General History

The story takes place in the snowy Nivosia empire, with most of its society gathered in the Capital - Ortus. Humans and vampires live alongside each other, despite the complicated history between them. Each of them have powerful noble families, thriving on their riches and power.

Just 10 years ago, the Second Crimson Revolution took place - a massacre led by the Lazarus duke which led to multiple humans dying. The aftermath were multiple new laws being put in place, while the culprits got executed. This event led the already powerful Church of Alba to gain even more power.

The empire isn’t a peaceful place - problems such as discrimination of vampires, a huge amount of orphaned children and human experiments still exist. Moreover, the Empress currently has a weak position, and both the nobles and the Church are fighting for political advantage.

Timeline

Ist century - the Church of Alba is formed, and first churches are being built
IInd century - the height of vampiric power
year 334 - High Priestess Caerwyn becomes the head of the Church
year 341 - the first Crimson Revolution takes place
year 347 - laws regarding vampires are put into place, and the Church is officially recognized
year 582 - death penalty for all vampires is abolished after the execution of a young girl shook the empire
year 629 - prison penalty for all vampires is abolished
years 720-30 - due to observation of sick vampires, new discoveries about vampiric symptoms get made
year 790 - High Priest Adiel becomes the head of the Church
Roselyn is born
year 791 - Juliet is born
year 792 - the previous Lazarus Duke dies in mysterious circumstances, and the Duchess remarries
Mischa is born
year 793 - Yuze is born
Ange is born
year 796 - the first artificial vampire is successfully created
year 797 - Orifiel’s existence is first made public
year 799 - Yuze’s parents decide to move to the empire due to failing economy of their homeland
year 802 - the second Crimson Revolution takes place, leading to Duke Lazarus getting executed
Yuze’s parents die
year 804 - children from the orphanage get relocated due to part of it getting destroyed
year 806 - the head of the Desjardins family gets imprisoned on a count of treason
year 812 - the plot starts

History

First Revolution

The oldest surviving records, mostly in the form of paintings and art, date back to the IIIrd century. It appears that vampires used to be put on a pedestal, and in some instances even worshiped, most likely due to their supernatural abilities. However, with time they demanded more and more from the regular humans; including, but not limited to human sacrifices for blood. More and more drastic situations started coming to light - such as vampires kidnapping people for their blood or buying children from poor families.

The first Crimson Revolution (year 341) broke out because of a vampire kidnapping a young child of a noble, who happened to wander too far away from home. The young boy was found murdered, his barely recognizable body covered in vampiric marks abandoned in a forest. Overtaken by loss and rage, his father gathered a mass and raided the places where vampires resided, setting them aflame with torches. After the news started circulating around the whole empire, humans at last took advantage of their bigger numbers and started killing or banishing all vampires, often overtaking their residences as well. Not only the criminals got punished - anyone who was a vampire was most likely killed. Similar fate often also met humans who were close to vampires despite not being ones themselves.

During this chaos, a lot of vampires began escaping to nearby kingdoms, going into hiding or even settling in areas where humans wouldn’t dare venture (such as mountains or deep tundra forests). There have been stories of feral vampires secluded from society going on rampages or becoming man-eating beasts in the depths of nature. To the current day, parents use such stories to prevent their kids from wandering off alone.

Aftermath

The IVth century is when the previously pretty insignificant Church of Alba has started to gain power and trust among citizens. With High Priestess Caerwyn in charge, they slowly began making waves among the population. It was the best time to strike, seeing as humans became very wary and prejudiced against vampires - after all, the recent events were still fresh in their mind. The Church preached about how vampires were devils sent from Alba themselves, as punishment for people “losing their way”. With the majority of the population sharing this belief, the royal family in charge started enforcing more severe punishments towards vampires, with the Emperor putting new laws in place.

The population of vampires has gotten significantly smaller, but they weren’t gone for good - they were still hiding among people. This state would persist for the next few hundreds of years, with vampires mingling alongside humans and starting their own families in secret. Some have even gained enough influence to gain the status of a noble.

With time, the punishments have gotten less and less severe. After about the first 200 years, being a vampire was no longer met with death - and not soon after that, they weren’t being imprisoned either. An event that had a big role in it was the public execution of a young girl being falsely accused of vampirism, the news of which soon spread all over the empire. An unspoken expectation was for vampires to remain hidden and to not reveal their vampiric traits. Drinking from a human that didn’t consent to it was still punishable, usually with a public execution of the culprit.

Second Revolution

Things have been getting better all until the VIIIth century. Over the very short course of around 5 years, relations between humans and vampires have gotten tense again. The main reason has been rumors and speculations about powerful individuals conducting human experiments related to vampirism on orphaned children. More-so, with a new High Priest, who’s been deemed a controversial figure, doubts started rising about the Church’s teachings.

The tipping scale, which would lead to a second Crimson Revolution in the year 802, was the Lazarus Duke going on a rampage, leaving tens of innocent people killed and wounded. He was the head of a powerful family, even though he was married into it. This revolution was short lived - the vast majority of people in power were humans, and so all vampires who sided with the Duke were swiftly executed, including the man himself.

People discovered to be vampires due to the second Crimson Revolution that haven’t taken part in the murders haven’t been imprisoned per se. Instead, they were first placed in isolation for 2 weeks, where only human food would be served to them, and their body would be monitored closely. If they started showing withdrawal symptoms, and therefore proved themselves to be a vampire, they were to be put in Church records stating so. Recorded vampires can live quite “freely”, but they are often met with check-ups from the Church, and it’s rumored that they are often monitored by secret forces as well.

The current year is 812. New laws have been put in place nearly 10 years ago, and people have slowly started to get used to them. With the children of the revolution growing up, the new generation is starting to gain power and influence.