Blood Marchioness Mina Lore: Official Story
‘Little mouse, where will you scamper to? Little bird, where can you fly? Small little Human, so fragile and fearful. Your sweet blood is already mine. Make it interesting for me to collect it.’
In life, Mina was the wife of the Baron of Krell in east Kaerok, but a vileness had ruled her heart since childhood. Torture of Humans and animals was her leisure, she dallied with guards and servants rampantly and bound each one to her service with blackmail and lies, and drove Baron Krell to madness and reclusion. This left Mina free to rule over his court and indulge her horrid passions. With nothing to stop her, she freely delved into tomes of necromancy and Sirothi rituals, and eventually discovered the lore of vampirism, an insidious form of Undeath powered by a bargain with Siroth himself.
She arranged a ritual sacrifice of ninety-nine servants and convicts, brought bound and blindfolded by her cowed and loyal guards to a secret chamber within the castle dungeons. One by one she cut their throats and let their blood coat her wicked hands. Then, she plunged the blood-soaked dagger into her own heart, making herself the one-hundredth sacrifice.
Siroth did not fail to notice this extraordinary act. Swiftly he offered the contract of vampirism to Mina as she died; she already knew it well and accepted it eagerly. Mina rose from the crimson floor resplendent in dark power, vile horns and bat-like wings sprouting from her body. Her victims’ blood flowed to her and formed into two gruesome swords in her hands. These, Siroth told her, were her fangs, and would drink blood for her with every slash and thrust. She named them Hatespine and Dreadneedle, whose dark legend grew with every kill.
The newly created vampire awoke mad with bloodlust and went on a rampage through Castle Krell, gorging on the vitae of every living thing she came across. But Siroth wanted a clever servant, not a mindless monster. Once he had let Mina indulge long enough, he summoned to her body a diabolical suit of armor covering her head to toe. This infernal armor sealed the power within her, modulating it so that Mina could remain sane.
Mina left the cursed, corpse-filled halls of her castle, savoring her husband’s blood as a parting gift. Ever since, she has stalked the night and roamed the world on Siroth’s behalf, her devotion to him fanatical. He delights in her rampant, chaotic evil, needing only to gently nudge her with his insidious whispers toward some act of terror he wishes enacted, and she will eagerly set herself to the grisly task.
Tales of Mina’s depravations are known to every Sacred Order inquisitor and would-be vampire hunter, from the heart of her territory in Anhelt to distant Yakai and the Lost Isles. Many have sought to end her reign of terror, but when she is struck down in her armored form, it only unleashes a greater nightmare. All the blood she has collected rushes into her, revives her from death, unseals her restraining armor, and Mina rises once again, an insatiable engine of murder. Her foes, thinking her slain and about to celebrate their great triumph, feel their hope turn to ash in their mouths and their cries of joy die on their lips, while Mina drinks in their despair like fine brandy. After hours or days of slaughter and rampage, she accumulates enough blood to recharge the magic of the armor, just in time for her to slip away from retribution in a less-conspicuous form.