To get into a good story it helps when you can get an idea of what's running through a characters head, to glean information about their motivations...as such I've created a little preview of the main charaters that you, as the reader, will be getting to know through the course of the tale. Other people will be appearing, as minor cast or walk-ins, who are there to hint at details before disappearing back into the shadows, but these are the most important names and faces.

I hope you enjoy reading and learning about them, as I have creating them - both physically and literarily!

And I do hope that it whets your appetite for what is to follow.




Vampires

Anessa


Grown as part of a genetic experiment, Anessa is one of D Group - the only successful group thus far in the laboratory that created her. Part vampire and part drow the majority of her genetics are given over to the former species. In general hybrids are shunned for what they are and only pure bloods are accepted as true vampires; as such she had a tendency to become overzealous in her killing as proof that she truly is a bloodthirsty as they are. She does, however, have her own reasons for doing things…

Dex


It is Dex who first found Anessa, and he dragged her from the compound that burnt to the ground. That it was he who first started the fire is entirely by-the-by. He is driven by thirst and a necessity to simply hurt others, for his own amusement and because it is what he knows. He saved Anessa not for any mindless heroic reason, but because he wished to feed. When he realised she was a hybrid he kept her, initially to continue experiments out of curiosity. But he saw in her something that was also within himself and stayed his hand. Even amongst his own kind Dex is considered mad.


Drow

Keddah


Keddah looks like a drow and, for the most part, this allows her to move through the rest of the community with relative ease - until her eyes are viewed, that is. Her eyes mirror one of the enemies - Anessa. They were “sisters” within D Group, but any lines that may have been considered close have been long since severed. However there is a driving need within her that forces her to walk closer to the scientific compound than is safe, which drives Liadan to be very, very worried.

Liadan


One of the drow, it is his father that sought to bring their race out of their bloody and bitter past. As with the kern, they are a warrior race however they took this one step further decades ago and sought to enslave the remaining races. Their attempt was subverted but the drow have been viewed with hate and suspicion since then. He is, above all things, a peacemaker amongst his people.

Tidon


Tidon is the younger brother of Liadan - and he has made his disgust of their fathers actions clear to his family and their domain on more than on occasion. The impetuousness of youth has remained with him, but has been joined also by pride and arrogance. Not an evil man by any means he has, however, been changed by the ongoing wars between the races.


Kern

Cidhe


Part of the same group as Anessa and Keddah, within the same experimental program, the scientists involved went one step further with Cidhe once they viewed the others as triumphs. Part human, vampire, drow and part kern she is viewed as a literal freak by the community at large. She lives amongst the kern empire and they tolerate her for one reason only - Tabor, who adopted her into his family as a sister when she was young. Her main motivation is to unite the three great empires, but the possibility of that happening, particularly at the wish of a hybrid, is miniscule at best.

Ren


The kern are, in general, a warrior race and Ren holds that dear more than most. She is strong-willed and views Cidhe as suspicious - not though, because she is not a pure blood. She believes Ceidhe’s wish to unite the three races is a dangerous one - the other races are not to be trusted. She is married to Tabor, and that is the only reason she tolerates Ceidhe.

Taber


Amongst the kern, Taber is the calm voice of reason. He is strong, both physically and mentally, but this is balanced well with his personality. Similar to Liadan in that he wishes for peace, he is however not afraid to use violence to gain it. There is a long-standing animosity between himself and Dex that runs further than species differences.

Let me tell you a story, a story that will enable you to understand the life we live. It isn’t a happy tale, and I can’t promise you that the ending will see a wonderful resolution in which the people I came to care about, will remain alive or well. I can’t even promise that I will be here to the last chapter, though in my dreams I remain eternal. In my dreams a lot of events are different and more pleasing to the heart. The reality is a stark contrast. I ask that as you read my journal, you try to understand the reasoning behind peoples’ actions… they are different, each and everyone…some are good, some are bad, and some need to be swayed one way or the other in order for change to be enabled.

This place in which I live is the only room that I know. I was created here and, in all likelihood I will draw my last breath here too. The building was burnt to the ground a long, long time ago and this room is the only one that remains whole. Most of the furniture is gone, but despite the fear that festered within these four walls decades ago it remains too familiar for me to dare leave it. Sometimes familiarity, in any form, is of greater comfort than a true sanctuary that remains unknown. At least that’s the way I always saw it.

The chairs are rickety and unstable now, the floors infested with wood rot, the pipes rusted and no longer in use. Even the toy we shared between us remains, though now an eye socket is loose and one of the ears need to be constantly sewn. No one knows that I’m here and, to be entirely truthful, I think they believe I’m dead. So many things have changed since the time Before, and we are separated now more than ever. You’ll understand in time, and I know my words are cryptic… but for everything to be revealed so quickly would be to lose impact; and I know more than most that humans find it difficult to sympathise with our kind at the best of times.

I keep a fire burning when I sleep here but the flames that once soothed my ice cold skin with its welcome warmth, do nothing. I remain as ice on the outside but my heart at least is warmed by one thought: within I remain the same. Time, events did not alter my perceptions. If it had…if I had been changed as They have then I would not be here telling my story. Most likely I would be in the outside world, fighting, making war and hating as They do. For some people it is all that exists. But I can’t blame Them, not after our early start in life. Our existence was never supposed to be normal, and from what I gleaned within secret recordings, we were never even supposed to think.

We were created with a belief that our creation would result in catastrophic failure.

We were all completely different on the outside...at least we were to those who did not look close enough to see past our skin, or our ears. There were some familiarities - the facial structure, for one. I always thought how funny it was that Keddah and Anessa shared the same high cheekbones, the same delicate chin and jaw line. As they grew older the similarity became more pronounced: both maintained characteristics of the vampire species - though Keddah looked more drow-like, with her near charcoal skin. It was always their eyes that drew the most attention, jewel-like and wide, dark red like blood before it is fully dry. Crystalline like the irises of the kern, but crimson like a vampires; they were unique and beautiful.

The one who stood out the most however, was always Cidhe. She was more like one of the kern race than any of us, though of course we four all possessed the same hybrid genetics. Her skin was green, light, scales across part of her face and body. Her hair was pure white, like snow. On one of the kern it would have matched quite spectacularly but, like all of us, there was that hint that stopped us from blending in completely. Her eyes were red, like that most hated of bloodthirsty races. She always hated her eyes but…how expressive they could be.

Unfortunately the greatest emotion contained within us was always fear or worry, usually while hiding around the corner from the approaching scientists. Or Him. He was the worst, our creator; driven by his need to experiment with our muddled genetics. We were always the first that he came to, Cidhe and myself. It’s only with age and wisdom that I realise why.

We tended to plead with him to cease experimentation, but he rarely listened. When it was quiet we knew that it was because his attention had been taken by Group C - the utter failures. We heard them sometimes and it made our skin crawl. I knew that were were the surprise successes, but oftentimes I wished that we were not. At least Group C were unable to feel the panic that should have plagued them.

But They never seemed to feel our fear, at least not her…

Anessa. She was the strongest of us, though Keddah who was not too far behind. One mostly vampire and the other driven by her need to be more like the drow. It was because of them that Cidhe and I were always the first. Something inside them made our creator fear them. Perhaps it was their strength, their power, or maybe it was simply the knowledge that our terror did not phase Them.

When the scientists came They ignored his existence.

We loved each other like sisters most times, but it was when They were...apathic enough...to turn a blind eye...when Cidhe drew close to attacking and felt ill due to the power of her hatred, that I hated them in turn. But we were young and unwise, and in those days we thought we would remain in that room forevermore.

In those days we knew of the war but believed that we would never be a part of it.

But most of all, we were terribly naïve.

Only with hindsight can people like us expect to understand a bigger picture. I am still searching for it, while Keddah and Anessa still ponder the past. I think Cidhe, in her moments of quiet introspection, sensed something else was lurking just around the corner - but she was unable to put words to the thought.

But now I can sense it too. Something is going to happen. Something big. Something that will enact great change.

This is a really good opening to the story! The characters and the pictures look great, and the writing is intriguing, so I look forward to seeing what you have planned next

I love your sims. They are so cool, especially with that skin. And i love your writing style! I will be watching... and waiting...

Thank you both for the feed back. And thank you for your patience as well. I fully intend to update this - however the chapter plan I constructed, which would encompass a vast majority of the actual plot - is on my laptop, which is dead as a doornail. I have a new laptop being built, and hopefully it will arrive around the end of this month. I hope to switch hard drives temporarily to grab the plan off it, and then get a disk copy x a billion to make sure I don't come so close to losing it again!