Lord Corbus is a member of the dreaded order the Blood Dragons, the brotherhood of vampire knights. Once, the undead knight had been a noble and heroic example of a Bretonnian knight, but all that changed when he received the dark kiss that bound him forever to the aristocracy of the night.[1]
Corbus is an imposing image: he is a head taller than many men, his enormous stature augmented by the steel wings that made up the crest of his helmet. He usually wears dark red-dyed armour, with the entire breastplate and greaves chiselled to resemble a snake skin, The face that looks fiercely from the knight's open helmet is both handsome and savage, as if it were a great beast playing the role of a prince of men.[1]
Thanks to his vampire status, Corbus has superhuman reflexes and strength, which together with his martial prowess make him a deadly warrior, capable of defeating a dozen knights without being scratched. However, deep down, he despises that he has to survive by drinking the blood of others. He clings to the martial pride and chivalric honour in his life, and uses them to try to prevent himself from being completely devoured by the terrible impulses that torment him.[1]
History[]
Before becoming a vampire, Corbus was a Knight Errant who had set out on the holy quest, riding through the green lands of Bretonnia and responding to the challenges of men and monsters when he encountered them, hoping to prove himself worthy enough to find. and drink from the Holy Grail of the Lady of the Lake. Alas, during the search he had been defeated, and his courage and valour had been shown to be insufficient and unworthy.[1]
He came across a knight in black armour in the shadows of an enchanted forest. He responded to the rival knight's challenge and fought him for almost an hour before the opponent knocked him down. But the blessing of an honourable death would not be the fate of Lord Corbus. The other knight had removed his helmet to reveal his pale countenance and elongated vampire fangs. He had been so impressed by Corbus that he decided he had to share his condition.[1]
Corbus had joined the abominable order of the Blood Dragons against his will, the brotherhood of vampire knights that abided by their own twisted code of honour, a perverse mockery of the chivalric and martial pride that had filled them in life. They existed only in order to find enemies worthy enough to meet in combat with them, for the pursuit of increasing challenges was the only motivation in the dark and miserable midnight of their existence, since they despised and hated the disgusting and uncontrollable monsters they had become.[1]
After that, Corbus gave up the holy quest and had snuck off to Mousillon, the city doomed by the False Grail, the only place in Bretonnia that was vile enough to support the beast it had become. The vampire knight put himself in the service of a local nobleman and clung desperately to the oaths of service and loyalty he had sworn to him, as if they were the last bridge that linked the monster he was to the man he had been.[1]
For Corbus it is an effort not to fall on dead enemies like a ferocious beast, an entire torment not to tear the throat of a peasant in the street to drain her life blood. He manages to exercise some control and to contain for as long as possible the hunger that was growing inside him to such an extent that it seemed to him that he would burst with repressed need. Then he gave vent to his abominable hunger and fell upon the wretched in his lord's dungeons for that purpose.[1]
Corbus is desperate to rid himself of his unnatural thirst. He eats precariously, constantly struggling to control and subdue the dire hunger that always threatens to consume him. He has learned about the legend in which the entire order of vampire knights believes: if one of them could taste the fiery blood that flowed through the veins of a dragon, he would be rid of his curse forever and would not be attacked by the red thirst again; the vampire would never again feel the need to quench his unnatural hunger with the blood of the living.[1]
Corbus clings desperately to this reading as his last hope, and will do anything to achieve such a thing. Should he be presented with the opportunity to escape his sentence, nothing and no one will be able to stop him, and the oaths of honour and fidelity he had taken would not hold him back.[1]
Sources[]
- 1: Brunner the Bounty Hunter (Novel) by C.L. Werner