~~~ Vlad's History ~~~
Note: Still tweaking some things around!
Vlad comes from a long line of vampirically inclined soquili warlords in the mountains of Romania. He was raised to be self-serving, prideful, and predatory. For a long time this served him very well. He would prey upon the other local soquili and humans alike. The Draculesti name, the name of him and his family, was whispered in fear throughout the local villages. The Draculestis would never prey so heavily upon one settlement that they would face retribution. Instead, the Draculestis and the locals lived in a sort of superstitious equilibrium.
Slowly, Vlad grew tired of this lifestyle. He grew bored of the mountains and of his bickering family and consorts and decided it was time to move on and find new places to haunt and new people to prey upon. He left Romania and began his travels around Europe, but that ended up being the biggest mistake of his life. He ventured into areas far more populated with humans than his sparse Romanian mountain villages. He devoured some of the local humans but without the force of his family and superstitions to protect him he was far more vulnerable than he realized. One day while he lay in his deep sleep the humans came upon him. By the time he woke from his slumber he was chained and bound to the humans that he had mocked as cattle just earlier.
For years the humans kept and tormented Vlad. Though some of their abuses were very painful the worst aspect of it was the isolation. Months would go by without being able to move or speak. The loneliness and trauma of captivity drove him into madness.
After what seemed like an eternity of captivity Vlad escaped in a moment of pure opportunistic luck. He didn't manage to kill or even hurt any of his captors. All he could do was disappear desperately into the night, hoping that he wouldn't be found and dragged back again. He hid in terror that the humans might find him again and recapture him but it was soquili that found him next. In his terrified and half-mad state the herd rightfully saw him to be a danger and an enemy. Seeing that he was very weakened they were able to capture him instead of killing him outright and Vlad once more found himself a captive, though this time he was a captive of his own kind.
After his long period of captivity in the hands of the humans, servitude was an easy habit to fall back into. Though he wouldn't ever admit it, it wasn't only easy to take his place as a slave again... it was comfortable. It was easier to live as the pathetic creature he had become than to confront it. The alpha of the herd took possession and ownership of him and he fell back into a pattern of slavery that he thought would last until his demise. Even so, it was a far different dynamic between slave and owner than previously.
Though he was a slave, the alpha mare treated him with respect. This small difference provoked a large change in reaction from Vlad. A combination of the respect and being owned by a soquili instead of a human (and a beautiful and powerful mare) seeded in Vlad an obsession that would only grow. He was deeply intrigued by the alpha mare and intrigue quickly became excitement. The thrill of serving her instead of his previous human owners brought back the spark of life and pride to him. In reality, a lot of his initial affection for her was likely some form of stockholm's syndrome, an unhealthy reaction from too long spent in captivity. During that time a lot of his old personality resurfaced, though his personality was warped by lingering madness and a new found passion for slavery.
The alpha mare wasn't entirely unaffected by her enthusiastic servant. She found herself intrigued by the angeni/kalona stallion that had come into her possession and saw potential. More importantly, she was a very moral mare and didn't like the idea of keeping any soquili as a slave, even if they were reduced to a deranged monster. It wasn't long before other members of the herd were convinced that she and Vlad were having an affair, much to the alpha's chagrin. Years passed with them together... until finally she gave Vlad what he had most wished for but never dreamed of, his freedom.
It was a rough transition. The alpha only managed to keep Vlad from falling immediately into chaotic rampage by impressing her will upon him from the moment of his release. He was still very obsessed about her and she worried that he would kill her in either a desperate act of love or despair. Though he was formally free and able to move around the herd as he willed he was under far closer scrutiny and control than when he actually was a slave. Somehow though, without pain and fear to feed it, Vlad's monstrous personality began to fall away. His unhealthy obsession for the alpha of the herd turned to adoration and, though he was still recovering from his years of abuse, they soon grew very close and were lifemated.
Vlad's selfless love for the alpha mare led to a series of changes that he found astonishing. He was the happiest he'd been in his life and with that happiness came a sharp decrease in his predatory and sadistic nature. With less internal pain he felt less moved to hurt others. His anger ebbed and contentment seeped in. To his mate he was downright puppy-ish with love, trust, and relief that his torments were over. Though initially he didn't hurt other soquili or humans due to loyalty and obedience to her, each time he chose not to kill he grew a little further from his origins and upbringing. He resisted knowledge of the meaning of his changes for as long as he could but eventually he could no longer hold back the realization. He was no longer an evil monster of darkness. His love for his mate had guided him to the path of goodness he had never known. He was redeemed and in that moment of knowing he felt the strength and the grace of his angeni heritage return to him. The weight of the shackles he wore now felt like nothing to him and in the time immediately after he decided to begin wearing a cross as a sign of his revelation and change. He accepted God, whom the Dracluestis had long reviled, and called himself a divine weapon.
Years passed and Vlad lived in happiness (though occasionally broken) with his lifemate. Unfortunately though, Vlad's mate was not so robust as he was. Vlad remained lovingly by her side while she dwindled, faded, and eventually died. Vlad had long prepared himself for this occurrence but was still deeply saddened by it. In mourning and grief he decided to return to his homeland in Romania to try to piece together what he would do with his life in the wake of his lifemate and love's death. He was some ways away from home and he decided to sneak aboard a human boat to get there more swiftly. This would have worked just fine... if he had chosen the right boat. In the haze of his grief he had boarded a boat bound for America instead of his homeland. By the time Vlad realized his mistake it was too late for him to fly back to Europe and he was trapped and heading for a strange land about which he knew nothing.
Sick and frustrated from a long boat ride and still grieving, Vlad arrived in America. He loathed boats and he wasn't about to inflict another long voyage on himself so soon, which left him residing in America. What he was going to do while there, he had no idea, but he had no desire to linger nearby the settler's colonies. Alone in a new land, Vlad set out on a path that would eventually lead him to the soquili lands...
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