Chapter X: The Empire
and broke free. Snatchng up a sword from one of his guards he struck off the head of Vlad before being torn to pieces by the slain Count’s followers. As the other Vampires squabbled for control of the army, Vlad returned to them, whole and unharmed, not for the first time. Vlad was slain again by Jerek Kruger, Grand Master of the Knights of the White Wolf, and the Army of Sylvania was destroyed by the forces of the Graf of Middenheim. Within a year, however, Kruger’s battered, bloodless corpse was found at the foot of the Ulricsberg, and Vlad’s army was on the march again. At Bluthof, Vlad was cut down by the Count of Ostland’s Runefang, having been transfixed with no less than five lances, and yet three days later he proudly officiated at a mass crucifixion of prisoners outside the gates of the town. At Bogenhafen Bridge a lucky cannon shot took von Carstein’s head off. Within the hour the cannon crew were dead and the village was being overrun. The soldiers of the Empire were gripped with terror in the face of so seemingly invincible a foe. In the winter of 2051 the von Carsteins besieged Altdorf itself. The Reik itself had been redirected into stake-filled ditches that surrounded the city walls, hoping that this would keep the Vampires at bay, but to no avail. Vlad once more demanded that the city gates be opened and the people inside to serve him in life, or he would see them all slain and they would serve him beyond death. It was only the Grand Theogonist Wilhelm III who rallied the people of the city, including Ludwig, Prince of Altdorf and claimant to the Emperor’s throne, as there were many who wished to accede to Vlad’s demands. Wilhem spent three days fasting and praying within the Great Cathedral of Sigmar before he emerged and told the people that Sigmar had shown him the way to victory. That day a thief named Felix Mann stole into von Carstein’s camp. Greatest thief of the city, Mann had been offered a pardon in return for stealing Vlad’s golden ring. As the Sylvanian aristocrats lay sleeping in their open coffins, unguarded such was their vanity, Mann slipped the ring from Vlad’s finger and fled. Vlad von Carstein was incensed on awakening and discovering the theft. Upon his immediate command great siege-towers of bone were pushed to the walls by lines of unfeeling dead, while on the walls of Altdorf, the defenders stood ready. The Grand Theogonist clashed with the Vampire Count at the heart of the fighting, high on the tallest tower of the wall. Wilhelm knew he could never outlast his immortal foe. When he felt his strength fading, he grasped Vlad closely and threw himself from the wall. Vlad was impaled on a wooden spike at the wall’s foot when Wilhelm crashed down onto him—the point bursting up through his chest. With piercing screech, the Count truly died, bereft of the magical power of his ring. For centuries now, the Vampire Counts have ravaged the Empire; at times content to wait and watch, at others marching forth to overthrow the lands of the living. Some have been insane, such as Konrad von Carstein, while others have been great practitioners of the Necromantic arts. All, however, have tested the Empire and its people sorely. The last and most dangerous of the Vampire Counts was Manfred, a subtle, devious and treacherous being who some say was awake when the von Carstein ring was stolen, and who laid a glamour on the sentries to prevent them noticing it. While the powerful men and women of the Empire once more returned to fighting over the crown of the Emperor, Manfred bided his time, studying the dark arts and mustering his power. He struck in 2132, defeating several hastily assembled Imperial armies that attempted to block his path during the Winter War. Like Vlad before him, he turned for Altdorf and arrived in late winter
bundles of witchbane and daemonsroot across the windows, in the belief that such things will protect them from those who haunt the night. Wizards claim that the Winds of Magic blow darkly across all of Sylvania, and that the keeps of the nobility are all built over particularly ill-omened and darkly historic sites. Even the notoriously brutal and remorseless tax-collectors of the Elector Count of Stirland wear amulets blessed by the Priests of Morr and Sigmar, and go about in companies fifty strong when their lord compels them to seek his due there. For centuries, Sylvania was the lair of Necromancers and other vile men. However, it was not until the dark times of the Vampire Wars that the true evil dwelling within the shadows was revealed. On Geheimnisnacht in the year 2010 after the birth of Sigmar, the nightmarish truth about Vlad von Carstein, ruler of Sylvania, was revealed as he stood on the battlements of Drakenhof Keep and intoned a terrible incantation from the pages of the Nine Books of Nagash. Across the land the Undead stirred. Skeletons clawed their way through the soft Sylvanian soil, zombies stirred in their crypts, and ghouls raced to greet their new master. Von Carstein had thrown down the gauntlet to the Three Emperors. The Wars of the Vampire Counts had begun. The Sylvanian armies marched northwest, shrouded by storm clouds during the day, ceaselessly advancing through the nights, driving for Talabecland. Peasant militias marched alongside the unliving skeletons and zombies controlled by their vampiric lords, as happy to serve their unnatural masters as they would any other noble. The army of Talabecland countered the advance at the Battle of Essen Ford, but was crushed by the Undead host. Before the battle, von Carstein had sent word that he would spare his foes if they turned away, but would show them no mercy if they opposed him. The bodies of the dead joined his host that same night. Vlad’s followers captured Hans Schliffen, general of the army, but on seeing the unholy slaughter, Schliffen flew into a maddened rage
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