Blood Runes

A man hundred warriors struggle to stand, half buried in the mud, huffing out the thick musky air of the marsh around them, many have been thrown from their saddles quivering in suits of steel as they face the enemy before them: a singular humanoid creature, adorned in an aristocratic garb, soaked in blood.

Previously hundreds had stormed onwards to meet the creature in glorious battle, to defend the kingdom that it dragged screaming women from, stuffing children into cages to be hauled off in the night.

But those hundreds moved no more, torn to pieces and splayed around the creature in a perfect circle, surrounding it in a wall of gore and guts.

Still, the warriors are brave despite themselves, the majority were widows and parents of vanished or orphaned children and so as their leader wipes mud from his dented blade, He raises it high and roars for the attack.

The Beast does not move, for it doesn't need to. Instead it ignores the charging army threatening to smash into it's singular form and cuts into it's flesh with a gnarled talon.

Ripping open its veins, the Beast casts its own blood into the misty air, painting a symbol which brands itself into space between itself and the arm.

It whispers only once, speaking the last words that these vengeful mortals will ever hear.

"Dragon's Breath: Azure Inferno"

The Brand erupts in a symphony of crackling flame which explodes outwards in a colossal stream of midnight Blue flame. It rises above the Warriors like a tsunami and when it crashes into the bulky gathering of bodies, it melts the steel into their flesh, bubbling the blood into evaporation.

There are no screams for their throats were already scorched away, skin dissipating into the air as their bones blacken and collapse in seconds.

In a matter of minutes, the Marsh grows quiet, leaving nothing behind but the singed puddles of metal and bone, the skirmishing blue spitting embers in the wind; the Crimson Beast standing at the summit of victory, put off only by the legion of burning cadavers pungent and putrid smell.

Introduction

Blood Runes are the time-honed tools of the ancient Vampires who lurk in the dark corners of the world. In the virgin days of the undead, Dracula king of the dead sliced at his own flesh to toy with his black-blood. After many years of studying the properties of his own physiology, the Vampire King discovered a Unholy medium lingering in his veins, for the curse of undeath is like a tree with spiralling branches, leading to many reactions and outcomes upon testing.

The Vampire King found that by inscribing his will within a physical symbol, drawn in his own blood, certain properties could be summoned from the supernatural qualities of the curse; to use for various tasks and functions, such as lighting flames, freezing blood for storage, summoning explosions for excavations into elder-ruins or even healing dead flesh.

However as he always did, the King took it further, for his will was greater than any who had come before, allowing him to work wonders with the runes that he painted in the air.

A blood rune requires only a few components to properly function:

1. Blood must be drawn via a cut or slice, with the direct intention of creating a Rune.

2. The blood, imbued with the Vampires will is painted in the exact shape and pattern of the desired rune, kicking off the branding process.

3. Once the symbol is branded on the air, the Vampire beckons the Rune's reaction via a catalyst, usually by speaking aloud the Rune category followed by it's title (E.g Hellfire: Hot flash), although Master Undead Runesmiths are also rarely known to be able to summon the Rune's power via thought alone.

In order for this process to successfully follow through, the Vampire must have an adequate amount of blood, since the runic power draws directly from an undeads blood pool. The consequences of trying to draw a blood-rune on an empty stomach are harsh indeed, for nothing speeds up the process of bloodthirsty madness faster than botched runes.

However, there are in fact runes that are more taxing than others, this is dependant on how severe the Runes effect is after branding, even if many share a similar function, the range of intensity is what disguises one from another, for instance the former mentioned Hellfire: Hotflash can set alight anything from a candle to a bonfire, but it will not achieve a heat above 1300 Celsius. By contrast the legendary Rune Dragon's Breath: Azure inferno, is a flame of mythical proportions, able to melt steel like butter and turn flesh to ash in seconds, this Rune is so powerful that it can turn a sane vampire into vice versa almost immediately, requiring the strongest of wills to wield.

In conclusion, a Blood Rune is a tool, used offensively only in special cases, although with the hostile nature of vampiric blood, even the simplest of tools can be made into an otherworldly weapon.