Other surviving witches had taken over other identities to ensure the continuity of their bloodline. The only high priest whose identity was not taken over was Countess Matilda.
She'd been apprehended at the mouth of Cold Mountain on the ridge of the dark ocean, dragged to the village, and buried under tons of sediment in the fire. Her reputation for arrogance and violence was so infamous that no vampire wanted to carry that humiliation with them into the new world. But what the humans did not know would not hurt them; she survived the fire, of course, and assumed a new identity as Countess Matilda as they continued to worship her throughout the land.