Tainted Ones

The Tainted ones are 6 accursed vampiric entities that live in the Darkwood. They were once human-like beings known as the Dimmerfolk, greater in stature and fairer in appearance than humans, but mortal. They occupied the 6 moons (Dimmermåne in Loreinese) orbiting the Lora Lorei home world. They evolved separately and came into contact with the far more advanced Lora Lorei some one hundred thousand years before the Hole King Wars, where they lived in relative peace with each-other, rarely interacting save for an occasional diplomatic exchange of music and language and magic.

When the great war with Vexivar (The Hole King) broke out the 6 moon Lords, all powerful warriors and sorcerers themselves swore an alliance with the Lora Lorei, dedicating their formidable armies and defenses. Knowing that the moons were key to conquering the more powerful Lora Lorei homeworld, Vexivar appeared before the 6 Lords before his invasion in the most terrifying form he could conjure,

"A body of pure shadow clad in armor of white fire, carrying a mace that vibrated with hate. He sat astride a great spider (Spider Commander) and the mighty general Mara stood abreast of him snarling and in his eyes the Lords could see all the faces of the dead, the twisted faces of all those the general had slain, trapped souls crying out from the mirror like eyes, trapped souls poor souls,"

-Drub Scrolls, 14:3

So terrified were the 6 Lords that they knelt before Vexivar swearing their allegiance and surrendering their moons to him to use as staging areas for his invasion. This seditious act paved the way for Vexivar's hordes and began the “Thousand-Year Inferno.”

The Lora Lorei, powerful mages that they were, cursed the 6 Lord for this betrayal, stating they will be forever doomed to feel the pain in flesh and sorrow in heart that their treacherous act has caused on their home world. The Lora Lorei famously committed a mass planet-wide suicide leaving the 6 Lords with no being capable of lifting the curse, dooming them to an eternity of suffering, hate and pain.

Thinking it would diminish their pain they fled far from their moons and they hid in secret places in the mountains, forests, caves and canyons of the Darkwood. The only true way to temporarily abate the pain of the curse is to drink the blood of a living creature and so the 6 often stalk the Darkwood in search of prey.

While malevolent in deed and countenance, the Tainted Ones are actually natural enemies of any of Vexivar's servants, slaves, adherents or creations. This is because the curse they are under, while designed to torment and inflict pain, is still a creation of the Lora Lorei, and therefore inherently still white-magic.

The 6 Tainted Ones are:

The Marshall of the Dimmerhold

Slaga the Deceiver

The Shadow Ranger

Black Medicine

The White Vampire of Anza-Carrego

Murphy Cheesehead