devices and collected the souls of humans as they came to it.

It was not long before the Hylden began to oppose the god. The noble winged race was devoutly loyal however, praying to the god from their citadel each and every day of their lives. Rivalry between the two higher races quickly broke out. The members of the winged race damned the Hylden for opposing their god, and started what was one of the most monumental wars of Nosgoth's history.

The war waged for thousands of years, until it was finally ended with the victory of the winged ancients. As punishment for their blasphemy, the Hylden race was exiled from Nosgoth. The wisest of the noble race's sorcerers sealed the Hylden race in a demon-infested dimension, where they would remain forever.

Feeling that too much was at stake to simply dismiss the Hylden as being gone forever, the noble race of winged beings erected the pillars of Nosgoth. Nine pillars were constructed, each drawing it's power from a different aspect of Nosgoth's existence: the pillar of the mind, drawing strength from the mental energies of all the inhabitants of the lands, the pillar of dimension, which drew energy from the parallel universes that laid next to Nosgoth's own, the pillar of conflict, drawing its power from the rivalry and competitive nature of those who lived on the land, the pillar of energy, harnessing the natural laws of physics and magic to sustain itself, the pillar of nature, which grew in vigor as the seasons of Nosgoth came and went, the pillar of time, remaining constant and unyielding as the years and centuries continued to pass, the pillar of states, gathering its force from all elements of matter as well as their properties of transformation, the pillar of death, energized by the natural passage of life into afterlife, and finally the pillar of balance, which stood at the origin of the eight others and was the axis of both the pillars and of Nosgoth itself.

Before the pillars could secure their banishment the Hylden exacted one final act of revenge on their enemies. Upon their rivals, they bestowed a mighty curse. This curse affected the ancient winged race in three ways. First of all, the winged noble race was infected with a terrible blood thirst. No longer would the food of the land satisfy nor would the waters quench the new and terrible thirst they inherited. Only the blood of other living beings could sustain them. The second affliction of the Hylden's curse was a sterility that prevented the winged race from procreating. The final devastating burden to be set upon the noble race was everlasting immortal life. With these three blows dealt to their foes, the Hylden were thus banished from Nosgoth.

Using the pillars, the winged nobles forged a seal that would serve to keep the Hylden from ever returning. In order to better sustain itself, each of the pillars marked a member of the winged race as a guardian, whose duty it would be to serve and defend the pillar that so chose him or her. These nine guardians would be known as the circle of nine, and they would devote their lives to serving the pillars and Nosgoth. In exchange for their services, the pillars granted each guardian marvelous powers and extended their life cycle.

The curse of the Hylden began to take its devastating toll on the once mighty winged race. Their new bloodlust earned them the title of vampires from mankind, which became the unfortunate primary source of food. The vampires were also abandoned by the elder god, who they had fought centuries in the name for. Being both immortal and sterile, the vampires had nothing to offer their god, who fed itself on the passage of souls through birth, death, and rebirth. No new lives would be born, and the souls of the vampires were forever trapped in their corporeal bodies. The voice of the vampire's elder god grew silent.

Lost without their god and hated by the humans, many of the vampires took their own lives. The bloodlines of the ancient vampires trickled away, and only those vampires who felt it was their duty to preserve their race's legacy remained. One among these vampires, a scholar named Janos Audron, discovered an ancient prophecy that foretold of a great vampire champion known as the scion of balance that would one day rise to bring the now dying race to its former glory. In his studies, he also learned of a Hylden champion that would rise to challenge the vampire's hero. Janos could not find any further information on this other warrior, but felt it was important to take note of it none the less, for the prophecies clearly stated that both this Hylden champion and the scion of balance were destined to battle.

Janos took it upon himself to ensure that the prophecies were not ignored, and vowed that he would never offer his own life to oblivion as so many others of his race had until the vampire hero came into being. He commissioned murals to be painted on the walls of the ancient vampires' citadel, as well as on the walls of the chamber the ancients had built beneath the pillars, that would not only illustrate the prophecies he believed in but also record the events of the war with the Hylden. This was Janos' attempt to ensure that all his work would not be forgotten, and that if he were ever to die his work could be continued by others.

The murals were drawn with artistic excellence. The vampires were always depicted with reverence; the Hylden race with demonic viciousness. The scion of balance was lionized with illustrations depicting its angelic wings and mighty essence; the Hylden champion exemplified with demonic burning eyes and a sword that blazed as if on fire. These images came to be drawn on literally every wall within the citadel.

As the vampires waited for the prophecies to be fulfilled, the Hylden curse worsened. Eventually the members of the vampire circle of nine were consumed by the same devastating plague of self-pity that the rest of the race had fallen victim to, and began sacrificing themselves to the void. With the remaining number of vampires dwindling down into nothing and no new vampires being born, the pillars began choosing human guardians in order to sustain themselves. The remaining vampires were resilient however, and would abduct these human guardians and turn them into vampires, passing on their dark gifts so that the legacy of their race could survive. Though they hated doing such acts, they were forced to do so in order to ensure that the pillars remained under the protection of vampires, and not of the humans who could not sustain the binding that held back the legions of the Hylden.

Janos was the very first to turn a human being. He chose a man named Vorador, a blacksmith from a little town in Nosgoth's northern mountains called Uschtenheim. He then commissioned Vorador to aid him in fulfilling the prophecies he had spent centuries studying. In these prophecies, he learned that the hero of the vampires was to wield a sword that would serve as his mighty weapon as well as a symbol of triumph for his race. At the behest of his master, Vorador created such a sword known as the Reaver blade. This weapon was enchanted by the essence of vampirism and had the same blood draining powers as the vampires did. Janos became the guardian of the blade, which he swore to keep in his possession and not inform anyone of until the prophesied hero arrived.

The Hylden somehow learned of the creation of the Reaver, and knew that they had to devise a defense for it, should they ever face this prophesized vampire hero. Their wises blacksmiths created an artifact known as the Nexus Stone, using some of the harnessed powers from the device their ancestors had left dormant in the caverns under Nosgoth's surface. The Nexus Stone was then tuned to the same magic force as the Reaver and could repel its vampiric powers. The Nexus Stone was entrusted to the Hylden's mightiest warrior, known as the Hylden Lord, who would guard it with his life until the time for their return to Nosgoth arrived.

Back in Nosgoth, the years passed but the scion of balance never came to being, and the ancient winged vampires were all but wiped out except for Janos. He continued to commission his turned sons and daughters to turn each new member of the circle into a vampire, for he knew that even with the powers the pillars gave to them, the human circle members could not sustain the binding that held the Hylden race in its dimensional prison.

The new vampires, each turned by one stronger then them, spread their dark gift to as many humans as they could. The human race grew to hate vampires more and more, and as more human circle members were being abducted, mankind began to revolt against their immortal predators.

This rebellion that the humans displayed got the attention of the long dormant elder god, who saw an opportunity to rid itself of the vampire race. The immortal gift that the vampires passed onto their victims prevented the souls of the dead from returning to the wheel of fate, and the elder god was most keen on riding such a hindrance to his cycle of life, death and afterlife from Nosgoth. The elder god called down to the time streamer Moebius, who was the newly appointed human guardian of the pillar of time, and seduced him with promises of immortality beyond any and all death in exchange for his services as guardian of time. Moebius accepted the elder god's offer, and was bestowed a magical scepter that held the power to incapacitate vampires, leaving them helpless.

Unaware that the intentions of the vampires were simply to sustain the barrier that repelled the Hylden, Moebius convinced Mortanius the necromancer and newest guardian of the pillar of death to join him in the rebellion against the vampires. Together, they founded the Sarafan, an order of holy sorcerer priests. The Sarafan repelled the vampires and brought the control of the circle of nine completely under human possession. With the powers of the circle of nine supporting them, the Sarafan obliterated the vampires of Nosgoth in a righteous purge that nearly wiped out the entire immortal race. Leading the Sarafan in battle was the mighty paladin and guardian of the pillar of conflict, Malek. His devotion to the circle and hatred of the vampire race was uncontested, and he led the Sarafan to countless victories during the vampire purge.

Under the command of Moebius and Malek, six warriors rose to the top ranks of the Sarafan priesthood. Moebius befriended each of these holy warriors, and became very close with the top general Raziel. Moebius preached to these warriors the evils of the vampire scourge and fueled their hatred of the unholy monsters they were sworn to defeat.

The vampire race was all but destroyed by the Sarafan's ruthless persecution. In the final years of the purge, only two survivors of the race remained: Janos Audron and his servant, Vorador. As time passed, the hunt for Janos continued until six of the Sarafan's top generals finally found his hidden lair near Uschtenheim and executed him. The commanding general of the search party, Raziel, tore Janos' black heart from his body and left his corpse to rot without it. The six Sarafan generals then stole the Reaver blade and returned it and the heart to the Sarafan stronghold, in which both the Sarafan and the members of the circle operated out of. In the inner sanctums of the stronghold, Janos' heart was christened the heart of darkness. The members of the circle soon discovered that the heart of darkness had the power to restore vampiric un-life. The heart was entrusted to Mortanius, guardian of death, with whom it would be safe from the hands of evil forces.

Vorador vowed vengeance upon the circle for supporting the Sarafan, the murderers of his master. He infiltrated the Sarafan stronghold and murdered six members of the circle of nine while searching for the heart of darkness, which he never found. During this attack, Malek, the defender of the circle, was unable to stop his onslaught, and fell to the vampire's blade. Both Mortanius and Moebius escaped with their lives, and Mortanius used his powers to fuse Malek's soul to his armor for eternity as punishment for failing to protect the members of the circle.

Years passed. The human race flourished under the protection of the new circle of nine. Vorador, the last remaining vampire, secluded himself in a dark forest where he spent many years trying to revive his master Janos Audron with no success. Losing all hope for his race, Vorador vowed never to concern himself with the affairs of mankind again. The Sarafan, with no enemy to battle, dissolved away peacefully. All seemed well; however the pillars were now in the control of humans, who were not meant to holster the burden of defending the barrier between Nosgoth and prison dimension that housed the Hylden.