During their rule the vandals suppressed all knowledge of the supernatural from the general public. They did so purely for their own survival, as obviously prey that didn't believe its predators were even real was much easier to hunt.
The vandals also limited the actions of demons and witches in order to ensure that their ruse would continue. In time however most demons and witches actually came to embrace the vandals set up, though even then the limitations the vandals put on them still led to clashes.
Vampires, werewolves, ghouls and their numerous hybrid races meanwhile were hunted regardless. Most of them fled to other continents which as we will soon see, were better for vampires. Still do not think that the vampire became extinct in Europe during this time, or that they were anything even approaching victims.
There were still plenty of underground vampire operations and clans, even entire cities ruled by them, who after regaining their strength following the end of the 12th century; continued to strike out at the vandals wherever they could. The resistance as it were remained a very strong force for four centuries and ultimately did help to bring down the vandals empire.
Still whilst the vampires certainly did not die out in Europe, numerous other demon species that the vandals despised were not so lucky such as the Xascars who the vandals killed off simply because they thought they were ugly, disgusting creatures. The period from the 12th to 17th centuries ironically saw more demon species wiped out than any other in recorded history.
Whilst the vandals greatly influenced the world of the supernatural, and through it our perception of them. They actually did not have much of a direct influence on human affairs throughout this period. They did not attempt to either impede or advance human development, and for the most part were happy for the humans to war with each other and run their own lives. They simply forced all of the leaders of Europe to concede to them and give the soul devourers whatever they wanted for their own ends, magic, wealth, victims etc. Whilst many have attempted to blame the wars and other atrocities that Europe (like all continents) would be guilty of. In truth that was all down to us. At the same time however our advancements and achievements were not down to the vandals either, no matter how hard they tried to rewrite history to say otherwise.
Ironically the vandals greatest contribution during their rule over Europe would be for the good of not just mankind, but the universe itself, though obviously this was not intentional.
Using the vast supplies of magic they had access to, the vandals constructed possibly the first, working time machine in recorded history. A craft that became known simply as the Tent to those who piloted it.
The Tent was based on enchantments and writings from the age of magic. After their run in with Regina's mirror. The vandals became more interested in the age of magic, and did all they could to try and find any surviving artefacts and spells left over from it.
The soul devourers eventually discovered that the sorcerers from the age of magic had at some point discovered the secrets of time travel. The gods themselves had also discovered the secrets from the remains of the age of magic too, buried deep within the earth. (It would be within the gods temples that the vandals in fact found them.)
The gods much like the later vandals, had attempted to construct their own time machine, with the left over magics from the gods time travel experiments continuing to drift through the earth for centuries afterwards. Most of the time these left over magics were harmless, but in a few instances they granted certain people and demons knowledge of the future. Herne had been one such example, though it had partly been through his own dabbling with magic that he had become vulnerable to the gods left over spells.
However in spite of the experiments, both the gods and the sorcerers of the age of magic before them ultimately abandoned their pursuit of time travel for good reason.
It is not possible, within the Sentenza omniverse to change your established history. For instance if you were to go back in time and stop a disaster like say the Titanic from happening. In the new timeline you would never be inspired to go back and stop it, which would mean it would happen, and then you'd go back, but then it wouldn't and you wouldn't and on and on it would go forever. A paradox like this not only traps all of those involved in an endless loop, but can potentially unravel the vortex itself by destroying the process of cause and effect.
In order to prevent this from happening, creatures known as the Guardians will appear, undo any changes that have been made and send the time traveller responsible to a place known as the Abyss, which is an endless waste land. There is no time in the Abyss and those who die do not stay dead either, meaning its prisoners will be trapped forever.
No force in the entire omniverse can match the Guardians and it is not known how they were created. Some have speculated that they were simply the product of the creator, designed to keep order in his absence. Others have speculated that they were the creation of multiple realms in the far future, pulling their resources together to make sure that their version of history could happen? No one even knows where the Abyss is. Again many have speculated that it exists at the bottom of the Sentenza omniverse, but it may not even be part of the omniverse at all.
That said however time travel is still possible in the Sentenza omniverse. In fact in some cases it is necessary to create history as we know it. For instance imagine you going backwards in time was somehow the reason that your grandparents met, before your parents birth when they were young, IE you introduced them to one another. You would be the reason your own established past where they marry and have a son that becomes your father exists. Ironically if you didn't time travel in this case, you would fade from existence. The same applies to those who have visions, such as Herne. They will see multiple timelines, and know exactly how to create the one they want. If they just try and do things on their own, that will still create a paradox, as then none of the potential histories they have seen will have been possible, meaning the one they were supposed to bring about will have never appeared to them to have an influence on their life. Whilst Herne may have seemed ruthless to us, he really had no choice.
The history of the omniverse meanwhile is filled with time travellers creating their own histories as we will soon see. At times however time travellers from two potential time lines can compete to make sure their version of history comes true. The losers will not be sent to the Abyss, but will merely fade away.
The vandals were aware of this from their research, but they hoped that they could still influence history to suit them. It took over centuries, but near the end of their reign the vandals constructed a primitive time vessel. Unfortunately for them however it was stolen, ironically by one of their own. A renegade named Ron Baker.
Over the centuries the vandals usually only turned those they regarded as the elite of society into members of their kind, but every now and again they transformed low level criminals and peasants to use as a disposable army.
Ron who was born in the year 1548 in England, had in life had been a petty thief, who had turned to crime at first to provide for his wife and son. After his crimes were discovered however, Ron was forced to go on the run to save himself for years. Eventually he ended up in prison and was among a group of random prisoners turned into a small army of vandals to help crush a powerful group of Turok Han that had built up in Scotland. Normally these lesser vandals were disposed of after they had fulfilled their purpose, but in this case the vandal forces including the elites who commanded the army were killed by the Turok Han, with Ron being the only survivor.
On the run with his own kind and of course their enemies wanting to kill him. Ron joined a group of vandal resistance fighters. They only took him in because he claimed that he had inside information. Though it soon became apparent that he did not, they nevertheless kept him around entirely out of desperation.
As time went on, Ron was able to control his desire to consume souls (by consuming magics that helped serve as a substitute for them.) Ironically he became a better man as a vandal than he had ever been when he was alive.
Eventually the resistance force learned of the vandals time and space craft, and with Ron's help they infiltrated it. Using powerful magics Ron was able to absorb the soul of one of the elite vandals and briefly take on his appearance which allowed the rebels access. Vandals could not normally eat each others souls, or the souls of vampires or other demons. Only natural creatures. However these powerful magics could enhance the abilities of vandals to the point where they could devour one another, though even then the process was extremely unpredictable and could destroy the vandal that devours the other as well.
Thankfully however in Ron's case whilst it was extremely painful, he survived, though the complications soon exposed their ruse to the vandals. In the ensuing confrontation, Ron Baker and several rebels fled to the Tent. One of the rebels, a witch then activated the Tent via magic as the vandal forces were surrounding them. Her misunderstanding of how it worked as well as the unstable nature of the Tent itself caused it to not only fly through time and space to another planet, but burn itself out in the process.
The rebels and Ron were trapped on this hostile planet for several years afterwards, during which time all but Ron succumbed to the horrors of this world. Ron however was after the others deaths visited by Professor Fang. Whilst neither particularly liked one another, probably due to the animosity of vampires and vandals. (It's worth mentioning that Ron would go on to make friends with other heroic vampires, suggesting it may just have been Fangs caustic personality.) Fang knew what Baker and indeed his future "Family" were to do in the grand scheme of things, as their future selves had helped him in the war for creation. Fang not only repaired, but improved upon the vandals craft. He ensured that it resembled a circus tent as the vandals somewhat unstable magics made it appear brightly coloured, and the Professor felt this was a better disguise.
After being told what a circus was. Ron came to embrace the theme, referring to himself as the Circus Master. However the title was more than just Ron's own pretentiousness. The Professor created a link between Ron and the Tent, which allowed Ron to experience visions of what he had to do wherever he landed in order to ensure the timeline went ahead as planned. Much like Herne though, the visions were somewhat vague as according to Fang, knowing too much about the future can end up preventing it. As the Circus Master, Ron travelled through time and space, battling monsters, demons, vampires and numerous other evil creatures and saved the galaxy again and again.
In time the Circus Master however gathered up other creatures, individuals, and in some cases reformed demons and even vampires to join him on his adventures throughout time and space. Ron or the Circus Masters new team of time travellers came to be referred to as the Circus Family or the Circus Folk. The Circus Master whilst still being the one who the visions were channelled through, later adjusted the vehicle so that the other members of the family could see them in the fountain in order to properly see what they had to do on each mission. The visions however would not exist were it not for the Circus Master.
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Not all of the Circus Folk were willing volunteers it must be said. Some were forcibly taken as history said they had to play important roles in their own past.
The different members of the Circus Folk also came and went over the centuries, with their technically being dozens of different Circus Families. The longest serving member of the Family was Carlene, a reformed vampire whose tenure spanned multiple Circus Families, though we will be exploring her history later. Even the Circus Master himself was eventually replaced when Ron Baker was tragically killed defending the earth. The Tent however having be programmed to do so by Professor Fang chose a new person to join with. The second Circus Master was a goblin named Deskina, who had initially fled the war between the goblins and the monsters and indulged in a hedonistic, selfish life on earth before joining the Circus Family.
He truly got a chance to redeem himself as the second Circus Master, whilst he in turn was later succeeded by Jack O'Kent as the third Circus Master. Kent was a demon who had attempted to take over his home planet, only to be overthrown and sent to earth. As a further punishment he was forced to do good, which was torture for the demon. Nevertheless after hundreds of years, heroism eventually became second nature to the demon, who joined and became the third Circus Master in the 1970s. The fourth Circus Master meanwhile was a scarecrow named Tarkan brought to life via magic, originally to protect a village outside of the supernatural hot spot Wystman's wood. The fifth Circus Master was Anck Su Namun, a former Egyptian princess who had been brought back to life as a Mummy and much like Deskina sought redemption through her time with the Family. The sixth Circus Master was a powerful witch/former magician from the 1920s called Pamela. Finally the seventh Circus Master was the former god Pan. Stripped of his powers and glory, which he sacrificed to save a dying planet (That he had become fond of.) Pan was the first truly reluctant Circus Master, ironically wanting a quiet life when they found him, but in time he rediscovered his old sense of humour and scheming, trickster nature which made him one of the most effective Circus Masters.
Over the course of the 7 Circus Masters tenure's there would be over 50 members of the Circus Families in total.
Sadly however after the seventh Circus Masters death, the lineage came to an end in our reality. The Tent meanwhile remained on the planet of the seventh Circus Masters death, Vasteria for centuries before mysteriously disappearing. It was in fact pulled into the alpha omniverse, where there would be 7 more Circus Masters, all with their own families who'd play just as important a role in that omniverses history as our own.
Overall the Circus Family, collectively were the greatest heroes our universe would ever see. Ironically they were the single greatest legacy the vandals ever left, though sadly for the demons themselves, they also never recovered from the loss of the Tent.
Having spent so much of their resources, workers and magics in constructing it. The vandals struggled to defend themselves afterwards and by the beginning of the 17th century, their empire had more or less collapsed. The final blow came from an unholy alliance between the vampires and the Cushing family.
The Cushings had emerged at some point as a major power in Europe during the 7th century. They had raided the remains of an old Trajan and used its knowledge and power to gain a footing in the chaotic, post Roman empire Europe.
The Cushings initially were allies of the vandals, seeing the vampire menace as the greater threat.(The Cushings also had a personal hatred for the vampires that eclipsed all else. Originally the Cushings had been simple land owners, but the vampires destroyed their entire area, and forced them to go on the run before they discovered the ruins of the old Trajan.)
For a long while the vandals continued to use the Cushings to help them hunt other demons that they wanted out of the way. The Cushings for the most part had 0 problem working with the vandals, as they believed that they were a necessary evil as they held the other demons in check. (Unlike during the middle ages when vampires, and sorcery ran rampant. The Cushings along with many others believe that this was partly why humanity wasn't able to properly recover for centuries after the fall of Rome.)
Eventually however one of the Cushings named Abraham turned on the vandals too. Abraham though canonised by many as a great man and a hero, was something of a fanatic. He viewed all supernatural creatures as evil and later established the organisation known as Rentros to purge the world of all unnaturals. Through both his own actions and Rentros, Abraham Cushing was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent supernatural creatures and witches. Still he was the one that ultimately used his families resources to help strike the killing blow against the vandals power base. Despite his hatred of the supernatural, Cushing was willing to ally with the vampires and together they destroyed the supreme council of the vandals from their base in Holland.
With the head of their empire destroyed, the other vandal bases became more disconnected and were soon picked off over the course of the 17th century.
Ironically after the destruction of the vandal base it was Abraham Cushing that betrayed the vampire king he had allied with. Destroying his castle and killing his entire clan, which in turn destroyed his power base. The vampire king known as Erik Von Causen became the sworn enemy of the Cushings, dedicating himself to hunting them. In the mid 1920s he finally had his revenge and brought down the Cushing family. From the 1700s to the 1900s the Cushings were arguably the most powerful family in Europe. Though they obviously didn't have the same scope and influence as the vandals, they were nevertheless the most prolific family of vampire and demon hunters of that era, with many leaders and prominent figures turning to them for help, even above the few remaining Trajans.
The first world war however depleted most of the Cushing's resources, which gave Erik the opening he needed to attack their castle in Germany. Most of the Cushings were slaughtered in the attack, though a few survived and fled across the world. Some changed their names and tried to live normal lives, but others did attempt to carry on their legacy as we will explore later.
Despite the fall of the vandals. Their suppression of the truth about the supernatural, as well as the rewritten history books continued to influence European society for hundreds of years to come. Both the supernatural and indeed many leaders and prominent figures (who were the only people the vandals kept in the loop about the truth) actively worked to keep it that way. The supernatural obviously enjoyed being able to hunt more easily, whilst those in power feared that it would return to the middle ages if the truth was let out. As always they lied to us for supposedly our own good.
The vandals themselves meanwhile, though holding onto power in some small areas, even after the fall of their empire. Suffered greatly as many of their species were hunted to extinction as a result of the vengeful vampires and demons and werewolves and witches.
Europe however was obviously not the only continent to have dealings with the supernatural.
In India, the vampires were able to emerge victorious over the vandals. It all began in the middle ages. The Gupta Empire, which had ruled for over 200 years from the 4th century to the 6th century had come down hard on the supernatural. Having seen how Rome had struggled with its vampire emperors, they were much more draconian in dealing with them. Unfortunately however this led to the vampires of India going further than those in Europe and attempting to resurrect a fallen goddess, Kali.
She had been killed during the final war with Ares and laid to rest in India where her followers had lived. The vampires meanwhile succeeded in resurrecting her when many previous attempts had failed, by using the book of Khastran. Aside from being able to create vampires, the book also had the power to create purely demonic creatures that required no host body, and who were larger and stronger than any vampire. It could only create a very limited number of these creatures however, whose goal was to aid the other children of Khastran. This sect of vampires who had stolen the book of Khastran at some point after the Trajan wars (though it would end up back in Europe again by the 12th century.) Were able to transplant the spirit of one of these creatures into Kali's corpse, allowing it to not only keep its powers through her body, but also utilise Kali's strength too. This spell would not have worked had Kali been alive.
The creature using Kali's body swept across India, destroying the Gupta empire. Though the empire had already been weakened following a crushing defeat from the Huna people of central Asia. This creature brought the empire's complete destruction with her vampire armies subsequently ravaging India.
The vampiric Kali's reign did not last long however. Ironically the spirit of the original Kali returned, having been disturbed by the desecration of her body from these monsters. Kali sought out a new host body and chose a peasant girl named Anika. The goddess wanted to chose someone who was physically strong which Anika being a farmer was. However at the same time, Kali like many of the gods from that time, was also an elitist who only valued those at the top and partially chose Anika because she felt she was worthless and if she died fighting the vampires then it would be no great loss.
Anika at first was a willing ally, as the vampires had killed her family though when she learned the truth, things became quite tense between her and the goddess. Kali wasn't able to manifest herself fully in Anika's body. The peasant girl still had control for the most part, and was only able to harness a fraction of the goddess' power most of the time.
Still she did have access to Kali's memories giving her tremendous fighting skills and knowledge of magics, which Anika used to slay hundreds of the vampiric Kali's minions before facing the demon possessing her body itself. For just a few moments, Anika was able to fully harness Kali's powers, due to both's determination and slew the demon inhabiting Kali, allowing her body to rest afterwards.
Kali's spirit meanwhile continued to possess Anika and for centuries afterwards the goddess and the peasant girl, despite their difficulties continued to battle demons and vampires across the Indian continent, becoming one of its greatest heroes.
Despite the death of the demonic Kali, her vampire minions however did still continue to spread across India. The most prolific breed of vampire in India were the Vetala, and their large presence in India ultimately limited the influence and population of vandals there. Though it must be said that the vampires never completely took over Indian society like the vandals did in Europe.
Mainland China meanwhile ironically given its history with the dragons adopted a more hostile attitude towards magic. After the last magical kingdoms such as Shambhala fell sometime in the 6th century. Most of main land China rejected magic and the supernatural. There were a few villages and cities that tolerated magic, but even then it would usually only be certain individuals that would be allowed to utilise it, usually the Taoist priests in each village. An organisation known as the righteous men, "Zhengyi Nanren" built up of those Taoist priests soon spread through the mainland to protect villages from the numerous rampant supernatural creatures (such as the Jiang Shi, a particularly powerful breed of vampire.) These priests did more to help keep China safe from the paranormal during many trying times ahead for the continent than anyone else.
Africa meanwhile, whilst being home to many different supernatural creatures throughout its entire history, arguably endured its biggest confrontation with the supernatural when it brought down one of its greatest empires, the Mali empire, which had lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The centre of the Mali empire was the city of Timbuktu which also served as the centre for Islamic learning globally. Mankind's knowledge of areas such as physics, natural history, geography and medicine were greatly advanced through extensive studies in Timbuktu's Universities. Again however something that is often left out of the history books, is that Timbuktu also became the centre of study into the paranormal in a building known as the black mosque. For centuries, Timbuktu unearthed many key and interesting secrets about the supernatural as well as new spell and enchantments. It provided aid to demon hunters all over Africa and beyond. Eventually however this led to numerous sorcerers and demons all over Africa uniting against the black mosque and destroying it for revealing their secrets. Following its fall, Timbuktu and with it the Mali empire ultimately collapsed.
The secrets of the black mosque remained buried for several hundred years until the late 20th century when they were unearthed by Vanessa Showina. She built a new organisation over the ruins of the old black mosque. which trained vampire and demon killers, and sorcerers from all over the world with the black mosque's knowledge.
The vandals lies about the paranormal being mere myths eventually spread to other continents, via Europe's influence. For example British Empire covered over 1 quarter of the earth's surface. Furthermore the supernatural from other continents, after learning about the good deal the supernatural had in Europe, where they could hunt in anonymity worked to create a similar situation in their home land, and just like Europe, leaders eventually got in on the act, both to keep the peace, and maintain power for themselves. IE certain leaders could even rely on the supernatural's support as long as they helped cover their tracks.
By the time of the 19th century most of the people of the earth believed demons, witches, magic and vampires to be nothing more than myths and superstitions and in the next few articles we will explore how the 19th century in particular would be a time of great change, albeit from behind the scenes as dark and alien forces began to circle the earth like never before.