The Vampire Counts are amongst the most legendary faction of Vampires to have ever terrorized the civilized lands of the Old World, all of whom are known to be the bearer of the unholy blood of the Von Carstein bloodline. From the Imperial government and the patriotic citizenry of the Empire of Man, the Vampire Counts are considered by many to be fiends without equal. They seek only to topple the civilizations of the living and supplant them with an Undead Empire that shall reign forever as Lords of the Night. The Vampire Counts are powerful necromancers as well as warriors, given supernatural enhancements to their strength, cunning, beauty and ambition. However, these Vampires, for all their power and cunning, are ultimately base, selfish creatures driven by the same motivations of the mortals they deem themselves superior to. They are remorseless in their advance, killing without thought of mercy or compassion, and whose motive is entirely bent on ones own selfish desire.
Indeed, the entire structure of the Vampire Counts are built by the selfish desires of the individual, whether it be for the pettiness of greed, glory, beauty or power. To the Vampire Counts, they simply want it all, for they consider themselves above the living, and would stop at nothing to delude themselves about their cursed and lonely existence. For all of their refinement, in the honest truth, these Vampires are nothing but rotting corpses held together by Dark Magic and the horrific consumption of mortal blood.
From their powerbase within the former Imperial province of Sylvania, the descendants of the Von Carstein bloodline have vied time and again to topple the authority of the Empire of Man. Since the time of Vlad von Carstein, it is the sole purpose of the Von Carstein family to inherit the Empire as their own, using attempts of legitimacy, assassination and outright invasion to achieve such ambitions. Yet time and again they've been pushed back towards Sylvania and hunted ceaselessly for their horrific origins. Yet no matter how many Von Carsteins fall, there always seems to be another willing to take its place, disturbing the graves of the dead and plotting to finally plunge the Empire into their cruel tyranny.
The Vampires of the Old World claim dominion over the mortal remains of all earthly creatures. To die is to surrender oneself to their power. The generals of the Empire claim that the night is always darkest before the dawn; but the Warrior Priests of Sigmar preach that there is hope yet. But they know little of the games immortals play. Patient, cunning, devious, the Vampires work to conquer the lands of the living with ancient and corrupted sorcery. Should they succeed in their dread goals, the rays of the sun shall be forever suffocated by the night, and the age of men will be replaced by an age of undeath. The world will be transformed into a ghastly necropolis of mindless and unliving slaves, ruled over by the iron will of the Vampire Counts.
