Historical Vampires

Here's a better look at the historical vampires of Lesson One: Vampires, Book 1 of An Introduction to the Fine Art of Monster Slaying.

ERZSÉBET BÁTHORY

The Blood Countess wants revenge on the Order for the death of her husband and partner in crime. She's been hunting down monster slayers and applying a very particular punishment. Some might even consider it worse than death. She has 2 vampire sons, and a tense relationship with her fellow vampire and distant cousin Vlad, the Impaler. Naturally, we couldn't leave out her famous blood baths, though in this case, it's more of a blood shower.

VLAD, THE IMPALER

The vampire attack takes place at Vlad's castle, and he wastes no time in making himself at home again and reopen his secret dungeons. He has 2 brides, Nadia and Marie, and when Tim kills one of them, he decides to ignore Countess Báthory's request that she be the one to kill the monster slayer sent by the Order.

SHAKESPEARE AND MARLOWE

They were sent by the vampire leader to chronicle the attack, and they don't get along that well. Marlowe is the second real vampire Tim encounters, though he doesn't realize it until it's too late.

THE BORGIAS

Like we wrote in the Lesson One making of post, they were never clearly identified in the final draft, but yes, Cesare and Lucrezia are the infamous Borgia siblings. There's no mentions of incest, but they're sadistic and clearly enjoy not only killing humans, but toying with them.

And this is how far we'll go with having real people turn up in our books. They'll be mentioned, but they won't be actual characters.