The web of the Night Queen.

Neferata, the queen of Lahmia had forseen tha fall of her kindom. She and her sisters had fled to a hidden place in the Worlds Edge Mountains long before the ravaging Troops of Khemri destroyed Lahmia. It is said that the Night Queens palace, called the silver Pinnacle, was once a mighty Dwarfen fortress. Stories about that place have been told for centuries and can be found in Bretonnian Ballads as well as in Tilean poems. Even in the kashbahs of Araby and in the sweat lodges of Kislev one can hear similar rumours.

The Night Queen chose her "children" mostly from noble families. Most of them were beautiful maidens who were sent by Neferata across the Old World to seduce and intrigue at the courts. The talons of the Lahmians reach to all levels of human society. As they take an active interest in human society, no one could guess how many powerful noblewomen were in reality one of Neferatas daughters. In truth all the Vampires of the Lahmian sisterhood descend from the Queen of Lahmia. Although it is said that she despises men there are a few male vampires amongst the Lahmians. The most famous was the bretonnian Vampire Chamanac who gave the dark kiss to Genevieve Dieudonne, Heroine of the Empire and to Katharina, the bloody Tzarina of Kislev, who ruled the lands of Kislev for many centuries.

The presence of the Lahmians is seldom noticed, but their grasp is certainly felt. Everywhere the Queen of the Night spins her web of intrigue over the Old World and often a lawful and righteous man stands under the influence of a Lhamian Lady not realizing that in reality she commands over his troops...

The Lord of Masks

One of the seven ancestors was Ushoran, the Lord of Masks. Being a great Diplomat and Politician he had foreseen the fall of Lhamia. He promised his brothers and sisters in blood a better future under a ruler which was more capable than Neferata: himself. But the other Vampires were not interested in founding a new vampiric nation and therefore resisted him and decided that nobody should rule over them anymore. They preferred to go further north and follow their own paths. Ushoran was furious and spitefully rejected and cursed them.

Ushoran guided his few remaining followers to the west, into the lands which are today known as the Badlands. There he found a small kingdom of Men, Strigos, which lied on the western foodhills of the Worlds Edge Mountains. Within a few centuries, the children of th Lord of Masks were holding many positions of importance in the capital of Strigos, Mourkain. Eventually, Ushoran took over the whole kinddom and ruled over Strigos many centuries thereafter. Under Ushorans reign the land prospered and become rich and influential.

The strength of Ushoran and his minions was not seen with benevolence by the other vampire ancestors. Especially Neferata looked at her brother with envy. She stirred up Empire noblemen and warned them from a great treat in the south. Soon a huge army of humans marched south towards the kindom of Strigos. When Ushoran heard of the danger from the north he marched with a huge army against the troops of the Empire. A bloody Battle started and the humans were slain by the mighty vampires from the house of Ushoran. But then the disaster struck: Out of the Worlds Edge Mountains erupted a huge greenskin Waagh! The ravening hordes of Orcs and Goblins engulfed the rich plains of Strigos. Now Ushoran was in a situation of constraint: should he clash the human armies or should he return to Strigos and defend the city of Mourkain. He decided to do the latter. His army marched back to Strigos and started a horrible battle against the Greenskins while its flanks were continuously attacked by the remains of the Empire army. At the gates of the city the fate of Strigos was to be decided. Here Ushoran decided to make his last stand. In a duel against the Warlord of the Greenskins and his Shaman the Vampire Lord was killed. The Orcs turned on the capital and razed it to the ground, butchering or enslaving all the population. That what remained was killed and burned down by the arriving Empire forces.

The few human survivors of Strigos who escaped the Orcs devastation became nomadic people known as Strigany and are travelling throughout the whole Old world in small caravans. Also not all Vampire of Ushorans bloodline were destroyed with their Vampiric master: some survived and fled to the north. In their despair they remembered their cousins in blood and eventually found them in the forests of Sylvania. Here the Vampires of the Bloodline of Vasharesh ruled over the land. They still remembered the spiteful arrogance of Ushorans and turned on his minions, hunting them down like animals in the woods. The few remaining Strigoi Vampires who survived this bloody episode of betrayal scattered among the Old World. But whenever they met Vampires of other lines they received the same treatment. So they had to hide from the wrath of their own kin. Turned to a life of scavenging at the borders of society the once arrogant and noble members of Ushorans line transformed into desperate creatures, hiding in graveyards, digging out recently buried corpses to trink their cold blood. But the nomadic Strigany still remembered their former masters and came to serve them. Also packs of Ghouls are attracted to the Strigoi and often form grotesque courts around them. From this came the legends of the Ghoul Kings which is popular in the southern parts of the Old World.

The Masters of Darkness

Of all the bloodlines the line of Vashanesh is the most cruel and the greatest menace to the Old World. According to the legend Vashanesh was also the king of Lahmia, but it is not clear if he was Neferatas father or her husband. He was always a master of intrigue and he looked with envy at his brothers and sisters as he wanted to be the only ruler over the vampires. It is rumoured that the forces of Alicazaar only could make it to the gates of Lahmia because of the treachery of Vashanesh. Like most of his other cousins he fled with his court to the north and hid in the forests of the land which should once become Sylvania. For the next two tousand years nobody heard something of the line of Vashanesh. Sylvania was a haven of necromancers and other practitioners of the dark arts. In the year 1797 Count Otto von Drak, the current ruler at those times, died without a male heir. Just in that time a mysterious stranger appeared at the court of Drakwald Castle and married Otto von Draks daughter Isabella. The stranger was a certain Vlad von Carstein and he became the ruler of Sylvania. It is not known if Vlad was Vashanesh or if he was just a son of the Vampiric ancestor. Under Vlads grip the land of Sylvania was transformed into an efficient province. Vlad reigned over the land for the next two-hundred years, using different names in different periods so that nobody became suspicious.

When the great comet fell onto the city of Mordheim, Vlad sent his undead minions to search the ruins for Wyrdstone. He used the chaotic power of the stones to enlarge his power. Then, in 2010 he revealed his true nature and attacked Stirland with a huge army consisting of Sylvanian regular troops and countless legions of living dead. During the next years Stirland and Ostermark were devastated and Vlad turned towards the Reikland, the heart of the Empire. In 2051 the undead hordes of the Vampire Count reached the gates of Altdorf and laid siege to the imperial Capital. Here, Vlad found his final doom. The Grand Theogonist Wilhelm III. sacrificed his own life in an attempt to destroy the Count. He challenged the undead Master at the citywalls. When Vlad stabbed the Theogonist with his sword the other grabbed Vlad and dragged both of them off the walls of Altdorf. Both fell and impaled themselves on alone of the many stakes littering Altdorfs moat. As soon as their Master was dead, the Sylvanian army were forced to retreat. When she heard of her husbands death, Isabella von Carstein commit suicide by impaling herself on a stake.

The remaining von Carstein vampires fled to Sylvania where they hid from their human pursuers. But the power of the Bloodline of Vashanesh was still not broken. Another von Carstein rose in power. His name was Konrad von Carstein. He was a mad and violent individual, feared by his servants and enemies. In the last decade of the 22nd century he tried to conquer the empire like Vlad did 200 years before. Lacking the intellect and skill as tactician of a Vlad von Carstein, the advance of Konrads armies was stopped at the battle of the Four Armies in 2100. Konrad was finally defeated by a combined force of Dwarfish and Empire forces in the Battle of Grim Moor in 2121.

The last of the line of Vashanesh who became a treat to the Empire was Manfred von Carstein, a sly and cunning ruler. Shortly after his cousin Konrad was defeated he rised a new army of Undead creatures and marched through the lands of the Empire. The imperial Provinces were so entangled in private quarrels that the massive attack of the vile undead forces hit them unprepared. Province after Province fell under Manfreds armies. Manfreds hunger for power was so great that he marched with his troops down the river Reik to lay siege on the harbourcity of Marienburg. But he didn't expect the toughness of the Marienburgers who got support by the Sea Elves. Finally the Marienburgers defeated Manfreds troops and the Vampire Count fled with his remaining troops back to Sylvania. In the meantime the Elector Counts of the Empire had rallied and awaited Manfred at Hel Fen in Stirland. Manfred was finally defeated here in the year 2145. Although he was able to flee, his power was broken. The cult of Morr sent a large force of Raven Knights to Sylvania and with the assistance of the Sigmarite Inquisition nearly all lairs of the von Carsteins were destroyed.
Since that time the von Carsteins lost their influence more and more, but who knows, perhaps a new von Carstein warlord will rise… It is rumoured that Manfred has been seen in Sylvania, but the source of this rumours is more than doubtful: the criminal Felix Jaeger.