Reign of Blood – Afraid of the dark? You should be.

…Weeks later, in Divinity’s Reach, a supply caravan returning from Harathi Hinterlands brought something back with it, a little girl. They said she’d been found wandering the woods in the Hinterlands, close to death, and was rescued by the Seraph. She was to be taken to Queen’s Heart Orphanage. There wasn’t time to look into who she was or whether she had any family left, the city was preparing for the crowning of the queen, with security details tripled for the occasion, the Seraph couldn’t afford to waste any man power…

…The girl had been at the orphanage for over a month now, she’d settled in well. She hadn’t woken up in tears in the middle of the night for weeks. The priestesses named her Reign, in honour of the new Queen, the only thing on people’s mind the day after the little girl arrived. They were worried about her, she hadn’t broken her silence since she arrived, save for her cries at the heart of night when the nightmares came. Despite her silence, she got along with the other children, they all came from bad places and so they understood her silence…

…It’d been three months since the little girl arrived in Divinty’s Reach on the supply caravan. Her stay at Queen’s Heart was short, a widowed noble by the name of Etharn Levanche, a kindly, middle aged man with no children of his own visited the orphanage. After hearing of Reign’s dismal tale, he sought to adopt her. The priestesses were happy that after all the little girl had been through, she would get to live a life of extravagance at Levanche’s estate. However, some of the priestesses were reluctant to hand over the girl due to the unsettling rumors of the mysterious death of Levanche’s wife. This was quickly dismissed as Levanche was bringing good money to the table. But you know what they say about rumors…

…Over a year later, life was good at Levanche’s estate. The man had been nothing but kind to her, he gave her the fanciest clothes, the best food, everything a child could want, but despite this, the girl had never uttered a sound. The year she’d spent with Levanche was a solitary one, he kept no servants in the estate, the only interaction with other people she had was when she watched them in the streets from the library window, where she spent most of her time. She didn’t mind, she wasn’t one for conversation. The night terrors still came from time to time, but they weren’t what was waking her up in the dead of night these days. Some nights, baleful sounds would creep up to her ears from the basement…

She lay there in the darkness, pretending to sleep, silence fell heavy around her head. She was waiting, her curiosity had gotten the best of her this night, she lay still, waiting. What seemed like hours passed before she heard it, a faint humming sound, slowly shaking the silence apart, followed by strange rhythmic pulses of distortion, which somehow seemed to pass through her ears right into her head. She carefully pushed away the blankets, gently putting her feet onto the cold stone floor, cautious not to make a sound, she sat still on the bed for a moment, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She snuck out of her room, silent as a shadow, she crept down the stairs and through the pitch black hallways, seeking the source of the ominous humming. As she made her way down through the mansion, the dreadful buzzing grew louder and more intense, seeming to be coming from everywhere at once, all around her, she could feel it more than she could hear it. She was getting close now, in one of the passages beneath the mansion, the humming was everywhere now, she could make out the slightly ajar door of the basement in the distance, a faint green glow emanating from behind it. She paused for a moment, goosebumps crept over her skin, every fiber of her being was being pulled towards the door, it was as if the room beyond it was calling to her, welcoming her, a foreboding presence waited for her. The humming filled her mind as she entered the room, she gazed at the contents of the room as if she was in a trance. What she saw should have horrified her, bones littered the tables, shelved stacked full of jars of blood lined one of the walls, ancient texts of forbidden magic and artifacts hung in display cases, a large cage sat in the corner, the floor was covered in glowing green runes written in some unknown language, but what drew her gaze was the altar in the center of the room. A large stone slab, adorned with carvings and runes, it’s surface was stained red with blood, shimmering in the faint green light atop the altar lay an eerie looking dagger, only slightly different in colour than the crimson stained slab it lay upon. It drew her in, called to her, without realizing it she was already almost at the altar. “Ah, my child.” She spun around, Levanche’s voice cut the trance like a knife, as he spoke the humming shattered into silence. He stood in the doorway, the green light from the runes lit up his face in a ghastly manner. He looked different from the kind man who had taken her in, his eyes were dark and bloodshot, his face twisted, almost inhuman. His voice pierced the silence again “I was hoping you wouldn’t discover my little secret, the ritual wont be ready until the next new moon.” His face broke into a curved, twisted smile. “Looks like you’ll be staying down here until then.” He lunged at her from the doorway, in the corner of her eye she saw the knife glinting on the altar…

…A passerby reported her screaming to the Seraph. They found the headless body of Levanche lying in a mess of blood on the main stairwell, the body was full of stab wounds, the head was nowhere to be found. The little girl was still crying under her bed when they arrived. They figured it was a robbery gone wrong, that Levanche had tried to scare off the thugs and they panicked. It never even crossed their minds to suspect the little mute girl, it wasn’t possible for a child to have committed such an atrocity… How wrong there were…

…She became a ward of the city, placed in a foster home shortly after the incident. A common family, the Walfords, the mother a tailor, the father a baker, with three children of their own already. They had heard of the incident, and the little girl’s past and pitied her. They treated her like she was their own daughter. She lived a comfortable life, helping at the family bakery and playing with her new siblings. She began to speak for the first time since she was found in the forest. Since Levanche had no children of his own, when she became of age everything that was his would be hers, his wealth, his estate.. and the dark powers waiting beneath it..

“Reunion with Levanche”

“There’s power in blood”

“Afraid of the dark? You should be.”“The Levanche estate with it’s new owner”

Gear List:

Wraithe Mask

Masquerade Mantle

Tier 3 Cultural Top

Svanir gloves

Tier 3 Cultural Legs

Svanir Boots

Dyes: Black Cherry and Abyss

Weapons: Malefacterym and Adam 

I really wanted my necro to look like a vampire, since I had the same kind of look/theme with my necro in Guild Wars 1. It took me a long time to piece this look together and gather the money for it. I realize I might have went overkill on the story but once I started I had it in my head I couldn’t stop, I even went and bought the “Adam” focus the sole purpose of being Levanche in the screen shots, I hope you guys like Reign of Blood!

---