The world has gotten very small for you and your family, Coen. It was never a grand world to begin with, tied as you all were to your farm in the tiny village of Laslea, but with the arrival of the plague, your sister’s illness, and then the vampires, it has shrunk even further.
When you wake up, it’s the day of the Blood Mass for Laslea. Tonight, the vampires, the vrakhiri, will arrive to collect the oblation of their livestock. Every adult in the village must attend and give of their blood to sustain their rulers, Brencis and his clique. It is known. It is normal. Shockingly, it’s becoming more normal every day as the hope of change or salvation withers among the people of Vale Sangora.
Not everyone is cut out for this new normal. Your mother is barely able to hold herself upright under the weight of her fear. Your father, pulled in two directions by his family and his past, has become grim and hard. Your siblings are struggling to understand everything happening around them. And you, Coen, a young man in your prime, are stuck staring down a long future of being bled every fortnight, little hope for anything other than the life of cattle.
Is it any wonder some say it’s the end of the world?
And yet, the daily concerns of life must go on. Your mother is in no condition to attend the Blood Mass tonight and if she is not present, your family and maybe the entire village will suffer. The gates are guarded by Knyaz Brencis’s men – no one will be permitted to leave until the offering is extracted. Between dawn and sunset, the day is divided into 8 parts. You must use that time to find a solution.
So, you wander the sunny dirt paths of Laslea. Somehow, in spite of the clamp of the vrakhiri around your neck, even in this tiny village, the possibilities are endless. You could decide to go directly to Anca, the local herbalist, and ask for medicine for your mother and wind up spending most of the day reading Latin, soaking up every moment you can in her presence.
You could punch one of the Uriash, gigantic ram-like warriors occupying the village at Brencis’ command in an attempt to burst the boils of rage festering in your heart. You could go looking for an escaped pig or a lost neighbor, you could save the weaver by searching for a stolen tapestry commissioned by the vrakhiri, you could beat an upstart boy for insulting you, you could even uncover the start of a revolution against the vampires… but you may not be able to do it all.
You see, as long as you are wandering, watching, listening, never intervening, the sun will stay high in the sky. The Blood Mass will not arrive. The day will never turn to night.
To move time forward, you will have to choose. So you wander. You speak to an old woman weeping by an unearthed grave. You confront the man who lurks by the river. You ask your sister about the dark dreams that jolt you awake at night. You practice your sword skills on the animals in the woods. And, in your own time, you choose how your day unfolds.
Yet it is quickly made clear to you that some choices are out of your hands. There is no combination of actions and words at Coen’s disposal that can stop the Blood Mass once the sun sets. Some events have their own tides that cannot be resisted. Everyone has their own free will and no matter how earnestly you try, you can’t control the power of grief, of fear, of revenge.
The Blood Mass goes poorly. Decisions are made by you and your family that cannot be taken back, and deep in the night, you wake up in the bowels of Laslea’s silver mine with a strange new hunger. You are no longer fully human.
The wrath of the vrakhiri at the defiance of Laslea has chosen you as its scion.
Brencis picked you to turn into one of his own, a familiar face to destroy your friends and neighbors as one more twist of the knife. The surviving villagers, including your father, mother, and siblings, will be made a sacrifice to his coronation in 30 days. Your family has been crammed into the darkness of a cell, your existence squeezed down into the palm of Brencis’ hand.
And yet. As the village burns, as the sun rises, you are given a new choice. All is not lost. The light of the sun does not burn you, sear your flesh. Not even the vrakhiri could control this. In that moment, the world opens up, the shackles fall away. For you now have all the power and ferocity of a vampire, but all the feelings and connections of a human. You have something denied to you for so long: the ability to choose.
As you step out of the remains of your home, your village, the whole of Vale Sangora lays before you. There is a sword at your side. Your arm still aches from the magic runes Anca carved into your skin. The taste of copper lingers in the back of your throat.
You realize that, with enough blood and rage, you could rip this valley from the vrakhiri’s claws and feast upon its riches yourself. You could join the revolution, save your family and dispose of the vrakhiri. You could wash your hands of the entire affair and pursue whatever pleasures the next moment offers you.
You are a unique thing, Dawnwalker, and no one will ever write a future quite like yours. A new day is beginning; how will you spend it?
The Blood of Dawnwalker rises on PlayStation 5 this September 3, 2026.
