1 The Necronis Kingdom
The Kingdom of Necronis, a Kingdom which is primarily made up of four races. The humans, a race known for their immense potential and skills. The Vampires, a race which feeds on and controls blood while also possessing inhuman levels of strength and agility. The Liches, A race of powerful magicians who connect their soul to a phylactery to gain immortality and an immense pool of Mana. The Wraiths, an incorporeal race which specialises in the soul and its many uses, with their main ability being that of possession to gain the knowledge and abilities of those they possess.
These four main races rule over the kingdom as the four houses, House Vertigo for the human family, House Dracula founded by the Vampires progenitor, House Calypso founded by the Liches progenitor, and finally, House Eternius founded by the Wraiths progenitor. It is said that the founders of each house were siblings before the kingdom was founded, however this rumour has been left unconfirmed by the three remaining progenitors of the houses. Excluding House Dracula, whose heirs are born Vampires, the other three houses require the heir to have at least one child before they become undead. House Vertigo, However, requires that whoever is the head of the house stay mortal and human until they wish to retire at which point they may choose any form of undeath to stay alive if they so wish. These four houses rule the kingdom as equals, even deferring to each other for their respective territories, leading to a close relationship between all the members of any given generation.
-Histories of the Undead, Page 227, By Michael Dracula
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A young pale man with long raggedy black hair and dishevelled clothes that denote slightly more elegance than the clothes of the normal citizens of the kingdom. He is currently bent over a dusty book in a room filled with many books vaguely similar to it haphazardly spread across the room with a bed, desk and chair being barely visible underneath respective piles of books.
A knock clearly resounds across the room as the man looks up, his violet eyes just barely visible behind his knotted hair covering his face. A sigh escapes his mouth as he slowly raises a hand which glows with a faint purple silhouette. As he begins to turn his hand and the door knob across the room turns just as his hand does. After the knob is fully turned the door is unceremoniously shoved open.
"Brother! How dare you not leave your room before your ritual of undeath!?! I know your research has always been a passion of yours, but still! Charon, can you not at least say goodbye to your family in case something happens? No matter how unlikely that may be!" A Man who looks older then Charon appears in the doorway, With his black hair being more well kept and shorter then his younger counterpart. His violet eyes flashed as he looked over Charon, before he promptly covered his nose. "When was the last time you cleaned up, oh brother of mine?"
Charon let out a sigh before he raises his hand which was once again outlined by a faint purple energy as he makes a snipping motion with them and his hair falls to the ground and disappears when it hits the ground and books scattered around him, Revealing his above average looks. His hand then makes a combing motion and his hair immediately loses all traces of its previous ratty appearance out on top of his head, he then makes a motion as if hes smoothing something out and his clothes immediately smooth out and his vest buttons itself back up. He then places the book gently on one of the piles spread out around him before stretching as he begins to stand up.
"I believe the last time I cleaned up was..." Charon pauses as if to think for a second. "Around three months? Possibly six?"
"I suppose you got sucked up in your research again." The older man paused as a wistful look passed over his face. "Ahhh, This poor Brother here. I remember when my younger brother used to only want to be around me and said that he would always want to spend time with his family. Then he fell into that bad habit of magic research that our whole family all seems to have. Tsk tsk."
"I get it, Adam. You know more than anyone how much I care about our family, otherwise I wouldn't risk what I am going to do with my ritual based purely on an instinct of mine. I just wanted to double check all my research before going through with it." Charon said with a flash of determination in his eyes.
A hand pats Charon on the shoulder as Adam gives him a sombre smile. "I know, Brother. It's the tension that seems to have gripped our whole continent after the fall of the Andrasteen Empire. We all can sense the war on the horizon, even those not involved with politics."
The two proceed to leave the room filled to the brim with books and head down a hallway into an open room with several tables and paintings of the past heads of House Vertigo spread around the room with a painting of Adam at the very back of the room, showing his status as the current patriarch of House Vertigo and one of four kings of the Nekronis Kingdom. There is also a small gathering of beings in the middle of the room. There was two human woman, two men with blood red eyes and mouths which adorned fanged, a figure completely obscured by black smoke, and a man who could pass as human if not for the portions of him which were without flesh to hide his bones underneath and the fire which replaced his eyes.
"I did not expect Father alongside my uncle and my cousins!" Charon exclaimed as he gave Adam a withering stare, Adam only gave a sheepish smile in return before embracing one of the humans with a hug and then hiding behind her.
"Save me, my darling! My brother plans to kill me!" Adam shed a single tear as he glanced at the roof as if asking the heavens why.
"If only your subjects could see you now, Darling. One of the most talented necromancers reduced to hiding behind his wife just because his little brother gave him a glare." Adam's wife, Charlotte, stated with a sigh before laughing along with Adam before she went over to Charon and ruffled his hair. "You really need to leave your room more often Charon, me and Adam were betting whether you had already gone ahead with the ritual before telling any of us..."
"Speaking of..." Adam cut in as he held his hand out to Charlotte with a grin.
"Ah, Dammit. This is what happens when you leave your family in the lurch, Charon." Charlotte pulled out a gold coin before flicking it directly into the middle of Adams forehead.
Charon gives a chuckle and shakes his head before he walks over to the other human, His sister, and gives her a hug. One of the vampires, with a face which looked similar to Charon, simply shakes his head at all this before turning to the other vampire.
"I'm beginning to wonder why we left our research only for me to deal with these kids of mine who can't even greet their father." Charon's Father, Michael, said to the other vampire who only rolled his eyes at him.
"Deny it all you want, we both know you have a picture of your kids at your research desk." The other vampire, Vlad Dracula, said slightly louder so that all those gathered could hear.
The Figure made out of smoke, a wraith, shook slightly as a laugh could be heard at Michael's expense. The pale man with flesh torn asunder, a lich, looked at the wraith as a slight grin snuck onto his face and the firein his eye's color changed from orange to blue for a brief moment. Charon's sister, Elizabeth, shooed Charon over to their father.
"Father, I suppose this will be the last time you see me as a human." Charon said after giving Michael a big hug.
"I suppose that means you are going to go through with your experiment today then?" Vlad interjected before Michael could respond.
"Yes, I have double checked not only my research but with all the books we have on Rituals. I have no more reason to stall. The ritual needs to be done before war breaks out." Charon's eyes shine with determination as he looks at all of them gathered.
