New Project: "The Iron Knight's Bride"

Germany, 1359

As Europe slowly claws its way toward an era of enlightenment, demonic remnants of the past still strive to keep the kingdoms of men trapped in the Dark Ages. Though mankind may be ignorant to their evil influence, the denizens of Hell are very much at work in the mortal world.

Monsters do indeed exist!

In this tumultuous time, a lone figure - garbed in iron armor and wielding a silver sword - emerges from the roiling mists to make a stand against the forces of undeath.

All of Christendom holds its breath and awaits the coming battle.

The Iron Knight's bride will have her revenge...or die trying!

A few months ago, I watched a video essay covering the life of Olga of Kyiv, a Russian noblewoman who lived during the 9th and 10th centuries. Her story - something incredible and horrifying - astounded me and prompted me to dig deeper. After a bit more research, I was absolutely stunned by the amazing account of this woman's harrowing adventures.

To make a long story short, Olga was a princess of Kyiv. In the year 945, her husband Igor was murdered by the Drevlians - a rival clan of Igor's people, the Kievan Rus. Infuriated by his death, Olga set off on a quest of revenge against the Drevlians which included (but was perhaps not limited to) trapping them in a trench and burying them alive, inviting them to dinner and poisoning them to death, boiling them alive inside a bathhouse, and burning down one of their cities with a flock of burning pigeons. After reaping bloody vengeance against her husband's murderers, Olga traveled to Constantinople where she befriended Emperor Constantine VII and converted to Christianity. She then returned to Kievan Rus where her son Sviatoslav reigned in his father's place, and taught the teachings of Christ to her pagan people. The Catholic church eventually canonized Olga as a saint sometime in the 12th century.

After learning about this brave, determined, UTTERLY BLOODTHIRSTY woman, I was truly inspired, and thought to myself, "This story is awesome, but you know what it could really use...? Vampires!"

Thus, the idea for a new, dark fantasy novel was conceived. At first, I thought I'd make my main character - inspired, but not entirely based on Olga - literally bloodthirsty by making her a vampiress. Then I was like, "Nah. Vampire heroes and antiheroes aren't really my thing. The last thing I want for my story is another generic, sexy vampire/dhampir hero chick to add to the horror genre."

I decided, instead, to go with a different hook - something most modern writers of vampire fiction never seem to deliver on: vampires who are actually terrifying.

I didn't want my vampires to be tragic figures or sympathetic villains. I wanted them to be evil, vile, repulsive, demonic...SCARY! With that in mind, I set about writing a set of "vampire rules" that I would force myself to adhere to in order to keep my undead baddies truly bad...and badass!

The rules I came up with are as follows:

1. Vampires are Scary 

 These are undead monsters. They aren't beautiful, enticing, or sexy. They are gruesome, deformed, and unnerving to look upon. If a vampire must be attractive in some way, this attractiveness must be undercut by something equally as gross or horrifying; plainly visible fangs or claws, a stench of death, animalistic facial features, etc. 

 This rule should not apply as strictly to female vampires, who represent lust, seduction, and carnal desires. Still, the "vampiress" should exhibit some kind of minor deformity - such as the eyes - subtle enough that her seduced prey will not notice until already at her mercy. 

 In most cases, however, a vampire's manipulation over a human victim should remain almost purely supernatural and involuntary on the victim's part. People do not "fall in love" with vampires. If they claim that they do, it is already too late for them; they have been seized by the vampire's evil magic and cannot easily break free. 

 Additionally, particularly powerful vampires should exude a supernatural "aura of fear" that immediately alerts mortals to their presence, and can cripple their victims with overwhelming terror.

2. Vampires are Evil 

 They are dark, twisted mockeries of life, spawned by Satan himself. They aren't misunderstood, tragic, sympathetic, and MOST DEFINITELY are not heroic! There are no good guys among the vampire courts - at least none that have already been turned to undeath. Any mortal who allies himself with a vampire is either a pure villain, or is completely ignorant of his place on the food chain.

 Vampires do not have souls. They do not make friends, fall in love, feel empathy or compassion, and do not care for the well-being of mortals under their control. To a vampire, all humans are food, and all other vampires are rivals. If one vampire conspires with one or more of its kind, it is a temporary partnership - and a tenuous one at that. They feel no sacred bond of kinship with other vampires; any vampire who claims otherwise is a liar. 

 Narratively, vampires exist as obstacles for the heroes to overcome. Powerful vampires are major threats to be thwarted, and weaker vampires are faceless goons to be slaughtered. A hero should not have to struggle with guilt over killing a vampire. They should never feel like the "bigger monster" when slaying the undead, no matter how high the body count grows. There should never be any kind of "Are we the baddies?" narrative. Any human who considers these questions is soon due for a rude awakening. 

 In short, the only good vampire is a dead vampire. 

3. Vampires are NOT Invincible 

 The longer a vampire lives in undeath, and the longer it feeds on mortal blood, the stronger it becomes. Some vampires can acquire staggering levels of supernatural power, but even these are not unstoppable. Vampires are not gods. They all have weaknesses, and these can be easily exploited if the heroes know about them. 

 All of the "classic" vampire weaknesses should be considered. This includes (but is not limited to): 

 Sunlight, the sign of the cross, holy water, garlic, silver, wooden stakes to the heart, fire, decapitation, purified salt, and reciting certain lines of scripture. 

 Some vampires may have evolved strong resistances against the items above or others. However, no vampire is resistant to all of these. Vampire slaying is still a tricky business, and the heroes should know their enemy's strengths and vulnerabilities if they hope to prevail. Sunlight - a universal symbol of life and divine power - should almost always be able to destroy a vampire. They might develop some means of temporarily surviving daylight (such as creating a perpetual fog that blots out the sun around their home), but direct sunlight should always be enough to reduce them to ash. 

 Contrary to what many people - including the vampires themselves - may believe, they are not truly immortal.

With those rules in place, I set about structuring the story itself. I wanted it to be a good, old-fashioned revenge story, with many allusions to the adventures of Saint Olga. Essentially, I would have a young noblewoman seeking revenge for the death of her husband, only to find out that the man responsible for his death is actually a (dun, dun, DUUUH!) vampire! Now she must learn and acquire the means to slay the undead, wreaking a trail of blood and destruction in the process.

As I didn't want my main character to be a one-to-one copy of Saint Olga, I decided to move the story from Russia in the 10th century to Germany in the mid 14th century (a culture and time period that also intrigue me much more). The character was therefore renamed Helga - the Germanic form of "Olga" - and became an almost totally different person. I also allowed a bit my religious background to seep into the story, turning Helga into a pious Christian, loyal to the Holy Roman Empire, believing her revenge quest to be ordained by God himself.

As for the main plot, I wanted to stick to a very traditional format - something almost like an old western; hero comes to town, town is oppressed by power-hungry villain, hero seeks vengeance on the villain, hero defeats villain (or does she???), future of the town hangs in the balance. So, I came up with the fictional township of Baerholt, a little, unassuming German hamlet that has fallen on hard times since the evil, vampiric Margrave came to power. Now it's up to Helga to rescue the put-upon citizens of Baerholt, and exact her vengeance in the process.

Placeholder cover art, just for fun...

The book is still very much a work in progress. I'm still fixing up the outline and only have a few rough first chapters written down. That said, I feel very excited for this project, and I'm having a lot of fun working on it. It will probably end up being a short novel - no more than 200 pages or so. I intend it to be a stand-alone. However, if I feel good about the finished product, I will more than likely write some more stand-alone sequels. Quick, fun, pulpy stuff!

At the same time, I'm still working ever so slowly on my bigger project, The Legend of Gladius. This book will probably be finished first, but we shall see...