The phrase recorded history is perhaps somewhat misleading. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that we have a clearer idea of our own history after the age of the gods and dragons, than before it. Much of our so called recorded history has still been intentionally edited. Namely the massive impact the supernatural had on shaping numerous societies and empires (and indeed destroying some like ancient Rome and the Mali empire.)
Most of what you will have read about our recorded history, assuming you have read anything about it is true. I only say that some of you may be not familiar with our history, as I'm not even sure all of the select time travellers who read this will be human. We humans have tendency to think our history is the only one that matters, so forgive me if I come across that way. Even though we figured out we weren't the centre of the universe hundreds of years ago, sometimes you wouldn't know it.
We obviously don't have time to go over all of recorded history here so instead we will only be commenting on certain key moments that are linked with the supernatural, namely the examples that will one day be relevant to the time travellers who read it. We don't know exactly what you will do with this information, but we were instructed to relay it regardless.
The Roman Empire is known to have been one of the largest and most influential super powers in the history of humanity. Enduring for centuries and spearheading many important discoveries and advancements, whilst also being cruel and oppressive. What ironically most of the historians who helped shed light on its past don't know however, is that it had several brutal conflicts with the vampire race. From the beginning there were reports of Roman centurians being overwhelmed by renegade groups of vampires, and it's known that some vampires were captured and forced to fight as gladiators.
The first major conflict however really began when two of Rome's Emperors, Caligula and Nero were turned into vampires. In Caligula's case it was when one of the vampire gladiators escaped and sired him, whilst with Nero he was a willing volunteer, as his paranoia had become too great in light of what happened with his predecessors, he felt it was the only way he could survive future attempts on his life. Both men even ruled the empire as one of the undead. Sadly both escaped their assassination attempts as a result of the empire not being familiar with their breeds, and they subsequently caused more havoc over the subsequent centuries.
Whilst Caligula's transformation was written off as simple madness to the public so as not to worry them. Nero's transformation was not so easy to dismiss, as he continued to make several plays for the throne after his death. Though these were written off at first as impostors, eventually the truth became impossible to suppress when a cult of vampires and demons began to form around Nero. The presence of the vampiric Nero really woke Rome up to the threat vampirism possessed. How unlike many other species of demons they could infiltrate high command and widespread panic spread throughout Rome, with vampirism becoming one of the most important issues Nero's successors had to address. Even then it wasn't until the Emperor Trajan however that Rome waged a full out war against the undead. By the time of Trajan's rule, the vampires had, under Nero's leadership, built up an army like never before. Whilst the vampires were still cowardly, self serving monstrosities. The fact that one of their own had once been the Emperor helped to create an important figure head that temporarily united them. Caligula meanwhile still kept hidden. Unlike Nero he had no wish to continue being the Emperor. All he cared about was indulging in his sick, perverted whims, and he found that he could actually do that more easily on his own, without having any responsibilities. Ironically Nero most likely felt the same, and in life had actually believed himself to be a great artist who was wasted in office. As a man he had never even really wanted to be Emperor in the first place, having been pushed into it by his scheming mother. Still now that he had lost it Nero was like a petulant child, furious at other people playing with his toys. He also couldn't bare the idea of his time as Emperor being condemned by historians, and hoped that at the very least he could be viewed as the greatest hero of the vampires after he had taken control and allowed them to dominate humanity.
At the same time as the war against Nero however, Trajan ironically brought in a greater tolerance for benevolent supernatural creatures too, a controversial move after the mass panic caused by Nero, but ultimately one with huge benefits for the Empire. Trajan recognised that not all supernatural creatures, indeed not even all demons were the same and that their unnatural powers and abilities could also be of use to the Empire too. Granted historians who were extremely biased towards Trajan, have tended to play up his benevolent qualities perhaps a bit too much. There's no denying that he was a great man, centuries ahead of his time, and undoubtedly the greatest Roman emperor of them all. Still his desire to welcome in the supernatural, was most likely a calculated move to simply win their support away from Nero, who was being touted as the Anti Christ that would deliver all of demonic kind to glory. Meanwhile there are other accounts that whilst certain laws and liberties were granted to the supernatural in Trajans time, widespread persecution in certain provinces did still carry on.
Nevertheless Trajan proved successful in uniting several paranormal species together. He even caused the werewolves to briefly turn on vampires, by simply offering them a better deal. Whilst werewolves were among the only creatures that vampires didn't treat with unbelievable cruelty. They still did see them as second class citizens, due to the fact that the werewolves father was a servant of Khastran. Trajan who promised to treat werewolves as ordinary citizens provided they secured themselves on the night of the full moon, not surprisingly caused most of them to turn on their vampire masters. This led to relations between vampires and werewolves breaking down for many centuries, with it not being until after the middle ages, in the reign of the vandals before the two races were forced back into their old alliance.
Another species of supernatural creature to play a key role in the early days of the empire, were the angels. Specifically a group of renegade angels that hoped they could try and redeem themselves by aiding humanity. They had monitored the earth during the time of the gods, as they had been closely allied with some of the deities on earth for years before hand. Namely Yahweh, whose entire people had been destroyed by Set. The angels in many ways became a replacement for Yahweh's people, though they did not live on the earth like the gods. Still Yahweh was so close with them, that he often trusted the angels advice more than that of the other gods. Not surprisingly his reputation among the other members of his kind was not too great, though they insisted it was not because of his love for angels. Many of the gods believed Yahweh to be arrogant, violent, unpredictable and in extreme cases, insane over the loss of his people. Ironically however whilst its true that Yahweh was somewhat unpredictable. He was nevertheless responsible for saving more people from the great flood than any other god, through his guiding of his favourite follower Noah to construct an arc to protect those the gods had abandoned when fighting Ares. There are some however who believe that he may have been swayed by the angels in this action which the angels did later claim, though others believe this was simply propaganda on their part.
The group of angels who befriended Yahweh were not that pure themselves meanwhile. Many of them had been transformed completely into devils (such as Lucifer) prior to their alliance with Yahweh. After the gods had left the earth however, the angels saw the planet as a possible chance for redemption. They did not integrate themselves into society or make any attempts to take over like the gods having seen how that corrupted some of them. Instead they simply battled the forces of darkness around the world for centuries and set up organisations designed to counteract the worst evils of the world, with the longest lived and most influential being the Deaneria. Eventually after centuries of fighting evil, and not just in demons, but humanity's corruption still enduring. The angels felt that the best way to truly help would be to create a perfect example for humanity to follow. An angel/human hybrid who would understand humanity's flaws better than they could, but with his angel grace, rise above them. They accomplished this, through fusing angelic energy into a young, kind hearted woman named Mary which led to her giving birth to an angel/human hybrid Jesus Christ. The angels then attempted to guide Jesus (as well as playing his birth off as being from the creator itself.)
Jesus however soon took his own path. He still used his powers to battle the forces of evil, but took a more peaceful approach than that of the angels. He preached peace, love and acceptance among all species and made a significant positive impact on the world like no other man either before or since. Sadly and ironically the corruption of humanity itself proved too great even for Jesus Christ. The humans he had sworn to protect turned against their messiah and tortured and killed him. Jesus' legacy however did live on in the religion that was founded in his name, though sadly like many great figures throughout history. Jesus message has also sometimes been misinterpreted and warped by certain figures for their own gain at certain points.
Still one of Jesus' contemporary followers, John the Evangelist used the tragedy of his death to create one of the greatest weapons against the supernatural. Using a combination of Jesus' blood, and white magics. John cast a powerful spell which linked Jesus' holy power to the symbol of the cross and other artefacts that were important to Jesus and his people, including the Star of David. This allowed these artefacts to repel and in some cases even harm many species of demons. John's spell also ensured that water blessed by one of Jesus' loyal followers like him, could harm demons too. Not all demons it must be said were harmed by these magics. (Though many species of vampire were particularly vulnerable.) This also lead to problems for Christ's followers from Nero when he was the Emperor. Aware of the crosses destructive power on his kind. Nero made it his mission to exterminate Christ's followers. His horrific persecution of Christians is what later led to him being denounced as the Anti Christ in certain sects of their religion. A title which he embraced when rallying his demon and vampire forces against Rome.
Other religions meanwhile which worshipped similar angelic and god like creatures to visit our earth through the centuries also utilised John's spell, mixed in with the blood or artefacts left over by their holy figures to make their symbols harmful to vampires and other demons too. For example, the gods who founded the Hindu religion, (and were still worshipped in India after they had left our planet with the others.) Their holy symbol of Om was made just as toxic to the vampire horde. (Om in reality had been an important ingredient from the gods in rebuilding the earth after Set's rampage. It came from the leader of the Hindu Pantheon Vishnu's home planet. Being the only sample in fact left after Set's destruction of Vishnu's people and home.)
Buddha's followers similarly used this spell for his statue over the world, allowing it to repel vampires and demons. Buddha was in reality one of the worlds greatest sorcerers. Unlike most others, who channelled their magic through rage, grief or other negative emotions, even if they used it for good. Buddha was able to activate a greater power, through achieving a greater sense of peace with himself, known as meditation. He used his abilities to do incredible good in the world, and helped to enlighten others to access their inner magic too. However Buddha's greatest achievement was in finding a way to use these magics to construct a new body after death. It was a similar process to the spell that had been used for Leontine, but rather than hijack a new body. Buddha created his new body entirely from the matter around him. Others would practice and master this process too, though sadly few were able to do it with the skill that Buddha demonstrated. Others ended up either creating unstable bodies, or sent their souls into other existing bodies. In most cases their memories vanished, except for a few that lingered, creating confusion for the host bodies. A belief around reincarnation emerged as a result of this. In some cases however, it was more than just memories that lingered. The previous souls magical energy could allow the host body to harness even greater magic than the average person, though these types of extra magical abilities could only be unlocked with meditation.
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It should be noted however that whilst others were able to replicate John's spell. Only a very few were able to do so successfully. It was after all an incredibly difficult and delicate process and in hindsight it's not surprising that only the founders of the worlds most influential religions had the power and resources to do so.
The angels who had created Jesus in the first place meanwhile were left broken by his death, except for Lucifer. He felt more inspired than ever to wipe evil from the face of the earth. Lucifer believed that Jesus was right that it was better to try and redeem other life forms, than simply slay evil. However he also felt that Jesus had just been wrong in his more pacifistic approach. Sometimes Lucifer believed it was necessary to force life forms to act in their better nature, rather than give them the choice. This soon led to conflict with the other angels who simply tried to continue Jesus' message half heartedly through peaceful means.
Lucifer subsequently made his new base in a universe within the hellish realm. He took over several hundred planets and not only forced the demons to be his servants, but to commit benevolent acts across the galaxy. Lucifer hoped, just as he had gone against his nature through greed and selfishness eons ago and become a devil. That these acts of benevolence would change the demons and become second nature to them. In time his approach did actually work to some extent, with Lucifer gathering an army of seemingly benevolent demons, who he hoped could influence the rest of the hellish realm. Sadly however this proved more difficult than the fallen angel had hoped and in time he was forced to seal his universe off from the rest of the Hellish realm, though at least he had conquered other worlds in this universe, expanding his power to the point where almost this entire small universe would fall under his rule.
Once his power was secure, Lucifier created a link between the earth and his base, which would send the wickedest human souls to his domain. Even with his new army he did not want to simply conquer the earth as it could lead to more death. Whilst the gods were gone, if another supernatural power had tried to claim the earth, they would have surely stepped in. Lucifer and his demons punished the souls that were sent to them in a fitting way, but it wasn't just meaningless torture. It was designed to show them the full extent of the horrors they had committed and also give the damned souls a chance for redemption. Lucifer was not the first being to create an afterlife on the earth. Aside from Khastran's pocket dimension where all of his children and other creatures who bore his mark were sent after death. The gods during their stay on earth had also created numerous pocket dimensions from the underworld to valhalla where they could store the souls of those they cared for, or those they wanted to punish. After the gods left the earth, these pocket dimensions were simply abandoned, as dismantling them would have been too dangerous, though each dimensions ability to draw in souls at least was gone.
Lucifers base ultimately took in far more souls than any previous artificial afterlife however, except for Khastran's, though it was only able to take in the souls of the wicked. In time he built up a great army of damned souls as well as remorseful demons who did many great things throughout the omniverse.
The other angels however, after learning about Lucifers plans were disgusted and denounced him as a monster. In response they built their own pocket dimension for lost souls on the earth that we would come to know as the veil. This acted as something of a waiting room for lost or confused souls before helping them deal with whatever it was that was still tying them to earth, before sending them to the Great Beyond.
Lucifer and the angels subsequently warred with one another for centuries over the souls of the earth though again their war was kept in secret away from humanity for the most part. Even then however whilst human society was able to carry on, human followers on both sides across the entire world became caught up in the angels battle. Sadly the angels weren't the only enemies Lucifer had to deal with. The demons from the other realities in the hellish realm arguably despised the devil more than his fellow angels, and eventually, when Lucifer was distracted in an important battle against the angels. The demons launched a successful attack against his base in the 5th century, slaughtering most of Lucifers reformed demons (though not all of them were quite as reformed as Lucifer believed.)
The demon who led the final attack over Lucifers former base, was Mephistopheles. One of the most powerful and evil creatures in the hellish realm. Mephistopheles and his vile horde proceeded to torture all of the human souls that were sent to the hellish realm thanks to Lucifer's link.
The angels tried to sever the link between Lucifers dimension and earth, but sadly it had become too strong by this stage. The angels did at the very least greatly limit the amount of souls sent from the earth to hell, by widening the veil's reach. Sadly however they never completely eradicated its influence.
Mephistopheles meanwhile was fittingly to suffer the same fate as Lucifer, centuries down the line when he was dethroned by his most sadistic follower. Satan, who then used Lucifers former base to further expand his power throughout the hellish realm. He became the closet thing the hellish realm had to an overall king after the age of Kardons. (There had been other rulers of individual hell universes since the Kardons, but none with as wide a reach as Satan. Though even he did not rule them all.)
Lucifer on the other hand fled across the universe after he had been dethroned with the last of his loyal demons and attempted to find redemption for the souls he had condemned in his attempt to save humanity. Ironically whilst the name Lucifer became synonymous with evil on earth. (Thanks in part to his fellow angels propaganda, and thanks also to the fact that he, Mephistopheles and Satan became mixed up in numerous texts, legends and myths as the same being.) On thousands of other planets around the galaxy, the name Lucifer came to be associated with heroism.
Finally the other angels who had played a part in Jesus' creation, after seeing the horrors Lucifer had caused, and still feeling guilt for Jesus' death. Wisely left the earth just like the gods had done centuries earlier to prevent their presence causing any more harm.
Aside from angels and vampires. Humanity was also visited by Martians during the early days of Rome too. Specifically during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Life developed on mars round about the same time as our world, and it eventually gave rise to a race of sentient humanoid creatures.
Very little is known about the Martians however, other than that they were a more advanced race than us technologically speaking at that point. (To be fair they hadn't experienced the same set backs we had.) The Martians however unfortunately had never had any experiences with the supernatural we had either. Naturally almost all demons had been drawn to our world over the centuries by its unique magics, skipping by our small red neighbour completely.
Sadly however this meant that when the first group of Martians arrived on earth, hoping to establish contact with us. They were completely unprepared for the preternatural horrors of our world.
The landing team were attacked by a vampire lurking in the woods. Unknown to the others, it infected the Martian it bit. In order to become a vampire a life form must have an intelligence level on a par with a human. It's to do with how the human brain is better equipped to have a more complex soul which the vampire either corrupts or replaces. Sadly the Martians more than qualified for this. The vampire that attacked the Martians proved immune to their weapons, forcing the aliens to retreat into their space ship. The infected Martian however then turned on most of the other crew after his transformation. Only one, the ship's captain, Keptis managed to escape being turned. Sadly however Keptis wasn't able to stop the others from taking the spaceship back to mars, where the vampires then went on to infect more.
With the Martians having no idea what this new virus was, or how to battle the vampires. The bloodsuckers soon overran and destroyed the Martian race with their own advanced weapons, erasing almost all traces of them from the red planets surface.
Ironically the only Martian to survive the war was Keptis, who using the most primitive form of magic that his people had been forced to discover in the war against the undead. Fled back to earth near its end, when the Martian resistance forces had been crushed. There Keptis soon became part of Trajan's army against the vampires. He utilised his martian technology, (which the Romans simply took for magic) to play a key role in the battle against the vampires of earth. Keptis was also fairly careful not to let his technology fall into the Romans hands just yet, so as not to accelerate their development too fast.
The great Trajan vampire war often edited from our history books, finally defeated the greatest army of vampires ever seen at that point, and brought an end to Nero's influence. Nero himself was denounced as a coward by his fellow vampires and demons when he fled the final battle and much like Caligula was forced to lay low for centuries afterwards. Many of the surviving vampires and rogue supernatural creatures meanwhile were forced to retreat to Scotland (one of the few places the Romans had been unable to conquer in Europe, which subsequently became a hot spot for supernatural activity.) After the war, Trajan then set up organisations to deal with and study the supernatural all over the world that were simply known as Trajans. They continued to endure for centuries after the Roman empire, though in time other organisations devoted to combating the supernatural replaced them such as Rentros. By the end of the 19th century, just one Trajan in all of central Europe was left.
Keptis who also helped set up the first Trajans, was able to achieve at least some small measure of revenge against the bloodsuckers through his pivotal role in the war, but sadly a few years into the reign of Trajan's successor, Hadrian. The vampires on mars, having now wiped out almost all of the native martians, soon sought out a new source of food, humanity.
The combination of their martian technology and supernatural vampiric powers very nearly overwhelmed the empire. It didn't help that as soon as Hadrian realised that Keptis belonged to the same species as the Martians he grew suspicious of him as well. (Before Keptis had always written his alien appearance off as simply belonging to an obscure demon species. Trajan did have his suspicions but ultimately ignored them as Keptis was too useful.)
Thankfully however the original incarnation of the Circus Family arrived in the middle of the Martian vampire invasion in their Tent, and working with Keptis, together they finally destroyed the Martian vampire invaders and saved humanity. After the invasion Keptis joined the Circus Family, becoming one of its longest serving members. (He also made sure that none of the Martian technology was left behind on earth afterwards.)
One group of Martian vampires however survived the Circus Family's attack and escaped into deep space. They later landed on a small, primitive planet which they overran just as easily as they did mars. In time, many planets fell to the vampires who assimilated other races technology and in some cases unique powers to become an even greater force.
However the treacherous and backstabbing nature of the vampire ensured that they were never able to build up a truly vast empire. Instead the vampire forces became fragmented around the universe. Still hundreds of thousands of planets were nevertheless destroyed even by these fragmented vampire forces, ensuring that the children of Khastran became a curse on the universe itself, not just the earth.
After the Martian/vampire invasion, Hadrian clamped down harder on the supernatural than Trajan, and subsequent Roman emperors followed suit, believing they no longer needed them after Nero's forces had been crushed.
This however eventually backfired, as numerous supernatural creatures eventually united like never before to take down Rome, including the vampires and the vandals, who played a key role in causing the final fall of the Roman empire. The vandals subsequently took their name from the Germanic people who sacked Rome in an effort to perpetuate a myth that they were solely responsible in the middle ages. The demonic vandals had been known by many other names before, but vandal evidently stuck and came to refer to the demon group as a whole.
The fall of Rome led to European civilisation itself descending into a backward and more primitive period known as the dark ages. The vampires and vandals naturally soon forgot their alliance and warred with each other throughout the entirety of the middle ages, in an effort to try and establish a new power base in Europe.