he Vampire Bloodlines are distinguished by their inherited traits, which can be traced far back to their origins in Lahmia. Of these, the Bloodline of Lahmia is in direct descent from the ruling house of that ancient land and so is the purest Vampire Bloodline of all. The Lahmian Vampires who stalk the world today are much like the original Vampires who first drank blood in Lahmia thousands of years ago. Indeed some among them are the very same beings, having persisted in undeath for countless centuries.

The origin of the Lahmian Bloodline reaches as far back as Nagash himself. These days, Nagash is revered among the Undead as a mythical god of undeath, no one certain whether he exists or not. Yet he did exist once as a living man in ancient Khemri. Although his name was erased from the monuments by order of the kings of Khemri, a few of the scrolls of his time escaped the purges, and fragments copied from these fell into the hands of Necromancers. Thus his secrets were passed down over thousands of years.

Nagash was a Liche Priest of Khemri. This caste of priests studied the secrets of Undeath and performed the rituals of the mortuary cult for the kings of Khemri, who sought immortality. The priests were cunning and kept the deepest secrets back for themselves. The greatest offender in this respect was Nagash. His ambition was to become the immortal ruler of the whole of Nehekhara. This he succeeded in doing for a time, having overthrown the legitimate king of Khemri. Then he began building his Black Pyramid and enslaving the entire realm to labour upon it.

At this time Lahmia was a distant province of the empire of Khemri. It was a land which suffered greatly under the tyrannical rule of Nagash. Here began the rebellion that would overthrow Nagash. Under the leadership of Prince Lahmizzar of Lahmia, all the other subject kingdoms of Nehekhara, and the population of Khemri itself, rose up in rebellion against Nagash and his arch minister Arkhan. Lahmizzar perished in battle, for the war was long and bitter, and his son Lahmizzash accomplished the final defeat of the Nagasite heretics. The last battle was fought around the huge Black Pyramid of Nagash, in which he had taken refuge. Victory went to Lahmia and the rebels, but Nagash escaped. His pyramid was desecrated and sealed, and all priests of the Nagasite cult were put to death.

But the purge of Khemri was not to be as complete as it should have been. While the Khemrians were busy desecrating the memory of Nagash and Lahmizzash was establishing himself as king of Khemri, some Nagasite scrolls, including the books written by Nagash himself, were saved from destruction. The queen of Lahmia, who was a notable sorceress, had prevailed upon her husband to give her some of the heretical scrolls to study. Thus on the orders of the king, some scrolls were snatched from the purifying flames and placed in a quartz chest as a present for the queen. The queen returned to Lahmia taking the chest with her.

The dynasty of Lahmia ruled in Khemri. They shunned the deserted necropolis of the city and all the kings were brought back for burial in the rock tombs of Lahmia. In due course, the Khemrians and the other kingdoms of Nehekhara tired of being under the rule of the king of Lahmia and plotted rebellion. By the time of the reign of Lahkashaz, the other kingdoms were already free of Lahmian rule. In Khemri, General Setep, a native Khemrian, overthrew Lahkashaz and seized the throne. The Lahmian dynasty was ousted, but the land of Lahmia remained independent, secure beyond the mountains from conquest by the Khemrians, for the time being at least.

Meanwhile, a new cult had taken root in Lahmia. The founder and high priestess of this cult was the same queen of Lahmizzash who had brought the Nagasite scrolls out of Khemri. By the time that Lahmian rule had ended in Khemri and her sons and grandsons had occupied the throne in their turn, she was still the high priestess. Even more strange, she did not look a day older than when she had assumed the mantle of high priestess. Indeed her beauty was already a legend beyond her own land. And who was this queen priestess? Her name was Neferata.

An Imperial Baron and his doomed army close with the Undead forces of Neferata, Queen of Vampires.

A new temple had been built in Lahmia, using some of the best stone ransacked from the necropolis of Khemri during the rule of the Lahmian dynasty. The cult practised there was popular among the nobility of Lahmia and favoured by the ruling house above all other cults. The cult statues within the temple were something which struck horror into the visiting dignitaries and envoys of Khemri, for they were statues of Nagash – survivors of those statues which had adorned his accursed mortuary complex; images which should have been smashed into a thousand pieces. These envoys returned to their own land and revealed the evil which had taken root in Lahmia.

The word in Nehekhara was that the ruling house of Lahmia lay under a curse. The beauty of each princess of Lahmia, many of whom were daughters and granddaughters of Neferata and priestesses of the cult, was such that any king of Khemri, Zandri or Numas should have been eager to ask for her hand in marriage. But instead, all these princesses were shunned, perhaps because they seemed to outlive any prince or king, and each was rumoured to possess powers of sorcery which could bend any man to her will. Furthermore it was known that there was dissent even within Lahmia due to the cult, which required human sacrifice. It was said that only the blood of the noblest men in the full bloom of youth was acceptable to the queen and her female acolytes. This blood they drank like wine and bathed in it to preserve their youth for eternity.

Setep was succeeded as king of Khemri by his general, Alcadizaar. His ambition was to conquer Lahmia, and the tales of heresy and sorcery from that land provided him with a just cause that would unite Nehekhara behind him. He consulted with his priests who advised him that the Nagasite cult in Lahmia was dangerous. The Lahmians might summon forth Nagash from the depths of the nether world to haunt Nehekhara once again. Indeed, they were not mistaken in this belief, although none knew it at the time.

Declaring a holy war against heresy, in the name of the traditional gods of Nehekhara, Alcadizaar raised a mighty army from all his dominions. All the kings of Nehekhara followed him and the glittering legions advanced over the mountains. The army of Lahmia was vanquished and many of the people of the land rose up against their oppressors among the nobility. By the time the Khemrians reached the city of Lahmia, the necropolis and the Temple of Blood were already being ransacked. Battering rams were dragged up the steep cliffs to smash into the rock tombs of the kings, queens and nobles of Lahmia. The bodies of those who had been entombed according to the Nagasite rite were despoiled, and priests from Khemri saw to it that the mummies were destroyed in such a way that they could never return in undeath.

Many of the kings and princes were purged in this way. Unfortunately, when the sarcophagi of the queens, princesses and priestesses were broken open, some were found to be empty. The guards of the necropolis, who had fought a determined rearguard action, were captured and made to speak before being put to death. They said that the tombs were only ever occupied during the hours of daylight when the sun shone on the land. At night, the females came forth from their resting places to perform their rituals.

Neferata, high priestess and queen of Lahmia, together with her sisters in the cult were already far to the north east and safe from the purging wrath of the kings of Nehekhara. Many said that they had heard the beating of wings in the night before the city of Lahmia fell. It was to the land of their god that the blood drinkers had fled. According to the myths of the cult, he rested in his immortality deep beneath a mountain which served him as a pyramid. Gazing up at this distant peak the priestesses invoked their god by the light of the moon. Their insane pleas for his divine vengeance were shrieked into the dark night sky. Some offered themselves to be his handmaidens.

Who could resist the beauty and the devotion of the Queen of Lahmia? Not even the mighty lord of undeath himself! He came forth from Nagashizzar, his resting place, leading a horde of Skeleton warriors. He marched on into Lahmia and raised the dead from the necropolis. It was amazing how many mighty ones still rested in tombs which the purging priests had not found. Then Nagash led them beyond Lahmia, seeking his revenge on Khemri. Men fled in terror, for it was the fearful god of undeath who came against them. Yet Alcadizaar feared not, nor his brave army. Though the cost was great, the forces of Nehekhara prevailed against Nagash. The power of the priests waxed great against him and the old gods of Khemri were victorious. Then Nagash slunk back from whence he had come. But it was a hollow victory, for the ultimate revenge of this evil god on Nehekhara is well known.

While this was happening in Nehekhara, the last of the Lahmian nobility, satisfied that they had summoned their god and wrought suitable vengeance on their enemies, went north into the remotest parts of the Worlds Edge Mountains. Here they persisted for many centuries. Nothing is known of this time until, at a place called Silver Pinnacle by the Dwarfs, a strange thing happened. The Dwarfs had been mining here for silver and precious gems, and there was a small stronghold. One night an invading horde somehow broke into the mountain, taking the defenders by surprise. These were not Goblins or Skaven, but Zombies and Skeletons. The event is recorded in the Book of Grudges. The entry describes their leader as ‘The Queen of Evil' – who could this have been except Neferata, Vampire Queen of Lahmia?

Many centuries have passed since that time. The Dwarfs have long gone from the area and now only travellers from the lands of Men tread within sight of the place. Strange as it may seem, there are some who have visited Silver Pinnacle and returned alive to tell the tale. Their tales do not speak of horror as one might think. Instead they tell of a splendid court, arrayed in the manner and fashions of some ancient civilisation, and of a palace cut out of the rock with statues and walls adorned with strange inscriptions, yet a place of darkness, where the light of day is not permitted to enter. The queen who rules here is said to be of exquisite beauty, attended by handmaidens any man might die for. Little do they know that this is literally true!

Stories of the realm of the Night Queen have been told for centuries, and can be found among the ballads of Bretonnia, the writings of the Empire and the poems of Tilea. Even in the kasbahs of Araby and the sweat lodges of Kislev the rumours can be heard. Is it any surprise that Bretonnian questing knights have sought this place, as have merchants seeking to sell their jewels and fine clothes to a princess?

The guards are swathed in black and show not their faces. They shuffle and handle their weapons jerkily. The interior of the palace is dark, lit as if by moonlight. The queen of the mountain is never seen or spoken to directly. She conducts business from behind seven veils, and her voice is beguiling. She breeds cats. There is a tale of a Tilean merchant who was given a beautiful cat. Halfway to Tilea the cat was gone, but sitting in his wagon was a beautiful lady. He had no idea where she had appeared from, but wisely took her on to Tilea, asking no questions, where she bade him farewell and paid him for the journey.

There is another tale, told in Bretonnia, of a questing knight who returned with a lady of exquisite beauty and a pale complexion praised by Bretonnian troubadours. He made her his wife and lady of his castle. Guests at the castle commented that the lady always drank goblets of red wine and ate no other food, yet the castle had no vineyards. There are similar strange tales which reveal, to those wise enough to see, how the bloodline of Neferata has spread over many centuries into many lands...

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