A to Z Blog Challenge - V - Thursday Thirteen - 276

On Day 22 of the  A to Z Blog Challenge

V 

is for

Velocatus and the other brethren from my Dark Ages vampire novel

1 -  On Tuesday I introduced my main female character from SAINT SANGUINUS with an excerpt. T was a perfect day to meet Tanwen, the Welsh chieftain's daughter left behind to mourn her warrior bethrothed when he fell to a spear during a raid against the Irish.

As Tanwen discovers, Peredur did not die in the conventional sense. His curses hurled at God with his dying breath called the members of the brethren to collect him for duty in their elite brotherhood.

Peredur becomes a vampire whose task is to prevent humans from wiping out all vampires, and to prevent vampires from turning all humans into vampires. He is a vampire prevented from living the life of a true vampire, while no longer able to live life as a man.

Today I'd like to introduce the other members of Peredur's brotherhood, beginning with:

2 - Velocatus

This member of the brethren hails from present-day northern England, in the area now known as Richmond in North Yorkshire. 

3 - Velocatus belonged to a tribe known as the Brigantes when he lived as a man. They made up a thriving agricultural and trading culture in the present-day Midlands during Roman rule.

In SAINT SANGUINUS, Velocatus is especially adept at sword fighting.

4 - This novel takes place in 6th century Wales, and besides Welsh hero Peredur and Northern English Velocatus, there is another member of the brethren who hails from what we now call the British Isles:

Brude

5 - Brude is a Pict from the modern-day Inverness area of Scotland. There are two members of the brethren that Peredur befriends with closer ties than the others, and Brude is one of them.

6 - Peredur's other close friend is Sigbjorn. In fact, Sigbjorn becomes Peredur's closest friend amongst the brethren.

7 - Sigbjorn hails from the present-day Stockholm area of Sweden. Because the brotherhood is made up of warriors who curse God with their dying breath, their rarity makes collecting them from all across the world a necessity. 

8 - The moodiest and most reclusive of the brethren is Adalhard.

9 - Adalhard once lived in the modern-day area of Orleans, France.

10 - The member of the brethren who gives Peredur the most confusion is Wladislaw, from modern-day Poland.

11 - In an era when all men either serve a master or fight their way to leading others, the brethren operate as a collection of equals. Because Wladislaw was once a prince among men, Peredur finds it nearly impossible to treat the nobleman as an equal.

12 - The member of the brethren who showed up at Peredur's side as he took his last breath upon the battlefield was Melnak.

13 - Melnak came to Wales from across the continent, beginning his mortal life in Byzantium, or modern-day Turkey.

Here's the book trailer for SAINT SANGUINUS, which I wrote and directed (produced by Charlie Mac Productions:)