Seeker

To become a vampire is to surrender oneself to Siroth. In return for eternal youth, strength, and power, the individual in question will be condemned to drain the blood of the living forevermore. This thirst for blood cannot be denied for long; even the strongest of wills can do nothing save crumble before the all-consuming desire. For those who do resist the compulsion, the only reward is madness… or worse. Without blood, a vampire devolves into a feral nightmare; a maddened hunter, driven by a hunger it cannot control. Their body deforms, becoming animalistic, and their mind follows suit. Their spirit dwindles to a mere flicker and the newborn 'Seeker' forgets all that they were, becoming little better than the beast they resemble. They take to the night, hunting for prey. The Seeker feasts night after night, glutting themselves as they refused to do while still in possession of their sanity. Many Seekers hunt until they are destroyed. Others find themselves pressed into the service of another vampire or a necromancer. Their twisted, bat-like forms are clad in serrated armor, and they are unleashed to battle the foes of their new master. Such was the fate of Vargalis the Maw, one of the most monstrous Seekers to ever exist. Vargalis was once a mighty and feared gladiator of Velyzar, before his death in the arena. As his lifeblood seeped into the sands, Vargalis was offered a chance to live and fight forever by Siroth, who saw in him a being capable of causing much useful mayhem among the living. Once Vargalis learned of what he must do to maintain his new existence, he felt some regret, and kept his feeding confined to those he considered unworthy of life. But on occasion hunger broke even his iron will, and he was sent into a frenzy of slaughter. It was after one such unfortunate incident that Vargalis swore never to taste flesh again. He took himself to a Lumayan monastery, high in the Cloudspire Mountains, and had himself confined to a penitent’s cell. The monks were initially reluctant to entomb a stranger, but Vargalis used his vampiric charms to convince them to accede to his wishes. For long months, Vargalis writhed in agony in his cell, matching his will against his desire. But his suffering was to no avail. His body became twisted and monstrous, and his mind shattered beneath the awful weight of his unholy hunger. He broke free from his confinement, and butchered and drained every monk in the monastery. But his hunger, denied for so long, was not sated. He descended from the mountains, killing anything and everything in his path, gorging on the blood of Dwarven patrols, bandits, and whole villages. A necromancer, following rumors of the Seeker’s rampage, tracked the beast to a ruined Dwarven outpost and bound the once-proud gladiator to her will. She arrayed the creature in a twisted parody of the armor he’d worn as a living man, and sent him to slay one of her foes, a servant of the Sacred Order. Vargalis butchered many warriors of the Order until he finally located his quarry and tore him apart, slaking his thirst on the man’s blood before succumbing to the weapons of the survivors.