The Rumor of Varacius, BroodSpawn

They say he walks among men as a striking noble — tall, slender, with blood-red hair that gleams like coals and eyes that shimmer molten gold. His presence is suffocating yet enthralling, every movement carrying the weight of centuries. Those who claim to have glimpsed his true form describe scales that glow like obsidian lined with lava, each step leaving behind faint embers that refuse to die. In his shadow, the air warps with heat — like a mirage that cannot be dispelled.

Personality

Varacius is cold and aristocratic, speaking as though every word were a decree. His obsession with purity of bloodlines is not only draconic pride but near-religious fanaticism. He believes that dragon-blood should never be “polluted” by weakness — only the strong, the chosen, should endure the ichor’s gift. He tolerates no betrayal, no dilution, no imperfection. Loyalty is his currency, and he demands it with absolute certainty.

Backstory (as told in whispers)

Varacius is no ordinary Broodspawn. He is Arch-Brood, born from the first drops of ichor spilled by Veythar, the Ember Crown, King of Dragons. His life spans over 120,000 years, long before Havenreach’s founding, back when Arkos was fertile and green, not the desert of sand and ash it is today. Some say Varacius himself scorched it into ruin during a forgotten war, his veins erupting into rivers of molten fire that consumed cities and turned rivers to glass.

He is the first among equals on the Broodspawn Council of Ancients — a throne he never officially claimed, yet none dare to challenge. They call him the Ember Scion, the Burning Lord, and in the darkest whispers… the Crimson Dracula.

Mannerisms

• Speaks in a calm, aristocratic cadence, never raising his voice — because he never needs to.

• His molten eyes lock onto others until they avert their gaze, unable to withstand the heat within.

• Often flexes his hands, as if coaxing fire to dance beneath his skin. When agitated, his veins flare and flicker visibly through his flesh.

• Everywhere he goes, faint embers drift in the air like sparks of a dying hearth, never quite extinguished.

The Power in His Blood

Legends claim that Varacius can ignite his own blood — a power unique even among the ancients. Wounds only make him more dangerous, as his veins run with molten fire that he can lash out like burning chains. Entire fortresses have fallen not to his fangs, but to the infernos he conjured from within himself.

The Fear

Among Broodspawn, his name is spoken with reverence and dread.
Among Thralls, it is a curse — whispered in initiation rites as the embodiment of what they might one day become.
Among humans, it is a fairy tale of Dracula reborn — a nobleman with fire in his veins who drinks not blood, but molten life itself.

How Varacius Became the First Vampire

The Age of Fire (Ancient Nova Prime)

• Reality: Varacius was known as the Ember Scion, a dragon-born aristocrat who drank blood and scorched the lands of Arkos. He was whispered about as a noble that walked by night, burning armies by day. Parents warned children to stay indoors lest “the Burning Lord” smell their blood.

• Perception: A terror. A fact of life. Even humans who never saw him felt his influence in scorched ruins and missing villages.

The Age of Silence (Post-Saint Estes Wars)

• Reality: With Saint Estes sealed and the Sovereigns bound, Varacius retreated into shadow with the surviving Ancients. Broodspawn became rarer sightings.

• Perception: Without frequent terror, his image began to blur into folklore.

  • In Arkos, he became “The Ember Noble,” a tale told to children to stop them from wandering after dark.

  • His ember trails were explained away as “fairy lights” or “tricks of the desert winds.”

  • His blood-drinking became exaggerated — the fire turned into a craving for blood itself.

The Age of Electricity (Early Modern Nova Prime)

• Reality: Varacius and the Council kept low, but cultists and Thralls still whispered his truth.

• Perception: Folklore crossed borders thanks to printing presses, penny dreadfuls, and early stage plays. In this era he became romanticized.

  • Once a terrifying monster, now a tragic noble cursed with immortality.

  • His fire-blood was rewritten as “a thirst for blood.”

  • His aristocratic presence became the blueprint of the vampire archetype.

  • In Arkos, people joked “don’t stay out late or the Ember Count will sip your blood.”

The Age of Screens (Cinema & Comics)

• Reality: Varacius was still very real, still in his mansion north of Highspire, still watching.

• Perception: He became a movie monster.

  • Black-and-white films portrayed him as a red-haired noble with a cape and hypnotic gaze.

  • Later, comics in Havenreach painted him as a suave antihero, battling priests, hunters, and rival monsters.

  • The word “vampire” shifted — in Nova Prime it always had roots in dragon ichor, but by the modern age it just meant “blood-drinking immortal.” The draconic ties were erased in pop culture.

• Humans laughed at the idea of “real vampires.” Meanwhile, Broodspawn walked past them, unnoticed.

The Age of Neon (Present Era)

• Reality: Varacius still rules the Council of Ancients, burning with molten ichor, planning for the Sovereigns’ return.

• Perception: He’s a meme, a movie icon, a comic-book villain.

  • Thralls and Broodspawn laugh in private, because humanity is surrounded by propaganda that literally hides the truth in plain sight.

  • Even when mortals stumble upon real Broodspawn attacks, the authorities dismiss it as “cult-inspired murders” or “lunatics imitating vampire movies.”

The Irony

The world thinks Varacius is fiction.
The word “vampire” became a parody of him.
But he never died. Never faded. Never weakened.

The first vampire still exists.
And the joke has gone on long enough.