Origins of the Ousters

The origins of the Ousters have always been steeped in mystery and whispers, passing on stories through generations, as if it were a fairy tale that was never heard out loud. The most perpetual rumor speaks of a dark experiment courtesy of the vampires, nighttime monsters who wanted to transcend their weak points, especially their vulnerability to daylight. It was an experiment born out of the insatiable hunger of the vampires for power and dominance, but one that would give rise to a new and formidable race.

For a long time, the vampires, from dkAwaken, had been obsessed with overcoming their dependency on blood and their inability to bear the rays of the sun. Among the myriad of efforts they made to evolve, one was particularly daring-a group of three female slayers, warriors who were legendary and dedicated to hunting and eradicating vampires, were seized and subjected to a vicious experiment. The slayers were known as Karisas, Lavinia, and Hora; they were enslaved and genetically engineered in a wish to combine the powers of slayers and vampires into one hybrid that could command exceptional strength and sustain daylight.

The experiment did not work out as the vampires had hoped. Instead of fashioning slaves with the strengths of a vampire and the resilience to walk in the sun, they unwittingly forged something completely different. The three slayers became the first Ousters—female-shaped beings with magical powers of an order of magnitude previously unknown. Whereas vampires derived their strength from the blood they drank, the Ousters drew theirs directly from the elements of nature: Karisas could command fire, Lavinia water, and Hora earth. They retained the physical prowess and dexterity of vampire warriors, but their essence was deeply intertwined with the natural world.

As the Ousters` powers grew, the vampires began to see them not as tools but as threats. Vampires, divided into warring factions, each sought to control one of the three Ousters, hoping to harness their unique abilities for their own gain. But the vampires underestimated their prey, for they never truly understood the nature of the Ousters. Their captors never knew that the three sisters shared a symbiotic mind. Though physically separated, their thoughts and plans and emotions were intertwined; and so they plotted against their captors in secret, playing on the arrogance and disunity of the vampires.

In a carefully orchestrated escape, the three sisters broke free from the vampires` clutches and fled deep into the dense, ancient forests of Castalo, a dark forest in the realm of Darkeden Awaken. Far from the reach of their former masters, the Ousters began to rebuild, using their elemental powers to create a sanctuary within the forest-a place where they could live in harmony with nature. Centuries of tapping into the deep magic of the earth, through the roots of ancient trees, the Ousters created magical eggs. These magical eggs would incubate from the elemental forces and finally hatch, creating a new generation of Ousters.

Thus, the race of Ousters was born-nature`s wrath and beauty incarnate, with the powers of element manipulation and the strength of warriors. They were not human or vampire but another thing entirely-a race coming into being because of those very forces against which the vampires wished to prey. As they grew in number, so their legend grew to become a talisman of resistance against the darkness which had once sought to enslave them. For all eternity, the Ousters would be bound by their origins, but they were no longer slaves; they were Casalo`s protectors, guardians of the natural world, and a force to be reckoned everywhere in Awaken.