he Necrarchs are the rarest and the most inhuman sect of the Undead creatures which men call Vampires. Legends name Wsoran, the prince of Rasetra, as their forefather. He is now long gone, slain in the rock tombs of Lahmia – but his foul legacy lives on.

Forever there shall be cold under the sun. Rivers will run dry and the forests wither. The stars shall grow dim, flicker and die. And Death shall reign from forever... ... to forever. From the Black Curse of the Necrarchs.

Necrarchs are mainly shunned, even by their own Undead brethren, for they are incomprehensible creatures, and most seem utterly insane. Their madness is tempered by their undeniable genius and mastery of alchemy and Necromantic magic.

Of all the Vampires, Necrarchs are least human. Whereas many Vampires seek dominion over the Human kingdoms either by cunning or might of arms, the Necrarchs wish to see the end of all living things.

Necrarchs are the rarest of the known great Vampire families. They differ from their immortal brothers in many aspects. The most obvious is their appearance: they are reeking, rotting horrors, and few men can gaze at their horrifying visage without trembling. Necrarchs are as horrible to behold as the proud Carsteins or the enchanting Lahmians are beautiful. The other differences are subtler, but perhaps more important. Of all the Vampires, the Necrarchs alone do not require blood to sustain themselves. How they avoid the curse of all other Vampires is unknown. But while most Vampires must hunt for the blood of men and risk being revealed for what they are, the Necrarchs can hide far from the eyes of men and concentrate upon their study of black magic.

The Necrarchs do not see the world as do other Vampires. To them the world of the living is but a blurred image, while the world of the dead, the bodies in their graves, the corpses and overflowing charnel houses are crystal clear and far more real than the mortal world filled with life.

Necrarchs are loners: they are alchemists and sorcerers that few can match. In the arts of black sorcery they have no equals amongst the Vampires. Even other Vampires are wary of challenging one of their rotting brothers.

Necrarchs live in secluded towers and dens, far away from human cities or towns. Hidden by sorcerous wards and guarded by their Undead servants, the Necrarchs devote their eternal lives to the study of magic. Witch Hunters frantically seek these abodes and when they uncover the den of a Necrarch, bitter battle ensues. Often those who would slay the Vampires end up serving their enemies in a ghastly unlife. Necrarchs value their privacy above all else.

Still, the Necrarchs often have need for bodies or living sacrifices for their magical rituals and experiments. This means that they need agents in human society. As physical beauty has little value to the Necrarchs, they accept the services of those who others scorn: the diseased, madmen, the disfigured and mutated. For some reason the Necrarchs seem to pity those that men scorn, and in return their servants are fanatically faithful, and they are capable of performing tasks which the Vampires would find difficult. During the daylight these dregs rob graveyards and plague pits, to find raw materials for their masters’ experiments. The most intelligent of these, the Necrarchs school in the art of Necromancy. Rarest of all are men that the Necrarchs decide to initiate into their own ranks as new Necrarch Vampires.

Necrarch Vampires prepare to capture new subjects for their vile experiments.

Like all Vampires, the Necrarchs can trace their origin to the ancient city of Lahmia, where they once ruled as undying overlords of that distant land. Necrarchs claim that they descend from Wsoran, who they revere as the father of Vampires. Perhaps he was a scholar and alchemist in the forgotten time when the Nehekharans studied the black arts in their quest to cheat death. No one knows for sure, as so little is known about the kingdom of Vampires, and Necrarchs themselves are difficult to interrogate about their past.

When the fall of Lahmia occurred, and the kingdom of Vampires came to an end, the Great Library of Lahmia was burned to the ground. The accumulated knowledge of ancient Nehekhara was destroyed, and many of the disciples of Wsoran died in the flames, reluctant to abandon their work. Unfortunately for the world, a handful of Necrarchs fled, and survived the pursuit of the armies of the Kings of Numas and Zandri. They scattered all over the world and hid themselves to patiently wait for the death of their enemies and continue their studies. They built tall towers from where they could study the stars and defend themselves if attacked.

From their towers the Necrarchs cast great spells during the dark nights of Geheimnisnacht. The purpose of these sorceries is always the same: to kill all living things within the reach of the Necrarch magic. From their dark abodes corruption slowly spreads, poisoning rivers, withering forests and causing animals and men to sicken and die. It seems that the Necrarchs are determined to strangle all life from the known world.

Those who study such things suspect the hand of the Great Necromancer, Nagash the Black, behind the slow, corrupting work of the Necrarchs. It is known that this dread Necromancer wishes the whole world turned into a kingdom of the dead where no living creature walks under the sun, and only Undead that are all bound in the service of Nagash remain. Such a world would have an eternal order without change, growth or life. This is why the Witch Hunters revile the Necrarchs above all other Vampires, and spare no effort trying to eradicate them. Unfortunately, finding these elusive creatures is the most difficult task a Vampire slayer can set himself.

Only very rarely do the Necrarchs openly march to war, but at such times are perhaps more dangerous than any other lords of Undeath, for with their Necromantic lore the Necrarchs can raise huge armies of Undead. Such wars are most often fought not for earthly gain or temporal power, but rather for acquiring knowledge and magical lore. The folk of Estalia still shudder when they remember the Wars of Death when Nourgul, the terrible Wamphyri of Estalia, marched against them. His undead armies, marshalled over long millennia, numbered in tens of thousands, and they crushed the proud condottieri of Estalia, leaving thousands dead. The whole war was fought for possession of a single book: the Tome of Wisdom, which was kept in the temple of Myrmidia. Luckily for the world, the Vampire Lord was killed in the temple just as he acquired the book, but it took decades for Estalia to recover.

Because of their rarity, many scholars doubt whether the Necrarchs really exist. But in the dark places of the world, hidden from the eyes of the authorities, the Necrarchs continue their slow, insidious work. One day their labours will bear fruit, and the world will know horror unlike any before.

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