Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Strategies & Dominions

I examine my surroundings, curiously, for a moment. Several humans, who’ve all been turned into vampires, look at me adoringly. Some of the people in front of me are minor celebrities, men and women who are well-positioned to allow me to create cults throughout cities of influence on this continent, while others are locals who will be able to serve me by seeing to it that I secure local holdings. These people are almost, but not quite all, of the vampires I have created over the last few days.

The people who’ve been turned range from casual convention goers to honored guests of the convention. They are all attractive, their physical features having received boosts thanks to one of the vampiric traits that will forever alter and improve them.

“Before we get started strategizing, I figure that I ought to explain to some of you what precisely has happened to you. Though some of you know a bit more than others, and some of you have even used your powers on your own.” I begin, and chuckle quietly when the eyes of some of my “Spawn” fill with curiosity.

“Every person here, exempting myself and my brides,” I say, before gesturing in the direction of the three women who helped ensure that I could resurrect myself days ago. “Is one of my spawn. That means that I am the creator and originator of the kind of vampire you have become. I am also an alien being from a distant world, one that is… unimaginably distant, in fact, but that is less important to you than what else I have told you.” I explain, which causes the people my followers and I have recruited to form my own faction, to gasp.

This world has folklore and mythologies, some of which have stories of creatures analogous to vampires. Curiously, as far as I know, no actual vampires exist other than myself. This is an odd place… A moment after I finish speaking one of the vampires raises his hand. I nod at him and we make eye contact while he musters the resolve needed to ask his question.

“Um, why did you convert us into your ‘Spawn’?” The man asks, his scarlet eyes peering into mine.

“That’s a good question! I was gonna get to that, but I can see why you’d ask it right away. I am a ‘Sanguinarch’, which are a class of beings that can be thought of as what gods are to humans, but to vampires.” I say, beginning an explanation that causes my audience’s eyes to widen.

“Sanguinarchs are all incredibly powerful. And when I say powerful, I mean that I possess the power to force people to redraw maps if I go on a rampage. I am a particularly powerful example of my kind, and like all of my kind, I have ambitious goals.” I reveal, cryptically.

“What I seek is to grow in power, and to convert this planet into my ‘Dominion’. As a sanguinarch I am the undisputed and absolute master of territory that I claim, which is referred to as my ‘Dominion’. And expanding and managing my dominion is one of your jobs.” I say, quite simply. In the wake of this remark numerous vampires raise their hands, and I chuckle audibly but gesture for them to put their hands down.

“Listen, I know you have lots of questions. Some of the questions will be things like ‘How did you pick me?’ or ‘What can I do as your ‘Spawn?’, and I promise all those questions, and more, will be answered if you give me a moment to give you much needed context.” I tell the vampires, which satisfies them for the moment and they lower their hands.

“As vampires you all are unburdened by the limitations of mortality. You also have senses far beyond anything even the greatest human warriors and athletes will ever possess. Going even further beyond that, you can also control the minds of lesser humans and possess a number of supernatural abilities.” I reveal, to the delight and surprise of some of the vampires, and to the amusement of some of their more curious kin.

“As my vampires you can feed on three distinctive things: souls, pleasure, and blood. And each time you feed on one of them you grow stronger, but you also transmit essence to me.” I declare, causing the eyes of the vampires to widen in curiosity.

“If you wish not to harm those you feed on, feeding on pleasure is recommended. You do not weaken or harm those you feed on, if your preferred method of feeding is to lay with your ‘Victims’. Feeding on blood weakens the body, though this is merely temporary so long as you don’t kill your victims and feeding on the soul weakens the mind and spirit, though again this is merely temporary provided you don’t kill the person you’re feeding on by devouring the totality of their souls. Also, unless given express permission by me do not totally devour a soul. I can resurrect those whose bodies have been destroyed but doing so on a soul is beyond me for now.” I explain, warning the vampires sternly.  

“Essence is the key here. You cannot use essence, but I can. It is a potent substance underpinning all of reality, found in blood and in a handful of other ways. Whenever it is generated by your actions, such as when you feed on blood or sup on souls, it is transmitted to me, and I can use it in a staggering number of ways.” I say, excitedly, before feigning needing to catch my breath to give my allies time to process what I just said.

“I can use it to create gold, or apples of immortality, or resurrect the dead, or strengthen myself temporarily, or… well, almost anything. And areas you generate essence in begin to become marked by my influence. Once enough essence has been created in an area a few miles wide, that area can be converted into a portion of my dominion, once we complete a simple ritual in the convertible area.” I tell the individuals gathered around me. My brides step up at this moment, and Marishka surprises me by beginning to speak.

“Transforming an area into Warren’s dominion allows him to access another, vital, font of essence; the dominion itself. A converted area will passively feed Warren, as well as be under his control. It also allows him to do things like make such areas safe, control the physical makeup of such areas and alter the weather of such areas. Your master could, for example, transform a desert into a lush paradise with as little as a flash of intent, provided such an area was in his dominion.” Marishka says, politely lecturing the gathered vampires. I smile at her, and elect to continue speaking when she finishes her interjection.

“My goal is to build up my dominion. However, how we do that is up to us. Different sanguinarchs have created and expanded their dominions in several different ways, doing activities such as creating mercenary companies to rely on the natural power of vampires, to creating luxurious pleasure palaces and extracting essence by using such palaces as hotels and resorts. I am opening the floor to your recommendations.” I utter, causing my companions to begin to think.

For a few moments we are all silent as I allow my followers a moment to consider my question. During this time I silently utilize [Puppet Master] on one of the convention goers walking above where my companions and I are huddled up. I take control of her body, which is what the power allows me to do, and begin to walk her towards us. In time she’ll get fed on, and used as a way to help some of the newest vampires learn about their powers.

I am pleasantly surprised when one of the vampires I myself created raises her hand and looks at me. I turn to her and nod.

“Well, master, I don’t know if we have enough information to be helpful. For example, do you have any ethical limitations that we should be aware of before pitching you an idea?” She asks, before proceeding to add several other questions to her remarks. I pause for a moment as I consider the questions she has asked me, which are quite helpful if I’m being honest.

“I don’t have ethical limitations I wish to impose on you all, but I will say that it is better for us to be stealthy and methodical than overt and frantic. I don’t particularly care about restricting you in such a way that, for example, you can only feed on criminals. I’ll discourage you from killing people, primarily because such an activity deprives you and your fellow spawn of a food source. That said, blood and souls are exceptional sources of essence, even if you only feed on someone to the point that they are left exhausted rather than in mortal danger.” I reply, while smiling at her.

“It’s also worth noting that you can rely on each other for feeding though it is less effective than feeding on mortals if you are focused on gathering essence, so you can have sex with each other to both feed and to tribute essence to me, but I want you to know that doing so is vastly less effective than feeding on others as far as essence goes. It can work in a pinch, so feel free to convert your families and loved ones into vampires and feed on them, but it simply won’t be as effective as feeding on mortals as far as advancing my personal objectives go.” I add, honestly.

That is a true statement, for reasons I don’t understand it seems that the amount of essence generated whenever vampires feed on each other pales in comparison to essence created by mortals or non-vampire immortals. If this were a video-game or something I’d theorize that this were a way that the developers balanced things so to discourage acts as overt as transforming entire planets into vampires unless such an act advanced another goal, but this is real-life so it is just a strange bit of trivia.

“I do not want to stand in the way of your personal goals, either. I recognize that you all are individuals with your own lives, purposes, and ideologies, and I do not see that as opposed to my own goals. I find your individualism to be a part of your strengths. I am more than open to you all blending the pursuit of your goals with the advancement of my own. I recognize that none of you were consulted prior to your transformation, and while I do not apologize for that I know that this sort of transformation can… change one’s five-year-plan.” I say, before smirking at the snarkiness of the last bit of my remarks.

“Does anyone find being an immortal, daywalking vampire to be a problem? Because you suffer from none of the weaknesses of the vampires of your myths. You can withstand sunlight, enter churches, are not affected by mirrors, all of that. You could, if you wanted, consider yourselves enhanced humans. Almost like superheroes if one’s being honest.” I say, having waited to do so on purpose. I wanted to not dump that information on them right away, and instead have had time to point out the benefits of vampirism.

I am unsurprised when none of them raise their hands to object to my choice. I have touched the minds of the vampires, I know how powerful the loyalty inside of them is. That said, I also want them to realize their loyalty to me on their own terms. I don’t need to rush them, particularly the newbies, and I have the patience to walk them to the realization of how I matter to them. They are mine, in mind, body, heart, and soul, even if they aren’t consciously aware of it.

“Hmm… In that case, I think the best plan might be to start off simple. It seems that the kind of vampire you have turned us into are powerful. One thing we can do quickly is to assault the city’s criminal underbelly.” One vampire offers, speaking plainly.

“Harbor City isn’t exceedingly dangerous, or unlivable or anything, but like any decently large city it has a criminal underbelly. If you, and we, can feed on blood then shedding the blood of the city’s criminals will make the city safer while also supplying you with essence.” The vampire, a tall and dark-skinned middle eastern man explains.

It is a reasonable plan, and if it is acted upon it gives me the bonus of possibly extending my dominion beyond areas like the convention center and the hotel my brides and I are staying in. It’s also simple, and truthfully there’s nothing wrong with that. When it comes to essence gathering simple plans are often better than elaborate ones, unless there is something worthwhile added to the complex plans beyond the simple goal of acquiring essence.

“Hmm… That works. How about you and a few of the slightly older vampires go ahead and get started with that plan?” I ask, causing the vampire’s eyes to widen.

“Uh… Can I say no?” He asks, causing me to laugh audibly.

“Of course you can. I get that you’re scared, you only just became a vampire a few hours ago, but if you go I’ll assign vampires to go with you who have had time to get used to their powers. If anything this will be an excellent learning opportunity for you.” I tell the man, which causes him to reconsider his position.

When he looks at me and nods, I turn to Gregory and one of the vampires the man has turned and nod at them. The group silently gets together, and I watch as the senior vampires wordlessly explain how to use their “Mist form” power, and then see all three vampires transform into mist before flying out of the room.

“Okay that is one plan. In the future, when I get more of a foothold in this world, we’ll be able to field more complex plans, but for now,” I say, as the door leading in and out of the room opens and the figure I used [Puppet Master] on appears, I turn to her and smile, before telekinetically pulling her over to us with an enormous, predatory grin on my face. “Actually, for a moment I think we get to do something more fun…” I say, excitedly.

The woman is an employee of the convention and she is dressed in the clothes they gave to the organizers. She has a glassy look in her eyes since I am using my power to control her. A few of the older vampires, and “older” is very relative in this context, look at the woman with predatory expressions in their faces. They stalk forward, unconsciously beginning to move in sync like a pack of wolves.

---

Warren’s vampires are beautiful creatures. They are not the pale, wolfish beings of myth, but rather are improved and remade human beings with striking features that enthrall and ensnare the senses of lesser beings.

Rachel, the woman who will has fallen to Warren’s powerful ability is kept still even as the vampires circle around and close in on her. Her mind has been suppressed while she is under the power of [Puppet Master] as Warren prefers not to indulge in unnecessary cruelty.

The distant overlord watches as his predatory, hungry spawn surround the woman and a few of them, the more experienced ones, tell their young siblings how to reach out with their minds and begin to drain the soul out of someone. As they explain this they do what they are telling their peers to do, and the woman falls to her knees as she begins to blanche. Her soul, her very conceptual essence, is slowly sucked in different directions and weakens as vampires feed on it.

Warren chuckles as he feels essence begin to pour out of her and surge towards him. His servants cannot see the spectral stuff, but when it is extracted by his followers this close to himself he can. It is a mist-like substance that speeds towards him, and when it touches his skin he begins to feel the knowledge, skills, and memories of Rachel pour into him. He exhales and the sound is a strangely pleasant one.

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“How… delicious.” He says, softly, even as he expends a tiny portion of the essence he has just gotten to merely copy what he is learning from Rachel rather than take it outright from the woman. He is not a particularly cruel or vicious being, and while he recognizes that what he is doing is at least predatory, if not wrong outright, he does not do it in ways that are unnecessarily painful.

The vampire overlord watches as some of the vampires lunge at the woman and begin to bite into her. They naturally and instinctively target areas where her blood flows more easily, going after arteries and veins with supernatural ease, but they do not do so with any malice. It is more akin to watching an animal drink from a watering hole than it is to watching an animal maul some prey, and Warren chuckles as even more essence flows into him.

The vampires, with surprising care and delicateness, continue to drain the woman for several moments. At the very end of their feeding, Warren gasps when he feels an alert go off in his mind.

For the last two days the vampires have carefully feed on the convention goers, local vendors, the honored guests, and the convention’s staff. They have methodically gathered tons of essence, as the vampires are sleepless horrors who hunt at night as actively as they hunt during the day. A quiet voice in his mind, the part of his mind that is linked to his sanguinarch powers and essence even more powerfully than Warren’s conscious mind is, is telling Warren that he has gathered enough essence to convert this place into the first piece of his dominion.

The figure’s smile turns downright predatory as he mentally commands two of the more senior vampires in his retinue to go and perform the profane ritual that he is being told is how he expands his dominion.

The ritual is a simple thing, at least when performed in places as small as the convention center.

“Go and encircle this place. Do so for the next four hours, so that the place becomes ours.” The powerful vampire lord tells his followers, who obey him without hesitation. The older vampires have had time to accept their devotion to their sire, and have internalized it, becoming as loyal as Gregory and Rosemary. The two vampires commanded to do this disincorporate and become thin tendrils of unnatural mist, using one of the handier powers granted to them as vampires to enact the mission given to them by their master.

The final step in converting a place into a new part of one’s dominion is to enact a ritual. These rituals are strange things that differ from sanguinarch to sanguinarch and can even differ based on whatever is becoming a part of one’s dominion. In the case of converting an area as small as the convention center into a part of the dominion the ritual is exceedingly simple, but it’d be more complex or at least take longer if the entire city were becoming part of Warren’s dominion at once.

Even as Warren’s vampires begin their profane duty the actual overlord himself steps over to the fallen form of Rachel and smiles. The woman’s eyes are glassy, and her breathing is labored. She has been thoroughly drained, both physically and mentally. She is still under the control of the power Warren is using, and he doesn’t intend to free her right away but he’s not so cruel or malicious enough to let her perish.

The figure touches her forehead and expends a tiny amount of essence to fully heal the woman’s body, using the ability to “Emulate” abilities at the cost of essence to do so. He himself momentarily glows as he transforms the energy within him into powerful healing energy and transfers said energy into the woman. As the energy touches her it accelerates her body’s natural rate of healing without taxing it, and color begins to return to the woman’s face, even as her muscles regain some of their vibrancy.

It takes the woman a moment to regain her former bounce and pep, but when she does she gets up unaided and walks out of the room wordlessly. As she does that the vampires who serve Warren have completed one encirclement of the center, and Warren begins to feel his influence over the center deepen. The vampire smiles savagely, delighted to feel the process of the area becoming his.

At the same time the lord calls his allies once more and he regains their attention. He begins to call for more plots and schemes, and he subtly makes use of his various powers to implant ideas in the minds of his spawn that they will believe are their own. They suggest these ideas, and he eagerly allows them to take the lead on enacting them, for the sake of instilling in them a sense of pride, helping them learn leadership skills, and all in all allowing them to want to be actively vampiric.

The convention center itself shudders so subtly that it goes unnoticed by the humans in the building. The whole place is becoming covered in and corrupted by the dark power of the sanguinarch inside of it, even as in the darkest corners of the place the dark lord’s power begins to physically manifest.

With every minute that passes, Warren’s control over the center begins to become more solidified. At the same time, the power of his dominion perks begins to enforce themselves on the center.

For the next few hours, the convention center will be encircled by the vampires. As they encircle the place, their kin plot and scheme in the dark, subterranean basement of the building. While plots are hatched, and some are enacted, creatures are slowly built in the dark.

Magical, ascendant energy mixes with essence and materials placed in supply closets and storage rooms. This coalescence, directed by the power of a perk named [Sentinel] results in the creation of powerful, living beings disguised as masterfully crafted statues of local celebrities.

These strange statues are suffused with the ambient essence of the convention center, essence the place began to create the second that Warren’s vampiric minions began to encircle it. They go unnoticed by Warren’s spawn, but not by him or his brides.

At the same time, the convention center begins to become part of Warren. As his vampires encircle the place and dye it further and further in his power, his mind begins to expand and gain a powerful, effectively absolute understanding of the place’s every nook and cranny.

Warren delights in the slow sensation of conquest, and he is visibly overjoyed as he senses his stores of essence begin to slowly increase. He can sense the convention center slowly beginning to provide him with essence, and while the essence it is beginning to provide him with is far from a deluge it is more than enough for him to do what amounts to small parlor tricks like healing people of non-fatal injuries without fear of his stores of essence drying up.

The vampire overlord shudders in satisfaction when his faction is done strategizing and his kin have spread out to begin to enact the schemes and plots they themselves devised. Some of their ideas have already resulted in more essence being gathered in his name, even in locales far from the convention center. And the center has become his.

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By the time the last of my vampires have vanished from my sight and only my brides and I are alone in the basement of the center, the place has become a part of my dominion. I am as aware of every centimeter of the center as I am of my own limbs, and I can feel that I reach out and use my powers throughout the place freely, as though I were physically present in every room in the building.

I sense a constant, but small, amount of essence flowing into me every second. The essence feels delightful, and while it is a small amount of the stuff it is still more than the essence I passively gain by virtue of having three dark brides.

The center itself seems eager to nourish me, and I am intuitively aware of [Gluttonous] a dominion perk that amplifies how much essence I get from any sort of feeding I do so long as I am in my dominion or the feeding which generated the essence took place in my dominion. I know for sure that this will prove itself to be a powerful perk in the years to come, as it gives me further incentive to claim an area as my dominion, and in turn speeds up how quickly I can gain the critical mass of essence needed to transform places into parts of my territory.

“I feel… good.” I say, to Verona as the woman smiles at me. She approaches me and takes my hand. I smile at her, and allow myself a moment to luxuriate in the warmth of her touch.

“My love… It is so good to see you in your prime once more. This is a small act, but even this conquest is a meaningful one. Can you feel your power suffusing this place? Marking it as yours?” Verona asks, quietly. I nod at her, delightedly and honestly.

“Yes I can… I can sense how incredibly powerful my dominion-based abilities are here. They are truly incredible.” I remark, sincerely. Perks like [Sentinel] allow me to enforce my rulership over my dominion with ease, while ones like [Shadow Path], which allows my forces and myself to teleport from patch of dominion to patch of dominion instantly, even if one is in another universe, make living in my dominion convenient so long as someone vows to obey me.

Transforming an area into my dominion is a transformative act, and it is one that can affect millions of lives if the area in question is big enough out the gate or eventually becomes big enough. My perks also mix and feed into each other, and I can already feel even this diminutive patch of dominion greedily trying to slowly expand in size thanks to the fact that I am feeding on essence in it from sources like oaths, thanks to the dominated servitors I have among the convention’s staff.

Every scrap of essence I feed on, especially ones that come from within the dominion, energizes the patch I am in and gives it something akin to energy that it can use to inch forward and expand without direct input from me. This patch of dominion is a funny thing because I know that in the days and weeks to come many people will visit this place, and so it will always be a convenient spot for essence gathering, even without it expanding in size.

The hotel my brides and I are calling home is similar to this place in that respect, and the few vampires I have created that were not here for the strategy session are there, feeding upon each other and dominated servitors. When I get another notification alerting me that I can convert more area into my dominion I chuckle as I gain a conscious awareness that thanks to the fact that the hotel is smaller it is easier for me to turn into my dominion. The ritual is also simpler, only requiring that my vampires encircle the place for an hour to transform it into my territory, which I immediately command some of the vampires over there to do.

Verona smiles at me, and I wrap the woman in my arms. I relax as she begins to speak to me, her voice a bit muffled by our embrace.

“The power possessed by sanguinarchs can build on itself quite quickly. A small investment of one’s time and energy can very quickly pay for itself, if given a beat to mature. You’re relearning that, but it’s a lesson you’d be very wise to remember. After all, thanks to [Gluttonous] you can stay in your dominion while your spawn feed you essence and more quickly hit that critical mass needed to convert other places into your dominion.” She tells me, excitedly, making the exact point I realized not long ago. My vampires in the hotel are already encircling the place, and I can feel my influence beginning to dye the location in my dark power.

Meanwhile, for the last few minutes I’ve been gaining occasional bursts of new memories, knowledge, and skills. The vampire who wanted to unleash a maelstrom of violence on the city’s criminals is doing so, and because of that the knowledge, memories, and skills of dozens of gangsters, drug-mules, and more have been steadily entering my mind.

Darras, the vampire who suggested the idea in the first place, has even converted two of his targets into kin of his, and thus spawn of mine, all while giving me more mouths through which I can feed. He and his dark military take after Aleera, and they unleash violence with the same simple sadism as she does.

I take a second to assess the eager vampire’s strategy and come up with a few curious realizations about it. It is fantastic when it comes to allowing me to understand the local criminal politics of a place, because it fills me with memories and knowledge of many criminals across various criminal enterprises, but it is not the most effective strategy for adding a place to my dominion because it is not particularly concentrated in any singular area. I can use it as part of plans to greedily incorporate entire cities into my dominion in one fell swoop, but that’ll take a fair amount of concentrated effort.

Curiously, a few modifications to the plan can allow it to become great at converting singular areas into parts of my dominion. If I create sadistic vampires I can go with them, or send Aleera or Verona with them, and tackle criminal groups, before beating them almost to death and then using a tiny amount of essence to fully heal them, before beating them again, and again, until we’ve gathered the essence needed to turn their territory into pieces of my dominion. That’s not a super elegant strategy, but it’d be undeniably effective so long as my foes are simple humans…  

Other plots and schemes are also underway, and a few of the celebrities I recruited into my faction are already partway back to their home cities. In many cases those vampires have been given powerful authority to freely convert a small number of people into vampires or enthralling them, with special instructions to target friends and family. This is all for the sake of more easily creating cults that will serve as small essence farms while the vampires gain footholds in their cities.

Those rare few vampires are speedily flying back to their homes, doing so by transforming into mists and propelling themselves at the speed of sound directly to their destinations. It may take, in some cases, three hours for them to cross the continent we are all on, but that’s an impressive speed that vastly dwarfs how fast it takes for normal planes to cross the continent. In some cases that means they can take three hours to get somewhere, when a normal plane would take seven!  

“I… can’t wait until my dominion is expansive again.” I remark, lightly, even as I allow myself to daydream and imagine what it’ll be like when entire countries exist in my dominion and I have hundreds, or even thousands of vampires serving me, as well as reams of essence being transmitted to me with every passing second.

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