The Birth of The Vampire

Traces of Khastran's spirit had survived his demise. Not enough to reform on their own, but with help from his few remaining demon followers and their powerful dark magics. Khastran's soul was restored. Before his followers could revive his body (which they most likely would not have been able to do, at least not as it was without the creator.) Drasak, detecting the rise of Khastran's unique spirit intervened. All of Khastran's followers were slain in the battle, but Khastran's demonic soul still managed to flee across the universe until he eventually reached our planet. Earth. This was no chance meeting however.

Khastran had a history with out planet. He first visited it over 1 billion years ago, in a period of our history that is completely lost from the fossil record. The period in question spans over 1 billion years, and it is known during that time that a race of amphibian creatures called esquilons, completely unrelated to all life on the planet in our time were the dominant creatures. The akinsas meanwhile were the dominant life forms out of the esquilons and built a massive, thriving civilisation. Sadly its history is unknown. We are only aware that they exist at all because one of them became a member of the Circus Family, though he understandably wasn't eager to discuss what became of his people.

All esquilons were driven to extinction by Khastran. In fact the demon killed all life on the planet at that point and sterilised its surface. In spite of this other life forms did develop several 100 million years later. Single celled amoeba from which all life as we know it on earth today from mammals, to reptiles, to insects evolved. This amoeba however only appeared through completely unrelated means. Again one incarnation of the Circus Family travelling back and seeding the earth with these simple one celled life forms. The reason Khastran destroyed our world in particular beyond his usual cruelty, was actually because one of his former, treacherous minions had stumbled upon the planet and hoped to turn its people into an army against him.

Still whilst Khastran killed all life on the planet. He did not destroy it completely as he would normally do. He sensed that it had a unique magical structure that could prove useful to him in the future. This had also been why his minion had used the earth too. Our world was somewhat unique in the universe in that it contained the magic from several different worlds. There are two kinds of magic in each natural universe. Universal magic that runs throughout each universe itself, and magic that is unique to each world.

In the case of the earth meanwhile, it was created from two planets that fused together 4.5 billion years ago. One of these two worlds, known as theia was populated by a highly advanced race of wizards who attempted to prevent the collision which obviously was unsuccessful, or else we wouldn't be here to write about it. Whilst the theians were tragically killed off, their spell did work in the sense that it preserved the magics rather than people of their world after the collision, which then merged with the magic of the the planet it had collided with, to create something seemingly unique in at least our universe. (Whilst other planets have collided, normally the magic of both worlds dies and is replaced by that of a new world.)

Furthermore the theians spell would slowly but surely over the history of the earth draw in and preserve magic from dead planets across the universe. Normally when a world dies, its magics may linger on for a short while after before fading into the universe at large, but the earth now acted like a magnet, drawing these dead world magics in thanks to the theians preservative spell acting in a similar unintended way for these other worlds.

Whilst this gave our people a wider and more powerful range of magics to utilise. At certain points this also spelled disaster for the earth. Magic evolves, just like natural organisms. (Though certain ancient spells can be preserved through rituals and enchantments.) Sometimes the magics from different planets in the earth could evolve in a way that was hostile to one another. Most of the time this simply resulted in the magics of the earth being unstable, but in some cases it could lead to abnormalities and in others it could lead to widespread disaster. The worst example of this was the Great Dying, an extinction event which killed off up to 90 percent of life on our planet in the Permian era over 200 million years ago. This was caused by two planets magics pulling at each other under the surface of the earth, which very nearly tore the planet apart. Among the casualties of the Great Dying, were the synapsids, a gigantic race of reptiles who had ruled the earth for millions of years. One group of synapsids did survive however, the cynodonts who several million years after the great dying, evolved into the first mammals, though even then our ancestors were suppressed by a group of reptiles known as the dinosaurs who took over after the great dying and ruled the earth for over 170 million years.

Khastran remembered our planet 1 billion years later when his soul was desperate, and hoped to use the unique magics of the earth to help restore his body.

Thankfully for the rest of the creation, even the powerful magics of the earth were not enough to restore Khastran completely, but he still used them to not only possess a dead Tyrannosaurus Rex, but mutate and twist its body to become strong enough to hold his essence. In this new Tyrannosaurus Rex body (which Khastran kept from now on.) He wasn't even half as powerful as before, but was still stronger than any other demon and strong enough to take on any god.

The first thing Khastran did in his Tyrannosaur body was to kill off most of the dinosaurs on earth. The few he spared, the vile demon transformed into his new army of hellbeasts which he took to the stars to corrupt more creatures into being part of his ever growing army to take back the Hellish realm. Ironically however had it not been for Khastran, then humanity would never have existed as it was only through his slaughter of the dinosaurs, that mammals had a chance to take over and humanity evolve in the first place.

Still whilst the dinosaurs were driven to extinction on earth by Khastran, they survived on several other planets around the universe. Many centuries prior to Khastran's visit to our world. A race of aliens known as the Raskians had abducted several dinosaurs in order to use them in battle. The Raskians, who originated in the solar system just outside of ours, were caught in the middle of a civil war. Having discovered alien life in our system, the more dominant side of the war were able to use mind controlled dinosaurs such as the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex to slaughter their enemies.

Following this the winners of the war expanded and created colonies on numerous other worlds, some of which they inhabited, others they transformed into breeding ground for dinosaurs, who they still utilised for a variety of means. Among the breeding grounds they used for dinosaurs included Venus, which at that point in its history was inhabited by nothing more than amphibian creatures, which the dinosaurs came to dominate.(Much like they did to the mammals on earth.)

Tragically the Raskians home planet was also destroyed by Khastran after he took to the stars again, ironically in his Tyrannosaur body. A few isolated colonies, including Venus did survive however simply because Khastran overlooked them in his quest to find more advanced planets to take over. Whilst he had been happy to use the dinosaurs at first, he now wanted intelligent species who could build him magical weapons.

The dinosaurs on these few surviving remote Raskian colonies continued to flourish and evolve into new forms over the course of the next 66 million years. On Venus, a race of highly intelligent dinosaurs eventually emerged who mastered magic rather than science. These dinosaurs understandably grew scared of the universe after witnessing several disasters and invasions of earth and the death of mars, and created a magical barrier around Venus to protect it from invaders. This barrier not only protected Venus physically however, it also created an illusion that Venus was an inhospitable planet to any life form that came near. This even fooled humanity for centuries into thinking that Venus was a gas giant. We later discovered the truth of course in the 23rd century, though we will cover that later.

The creator meanwhile was devastated by Khastran's survival. Even he had underestimated his power, and as the demon destroyed countless more worlds beyond earth and Raskia with a renewed vigor. The creator finally decided to stamp out evil throughout the omniverse. (By this stage he had created thousands of realms, all of which were linked. Again whilst travel was easier between universes that existed within realms. It was still possible to travel to any reality within this omniverse from another.)

The creator believed that the only way he could eliminate evil is if the darkness was removed from himself. He did not think this would make him vulnerable like the angels, as unlike them he had experienced and committed evil both before and after he became the creator, and therefore could know how to avoid it.

Sadly however the creator underestimated his own power. When he tried to remove the corruption from his body, it instead formed into a new being (due to having been created from the remains of ethereals who the creator thought were long dead.) The ethereals will to survive ultimately remained strong enough even within the creator after all these billions of years, to form a new entity from the darkness he removed. One of equal power to the creator, yet with none of his positive qualities. This entity came to be known as the destroyer. It and the new, completely benevolent creator were subsequently locked within a war for millions of years. The creator did his best to take the battle outside of the ominverse to protect his children, but sadly in the void the destroyer created his own realm of hideous abominations that were known as monsters. Much like the word demon or beast. Monster in the modern world has come to refer to any cruel, twisted or unnatural creature. I myself have regularly used it in such a way, and I apologise for any confusion. In its correct sense however, monster refers to any creature born within the destroyers, single isolated realm which is not part of the creators omniverse.

The sole purpose of monsters was to destroy all life within our omniverse. At first the creator rallied his creations together to battle them, whilst he took on their father (who had built a protective force field around his single realm, that even the creator couldn't enter.)

The creator however, sick at having to sacrifice his creations in a pointless war, and curb their development. Devised a new realm within the omniverse, with a new race of life forms whose sole purpose was to fight the monsters. These creatures were christened goblins. The goblin realm was still part of the Omega or Sentenza omniverse, but travel from it to any other part of the omniverse was considerably easier, as was travel to the void too. The creator felt guilt at creating a race to battle against the monsters, but he had no choice. He needed help and a race of automatons could never hope to outwit living, thinking creatures like monsters. At the very least by creating a race who had no purpose other than to fight they would not know that there was any alternative like his other creations.

Ultimately however even some of the goblins broke free from the creators conditioning, in much the same way as some angels turned to the dark side, and some demons became benevolent. These goblins deserted the army and became outlaws, travelling the omniverse, sampling whatever they could to satisfy their own hedonistic urges. The influence of these renegades ironically led to goblins being seen as greedy and selfish creatures in early earth legends and folklore.

Whilst the war between the creator and the destroyer, and the goblins and monsters waged on. The rest of the omniverse was able to seemingly continue functioning. In secret however, the destroyer was preparing another weapon. The mystic realm.

The destroyer for all his arrogance knew that it was a possibility that he might die, and so he created a back up plan to create another member of his kind so to speak. The mystic realm, was pure power, that was designed to latch itself onto the first truly sentient creature that entered it and make them as powerful as either the creator or the destroyer. The destroyer couldn't simply travel into the omniverse and pick a successor as the creator would know instantly. Whilst neither were omnipotent, both could sense each other, especially within the omniverse. Instead by connecting the mystic realm to the omniverse from outside, the Destroyer could avoid detection for a short period. Furthermore once the mystic realm had time to latch itself onto the omniverse then removing it would risk unravelling the entire sentenza omniverse itself.

Whilst there was always the possibility that a benevolent creature could enter the mystic realm, the destroyer believed that power of that kind would ultimately corrupt any being, leading to another creature like him eventually.

Still in spite of this, the destroyer did attempt to ensure that Khastran would gain this power and placed the only portal to the mystic realm in the earth. Khastran who was still connected to the earth as he was still possessing a Tyrannosaurus, an earth creature, instantly sensed the presence of the mystic realm. He was also able to sense it above even the strongest wizard on earth, due to his power.

It took the destroyer many years to construct the mystic realm, though this was also partly due to the war.

It was finally ready during a period of earth's history known as the age of magic. After the death of the dinosaurs on earth, mammals emerged to become the dominant land vertebrates and human beings eventually evolved from primitive primates.

Early man then discovered tools, which later led to the discovery of primitive magics too, which they ultimately used to defeat their rivals the Neanderthals, after the latter had almost driven humanity to extinction and end the ice age. Over the ensuing centuries, humanity's use of magic transformed the earth into a magical world.

It is possible through repeated over exposure to certain strains of magic to rewrite the natural laws completely, transforming natural creatures into magical creatures. The magical counterparts of humans are known as wizards, whilst the magical counterparts to dinosaurs are dragons. Witches and warlocks meanwhile are merely people who use magic, but have not let it transform them completely yet.

The age of magic is still an elusive and mysterious time for us. Some of the few records that exist from that period, paint it as a paradise, and it's obvious that humanity was incredibly advanced. In some respects more so than we are even now. The civilisation of magic was able to build incredible crafts that could travel through space, and even discovered the secrets of time travel. Hundreds of thousands of years later, the vandals used the left overs of these spells, to construct the Circus Family's Tent, but more on that later.

Still at the same time many of the darkest curses and magics also came from this time, suggesting that it wasn't quite as rosey as the few documents have made it out to be.

Whatever the truth, the age of magic came to an end when Khastran and his vile horde of demons invaded the earth. Wanting to see what the new power he sensed was, Khastran and his horde were merciless in their treatment of humanity. They exterminated most of the population, but kept a few thousand alive to torture and experiment on for their own amusement whilst Khastran investigated the earth.

Khastran attempted to keep his investigation of the earth a secret, but soon one of his agents betrayed him to Drasak. Since his resurrection, Khastran had managed to reclaim half of the Hellish realm, whilst Drasak ruled over the other section. The only reason that Khastran wasn't able to claim all of it, was because Drasak had help from numerous other realms that did not want Khastran to return to power. Outside of his base due to the vast amount of enemies had, even Khastran was vulnerable, but the vile creatures greed and desire for power overran his better instincts. After his location on the earth was exposed, a horde of demons, angels, gods and creatures from other realms attacked our world to try and finally finish Khastran.

Drasak himself took part in the final battle. Hoping to strike the killing blow and finish his sworn enemy, and whilst Drasak was able to infiltrate the earth and confront Khastran. Their battle ultimately resulted in Drasark's death. Khastran tore his rivals body and soul to pieces, scattering his physical remains across the earth.

Whilst Drasak was denied of his chance for revenge. His final actions did at least distract Khastran long enough for the gods and the angels to infiltrate Khastran's defenses.

A battle was fought and whilst thousands of angels and gods would die, in the end Khastran was mortally wounded by his enemies. Knowing that there was no way he could escape back to his base. Khastran hid in a cave, where he hoped to ensure a means for his eventual revival.

With the aid of his humans servants, Khastran sought to create a new species of demons that could bring him back at a later date after the gods and angels had left. Khastrans human servants were made up of the most twisted and evil people on earth who Khastran had spared (and who had to prove themselves to him. It's not known what they had to do in order to accomplish that, but it's probably for the best that we don't know.)

Khastran's first attempt to create a new race of demons were the Turok Han, who though powerful, were savage creatures incapable of much higher thought. Khastran needed a race that could infiltrate humanity, and survive long enough to bring him back centuries from now.

His next attempt saw Khastran create a book made from his flesh and inked in his own blood. Each page of this book, (which would simply be known as the book of Khastran.) Could transform a human into the first of a new race of blood drinking demons, who could then turn other humans into members of their kind. When these demons, the children of Khastran outnumbered humanity, the dominant natural creatures of the earth. Then Khastran would live again.

The children of Khastran later became known to us as vampires, and they would be overall the most evil and persistent predators of humanity.

After creating the book, Khastran also devised a small pocket dimension, which would only come into being over hundreds of years. (If it came into being now then the angels and gods would have surely sensed and destroyed it before it could permanently fuse itself to the earth.) This pocket dimension acted as an afterlife to the vampires, with all of their souls being sent there after death. This way if the vampire race were ever all exterminated, their souls could theoretically be brought back from this dimension. A vampires soul was only sent here if they had died on earth however. Finally Khastran also created demonic wolf creatures, zoltans whose job was to serve the vampires.

After leaving the Book of Khastran with his vile human servants, Khastran went to face the army of angels, gods and demons who had been searching for him, (and had no idea about the creation of his children.) He took down hundreds of his enemies in his death throes, before the army finally destroyed both Khastrans Tyrannosaur body and his soul.

After the demons destruction, the gods and angels returned to their own realms, whilst the hellish realm was thrown into chaos as many demons tried to claim Khastran and Daskaran's throne. None of them were able to command the same power that either of these two demons had. Most of Khastran's species, the kardons were killed off in their war too, though a small section that had become Khastran's favourite soldiers were imprisoned deep within the earths core. They were trapped there by the warrior god, Astuke, who had accidentally botched the only weapon capable of killing these abominations and instead use its power to seal them deep in earth's core.

In the years after Khastran's death, his cult created the first vampires from the survivors of the humanity. The earth had been left mostly barren by Khastran and his horde. Almost all magic had been drained from the earth, and there were only a couple of thousand humans, scattered across the planet into small communities, barely surviving. Just before his battle with Drasak, Khastran had figured out what the mystic realm really was. He hoped that when his vampiric children would revive him, he could then access it and not only rule over the entire omniverse, but absorb both the creator and the destroyer and other ethereal realities in the hopes of conquering and tormenting any world or universe that emerged from the void. The destroyer was aware of this, but didn't care. As long as chaos and suffering infested the void that was all that mattered. That is assuming he didn't kill the creator anyway after which he would simply destroy the omniverse and carry on his war against all life. Either way he won.

This period of earth's history after Khastran's attack are known simply as the Lost Years. Aside from vampires, it saw the creation of many demonic races and creatures that continue to plague humanity to this day.

The vampires sworn enemies the vandals were also created during this time. Ironically by the last survivor of the cult of Khastran. Initially this cult (who were granted immortality by Khastran, but not turned into demons) commanded and guided the vampires as they were supposed too, but sadly being Khastran's children. It didn't take long for the first vampires to turn on and slaughter the cult of Khastran, and use the book for themselves. For a while the vampires were able to work together to some extent and built a giant city in the wasteland of the earth. Ultimately however their treachery saw them turn on each other, which they would always do in some way or another and the book whilst indestructable to all forces on earth, subsequently fell into numerous different powers and individuals hands over the course of human history, which led to the creation of vampire species all over the world.

The last of the cult meanwhile, known as Makensiac, vowed revenge on the vampires for their betrayal and searched for any way to destroy them. He eventually found it in the last piece of Dasarak. A tiny fragment of the former demon kings arm that had been scattered just below the remains of a mountain had endured. It had become a hot spot as a result for demons, but Makensiac, having witnessed the creation of the book of Khastran, applied a similar process, albeit crudely to create a similar book from Drasak's flesh.

Just like the book of Khastran, each page of the book of Drasak could transform a human into the first of a new species of demon, one which was able to devour the souls of its victims using its claws. These clawed soul devourers came to be known as vandals. They were similar to vampires in many respects, as after all Khastran and Drasak did belong to the same species. Like vampires the first of each species of vandal could transform others into members of their own kind, allowing their species to spread at a similar rate. Again however this book was crude when compared with Khastran's. It was not indestructible like his book, and no matter how many vandals were created, Dasarak could not live again.

Still at the very least this rival race of demons battled with the vampires throughout the remainder of human history. Whilst their creator Makensiac fed the vandals propaganda that the vampires were their enemies, their hatred for vampires endured even after the vampires found and killed Makensiac and largely airbrushed him from history. Their hatred of vampires was actually instinctive. It stemmed from their fathers Khastran and Drasak feud which had lasted for over 66 million years. Vandals and vampires who knew nothing about their history or creators, were still be driven to murder each other.

Aside from vampires and vandals, werewolves were also created during this period. These demonic/wolf hybrids were the descendants of a race of ancient demons known as the lycans. Along with the kardons, lycans were among those the creator granted incredible power too for his final test between good and evil. (Though they were not anywhere near as strong as Khastran.)

The lycans were simple beasts in terms of intelligence, though they still possessed a savagery and sadism unknown to any animal. They were Khastran's favourite pets. Really they were the only creatures that he didn't treat with cruelty. It has been speculated that he admired their simplicity and viciousness, but whatever the reason, the lycans were among those who remained loyal to him throughout Dasark's entire rule. Their leader, or rather alpha, Hysken, even died on the earth defending Khastran. Hysken's spirit however survived, unknown to the gods, though it still remained dormant for many centuries after Khastran's death. In the Lost Years however, Hysken's spirit was finally revived by a warlock named Darok. Magic had slowly begun to grow back since Khastran's invasion, though only the most skilled could harness it in its current state. Darok meanwhile initially used his magic to battle the demons that were slowly infesting the earth which turned him from a simple farmer whose village was constantly under attack to a hero overnight. It wasn't just vampires and vandals humanity had to deal with, but other demon species of various kinds left over from Khastran's war. Furthermore many demon followers had arrived here in an attempt to try and resurrect Dasark, just to keep order, whilst others had arrived to visit the site of the legendary Khastran's death.

In time however Darok found a way to control certain strains of daimonac, which granted him power over demons like no other warlock before him. Sadly however this in turn slowly led to Darok's corruption. He summoned an army of demons to gain power over many of the smaller villagers, believing that it was his destiny to unite both demons and humans together under his benevolent rule. Instead he united them in hatred against him and after losing his army and power, Darok retreated to the site of Hysken's death. The area thanks to the lycans spirit had become another hot spot for demons, but Darok in his insane lust for power attempted to harness the dark energy there. (Being unaware that it was Hysken's spirit.)

Hysken awoke and subsequently possessed one of the wolves in a nearby forest, simply because it was the nearest body in Darok's base where he conducted the ritual.

Dazed and confused in this new wolf body, Hysken slaughtered his way through the woods, wounding Darok, before the warlock was finally able to put his soul to rest once more. (In the body of the wolf, Hysken was a mere shell of his former self both physically and mentally.)

Unfortunately however, the wound Hysken inflicted on Darok infected him. Lycans had a special kind of poison in their claws and teeth called lycanthrophy, which could poison virtually any other supernatural creature, from other demons, to gods to angels. The only creatures that were immune to it were the kardons (and those they created such as vampires, vandals and later ghouls.)

Lycanthropy however had a different effect on natural creatures and instead transformed them into similar, albeit less powerful lycans.

The combination of Hysken's spirit, mixed in with his new wolf body created a new strain of lycanthropy however, wherein Darok transformed into a hideous wolf/lycan hybrid. A werewolf.

Darok whilst unable to cure the curse of lycanthropy, still limited its influence over him. The only reason he was able to do that was because the lycanthrophy had been diluted with wolf blood, and Hysken was weaker at the time too. Darok's magic ensured that he only transformed into the lycan/wolf form on the night of the full moon, as well as all other nights in the week it came, as he had been bitten on the night of the full moon. (Having attempted to use its powers for his spell. The moon like any planetary body contains its own magics which can shine on the earth and be used by witches, demons and all manner of creatures for their own ends.)

In this wolf form Darok had no control however, and become a complete monster. Whilst even Darok tried to restrain himself, sadly his attempts at restraint failed. In his wolf form, Darok subsequently infected more people and spread this new demonic curse through humanity.

Still Darok constantly tried to find a way to cure himself, and whilst he never succeeded. He did find a way to control the wolf to the point where he could not only change whenever he wanted. He could control it too. This led to a new breed of werewolf, Lycanthropus Extremus, created from those Darok infected after his experiments.

Other strains of werewolves would emerge in the ensuing centuries through other means, such as the famous white wolvron's who were the children born of two werewolves, when the female was in her wolf form. White wolvrons had no humanity whatsoever and those they infected became less powerful dark wolvrons, who remained the wolf full time after changing.

Wolfmen meanwhile who were the least powerful would be born to two werewolves in the female's human form.

Overall werewolves due to carrying the curse of lycanthropy became among the most feared demon species. Ironically vampires were among the few species that they allied themselves with, mirroring the relationship between their forebears.

Beyond that however there was also a practicality to their relationship as most other demons who were vulnerable to lycanthropy hated werewolves and wanted to hunt them, whilst vampires were not only immune, but could use the werewolves as weapons.

Relations between werewolves and vampires wasn't always easy however, as many standard werewolves and Lycanthropus Extremis retained the same morality they had as humans, and in some cases hunted vampires the same way they would any demon.

Still at the very least vampires often gave werewolves protection and wolvron's certainly made great and even affectionate pets and foot soldiers to vampires.

The spirits of werewolves were also sent to the vampires afterlife when they died too, as lycans bore the mark of Khastran, which bound many of his most loyal servants to him in death. Though the souls of lycans were too large and unstable to be sent into his afterlife, sadly the souls of their lesser descendants were much easier to pull in.

Another major race to emerge during this time were the ghouls. These creatures were the creation of the kardons, locked within the earth's core. One of their number was able to influence humans on the surface world, eventually transforming them into the first of a hideous race of demons that feasted on flesh. After the creation of the ghouls, a group of powerful warlocks and witches placed another barrier around the already existing force field surrounding the earth's core, preventing the demons within from influencing the above world ever again. There were six ghoul species in total and they were all instinctively loyal to vampires, again mirroring their fathers relationships. The close relationships between vampires, werewolves and ghouls led to all three producing hybrid species, who in turn produced other hybrid species. Ghouls and all of their hybrid races are also sent to the vampires afterlife after death too.

Aside from the descendants and creations of Khastran and the kardons. Other supernatural creatures to emerge in the Lost Years included zombies and dragons.

Whilst both of these life forms were magical creatures, resurrecting the dead was not permitted in the age of magic. Granted we can't say for sure that it didn't happen. Still the first known zombies, who are simply dead bodies that have been reanimated via magic were created by renegade warlocks and witches as both slave labour and later as armies to fight back against demons and vampires. However resurrection spells are difficult to get right even in the best of times, and with the magics still rare and unstable after Khastran's attack. Many of the zombies became feral and monstrous, leading to a zombie plague.

Dragons meanwhile as we have explored are merely dinosaurs that have been twisted by magical until they become magical creatures. As far as we know the Lost Years marked the first time that dinosaurs were brought back from extinction by humans. They applied resurrection spells to their skeletons buried deep in the ground.

Once again however many of the dinosaurs were not brought back quite as they were, though at the very least by the time the dinosaurs were resurrected, the witches and warlocks mastery of magic had improved dramatically so that they weren't zombies.

Whilst many of the dinosaurs were simply used as guard dogs, others were transformed into fully fledged dragons. Even then however the dragons were intended to be nothing more than glorified servants too, but the magical reptiles soon rebelled and become a powerful force in their own right.

In retrospect it's hard to believe the tiny pockets of humanity survived the horrors of the Lost Years, which lasted for over 800 years, but eventually a greater evil than any vampire or demon or zombie visited the dying earth. Set the Egyptian god of evil.