Selene

Travelers brave or foolish enough to venture into the Sanguis Mountains often describe the unsettling feeling of being watched, particularly in the wetlands surrounding the Scarlet Castle. On cloudless nights, those who dare allow their gazes skyward may spot a lone silhouette peering down from the jagged parapets. The wise choose to run, often stumbling over bones belonging to those with poorer judgement. Selene, The Bloodspiller Viscount's ascension to rule over Scarlet Castle is a tale sealed tightly with blood. Born to human parents in a small, provincial village in the Mosune empire, Selene remembers little of her early life other than the scent of lavender above her crib. One jet black night, a murderous band of outcasts comprised of humans, elves, and dwarves stormed her village and slit the throat of every unprepared resident. Selene's widowed father abandoned her before he was slain himself, and it wasn't until three nights later when a regiment of patrolling vampires heard her desperate cries. At the helm of this regiment was one who many now know as the Blood Mother, a name which needs no introduction. Finding the hysterical Selene starving in her crib, she gazed down upon the wailing child. So near to death was the malnourished babe that the Blood Mother made the fateful choice of turning and raising her as an adopted daughter… Or so Selene was told. In truth, the vampiric troops butchered the villagers themselves, draining each and every one dry. It is whispered that the Blood Mother only spared Selene due to her close resemblance of a long-deceased daughter. Before Selene's father was slain, he hid her beneath the floorboards of their home along with a bundle of lavender to keep her calm. Raising her on the fabricated story surrounding the slaughter of her village and her birth father's abandonment, the Blood Mother instilled a seething hatred in Selene for every non-vampiric race, grooming her into the consummate image of a vampiric noble. The Blood Mother had adopted several other children in similar manners, due to the fact that she could not conceive herself, but Selene was by far her favorite. Schooled extensively in both swordplay and vampiric politics, Selene eventually won her seat as the Viscount of the Scarlet Castle when she unearthed a plot to assassinate her adoptive mother by the previous Viscount at a masquerade, slicing him in two to the bewilderment of all present. Today she serves as a key confidant to the Blood Mother and reigns supreme in her corner of the Sanguis Mountains. But will she ever unearth the truth of her ghastly past? Why does the scent of lavender haunt her so?