Watch the video or read the transcript below:
What does it mean to serve a monster?
An accomplice, a servant... a slave.
Humans serving vampires is a common sight throughout popular culture, from Renfield in Dracula or Knock if you’re nasty, to the ghouls of Vampire: The Masquerade, the thralls of Skyrim, and the familiars seen in Blade.
It stands to reason that creatures who prey upon and seek to dominate humans would also keep some as servants.
In Harrowed World, they are called doxies. Each one is bound to a vampire, referred to as their dominus, by a disturbing act called the Binding. The vampire produces a thick black mucus like substance known as doxian, which can be released voluntarily from the mouth or a wound. The substance must be consumed by or injected into the human. Due to its repulsive taste, few will consume it willingly.
The doxian embeds itself inside the body, binding them to their dominus, and while they don’t have to like the one that bound them, they have no choice but to obey them. The substance is generally believed to be harmless though may cause alarm if placed under medical scrutiny.
The connection a doxy shares with their dominus manifests as a physical mark on the skin known as the Ligatus, which can also refer to the psychic connection the two share, allowing them to communicate without a single word spoken even over extended distances.
The Ligatus mark looks something akin to a freeze brand that a farmer might put on cattle. The design, if it could be said to be a design, resembles thorns, though the exact composition varies. No one knows why the look of the mark diverges, some have developed theories as to the cause while others just accept it as a normal part of unlife.
Biologically speaking, doxies are no different than ordinary humans., lacking any supernatural powers of their own, but they can easily distinguish vampires and other doxies from typical members of the species plus they are more resilient than their unbound counterparts and heal faster, by virtue of the natural properties of the doxian, a necessity in the brutal world of the undead.
As a doxy ages at the same rate as an ordinary human, they are generally short lived in comparison to the vampire that they serve.
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