Marcus Corvnius from Underworld

Guess War of Nytefall: Ravenous had one more promo left in it.  Well, it’s October, so I’m focusing on monsters, which makes this a perfect time to explain a piece of the overall story.  This would be what is called Desirae’s ‘Babies’.  I’m going to have to explain this without spoilers, so bear . . . bare . . . Bayer . . . work with me.

Desirae’s greatest power is that she can turn anything into a Dawn Fang.  You have those made by the fang, turned by Clyde’s blood, forged by a ritual, and born naturally.  Now, you have Desirae’s children that she creates in her laboratory.  She can have them work autonomously or control all of their actions from any range.  Given that she always has something or someone to do, she prefers to have them follow implanted orders.  That is if she isn’t making the creature for fun and wants to use it for something like arena fights, selling, or just releasing it into the wild.  They’re a vast variety of critters that she lovingly calls her children.  She’s very sad for a bit when she has to destroy any.

Now, when I say she can turn anything into a Dawn Fang, I mean anything as long as it was alive.  So, she can’t transform undead.  For example, she has vampirized harpies quiet often.  This is a flock of winged predators that each have their own abilities.  Desirae doesn’t pick their three abilities either.  She only turns them and sees what happens afterwards.  If they won’t work out then she either destroys or rebuilds them.  She can also free them from her control and turn them back into their original state, but that isn’t a preferred method.  In her mind. her children are either on her side or need to be eliminated because they could reveal her business.  That and they’re monsters, which means an adventurer could kill them and find evidence of her if they do the right things to the bodies.  Best to have them under control where she can self-destruct the corpses if she needs to.

The ironic thing is that her babies are a threat to Clyde’s plan.  While regular Dawn Fangs are able to hide themselves and stay out of trouble, monstrous versions are going to stand out.  A griffin with fangs that drinks blood and is strong in the sunlight?  The chances of such a creature perfectly blending in with a flock isn’t very high.  Desirae tries to keep her babies on some kind of leash, but she can’t always remain aware of them.  Accidents happen and she does her best to control the flow of information about their existence, so she’s almost running the same plan alongside the Nytefall one.  Of course, Ravenous shows that she may be getting in over her head and these creations are a big part of it.

Will these return in a later book?  That depends on if Desirae does.  For now, enjoy them in their debut.