The beginning...

When she awoke, nothing was the same anymore.
She felt it with every fibre of her body,
but she could not tell how complete, how despairing and
how utterly mutilating this change would turn out to be...
Nothing had prepared her.
No words had been spoken, no explanation been given,
and the only initiation had come in form of a sharp pain
when the two fangs entered her neck, digging in deep,
searching and finding the blood, essence of life,
and while it drained from her, the blood and the life,
she felt nothing but bemusement,
not even wonder who her merciless attacker was,
as she could not see much in the shadows of the dark alley-way.
Time lost all meaning, the edges between dream and reality
seemed to blur, creating a state of not here and not there,
then a floating sensation, until all senses abandoned her,
opening an abyss of darkness.
When she awoke, the sensation of floating and detachment had
left her, replaced by a feeling of the deepest infinite loss.
What she had lost to mourn so vehemently she did not know,
but it made her whole body ache with a pain she
had never experienced before.
Confused and frightened she fled the alley-way where
her attacker had left her lying,
unable to comprehend, but sensing the change,
realizing she could see even where no street-lights illuminated her path,
and hearing words humans had whispered to one another half a block away.
Moving with the grace of a hunter she felt hunger.
Hunger for something she had never tasted before.
In disgust and shock she recognized the need for... blood...
so strong - it drove her crazy just to see someone in a red dress passing by!
She knew now what had happened to her, what she had been turned into...
The rumors had proven to be true - vampires did exist ~ and they did exist in this city.
Why her attacker had transformed her instead of just taking her life,
she might never find out, but she felt bitter anger and hate,
for this was a fate she had not chosen on her free will.
Bereft of her human home, to which she of course could not return,
she searched the city for a place of safety to sleep through the hours
of the deadly daylight, and luck for once was with her...
In a quite street at the outskirts of the city, formerly a place
of great riches, a fire must have raged, destroying
many of the pompous buildings once located here,
leaving only one massive castle like mansion almost untouched.
Set into vast overgrown gardens, the blackened stones did still
tell of the fury the blaze had unleashed upon this part of the city,
but otherwise the building had survived in good shape,
probably abandoned by superstitious human owners,
who did not wish to live among the countless other ruins.
This was an amazing opportunity, and she ceased it,
claiming the castle as her own, determined to not be broken
in spirit, even though she had lost her soul and everything
else that once meant something to her.
At first she only left the castle to feed, sometimes siring
childer, but this more by accident, as she was not
familiar yet with her newly gained powers.
Through meeting other vampires she found that this city she
once had lived in as a human, harbored hundreds if not
thousands of her 'new' kind, some honorable, some evil,
some selfless and some ignorant.
Clans were waging war on one another, fighting for power
and territory, and she decided to go and find her childer
and others in need of comfort and support,
to call them to the castle and give them shelter,
so that they could aid each other in gaining knowledge and strength.
For one vampire matters little in Ravenblack City ~
only strong loyalties will offer protection ~
and the ability to wait for the right moment in time.....

Thus the Castle of Shadows was born

One blood, one family - equals forever!

(..she has never given up to find her sire..)
(..no longer seeking revenge..)
(..but understanding..)