Sympathy for the Devil: Carpathian Villains

When you have heroes that are as powerful as the Carpathians it can be a challenge to create a villain or villains to challenge them. In the beginning of the Dark Series the main villains are a society of humans who hunt vampires and Carpathians alike, but more importantly we discover that the origins of vampires are the Carpathians themselves. When a Carpathian male doesn’t find his lifemate, the woman that is the light to his darkness and the other half of his soul, he loses his ability to see color, his ability to feel emotion and soon the only thing that keeps this fierce warrior from becoming a vampire is his perseverance, integrity and honor. Killing is like a drug because it allows them to feel, but by giving into this they become evil and turn vampire. Sadly, though not entirely in their control, in a very real way, the Carpathians can become their own worst enemy. This fact is in reflection to our own, real-life society, which may be a contributing factor as to why the idea of the Carpathian race became so interesting to so many people. In the end, it is up to the Carpathians to police themselves, be held accountable and be responsible for what happens when their people turn evil and to protect everyone against that evil.


In addition to vampires, who were once Carpathians, people who were friends and family and now have to be hunted and killed because they turned evil, we add in mages, then lycans, all who, if they become evil, are a force to be reckoned with. But, at the end of the day there’s never really been a greater villain to the Carpathians than vampires. Yes, mages or evil lycans can use magic or brute strength, but vampires have a psychological advantage that continues to make them such great adversaries.



Vampires were once great warriors. They know the Carpathian race better than any other adversary. And they were once beloved. An enemy can pretend to be your friend and betray you which can make you angry and hurt. But, before they were vampires, these beings really did love and were loved. They were family and true friends. With a few exceptions, most of them simply gave up hope and traded away their honor to stop the all-consuming loneliness of life. Yes, the high standards and expectations for honor and integrity in the Carpathian race demand that a warrior give his life before harming others by turning vampire, but whether considered a coward or selfish or simply giving in to evil because it feels good, the fact is, a Carpathian warrior will be sent out to stop the vampire, to kill the being that once was his brother, cousin, best friend.
Of course not all Carpathians will personally know each vampire, but the fact remains that when a Carpathian is faced with having to hunt a vampire, they stand the chance of knowing who that vampire used to be. Knowing the only mercy they can offer is a quick death.


Vampires have another advantage over the Carpathians. Carpathians have been in recovery for a very long time, which has split their focus and put them behind when it comes to normal world evolution. First, they were at war and took heavy losses. Vlad, the original Prince of the Carpathian people, made some huge miscalculations during his reign. Though he had precog he either ignored signs or purposefully hid them in order to save his own son and salve the heartache of his lifemate. This cost the Carpathians much during the Turk wars, caused inner-conflict with the people and cost lives. It also marked the beginning of the near-extinction of the entire race. The domino effect of this was that the remaining Carpathians were scattered, they lacked enough females to keep the males from turning vampire and the race went into despair. The new Prince, Mikhail, was seriously considering ending his life, because he was so close to turning, and because as the Prince he was the “vessel” of his people and could feel their collective despair, when he found his lifemate and discovered that human women could become lifemates, though it included a dangerous and painful conversion process. All those years before that discovery was full of darkness, sadness and loss. The focus was on survival and protection.


But, for vampires, their only concern was staying hidden from the Carpathian vampire hunters. Though many of them simply lost their minds, going mad with the transformation into vampire, some of them went on to become Master Vampires, learning enough control to live long lives, kill hundreds of people, and eventually learn to work together to stay alive.


Soon, as time passed and Carpathians continued to focus on finding lifemates and hunt vampires, the vampires themselves learned more self-control in varying degrees. They evolved far more quickly than their adversaries because their focus wasn’t as scattered. Because hate was stronger than despair, they evolved further, faster than the Carpathians. And now, in Dark Legacy, we begin to see the tip of the ice burg on what the vampire’s evolution has become. These newly evolved villains have the advantage of focus, time, evolution, technology and the first heartbeat of birth to something so terrible it could through the Carpathians into the extinction they have just narrowly escaped.


Even evil has a legacy.