Sangui De'Rex

Sangui De'Rex is well established as one of the oldest bloodlines in the Sol System, there is very little to suggest they wouldn't be the eldest living one. Sangui De'Rex literally means "Sons of the Blood King," a title they wear proudly as they are capable of tracing their vampiric heritage as far back as to Cain Talvein, a Vampire Emperor who lived between 12,270 B.R. and 8,368 B.R. The ancient bloodline has established their dominance over both vampire and galactic politics with a surprisingly efficient mix of political suaveness and sheer power.

Though their political power is extreme they have very few members within Alnae politics, and even those are kept secret. Alnae's distaste for sharing power puts them at odds with the bloodline and the Sangui De'Rexes disapprove of Alnae's ways just the same, their members there are purely for manipulation. They instead run their own Shetou House named after themselves, the Sangui De'Rex house. Over the Shetou houses Sangui De'Rex controls a surprising amount of power for non-drow, and for a house as young as the Era of Darkness. Though the ancient family's current ruling Vampire King, Cervalia Sangui De'Rex, is too old to know when he first joined the ranks of the undead but it is known that he actually fought in the Era of Rising against the dragons. They control eight countries on six different planets, mostly in Necrosi but they own one Shetou Continent in Zonaricht as well. Despite their fearsome reputation and brutal politicians very few people living in their domain actually encounter them, this is more then enough to keep the people content with the tax rate and laws of the De'Rex house.

Amongst other vampires the Sangui De'Rex are kings, their ability to take control of the feral as well as their ancient bloodline and power give them authority through raw force. Most other vampires instantly recognize the power of a De'Rex and obey their demands swiftly to avoid their tyrannical retribution. The only prominent bloodline that holds no fear is the Desoir family and that is for very different reasons.

The Sangui De'Rex induction ritual is rare, and few people have any idea how it works or how to get an invitation to the family. Traditionally they only allow someone to enter their fold after years of loyal service to them, which serves two purposes. The first of which is to ensure they only induct the worthy, and truly they have seldom had any stain their reputation. The second purpose is that those inducted into the family will have aged to at least 40-50 years by human standards to keep the appearence of a fully matured individual. The tradition began during the Era of Rising, which means a De'Rex that is youthful in appearence is likely over two thousand years old.

The actual process is as simple as drinking the blood of a De'Rex, the transformation however can take weeks during which the recipient will be in a coma. So powerful is the transformation that some who are inducted simply die during the first week as their body tears itself apart to refit to the new purpose.

The Sangui De'Rex dates back millennias before the Era of Rising, while there are a few Vampire Lords older then this family there are no prominently established bloodlines. Cain Talvein, the second to last true Vampire Emperor, hailed from mysterious origins. The emperor had slain his maker and the whole family in a ruthless display of his magical prowess. As a result it was only a short two hundred years before he had wiped out all mention of his origins, his intentions for this are unknown but as a result he rose to power.

Those who he gave the gift of undeath were named Sangui De'Rex instead of his simple surname of Talvein, in his arrogance he assumed he would live forever and thus had no need to pass on his name. The De'Rex family were his court, giving him full control of political movements within his Empire that spanned the entirety of the known Necrosi at the time. While his rule wasn't particularly tyrannical or unjust, his supreme power eventually led him to believe his power was undefeatable while he had the De'Rex family to support him.

To a degree he was correct, even if all of Necrosi rose up in perfect unision they would not have been able to overwhelm him and his family of four hundred vampires. Especially with Cain's unique power to control vampires from other bloodlines through sheer force of will. His downfall came when he took it too far and attracted the attention of Abyssal Lord Valnacht. He refused Valnacht's demands and offered to go to war over the matter with his vast undead army.

Valnacht promptly removed Cain from existence along with almost all of the De'Rex family, no one knows how since all the witnesses were the disappeared De'Rex family but it all occurred over the course of thirty minutes. For that was how long it was between a servants visits between the chambers.

After Cains death Necrosi fell into chaos for a hundred years, only brought under rule by the last vampire emperor Farian Selvoricht who's reign was significantly shorter. The seven surviving De'Rex family members worked to restore the bloodline and did not emerge from the shadows for two thousand years.

Their direct ties to the blood emperor gave them the unique power of their Sangui De'Rex beast form. It was an incredibly strong monster that crossed between a bat and a gnoll it seemed, to this day this form is still one of their most terrifying powers to wield.