The Hylden Curse

As the great war drew to a close, the Hylden played a final desperate move. Using their own magical skills, they used their last moments before being banished to cast a curse upon their Ancient enemies. This curse was threefold. First, it afflicted the Ancients with a thirst, a need, for blood. Given the inevitable conflict this would create with the humans, they would never again know a peaceful existence.

Second, it rendered the Ancients immortal - unable to die a natural death. A purely spiteful move, this devastated the Ancients as they could no longer be cleansed in their god's cycle of death and rebirth, and he promptly abandoned them. Driven to despair, many took their own lives to forcibly rejoin the Wheel of Fate.

It was then that they realized the true cunning of the curse upon them. The curse had rendered them sterile. Unable to breed, Ancients were no longer born. The mass suicides to rejoin their god had claimed many Ancient lives but most importantly, it claimed the original Circle of Nine. And with no Ancients being born, the Pillars began to select new Guardians from the human population.

Realizing that humans lacked both the sheer power and mental fortitude to handle the incredible magic and responsibility of the Pillars, the Ancients grew fearful that the Pillars would fail and the Hylden would be free to exact revenge. But luckily, they soon discovered a fascinating side effect: By transfusing a human with their own blood, they could transform them, placing enough Ancient blood into their veins to empower them for the trials of Guardianship. With this in mind, they began to abduct these new Guardians at birth. Taking these humans in, they taught them the nature of the Pillars and why they must be turned. And these humans, altered by the Ancient blood which granted them both power and the terrible curse of the Hylden, became a new breed of creature: Vampires.