by Kayleigh Sky
Childhood: He thought it was good. He was raised in a neighborhood where everybody looked out for everybody else. Nezzarams tended to be enforcers until they rose up against Qudim, but Uriah was on the fringe of the family, so he still became an enforcer.
Education: Quasi-military
Dream job as a child: He wanted to be an enforcer in the inner circle
Role models growing up: Other enforcers.
Greatest regret: That Qudim did not live up to his potential and duties
Hobbies growing up: Learning how to fight, playing games in the square.
Favorite place to be as a child: In the square.
Earliest memory: Of the marketplace.
Saddest memory: The day they lost the war and the Nezzarams fell.
Happiest memory: He has many, all related to the Seneras.
Clearest memory: The day he met Qudim after the Nezzarams surrendered. He thought he was going to die, but Qudim asked him if he had fought. I wasn’t old enough he said. So you would have Qudim asked. It would have been my duty. You are wiser than your elders Qudim told him.
Skeletons in the closet: That he knows what Rune has been doing all these years.
Three adjectives to describe them as a child: Serious. Honorable. Brave.
What advice would they give to their younger self?: Having a title doesn’t make a person worth their title.
Father:
Occupation: A soldier. Died in the war against Qudim
Relationship with your character: Very little. He respected him because he was supposed to and his father did his duty.
Mother:
Occupation: None
Relationship with your character: He was one of many kids she watched out for, as did many of the other women. Their lives were more communal.
Siblings:
How many: 3
What are their names and ages: Ryka (boy) 12; Jeremiah (10), and Somma (girl) seven. (Ages at the time of the Upheaval.) Potentially dead. He doesn’t know, but assumes they are.
Relationship(s) with your character: Good. He liked them. Played with them. Slept in the same room. But he was the oldest and left early.
Closest friends? Describe them. Rune.
Other significant friends? Otto
Enemies: Anybody against Rune, so the Adi ‘el Lumi and Solomon Frenn
How are they perceived by:
Strangers in the street: They give him wide berth
The opposite sex: He impresses them.
Role in a group dynamic: Supporter and defender.
Who do they depend on for:
Practical advice: No one
Mentoring: No one
A wingman: Rune in a way, and also Otto
Emotional support: No one
Moral support: No one
What do they want from a relationship? Comfort. Shared interests. A safe place.
Ideal partner?:He has never been sure, but he’d probably never pick Moss and Yair.
Significant other: Moss is better born than he is, educated, and socially successful. Yair is a frivolous, untrustworthy, pampered brat.
How many people would attend their funeral?: A handful.
What do they do on rainy days?: Rainy days are the same as sunny days.
Are they:
Book smart or street smart: Street smart
An optimist or pessimist: Optimist
Introverted or Extroverted: Neither
Favorite sound: Conversation, people together
Favorite place in the world: Senera Castle
What secrets do they keep? What are they most afraid of people finding out?: Rune’s secrets
Greatest desire: Peace
Biggest flaw: He overlooks his own needs and has exacting, inflexible standards
Biggest strength: Innate wisdom, decency, and courage
Biggest fear: That evil will win
Biggest accomplishment: Helping Rune turn the tide of the war after the Upheaval.
Idea of perfect happiness?: Serving Rune and having loved ones to come home to. Feeling useful.
Do they want to be remembered?: Only by his loved ones. For being true and steadfast.
How do they approach:
Power: With a grain of salt nowadays
Ambition: He has little need of it
Love: Suspiciously
Change: It’s the only constant
What is the one object or possession that they would rescue from their burning home?: His weapon
What (or who) bores them?: People who attempt to explain their moral failings.
What makes them angry?: People who attempt to defend their indefensible behavior.
What do they look for in a person?: Veracity.
How strong is their moral compass?: It is strong, but he has compromised it for what he thought was the right thing to do.
Best compliment that someone ever paid them: I need you because you’re the one I trust.
In an elevator, do they push the elevator button more than once?: No.
What would they want their tombstone to say?: He served.
Name: Zeveriah Dinallah
Age: 39
Place of birth: Abbatine
Current location: Dinallah Manor
Nationality: Vampire
Education: Tutors
Occupation: King
Income: Good
Eye color: brown
Hair style: dark brown
Build: Tall, strong
Preferred outfit: Jeans, no shoes, T-shirts or leather and loose blouses.
Level of grooming: Attentive.
Health: Good
Handwriting: Easy to read and pleasing.
Walk: Fluid and purposeful
Talk: Quiet, amused
Posture: Straight, but relaxed
Eye contact: Direct
Laugh: Full and spontaneous.
Smile: Small, amused, but generally kind.
How emotive are they?: He keeps his feelings and thoughts close to the vest, but his eyes give him away. His sorrow is there.
They have a resting authoritative face.
Hometown: Abbatine
Childhood: It was very good. He was loved, privileged, and had nothing to fear. He was royal but not born to be king. He enjoyed freedom and time to explore and by young. Rune was his best friend and constant companion. He couldn’t have hoped for a better childhood.
Dream job as a child: He wanted to be a teacher.
Role models growing up: Rune and his uncle.
Greatest regret: That he betrayed someone he loved.
Hobbies growing up: Exploring and reading in the Celestine Library.
Favorite place to be as a child: Hanging out the window of his home in Abbatine and watching the activity on the valley floor.
Earliest memory: The lights of Fantasia.
Saddest memory: The day Asa disappeared.
Happiest memory: When Asa returned to him with Rowena.
Clearest memory: The day he was presented to Qudim.
Three adjectives to describe them as a child: Serious. Curious. Gentle.
What advice would they give to their younger self?: Cherish everything because it can all be taken from you.
Father:
Occupation: Lesser royal
Relationship with your character: Proud but a little distant.
Mother:
Occupation: none
Relationship with your character: Permissive and a little inattentive, but proud of him.
Closest friends?: Rune and Moss.
Other friends?: Otto
Enemies: Too many to count. The Adi ’el Lumi especially
How are they perceived by:
Strangers in the street: Warily and respectfully.
Authority figures: Somebody to watch.
The opposite sex: A catch.
Role in a group dynamic: Supporter or leader.
Who do they depend on for:
Practical advice: Moss
&nb
sp; Mentoring: No one
A wingman: Otto now
Emotional support: Moss or Rune
Moral support: Rune
What do they want from a relationship? Peace, passion, and comfort.
Ideal partner?: Asa. Asa needs him but doesn’t really depend on him. Zev can lean on Asa when he needs to and knows that he is probably Asa’s only real support in life.
How many people would attend their funeral?: Too many to count.
What do they do on rainy days?: Cook, read, play chess with Asa, make love.
Are they:
Book smart or street smart: Both
An optimist or pessimist: A cautious optimist
Introverted or Extroverted: A hybrid
Favorite sound: Asa snorting at him over a chess move.
Favorite place in the world: Home.
What secrets do they keep? What are they most afraid of people finding out?: What Rune was up to and his part in it.
Greatest desire: To find Asa and love him.
Biggest flaw: Not always standing up for his needs.
Biggest strength: Loyalty
Biggest fear: Never finding Asa.
Biggest accomplishment: Being what Rune needed him to be.
Idea of perfect happiness?: Peace
Do they want to be remembered? What for?: As a friend and a lover.
How do they approach:
Power: With power
Ambition: With distain
Love: With sacrifice
Change: As inevitable
What is the one object or possession that they would rescue from their burning home?: The portrait Rune painted of him.
What (or who) bores them?: People who hate.
What makes them angry?: The enemies of peace.
What do they look for in a person?: Decency.
How strong is their moral compass?: Strong, but war calls for painful decisions.
Best compliment that someone ever paid them: You are all I have.
In an elevator, do they push the elevator button more than once?: No.
What would they want their tombstone to say?: A true heart.
3
Notes
The Senara and Nezzaram families joined together to resist the Dinallah family. The Dinallah’s wanted to outlaw the theft of humans. Qudim and Abadi’s marriage was political. Abadi did not love him or want to be with him—neither was loyal to the other, but Abadi was offended when Qudim stole the human woman he loved and brought her down to live with him. Abadi was shamed by the openness of the relationship and by Dawn’s pregnancy. Abadi was banished to her family’s sector when she tried to kill Dawn. Both she and Dawn died in the Upheaval.
* * *
RELIGION: Vampires believe in the Judeo-Christian god. They believe they were angels who followed Lucifer and were cast into the bowels of the earth as punishment. Since then they have been waiting for the Upheaval—when the earth would spew them back into the light, and the period of redemption would begin. One of their myths is the existence of the treasures of Eden which are being held in trust for the day they are accepted back into God’s grace. Some vampires view the treasure as an actual treasure called the Adini Treasure. It is said to be locked in an underground cavern that will only be accessible when the keys of the seven families have been set into the locks.
* * *
The day of the Upheaval is not believed to be the foretold day by many vampires. This was a driving factor in allowing the war to go on for so long. There is still anger among many vampires and some have formed a group called the Ad ‘el Lumi. This secret group is in search of the treasure, which they plan to use to insulate themselves and fund another war.
* * *
MANNERISMS AND HABITS: Vampires love tattoos, especially on their fangs. They dye it with ores and it looks almost like scrimshaw. They love color and sinuous shapes. The decorate with mosaics and elaborately designed wall-hangings. Glass blown objects are especially popular, so there are many glass bird feeders and garden art. They love fountains and the sound of splashing water. Celebrations are family affairs. They are very close-knit. They like feasts, music, dancing, skits put on by the children. Art is very popular.
* * *
When vamps meet someone they don’t know, they drop their fangs, dip their chin and eye the other person from under their brows. While highly sexual, they are not demonstrative with strangers. They incline their heads in a quick dip to those they know. If they don’t like a person, they side step; that’s their only acknowledgement.
* * *
DEATHS/FUNERALS: Vampires live about 1.5 times longer than humans. They tend to retreat to quiet places at the end of their lives. When they die, they are laid out in crypts that undergo tremendous bursts of heat. The bodies turn to ash, which is then gathered and mixed with pigments to create a paint they use to decorate the walls of the city. Above ground they use human cremation services but do the same thing with the ashes.
* * *
UNDERWORLD: Hot. Dark. Light comes from luminous ores. The vampires lived in mountains or just under solid land and often at the bottom of deep caves, so they have water. They are also human but different due to mutations and changes made by long exposure to their environment. They have risen to the surface many times and are the source of human myths.
* * *
FOOD: crickets, millipedes, salamanders and cave crabs, mosses and ferns from cave entrances, fungi, bears, and cave fish. Vampires adapted to supplement their limited food supply with blood. Over time, some vampires began to reject the blood of other vampires, probably due to inbreeding, so those vampires began to rise to the surface to steal human blood. Sometimes they would even take humans. As civilization took root on the surface, vampires adapted to light even though they usually only ventured forth at night. Some vampires have always lived among humans. After the Upheaval, they drank human blood out of vengeance. Within a year or two, no vampire could tolerate the blood of another vampire. Humans became a necessity for their own survival.
4
Synopsis
Vampires live and have always lived in hidden underground cities. When a fracking accident sets off massive earthquakes and destroys the underworld, vampires swarm into the light and wage war on humans until a powerful vampire finds a way toward peace when he discovers a synthetic blood that frees vampires from the need to feed on humans.
Years later that peace is threatened by a seemingly random murder.
MATEO LOPEZ is a blood whore. When he meets a client in an empty field in the middle of the night, he thinks nothing of it. He’s used to the weird ways of vampires, but when he realizes this vampire plans to drain him, it’s too late for Mateo to stop him. Fading as the vampire consumes his life force, a strange fog surrounds him. When he finds himself free, he flees, struggling toward the street and safety. Terrified that his assailant is following him, he looks back into the field, but all he sees is mist. (Obviously, this changed. Although Mateo still figures in the story, it was Asa/Emek in the field that night.)
OTTO JONES is a cop on his way to work one early morning when a call comes in to keep watch on a murder scene until the investigators arrive. Otto is hungover and pissed that he got the call, but he heads over. The address he was directed to is a warehouse with an empty field behind it.
After he parks in the back lot and takes a minute to resolve himself to a long morning, he notices a peculiar mist. It is early and hazy, but the mist is strange. After he exits his car, he looks over his shoulder and sees a camera.
As he approaches a small crowd in the field his confusion grows because a wide perimeter has already been roped off around the body and the forensic people are there, including the medical examiner. Otto sees somebody he knows and asks her what’s going on. He didn’t think anybody but a beat cop would be there. The woman has no information other than they were all told to stand by.
The sun is rising, so Otto takes a moment to look around the area while he’s waiting.
A crowd is beginning to gather in the distance. Then Otto’s boss shows up. Now he’s worried and wants to know what’s going on. His boss tells him to just look at the body. When he does, he notices the mark (a tattoo of a broken infinity sign on the neck) of a drainer. This is a type of vampire that is allergic to synthetic blood and must drink from humans. Drainers got their name from their insatiable thirst during the time they attempted to live off synthetic blood. This thirst led some to lose control and drain their human victims.
After Otto spends a few minutes with the body, his boss asks him to walk him to his car and lectures Otto about his barely sober state. He tells Otto that he’s on thin ice. This case is an opportunity to prove he’s worth his upkeep. He follows this with the news that Otto is going to be teamed up with a vampire detective. Right on cue, the detective approaches from the parking lot. Otto turns to him, horror struck when he realizes that this is the same cop who’d botched the murder investigation of Otto’s sister, Maisie. As far as Otto knows, the drainer who killed her is still free.
It takes all Otto’s strength of will to maintain control and ignore UPWOOD “Wood” PROSPER’s smirk. He concentrates on examining the body. After discovering a pamphlet for a conference on gem stones, they decide Wood will go to the hotel that’s hosting the conference, and Otto will review the film from the warehouse’s camera. Although, the camera caught the murder, the lighting is poor, and the images are foggy and gray. He sees the strange mist he noticed earlier, and also somebody who broke away from the scene. Either the murderer or a witness. On his way back to his car, he sees a flash of red hair in the distance. He heads in the redhead’s direction, but whoever it is runs. The cop Otto sends after him returns a few minutes later with a license plate number, and Otto calls it in.
Besides the pamphlet for the gem show, Otto and Wood found a blood donor card in the drainer’s wallet.
