Cruoris

Cruoris, the Armor That Wears Men

"The Vaerlan do not die. They change wearers."
A saying among the peasants of the old Vaerlan lands

What it is

A suit of plate armor the red of fresh blood, which never tarnishes, covered in gilded chasing where a skull keeps watch at the center of the breastplate. It bears the arms of the Vaerlan, a noble house burned three centuries ago for feeding on its own peasants. It is thought to have been forged for one of their lords. In truth, what survived the pyre was the bloodline itself: a vampiric will that took refuge in the steel, waiting for a body.

What it does

Whoever wears it wakes with no memories, often on a battlefield, the armor already on his back. He no longer sleeps and no longer bleeds. Around him, however, men die in their sleep, drained of blood, without the slightest wound: the armor feeds through him. Night after night, it erases who he was and rebuilds a Vaerlan in his place, with the Vaerlan's manners, memory, and hunger.

What it costs

The wearer has only a few weeks before nothing of him remains. Only two remedies are known. Destroy it in the forge where it was born, and the wearer dies with it. Or seal it, which only condemns whoever one day breaks the seal. Either way, someone pays. Doing nothing means giving a Vaerlan back to the world.

Cruoris and Viktor

Ellisara found Cruoris, and gave it to Viktor as a lord's armor. He sees it as a gift befitting his rank, never knowing that he wears the bloodline of the one who made him. Usually, the armor must erase a man before replacing him, and its wearer struggles. In Viktor, there is nothing left to erase: his human memory sleeps in the reliquary. Cruoris need only fill him, slowly, meeting no resistance. That old-world courtesy so surprising in him may not be his own. And the household servants never stay long. Beyond a family built for show, Ellisara is making herself new Vaerlan. If the reliquary is ever broken, two men will fight over the same body.