Jiang Shi Twins

Name	Jiang Shi Twins
Race	Undead
Type	Vampire
Faction	Nightbred
Premiere	Desideratum: Blood Bonds
Relative(s)	N/A

Jiang Shi Twins

"I will choke out your anger, girl, and carry your unconscious body back to Ivor."

Biography

Pre-Desideratum: Blood Bonds

In the Yuan Dynasty of ancient China were born twin sisters to a merchant. In their part of China there was much unrest and a group of Mongols had occupied the village. Their father had been an outspoken voice against Kublai Khan and he garnered little patience from the troops that remained. Those troops eventually tired of his protests and they took his daughters. The twins were beaten often, they were told that the Han would be replaced by Mongol, and by the time the two were grown, it appeared to be the case. They had no love left in their hearts and had spent their life in torture and pain. They had grown to be stronger, and together, they managed to kill their handlers and escape from the village.

They spent two years in wandering. Always assumed to be easy targets because of their sex, many men, Mongol, Han, and otherwise, learned to give them wide berth. The sun had set as the pair approached a town and in the darkness, they saw a lamp swaying down the road leaving the village and approaching them far away. They hurried off the path and hid in the darkness. The lantern rushed towards their position off the road and stopped not far from the rocks behind which they hid. It was a Taoist priest and he was yelling that they should show themselves. Both were shocked that he knew that they were there. However a voice behind them said, “The priest speaks to me; he knows not that you hide here.” They turned to see a gray skinned man with a strange face and piercing red eyes.

He grabbed the two shocked women and they found his strength unmatched by any other man they had fought. Lifting them from the ground in a single leap, he bounded twenty feet, clearing the rocks and landing in front of the priest. He told the priest that either the priest surrender or the two women would die. But, the priest did not believe him. So, the man broke a leg on each sister and they writhed in pain as he fought the priest. The sisters crawled to each other and hugged, thinking that their ends had come. But the priest was defeated and he lay unconscious on the ground. The man told them that they would be hungry and then pounced on one sister. As the other sobbed and screamed, she watched her sister drained of blood and died, and she soon followed, her mind disappearing into blackness.

When they woke the next night, they woke to find the monster from the night before staring down at them. A bloodlust filled the pair and the grinning creature pointed to the priest ordering them to slake their thirst on his holy blood and they obeyed like dogs. They learned that death was as brutal as life, and the one that had changed them held an otherworldly control over the pair. Abused but loyal, they aided in causing chaos and issues for the Mongols. Unknown to the women when they were alive, the Mongols were monster hunters and they hunted Jiang Shi. Thus, the efforts of the undead actually helped bring an end to the Yuan Dynasty. After this, their master took them to other lands, and they met differing vampire types. However, word spread of a new vampire, Vlad Țepeș, and that he proclaimed himself king of all Nightbred. Their master would not believe that any other immortal could compare to a Jiang Shi, and so they travelled to a strange land called Wallachia, and there in Poenari Castle, their master stood against Vlad.

They were shocked to see how easily Vlad toyed with their master and awestruck when he casually destroyed their progenitor before their eyes. Vlad turned to the pair with a confident smile and said that they may face him now and die or return to their homeland. However, it was Vlad that stood surprised by their reply. For saving them from the vampire they swore to protect him. Always a man that found joy in odd things, he accepted them and they soon proved themselves. Over time, he found that they were incorruptible and cared nothing for the usual vampire politics. It seemed that they enjoyed being dominated and felt a sense of loyalty and purpose in following duty. He respected that.

Ivor the Devious, did not. Ivor saw the pair as an obstacle to overcome. They were no match for Ivor himself, but they would have been distraction enough to stop him from killing Vlad. When Calis Van Gothen, Johann Conrad Dippel, Theodore and Deborah Ravenhurst, and the other monster hunters arrived at Poenari Castle, Ivor ordered the Jiang Shi to go and fight the humans. He thought that they would die in the battle, however, the pair proved incredibly resilient and they might have managed to defeat the mortals, but Dippel ordered everyone through a door and as they fled he rushed along and threw a bomb behind him. It went off and collapsed a massive part of the castle, crushing the twins- but not killing them. When Vlad died, Ivor fled the castle. Smiling to himself, he went to the debris and uncovered the sisters. He told them of Vlad’s death, but left out the part of his treachery.

The pair followed him, asserting their new purpose as defenders of Ivor, unaware that he was manipulating them through their sense of honor. They remained in his throne room almost always and their coffins were located inside his personal chamber. Ivor mistreated them often and delighted in knowing that they were being exploited. However, the pair were dutiful and obeyed.

Desideratum: Blood Bonds

In Desideratum: Blood Bonds, we see the Jiang Shi Twins following Ivor. They have a distrust and dislike for the nosferatu, Brone Lorcan, and he reciprocates that distrust. He saw them as lapdogs that obeyed a master they did not have to and they saw him as a weakling that would not even drink blood. They were eventually sent to capture the band members of Absinthe and Arsenic: Tobias Nguyen, Fawn Everett, Scarlett Moffat, and Sylvain Eriksson.

Later, when Absinthe Van Gothen came to the Shanghai Tunnels to stop the conjuration of Nuit, Ivor ordered the Jiang Shi to slay her and take the Scepter of Osiris before the human ever reached the summoning chamber. Rather than hunt her down, they stayed just outside that very chamber. Brutal tacticians, the sisters deduced it would be wiser to allow the hunter to grow fatigued or wounded as she fought her way through the passages. They also had a stern concept of strength and felt that Absinthe represented a test of strength against the Nightbred in Ivor’s lair. They found those vampires lacking when Absinthe reached the pair. They were shocked to see how much she had grown since their first encounter, and in the end, they were defeated as well. However, as they died, they both felt a profound respect for the hunter that slew them because such a feat would be worthy of such reverence.

Appearance

The Jiang Shi Twins have gray skin, and seem to be identical twins. They have tight forms and black hair.

Abilities

• Unholy Strength
• Unholy Agility
• Psionic Powers

Notes and Trivia

The Jiang Shi Twins were the force that captured the band members of Absinthe and Arsenic.