Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The overall hierarchy of the undead empire was rather simple, right at the top, there was King Nitok, The Prince Of Death, death had picked him to be the ruler, the head of all undeads, his regal position marked by the fact that two death avatars clung to him.

Below the king, stood the seven gravelords, a lord of ghouls, a lord of spectres, a lord of ghosts and four lords of vampires, their lordship sanctioned by the fact that each of them had one death avatar close to them at all times.

Further down, there was the empire's champion, within the regime of King Nitok, Loimos's voice was ranked third in importance, just above even the king's advisors, the title of champion having been created specifically for the skeleton himself, it was one that was unlikely to be filled by anyone else, even though it did not require any death avatar to be bound to the undead.

After the advisors came the seven minor lords, each of them candidates to become future gravelords, each and every one of them under the command of the champion, all were undeads of remarkable strength and power, but not yet chosen to carry a death avatar.

Last of the more distinguished titles, below the minor lords, there were the lesser lords, sometimes also called as regional lords, these undeads did not need to satisfy a certain level of strength to earn this title, they were more so watchers of their respective fortress or entire regions in some cases, the old rulers of countries on Viridis had become no more than lesser lords, their opinion was still listened to but it certainly was a steep fall from grace.

After them, it was all members of the military, high knights, knights, elites, sub-elites, high-soldiers, soldiers and the rank and file.

Nosferatu had never really bothered learning about all of those, but to more precisely accomplish what he was aiming for, he needed a good window of comparison before going into it, using his own vision of strength was not preferable.

The island he found himself in was one covered grey grass, a rather large one with a lake of blood right down the middle, trees growing the famed bloodfruits from the Ashen Grounds, a few buildings right next to ports, this plot of land was found in the ocean of blood, which was not yet completely conquered, but enough of it was under the empire's control to accommodate for this little wonder, naturally, most of the vegetation had been planted by Yuolrt and her followers, so the area was quite lush.

This place had been made specifically to favour the natural formation of vampires, a type of undead normally unlikely to emerge like this, naturally formed undeads tended to be mostly made up of skeletons and zombies, but thanks to means that Nosferatu had not bothered to ask about, the empire knew the way to force specific types to emerge.

However, unlike ghouls, skeletons, ghosts and pretty much every other sort of undeads, vampires only existed in one flavour at the beginning, only differentiated by the particular species they took their form after, but all in all, a basic vampire was pretty much just a very well conserved zombie with a touch of sanguine powers and with a hunger for blood.

This was how all the vampire lords had started as, although the way they had turned into one differed, they had once been just like the vampires that sprouted from the soil here.

But as they had been living people beforehand, they had carried over certain traits and abilities, which had influenced and pushed them to awaken their lord blood, Dracula had naturally developed the bloodflame due to his link to dragons, Vespertillo his beast blood due to being part-beast himself, though Atsalinopalo had awakened his silver blood without clear relation to anything, just like Nosferatu, whose foetid blood was not actually all that relevant to his fighting style and history.

The vampires here were akin to blank slates for now, but as vampires, they could already think and communicate.

Nosferatu's goal was simple, find and nurture vampires into awakening their own sanguine powers rather than just get a share of the blood of one of the four vampire lords, aiming to create minor vampire lords with their own abilities, who knew just how many sorts of blood powers could exist, and just what they might bring to the table.

'Now, which one to pick?' he reasoned that if they looked weird, then they were probably a good place to start.

"Hey you! Yes you, come over here, don't be shy, say hi to Lord Nosferatu" beginning with one that had particularly long face, he had to make powerhouses out of as many vampires here as was possible, and this monumental task would start with the first one to enter his vision.

Meanwhile, Loimos finished his meeting with Yuolrt, the druid was a bit shaken, but quickly found solace in the fact that she had a whole submarine to fill with plants of all kinds, and also in the fact that she had been given a mission of the utmost importance by her general, although not for the immediate future, the druid and her followers were to be the first of the undead to reach Verdoyante, a land that she could only dream about until now, the few things she had seen of this continent were sketches, but they had painted an image of a grandiose flora.

Looking forward to this great expedition certainly helped alleviate the fact that she had been implicitly given a grim duty, Yuolrt could only hope that never would that dagger need to be used.
Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire

The Arbor was there as well, even if Loimos said that it did not count as a gift, he had clearly not needed to make it so large or so welcoming to nature, even if the number of her adepts was multiplied by ten, they would still all easily fit inside.

"General, may I ask one more question?"

The putrid undead stopped and turned, motioning affirmatively.

"Was Ourlon also given a token of your trust?" she asked, the skeletal warrior had also enjoyed a meeting with Loimos not so long ago, out of which he had distinctively come out with a greater than ever determination.

"Indeed, just like you, he has the shoulders to bear such an item"

"What about the others?" that was one more question that she had been granted permission to ask, but Loimos did not seem to care.

"I will see, each of you hold a correct mindset to progress and become gravelords, I must simply verify if all of you possess the right will" with this awfully cryptic answer, Loimos sprouted two black wings glistening with vile blood, and took off.

Landing right back atop the iron tower.