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"I was born four thousand years ago, so perhaps you will indulge me a brief biography. I am after all your sire and the architect of your city.
"Before history, in the dawn of time, I was born and raised. I grew into the finest hunter known. It was on a hunt that my life ended. I tracked, fought, and slew a great cat in the depths of forest when a greater creature came upon me. Blurring from the forest's edge, a human woman, or so thought I. A gust of wind and a massive impact; I flew through the air to shatter against the trees. As darkness came upon me I dimly saw her gaze up at me after slaking her thirst. Blood dripped from her fanged mouth to the great cat which now cooled on the forest litter.
"Zillah she was called: the daughter of a god she was. She raised me from death into her state, that of a lesser god, and so I was reborn. Yet her wounds, given me in passing, she could not heal and so I am forever maimed. We returned to The City, made by her father the god Khayyin, and there did I spend many centuries in slavery.
"Khayyin had three children, all of whom had sired my brothers and cousins and most greatly abused us all. But I never forgot my wounds or the enslavement and when the time was right I conspired with my kindred against our sires. Leading them one night, when Khayyin was gone from The City, we rose up against our oppressors to seize The City for ourselves and for right. Zillah the Beautiful was slain, Irad the Strong was destroyed, and Enosh the Wise we hung at the city gates where the light of dawn burned him to ashes. We thought all was well. Until Khayyin returned.
"He listened not to our tales of abuse, he heard not our pleas for mercy and he punished us mercilessly. Each of us to bear a curse, and our children after us as well. I he cursed with deformity and disease, my sister Arikel with vanity such that she could no longer look at herself without becoming lost in her great beauty, the rest with other curses suited to their natures. The City he destroyed in a great flood. Us he scattered before him running us to the ends of the earth. He then departed the world of the living to sleep beneath the earth for all time.
"Thus it was that I embraced you, Babylon, as Zillah had embraced me. To serve me, bound by the magic in my blood. To rule over my city, named in your honor, in my place. To embrace your own servants as needed. And most importantly, to find the ones who betrayed us to Khayyin and to destroy them. So, sit, tell me of the last thousand years. I have slept long and though my dreams did guide you, they have slipped from my mind as surely as they do from the minds of mortals.
With that last word a hideous creature crawled from the shadows to sit at the feet of its master. Mangy hair hung from its mostly bald skull, twisted fangs disfigured its jaw, and its flesh was covered in sores and stank of putrid rot. Its ugliness was as nothing compared to the monster to whom it crawled. A voice, scratchy and rough began, "Babylon is well master. After securing your haven I embraced two children to aid me in the rule of the people, one for the city and one for our workers in the fields. Our initial scouting reports showed fertile plains of wheat to the northwest and hills beyond the lake to our immediate northeast."
"I sent the workers out to the wheat, with my childe having them build roads as he went. Along the way he stopped them to build mines in the rich grasslands." A grunt of pleasure came from the creature cloaked in darkness, "That was well done," its voice croaked.
"Thank you master. After 250 years I embraced another childe and sent it forth to lead a company of warriors and scout the local area. 200 more years passed until I needed another childe, again to lead a company of warriors. Since then I have embraced two more children, one to control the city as our populace of men grows, and the other to lead a new company of spearmen that just commissioned."
The seated figure nodded and grinned in pleasure. "So we now number eight, counting yourself and I of course." The younger figure nodded agreement. "It will do for now, but we will need more to fight our wars. Of course not until we have more kine to feed on can we embrace more children." The beast at his feet laughed at the thought of referring to the humans it fed from nightly as cattle. "What else have you found Babylon?"
Babylon pulled forth a box of gems and again sat down on the floor. He smoothed the dirt and placed down an enormous diamond. "If this is your city, master and this," he set down a small ruby, "is the wheat fields to the Northwest I have found the following." A cascade of jewels were then placed into the dust before the elder thing. "There are silks to our east, a great desert to the southwest, with gems beyond." Babylon grinned a shark-like grin in humor as he pointed to the flecks of color scattered on the dark floor. "There are also oceans to our far west and immediate northeast."
"Has anything unusual occurred while I slept?"
"Indeed sire. Some 400 years ago one of my children reported that his warriors had discovered a village. The childe led them in and discovered an empty lair from one of our kind!" The elder vampire grunted in surprise and inquired whose get it was that had laired there. "I am sure it was a childe of Haquim my master. Soon after the discovery my childe was slain by an unknown assailant. I was forced to embrace another to command the warriors, and too quickly as well, I am not pleased with this childe."
"You will replace him immediately then. Within 50 years, Babylon, no less." The servant nodded in compliance. "What else?"
"Your temple was finished 400 years ago, I had to drive the workers to death to complete it on schedule, as you had predicted. Other than that, nothing. Yes, nothing else master. I have nothing else to tell you." The young monster looked worried. "Your dreams were explicit in your description of pottery, but the men of your city are as yet still to slow to learn from your knowledge quickly. Some more time must pass."
The creature which called itself Absimiliard nodded at its childe's words. It all went according to plan, though the childe had bungled some things his successes vindicated the choice to take him from the mortal coil. All that remained was to explain the future to the youth.
"Very well. Then hear my words before I return to slumber. You will immediately begin work on raising a mass of people to settle a new city. You will also choose a suitable creature for me to embrace, it will rule the new city in my name. You will wake me when it is time." Babylon nodded at his master's words. "The rest will become clear to you from my dreams."
Babylon rose from his place at his master's feet and made ready to leave. The grating voice he was bound by blood-magicks to obey spoke once more before could leave the chamber. "One more thing childe. I have had visions of the future and of what is to come. In three thousand years a new force will come to our world. Henceforth we will date our calendars to that coming. I have not seen what it is that approaches from the realms of the spirit, but I know it is momentous. It will be defeated by my grand-sire, I have seen this, but you will henceforth call our times Before Coming. Know thus that the city Bablyon was founded in 4000 BC." With that the creature sank into the dirt and vanished from sight.
Babylon crept out of the ancient crypt. Gingerly he made his way back up towards his city. He could not oppose his sire yet, in will or in strength, but perhaps in time his will would be his own. When it was he would unite with his brethren yet to be born and lead their children in war. Though it take thousands of years he would slay the ancient evil that held him in thrall and had removed him from the world of the living. He would destroy it for its oppressions, its demands, its cruelty. Then he would reign supreme.
Quickly he hid his thoughts and fairly ran from the cave mouth that led to his master's crypt. It wasn't wise to think such things too loudly while there. After all, perhaps his sire could hear him.
"Before history, in the dawn of time, I was born and raised. I grew into the finest hunter known. It was on a hunt that my life ended. I tracked, fought, and slew a great cat in the depths of forest when a greater creature came upon me. Blurring from the forest's edge, a human woman, or so thought I. A gust of wind and a massive impact; I flew through the air to shatter against the trees. As darkness came upon me I dimly saw her gaze up at me after slaking her thirst. Blood dripped from her fanged mouth to the great cat which now cooled on the forest litter.
"Zillah she was called: the daughter of a god she was. She raised me from death into her state, that of a lesser god, and so I was reborn. Yet her wounds, given me in passing, she could not heal and so I am forever maimed. We returned to The City, made by her father the god Khayyin, and there did I spend many centuries in slavery.
"Khayyin had three children, all of whom had sired my brothers and cousins and most greatly abused us all. But I never forgot my wounds or the enslavement and when the time was right I conspired with my kindred against our sires. Leading them one night, when Khayyin was gone from The City, we rose up against our oppressors to seize The City for ourselves and for right. Zillah the Beautiful was slain, Irad the Strong was destroyed, and Enosh the Wise we hung at the city gates where the light of dawn burned him to ashes. We thought all was well. Until Khayyin returned.
"He listened not to our tales of abuse, he heard not our pleas for mercy and he punished us mercilessly. Each of us to bear a curse, and our children after us as well. I he cursed with deformity and disease, my sister Arikel with vanity such that she could no longer look at herself without becoming lost in her great beauty, the rest with other curses suited to their natures. The City he destroyed in a great flood. Us he scattered before him running us to the ends of the earth. He then departed the world of the living to sleep beneath the earth for all time.
"Thus it was that I embraced you, Babylon, as Zillah had embraced me. To serve me, bound by the magic in my blood. To rule over my city, named in your honor, in my place. To embrace your own servants as needed. And most importantly, to find the ones who betrayed us to Khayyin and to destroy them. So, sit, tell me of the last thousand years. I have slept long and though my dreams did guide you, they have slipped from my mind as surely as they do from the minds of mortals.
With that last word a hideous creature crawled from the shadows to sit at the feet of its master. Mangy hair hung from its mostly bald skull, twisted fangs disfigured its jaw, and its flesh was covered in sores and stank of putrid rot. Its ugliness was as nothing compared to the monster to whom it crawled. A voice, scratchy and rough began, "Babylon is well master. After securing your haven I embraced two children to aid me in the rule of the people, one for the city and one for our workers in the fields. Our initial scouting reports showed fertile plains of wheat to the northwest and hills beyond the lake to our immediate northeast."
"I sent the workers out to the wheat, with my childe having them build roads as he went. Along the way he stopped them to build mines in the rich grasslands." A grunt of pleasure came from the creature cloaked in darkness, "That was well done," its voice croaked.
"Thank you master. After 250 years I embraced another childe and sent it forth to lead a company of warriors and scout the local area. 200 more years passed until I needed another childe, again to lead a company of warriors. Since then I have embraced two more children, one to control the city as our populace of men grows, and the other to lead a new company of spearmen that just commissioned."
The seated figure nodded and grinned in pleasure. "So we now number eight, counting yourself and I of course." The younger figure nodded agreement. "It will do for now, but we will need more to fight our wars. Of course not until we have more kine to feed on can we embrace more children." The beast at his feet laughed at the thought of referring to the humans it fed from nightly as cattle. "What else have you found Babylon?"
Babylon pulled forth a box of gems and again sat down on the floor. He smoothed the dirt and placed down an enormous diamond. "If this is your city, master and this," he set down a small ruby, "is the wheat fields to the Northwest I have found the following." A cascade of jewels were then placed into the dust before the elder thing. "There are silks to our east, a great desert to the southwest, with gems beyond." Babylon grinned a shark-like grin in humor as he pointed to the flecks of color scattered on the dark floor. "There are also oceans to our far west and immediate northeast."
"Has anything unusual occurred while I slept?"
"Indeed sire. Some 400 years ago one of my children reported that his warriors had discovered a village. The childe led them in and discovered an empty lair from one of our kind!" The elder vampire grunted in surprise and inquired whose get it was that had laired there. "I am sure it was a childe of Haquim my master. Soon after the discovery my childe was slain by an unknown assailant. I was forced to embrace another to command the warriors, and too quickly as well, I am not pleased with this childe."
"You will replace him immediately then. Within 50 years, Babylon, no less." The servant nodded in compliance. "What else?"
"Your temple was finished 400 years ago, I had to drive the workers to death to complete it on schedule, as you had predicted. Other than that, nothing. Yes, nothing else master. I have nothing else to tell you." The young monster looked worried. "Your dreams were explicit in your description of pottery, but the men of your city are as yet still to slow to learn from your knowledge quickly. Some more time must pass."
The creature which called itself Absimiliard nodded at its childe's words. It all went according to plan, though the childe had bungled some things his successes vindicated the choice to take him from the mortal coil. All that remained was to explain the future to the youth.
"Very well. Then hear my words before I return to slumber. You will immediately begin work on raising a mass of people to settle a new city. You will also choose a suitable creature for me to embrace, it will rule the new city in my name. You will wake me when it is time." Babylon nodded at his master's words. "The rest will become clear to you from my dreams."
Babylon rose from his place at his master's feet and made ready to leave. The grating voice he was bound by blood-magicks to obey spoke once more before could leave the chamber. "One more thing childe. I have had visions of the future and of what is to come. In three thousand years a new force will come to our world. Henceforth we will date our calendars to that coming. I have not seen what it is that approaches from the realms of the spirit, but I know it is momentous. It will be defeated by my grand-sire, I have seen this, but you will henceforth call our times Before Coming. Know thus that the city Bablyon was founded in 4000 BC." With that the creature sank into the dirt and vanished from sight.
Babylon crept out of the ancient crypt. Gingerly he made his way back up towards his city. He could not oppose his sire yet, in will or in strength, but perhaps in time his will would be his own. When it was he would unite with his brethren yet to be born and lead their children in war. Though it take thousands of years he would slay the ancient evil that held him in thrall and had removed him from the world of the living. He would destroy it for its oppressions, its demands, its cruelty. Then he would reign supreme.
Quickly he hid his thoughts and fairly ran from the cave mouth that led to his master's crypt. It wasn't wise to think such things too loudly while there. After all, perhaps his sire could hear him.
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