the ONE time ogres were welcomed
"Let them fight" -Godzilla 2014No one would have guessed that drinking human blood and eating human flesh were mutually exclusive, but they seem to be. It turns out ogres and vampires are natural enemies.
Summary
During the time of Vladimir the Conqueror, it was discovered that ogres cannot be turned into vampires. The process always simply kills them.
Beyond this, ogre blood tastes foul to vampires and most vampires cannot stomach it. Add to this and ogres seem highly resistant to vampire mind control, at least the mesmerizing power of Vladimir's lineage.
Ogres cannot eat the flesh of vampires without becoming violently ill and as a result, many can instinctively recognize vampires by seeing or smelling signs of a bad meal. Thus an ogre or ogress can metaphorically or literally smell out a vampire pretending to be an ordinary human.
Just because vampires and ogrescannot eat each other doesn't mean that they cannot fight with swords and axes. They did. Most ogres are strong and tough fighters, so they are useful in the armies and militias of the unscrupulous or the desperate and during the Vampire Wars, many were desperate.
Once a grand coalition formed in opposition to Vladomir's new empire, many (though by no means all) of Vladomir's opponents chose to tolerate or even welcome ogres in their midst as they made very effective vampire hunters.
Vladomir's army had a lot of ordinary humans in its ranks so in the aftermath of any battle there were usually plenty of human corpses for ogres to fill their bellies with.
Friction was inevitable. On rare occasions, ogres would get hungry and betray their human allies. On common occasions, humans would preemptively betray their ogre allies the second an ogre looked at them the wrong way.
After Vladomir's death, even though there were still other vampires left to fight, most human military commanders hid the news of Vladomir's death from their ogre troops and quietly arranged for the ogres to be slain en masse. Very few ogres escaped this post war purge.
Some claim the human on ogre fighting at this time provided enough chaos to allow some of Vladomir's lieutenants to go underground but anyone who espouses this opinion too loudly is branded an ogre sympathizer.
Historical Basis
Ogres do have a wide variety of advantages in fighting vampires that untainted humans do not have and because of this, ogres were briefly given greater acceptance during the Vampire Wars.
Most scholars and priests claim the tales of ogres battling vampires were greatly exaggerated. Many commoners and minstrels claim these tales were covered up and down played.
Spread
Most Scarterrans living in West Colassia are aware of this historical anomaly but is considered mildly taboo to discuss this in polite society.
The stories about it are mostly tavern tales or ghost stories to fascinate and frighten children.
Outside of West Colassia, this legend is generally only known by Scarterrans who make a serious point of studying ogres and vampires.
Variations & Mutation
According to some legends, a tiny handful human (anti)heroes chose to partake in cannibalism and deliberately become ogres to become more effective vampire hunters.
After Vladomir's death, supposedly these heroes voluntarily submitted to execution for their crime of cannibalism.
Cultural Reception
1800+ years after Vladomir's death means a lot of stories of the great war between ogres and vampires was forgotten.
During the Vampire Wars, most military leaders willing to work with ogres did not want to admit that they were working with ogres so there are very few original source written documents corroborating who worked with ogres and to what extent.
Generally the priests and priestesses of the various Nonagons try to squash retelling of this legend not wanting anything to even remotely encourage tolerating ogres.
Mostly stories of ogres and vampires are told in taverns late at night and given the nature of tavern tales, the original facts are lost to exaggeration and fabrication.
A few ogres like to tell tales about the heroic ogres of yesteryear but most aren't aware of this historical anomaly. In any event, the idea of unbroken family line of ogres stretching back 1800 years is so far fetched it would be laughable if the idea wasn't so frightening.
Many modern ogres are not aware that they can detect vampires and just think that certain mortals smell foul tasting. Actually, some ordinary humans are lucky enough to be born with a smell that repulses predators. Of course during the Vampire Wars, this got some unlucky innocents killed.
Most vampires do remember the trouble ogres once caused them. Few modern vampires are old enough to remember the time of Vladimir but their sires usually educate their childer about the threat ogres represent.
When possible, many vampires like to frame ogres for the death of their victims as cover and symbolic revenge or simple pragmatism. If inquisitors are busy hunting ogres, they are not looking for vampires' day time lairs.
In Art
Typically most nobles and clergy view the idea of talking about ogres and vampires battling it out beneath them but many low born love to revel in these stories, so you are not likely to find many paintings or sculptures depicting great ogre heroes.
A few popular bawdy songs commemorate ogres and vampires fighting in lewd fashion.
A few festivals have stylistic combat between actors in over the top gaudy costumes pretending to be ogres and vampires in plays catering to commoners.
What about Non-Ogre cannibals?
Vladimir the Conqueror wanted to conquer the human race, then he would worry about the others. As much as possible he avoided conflict with elves, dwarves, orcs, and pretty much all other mortals. Vladimir instructed his minions to slay anyone who got in their way regardless of race, but not to pursue non-human adversaries especially relentlessly. They were also forbidden from turning non-humans into vampires without Valdimir's permission. Because of Vladimir's policy, most non-human tribes and nations chose to remain neutral in the Vampire Wars. This means that the wendigo, skopen and other local varieties of mutant cannibals had no real incentive to fight vampires either, just ogres who were still technically human. It is not even clear if non-ogre cannibal mutants have any resistance to vampires or not.
Date of First Recording
1
Date of Setting
-50
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