Hey, Greeny, I was wondering something about the sapient species on Hirt. I know there are Humans, Beorns, and Tarims, you told me about them since some are in the camp. But what of the others? This is a fantasy world, shouldn’t there be Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Vampires, and other things? Bazil asked Greeny one day before another language lesson.
[Of course, there are.
Why are you asking?
You don’t want to practice your lessons, do you?]
Yeah, I’m kind of tired of it, and I want to know what kind of people I’ll meet in the future. Also, what kind of women I’ll be able to add to my harem. Bazil thought it was important to have diversity.
[Alright!
Too much learning is boring.
I’ll tell you a bit more about them.
What do you want to know?]
Bazil felt the girly voice was tired of the constant lessons and was glad for the occasion to talk about something else.
Well, which ones are reals here? Where can I find them? Stuff like that.
[Hmm.
So, first the fucking Elves.
They live a bit everywhere on the continent, but you won’t find many in the desert, not enough plants for them.
They’re a bunch of uppity goody-two-shoes that think plants are their properties.
I hate them.
They have brainwashed Dryads, Treants, Ents, and other sapient plant species in thinking they are their protectors.
They even tricked themselves into believing it!
But it’s false!
All they did was help Bluey still them from me!
That’s why you need to exterminate Elves, or at least make them all slaves.
And you need to free the others and bring them back to me.]
I’ll see what I can do. Bazil was all ok with what Greeny wanted to happen to the Elves, but it didn’t know if it could have the sapient plant species brought back under Greeny’s care from Bluey. If the possibility existed, it wouldn’t be before a long, long time.
[The Fratsis are a nice species that live far in the south.
They are the main guardians of the Wall and have easy access to any kind of magic.
All species north of the Wall pay them tribute.
It’s ‘cause they’re afraid of what lays behind.]
The Wall? What’s that? Bazil inquired, memories from a certain story coming to mind, but the Wall in Game of Thrones was in the north, not in the south.
[Later, I’m talking about the other species first.]
Sorry. Duly chastised the sapient plant let its only friend resume her lesson.
[Dwarves, Kloptrs, Raptors, Orcs, and other green-skins, live on another continent far west.
You probably won’t meet any of them until a very long time.
They are constantly at war with each other, so they rarely leave their lands to trade with the other continents.
Not that it would be easy with the monsters living in the oceans.]
That’s a shame. I’d love some Orc woman as a bodyguard. As fierce into protecting me in battle as in serving me in bed.
[They sure are energetic.
But focus!
Far, far, far in the south, far behind the Wall, you can find settlements of Dullahan, Harpies, and Minotaurs.
They were great people once, but if things keep on going the way they are, they’ll disappear in a few centuries.]
The Wall, again. I want to know more.
[Focus I said!
If you manage to find a way to go underwater, you’ll find Merfolks and stuff.
They have the potential to be great species, but living in the oceans and seas means they are extremely close to the biggest monsters around.
And that’s all for the main species, others exist, but they are few and mostly under the control of others.
Any questions?]
No Beastmen? Bazil asked. It would be a shame if it could never lay its hands - or was it roots? - on any catgirl. It would engineer them itself if need be.
[Some species like Beorns, Minotaurs, Kitsunes, and stuff are called that way by Humans.
You call them like that in their face and they either kill you or ignore you.
It’s considered one of the worst insults.]
Duly noted. There was still hope. But, I remember asking about Vampires too, and you talked twice about a ‘Wall’. What can you tell me about that? Bazil asked, it was important to know about the bloodsucking creatures, they were probably the best in some bed play categories, and the sapient plant wanted to prepare for the eventuality. Also, the mention of a Wall, capital W, intrigued it.
[Oooh boy.
That’s not an easy answer.
And believe it or not, but Vampires and the Wall are linked.
This is the same story that explains the tides, and the moon, and why the Mermfolks will never be a great empire.]
The tides and the moon? Ain’t the moon causing the tides? Bazil asked, it was common knowledge back on Earth after all.
[He, he, he.
It used too.
But not anymore!
Let me tell you a story.]
---
Thousands of years before Bazil and its rivals arrived on Hirt the planet looked more like Earth, it was orbiting around a star and had its own satellite turning around itself.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Being a world of magic as well as following the laws of science, the presence of the moon was not only responsible for the tides with physics and gravitation, it also had a major impact on several magical fields.
Among the magics linked to the moon in a way or another, the most impacted by its phases were the magics of darkness, shadows, blood, and water. Three of those being closely tied to death, the moon also had a strong impact on every kind of undead. And particularly on the more powerful kind.
The Vampires, a species based on undeath, shadow, and blood. The only species being both undead and sapient. Other kinds of undead could be argued to be sapient, like Liches, but not a species. Vampires the only undead capable of organic reproduction thanks to the stealing of life-force through the blood of their victims.
This undead witch greatest weakness was direct sunlight was therefore even more tied to the night and the moon.
For thousands of years, Vampires lived among the other species of Hirt. They fed on animal blood or on criminals depending on the local laws. In their own kingdoms, blood taxes were collected. Their most trusted servants would run their affairs during the daytime, as they slumbered in their sarcophagus.
Occasionally, a Vampire would lose common-sense and go too far, bringing death and hatred in their wake. They would start a reign of terror and expand their territory. Usually, they were taken care of by their own more restrain brethren or by some local heroes.
Until one day a specific Vampire king managed to cast the greatest darkness spell of all time. The Eternal Night he named it. It was a spell that obscured the direct light of the sun and only let through an inoffensive dim light. The powerful spell didn’t block the indirect sunlight reflected by the moon or the feeble lights from the stars. The effects of the Eternal Night were contained in its caster’s domain.
At first, no one was truly bothered by the spell in Vampire lands, lots of Vampire moved to Brandon Von Dalkin’s kingdom and found there a perfect place for their people. Undead and loyal servants empowered by the Eternal Night, willing sapients of a great variety of species to drink from, and the possibility to walk outside in the daytime.
In time, almost all the Vampires came to Brandon and swore oaths to him. And their power grew. Being undead they did not age and die. Being Vampires, they could easily multiply. In time, the Eternal Night came to cover what would later be known as Casinin, Keln, and Marsin, three continents linked together by an enclosed sea. Brandon Von Dalkin’s power covered more than half of the emerged land of the planet and his will was undisputed. He was preparing expeditions to cross the oceans and conquer the other continents.
Unfortunately for him, his plans were not appreciated by everyone.
In front of such a threat, numerous species joined forces.
Mixed armies of Merfolks embushed the Vampire’s fleet and sunk their numerous ships. Legions and hordes of Dwarves, Raptors, and Orcs crossed the western ocean - leaving behind the Kloptrs - and bordered the northern lands under the Eternal Night, at the same time other armies of dozens of species boarded the eastern land of Marsin. Still in the same time frame, the most organized legions of Minotaurs, Dullahan, and Harpies landed on the extreme south of the Vampire lands.
The free coalition armies marched in the direction of Brandon Von Dalkin’s original kingdom’s capital, now the center of his empire. Painstakingly they liberated the local species from Vampire dominion and advanced under the Eternal Night.
Little did they know they were heading to a trap.
Three years into the war, Brandon and his thousands of necromancer raised even more undead and attacked what they considered as invading armies from everywhere.
The three big armies were by now used to fight the dead, but even then they ended up being so outnumbered. Their own dead attacking them, those they were convinced to have already defeated, and fresh forces, reinforced by the treachery of some ‘liberated locals’, all that brought them to their knees.
Brandon Von Dalkin had already swiped the army in the east and in the south. All that remained of them were prisoners in camps, kept for use as slaves and blood-bags. And as the Vampire was about to deal with the last army on his lands a miracle occurred.
Being touch by the vigor of the mortal species, or simply seeing the occasion of getting rid of the Vampire, the Golden Dragon attacked Brandon.
Sadly for the world, the Vampire emperor had reached level hundred in three Classes, the power this feat granted him, and the help of his most elite troops, allowed him to defeat the Dragon and gorged himself on his blood.
Having drunk the blood of one of the greatest Dragon Brandon gained even more power and when the other Dragons came to him in reprisal he was strong enough to fight them back. For a time.
The battle was fierce and lasted weeks. But eventually, the strongest undead of all time could not affront so many Dragons. Calling all the magic at his disposal, the Vampire casted a new spell. One even greater than the Eternal Night, which power he consumed to use his master spell. Having led the Dragons far above the ground, even out of the atmosphere - not having air to breathe had never been a problem for Vampires or Dragons - the greatest shadow mage of all caused an explosion of darkness so strong and so powerful that it literally shook the Heavens.
Having used his own unlife-force Brandon Von Dalkin did not see the full result of his spell.
In a great tremor inaudible from the planet’s surface, the full moon suffered such a backlash of energy that it shattered and explode. Numerous rocks bigger than them rained on the injured Dragons finishing a number of them before landing on Hirt.
The devastation caused by this event was so massive that a dust cloud covered the planet for three months and when finally the sun shined anew on the planet’s surface the people saw that there was no moon left in the sky but a field of rocks of which some bits still fell nowadays causing more destruction.
But the biggest part having fallen through the air and hit the ground was consisting of a full quarter of the moon hit the now lost continent of Mindal, home of Minotaurs, Dullahan, and Harpies. The shock wiped all life of this land and contributed in great part to the cloud dust.
A solitary Vampire survived the ensuing purge led by the surviving Dragons. Centuries later, as the great beasts are slumbering, she would rise again and secretly led armies of undead to seize southern Keln. Her efforts would be stopped by the Wall, a great construction serving to block the hordes of wandering dead still present on the continent, and maned by Fratsis. But she would still pressure the only surviving communities of Minotaurs, Harpies, and Dullahan.
If nothing is to change, these three species will end up as dead in reality as in the mind of the rest of the world.
However, even if Brandon Von Dlkin managed to kill most of the Dragons came to end him, he did not manage to end the greatest of them. The massive Sea Dragon was too big to be killed by the moon fragments she received but greatly injured she went back to her underwater lair and fell asleep there.
Legends say with reason that it is her breathing that caused the tides since the Vampire war.
---
So, if I want a Vampire in my harem, I’ll have to get the last one? Bazil asked at the end of the story.
[I tell you about a fight so big that it broke the moon and all you retain is that there is only one Vampire left and that she is female?
I can’t believe it…]
Well, I did retain that if I want Minotaurs, Dullahan, or Harpies too, I’ll have to conquer the undead lands. And to do it before my future Vampire bitch kills them all.
[Unbilievable…]
What, you expect me to be astonished by the fact that the moon is destroyed and that a big Dragon breathing water is causing the tides? It’s original, I’ll give you that, but in a world where Dragons are a thing, I expect them to be strong enough to do that kind of thing.
[I knew you lack reverence for mighty stuff, but I didn’t expect it to be this severe.]