Sir Lawrence Dawkins is of the oldest families of England, and related on his foreign grandmother's side to French nobility. So, it was easy for him as a young man in the Fourteenth Century to go on a quest as he told his relatives in search of a fingerbone of St. Thomas the Doubter. He visited castle and noble house, received plaudits for his courage in braving the trails, and generally did nothing with great enthusiasm.
Because he had no intention of finding the fingerbone that touched Jesus' side.
He did not believe in any of it. Magic and miracles were for fools. However, it was pleasant how attentive young noblewoman would get when he mentioned his holy quest, and how the defences of their chaperones would drop when he pledged on that same quest that he would be honorable.
Dawkins had some conception of what the word 'honor' meant. He redefined it in his own mind as 'stupid'. He was a latent sociopath with enough conscience that he could have held himself in check, and became a decent human being if he had tried. He didn't bother.
Still, even with his breezy charm, his utter lack of scruples, and his opportunistic attack on society in a way that totally shocked those of his peers who finally understood him (which was usually shortly after he shoved them off a castle battlement in the dark of night), the trail of 'accidental deaths' and 'broken hearts leading to suicides' amongst the young nobility drew attention from Rome.
A canny priest who had seen all manner of evil began to search. Feeling alive like he had not in months, Dawkins fled before him into Russia. And there he met a young noblewoman who had not heard of his past since he had outraced tales of his ill. And she had something to show him.
The fingerbone of the Saint.
Well, this was just too funny for Dawkins who went along with the gag. Once she showed it to him, he snatched it up, and threw it in a river. To her aghast face, he confessed that Thomas had possessed him, and made him do it.
It might have worked, but the Saint decided to intervene.
Thomas showed up, and cursed him. Dawkins claimed to be a doubter, and in need of faith. Thomas laughed at him, and condemned him as a liar.
"You have faith already. A faith in your own self. I was in doubt, and needed evidence. You are in no doubt, and discard what evidence you find if it disagrees with your will to run your life as you please, like a rabid skunk amongst harmless puppies you run."
Dawkins sneered.
"If you're real, then Darkness is real as well. I call upon them."
"Granted." The sound echoed from the earth.
"He is cursed to burn before the sun as he is a rebel to lawful authority. He may not enter a house without respecting the authority of the homeowner." Thomas said quickly.
"He feeds off the innocent with his charm. He will do likewise but more so in the future. Blood he will drink, and no woman, nor man shall be able to resist the smile he holds." The Darkness replied.
"He will fear and tremble before the signs of the True God as a witness to all of his power." Thomas countered.
"He will have power and strength beyond that of mortal man to bring fear, which is the true power, over all men." The Darkness replied.
"He will be dead." Thomas countered.
"But his soul shall be as the ghost, and it shall be caught, and held to his body." The Darkness countered, and it chuckled. "Three curses, three blessings. Tell me, Saint, have you gotten the better of me?"
"O Great Shadow, I know your plans. Can you tell me mine?" And Thomas was gone with his fingerbone, and the young noblewoman. And the Darkness was greatly wroth, and it broke the earth in convulsions for many miles for it did not know what the Saint had in mind for the Light is ever obscure to those of Darkness.
And thus, Sir Dawkins became one of the undead, a vampyre. He was Dammed, already dead, and aware that once he died certain judgment awaited him. And so he was full of hatred when the priest came on to him.
But the priest was a verser, and had many tricks which a medieval mind did not understand. However, Dawkins did get a bite out of the priest, and become infected with scriff. So when the priest blasted him with a psionic disintegrator rod, the vampire versed out.
Skills and all that later...
Eric
