Cleos--The First Vampire of Shirantz

One of the rarest and most dangerous creatures to stalk the lands of Shirantz is the vampire. These deadly creatures are so rare due to the nature of their creation. On Shirantz, vampires do not have the ability to create more of their own simply by feasting on their victims. Rather, a complicated and ancient ritual must be performed, and even then the chances of success are slim. Kratling, the god of life and death, does not take kindly to others meddling in its realms. In fact, Kratling’s punishment of one of Its followers that resulted in the birth of vampires in the first place.
Cleos The First Vampire of Shirantz
Long ago when the magic of the gods flowed more freely through the peoples of Shirantz and there a central government did not exist, there was a splinter group of the Cult of Kratling known as the Thanatarians. They loved Kratling, especially the death aspect of the two faceted god. The Thanatarians were led by a woman named Cleos, a great sorceress who carried Kratling favor. Cleos had control over life and death. She could prolong life spans and heal injuries. She also had the power to cause disease and kill with a gesture. She was loved and feared by the Thanatrians and many other Kratlings. However, many others in the cult feared her, for they saw her power as an affront to their god. Kratling had granted her Its boons, but her use of them was disrespectful. She meted out aid and pain in unequal measure, afflicting entire populations with disease before healing them, or making a region prosperous through manipulation of the life forces in the lands so food was plentiful before she snatched it all away and watched as the inhabitants withered away.
The Followers of the Flame and the Yiggithians thought her cruel, as did many of her fellow Kratlings. One day, elders of the three religions decided it was time to plea with Cleos to stop her behavior and return to respecting the power of her god. They came unarmed save for the power of their beliefs and the certainty that their cause was just.
They found Cleos alone in her graveyard where she was resurrecting corpses and then destroying them. When they approached her and asked her to cease her efforts and respect the laws of the gods, she laughed at them, and with a wave of her hand reduced them to shriveled husks writhing in agony on the ground. They begged her to put an end to their pain, but she ignored them, returning to playing with the corpses of the graveyard.
What was she doing with the corpses? Was she searching for some dark secrets hidden within their reanimation? Did she think that by bringing dead flesh back to life and then destroying it that she would somehow gain mastery over the powers of Kratling? Was she trying to raise an army of the dead to command? Cleos's motivations would remain unknown, but regardless of what she had hoped to accomplish, she succeeded only in calling forth Kratling's wrath.
There in the graveyard, with the elders of the faiths, including an elder of the Cult of Kratling, screaming in agony as their flesh shriveled around their bones, and blood flowed from newly created creases in their skin, Cleos laughed and continued to play with the buried and decaying inhabitants of the graveyard.
A voice whispered her name, interrupting her reverie. She looked around, but saw only the graveyard with its flat stone markers, the mounds of dirt created from her raising of the dead, and the crumpled corpses she had animated and then stilled.
"Cleos," the voice spoke again, and this time she not only heard it, but she felt it inside, a powerful force rattling her insides. She knew that it was Kratling who spoke to her.
"Yes, my lord, I am here. What would you ask of me?" she said, sinking to her knees. She pointed her face to the moonless sky, tears streaming down her face. The moment had finally come for her to meed her god.
"Hear me, Cleos, and listen closely," the voice whispered in her mind, blinding flashes of pain accentuated each word.
"Yes, Kratling, lord of life and death, I heed your commands."
The wailing sounds of the religious elders quieted, and if Cleos had been looking at them she would have seen their skin return to normal and their wounds heal. After that night, there were those who said the elders looked younger than they had that morning.
"I have given you my blessings and boons, and you have perverted and corrupted them. You have willfully and maliciously caused suffering and death. You have attempted to usurp the natural order of things, and are nothing more than a blight on the world. You are my servant no longer!"
Cleos's blood ran cold then, turning to ice. She began to shiver with fear and pain and grief. She tried calling out to Kratling, but was unable to produce anything more than a gurgling sound. She fell face first into a mound of grave dirt, and choked on it. She scrambled to her feet, but the sound of Kratling's voice telling her to kneel sent her sprawling on the ground once again. She fell on her back, facing upward, and then she saw the moon, but it was not the moon of Shirantz. It was a swirling ball of black and red and green, and it was so close she knew she could touch it if she just reached up.
She reached, her fingertips grazed the glowing orb, and it turned into a hand, large and powerful. The hand grew into an arm and a body and soon she was face to face with the two-faceted god Kratling. One of its faces was dark as the infinite depths of the bottomless Lake of Anhuil, with sparkling white lights like stars. The other face was a tangle of green ropes that looked like vines, and Its whole body swirled with color. It had no eyes, but Cleos could feel the god's disdainful look.
"You wish to have mastery over life and death? You wish to challenge my might? So be it, little human. You have challenged, and you have failed. And now you shall forever be between both worlds, shunned by both life and death. You will be the only one of your kind, and forced to feed on the blood and life force of others. You are forsaken, and a warning to any who would think themselves my equal."
And the Kratling was gone, taking the elders with him and leaving Cleos alone in her graveyard. For years after she wandered the lands of Shriantz, alone and abandoned by all she had once held dear. Eventually, through force of will and determination she discovered how to create more of her kind. But that is a story for another day.