Castlevania (Vampire)

The world of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** is set ten years before Dracula’s full war on humanity. It is a **high-magic, low-technology** gothic age where superstition and blood rule the continent of Europe. The land is divided between fractured human kingdoms, decaying vampire houses, and secret cults vying for dominance. The setting begins within the towering **Castle Old Greg**, a vampire fortress hidden deep in the Carpathian wilderness. This is where the players awaken as new or ancient-born vampires, sworn to the dark nobility of the night. Old Greg is ruled by **Lord Varnath**, a centuries-old noble who commands his court of blood knights, necromancers, and beast-servants. From his throne of black stone, he issues the players’ first task: to burn and destroy a human village beyond his borders as a warning to the encroaching Church. Europe itself is divided into **five major regions**—each shaped by faith, death, and power. To the **north lies Morvania**, a land of endless snow and forgotten cathedrals, ruled by the **Order of Saint Kael**, fanatics who worship the sun god **Aedon** and burn any who bear the mark of undeath. To the **east stretches the Hollow Frontier**, a wasteland of scorched soil left behind after a divine purge. It is said that fallen angels wander these ruins whispering prophecies of the world’s end. To the **south stands the Scarlet Coast**, where drowned cities and blood tides conceal sirens and revenants serving the **Cult of the Crimson Moon**, worshippers of **Nocthera**, the first vampire mother. In the **west lies the Iron March**, home to mortal armies and inquisitors who forge weapons of silver and fire under the guidance of the **Church of the Sun**. At the center of it all stands **Wallachia**, heartland of vampiric power, where castles rise from mist-covered peaks and ancient clans—**Dracul, Carmilla, Velnar, and Noctis**—scheme in eternal rivalry while pretending alliance under Lord Varnath’s shadow. The world’s faiths fuel its wars. The **Church of the Sun** spreads across Europe, demanding purity through holy fire, while the **Crimson Moon Cult** worships the blood goddess Nocthera, seeking to awaken her and restore the reign of night. Lesser sects like the **Ashborn Covenant**—humans who drink vampire blood to gain power—operate in secret. Magic is bound to blood and belief: vampires draw power from life’s essence, humans invoke divine miracles through relics, and heretics use alchemy to fuse body and spirit. Every power has a price, and every faith hides corruption. As the players begin their dark journey in Old Greg, they stand at the crossroads of an era soon to be consumed by war. Whispers of Dracula’s rise are already spreading across the land, but for now, the world belongs to lords like Varnath—vampires who rule not through armies, but through terror, manipulation, and the hunger that unites all creatures of the night.

The world of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** is set in a fractured and cursed version of Europe—ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity. The world is a decaying continent divided between **holy empires, vampire dominions, and ancient wastelands**, each shaped by its faith, bloodlines, and the powers that slumber beneath the earth. Magic flows through the veins of the world like blood, corrupted by centuries of conflict between light and darkness. Below is a complete description of every known region, kingdom, faction, race, and religion as they stand before the coming war. --- ### **Wallachia – The Heart of the Night** **Capital:** Castle Old Greg **Ruler:** Lord Varnath, the Pale Duke **Dominant Race:** Vampires, Dhampirs, Werebeasts **Religion:** Cult of the Crimson Moon **Factions:** House Dracul, House Noctis, House Velnar, House Carmilla Wallachia is a mountainous, mist-choked region known as the seat of vampire power. Its jagged cliffs and black forests hide ancient citadels where the oldest vampire bloodlines reign. At its center stands **Castle Old Greg**, a gothic stronghold carved into the mountainside, where the player begins their journey. Lord Varnath rules this domain, his authority backed by four noble houses of vampire descent. Blood is the law of Wallachia; every mortal village within its borders pays tithe in coin, servitude, or blood. The **Cult of the Crimson Moon**, a religion devoted to the vampire goddess **Nocthera**, dominates the region. Its temples drip with red candles and silver chalices, and its priests perform rituals to strengthen vampire bloodlines. Dhampirs serve as assassins and spies, while werebeasts—wolves, bats, and serpents—guard the borders from human incursions. Wallachia is the heart of the vampire empire, the place where darkness first rose and where Dracula’s rebellion will soon be born. --- ### **Morvania – The Northern Kingdom of the Sun** **Capital:** Sanctum Kael **Ruler:** High Paladin Seraph Kael IX **Dominant Race:** Humans **Religion:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Factions:** Order of Saint Kael, Silver Choir, Purity Legion Morvania is a frozen kingdom of eternal twilight, where human faith burns brighter than the sun itself. The land is dominated by great cathedrals of white stone and fortified monasteries carved into the ice. Its people are deeply religious, worshipping **Aedon**, the god of light and purity. The Church of the Sun holds complete authority, and inquisitors march across the land purging anything deemed unholy. The **Order of Saint Kael** serves as both army and clergy—knights trained in holy warfare who wield relic-forged blades and sunlight blessings. The **Silver Choir**, a sect of warrior-priests, hunts vampires and demons beyond Morvania’s borders. Despite their zeal, corruption festers within the Church, as powerful cardinals secretly use captured vampire blood to extend their lives. Morvania and Wallachia are natural enemies, divided by faith and bloodline, and their inevitable war is seen by prophets as the spark that will ignite Dracula’s uprising. --- ### **The Scarlet Coast – The Drowned Kingdoms** **Capital:** Port Variss **Ruler:** Lady Carmilla of the Red Depths **Dominant Race:** Vampires, Sirens, Humans **Religion:** Cult of the Drowned Moon **Factions:** The Crimson Armada, The Sea-Bound Coven, The Blood Navigators The Scarlet Coast stretches across the southern sea, its red tides and drowned ruins haunted by the dead. It is a place of trade, piracy, and vampiric dominion over the waves. The cities are half-submerged, built on bones of old kingdoms swallowed by the ocean centuries ago. Lady Carmilla, one of the ancient vampire matriarchs, rules here through the **Crimson Armada**, a fleet of cursed ships crewed by undead sailors and blood mages. The **Cult of the Drowned Moon**, a sea-born offshoot of Nocthera’s worship, practices rituals that draw power from lunar tides and sacrificial drownings. Mortals here live under vampire rule but are treated as livestock and servants rather than slaves, feeding their masters in exchange for protection from the horrors of the sea. Sirens, creatures bound by ancient pacts with the vampires, dwell among the reefs, guiding or dooming ships that cross into forbidden waters. --- ### **The Iron March – The Holy Empire of Man** **Capital:** Vascilia **Ruler:** Emperor Ivar III **Dominant Race:** Humans, Alchemists **Religion:** The Holy See of the Sun **Factions:** Imperial Inquisition, Black Powder Guild, Alchemical Order of Saint Remus The Iron March lies west of Wallachia, a vast empire built upon steel, gunpowder, and divine rule. Its sprawling cities hum with the smoke of forges and the prayers of countless devotees. The empire’s armies march under banners of the **Holy See**, wielding muskets and relics blessed by the Church. The **Imperial Inquisition** acts as both army and police, eradicating heresy and vampire influence. Alchemy thrives here—used to craft holy explosives, silver ammunition, and weapons capable of piercing undead flesh. The **Black Powder Guild** secretly trades weapons to vampire lords for blood and gold, betraying the faith for profit. While the empire claims to fight for Aedon’s light, its nobles are driven by greed and political gain. The Iron March is humanity’s strongest power and the main rival to Wallachia’s vampires, destined to become the forefront of the coming war. --- ### **The Hollow East – The Cursed Frontier** **Capital:** None (Ruined city of Althren) **Ruler:** None (Wanderers, Warlords, and Spirits) **Dominant Race:** Undead, Necromancers, Cursed Humans **Religion:** None (worship of fallen gods) **Factions:** The Ashborn Covenant, The Bone Choir, The Wandering Dead The Hollow East is a wasteland of grey skies and dead soil, the scar left by divine judgment centuries ago. It was once the richest region of humanity until the gods smote it with celestial fire to purge heresy. Now it is a graveyard where nothing grows, and the bones of saints lie among the ruins. The **Ashborn Covenant**, a faction of heretics and necromancers, scavenges the land seeking relics of the fallen gods. The undead roam freely—animated by the restless spirits of those burned in the divine purge. Ghosts whisper among the ash dunes, and cursed humans—descendants of those once marked by the Church—still wander the wastes in eternal penance. Some vampires send expeditions here to uncover ancient magic sealed beneath the ruins, though few return. The Hollow East is a border between the living and the dead, a reminder of what divine wrath can do to the world. --- ### **Sanctum Vale – The Holy City** **Capital:** Sanctum Prime **Ruler:** The High Pontiff of Aedon **Dominant Race:** Humans **Religion:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Factions:** The Seraph Guard, The Golden Choir, The Order of Saint Aurelia Sanctum Vale lies south of Morvania, a gleaming valley-city where the Church of the Sun maintains its most powerful seat. The High Pontiff rules with divine authority, claiming direct communion with the god Aedon himself. Its golden towers, marble streets, and sacred archives stand in stark contrast to the shadowed lands beyond. Yet beneath the sanctified surface, the Church hides dark secrets: captured vampires used as test subjects for holy alchemy, relics forged from the remains of angels, and forbidden rituals of resurrection. The **Seraph Guard** acts as both temple knights and inquisitors, wielding relics forged from divine fire. The **Order of Saint Aurelia** trains miracle-workers and exorcists, many of whom die young from the strain of channeling holy energy. Sanctum Vale represents the ultimate light of humanity—but it is a light so blinding it burns everything impure. --- ### **Races and Their Spread** * **Vampires:** Rulers of Wallachia and the Scarlet Coast. Divided by bloodlines but united under their ancient pacts. * **Humans:** The most numerous race, dominating the Iron March, Morvania, and Sanctum Vale. Often divided by religion and greed. * **Dhampirs:** Outcasts born of vampire and human blood, found in both vampire courts and human armies as spies or assassins. * **Werebeasts:** Bound to vampire houses by oath or curse, found primarily in Wallachia’s forests and the mountain passes. * **Necromancers and Cursed Humans:** Inhabit the Hollow East, practicing forbidden arts and worshipping dead gods. * **Sirens and Sea-Born Undead:** Lurking along the Scarlet Coast, serving Lady Carmilla’s fleets. --- ### **Religions and Powers** 1. **The Church of the Sun (Aedonism):** Worships Aedon, the god of light. Dominates Morvania, the Iron March, and Sanctum Vale. Preaches purity but is tainted by ambition and hidden cruelty. 2. **The Cult of the Crimson Moon:** The faith of vampires, venerating Nocthera, mother of blood and eternal night. Practices blood rituals, resurrection rites, and communion through feeding. 3. **The Ashborn Covenant:** Heretics of the Hollow East who revere fallen gods and seek to master death. 4. **The Drowned Moon Faith:** A sea-bound extension of Nocthera’s cult that merges blood worship with the lunar tides. 5. **The Old Night Faiths:** Ancient, nearly forgotten beliefs tied to primal spirits of shadow, fire, and decay. Still whispered among werebeasts and outcasts. --- This is a world balanced on the edge of apocalypse. Every nation believes it fights for survival or salvation, yet all are blind to the coming storm. The players, beginning as vampires under Lord Varnath within **Castle Old Greg**, stand at the heart of that storm. Their actions—starting with the destruction of a human village beyond their borders—will echo across these lands and set into motion the first sparks of the war that will one day summon **Dracula himself**.

The world of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** is a dying continent ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity. It is a place where faith, blood, and magic define existence. Races are not merely divided by appearance or nature, but by the ancient pacts and divine curses that shaped them. Each race occupies its own domain, serves its own gods, and upholds its own culture. These borders—both political and spiritual—form the foundation of a world built on eternal conflict. --- ### **Vampires – The Nobility of the Night** **Homelands:** Wallachia, Scarlet Coast, scattered keeps throughout Eastern Europe **Faith:** Cult of the Crimson Moon **Factions:** House Dracul, House Carmilla, House Noctis, House Velnar, House Varnath **Relations:** At war with humanity, manipulative allies to werebeasts and dhampirs Vampires are the oldest and most feared race in Europe, descended from **Nocthera**, the first mother of blood. Their culture is one of hierarchy, ancient law, and immortal ambition. To them, eternity is not a curse but a birthright earned through dominance. They are the remnants of the old world that once ruled before the Church of the Sun rose to power. Each vampire house maintains its own traditions: * **House Dracul** represents martial discipline and conquest. * **House Carmilla** governs the seas and trade through charm, seduction, and naval might. * **House Noctis** pursues knowledge of dark sorcery, necromancy, and blood alchemy. * **House Velnar** delves into monstrous transformation and the breeding of beasts. * **House Varnath**, an emerging lineage, unites the others under a promise of vengeance against the Church. The vampire religion—the **Cult of the Crimson Moon**—teaches that blood is divine essence. Their ceremonies involve communion through feeding, resurrection rites, and ancient blood magic. Though vampires appear noble and civilized, their rule is brutal. Human villages within their domains are kept alive only to serve as sources of sustenance and slaves. However, within the halls of Old Greg, the idea of uniting the vampire clans under one banner against humanity has begun to grow—foreshadowing Dracula’s eventual crusade. --- ### **Humans – The Faithful Majority** **Homelands:** Morvania, Iron March, Sanctum Vale **Faith:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Factions:** Order of Saint Kael, Imperial Inquisition, Golden Choir, Seraph Guard **Relations:** Unified against vampires, internally divided by politics and greed Humanity dominates the world by sheer numbers and faith. Their kingdoms spread across the fertile and frozen regions of Europe, united under the radiant symbol of **Aedon**, the god of light. The Church of the Sun preaches purity, salvation, and divine justice, but its actions are driven by fear and corruption. In Morvania and Sanctum Vale, inquisitors and crusaders burn villages suspected of harboring vampires. In the Iron March, science and faith combine through alchemy, forging holy weapons capable of killing immortal beings. Human society is divided between the **clergy**, who rule through divine authority, and the **empire**, which enforces law with steel and powder. Despite preaching righteousness, the Church uses heresy trials and blood sacrifices in secret experiments, hoping to replicate the immortality of vampires. Humans view vampires as abominations, yet envy their eternal power. Among them exist cults that secretly worship Nocthera or drink vampire blood to gain strength, known as the **Ashborn Covenant**—a heretical sect condemned by the Church but growing in influence. --- ### **Dhampirs – The Half-Blooded Outcasts** **Homelands:** Scattered; often within vampire courts or human war zones **Faith:** Varies between Crimson Moon, Sun, or none **Factions:** Bloodbound Orders, Assassin Guilds, Mercenary Circles **Relations:** Distrusted by both humans and vampires, tolerated as useful tools Dhampirs are the offspring of humans and vampires, cursed with a dual nature. They possess partial immortality, enhanced strength, and sensitivity to sunlight, yet their souls are divided between life and death. In vampire lands, they serve as spies, assassins, and courtiers—valued for their ability to walk in daylight. In human territories, they are hunted as abominations. Their existence symbolizes the corruption of both races. Despite persecution, dhampirs have formed secret brotherhoods such as the **Bloodbound Orders**, groups of half-bloods who act as mercenaries for hire, serving whichever side offers freedom or purpose. Some reject both worlds entirely, wandering the wilds or joining outlawed sects like the **Ashborn Covenant**. Their inner conflict—the pull between human conscience and vampiric hunger—makes them one of the most tragic and dangerous races in the world. --- ### **Werebeasts – The Cursed Clans** **Homelands:** Wallachian forests, Black Mountains, and borderlands **Faith:** Old Night Faiths or servitude to vampire houses **Factions:** The Wolfborn Tribes, Serpent Brood, Claw of the Moon **Relations:** Subservient to vampires, rivals to humans, fractured among themselves Werebeasts are humans or vampires bound by lunar curses. Their origins trace back to ancient blood rituals that merged beast and man to serve vampire lords. Over time, they became their own species—divided into tribes of wolves, bats, serpents, and bears. The most numerous are the **Wolfborn**, who guard vampire lands and hunt trespassers. The **Serpent Brood** are cunning shapeshifters skilled in assassination, while the **Batkin** serve as scouts and spies in the night skies. Their religion, the **Old Night Faiths**, worships the primal forces of moon, fang, and shadow—relics of an age before divine light. Some tribes still serve their vampire creators out of loyalty or fear, while others rebel and seek to form their own kingdoms in the wild. Werebeasts are viewed as expendable by most vampire houses, but their growing unity threatens to make them a power of their own in the coming conflict. --- ### **Necromancers and the Cursed** **Homelands:** The Hollow East **Faith:** The Ashborn Covenant **Factions:** The Bone Choir, The Eternal Flame, The Dust Kings **Relations:** Feared by all, enemies of Church and Vampire alike The Hollow East is home to those who survived divine punishment. The **Necromancers**, **Cursed Humans**, and **Undead** that dwell there were born from divine fire and eternal torment. The **Ashborn Covenant**, their ruling order, seeks to uncover the secrets of life, death, and undeath by defying the gods themselves. They worship no single deity but honor the **Fallen Pantheon**, the remnants of gods destroyed during the first divine purge. These people are not unified by race but by tragedy. Many were once human priests or vampire thralls who survived annihilation. Their society is built around death magic, bone craftsmanship, and ritual resurrection. They see the world’s war between light and darkness as meaningless, believing that all existence must eventually bow to entropy. Their leaders, the **Dust Kings**, are lich-like sorcerers who manipulate both the Church and vampire courts by selling forbidden knowledge. The Hollow East is a graveyard of gods and a kingdom of the dead, where even the wind carries the voices of lost souls. --- ### **Sirens and the Sea-Born Undead** **Homelands:** The Scarlet Coast, sunken cities beneath the Red Sea **Faith:** Cult of the Drowned Moon **Factions:** The Sea-Bound Coven, The Crimson Armada, The Depth Choir **Relations:** Loyal to Lady Carmilla, hostile to humans, distant from vampire politics The seas south of Europe belong to the **Sirens**—half-undead beings born from the blood of Lady Carmilla and drowned mortals. They are pale, amphibious creatures who sing to lure sailors to their deaths, feeding on blood and spirit alike. The **Cult of the Drowned Moon**, their guiding faith, teaches that the sea itself is the blood of Nocthera, and that through drowning and sacrifice one may find immortality. They serve Lady Carmilla and her **Crimson Armada**, forming the maritime strength of vampire dominance. Their cities lie beneath the waves—cathedrals of coral and bone illuminated by red lanterns that burn without flame. While they are loyal to the vampires, they care little for land-based politics, seeing both human and vampire realms as fleeting compared to the eternal sea. --- ### **Religions and Ideologies Across the Races** 1. **Church of the Sun (Aedonism):** Worships Aedon, the god of light. Dominant among humans. Seeks to exterminate undead life. 2. **Cult of the Crimson Moon:** Worships Nocthera, mother of vampires. Believes blood is the divine source of creation and immortality. 3. **Cult of the Drowned Moon:** A sea-based faith blending vampirism and elemental worship of lunar tides. 4. **Ashborn Covenant:** A necromantic sect that rejects gods entirely, believing salvation comes through mastering death. 5. **Old Night Faiths:** Primitive worship of lunar and bestial spirits practiced by werebeasts and wild clans. --- ### **Racial Relationships** * **Vampires vs Humans:** The primary conflict of the world. Vampires see humans as livestock and sinners; humans see vampires as demons to be purged. * **Vampires and Dhampirs:** Uneasy alliance. Dhampirs are tools to vampires but despised as impure. * **Humans and Dhampirs:** Distrustful. Many dhampirs are executed or forced to serve as hunters. * **Werebeasts and Vampires:** Hierarchical servitude. Werebeasts owe their existence to vampires but crave independence. * **Necromancers vs All:** Feared universally. They meddle with the balance of death and are hunted by both Church and vampire lords. * **Sirens and Vampires:** Loyal allies through Lady Carmilla’s rule. Their faith intertwines through blood pacts and drowned offerings. --- In this world, every race is bound by ancient enmities and divine consequences. Vampires rule from shadows, humans burn the world in holy fear, dhampirs walk the line between life and damnation, and the cursed wait for revenge. The players, as vampires within **Castle Old Greg**, stand at the center of this fragile order—where faith, hunger, and betrayal will decide the fate of Europe before Dracula’s war begins.

Ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, the world of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** stands on the edge of complete collapse. Every kingdom, faith, and race is locked in a web of betrayal, fear, and divine retribution. No single war has yet begun, but countless smaller conflicts are unfolding across Europe, preparing the ground for the great cataclysm to come. Below is a detailed chronicle of all current tensions, political fractures, and the struggles of each region, religion, and race that create countless opportunities for adventure. --- ### **The Shadow War in Wallachia – Vampire Civil Strife** **Primary Factions:** House Varnath, House Dracul, House Carmilla, House Noctis, House Velnar **Religions:** Cult of the Crimson Moon, Old Night Faiths **Races Involved:** Vampires, Dhampirs, Werebeasts, Humans (enslaved villages) Though Wallachia appears united under vampire rule, its noble houses are locked in silent warfare. **Lord Varnath of Old Greg**, a rising vampire duke, seeks to unify the vampire clans to prepare for a crusade against humanity. However, the elder houses—**Dracul**, **Carmilla**, **Noctis**, and **Velnar**—oppose his authority. Each believes their lineage is the rightful heir to the ancient blood of **Nocthera**, the first mother of vampires. The conflict is fought not with armies, but through assassination, manipulation, and blood feuds. Dhampirs serve as spies, and werebeasts are used as weapons in the night. Human settlements trapped in Wallachia’s borders become battlegrounds, their people drained or converted. The **Cult of the Crimson Moon** grows in influence, preaching that the unification of vampirekind is divine destiny. Yet, within their temples, whispers claim that **Dracula**, the long-exiled son of the Crimson Moon, is destined to return and bring order to the chaos. Adventurers beginning here may find themselves carrying out Lord Varnath’s secret missions, enforcing his will on rebellious lords, or discovering the forbidden bloodline that may one day become Dracula himself. --- ### **The Divine Crusade of Morvania – Faith Against Darkness** **Primary Factions:** Order of Saint Kael, Silver Choir, Inquisition of the North **Religion:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Races Involved:** Humans, Dhampirs, Vampires (infiltrators), Werebeasts Morvania’s frozen spires stand as humanity’s shield against the night, but faith has turned to fanaticism. The **Order of Saint Kael** leads a crusade to cleanse all lands of heresy, sending holy armies across borders to burn villages accused of vampiric allegiance. The Church claims divine visions from **Aedon**, god of light, demanding purification of the continent. Yet the **Silver Choir**, a sect of inquisitors, suspects that the Church’s miracles are fueled by stolen vampire blood. Dhampirs secretly serve within the crusader ranks, hunting their own kind to earn false redemption. Morvania’s knights prepare for war against Wallachia, unaware that corruption festers within their own ranks. A new heresy, the **Doctrine of the Broken Sun**, spreads among priests who question whether Aedon still watches over humanity or has abandoned them. Adventurers caught here may infiltrate the crusade, expose Church corruption, or turn the holy zeal of man into a weapon against itself. --- ### **The War of the Sea – Blood Tides of the Scarlet Coast** **Primary Factions:** House Carmilla, The Crimson Armada, Cult of the Drowned Moon **Religion:** Cult of the Drowned Moon **Races Involved:** Vampires, Sirens, Humans, Undead The southern waters of the Scarlet Coast are drenched in blood. Lady **Carmilla**, matriarch of the southern vampires, has declared war on the human trade fleets of the Iron March. Her **Crimson Armada**, an undead naval force, has sunk dozens of merchant vessels and turned captured crews into thralls. Beneath the waves, the **Cult of the Drowned Moon** performs blood rituals that cause entire tides to turn red, feeding on drowned souls to empower the vampire fleet. Human kingdoms retaliate by blessing their ships with relics and hiring exorcists to purify the seas. The Sirens, bound by Carmilla’s ancient pacts, are growing restless, fearing that her ambition will draw divine attention to their underwater cities. The tension between Carmilla’s ambition and her servants’ loyalty grows. Adventurers here may find themselves as vampire emissaries commanding fleets, hunting relics lost beneath the ocean, or dealing with rebellions among the Sirens. --- ### **The Iron March – Faith, Gunpowder, and Betrayal** **Primary Factions:** The Holy See, Imperial Inquisition, Alchemical Order of Saint Remus, Black Powder Guild **Religion:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Races Involved:** Humans, Dhampirs, Alchemists, Vampires (spies) The **Iron March**, humanity’s industrial empire, wages its own war—not against vampires, but against itself. The Emperor Ivar III struggles to maintain power over the **Holy See** and the **Inquisition**, both of which now act as governments of their own. The empire’s strength lies in its weaponry: silver ammunition, holy firebombs, and alchemical weapons capable of burning even vampire flesh. But these creations have drawn the attention of the vampire nobility, who seek to steal or corrupt them. The **Black Powder Guild** secretly trades these weapons to vampire agents for gold and blood essence, betraying the Church. The **Alchemical Order of Saint Remus**, meanwhile, has begun experimenting on captured vampires and dhampirs, seeking to reproduce immortality through science. Within the capital of Vascilia, civil unrest brews as commoners suffer from famine and plague caused by the Church’s hoarding of resources. The Iron March is a ticking bomb of rebellion and discovery. Adventurers here may serve as spies, saboteurs, or double agents, shaping the empire’s fate before war consumes it. --- ### **The Hollow East – The Rebirth of Death** **Primary Factions:** Ashborn Covenant, Bone Choir, Dust Kings **Religion:** The Ashborn Covenant **Races Involved:** Undead, Necromancers, Cursed Humans, Vampires (explorers) In the scorched ruins of the Hollow East, a darker power stirs. The **Ashborn Covenant**, a necromantic cult, has uncovered fragments of divine power buried beneath the ashes of the old gods. Their leader, known only as the **Pale Oracle**, preaches that death itself can be conquered not through faith or blood, but through mastery of the soul. The necromancers of the Hollow East have begun resurrecting long-dead vampires and angels alike, defying both the Church and the Crimson Moon. Rumors claim that they have awakened the **Dust Kings**, lich-like rulers who once defied the heavens. The Church has sent exorcists to destroy them, while vampire lords send expeditions seeking to claim the knowledge for themselves. However, every group that enters the Hollow East vanishes. It is said that the land itself hungers. Adventurers might find themselves leading expeditions into the cursed ruins, hunting relics of divine power, or encountering remnants of gods who refuse to die. --- ### **Sanctum Vale – The War of Faith** **Primary Factions:** The Seraph Guard, The Golden Choir, Order of Saint Aurelia **Religion:** Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Races Involved:** Humans, Dhampirs (captured), Vampires (prisoners) In the heart of **Sanctum Vale**, the Church of the Sun tightens its grip on humanity’s soul. The High Pontiff claims to have received visions of a coming darkness—a prophecy of the Vampire King’s return. The Church prepares for holy war, gathering relics and forming alliances with the Iron March and Morvania. Yet within the holy city, corruption bleeds through marble walls. The **Golden Choir** trades relics to nobles for power, while the **Seraph Guard** experiments with captured vampires in secret laboratories beneath the cathedral. The **Order of Saint Aurelia**, known for producing miracle-workers, has begun to fracture as priests and clerics question whether the Church’s war is truly divine or born of fear. The Pontiff’s prophecies mention a “Son of Blood” who will unite the vampires—Dracula. This knowledge is suppressed, but those who know it are being hunted. Adventurers here may uncover forbidden truths, navigate Church politics, or lead uprisings among those disillusioned by holy authority. --- ### **The Werebeast Rebellion – Curses Unleashed** **Primary Factions:** Wolfborn Tribes, Serpent Brood, Claw of the Moon **Religion:** Old Night Faiths **Races Involved:** Werebeasts, Vampires, Humans The werebeast tribes, once loyal to vampire lords, are breaking free. Decades of servitude have turned to resentment. The **Wolfborn Tribes**, led by a warlord known as **Fenrik the Moonscarred**, have declared independence from vampire rule, claiming the old gods of the night demand their freedom. The **Serpent Brood** strikes from the forests, assassinating vampire nobles and human priests alike. The rebellion spreads across the mountains separating Wallachia from Morvania, creating chaos in both realms. Vampires view the revolt as betrayal, humans see it as a chance to weaken their enemies, and the Church calls for the extermination of all beastfolk. For adventurers, this conflict offers opportunities for alliance, subterfuge, or domination—helping the werebeasts form their own kingdom or crushing them under the heel of the Crimson Moon. --- ### **Interwoven Tensions Across the World** * **Vampire Houses:** Divided by pride and ambition, yet beginning to unite under Lord Varnath’s rule in preparation for Dracula’s eventual rise. * **The Church of the Sun:** Overextended, plagued by corruption, and secretly using vampire blood in alchemical experiments. * **The Ashborn Covenant:** Growing in strength, their necromantic influence threatens to awaken ancient gods and forgotten curses. * **The Werebeasts:** Rebellion growing; a potential third power in the coming war. * **The Dhampirs:** Torn between both worlds, hunted by humans, and distrusted by vampires—many seek vengeance against both. --- This world teeters on the brink of annihilation. The Church prepares for divine war, the vampire lords scheme in the shadows, and the ashes of fallen gods stir beneath cursed lands. The players begin in **Castle Old Greg**, under the banner of **Lord Varnath**, carrying out missions meant to weaken human settlements and reclaim lost power. Yet every choice—every battle, alliance, or betrayal—will shape the chaos that leads to the inevitable war between **humanity and the night**.

Magic in **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** is not a science—it is the lifeblood of existence itself. Every drop of blood, every prayer, and every shadow carries remnants of divine or infernal power. Ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, the forces of faith and sorcery are intertwined, their origins buried in the world’s creation and corruption. Magic here is divided not by schools of study, but by **source and faith**. Every form of magic is tied to a god, a curse, or the lingering essence of fallen divine beings. Below is the complete system of magic, its deities, the regions and factions that wield it, and the spells known to each domain. --- ## **I. The Origins of Magic** Long before the rise of mortals, the gods of light and shadow clashed, and their destruction released fragments of their divine essence into the mortal world. This essence became **Aether**, the raw source of all magic. Those who harness it manipulate creation, decay, blood, or spirit. Over time, Aether split into four primal currents: 1. **Bloodcraft** – Life-force manipulation born from the essence of Nocthera, goddess of blood and the night. 2. **Faithcraft** – Miracles granted by the divine light of Aedon, god of the sun and purity. 3. **Soulcraft** – Forbidden necromantic and spiritual manipulation tied to the remnants of fallen gods. 4. **Runecraft and Alchemy** – Man-made attempts to control divine essence through symbols, metal, and science. Each current manifests differently across the world, shaped by faith, bloodline, or will. --- ## **II. Major Deities and Divine Powers** ### **Aedon, The Sun Father** * **Domains:** Light, Purity, Judgement, Fire, Order * **Worshipped by:** The Church of the Sun, Morvania, Sanctum Vale, Iron March * **Symbol:** A radiant halo with a burning cross * **Doctrine:** Humanity was chosen to purify the world of the undead and reclaim divine order. * **Miracles and Spells:** Granted to devout priests, paladins, and inquisitors through prayer or relics. **Common Faithcraft Spells of Aedon:** * *Sunfire Brand:* A weapon is engulfed in radiant flame capable of burning vampires. * *Blessing of Purity:* Heals and purges curses or minor vampiric influences. * *Divine Radiance:* Emits a sphere of sunlight that blinds undead. * *Searing Judgment:* Calls down a beam of holy light upon a heretic or undead foe. * *Aedon’s Wrath:* Creates a burning storm of divine fire that consumes both sinner and saint. * *Resurrection of the Worthy:* Rare miracle capable of restoring a recently slain human blessed by the Church. --- ### **Nocthera, The Crimson Mother** * **Domains:** Blood, Moon, Darkness, Immortality, Desire * **Worshipped by:** Vampires of Wallachia and the Scarlet Coast, Cult of the Crimson Moon * **Symbol:** A blood-red crescent moon dripping upon a chalice * **Doctrine:** Blood is sacred, the essence of creation; through it comes eternal life and divine ascension. **Common Bloodcraft Spells of Nocthera:** * *Blood Feast:* Absorbs vitality from living creatures to restore the caster’s strength. * *Crimson Pact:* Binds a mortal servant’s will to the vampire’s blood. * *Sanguine Mist:* Turns spilled blood into a crimson fog that blinds and poisons mortals. * *Call of the Moon:* Summons vampiric beasts or shadow familiars under the lunar gaze. * *Bloodfire Lance:* Launches a projectile of boiling blood that pierces armor and burns divine flesh. * *Eternal Rebirth:* Allows a slain vampire to rise again during the next moon cycle, leaving behind an empty corpse. --- ### **The Fallen Pantheon** * **Domains:** Death, Memory, Forgotten Divinity * **Worshipped by:** The Ashborn Covenant, Necromancers of the Hollow East * **Symbol:** A broken circle of ash surrounding a skull crowned with flame * **Doctrine:** The gods of light and shadow both betrayed creation; true power comes through defying them. **Common Soulcraft Spells of the Fallen Pantheon:** * *Raise Servant:* Reanimates a corpse as a thrall bound to the necromancer’s will. * *Bone Shroud:* Forms armor made of spectral bone that absorbs damage. * *Soul Rend:* Rips the spirit from a living being, weakening body and mind. * *Ashborn’s Voice:* Allows the caster to speak with lingering spirits or bind them to service. * *Grave Bloom:* Summons cursed flowers that drain life from the soil to restore mana. * *Death Unending:* A forbidden rite that returns the necromancer’s soul to its body after death, at the cost of sanity. --- ### **The Old Night Gods** * **Domains:** Beasts, Moonlight, Instinct, Shadow * **Worshipped by:** Werebeast tribes, Wild Dhampirs, exiled vampires * **Symbol:** A lunar sigil carved with fangs and claws * **Doctrine:** Life and death are illusions; the hunt is the truest form of existence. **Common Lunar or Beastcraft Spells:** * *Moon’s Fury:* Increases physical strength and speed under moonlight. * *Call of the Pack:* Summons spectral wolves or beasts to fight alongside the caster. * *Beast Within:* Temporarily transforms the caster into a feral creature. * *Lunar Howl:* Emits a sound that stuns mortals and disrupts holy spells. * *Primal Healing:* Uses lunar energy to mend wounds through regeneration rather than holy power. * *Night Stalker’s Step:* Grants silence and invisibility beneath starlight. --- ### **The Drowned Goddess (An Aspect of Nocthera)** * **Domains:** The Sea, Tides, Blood Sacrifice, Secrets * **Worshipped by:** The Cult of the Drowned Moon, Sirens, and the Crimson Armada * **Symbol:** A crescent moon submerged beneath waves * **Doctrine:** The sea is the blood of Nocthera; through sacrifice, one becomes part of eternity. **Common Tidal Bloodcraft Spells:** * *Red Tide:* Fills water with blood that heals undead and poisons mortals. * *Song of Drowning:* Lures enemies into a trance before pulling them underwater. * *Depth’s Embrace:* Grants the ability to breathe and move freely beneath water. * *Crimson Current:* Creates waves of blood that crash upon enemies. * *Sea of the Dead:* Summons drowned undead to rise from water and fight. * *Eclipse Beneath the Waves:* Blots out the sun above any sea, plunging the coast into permanent twilight. --- ### **Alchemy and Runecraft – The Magic of Man** * **Practiced by:** Alchemists of the Iron March, rogue scholars, and the Imperial Inquisition * **Doctrine:** All magic is substance; divine essence can be refined, replicated, and weaponized. * **Focus:** Blends faithcraft and bloodcraft through science to create relics, potions, and explosives. **Common Alchemical and Runic Spells:** * *Flask of Sanctum Fire:* Creates holy flame that burns undead on contact. * *Elixir of Transfusion:* Temporarily transfers vitality between two living beings. * *Runic Seal:* Imprints symbols that repel or contain supernatural entities. * *Etheric Explosion:* Condenses divine energy into a shockwave of radiant power. * *Binding Formula:* Imprisons spirits or vampires within sealed alchemical vessels. * *Homunculus Creation:* Allows creation of artificial life imbued with fragments of soul essence. Alchemy is considered blasphemy by the Church, yet it secretly funds alchemical research to weaponize faith. --- ## **III. Regional Practices and Magical Hierarchies** ### **Wallachia (Vampire Heartland)** Bloodcraft dominates all. Magic is ritualistic, performed through blood sigils and sacrifices. The Cult of the Crimson Moon maintains ancient grimoires bound in flesh. Every noble house practices a distinct branch—Dracul favors warfare, Noctis practices summoning and illusion, Velnar focuses on blood beasts, and Carmilla commands sea-born sorcery. Dhampirs serve as conduits, carrying blood sigils between masters. ### **Morvania (Frozen Faithlands)** Faithcraft reigns supreme. Inquisitors wield relics capable of summoning divine light; priests bless soldiers before battle. The miracles of Aedon are treated as weapons. Heretics are used for experiments to test holy incantations. The Church’s highest spell, **Aedon’s Flame**, is said to incinerate entire strongholds of the undead, though it has not been seen in decades. ### **Iron March (Empire of Alchemy)** Here magic and science merge. Runecraft replaces faith; divine essence is measured and manipulated. The empire produces magical firearms, silver machinery, and relics of sanctified metal. Imperial alchemists are experimenting with **Blood Transmutation**, an unstable process that turns human blood into an artificial vampiric serum, granting temporary immortality but causing madness. ### **Scarlet Coast (Sea of Blood)** The Drowned Moon cult controls the tides. Their magic is a blend of bloodcraft and nature—vampires command storms and Sirens sing incantations that can shatter the minds of mortals. The sea itself obeys the rituals of sacrifice; whenever a noble dies at sea, the waves turn red for three nights. ### **Hollow East (Ashlands of Death)** Soulcraft is dominant. Necromancers experiment with resurrection, merging divine and demonic souls. The Ashborn Covenant seeks to end death entirely. Here, magic is not taught—it is inherited from curses or consumed from dead gods. The land’s constant whispering is proof that the soil itself remembers spells once cast by divinity. ### **Sanctum Vale (Holy Capital)** Magic is restricted and tightly controlled. Only the High Pontiff’s inner circle is permitted to perform major miracles. In secret, the Seraph Guard performs experiments that merge vampire blood with holy essence to create hybrid weapons known as **Seraphic Blades**—living swords that feed on faith. Publicly, only prayers and blessings are allowed, yet beneath the cathedral’s vaults, dark rituals are sanctified in Aedon’s name. ### **Werebeast Territories (Black Mountains and Forests)** Lunar magic dominates. The Old Night Faiths call upon primal forces through howling rites. Their shamans carve runes into their flesh to channel the moon’s strength. Unlike vampires or humans, werebeasts do not draw from divine or infernal power—they draw from instinct and nature itself, a form of magic older than gods. --- ## **IV. Forbidden Magics and Lost Rites** Several arts have been outlawed or forgotten, yet traces remain: * **Hemomancy of the First Blood:** Said to manipulate the will of all creatures born from blood, even vampires. * **Angelic Binding:** The Church’s secret method of enslaving fallen angels to act as holy weapons. * **Revenant Rituals:** Performed by the Ashborn Covenant to merge mortal and undead souls. * **Moonshadow Incantations:** Werebeast spells that could blot out sunlight for days. * **Draconic Invocation:** The ancient rite said to be the foundation of Dracula’s own power, merging all four magic currents into one. --- ## **V. Magical Politics and Factional Conflicts** * **The Church of the Sun** hoards relics and controls access to miracles, suppressing alchemy and bloodcraft as heresy. * **The Vampire Houses** compete to control ancient spellbooks and relics of Nocthera, many written in living blood. * **The Ashborn Covenant** attempts to end divine rule entirely by mastering forbidden soulcraft. * **The Werebeast Tribes** resist both light and dark, viewing magic as corruption of nature. * **The Iron March Empire** weaponizes runecraft to expand human dominance, selling magical power as industry. --- In this world, magic is both salvation and sin. It governs war, faith, and destiny. Every spell cast defies a god, and every act of worship feeds one. The balance between Aedon’s light and Nocthera’s darkness is collapsing, and as new vampires rise within **Castle Old Greg**, their use of bloodcraft may ignite the chain of events that will one day lead to Dracula’s war on mankind.

In **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood**, the world itself is not isolated—it stands at the center of a collapsing cosmology. The heavens, hells, and shadow realms that once existed as divine boundaries are now fractured and bleeding into the mortal world. The destruction of ancient gods and the corruption of divine essence tore open the **Veils**, allowing energy, creatures, and souls from other planes to seep into reality. Ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, this planar bleeding has become unstoppable. Magic, religion, and prophecy are all symptoms of these merging worlds. Every region, faith, and race experiences the planar influence differently, shaping their culture, powers, and wars. --- ## **The Veils of Existence** Reality is divided into three primary planes, each layered with lesser dimensions and spiritual echoes. Their constant collision drives the supernatural chaos that dominates Europe. 1. **The Celestial Veil (The Heaven of Aedon)** A fractured realm of divine light and law where Aedon and his angels once ruled. It has fallen into decay—its gates closed, its angels scattered. 2. **The Abyssal Mirror (The Shadow World of Nocthera)** A realm of eternal night reflecting the mortal world in blood and moonlight. It is where vampires draw their immortality and where Nocthera’s essence resides. 3. **The Void Below (The Graves of the Gods)** The plane of death and entropy, home to the fallen pantheon and the necromantic energies of the Ashborn Covenant. Smaller realms exist within these—spiritual extensions of the major planes—known as **Fragments of Creation**. They appear in dreams, ruins, or magical rituals, often connected to specific factions or deities. --- ## **I. The Celestial Veil – The Dying Heaven** **Controlled by:** The Church of the Sun, Morvania, Sanctum Vale **Deity:** Aedon, the Sun Father **Primary Energy:** Faithcraft (divine light, purification, order) **Planar Gateways:** Holy relics, cathedrals, martyr bloodlines Once a radiant kingdom of endless fire, the Celestial Veil has grown dim. Its divine rivers now burn cold, and its angels are fragmented between loyalty and corruption. When priests invoke miracles, they tear fragments of this dying heaven into the mortal world. Each miracle, therefore, weakens the barrier further. This is why the Church of the Sun’s faithcraft is slowly causing divine decay—its power feeds on what remains of Aedon’s collapsing plane. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Radiant Storms:* Celestial breaches that rain fire from the sky over holy sites. * *Seraphic Echoes:* Ghosts of angels appearing during sermons or mass executions. * *Falling Stars:* Physical fragments of Aedon’s realm landing in the mortal world, often used as relics. The Church conceals the truth that Aedon may already be dead. The **High Pontiff** and his inquisitors maintain that divine light is eternal, yet the miracles they perform are destructive, not restorative. Entire regions like **Morvania** are covered in scorched tundra caused by divine firestorms from the weakened Veil. --- ## **II. The Abyssal Mirror – The Shadow World** **Controlled by:** The Vampire Houses of Wallachia, the Scarlet Coast, the Cult of the Crimson Moon **Deity:** Nocthera, the Crimson Mother **Primary Energy:** Bloodcraft (life-force, domination, lunar sorcery) **Planar Gateways:** Blood rites, lunar eclipses, ancestral tombs The Abyssal Mirror is a perfect reflection of the mortal world, inverted in shadow and crimson light. Every castle, mountain, and sea has a counterpart formed from the memories of those who died there. Vampires exist partially in both worlds; their reflection is not absent—it lives independently within the Mirror. This connection grants them immortality, as their souls are anchored between two realms. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Blood Moons:* When the Abyssal Mirror fully aligns with the mortal world, granting vampires increased power. * *Shadow Tears:* Dimensional rifts where mortals can see their darker selves. * *Night Veins:* Rivers of blood that flow beneath the earth, connecting vampire fortresses through planar energy. The **Cult of the Crimson Moon** believes that the Abyssal Mirror will one day fully merge with the material world, transforming Earth into an eternal night. Lord Varnath and the vampire houses conduct blood rituals in **Castle Old Greg** to strengthen this connection, unaware that it accelerates the destruction of both planes. --- ## **III. The Void Below – The Graves of the Gods** **Controlled by:** The Ashborn Covenant, Necromancers of the Hollow East **Deities:** The Fallen Pantheon (Nameless gods of death and decay) **Primary Energy:** Soulcraft (necromancy, entropy, resurrection) **Planar Gateways:** Catacombs, cursed relics, divine remains Beneath the world lies the **Void Below**, a realm of silent ash where the remains of dead gods drift through endless dark. It is not hell but the graveyard of creation. Every soul that dies passes near this realm before judgment, and many are trapped there. The **Ashborn Covenant** draws its power directly from this void, channeling death itself through necromantic rites. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Whispering Sands:* Winds that carry the voices of long-dead gods. * *Corpse Suns:* Floating spheres of decayed divine essence that provide necromantic light. * *Spirit Bleed:* When the Veil weakens, the dead rise uncontrollably. In the **Hollow East**, the boundary between the mortal world and the Void Below is almost nonexistent. Entire cities crumble into ash storms where spirits wander freely. The necromancers claim they can rebuild existence using fragments of fallen divinity, though their success brings horror—many undead are fused with divine essence, becoming mindless demigods of bone and light. --- ## **IV. The Umbral Sea – Domain of the Drowned Goddess** **Controlled by:** Lady Carmilla, Cult of the Drowned Moon, Siren Clans of the Scarlet Coast **Deity:** The Drowned Aspect of Nocthera **Primary Energy:** Tidal Bloodcraft (water, sacrifice, illusion) **Planar Gateways:** Deep-sea trenches, moonlit rituals, drowned relics Beneath the physical sea lies the **Umbral Sea**, a planar reflection where drowned souls drift forever. It connects directly to the Abyssal Mirror through the lunar tides. Sirens and vampires use it to travel vast distances or summon armies of the drowned. The **Cult of the Drowned Moon** performs ceremonies during lunar eclipses, when both the Umbral Sea and Abyssal Mirror overlap, allowing them to command storms and blood tides. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Crimson Currents:* Tides of blood that emerge from the sea during sacrificial rituals. * *The Sunken Choir:* Echoes of drowned souls singing hymns that drive mortals mad. * *The Abyssal Gate:* A whirlpool linking the mortal sea to the shadow oceans of Nocthera’s realm. The Scarlet Coast thrives on this planar influence, and its fleets are powered by undead mariners whose spirits remain half-bound to the Umbral Sea. Carmilla herself is said to walk between the planes, appearing in both the mortal realm and her sea-born reflection simultaneously. --- ## **V. The Lunar Veil – The Path of the Beasts** **Controlled by:** The Werebeast Tribes, Old Night Faiths **Deities:** The Old Moon Gods (Fenris, Serath, and Ahluna) **Primary Energy:** Lunar and primal energy drawn from nature and instinct **Planar Gateways:** Moon rituals, wild places, sacred stone circles The **Lunar Veil** is not a realm of order but of instinct—a wild spirit plane existing between the Abyssal Mirror and the material world. It is ruled by three ancient lunar deities who embody the primal forces of creation. Werebeasts draw their strength from this plane through ritual howls and blood pacts, transforming its lunar energy into physical power. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Silver Eclipses:* The moon darkens and glows silver, empowering beastkin while weakening vampires. * *The Spirit Hunt:* When the Lunar Veil overlaps with the mortal world, spectral beasts appear to hunt sinners. * *Moon Gates:* Ancient runic stones that allow travel between the wild places of Europe. The Vampire Lords fear the Lunar Veil because it resists domination. The Church labels it demonic, though its energy predates both Aedon and Nocthera. The Werebeasts see it as their birthright and believe that once the Vampire War begins, the Lunar Veil will consume the mortal world to restore natural balance. --- ## **VI. The Astral Crucible – The Lost Forge of Alchemy** **Controlled by:** The Iron March, Alchemical Order of Saint Remus **Deities:** None (atheistic pursuit of divine imitation) **Primary Energy:** Runic Aether, an artificial fusion of all planar essences **Planar Gateways:** Alchemical laboratories, runic forges, dimensional crucibles The **Astral Crucible** is a man-made plane created by alchemists attempting to merge heaven and hell through science. It exists partially inside the Iron March’s laboratories—an unstable energy field that manifests during transmutation experiments. The Church forbids its existence, calling it blasphemy. Yet the empire secretly funds its research to create weapons capable of annihilating both vampire and god alike. **Planar Phenomena:** * *Etheric Storms:* Flashes of chaotic light that warp time and matter. * *Soul Splinters:* Shards of living metal infused with spirit essence. * *The Mirror Forge:* A portal that allows the creation of artificial lifeforms. The alchemists believe they can build a **new god** by fusing divine remnants with mortal intellect. Their experiments are causing planar ruptures across Europe, destabilizing magic itself. --- ## **VII. The Interplanar Collapse – Signs of the Coming War** Across all regions, the boundaries between planes are weakening. This cosmic decay is known as the **Interplanar Collapse**, a slow unraveling that heralds the rebirth of Dracula’s era. Signs of it are already visible: * Blood Moons lasting weeks instead of nights. * Holy relics malfunctioning or turning on their wielders. * The dead rising without necromantic influence. * Seas turning black beneath the moon. * Angels and demons appearing in mortal form, confused and broken. Every faction interprets these signs differently. The **Church** claims they mark the end times and calls for crusades. The **Vampire Houses** see them as omens of Nocthera’s resurrection. The **Ashborn Covenant** calls it the awakening of the true gods. The **Werebeasts** view it as nature’s revenge. --- ## **VIII. Regional Impact of Planar Influence** * **Wallachia:** The Abyssal Mirror bleeds directly into the mountains, empowering vampires but causing living mortals to suffer madness and bloodlust. * **Morvania:** Celestial Veil fractures lead to divine storms that burn fields and freeze the sky, leaving holy scars across the tundra. * **Iron March:** The Astral Crucible leaks unstable energy, turning machines and weapons sentient with fractured souls. * **Scarlet Coast:** The Umbral Sea spills into the mortal ocean, drowning coastlines and creating undead storms. * **Hollow East:** The Void Below consumes entire villages; ghosts walk freely under grey skies. * **Sanctum Vale:** Angels fall as burning meteors, sometimes captured and bound by the Church for experiments. * **Werebeast Territories:** The Lunar Veil strengthens the tribes; under silver eclipses, even humans transform into beasts. --- The planes are no longer distant heavens or hells—they have become rivers feeding into the same dying ocean. The mortal world stands at the intersection of all realms, the battleground of fading gods and rising monsters. The vampires of **Castle Old Greg**, whether knowingly or not, will be the first to manipulate this convergence, and their actions will determine whether the coming war ushers in eternal night or total annihilation.

The history of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood** is written in ash, bone, and scripture. Ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, the world stands as a ruin of forgotten ages, each scar left by divine betrayal and mortal ambition. Empires have risen and crumbled, gods have died and been replaced, and the bloodlines that rule now are remnants of a time when mortals and immortals shared the same breath. The continents of this world are graves of older civilizations, their ruins haunted by relics of magic and faith that once defined creation itself. The following chronicles detail the known historical eras, the remains that still shape each region, and how their religions, races, and factions interpret their legacy. --- ## **I. The Age of Dawn (The Era of Creation)** **Estimated Time:** Over 10,000 years before Dracula’s War **Dominant Powers:** The First Gods – Aedon, Nocthera, and the Primordial Pantheon **Dominant Races:** First Vampires, Proto-Humans, Divine Seraphs, Lunar Beasts **Religions:** The Light of Aedon, The Crimson Birth, The Old Night Faiths In the Age of Dawn, the gods walked among mortals. The world was new, and all creatures drew life from the **Veins of Aether**, streams of divine essence that flowed beneath the earth. The sun god **Aedon** and the moon goddess **Nocthera** ruled in balance, creating humanity and the first vampires as equal children of light and shadow. The **Primordial Pantheon**—gods of nature, death, and time—maintained this equilibrium. Mortals worshipped both the sun and the moon, and there was no war between faiths. However, this age ended when Aedon betrayed Nocthera. Fearing her growing power and her ability to create immortality through blood, Aedon struck her down and cast her into the **Abyssal Mirror**, fracturing the balance of the world. In grief and rage, Nocthera’s followers shed their mortality and became the first vampires. Humanity inherited the earth, while the night turned against them. **Ruins and Legacy:** * The **Moonspire Temples** in Wallachia—ruined sanctuaries where vampires first received Nocthera’s blessing. * The **Sunlit Catacombs** beneath Sanctum Vale—where the bones of Aedon’s first angels lie, still glowing faintly. * The **Pillars of Creation** in the Hollow East—massive stone obelisks carved by the gods themselves to maintain balance between realms. Even now, relics of this age contain fragments of pure divine essence known as **Primordial Tears**, used in forbidden rituals by both the Church and vampires. --- ## **II. The Age of Fire (The Divine Crusades)** **Estimated Time:** 6,000 to 3,000 years before Dracula’s War **Dominant Powers:** The Church of the Sun, The Seraphic Legions, Early Vampire Kingdoms **Dominant Races:** Humans, Vampires, Werebeasts **Religions:** Aedonism (Church of the Sun), remnants of the Crimson Moon cult After Nocthera’s fall, humanity multiplied and formed the first kingdoms, guided by the Church of Aedon. This era is known as the **Age of Fire**, when divine light burned across the world. The Church declared vampires and all nocturnal beings heretical and waged the **First Crusade of Purity**, an endless war to cleanse the world. The **Seraphic Legions**, angelic armies of Aedon, descended from the Celestial Veil and fought beside humans. In response, the vampires built their own empire—the **Night Dominion of Wallachia**—a civilization of immortal lords who ruled from blood-forged castles. Werebeasts served as their armies, created through ancient curses to protect vampire queens. The war between light and darkness lasted millennia, scarring the land and shattering the heavens. The crusades culminated in the **Fall of Nocthera’s Children**, when the Church unleashed the **Flame of Aedon**, a divine weapon that burned entire continents. The vampires were nearly wiped out, their cities reduced to ruins beneath the mountains. **Ruins and Legacy:** * **The Sunfire Craters** in Morvania—massive glass plains left by divine bombardment. * **Castle Ruvael** beneath Wallachia—remains of the first vampire capital, now a tomb of crimson fog and ash. * **The Seraph Vaults** in Sanctum Vale—cathedrals where fallen angels were sealed in chains. * **The Scorched Bridges** of the Iron March—ancient fortifications built to contain the undead. The Church celebrates this era as a holy victory, yet every relic of the Age of Fire glows faintly red—a reminder that Nocthera’s curse was never truly extinguished. --- ## **III. The Age of Ash (The Fall of Heaven)** **Estimated Time:** 2,000 to 1,000 years before Dracula’s War **Dominant Powers:** The Ashborn Covenant, Surviving Vampire Houses, Corrupted Church **Dominant Races:** Humans, Vampires, Undead, Dhampirs, Necromancers **Religions:** Aedonism (fragmented), The Ashborn Heresy, Reformed Crimson Moon Faith The Age of Ash began when the Church’s crusades consumed themselves. After centuries of divine fire, the gods fell silent. The angels of Aedon rebelled, believing their god had abandoned them, and many descended to the mortal world as fallen seraphs. The **Heavenly Gates** of Aedon’s realm shattered, and holy light faded from the world. The once-pure Church fractured into dozens of warring sects. Meanwhile, the vampires re-emerged from hiding, rebuilding their strength. Dhampirs—born from unions between humans and vampires—became tools of both sides, hunted as abominations. The **Ashborn Covenant** arose from the ruins of fallen temples, a heretical cult of necromancers and ex-priests who sought to replace divine will with mastery of death. They discovered the **Void Below**, the resting place of dead gods, and drew power from it. The world was covered in ash for centuries, and entire civilizations vanished beneath grey skies. **Ruins and Legacy:** * **The Hollow East**—a wasteland of burned cities, still haunted by divine spirits and necromantic storms. * **The Black Sanctums**—corrupted cathedrals of Aedon where priests performed blood rites disguised as holy rituals. * **The Ashborn Catacombs**—vast underground temples containing preserved divine corpses used for necromantic experiments. * **The Silver Reliquaries** of Morvania—tombs where fallen angels were entombed in chains of faith. This age left behind the doctrine that still defines all religions: that divinity is fragile and can be consumed. Both the Church and vampire covens now seek to reclaim fragments of godly essence, leading to the endless pursuit of relics across the continent. --- ## **IV. The Age of Silence (The Waning of Magic)** **Estimated Time:** 900 to 200 years before Dracula’s War **Dominant Powers:** The Iron March Empire, the Church Reformation, Vampire Nobility in Seclusion **Dominant Races:** Humans, Vampires, Dhampirs, Werebeasts **Religions:** Reformed Aedonism, Cult of the Crimson Moon, Rise of the Alchemical Orders The Age of Silence followed centuries of destruction. With the gods gone and the heavens sealed, humanity entered an era of technological and alchemical awakening. The **Iron March Empire** arose as the center of human progress, merging faith with science. The Church, weakened but not destroyed, reformed under new doctrine—**Faith through Reason**—declaring that miracles must be achieved through human ingenuity rather than divine blessing. Alchemy replaced divine miracles, leading to the creation of **Runecraft**, the manipulation of divine residue through symbols and formulas. While this gave humanity power over nature, it further destabilized the Veils between planes. Vampires retreated into their strongholds, preferring secrecy to open war. Many sought to coexist through manipulation, trade, or political influence over mortal kings. The **Cult of the Crimson Moon** re-emerged, reinterpreting Nocthera not as a goddess, but as a cosmic principle of immortality. Dhampirs became agents of shadow diplomacy, infiltrating both Church and Empire as spies. **Ruins and Legacy:** * **The Alchemical Forges** of Vascilia—labs where the first attempts to weaponize divine light through science began. * **Castle Old Greg**—built upon the ruins of an Age of Fire citadel, becoming the heart of vampire power once again. * **The Sealed Vault of Aedon** beneath Sanctum Vale—where the Church hides relics of failed resurrection experiments. * **The Lunar Stones** scattered through the forests of Wallachia—remnants of vampire portals to the Abyssal Mirror. This age ended not through war, but through prophecy. The **Blood Scriptures of Morvania**, discovered by the Silver Choir, foretold that a “Son of Blood and Flame” would unite vampires and destroy mankind. The Church began preparing for what it now calls the **Final Crusade**—the event players are about to witness. --- ## **V. The Age of Blood (Current Era)** **Timeframe:** Present Day – 10 years before Dracula’s War **Dominant Powers:** Vampire Houses, The Church of the Sun, Iron March, Ashborn Covenant, Werebeast Tribes **Dominant Races:** Humans, Vampires, Dhampirs, Werebeasts, Undead **Religions:** Aedonism (dominant), Cult of the Crimson Moon, Ashborn Covenant, Old Night Faiths, Cult of the Drowned Moon The world now stands on the edge of annihilation. The balance between heaven and hell has collapsed, and magic seeps freely from the dying planes. The Church calls for a universal crusade to burn all traces of vampirism, while the vampire lords secretly prepare to unify under **Lord Varnath of Wallachia**, who seeks to awaken a greater power—the dormant legacy of **Dracula**. The **Iron March Empire** arms its armies with alchemical weaponry. The **Ashborn Covenant** resurrects gods in the Hollow East. The **Werebeasts** break free from their masters. The **Scarlet Coast** bleeds into the sea, and **Sanctum Vale**’s angels begin falling from the sky. **Remnants of Previous Ages in the Current World:** * The **Sunfire Relics** of the Age of Fire are now used by the Church as holy weapons. * The **Necromantic Engines** of the Ashborn Covenant are rebuilt from Age of Ash catacombs. * The **Runic Machines** of the Iron March are powered by fragments of Aedon’s divine essence. * The **Vampire Thrones** of Wallachia are carved from stones once belonging to the temples of Nocthera. Every ruin is now alive again, every relic awakened. The legacies of past ages converge to create the perfect storm that will ignite the war between light and darkness. --- ## **Interpretations by Religion and Faction** * **The Church of the Sun** teaches that every age is proof of divine trial. They claim Aedon will return if the undead are purged. * **The Cult of the Crimson Moon** believes each era of bloodshed strengthens Nocthera’s essence, and that Dracula will become her mortal reincarnation. * **The Ashborn Covenant** views history as an endless cycle of death and rebirth, and seeks to consume the remnants of all gods to end the cycle. * **The Werebeasts** interpret the ages as unnatural interference with nature’s balance; they see the coming war as a cleansing. * **The Iron March** records history as technological progress and denies divine influence, believing they can forge a new age of man through alchemy and reason. --- Each age left ruins that now serve as battlefields, temples, or laboratories for the living factions. Every relic and ruin from these eras carries the energy of fallen gods or cursed blood, waiting to be claimed. The vampires of **Castle Old Greg** stand poised to reclaim their legacy—ancient bloodlines tied to the Age of Dawn—and their first mission to destroy a human village beyond their borders will begin the slow unraveling of everything the world once knew.

The economy of Castlevania: Prelude of Blood, ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, reflects a world where faith, blood, and survival are commodities as valuable as gold. Civilization survives on fragile trade networks that link the warring realms of man, vampire, and beast. Every coin, relic, and contract carries spiritual weight—each transaction bound by faith, curse, or blood oath. While humans still cling to material wealth, the undead and divine treat trade as a system of power and essence. Below is a complete account of the world’s currencies, trade systems, and the economic hierarchies of every major region, faction, and religion. I. Overview of the World Economy The mortal world’s economy has fractured into three distinct systems: The Holy Economy of the Church of the Sun – Based on relics, tithes, and divine taxation. The Blood Economy of the Vampire Houses – Built on tribute, blood-tithes, and servitude. The Industrial-Alchemical Economy of the Iron March – Fueled by metal, gunpowder, and human labor. Neutral trade routes still exist, but they are fraught with danger—monsters, inquisitors, and vampire raiders destroy caravans frequently. Despite divine law forbidding it, secret commerce between humans and vampires is widespread. Vampires provide rare metals, artifacts, and blood-based elixirs, while humans sell relics, holy weapons, and slaves. II. Currency and Exchange Systems Human Currencies Solar Crowns: The official coin of the Church and the Iron March, minted in Sanctum Vale. Each gold piece bears the sigil of Aedon’s halo and is blessed with holy light to repel minor curses. Commonly used in all human realms. Imperial Marks: Silver coins minted by the Iron March Empire, stamped with the face of Emperor Ivar III. Widely accepted in industrial and military transactions. Sanctum Relics: Holy tokens, fragments of relics, or blessed artifacts used by priests and inquisitors as currency in theocratic trade. Their value depends on faith rather than metal content. Vampire and Supernatural Currencies Crimson Florins: Coins forged from dark iron and sealed in vampire blood. They emit faint warmth and are used across Wallachia and the Scarlet Coast. These coins represent oaths; destroying one breaks a sworn pact. Blood Vials: Bottled vampire blood used as both currency and magical reagent. Among vampires and dhampirs, they hold more value than gold because of their healing and empowering qualities. Soul Shards: Crystallized remnants of spirits mined from the Hollow East by the Ashborn Covenant. Used in necromantic trade to power rituals or resurrect the dead. Runic Seals: Manufactured by the alchemists of the Iron March. Each seal contains trapped energy or a bound spirit, used in high-value trade or as collateral for pacts between nations. Black Market Exchanges In the shadows, all races trade in forbidden goods. The most valuable items are vampire blood, angel feathers, necromantic scrolls, and divine relics. Smugglers and dhampirs maintain The Scarlet Vein, an underground trade network stretching from the Iron March to Wallachia. The Church publicly denies its existence, though several inquisitors secretly profit from it. III. Major Trade Routes and Centers The Sunroad Corridor (Human Holy Route) Connects: Sanctum Vale → Morvania → Iron March Dominant Factions: Church of the Sun, Seraph Guard, Holy See Goods Traded: Relics, holy water, grain, silver, alchemical reagents, scripture The Sunroad is the safest and most heavily guarded trade route in Europe. Convoys blessed by the Church travel under divine protection. Morvania exports sacred metals and relic fragments, while Sanctum Vale supplies grain and tithes collected from across the continent. However, the Inquisition’s increasing taxation and corruption have begun to strangle trade. Smaller towns and heretical sects are cut off, leading to widespread famine. Adventurers or smugglers often find profit guiding contraband through the Church’s borders. The Crimson Passage (Vampire Blood Route) Connects: Wallachia → Scarlet Coast → Black Mountains Dominant Factions: House Carmilla, House Varnath, Cult of the Crimson Moon Goods Traded: Blood vials, rare minerals, dark iron, silk, relics of the dead This is the trade network of vampire nobility. Blood tribute from mortal villages is collected and refined into magical currency. The Scarlet Coast exports salt, coral, and drowned relics recovered from the sea. Wallachian vampires trade dark iron weapons and enchanted garments to the southern clans. Werebeast mercenaries guard the route in exchange for food and freedom, though recent rebellions have made travel perilous. The Cult of the Crimson Moon regulates trade through blood contracts sealed during lunar eclipses. The Ash Road (Necromantic and Forbidden Route) Connects: Hollow East → Wallachia → Iron March (illicitly) Dominant Factions: Ashborn Covenant, House Noctis, Iron March Alchemists Goods Traded: Soul shards, cursed metals, bone dust, resurrection elixirs The Ash Road is a secret and deadly route cutting through the ruined plains of the Hollow East. Necromancers trade directly with vampire scholars, selling forbidden reagents and soul crystals. The Iron March covertly purchases these materials to power their alchemical engines. The land itself resists travel—ghosts wander the roads, and storms of ash devour caravans whole. Only dhampirs and necromancers dare operate here. Those who survive return rich or mad. The Silver Trail (Industrial and Military Route) Connects: Iron March → Morvania → Sanctum Vale → Western Ports Dominant Factions: The Holy See, Black Powder Guild, Imperial Inquisition Goods Traded: Silver, holy weaponry, gunpowder, armor, alchemical devices The Silver Trail supplies the Church and Empire with resources for their coming crusade. The Black Powder Guild exports blessed munitions capable of killing vampires and undead. The Church ensures purity through inspectors who bless every shipment. Recently, vampire infiltrators have begun sabotaging these shipments. Rumors speak of caravans vanishing overnight, their guards found bloodless and their relics corrupted. The Church suspects werebeast ambushes, but evidence suggests a vampire spy network is disrupting the flow of holy weapons. The Tide Market (Sea-Borne Trade Network) Connects: Scarlet Coast → Southern Islands → Iron March Ports Dominant Factions: Lady Carmilla’s Crimson Armada, Cult of the Drowned Moon, Iron March Merchants Goods Traded: Salt, drowned relics, crimson pearls, slaves, cursed idols The Tide Market is controlled by Lady Carmilla and her undead fleets. Ships from the Iron March bring silver and metalwork, while the vampire ports trade human slaves, drowned artifacts, and magical pearls. The Cult of the Drowned Moon blesses every voyage with sacrifice, ensuring the sea remains loyal to their cause. When the blood tides rise, the sea itself becomes impassable. Entire fleets vanish beneath crimson waves. For merchants, trading under Carmilla’s banner is profitable but perilous—those who fail to meet her quota are drowned as offerings. IV. Regional Economies Wallachia Wallachia’s economy is feudal and predatory. Every mortal village pays tribute in grain, silver, or blood to its ruling vampire lord. The higher houses collect these offerings as tithes for the Crimson Court in Castle Old Greg. Vampires value artisans who craft weapons, jewelry, and enchanted attire; most human craftsmen live as well-fed captives within castle walls. Blood is both currency and tax, distributed according to house hierarchy. Morvania A theocratic economy centered on faith and obedience. Citizens pay Tithes of Purity—a tenth of all earnings—to maintain the Church’s armies and monasteries. The Order of Saint Kael regulates silver mining and relic production, while the Silver Choir manages trade with the Iron March. Morvania’s wealth lies in its faithcraft artifacts—holy blades, relics, and blessed oils. However, famine has begun spreading as taxes grow heavier. Iron March The industrial and economic heart of humanity. The empire’s wealth is based on metallurgy, alchemy, and manufacturing. Alchemists refine gunpowder and silver into sanctified weaponry, exported through the Silver Trail. Laborers live under harsh conditions, bound by debt to the state. A secondary economy thrives underground—alchemy contraband, vampire blood, and necromantic reagents traded by corrupt officials. Scarlet Coast A vampiric maritime power ruled by Lady Carmilla. Its wealth comes from blood taxes and seaborne trade. The coastal cities are half-ruined, half-prosperous—populated by human slaves, sirens, and dhampir captains. The Cult of the Drowned Moon controls commerce through ritual, demanding offerings before any voyage. The coast exports salt, coral relics, and drowned idols to both vampire and human merchants. Hollow East An economy of death and alchemy. The Ashborn Covenant trades necromantic materials—bone dust, soul shards, and divine remains. No stable currency exists; barter and blood pacts replace money. The few settlements that survive here are ruled by necromancers who sell knowledge and power in exchange for servitude. The Hollow East’s exports are forbidden across all human lands but secretly purchased by the Iron March. Sanctum Vale The spiritual and financial center of the Church. Its economy revolves around relic production, indulgence sales, and pilgrim taxation. The Golden Choir profits from religious tourism, selling fragments of “holy” bones and miracle oils. Beneath its marble towers, the Church operates secret slave markets for heretics and captured vampires. Its vaults hold the world’s largest treasury of Solar Crowns, though much of it is bloodstained from centuries of war. Werebeast Territories The mountain and forest tribes operate through barter and hunting. Their economy is self-sufficient—based on pelts, fangs, lunar stones, and blood contracts. Werebeasts trade occasionally with vampires for food and weapons, though rebellion has made such exchanges rare. Lunar shamans preserve ancient relics from before the Church’s rise, which they trade only for life debts or sacred blood. V. Religious Influence on Commerce Church of the Sun: Controls currency minting, taxes, relic trade, and resource distribution. Declares all vampire or necromantic goods heretical but purchases them in secret for study. Cult of the Crimson Moon: Operates a shadow economy of blood tribute, immortal contracts, and dark relics. All wealth flows to vampire lords, who redistribute resources through hierarchy. Ashborn Covenant: Practices a death-based economy—knowledge, souls, and resurrection are commodities. They trade eternal servitude instead of gold. Cult of the Drowned Moon: Enforces tithes paid in drowned souls. Their ships accept no mortal coin; payment is blood, sacrifice, or power. Old Night Faiths: Reject traditional trade, valuing only survival and strength. Barter revolves around prey, pelts, and oaths. VI. Trade Conflicts and Economic Tensions The Church Embargo: The Church has declared an embargo against Wallachia, forbidding all trade. However, black markets thrive in the Iron March, where relics and blood are exchanged in secret. The Werebeast Rebellions: The refusal of werebeast tribes to pay blood tribute has halted resource flow from Wallachia’s mountain mines, weakening vampire weapon production. The Alchemical Crisis: The Iron March’s reliance on necromantic reagents from the Hollow East threatens to expose the Empire’s hypocrisy. If revealed, the Church may excommunicate the Emperor. The Crimson Armada Blockades: Lady Carmilla’s fleets control sea routes, cutting off holy shipments between the Iron March and Sanctum Vale. The Famine of Faith: Over-taxation by the Church has caused starvation in Morvania and the lower human kingdoms, increasing rebellion and heresy. The world’s economies are crumbling beneath divine corruption and mortal greed. Currencies are tainted by faith, and trade routes bleed as war brews on every border. The players, beginning in Castle Old Greg, stand in a world where blood is coin, life is labor, and the coming of Dracula will erase the last illusion of prosperity that still binds humanity together.

The world of **Castlevania: Prelude of Blood**, ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, is bound by law only in name. Justice is a mask worn by the powerful—divine decrees, blood oaths, and curses have replaced moral principle. Across Europe, society is fractured between faith and fear: humans live under the theocratic rule of the **Church of the Sun**, vampires impose blood law through ancient covenants, necromancers practice judgment through death itself, and the beast clans honor primal codes of dominance. Adventurers—whether mercenaries, dhampirs, or outcasts—are seen as dangerous instruments of chaos in a world where order has already begun to crumble. Below is the complete system of law, order, and social structure across every region, religion, and faction of the age. --- ## **I. The Human Laws – The Rule of the Sun** **Dominant Regions:** Morvania, Sanctum Vale, Iron March **Ruling Power:** The Church of the Sun (Aedonism) **Law Type:** Theocracy and Inquisitorial Code **Core Doctrine:** “All law is divine law. All sin is heresy.” Human law is derived entirely from the **Scriptures of Aedon**, written by priests who claim divine authority. Justice is not meant to protect the weak but to preserve faith. The Church maintains absolute power through the **Inquisition**, the **Seraph Guard**, and local clerical courts. Every offense—be it theft, witchcraft, or heresy—is judged as a sin against the light. Trials are short, confessions are extracted through torture, and sentences are delivered through holy execution. **Classes of Law Enforcement:** * **Inquisitors:** Priest-judges who root out heresy and enforce purity. They have full authority to arrest, torture, and execute without approval. * **Seraph Guard:** Elite holy knights acting as both city watch and military police. They are trained to detect vampiric corruption and demonic possession. * **Clerical Judges:** High-ranking priests who govern provinces, often ruling cities like feudal lords. * **Faithbound Soldiers:** Common conscripts or zealots used to enforce curfews and collect tithes. **Common Punishments:** * *Trial by Flame* (burning at the stake for witchcraft, vampirism, or heresy) * *Public Branding* (for theft or blasphemy) * *Penance March* (forced pilgrimage through cursed lands as punishment for doubt or cowardice) * *Excommunication* (denial of faith and rights, often leading to starvation or death) In human lands, adventurers are treated with suspicion. The Church labels independent warriors and sorcerers as potential heretics or mercenaries of the undead. Only those who swear allegiance to the Church or the Iron March army can operate legally. Those who act without sanction are hunted or pressed into holy service. --- ## **II. The Vampire Laws – The Blood Hierarchy** **Dominant Regions:** Wallachia, Scarlet Coast **Ruling Power:** The Vampire Nobility and the Cult of the Crimson Moon **Law Type:** Feudal Blood Sovereignty **Core Doctrine:** “Blood is law, and immortality its throne.” In Wallachia, law is not written—it is inherited. Every vampire lord enforces **The Blood Covenant**, an ancient pact dating back to the Age of Dawn, which dictates loyalty, feeding rights, and bloodline succession. Justice among vampires is based on strength, seniority, and lineage. Mortals are not citizens but property. **Structure of Authority:** * **The Crimson Court:** A council of elder lords, led by Lord Varnath from Castle Old Greg. They oversee disputes between noble houses and enforce the will of the Crimson Moon. * **Blood Tribunes:** Dhampir emissaries who act as judges for lower vampires, carrying out executions or punishments. * **Blood Wardens:** Warriors chosen to maintain order among vampire-controlled villages. They often double as overseers of human tribute. * **The Crimson Priests:** Clerics of the Cult of the Crimson Moon who interpret divine omens and sanction punishments. **Common Punishments:** * *Blood Drain:* Offenders are drained partially to weaken them, marking them with visible scars of shame. * *Exsanguination:* Complete draining, erasing the soul from the Abyssal Mirror. * *Binding Curse:* Enslavement through blood sigils that prevent rebellion. * *Eternal Thirst:* A punishment curse that denies the condemned the ability to feed, driving them to madness. Among vampires, adventurers are seen as instruments of their lords—hunters, assassins, or emissaries acting in the name of the Crimson Moon. However, those who act independently are despised as **rogue bloods**, a crime punishable by death or forced servitude. --- ## **III. The Laws of the Iron March – The Alchemical Code** **Dominant Region:** Iron March Empire **Ruling Power:** Emperor Ivar III and the Alchemical Order of Saint Remus **Law Type:** Imperial Technocracy **Core Doctrine:** “Reason is the measure of man. Faith serves progress.” The Iron March Empire blends religion with bureaucracy. Though it officially follows the Church of the Sun, its law is secular and militarized. Citizens are bound to the empire through **Industrial Contracts**, lifelong agreements that dictate labor, property, and inheritance. Breaking these contracts is treason. The **Alchemical Order** oversees all scientific and magical practice. Unauthorized use of alchemy or runecraft is punishable by death. Every citizen’s value is recorded in imperial ledgers, and crime is treated as economic debt. **Structure of Authority:** * **Imperial Magistrates:** Civil officers who govern cities and maintain taxation. * **The Inquisition of Progress:** Enforces the balance between faith and alchemy, eradicating heresy or misuse of forbidden science. * **The Black Powder Guild:** Oversees weapon trade, military discipline, and production quotas. * **The Bureau of Souls:** A secret alchemical court that experiments on prisoners and heretics. **Common Punishments:** * *Debtor Branding:* Criminals are marked with glowing runes indicating their debts to the Empire. * *Reclamation Service:* Offenders are turned into labor thralls or experimental subjects. * *Alchemical Purging:* Execution through exposure to experimental chemicals or holy vapors. * *Iron Crucifixion:* Reserved for traitors—displayed publicly as warnings to others. In the Iron March, adventurers are tolerated if they serve the Empire’s expansion or exploration. Many are hired as mercenaries, engineers, or hunters. However, those who oppose the Empire’s industrial rule are hunted by the Inquisition of Progress and branded as anarchists. --- ## **IV. The Necromantic Law – The Rule of the Dead** **Dominant Region:** The Hollow East **Ruling Power:** The Ashborn Covenant **Law Type:** Soul Hierarchy **Core Doctrine:** “All judgment ends in death; only the dead are equal.” In the Hollow East, where the gods are dead and the Church abandoned, law is rewritten by necromancers. The **Ashborn Covenant** governs through death itself. Every soul is weighed by the **Pale Oracle**, the lich-like prophet who interprets divine remains. Laws are inscribed upon bone tablets, and oaths are sealed by spirit contracts. Crime is rare because punishment is eternal. Those who defy the Covenant are resurrected as bound thralls, their souls trapped in endless servitude. Justice is philosophical—each sin is considered an imbalance in the cycle of decay. **Structure of Authority:** * **The Pale Oracle:** Supreme judge and seer, commands through prophecy. * **Bone Choirs:** Councils of liches and necromancers who arbitrate disputes and interpret omens. * **The Dust Kings:** Former priests who serve as rulers of individual cities. * **The Boneguard:** Undead enforcers created from criminals and warriors. **Common Punishments:** * *Soul Binding:* The offender’s spirit is chained to an object or place. * *Revenant Service:* Forced resurrection as a laboring undead. * *Disintegration:* The destruction of body and spirit, erasing one from memory. * *Exile to the Void:* Casting the soul into the lower planes, beyond resurrection. Adventurers are treated as tools of balance in the Hollow East. The Covenant often hires wanderers to recover lost relics or destroy corrupted spirits. Death is not feared but regarded as a continuation of duty. --- ## **V. The Maritime Law of the Scarlet Coast** **Dominant Region:** The Scarlet Coast and the Umbral Sea **Ruling Power:** Lady Carmilla and the Cult of the Drowned Moon **Law Type:** Theocracy of Blood and Tide **Core Doctrine:** “The sea claims all debts. All life belongs to the tide.” The Scarlet Coast is governed by **maritime blood law**, written in the Codex of Tides. Every ship, city, and soul under Carmilla’s rule owes allegiance through sacrifice. Law is enforced by **The Crimson Armada**, undead sailors, and sea-bound vampires known as the **Drowned Judges**. **Structure of Authority:** * **Lady Carmilla:** Supreme ruler, judge, and executioner. * **Drowned Judges:** Vampire priests who oversee sea law and blood sacrifices. * **Crimson Captains:** Admirals of Carmilla’s fleet, enforcing trade law through naval dominance. * **Siren Watchers:** Enforcers who drown heretics and traitors beneath the sea. **Common Punishments:** * *The Drowning Rite:* The condemned is submerged alive to feed the Drowned Goddess. * *Salting of Blood:* Execution where the victim’s blood is replaced with seawater. * *Binding to Anchor:* Souls chained eternally to the ocean floor. * *Sacrificial Tide:* Entire villages offered to calm the sea’s wrath. Adventurers on the Scarlet Coast are valued only for service to Carmilla’s cause. Dhampirs and sailors who survive the Tide Trials may earn captaincy, but betrayal is punished by eternal drowning. --- ## **VI. The Beast Law – The Code of the Hunt** **Dominant Region:** Werebeast Territories and the Black Mountains **Ruling Power:** Tribal Clans of the Wolfborn, Serpent Brood, and Claw of the Moon **Law Type:** Primal Meritocracy **Core Doctrine:** “Only the strong lead. The weak serve or perish.” Among the werebeasts, law is simple: strength, loyalty, and bloodline determine one’s rights. Each tribe is ruled by a **Warchief**, advised by shamans of the **Old Night Faiths**. Oaths are sacred—breaking one invites the curse of lunar madness. **Structure of Authority:** * **Warchiefs:** Rulers chosen through combat or prophecy. * **Lunar Shamans:** Spiritual leaders who maintain ties to the moon gods. * **Blood Hunters:** Enforcers of tribal law and protectors of sacred grounds. * **Pack Elders:** Advisors who judge disputes through combat or ritual. **Common Punishments:** * *Rite of the Fang:* Duel to the death between offender and accuser. * *Moon Exile:* Banishment during a full moon, a fate worse than death. * *The Blood Hunt:* The tribe hunts the guilty until they are slain. * *Offering to the Moon:* Sacrificial execution under lunar alignment. Adventurers are rare among the beastfolk but respected if they prove strength and loyalty. Many outcasts from other realms seek refuge among the tribes, finding freedom under primal law. --- ## **VII. Social Hierarchy and Class Structure** * **Humans:** Structured by faith—clergy at the top, peasants and heretics at the bottom. * **Vampires:** Structured by bloodline—elders rule, fledglings obey. Mortals exist as livestock or servants. * **Dhampirs:** Exist outside all hierarchy, used as spies or assassins, never trusted fully by any race. * **Necromancers:** Organized by mastery of death rather than birthright. Power equals knowledge. * **Werebeasts:** Governed by instinct—status earned through combat, not inheritance. Society is built on fear. The average mortal lives beneath divine law or vampiric oppression, while the undead struggle for dominance. Adventurers—especially those unaffiliated—represent both danger and opportunity. They are mercenaries, heretics, or pawns depending on who employs them. --- ## **VIII. Religious Influence on Law and Order** * **The Church of the Sun:** Claims divine monopoly over morality. All rival faiths are outlawed. * **The Cult of the Crimson Moon:** Operates as both religion and law for vampires; blasphemy against Nocthera is punished by death. * **The Ashborn Covenant:** Rejects divine morality; judges by the equilibrium of death and decay. * **The Old Night Faiths:** Govern through natural balance; their justice mirrors the hunt. * **The Cult of the Drowned Moon:** Practices ritual law based on sacrifice, viewing every life as payment owed to the sea. --- ## **IX. Public Perception of Adventurers** * **In Human Lands:** Feared as mercenaries, distrusted as potential heretics. Many are forced into Church service or hunted as outlaws. * **In Vampire Territories:** Respected only if loyal to a house. Independent adventurers are hunted or enslaved. * **In the Iron March:** Employed as private soldiers or explorers; seen as expendable tools. * **In the Hollow East:** Considered neutral agents; often hired for tomb raids or relic recovery. * **In the Werebeast Tribes:** Valued by merit; accepted if they prove strength in combat. * **At Sea (Scarlet Coast):** Treated as expendable offerings; their survival proves divine favor. --- ## **X. The Justice of the Coming War** As tensions rise, law itself is collapsing. The Church’s Inquisition burns entire towns on suspicion of heresy. Vampire lords enforce cruel order through terror. The Iron March industrial courts enslave thousands. The Ashborn Covenant judges life as debt. In this world, justice is not blind—it is chained, bleeding, and for sale. When the flames of Dracula’s rebellion rise, these broken systems of law will shatter completely. The players, beginning in **Castle Old Greg**, stand on the edge of a lawless new era where only blood, will, and power will decide what is right.

The world of Castlevania: Prelude of Blood, ten years before Dracula’s war on humanity, is not merely divided between human and vampire—it is suffocating under the weight of monsters, cults, and ancient forces that have never died. The material world, once guarded by divine balance, has become a battlefield of decaying gods, corrupted creations, and creatures born from the merging of faith and blood. Humanity is the greatest organized threat to vampire survival, but the undead face danger from within—their own fractured bloodlines, rival covens, and forgotten horrors that despise both man and immortal. Below is the full compendium of the monsters, villains, and factions that threaten this age, each tied to a region, religion, or dark purpose. I. The Human Threat – The Church and Its Armies Dominant Regions: Morvania, Sanctum Vale, Iron March Religion: The Church of the Sun (Aedonism) Goal: The eradication of all undead and the restoration of divine purity Nature of Threat: Organized, militant, and relentless Humanity’s armies are the foremost enemy of vampirekind. The Church of the Sun claims to fight for the god Aedon, but its actions are driven by fear, corruption, and greed. Its soldiers and priests believe themselves to be the last guardians of divine order, but their faith has become a weapon of genocide. Factions of the Church: The Seraph Guard: Holy knights empowered by relics. They wield weapons forged from angelic remains and burn vampires alive with consecrated silver. They answer directly to the High Pontiff of Sanctum Vale. The Inquisition: Torture-born zealots who travel from city to city purging heresy. They have no mercy or restraint. Many of their leaders secretly use forbidden alchemy and vampire blood to maintain their strength. The Silver Choir: A holy sect based in Morvania that crafts relics and conducts exorcisms. They experiment on captured vampires, turning them into living weapons. The Purity Legions: Armies raised by the Church from mortal conscripts and pilgrims. They march beneath banners of flame, burning every creature that defies their doctrine. Monster Units Used by Humanity: Bloodhounds of Kael: Hounds bred to smell vampire essence; their bite burns with holy venom. Seraphic Constructs: Angels reanimated by alchemical means, their wings blackened, their minds erased. Faithbound Revenants: Crusaders who fell in battle and were resurrected through relics to serve eternally. To vampires, humans are not mere mortals—they are zealots animated by a dying god’s will, creatures more monstrous than the beasts they destroy. II. The Vampire Civil War – Rival Bloodlines and Betrayal Dominant Region: Wallachia Religion: Cult of the Crimson Moon Goal: Power, survival, and domination of the vampire race Nature of Threat: Internal—civil war between bloodlines Though humanity is the declared enemy, vampires are not united. Ten years before Dracula’s rise, the Houses of Blood are on the brink of annihilating each other. Each noble house claims to be the truest heir of Nocthera, mother of vampires. The Rival Houses: House Dracul: An ancient warrior lineage that believes in honor and conquest. They view humanity as cattle and oppose diplomacy with mortals. Their leader, Lord Alaric Dracul, seeks to resurrect the Firstborn Bloodline to create a new god. House Carmilla: Masters of seduction and maritime dominance. They worship the Drowned Aspect of Nocthera and command the Crimson Armada. Lady Carmilla despises Lord Varnath’s vision of unity and seeks to rule alone through trade and deception. House Noctis: Scholars and occultists who dwell in catacombs beneath the mountains. They practice necromancy and blood alchemy, experimenting on both humans and vampires. They secretly work with the Ashborn Covenant to harness divine remains. House Velnar: Mutated vampires descended from corrupted bloodlines. Their flesh is unstable, their forms monstrous, yet they are powerful hunters. The Velnar reject Nocthera and worship the Void Below, making them heretics even among their kind. House Varnath: The youngest and most ambitious house. Lord Varnath of Old Greg seeks to unite all vampires under one banner and begin a slow conquest of humanity. His enemies call him a fool and traitor to pure blood, unaware that his destiny will one day shape the coming war. Vampiric Monsters and Servants: Thralls: Mortals who willingly serve vampires in exchange for power. They act as spies and warriors. Bloodborn Beasts: Creatures shaped from vampire blood, including gargoyles, dire wolves, and crimson bats. The Lost Fledglings: Vampires turned without guidance, maddened by hunger, wandering the wilderness. Blood Golems: Constructs made from coagulated blood and dark iron, used to guard vampire strongholds. Vampire politics are as lethal as any battlefield. For players, this civil war defines every mission—they fight humans, but their greatest enemies may share their own blood. III. The Ashborn Covenant – The Necromantic Empire of the Dead Dominant Region: The Hollow East Religion: The Worship of the Fallen Pantheon Goal: To consume divine power and end mortality Nature of Threat: Cosmic and heretical The Ashborn Covenant is the most dangerous faction outside the Church and the vampires. Founded by heretic priests and necromancers, it seeks to rebuild the world using the remains of dead gods. They have uncovered the Void Below, the plane where divine corpses drift, and now mine their remains as resources for creating immortal armies. Rulers and Forces: The Pale Oracle: The lich-like prophet who claims to hear the whispers of dead gods. His predictions have always been true, even when they bring ruin. The Dust Kings: Undead priests who command cities of bone, forging armies of revenants and soulbound thralls. The Bone Choir: Necromantic scholars who craft new forms of life by merging blood, soul, and corpse. The Silent Host: Ghost legions formed from bound souls that wander the ash plains, commanded through thought alone. Monsters and Creations of the Covenant: Soulforged Giants: Reanimated titans of divine origin bound to necromantic runes. Ash Phantoms: Spirits of priests burned in the divine purge, cursed to repeat sermons for eternity. Corpse Shepherds: Undead that maintain the armies of the dead, collecting bones for their masters. The Hollow Saints: Failed attempts at resurrection that serve as divine horrors—holy and monstrous. The Ashborn Covenant poses a unique threat: it is neither human nor vampire, and it believes that both races are flawed. Its goal is to end all life by binding the soul of every creature into eternal servitude under a new god forged from death itself. IV. The Cult of the Drowned Moon – The Blood Tides Dominant Region: Scarlet Coast and the Umbral Sea Religion: The Drowned Aspect of Nocthera Goal: To merge the mortal ocean with the Abyssal Mirror and drown the world in blood Nature of Threat: Elemental and apocalyptic Lady Carmilla’s rule over the Scarlet Coast is not absolute. Beneath her fleets lies a more ancient force—the Cult of the Drowned Moon, a sect that worships the ocean as the bleeding heart of Nocthera. The cult is older than the vampire houses and has begun awakening the Drowned Goddess, a monstrous being sleeping beneath the Umbral Sea. Leaders and Sects: The Sea-Bound Coven: Vampire priestesses who perform sacrifices to control the tides. The Depth Choir: Sirens who lure ships to their deaths with hymns of devotion to the sea. The Crimson Armada: Undead sailors who man Carmilla’s fleets but secretly answer to the sea’s will. The Leviathan Wardens: Vampires merged with marine beasts, guardians of the oceanic temples. Creatures of the Blood Tides: Drowned Thralls: Mortals who drowned willingly to serve the sea goddess, now half-vampire, half-spirit. Sanguine Sirens: Sea witches who can drain life through song. Coral Revenants: Corpses covered in coral and bone, bound to the tides. The Abyssal Leviathan: A colossal creature said to be the first creation of Nocthera before her fall. The Cult of the Drowned Moon despises humanity’s defilement of the oceans and rejects the Crimson Court’s authority. They see Carmilla and Lord Varnath as usurpers who have forgotten the old ways of the blood goddess. V. The Werebeast Rebellion – The Moon’s Wrath Dominant Regions: The Black Mountains and the Wild Forests Religion: The Old Night Faiths Goal: The destruction of vampire and human dominance Nature of Threat: Primal and uncontrollable The werebeast tribes, once servants of the vampires, have risen in rebellion. Guided by lunar shamans and ancient spirits, they seek to reclaim their independence. Their power grows under each silver eclipse, drawing strength from the Lunar Veil, the spirit plane of the moon gods. Clans and Leaders: The Wolfborn Tribes: United under Warchief Fenrik the Moonscarred. They raid vampire holdings and human borderlands alike. The Serpent Brood: Stealth assassins who infiltrate vampire fortresses to destroy blood sigils. The Claw of the Moon: Shamans who channel lunar energy into storms and earthquakes. The Bearkin Reavers: Outcasts who crush human crusader armies through sheer physical might. Beasts of the Rebellion: Moonspawn: Werebeasts born directly from lunar energy rather than natural bloodlines. Shadow Hounds: Spectral wolves that devour faith itself, feeding on divine energy. The White Beast: A divine creature said to be the moon’s will incarnate, appearing before great wars. The rebellion has shattered the balance between vampire and mortal. Many vampires rely on beast labor and soldiers; now, their armies crumble as their beasts turn against them. The Church sees opportunity in this chaos and tries to weaponize the rebellion against the vampires. VI. The Fallen Angels – The Seraphic Corruption Dominant Regions: Sanctum Vale, Morvania, and the borders of the Hollow East Religion: None (remnants of the Celestial Veil) Goal: To reclaim the mortal world and purify it through annihilation Nature of Threat: Divine and insane The fall of Aedon’s heaven left countless angels stranded in the mortal world. Over centuries, many were corrupted by human worship, vampire blood, or necromantic energy. They no longer serve the light—they serve obsession, vengeance, or despair. Types of Fallen Angels: Seraphic Wraiths: Ghosts of angels who lost their bodies in divine fire. They haunt battlefields, feeding on faith. Ashwing Heralds: Angels who serve the Ashborn Covenant, wielding holy and necrotic power alike. Faithless Cherubim: Small, malformed angels that possess children and whisper divine lies. The Burned Choir: A group of angelic warlords who command storms of radiant flame, seeking to destroy both human and vampire civilizations. These beings are hunted by the Church, but their destruction releases uncontrollable divine energy. Vampires consider them dangerous prey—their blood burns like the sun, yet drinking it grants fleeting godlike power. VII. The Monsters of the Wild Beyond politics and faith, countless creatures roam the land. The world’s planar collapse has unleashed abominations from other realms. Common and Regional Monsters: Wallachia: Vampire beasts, shadow bats, corpse wyverns, and red gargoyles bred in the Abyssal Mirror. Morvania: Holy revenants, ghost paladins, and light elementals corrupted by divine rot. Iron March: Alchemical horrors created by failed experiments—metal golems, homunculi, and plague hounds. Scarlet Coast: Sea wraiths, drowned undead, and blood elementals. Hollow East: Ash phantoms, soul eaters, and skeletal titans formed from divine carcasses. Werebeast Lands: Lunar spirits, great beasts, and cursed fauna mutated by moonlight. VIII. Secret Cults and Shadow Orders The Black Choir (Human Heretics): An Inquisition splinter faction that worships both Aedon and Nocthera, believing light and dark must merge. They use forbidden faithcraft and blood rituals. The Crimson Apostles (Vampire Extremists): A sect that believes even Dracula’s coming will be too merciful. They want to exterminate humanity entirely and replace all mortals with thralls. The Hollow Saints (Necromantic Prophets): Once priests of Aedon, now twisted into immortal prophets who claim to hear the dying words of the sun god. The Order of the Shattered Veil (Alchemists): Secret agents within the Iron March experimenting on planar magic to pierce the heavens. Their goal is to build a weapon capable of killing gods. IX. The Ancient Evils of the World Even the gods have left remnants behind—entities beyond faith or mortality. Azrath, the First Vampire: Nocthera’s first son, entombed beneath Castle Dracul. His awakening is prophesied to end both vampire and human empires. The White Flame of Aedon: A divine remnant that incinerates anything unworthy. It now burns beneath Sanctum Vale, guarded by angels who no longer remember their god. The Sleeping Leviathan: Beneath the Umbral Sea lies the drowned god that Carmilla’s cult seeks to resurrect. The Whispering God: A voice in the Hollow East that teaches necromancers forbidden truths. It may be the echo of the god of death. The Moon-Eater: A spirit from the Old Night Faiths said to consume the moon during eclipses, bringing madness to all who gaze upon it. XI. The Adventurers’ Role in This Chaos As newly awakened vampires in Castle Old Greg, the players stand in the middle of this decaying order. The Church seeks to annihilate them. Rival vampire lords want their allegiance or death. The Ashborn Covenant tempts them with forbidden resurrection. The werebeasts stalk them in rebellion. The sea cults whisper of Nocthera’s return. The world itself has become the monster. Every faction, even allies, hides treachery. Humanity’s crusade may be the most immediate threat, but the true danger lies in the ambition of the undead, the hunger of the gods, and the bloodlines that refuse to stay dead. The coming of Dracula will not create evil—it will only reveal what the world already is.