Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead demands total obedience from all of his deathless subjects. He enforces his despotic will through the tormented legions of Nighthaunt and the disciplined ranks of the Ossiarch Bonereapers.
These are not the only forces of the unliving at the Great Necromancer’s command. Way back when, in the early days of the Mortal Realms, Nagash plucked the hungry souls of his mightiest subordinates from the World that Was from the inchoate void, returning them to the forms he remembered from their former existence. These were the first Soulblight vampires, the deathly predators who make up the aristocracy of unlife – powerful, scheming, and hungry.
Vampires are supernatural beings, neither alive nor dead – powerful necromancers with keen minds who can enthral at a glance and raise the dead with but a gesture from their pallid hands.
These rapacious elites fall into many dynasties, defined by the cursed blood running through their veins, each vying for power and status as Nagash recovers from his defeat by the Archmage Teclis. Of these, five stand prominent above the rest – Mannfred Von Carstein commands the Legion of Night, while Neferata sits at the head of the Legion of Blood, spinning plots and schemes.*
The warlord Prince Vhordrai rules the Kastelai dynasty from the Crimson Keep. This phantasmal citadel manifests across the realms, disgorging banners of scarlet-armoured Blood Knights into the night. Fittingly for the Era of the Beast, the two other bloodlines find themselves empowered by the bestial energy of Ghur – the Avengorii and the Vyrkos.
Ruled by Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares, the Avengorii dynasty is an assemblage of embittered monstrosities who have abandoned any pretence of nobility in their pursuit of true strength. By contrast, the wolf-blooded Vyrkros – such as Radukar himself, or newcomer Ivya – keep their animalistic tendencies at bay through sheer force of will, though many still devolve into howling beasts.
The Era of the Beast has created new challenges for those cursed by the blood kiss, for the outpouring of predatory Ghurish energy has only aggravated the rapacious nature of the vampires. Many have given themselves fully over to the bloodlust, satiating their basest desires in orgies of blood and battle.
Others attempt to hold back the beast. The austere Askurgan Trueblades go so far as to hunt down those who succumb to monstrosity – they despise the monstrous Avengorii, though Lauka Vai’s own history keeps her from hunting them in turn. Temptation has intensified with the emergence of the Dawnbringer Crusades, giving each dynasty a procession of succulent necks to feast on.
Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords will be coming to pre-order soon, its pages packed with arcane lore and rules to unlock the secrets of the Soulblight Dynasties – or turn you into the mindless thrall of a voracious vampiric master...**
* With a rivalry that spans aeons, Mannfred and Neferata’s emnity continues into the Age of Sigmar.
** Never go hungry again? Doesn’t sound so bad to us.