The vampires had three rulers in the age of Tairos. The Emperor, the king and the queen, with a supreme council ruling below them. The Emperor who it is believed lived through the aliens destruction of the earth, and was responsible for bringing the rest of his kind back, was their overall ruler. He was a shadowy figure however that most of his enemies, or even his own kind hadn't actually seen. In fact Dionne said that she wasn't sure if he was a myth or not for most of her time in Tairos. Either way the King and the Queen took a more direct part in commanding the vampires. Of the two the Queen was far more powerful and also a much more competent leader, though admittedly she had help from her right hand, the Caradon known as Marachai. Caradon's were magical Shark men, created from a ritual that fused both Sharks and humans together via a spell into a new life form. Most Caradon's were vicious predators, but Marachai for some reason was able to retain his intelligence and possessed a loyalty to the vampires. He was a brilliant tactician and many historians believe that most of the vampires greatest strategies and battle plans actually originated from him.
Jakarian the vampires king meanwhile whilst not the most skilled leader, was nevertheless arguably one of the most evil creatures ever to have lived on the planet. His cruelty and sadism were certainly unmatched in the age of Tairos. Whilst almost all of the battle plans were left up to the supreme council on his end, Jakarian still retained his position as the Emperor found his sadistic nature to be a far greater piece of propaganda to terrify their enemies. Whilst some argued that both the king and the queen were nothing more than figureheads to the rest of the vampires, and that neither really did much of anything. Indeed The king and the queen only met one another three times in total. (And like everyone else, the Queen found Jakarian to be utterly repulsive.) Dionne assured me that they both did possess authority, and not only had the final say on any plans, but the supreme council were also in most cases forced to allow the vampire king to indulge in any sick little games and desires he wanted.
The council all to the last despised the king for many reasons. First and foremost, he took credit for their work (as a further part of the propaganda.) Also the king was actually part of a lesser breed of vampire, that was normally looked down on. It was entirely through his brutality that he had been given this position. Furthermore, ironically whilst his breed were often looked down on for their supposed greater humanity than other species of vampire. His cruelty at times shocked and disgusted even the council. Finally however the real reason the king was despised not just by the council, but almost all life forms in Tairos, was because he had been responsible for the Hylexans winning the war and devastating the earth in the first place.
The king had originally taken part in the Hylexan war on the side of humanity. For a while he was even a celebrated hero, who was held up as an example of how even the darkest and most evil creatures can change. Vampires at first due to their treacherous and evil nature, even by demon standards were not allowed to fight in the Hylexan war, but eventually when the aliens began to gain the upper hand, out of desperation many vampires were recruited including Jakarian who at that point was nothing more than a common vampire, hunting and killing in the areas of earth that had been impoverished by the war
Jakarian who apparently even as a man, had led an unremarkable life, found his calling in battling these aliens, and on some level at least according to certain historians wanted to change and better himself. Surprisingly Dionne herself believed that to be true, though why I'm afraid I can't quite say just yet. Still either way whilst his spirit may have been willing, Jakarian was also a weak man in many ways, and began to give into temptation and feed on some human survivors from colonies the human forces rescued from the Hylexans. When the higher ups found out, they initially not only covered up Jakarian's killings, but even supplied him with people to feed on. The leaders of the resistance ironically much like the Emperor felt that Jakarian was too useful to simply dispose of. His great heroism had helped inspire people not give up, as if even a vampire, the most evil, bloodthirsty demons on earth were capable of changing then humanity would have no choice but to unite.
Sadly however the more Jakarian fed, the more out of control his bloodlust became and eventually he was exposed ironically by a former Hylexan collaborator, who escaped from him. Traitors and deserters made up the a large percentage of those that were sacrificed to not only Jakarian, but other demons too.
Jakarian was thrown under the bus by those who had supported his bloodlust and forced to go on the run. Fuelled by hatred for all of humanity for betraying him and devastated at his reputation being destroyed, Jakarian eventually come to work with the Hylexans for no reason other than spite. He played a pivotal role, due to his inside knowledge in helping the Octopus aliens break through humanity's defenses and launch the missiles that would destroy almost all life on the planet, except for the survivors camped out on Point Nemo.
Jakarian then travelled with the Hylexans for a short while afterwards helping them carry out other atrocities, before fleeing from the octopoids. (As he did not want to simply be their slave.) Travelling the universe on his own, the former vampire of the people continued to give in to his sadistic urges, becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, before he finally returned to his home planet earth after sensing the return of his kind. (He also felt it would be the perfect hiding place as everyone else believed the earth was dead.)
Upon arriving back home however, Jakaria instantly fell under the emperor's control, though rather than be punished, the emperor at least according to the legend, sensing the lesser vampires hatred and appetite for destruction, appointed the traitor to the position of king not long after. Much to his minions fury and disgust.
By the time Dionne had arrived in Tairos, Jakarian had long given into his demonic urges to possibly a greater extent than any vampire before him. Another reason he was made king was because he had once been seen as a hero. The Emperor in contrast felt it sent out a better message that vampires could never redeem themselves and that the more they did, the worse their relapse would eventually be.
Dionne and Trian meanwhile possessed an even greater hatred of the vampire king than most others in Tairos, if that were possible, as the monster had been the one to lead the attack against Mosterik. Again the battle plans were drawn up by his subordinates, though as always he took the credit for it to the masses. Still Jakarian was the one who not only singled out the city, but put more effort and resources into taking it. He even personally took part in the slaughter. To Dionne's shame, both she and Trian took tremendous risks at the possibility of revenge against the monster in the early days of their time with the sky city when they had more pull.
When the king found out about their hatred of him, at first he actually grew scared. Despite his power, he was still a disgusting coward, having lost all of the bravery due to his comfortable life on Tairos. The king was terrified that Dionne's unique magical powers, which had also been sensationalised due to more propaganda could allow her to tear down his defences. He also more than any other vampire took Dionne seriously as a warrior, despite having seemingly never encountered her up close.
Eventually however, after seven years the vampire king finally discovered something that he could use to draw his two archenemies out. Trian's little sister Friaj, who had survived the initial slaughter by the vampires, and had spent the last seven years in a vampire camp. Those the monsters didn't turn they simply put in their camps, both as slaves to harness magic and resources from the earth, and to use as test subjects.
Friaj had been through many horrific experiments to the point where she was disfigured and completely broken mentally. The King however figured out her identity, ironically after his first battle with Trian.
The vampire king and Trian first came into direct conflict, when Jakarian was taking part in the capture and slaughter of a small town, for no reason other than his own enjoyment.
Initially the Sky City did not want to bother protecting the town from an attack (they knew it was coming as several vampires had been preparing the town for something big.)
The Sky City simply viewed it as another standard raid by the vampires, designed to recruit either new vampires or slaves. As horrible as it may have sounded, they didn't have the time or resources to waste on smaller settlements across Tairos. Trian however believed that this raid could be reserved the king, knowing about his love of taking direct part in the action when the victims were helpless. Hardly anyone else who had been involved in Jakarian's raids had ever survived, as the vampire only made sure to take part in them when there was no escape for the enemy.
After successfully convincing the leaders to help through his experiences in Mosterik. Trian was successful in fighting off the bloodsuckers and even came face to face with the king himself. Though he had once been a powerful warrior, centuries of indulgence and having servants do everything for him had not only rendered Jakarian a coward, but also relatively useless in a fight, and he only barely managed to escape from Trian's wrath, earning a nasty scar down his face as a result.
Following this the king would train hard, rediscover many of his old skills and soon ironically became obsessed with making Trian pay, as word of his humiliation soon spread among both the vampires and their enemies.
Jakarian also began all kinds of new and twisted experiments on the prisoners and slaves in his own personal camp. One area where he did take a more active role was the experiments, not just to satisfy his own cruelty, but also because of his knowledge gleaned from visits to other worlds. The camps inmates were all made up of survivors of cities and villages he had personally conquered over the years. Perversely he referred to them as his collection. It wouldn't be long however after fighting Trian before the bloodsucker discovered that his archenemies sister was still alive. When she was selected for yet another experiment, the king this time instantly detected something familiar about her scent. The blood trace which he could smell from her wounds, instantly matched that of her brother, and after further questioning and torture, the young woman admitted that her brother was called Trian, which led to the king setting a trap.
Announcing that he had Trian's sister and that he would tear her to pieces unless he came to face him alone. Jakarian made it clear that he just wanted to restore his reputation in a fair fight, but of course Trian and Dionne wisely didn't trust him and prepared for a double cross. Dionne insisted on being part of the team along with her trusty Gorgonopsid, despite her and Trian not being on the best terms at that point.
Sadly however Trian and the others were hopelessly outmatched by the vampire forces, thanks to a new weapon that the king decided to unveil. It was a special kind of magic that could allow life forms to phase through solid objects. The vampires had been working on this for many years, and had recently made many great advancements, though in spite of this the king went against orders by using these test subjects, and all but one of the vampires slaves given this ability, proved to be so unstable their bodies were unable to reform properly a few times after phasing. Most of them died instantly when trying to reform, some's bodies however slowly collapsed over the course of several days. Still these creatures were at least able to catch Dionne and the others off guard with their new unstable power (two of them actually reformed whilst phasing through two of Trian's guards, causing them to fuse into a single monstrous being, which died in agony a few hours later) allowing the vampires to then surprise and capture their enemies.
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Trian didn't even get to fight the king for that long before he was forced to surrender to save the others
All of the soldiers were butchered by the vampires, with Dionne only being spared alongside Trian on the king's order. The other soldiers bodies were strung up in the place Trian and Dionne had been captured for the rest of the Sky City to see.
Dionne alongside Trian was taken back to the king's own island and placed in his personal camp, where she endured the worst year of her life. Not surprisingly she was not always eager to share what happened on this island, and the few times she did were always extremely difficult. I never pushed her to share however. I got the feeling as hard as it was to talk about, she wanted at least for someone to know what she had gone through.
The king allowed his vampires to practice their experiments on Dionne during the day to try and extract the magical patterns from her body. There were no words to describe the pain these experiments caused her. They burrowed into her very soul.
Trian meanwhile endured all the tortures and humiliations that the king and his vile subordinates could think of for the first few months, until eventually the vampire grew bored and instead sent Trian to work in the mines. This however proved be a greater torture for Trian, as he was forced to take part in helping to construct some of the vilest and most twisted weapons that the vampires would use to slaughter other cities like they had done to Mosterik. Sadly Trian had no choice as if he didn't, then they would have tortured his sister. Still being forced to help the vampires in their war effort it seemed finally broke Trian after all he went through. Jakarian further tormented Trian by bringing in survivors of the other cities he had butchered to show them how their once great hero had taken part in the construction of the weapons for their slaughter.
Perhaps the cruellest punishment the king would inflict on Dionne however was turning her against her greatest love, music. For a few months every night the king forced Dionne to sing for him and his twisted followers. If she didn't meet their satisfaction however he would subject both Trian and his sister to a night of the most horrific torture. The songs she was forced to sing were often demeaning, humiliating, or virtually impossible, and the vampires would also boo her, throw feces and rotten fruit at her to throw her off. Not surprisingly she very rarely amused the king who relished in letting her know that the torture of the man she loved was her fault. Now and again however he would let them off, and even compliment her singing, though this was only to give her a sense of false hope that she had a chance to save them each night.
Eventually towards the end of her time there, the king upped the ante and brought out prisoners that they didn't need and killed them if Dionne's singing didn't amuse him, forcing Dionne to watch as the vampires tore them to pieces.
Dionne told me she never forget the faces of every single person the vampire king slaughtered in front of her.
Dionne's Gorgonopsid was also not spared from the bloodsuckers cruelty. The poor animal was chained in the darkest, foulest cave of the camp, where every day it would be shaved, though in most cases its hair was actually ripped out in huge clumps. Its sabre teeth were also pulled violently from their sockets, only to be made to regrow the next day with magic. It was also starved, whipped, muzzled, and even spat on regularly by its jailer with Dionne being taken to see it every day after her ordeal in the lab.
By the end of her year in the camp, the king's forces had managed to extract a sample of the dark magic from Dionne. The process almost killed her, and she was rendered comatose for several weeks.
Still the magic extracted from Dionne would allow the vampires to build new weapons that would give them a considerable edge in the fight. In fact they would even be able to overrun the Sky City itself, just like they had done to Mosterik. Trian was forced to watch as the bloodsuckers slaughtered his new home city just like his old one.
This time, his brother Moska did not escape and was brought to the king himself, who wanted to execute him in front of Trian and Dionne.
Fortunately however when Dionne awoke from her coma, she would be different. The vampires experiments had tampered with her body to such an extent that she could now harness the unique magics in her body in a way that not even other witches could. Dionne's body contained a combination of magics that could never have existed otherwise.
Upon awakening, thanks to the magics, Dionne, overcome with new power and a burning rage and hatred for the vampires instantly started to slaughter the vile bloodsucking monsters. She also ensured that her Gorgonopsid in particular would have its revenge when she not only released it and restored it to full health, but locked it in the same room as its vile jailer. According to Dionne the jailer pathetically begged her and even blubbed when the Gorgonopsid approached him. His pleas however fell on deaf ears as the Synapsid slowly crushed his head in its jaws.
Whilst Dionne freed most of the slaves and killed many of the guards, unfortunately however her powers began to wane once she broke through the more advanced defences for the kings castle. In fact she was so weak after using them that she collapsed. The king meanwhile instantly called for help, whilst he and his elite did their best to squash the rebellion. The prisoners did outnumber the vampires, but they were sadly still no match for them as just one vampire could kill four people easily.
Trian, both of his siblings, and the Gorgonopsid took Dionne to a nearby ship in the midst of the battle, but unfortunately the king followed them there, wanting to make sure personally that Dionne couldn't escape. Whilst the Gorgonopsid fought off the king's men, Trian and the king himself fought each other one on one. Sadly however the king's training, matched with Trian being weak from the year of torture and imprisonment meant that Trian had no chance. This time, overcome with rage and also still fearful for his own wretched life, the king overwhelmed and butchered Trian by tearing his heart out of his chest. Still Trian's actions allowed Moska, Friaj, Dionne, and the Gorgonopsid to all slip away on the boat.
Dionne was lucky that she was unconscious and didn't have to see the gruesome sight, though she always feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not being there. She also however blamed Moska at first for not trying hard enough to save his brother. At the same time Moska blamed Dionne for encouraging Trian to take part in the war in the first place. After being rescued from Mosterik, Moska had simply returned to civilian life, married and had several children (who had luckily been able to escape thanks to his efforts from the sky city.) Moska constantly urged his brother to do the same. This had sadly led to a rift between them, with Trian even branding Moska a coward.
Dionne later said to me that she felt tremendous guilt over what she said to Moska in the heat of the moment, and that she wished she had told Trian not to take part in the war. Sadly however she would never get a chance to tell Moska how guilty she felt over telling him he didn't do enough to save his brother, and she carried that to the very end.
The journey away from the island was extremely hard. None of the makeshift crew had any idea where they were going, and when Dionne awoke an entire day after, leaving, aside the tensions between her and Moska over Trian, he also put constant pressure on Dionne to use her powers. As much as she wanted too, for some reason she just couldn't, and for a few days the crew were forced to scrape by on the meagre supplies left behind in the boat. Whilst the vampires themselves may not have needed food, their human slaves did.
Friaj was a lot easier for Dionne to deal with, though that was only because she barely said anything, to anyone. She'd often just stare into the vast golden oceans around them, even when Dionne and Moska were arguing.
The ship was constantly followed by sharks meanwhile of various different species, though fortunately none large enough to damage the boat, they still made the journey more than a little unnerving. On their fifth day however, the ship was attacked by a large, red shark, unlike any in our time. It was over 40 feet long and over 20 tons in weight. It could have been mistaken for a Megalodon at first which did exist in this time, but this monster was merely an extension of a dimension that we know as Davy Jones locker. Legend has it that this pocket dimension was created by Poseidon itself to punish humans who dared meddle in his domain. Either way it survived long after the gods left the earth. Davy Jones locker in our time, only has power over the dead. Those who die at sea are in danger of being sucked into this pocket hell dimension for all eternity, though fortunately there are numerous spells that can overcome this and only a very few are taken back to the locker as its power has grown weaker over the centuries.
Davy Jones Locker however will still survive the Hylexans attack on the earth and endure after the oceans are restored by magic to beautiful golden waters. Sadly however the magic of the new seas will allow Davy Jones Locker to extend its reach, creating hideous abominations capable of dragging living people in the ocean and even on the land back to the locker.
The red sharks send anyone they devour straight to Davy Jones Locker forever. Their only purpose was to hunt humans and other sentient creatures in the ocean. The shark would have surely sunk the boat, had it not been for Dionne who was suddenly able to conjuor her power and drive the demonic fish away.
She didn't realise it at the time, but her magics, much like the ectoplasm of a ghost were linked to her emotions. Only when they were at their strongest, could she harness them. Back on the island, her seething hatred and anger towards the king and the vampires had driven her, but now it was her fear of the shark. It didn't help that she'd always had a phobia about sharks. It was their cold black eyes that freaked her out the most. Well that and the fact that they can you know eat people.
Fortunately that old childhood terror helped Dionne summon up the magic, though as she had no idea how to use it at the time she couldn't finish the shark and it soon returned within a few hours.
This time however Dionne wasn't able to quite muster up the necessary fear, ironically because she had faced the shark before. In the back of her mind, she felt that her magics could easily defeat the beast, and this grain of reassurance ironically prevented her from having access to those very magics. The shark soon sunk the boat, being strong enough to literally rip it apart with its jaws and send all of the crew tumbling into the water below.
As the shark circled them however, waiting for the right moment to strike, Dionne noticed that the beast was not alone. A large aquatic meat eating Dinosaur known as a Spinosaurus soon emerged from the golden waters, to confront the shark. This Spinosaurus was similar to the Vasta in that it was mutated magically. Normal Spinosaurs were among the largest meat eating Dinosaurs of them all, but again this mutant was far larger, being close to 70 feet long. It also like the Vasta looked as though its skin was wrapped directly over its bones, and lacked any lips, which made its long teeth stick out all the more. Finally like both its human and Tyrannosaur counterparts it was also completely unhinged.
Though the Spinosaurus was initially drawn here by the scent of the humans. (Dionne also thought it may also have been because of her magics.) The great reptile now focused all of its attention on the shark rather than the crew. Despite being somewhat smaller than the Spinosaurus, in the water the shark was faster and delivered many devastating bites to the larger Dinosaur. The sharks jaws were not only dangerous because of their strength, but also because they contained numerous different forms of poisonous black magic. It was a testament to the mutated Spinosaurus' strength that it was still alive after that many shark bites.
Eventually the Spinosaurus gained the upper hand and grabbed onto the red shark's tail with its long, slender jaws. Despite the demonic fish weighing in at over 20 tons, the Spinosaurus flipped it dozens of feet through the air like it was a haddock. The Spinosaurus then turned its attention back to Dionne and the others. As its mighty jaws lunged towards Dionne in particular, again she found the terror to conjure up her magic and repel the monster. Unfortunately however the Dinosaur was not as easily driven back as the shark.