User blog:Lothorian Foryx/What I Learned From The Lord of Vampyrium

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for the quest The Lord of Vampyrium

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Lowerniel Vergidyad Drakan

• Lord Drakan reveals that he has been hard at work within Castle Drakan, and cites the reasons for his absence as the following:

1. From its time spent in Morytania, the Stone of Jas was studied by Drakan. Through it, he discovered a way to create a portal to Vampyrium and transport vampyres back to the realm, and to do so will require all of the humans of Meiyerditch to be sacrificed.
   
2. He has developed this agenda for only the true-born vampyres (vampyres born from other vampyres, and not created), and plans to either leave the human-born vampyres (converted from humans/other sentient, bipedal creatures) on Gielinor when the rest return, or slaughter them in the process of powering the portal.

• Lowerniel possessed a spear with a blisterwood tip, named the Sunspear. While speaking to Kara-Meir with it equipped, she references the blisterwood dagger of the same name mentioned in T.S. Church's novels. She says it couldn't possibly be the same as her own, but maybe that the two were once part of the same spear. When a vampyre is killed by Lowerniel's Sunspear, its body is automatically incinerated.
• He kept trophies of his conquests and displayed most of them in his bed chamber within Castle Drakan, among them icyene battle armour from the war of Hallowvale, a stuffed bloodveld, and also the mounted head of Lord Malachi Ghrazi.

• There is also a miniature blisterwood tree within his room, and examining it explains that it is kept pruned and trimmed.
• He is the most powerful vampyre alive, as he has long since deposed other vampyre lords that could have stood against him. Evidence of his conquests are present in the tattoos along his wing membrane, written in Vampyric.

• This remains true up until the moment of his death, at which point it is implied that Vanescula takes up that mantle.

Vampyres and Vampyric History

• There is an icyene graveyard present in Morytania to the east of Meiyerditch along the coast, and the only vampyre that seems to have be able to set foot there is Lowerniel Drakan; this is evidenced by the fact that he locked the mausoleum present with a powerful, magical device, and Vanescula telling the Adventurer that she cannot go there.
• Vampyres have their own language that was developed when they were still considered tribal, and before Zaros arrived on Vampyrium and introduced society and civilization: It is called Vampyric, and consists of primitive runes.
• Vampyres refer to other vampyres whose origin was Vampyrium or who are descended by birth from vampyres of Vampyrium as true-born. Vice versa, vampyres created are referred to as human-born.

•        The true-born vampyres in Castle Drakan not only feed on humans, but also on the blood of a strange type of quadrupedal cattle that are slaughtered in the lower levels of the tower.

• Before his death, Vanstrom was the head of all the vyrewatch, and his title was Overwatch. Once he had been killed, Vanescula promoted a female vyre named Mornid, who was trained by Vanstrom herself (and despite that, despised his cruel treatment of humans). Overwatch Mornid moved into his old manor and served Vanescula with unquestionable loyalty until she was slain by Lowerniel.
• Vampyres can devolve into monsters called venators through processes unknown. The only ones seen are controlled like hunting animals by Lowerniel, the same way a hunter may use bloodhounds to track.
• Icyene blood has very special properties; when a vampyre drinks it, that vampyre is then sanctified against the Salve barrier, and can cross at will. After drinking Safalaan's blood, Vanescula reveals her plans to use haemalchemy to transfer her newfound invulnerability of the River Salve to all of the vampyres in her new dominion.
  • Vanescula also plans to convert all of the humans currently in Meiyerditch into vampyres in order to build an army to use to assault Misthalin. Once there, she intends to bring more humans back into Morytania; her reasoning is that, with more humans, tithes will occur much less frequently and less blood will be taken from the humans in question, and vampyres need not become extinct in that scenario. Calling it the win-win situation that she and the Myreque have always been working towards, she also cites the days of the Zarosian Empire when humans and vampyres lived in harmony (albeit with the humans still being used dominantly as a food source).

• ·      The in-game book “A Taste of Hope” details the fact that not all blood tastes the same, and is affected by the individual’s emotions at the moment. Different vampyre houses preferred different flavors of blood influenced by the different thoughts and feelings of their prey. Example: House Drakan’s preferred blood of choice is tinged with hope and optimism which gives it a sweet flavor beyond measure.

• You can click here for a link to the transcript of the in-game tome, "A Taste of Hope."
• This applies to the blood of all creatures, not just humans.

The Tribes that Became the Great Houses

• In Vampyrium and before the time of Zaros' arrival, the vampyres lived in eight different tribes. When he introduced civilization, those tribes became the noble houses of Vampyrium. It is implied in the aforementioned book, "A Taste of Hope," that while these families were the ruling vampyres in their territory, there were many other classes (aristocracy, low-born peasantry, etc.) beneath each of them.
  • Each of the eight noble houses held their own traditions and characteristics that set them apart from one another, and are described in more detail in "A Taste of Hope."
  • The eight houses in alphabetical order are:
    1. Alzeph
    2. Drakan
    3. Ghrazi
    4. Jovkai
    5. Myrmel
    6. Pyrah
    7. Shadum
    8. Vitur
  • The patriarchs and matriarchs appear in portraits around Castle Drakan, and the examine text of each gives the following names:
    1. Lady Anastasia von Alzeph
    2. Lord Lowerniel Vergidyad Drakan
    3. Lord Malachi Ghrazi
    4. Lord Simeon Johannes Jovkai
    5. Lord Tytn Myrmel
    6. Lady Masha Pyrah
    7. Lord Artyom Shadum
    8. Lord Grigori Zigfrid Vitur
• While none of the patriarchs and matriarchs are no longer alive, some of their true-born descendants and/or siblings live within Castle Drakan. As well, none of the houses still exist alone, but rather within House Drakan once they had been absorbed prior to the vampyres coming to Gielinor.

The Fate of the Myreque

• The Myreque are no more, their only surviving members (excluding the Adventurer), Veliaf Hurtz and Ivan Strom, having gone their separate ways after the devestation their organization suffered.
  • The following members of the order are now deceased, excluding Safalaan whose fate with Vanescula is unknown; he is presumed dead by his comrades.
    1. Kael Forshaw
    2. Mekritus A'hara
    3. Radigad Ponfit
    4. Vertida Sefalatis
    5. Polmafi Ferdygris
  • The only blisterwood that made it out of Darkmeyer is that in the Adventurer's possession and a single blisterwood sickle now impaled in the wall of the Burgh de Rott tavern cellar.
• Vanescula seems to have thus far been true to her word, having used Drakan's portal to Vampyrium to bring back a vast store of blood to sate the vyres' hunger for now. She has also kept the vyrewatch under control, bringing a temporary peace time of light tithes and vyre-obedience to Meiyerditch.

Miscellaneous

• Safalaan is confirmed as the child of Queen Effaritay and King Ascertes.
• The blisterwood tree is confirmed to have some connection to Effaritay, as Safalaan specifically references weapons from "my mother's tree."
• Drakan confirms that one Safalaan's Myreque comrades murdered his father.
  • This likely points to the Adventurer killing Vanstrom, who is suspected of being a converted King Ascertes.
• There is an unknown, kindly, female prisoner kept in Castle Drakan, who was always prevented from leaving or escaping while Drakan remained alive. His captor-captive bond with her seemed to be magical, and upon his death, the unknown figure begins to escape by blowing the door off of her cage.
  • It is hypothesized that this is Queen Effaritay, as she speaks with Safalaan in private for some time and with admiration, yet refuses to tell him her name. She also sends figurative prayers of blessing with the Myreque before they leave the unknown prisoner to her fate.

Miscellaneous Photos and Dialogue

Both of the above sections will come in a few days time, once the grace period for spoilers has pretty much died out. The reason for this is because both pertain to pictures, which would appear in the Photos activity feed.