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The war against the vampire nation has begun, are you prepared? Discover enemies and allies alike as you begin your journey with a fan favorite scene found within the pages of this book. Gaze upon related artwork to get a better understanding of the events that are about to take place. Explore the world of the Human Born series presented in this novel with the origin story that led up to the creation of not only this book but the series as a whole. Lastly, learn about hidden Easter Eggs and knowledge found within the narrative.
“Such sweet words to describe the murderers that we've become” – John
Fan Favorite
A scene selected from the book.
One of the most horrifying things is the unknown. What is lurking just beyond view? There is an unexpected turn of events that leads to Azul being this abomination. A savage creature that is lashing out at anything that is alive, desperately trying to satisfy his burning desire for blood. A group crash lands nearby and the strongest among them, an armored knight with cybernetic implants, goes out to investigate. He is the most powerful of the group and is being tossed around like he's a child's plaything. Meanwhile, inside, those who haven't seen what is attacking the man, must wait for the inevitable of this creature to find its way inside. That fear of impending death can be terrifying.
“Right, sure, put your faith in something that won’t tell you where he is, what he is, and essentially keep you in the dark concerning everything about what he is doing. Throw in the fact that he uses dead bodies as puppets, and he just screams trustworthy gentleman that you should blindly agree to everything that he says.” – Abigail
Relevant Images
“Curiosity killed the cat, you know.” - Murberec
“Satisfaction brought it back.” – Samantha
“No, my dear, a necromancer or an individual with my scientific understanding of how the brain functions brought the feline back to life. Satisfaction had nothing to do with it.”- Murberec
Origin Story:
College Story
The author came up with the idea of what eventually developed into the Human Born series when he was attending college. He wanted to included everything he loved from fiction books. Sword and sorcery fantasy? He knew he wanted fantasy creatures and magic, which included elves, dwarves, gnomes, goblins into the world he was building. What else? Scifi? He wanted advanced technology, androids, cyborgs, everything cool about future tech here on Earth. What could be added after all that? Horror! Vampires, werewolves, of course. Lastly, He was passionate about history and became a little obsessed with Greek Mythology and ancient Greece. The origins of the Greek Empire.
That's how it all started. The first opening line in the original book in the series was, "Twinkie?" A group of thieves are far underground in an abandoned part of the city. Max finds it and offers it to Jenna. Oh? That doesn't have anything to do with Blood Oath? You guessed it. Emerald Intrigue was meant to be the first novel in the Human Born series.
The initial concept was that events in one book would branch off into other stories. Halfway through one novel, someone would leave to another part of the world and another novel would pick up their narrative. Sometimes stories would be occurring parallel to one another. It was a chaotic concept that thankfully never panned out.
How did Blood Oath become the first? It established a global conflict between the vampire nation, creating the larger plot for the series.
Origin Story:
Twelve Hunters
The novel has gone through many changes and variations since its origins. In an early draft the opening scene had David standing on top of a small hill looking down at only twelve individuals. This was his attempt at symbolism of being Jesus with his twelve disciples. Even his name was taken from the Bible as a mythic king of the Old Testament. The original title of this novel was Acolytes, alluding to this mysterious leader's concept of waging a holy war against the vampire nation.
When the author returned to the series after several years after creating the original concept and writing a little over four books, he attempted to salvage some of the original material. Eventually he had to admit to defeat and start over. The older draft served as an outline with several scenes surviving to the final version in one form or another. There was a triad of Sarah a psychic, who gets mentioned as a homage to her character. She works with a male elf, who is hinted at being royalty, and an ogre berserker named Bartholomew who had a small nod to his character inserted into the final version. The ogre dies early on in the novel and Sarah would later betray the hunters, be killed, and her animated corpse is used as a weapon.
The elf was switched out with a female assassin with personal issues with humanity named Abigail. It was then that the author had an idea of a brain in a jar, a Dr. Frankenstein style character using zombies to add more horror elements to the book since it felt that genre was lacking. Murberec could go on to be major component of the series.
Origin Story:
The Lost Triad
In the original draft, there was four triads in total, with only 12 "hunters" making up the four groups. The first major re-write of the story attempted to keep it that way but as one group was altered dramatically, another was eliminated completely. There was a trio including Theseus, a minotaur. Jack, a dwarf who would later be revealed to be Rock's younger brother. Rock's true name being Peter. Lastly there was Carrie, an android killing machine in the form of a little girl. Eventually they were eliminated from the story. The idea of a theandroid assassin inspired Suzie from the Sunfire Chronicles.
Originally Karma and Kira exited the story about half-way through the novel after the attack at the vampiric safehouse. This left John to join the remaining group but in the final major re-write, the author was enjoying their interaction with him, so they remained in the story. With Theseus, Carrie, and Jack out of the story, there was a need for individuals to fill in the blanks. The twins and John took the place of Theseus, Jack, and Suzie in the attack on gun shipment exchange.
Ritter was originally named Alex but changed since Alexander was used in Tapestry of the Second Born. He was in the scene with the newly transformed vampires safehouse. His involvement was removed to streamline the narrative. Also, Terran spent more time on the field, helping with magical druid stuff rather than playing a pacifist role. His original name was Logan, changed to avoid the repetition of names because of the lead character in Eye of the Beholder was named that.
Origin Story:
Missing Sister
Toliver was originally written as a rebel against Azul, openly attacking the vampire leadership as he vied for control of the organization. The story develops into a war between the two factions. The scene in the warehouse was a meeting with an arms dealer selling Toliver's people weapons after he told Azul of what was happening leading to the confrontation. The hunters become caught between the two groups rather than the vampires being unified against them. The mercenaries represent a fourth group, led by what is revealed to be Toliver's sister.
In the first draft, the woman who had her arm cut off was Toliver's sister. Acting in revenge against Azul for doing so and being cast aside by her brother she hires an army of mercenaries to take out both of her rivals. She is successful in doing so and is rewarded for showing strength and cunning to eliminate a member of the North American Union council. She is given his old position by Silvermane who isn't in the book until the end. The "goddess" of the vampire nation doesn't make an appearance in the series until the first draft of Garden of Gaia.
Due to an overstuffed book, the author took out the plot. Several of the original scenes involving the sister were replaced with a newly introduced character Cerise. The mercenaries involved were then shifted to be brought in by Murberec to create chaos. His safehouse was originally the base of operations for Tolliver. With him faking at least being loyal to Azul, but wanting to keep the scenes, the author shifted ownership. All of this was done in the second revision.
Origin Story:
The End
The conclusion of the original draft was a massive attack, using a small army of soldiers by Azul. Toliver arrives with those loyal to him to eliminate his rival. They secure the building and trapped the hunters within. Azul arrives on the roof, slowly working his way down. In the chaos, Toliver's sister sends in mercenaries to push their way inside. David and Azul have a magical battle, at one point both turning into a dragon and a demon. Eventually David kills Azul but only at the cost of his own life. He lands on the ground level to die in Ritter's arms.
In the second draft, the hunters base of operations is attacked, Toliver reveals he's turned traitor, half of the invading army turns on itself. Chaos. That particular version wasn't complete due to lack of interest.
In the third draft, the board room meeting changed everything. It was added to reveal the organization of the company with its head leadership. Azul wanted to lock down one sector at a time creating a ticking time clock against the hunters. It shifted the entire story to focus on him. That is why the final confrontation happening at his base of operations. The only scene from the original battle to remain relatively the same was the confrontation between Toliver and Ritter.
Silvermane didn't make an appearance in the opening of the book setting up the novel. The cure also being a vaccine was a new element introduced late. So many changes were made that would forever alter the future of the series, Murberec being the biggest element. He would become one of many threads connecting the series as a whole.
“All that will remain is death, those last moments of pure terror knowing that you are helpless, just as I was as a baby in my crib.” - Abigail
Easter Eggs and Inspiration
The Human Born series is the origins story of the Tagonist Knights. A connection between the five "gods" and the first of the knights begins with the final confrontation with the vampire nation. One even remains a knight from the beginning as the origins of Mythos is within the pages the novels within this series.
“My war upon the vampire nation has only begun.” - David
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