Blood cursed, those who are dependent upon the blood of humans and beasts. Although many blood cursed individuals are able to sustain themselves on the blood of beasts for varying periods of time they all reach a limit before their own bodies require the blood of human races, humans in particular but also elves, dwarfs, and beast kin. The blood cursed are more similar to the beast kin despite their ancestors being humans, granted had the mythical beast like dragons, mermaids, harpies, griffins and winged naga, as well as a variety of other mythical creatures had mixed their bloodlines to prevent the infected humans from wiping out the rest of the human population with the accursed plague of blood lust as it had become known as.  

The plague hit hard and fast it was incredibly infectious, exposure through blood or wounds was the fastest form of transferring the disease; next was simply being exposed to any of their other bodily fluids. Granted it seemed that even being exposed to the same air would eventually lead one to catch it. 

The virus caused many side affects, the most notable was the blood lust caused by their bodies devouring the blood within their own veins and triggering new survival instincts that would make them attack even their own loved ones for blood and loosening themselves until they had consumed enough blood to replenish what they had lost. The other side effect that would be the fangs and claws that would develop in order to obtain blood and the digestive system changing to process the blood and filter it into their own bloodstream. Their senses would be heightened to make hunting prey easier, which also made it more difficult to capture those infected with blood lust and to possibly find a cure. Their heightened speed, strength, and stamina also lead to rapid spread from towns and cities and even smaller villages as their new instincts would drive them to endlessly seek new prey and their residual desire to avoid harming their loved ones would trigger them to run away from their homelands and further spreading the virus. They would become increasingly more aggressive and impulsive while their sense of logic and emotions would be overridden by their new instincts. 

Those were very dark times and it might have continued until the humans had died off had the mythical creatures not stepped in. They had discovered that they were immune to the virus and came up with the idea of having their blood mixed with those who were already infected to see if they could make it cure them. The results were not exactly what they had desired, they took on traits of the mythical creatures with whom shared their blood but it didn’t cure them they still lusted for blood and their bodies continue with its new beastial instincts, but their level of infectiousness had declined and they became able to feed off animals rather than solely preying upon humans. 

Given hope for their rescue many whom had been infected gathered and pleaded with the mythical creatures for help and they received it even with its limitations. But there were those who took too well with their new found savagery and the power that came with it and they became a threat that couldn’t be ignored. Those who received help from the mythical creatures were able to fight those who chose not to since they were already infected but those who hadn’t been infected were nearly helpless as those who could fight would intern be infected themselves. 

It had taken many years to push the plague of blood lust from the remaining cities and towns while the remaining villages were abandoned. Those who were infected became night hunters to take advantage of their new senses and over time became nocturnal to the point of being incapable of sleeping at night. Their battle continued against the two factions for years before the elementals decided to step in and give their assistance. 

The elementals were also known as spirits and as such they could fuse with the soul of another. This process was simple and easy for the elementals and it would allow them to make some minor changes to those who they fused with and giving them a boon to their respective elements but it would also restrict them to those same elements. The final result was that they had finally been made so that they were no longer infectious and wouldn’t have to fear infecting others anymore and some had their level of blood lust drastically reduced, in fact some of the women had even gotten to where they only needed blood if they were injured, lost blood, or were pregnant. While this fusion had made some stronger it also made others weaker and despite attempts to find out the cause there seemed to be no way to uncover it. 

With their new abilities and less need to feed they were able to get the upper hand over those who remained infectious beast of mindless and blood lustful slaughter. Wiping out those who remained above ground in only a couple years and leading to pursuing the ones who had fled underground in mines, caves, tunnels and dungeons that spawn monsters. Several years and many sacrifices made finally brought them to where they weren’t finding anymore of the infectious blood lust plague or those who could spread it; so those who had received the blood of the mythical creatures and fused with the elementals had decided to return to their families and to live amongst the humans with whom they had known before they had been infected by the blood lust plague.

But things were not that simple, more time had passed then they had even realized. Many of the people had slowed down in their aging and some seemed to have even stopped aging altogether. Several found that their loved ones had died of old age and those who were still alive had aged considerably and thus were not able to cope or come to an understanding. If only that had been the only issue that arose then maybe things would have worked out but life would never be that easy. In the years of their absence and because of the confusion of the two factions that had arisen from those infected with the blood lust plague, the humans that had survived without being infected had come to fear them. Tales about the plague of blood lust and those infected had become horror stories and the terror of those who had survived witnessing the vicious transformations and violence that ensued from even the kindest people that had been infected had made it impossible to communicate civilly. 

They had been given a new title by the survivors, blood cursed, because they were cursed with such a lust for blood that nothing else mattered. Some of those newly named as such found it difficult but were able to cope, leaning on each other to stay sane, or at least as sane as they could. But there were some who couldn’t handle the rejection and would frantically try to get the people to understand that they had fought for years to protect the humans that weren’t infected from the ones who would have harmed them, only to be chased out or killed. Many who were injured would suddenly succumb to their blood lust because their survival instincts were too strong to suppress. Those who lost control would fall into despair when they would come back to their sense and see the havoc that they had wrecked. Again sparking new waves of fear and distrust between the blood cursed and the humans.

The upheaval between the blood cursed and the other races caused the blood cursed to become increasingly isolated and cut off from the rest of society; leading them to making their own villages that would cater to their needs. Those who had professions or skills before becoming blood cursed put those skills to use and would teach each other making sure that all of their new communities would have the more essential professions present in each of their villages; blacksmiths, farmers, healers, hunters, guards,... etc.

Because traveling between their villages would sometimes lead to conflict with the other races they would avoid doing so that frequently and so they needed all of their communities to be self sufficient. Many blood cursed individuals who were skilled would take on apprentices from multiple other villages to teach them as much as they could when ever it was possible and then they would help get them set up and started in their own villages whenever they finished teaching them what they could.

Some individuals would be taught by multiple individuals in order to improve themselves and then share what they would learn once again repeating the cycle. Another development was that they started experimenting with using their elemental abilities and combining them with their craftsmanship’s finding several things that they were able to do that would make much greater results than doing things as they had without.

Blacksmiths found that they could use the fire element to heat their fires multiple times hotter than before and hold the heat more evenly with their precise control over the flames, and the earth element would be able to remove any impurities from the metals. These improvements made for much greater iron and steel products than their predecessors had been capable of, stronger and more durable than ever before it became revolutionary.

Other areas followed suit quickly improving their living conditions and lifting their spirits, they started believing that if they were able to become highly beneficial to their communities and were recognized by the other races as such then they might be accepted back into society as a whole. 

Those with the nature and water elements were able to make strides in the medical field and were able to develop healing magic skills that surpassed the healing magic that the priest would would use.

Earth, nature and water elements were used to farm and cultivate crops that would have higher yields and more abundant nutrients for those who consume the produce leading to greater health. And because they became more attuned to the land they were able to know when the land needed to rest and recover so that they would avoid planting crops that would fail and ensured that nothing would go to waste.

Those with the wind and electric element users found that they could use their abilities to scout and hunt down wild animals in a way that they could capture the animals live so that they could be used as livestock, quickly helping to alleviate much of their blood needs. 

Also making use of the improvements to crops and the medical field to improve the blood quality of the animals and to make it so that they could harvest the animals blood without killing them and being able to store the blood in jars much like preserves of jellies or jams, granted it was found that it couldn’t last longer than a few days unless chilled and even then it would lose quality over time until it had no benefits at all.

 With their many advancements and progress with their products as well as creating a way to avoid feeding from the source they believed that they might could rejoin the society of the other races and to live peacefully; but it wasn’t to be so. They still needed human blood on occasion and the only other substitute was the blood of the few female blood cursed individuals who were able to produce blood, which there weren’t nearly enough nor were they able to fully support even one blood cursed individual on their own. In attempt to make a solution they would offer discounts for their products in return for a jar worth of blood instead of paying with coin. 

They were at first unable to make trades or even barter with the other races and were prevented from being allowed in the city’s belonging to the other races especially the human cities which were especially hostile towards their approach. 

It was understandable, seeing as the blood cursed individuals even though they didn’t wish harm upon the humans whom they were once, but whenever their need for human blood arose they would take it even by force wether they did so before losing their sanity and their victim surviving or after and possibly killing their victims. They had done what they could do to prevent such events from happening but it would still happen on occasion due to their needs being greater than their supply; especially since the few humans who had secretly been helping them from the time they had rid themselves of their infectious state, and were now dying off. 

The humans that were helping them had to be carful because of the hostilities of the masses against the blood cursed had reached a point where being found assisting them could lead to being imprisonment or execution in most cases. This made it difficult to get more help and it made it difficult to get into contact without being exposed, further reducing the assistance that they could provide. And now most of the remaining humans that were providing assistance were now starting to die from old age and those who were still alive were declining in blood quality and their recovery rates were slowed down as they aged. 

Only a few of those originally helpings the blood cursed were able to pass the torch so to speak, usually to their children or grandchildren; which was done so with heavy hearts because of the dangers that they were exposed to because of their association with the blood cursed individuals.

But it was still those individuals who happened to be in positions where they could make trades with them and encourage others to do so as well, it was difficult for some to come up with valid reasons for trading with the blood cursed but some of the humans were able to come up with good or at least believable reasons that their fellow humans would believe. From a falling merchant that in desperation started trading with the blood cursed to try and avoid being out bid for resources, supplies, and other products by the more established merchants in the town or city. To a widow trying to feed her children in hard times, or a poor beggar selling their blood for food and or other necessities then informing their fellow poor people of the streets and or the slums; drawing in many who were willing out of desperation. 

The blood cursed didn’t plan on such manipulative tactics, rather the humans who were wanting to help them had thought that it was necessary for the people to be willing to give the blood cursed a chance to prove themselves.

The blood cursed merchants were very understanding of the people’s situations and works out deals with the people and made rules to prevent them from trying to sell their blood too frequently and limiting the amount to one jar a month as well as having age limits to prevent children from being extorted as well as the elderly who wouldn’t recover as well. They provided food with every blood donation that was overseen by a healer to ensure that everyone would be alright. Another thing that they did was have some of the humans act as an intermediary merchants that would be able to sell their products in the towns and cities for the blood cursed individuals who weren’t allowed entrance.

 It didn’t take long for rumors of the high quality of the products that the blood cursed were selling and the discounts that they offered for blood reached the ears of the wealthy and politically powerful individuals. Some of the wealthier merchants started trying to take over the position of the in between trader for the blood cursed even going to the point of threatening the poor individuals who had been given the position as a way of paying for a steady supply of food and other necessities. 

This didn’t go over well, when the blood cursed found out what was happening within the walls of the cities they decided to pull back to avoid conflict and informed the people who were their earlier customers that if they were in need of help that they could come to the villages of the blood cursed and would be welcomed or if they needed help building their own villages they would also help with that as well.

The response to the blood cursed leaving was slow at first as many of the nobility and other wealthy individuals had not considered that the blood cursed would respond in such a way. Some merchants decided to caravan to the blood cursed villages with large numbers of guards and mercenaries to protect themselves and the products they were going to trade. The show of force also acting as a intimidating tactic to get the merchants better prices and in turn they would negotiate to get either a weapon or a piece of armor in return for every escort each time they they did a back and forth trip, while also using their blood to bring the price down further. 

The tension brought on because of this made many of the blood cursed struggle to keep themselves in check, their blood lust being difficult to quell after such situations they started restricting those individuals whenever the caravans show up leaving those with little to no blood lust to remain dealing with the merchants and their entourage. 

The blood cursed women who could supply blood to the men who suffered the most from their blood lust would accompany them in the secluded hideout hidden apart from the villages and under ground in dungeons keeping them calm and preventing them from from having their battle lust that had developed from the combination of the years of battling the other faction of blood cursed and their own blood lust that would send them into a frenzy similar to Berserkers on the battlefield, only now it could be triggered by simply being put into a position where they would want to fight or retaliate. Seeing the number of armed men outside of their villages would stir up the fight or flight response in many people but for the blood cursed their fight response is much more prominent than their flight response making it a dangerous situation for both parties which is why the blood cursed chose to isolate their riskier individuals and had put as many preventative measures in place as they could. 

When the merchants noticed that the villagers that would work with them were mainly women and a few weaker looking men they didn’t let that information go to waste, they kept tabs on them and they sold the information to the nobles. They would buy up all the metal works they could with each transaction until the blood cursed villages all ran dry of the metal ores from the mines that they had access to, again selling this information to the nobles who had started making their ill intentions known amongst the richer echelons of society.

Most people had already started regarding the blood cursed to be more beast than human now despite knowing  the truth of their origins, in fact the nobles had started implementing false history in order to claim that the blood cursed were descendants of the beast kin and not humans, while blaming the fact that very few beast kin keep written records for the reason behind their not being recorded history on it. All the while they had meticulously and systematically rewrote their own historical records and destroying the original records to hide the truth and to slowly manipulate the people to regard the blood cursed as less than human.

While humans, elves, and dwarfs had secretly agreed to this wicked endeavor they chose to leave out the beast kin who would have rejected such a distortion of the truth, and for good reason too. The beast kin already had difficulty getting along well with the other races and had to deal with their lack of understanding and accommodation on a regular basis. Whether it be how the beast kin had to deal with times where they would go into heat or the accommodations needed for their diet or constitutions, they would be given little to no regard while being held strictly to the ways of the more humanoid races.

Many beast kin would have to sleep in the stables because they were to big for the rooms in the inns that they would have been able to afford to stay at. Most beast kin had to make their own food because those with strict carnivore or herbivore dietary needs would have a difficult time finding someplace to eat at that wouldn’t purposely cook the dishes with both meat and vegetables, which would cause the beast kin an assortment of digestive issues. The most difficult issues that they dealt with though would have to be their time of heat, they would have to leave the city and isolate themselves from the other races until it passed and those who had managed to get a job would almost always lose whatever job they had because of their absence, granted that was better than what they could expect if they were found showing up at work while in heat. Beast kin caught in heat within the city would be treated like criminals often thrown in prison or worse the stockade, which would sometimes trigger other beast kin to go into their own heat early.

The beast kin for the most part were nomadic hunters and gatherers and wound up with jobs that would go well with their life style; such as merchants or mercenaries but there are always many exceptions. Regardless of how badly they were treated they were bold and honest folks who despite having low levels of literacy were skilled in their own rights they made use of their animalistic characteristics to be greater herbalist, hunters, gathers, acrobats, messengers, and combat experts and more. But with the newly surfacing rumors that the blood cursed individuals had come from the beast kin’s bloodline, new conflicts arose.

By the time the beast kin realized what was going on they were already too late to correct the misunderstandings. Most people believed the lie after all the blood cursed individuals had developed animalistic characteristics similar to the beast kin. Sharp claws and teeth, eyes that could glow in the dark and reflective of the little light available at night just like animals, add in the ones who had grown wings and tails, horns, scales, feathers, or fur all made it easier to believe that they were closer to beasts kin than humans. The beast kin loses their foothold in society and are forced out of the cities and towns slowly but surely till they to had become unwelcome. 

Only a few years after the beast kin had been expelled did the nobles finally put their plans into action. The blood cursed villages had been depleted of ore to make weapons and armor while the nobles had raked in all of the weapons and armor they could and outfitted their armies from head to toe in the finest battle gear possible; including enchanted apparel that would protect them from elemental users and other magic’s that might could be used against them. 

The merchants were only too eager to assist them in their endeavor, for a profit of course. They filled their wagons with the soldiers while their own guards and mercenaries walked along side the caravan. They claimed they had brought large shipments of ore for the blood cursed to make more metalworks and offering to drop it off at the blacksmiths smithy using ore samples as proof and the creaking of the heavily laden wagons as cover while making excuse such as doing them a favor and requesting first dibs on the merchandise in return. The more gullible and naïve blood cursed individuals fell prey quickly being captured or killed before help could arrive. 

Those who could fly fled to their hideout location where those with the highest blood lust and strength were kept with the blood producing women who were the best in keeping them restrained. Upon hearing from their fellow blood cursed who managed to escape (many whom were injured as they fled) the women enraged some from the fact that they had lost relatives or worse their own children, rallied the men up into a frenzy spurring them into battle lust and offering their blood to whomever killed the most of their new enemies. The rage and blood lust filled the air and triggered most of the blood cursed into feeding frenzied pursuit of their attackers! 

There aura was so thick and overwhelming that animals fled in terror and the humans who were able to notice earlier took what they could and fled before the others. A massacre ensued afterwards and those who were too late to flee were ripped apart, painting the already blood stained villages crimson. The blood curdling screams would Haunt the fleeing soldiers and company till their own deaths and spawned forth new horror stories that would be passed on for centuries to come. But even those tales would be corrupted to favor the nobles and their cause.

The blood cursed who were kidnapped and sold to the nobles and wealthy merchants were forced into labor for blood and the minimal necessities to live and continue working. They were kept underground in basements and prison cells, never seeing the light of day, and severely restricted with whom they would be exposed to or be allowed to interact with. 

They were forced to refine ore into the purest of metal ingots, too heat the metal to perfection and crafting it into whatever they were requested to make. They were used to circulate the air throughout the massive buildings through air ventilation systems to cool or to heat the estate however their masters desired. They were used to make Medicines and salves as well as perfumes and even poisons. They would purify water and would make more highly distilled wine and liquor and ice sculptures that only the rich would be able to enjoy. And with the new technologies like lightbulbs that would usually powered by lightning or primitive generators, would now be able to make use of the blood cursed with the element of electricity. Many of the blood cursed would be worked to exhaustion and only allowed to recover for the sake of being able to work more.

Because of the locations that the blood cursed individuals were within the cities and protected by multiple walls and many soldiers and guards, the attempts to rescue them were prevented time and again, as no one was willing to listen and their adversaries were only increasing. The temple was bought out by the nobles in power and had the temple declare the blood cursed as monsters, demons, witches, devil worshipers, and any other wicked creatures that they could come up with, and they used those terms interchangeably; but because of their inconsistency the population continued calling them blood cursed or occasionally calling them monsters or beast.

Despite the temple’s late response in joining the nobles in their actions against the blood cursed, they had already started to make advances in secrecy in order to displace them. with the temple’s  failure to protect the people from the plague of blood lust and the ones infected by it, and now also having their healing holy magic no longer being known as the only type of magic that can heal, has made the temple’s  standing weaken. The temple had known that the water and nature elements were capable of being used to heal but they being one of the only ways that holy magic could be accessed and there for providing themselves a position of power and therefore important for them to making their primary asset as valuable as possible. In the beginning of the founding of the temple and its worship of the divine being(s) they had promoted their healing with holy magic as more effective in healing than the other element based magics; then after it was established as such they slowly made it out as if healing with the other element magic wasn’t effective before eventually making it sound like only holy magic had the healing properties! The process they had used took centuries but it had worked and only those who knew the truth of the temple had knowledge of this because they had systematically rewrote and replaced anything that had stated otherwise; while the truth would only be passed by words of mouth to those individuals who shared their ideals and would continue their works. 

Because the blood cursed individuals who were trying to become accepted back into society by becoming beneficial enough that maybe it would outweigh the issues of their need for blood; and thus uncovering things that the temple  had wanted hidden, and in turn unknowingly becoming enemies of the temple (or at least the secret side of the temple anyway).

The temple’s holy magic is actually will based magic, where they will for certain spells to come into existence and then they can share it amongst their fellow temples members. The secret side of the temple is actually the head of the it all and the only ones who have actual contact with the so called divine being or entity and it is to their will that it obeys for it was they who had brought it into existence in the first place. And it is through offering their magic to the entity that it is able to create whatever spells that they desire but the strength of the spells will always rely upon their own magic and willpower. As for the special spell that they had the entity create they blend an selective attack spell and a warding spell that would target the blood cursed and of course they had is visual aspect their signature warm glowing light attached to the spell that would hide its other features from those who observed its use.

 Their so called holy spell was cruelly tested on several of the kidnapped blood cursed individuals, testing how it damages them and to what extent as well as how long it would take for them to recover  from the injuries that were inflicted upon them. They then adjusted it to also make the injuries take longer to heal by inhibiting the blood cursed enhanced healing abilities. After having the spell attuned to cause the blood cursed the greatest damage and repelled effects possible they finalized it and they spread the spell to the entire temple and even several nobles. They claimed that the spell would ward off evil curses and protect people from becoming cursed, causing the spell to be spread rapidly; the remaining mages would pick up that the spell does indeed target curses and learn the spell themselves but only a negligible few scrutinized the spell enough to discover the dark truth behind it, and of those few who tried to speak out about it were shunned as mad and eventually killed in secret.

This spell evolved to be made into massive barriers that would be placed around all capitals and major cities in the first three years after its creation. The blood cursed were being hunted ruthlessly and were starting to be referred to as the accursed by mercenaries who hunted them.

The blood cursed individuals hid their villages as best as they could and some even started villages in underground dungeon expanses even carving out originally small hidden tunnels into full living quarters and communities and creating hidden shafts that would go directly to the surface that they would make camouflaged to all but themselves.

The blood cursed would become increasingly hostile to humans and other races as the remaining above ground villages would be discovered and wiped out one by one and the only surviving individuals were those who flew away to safety and managed to be rescued by the other blood cursed and integrated into their communities. This continued to thin out those who were without wings and made those with wings more dominantly present and over time practically all blood cursed children born would have wings.

The blood cursed individuals who remember that they were originally humans are now a minority and they have made the decision to have that information become secret and that the information shall be kept by their most powerful individuals and their most important scholars. The new generations will no longer be informed of their human origins and their hesitation to fight back starts to dwindle. 

The remaining communities of blood cursed gather in order to challenge each other in various combat and other challenges and feats to identify the best of the best. Arrangements are made so that the most powerful and most likely to be able to protect their communities would have priority in having spouses to ensure that they would have strong descendants to replace them when the time came. 

During their compiled competitions they made several discoveries; first was that certain elements were stronger because of which beast type advantage was present dragonic individuals were more compatible with the fire element then any other while harpies were the best with the wind element and mer’s were the most compatible with water. This discovery would lead to the decision that they should group together by their primary beasts race and have their strongest element become their leader and creating a hierarchy that would promote survivability amongst their newly declared race, The Cursed, shortened for convenience from the blood cursed. They would then migrate to have each group of their race to be located where they would have the greatest advantages possible.  To the East where the lakes, rivers, swamp lands, and ocean became the domain for the Water Clan or The Cursed Mer Clan. To the North East where the mountains and trees tower sharply into the sky battered by frequent gales of wind became the domain of Wind Clan or The Cursed harpy Clan. To the North where the forest is ancient vast and darkened with the thick and varied vegetation would become the domain of Nature Clan or The Cursed Nature beast Clan. To the South East where high plateaus of earth are frequently battered by thunderstorms coming from the sea with rain or from the dry inland savanna became the domain of Thunder Clan or The Cursed Griffin Clan. To the South where stretches of dry grassy savanna meets rocky terrain of badlands that then rises into sparsely forested rockier mountains became the domain of Earth Clan or The Cursed Naga/Quetzal Clan. To the West where the forest, grasslands and mountains are dotted with volcanos and hot springs became the domain of Fire clan or The Cursed Dragon Clan. Though they were primarily located in those directions many clans would share certain terrain and rarely argue over territory.  As time would go by each group would become distinct in form and Identified as different species with a shared origin by the other races.