the devil created demons in a time before time, before human memory and before the written word. It began when the Lord’s most favored angel grew arrogant, and in his arrogance declared himself greater than the God of Man. With an army of rogue angels, he sought to overthrow Heaven, but in defeat, was cast out along with his allies. Disgraced, the outcasts retreated to the place furthest from the Great Kingdom; the place now known as Hell. But the devil had not given up. No, still arrogant, still filled with greed and pride, the devil swore to see Heaven again, and claim its eternal glory for himself. The human Bible tells that the God of Man put human beings upon Earth’s shores, bidding them to go forth and multiply. But these creatures weren’t the only beings to be born on Earth’s virgin sands. Jealous of the humans’ beauty, and determined to take Earth for himself in his conquest of Heaven, the devil created his own children: twisted beings to feed on humans and corrupt God’s paradise. The angels thrown down with the devil became the first of these: the exsul race, the fallen ones, the outcasts. After them, the devil took the beasts of God’s world—wolf and cat—and fashioned them into warped icons of man and woman. These became the werewolves—shapeshifting beasts of uncanny strength and savagery—and the shadiil—shadowwalkers, travelers of the night and realms of the mind. Pleased with his work, but still short of the beauty and wonder of God’s, the devil created vampires from the corpse of man, and finally, won the soul of a man himself in exchange for black magic, giving birth to the race of the coven-kin. From each of these races there emerged one of great power and cruelty. The devil made these his first Councilmen. Somewhere in the northernmost reaches of the world, the devil erected a Shrine, and there gave the nations a table carved from the oldest forgotten tree. He called them the children of The Blood Circle, and reaching his hand across the world to cast it in his shadow, he bade them, too, to go forth and multiply.