The Von Carstein Dynasty is the most infamous of the vampire bloodlines, a lineage of aristocratic monsters who ruled the haunted province of Sylvania and waged the Vampire Wars against the living. Descended from Vlad von Carstein, they command legions of the dead and wear the guise of nobility to mask their hunger.
Vlad's arrival in Sylvania, wedding the Lady Isabella and seizing her family's holdings, marked the dynasty's rise. From there the Vampire Counts raised armies of skeletons and zombies and marched upon the Empire itself, nearly toppling it before Vlad fell from the walls of Altdorf. His heirs, Konrad the mad and cunning Mannfred, continued the war with cruelty and guile.
What sets the Von Carsteins apart is their resilience; so long as their enchanted rings endure, death is but an inconvenience. Time and again the Empire believed them destroyed, only for a pale lord to rise again from the sodden earth of Sylvania, his bloodless court gathering once more beneath the sickly moon.