(A Warhammer Fantasy: The Old World Story) 🖤🦇
🎼 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2EFj3jw4U 🎸
Love can blossom in the most unexpected and unlikely circumstances. The following tale could be described as an intense and unrestrained relationship, but the romantic bond between the two transcended time, becoming a legend of the Old World.
It all began in the gloomy land of Sylvania, a cursed land of shadowy hills and forests shrouded in perpetual mist. The inhabitants of this sinister place shun outsiders and survive by minding their own business, but when night falls on Sylvania, the noble peasants and their families avoid leaving their homes lest they become victims of the unholy horrors that prowl in the darkness.
Following the strict orders of her father, Count Otto von Dark, a beautiful maiden named Isabella lived amidst the comfort and luxury of her lineage. During her youth, the rebellious Isabella shunned pursuits like sewing and music, activities that any well-bred lady should learn. Instead, she chose more rugged interests such as hunting and falconry, making her less attractive to suitors and less likely to form a marriage alliance that would benefit the lands of Sylvania.
Months passed at Drakenhof Castle, and Count Otto succumbed to a strange illness that slowly weakened him, along with the succession claims that threatened to divide his inheritance. Annoyed by the vultures seeking to usurp his power, Count Otto, on his deathbed, arranged for his only daughter, Isabella, to marry a sinister stranger who appeared as the only one willing to accept the union on a stormy night. (That night, the new Count Vlad von Carstein inherited all the lands of Sylvania after Otto's death.)
Disgusted by the sudden change in her life, the arranged marriage of Isabella and Vlad remained cold and distant, but as the months passed, the passion and devotion of the two lovers awoke without reservation. Inseparable, Isabella and Vlad swore eternal love, even resorting to Isabella's desperate attempt to become a vampire. (Demonstrating strength, Count Vlad refrained from kissing and biting Isabella with his intense love.) Although those months were filled with intense feelings, Isabella and Vlad's relationship was tested when the young Isabella succumbed to a strange illness that threatened to separate them. Recognizing that he could not live without Isabella, a resolute Vlad bestowed upon her a "blood kiss" that reversed death and reunited them as two vampiric soulmates bound by a pact of love. From that day forward, Isabella became the confidante of Vlad von Carstein's deepest dreams and fears.
Bringing new reforms to his rule, the von Carstein couple ushered in an era of peace and prosperity for the human inhabitants of Sylvania. Thieves and vagrants who vanished into the cold nights became rare. Although feared for their strange nocturnal appearances, the peasants chose to ignore the counts' mysterious private feasts for 200 years. The only mistake Isabella and Vlad made was attempting to establish a new bloodline. Although they could not have children due to their vampiric curse, they tried to build a family of turned vampires that soon succumbed to savagery and extreme hedonism.
In the final phase of their rule, the von Carstein vampire family was corrupted by greed and betrayal, inevitably leading to conflict between parents and children for control of Sylvania. During this dark period, the humans of the Empire decided to intervene in the fragmented government of Sylvania, directing their war effort toward assassinating the vampire patriarch, the fearsome Vlad von Carstein. Facing countless hordes of zombies and ghouls, the imperial army achieved the unthinkable by destroying the corporeal form of the vampire Vlad. His death had a devastating effect on his army, which collapsed upon losing its necromantic magic. This led to Isabella's suicide; she threw herself from the top of a tower to end her broken heart. 💔
The legend of the von Carsteins would continue to haunt the Old World, but the abrupt end of Isabella and Vlad would have one last reunion at the end of time.
