"Why dragons?" Julian asked.
'Weren't we vampires?' He thought.
He clearly remembered his mother telling them that their ancestors was the direct offspring of the Progenitor Vampire, making them vampires too.
But this crest–which appears to be their family crest–had dragons on it.
Dragons were not vampires, in fact, the two were worlds apart.
Different species. Different biology. Different mindset, culture, etc.
One had no correlation to the other.
Yeah, their family name was Dracul, which in Latin means dragon, but since Julian thought that Latin didn't exist in this world, then it must mean something else.
'Upon closer look, none of the things on the crest has anything to do with vampires.'
A sword?
Vampires are wild creatures, and so is their fighting style.
They rely mostly on speed, agility and landing hits on the opponent from their blindside as much as they can.
Nothing like the uniform moves used in sword fighting.
Their style were perfect for the dagger.
But there was no dagger on the crest.
And then vines?
Isn't that symbolic for nature?
Yes, vampires could be found in forests.
But not because they love the scent of nature, or the sound of the swaying trees, or the animal life.
No, none if that.
But because the forest was dense, dark, foggy, and filled with easy prey.
A hunting ground for the vampire.
Nothing to do with vines, but still the crest had vines in it.
Why?
The only thing vampire about it was the color–red–and the token with the "D" in, which probably stands for Dracul.
"That's because Dracula was a pathetic scumbag?" Carmilla cut in sharply.
Julian looked at his mother and noted the raw hatred in her tone, he turned to his father to clarify.
"Sigh..." Magnus sighed. "Your mother is right, he was a scumbag."
Julian said nothing, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Once," He began, "only humans existed in this world. The gods found this boring and mundane, so they came together and agreed that each god will create a race in their image, and bestow upon them unique powers and abilities.
So they did, they created their respective races, granted them power, and sent them to Nubilia with one purpose: expand your race.
And since humans were the only race in the world at that time, the Progenitors naturally had to expand their race by spreading their seed through humans.
Right now, it's impossible for two different races in Nubilia to bear a child, but the Progenitors were special, they didn't have this limitation.
But, anyways, Dracula was smart–or rather, he was sly–instead of immediately expanding his race, he waited, bided his time, and struck at the most opportune moment.
He identified the strongest race out of them all–the dragons–and carried out his plan by kidnapping the 1st and 2nd princesses–hence the two dragons.
The Progenitor of the dragons, Tempra, were fighting a war on the other side of the Dragon continent at that time, so there was no one that could stop Dracula from taking the princesses.
By the time the Tempra came back from war, two years had passed and the damage had already been done.
The princesses bore Dracula's children, each giving birth to two."
Magnus concluded, but Julian was not done, he wanted to know more.
"What happened to the princesses after they gave birth, and what did Tempra do when he heard the news?" He urged.
"Well," Magnus found it difficult to say the next part, "just before Tempra was about to return from war, Dracula sent the Princesses back to the Dragon Continent.
Nobody knows why he gave them back, probably because he thought that Tempra wouldn't notice and that he would get away with it, but things didn't work out like that.
Turns out, Dracula did very horrible things to the Princesses and the moment they were out of his grasp, they took their own lives.
Tempra went mad when he heard this, and even though he just finished one war, he immediately announced the start of another.
Though he suffered heavy losses from the war before, Tempra's soldiers morals were high from their victory, and their hunger for revenge was fueled when they heard what Dracula had done to the Princesses.
And even though Dracula's forces grew considerably over the two years, he alone, stood no chance against the dragons.
But he wasn't alone.
The Demons, Vampires and Werewolves worshipped the same God, and not wanting one of his races to go extinct, Neferathis, ordered the other two Progenitors to fight alongside the vampires.
The war went on for thousands of years, and even when fighting against three Progenitors, Tempra would have eventually won.
That's just how strong he was.
But Tempra made many enemies over the years, and at his most vulnerable moment, they attacked.
Elves, humans, dwarves, and even the Naga, jointly attacked the dragon continent. Burned villages to the ground, killed indiscriminately and plundered his lands.
Forcing Tempra to pull some of his forces away from the battlefield against Neferathis' Progenitors and sent his men to aid to dragons on the dragon continent.
With Tempra's forces scattered, the Demons, Vampires and Werewolves finally gained the upper hand on the battlefield and steadily drove Tempra's forces out of their continent.
Tempra had to make a choice between revenge and saving his people.
He chose the latter, and withdrew from the battlefield against Neferathis' Progenitors."
Still in his father's arms, Julian bit the inside of his cheek in thought–a habit of his–sorting out the importance of the questions he wanted to asked.
"Oh, but Dracula wasn't done yet," Carmilla said with venom, "tell them what that... scumbag did next."
Carmilla wanted to use more profane words, but she was in the presence of her kids.
Sigh...
Magnus sighed and continued as instructed.
"Dracula was more deceiving than they thought. While the Progenitors of the Demons and Werewolves–Dre'allis and Sideon–were giving their all for a war that Dracula started–by order of their God–Dracula was participating half-heartedly.
While Dre'allis and Sideon were sending their strongest to die in the war, Dracula send the weakest, the glass cannons, and the expandables.
When the others saw how quickly Dracula's soldiers died, they became suspicious and confronted him.
Dracula made excuses, saying that he was already sending his most capable, and the reason for their lacking strength was because he only recently started to expand.
Because they were serving under the same god, Dre'allis and Sideon believed him, and they poured in more of their forces to cover for Dracula.
I don't know how he was able to hide it, but while the war with Tempra was ongoing, Dracula's true force invaded the territories of Dre'allis and Sideon and slaughtered their people.
Many of the subspecies of the demons and Werewolves were killed. Like the imps and the succubi, they were completely wiped out.
And because of the overwhelming hatred we vampires have for werewolves, they suffered the most.
Dracula's forces killed almost every single tribe, leaving only two: the Frostfang–because they were located in the harsh climate of the mountains–and the Silvermane, because most of them were on the battlefield.
The only reason why Dracula didn't kill all the demons and werewolves was because he hoped that while he was busy with genocide, Tempra would kill the two Progenitors in battle.
But unfortunately Tempra ended the war earlier than anticipated, and Dracula couldn't kill Dre'allis and Sideon himself, because he was weaker than them and Neferathis forbid patriarchs of his races from fighting one another.
So Dre'allis and Sideon returned to a home in ruins, and at that moment there was nothing they could do about it.
Dracula's forces were larger and they couldn't fight him either.
But they did complain to Neferathis about Dracula, but instead of punishment, Dracula was rewarded.
Neferathis created a special rank in the vampire hierarchy for Dracula and his direct offspring: Imperial Rank.
Seeing this, the demons and werewolves felt betrayed by Neferathis, so they abandoned his faith, and surprisingly, he let them go without consequences.
But what he didn't expect, was that Dracula and the vampires too, abandoned his faith.
Dracula used the mercy Neferathis showed to the demons and werewolves, when they abandoned him, against him and psyopped the whole vampire population to turn against Neferathis.
No one is aware what price Dracula had to pay for abandoning Neferathis, but it sure wasn't a heavy one, as Dracula lived a long and happy life.
And with no followers left to give him faith, Neferathis lost all his divinity and power, and became a forgotten god.
And because vampires controlled the most territory on the Northern Continent, they called it the Vampire Continent, despite the other races inhabiting it."
Julian still bit the inside of his cheek, deep in thought.
"He really is a scumbag." Isa said.