Joseph Kuehner ~ James Amare ~ Anthony Burson

In the shadowy underworld just beneath the surface of human existence a war is being waged, a dark struggle to control the fate of the known world. The living dead stalk men and each other on city streets around the world, battling each other with blade and fire, seeking to control their own kind, and own the mortal world as well. To this end they have formed into the syndicates, banding together in order to reach their ultimate goals.

From within the tall buildings of corporate America watch the Sept, the largest and most powerful of the syndicates. Controlled by the Archon Jared, they use science to increase their own devastating power. The Sept have their fingers in every moneymaking venture known to the world, from legitimate business to drug running and localized crime enterprises. Since the days of Rome they have persisted, influencing events through their monetary wealth and power as well as with quick, harsh violence.

Their greatest opponents are the Maladar. They are controlled by Saul, a savage barbarian who has personally slain more people in his existence then most dictators and despots could even imagine. The minor syndicates affiliated with the Maladar follow his lead, using slaughter, terror, and brute strength to work their will. On more than one occasion they have aided great powers that have nearly succeeding in destroying the Sept and making the world their playground, backing barbarians and barbaric modern societies. But as of yet they have always failed, and each failure makes them more brutal and heinous.

Stalking them both is the Sanctus Syndicus. Once as violent and hateful as the Maladar, that all changed when their Archon Adin turned back to the light of God after a chance encounter where he claimed to have met the Messiah in Jerusalem. Convinced that his only hope for salvation was to save the souls of his fellow vampires, he works tirelessly to convert them, and to destroy those who won't turn toward the Holy light. With small cells spread around the world, the assassins of the Sanctus Syndicus are one of the few forces to strike fear in the hearts of immortals.

Yet they are not the only religious movement within the realm of the dead. Another syndicate also demands faith… faith in Queen Galya. The originator of the curse, the first to drink the angel's blood, Queen Galya is perhaps the most powerful vampire in existence. She demands the worship of all the undead, and wishes to build a new kingdom to rule. To this end she has spent untold centuries unraveling the mysteries of the world, learning powerful, forgotten magic and using it in her ongoing battle to control the other syndicates and bring them to her breast once and for all.

The one she desires most to return is the one who resists the hardest; Rictor, lord of the Scavens. Brother of Saul, Rictor was the most reluctant of those who drank the blood of the angel all those millennia ago, and has regretted his decision ever since. Separated from the other syndicates, the Scavens are a small group chosen directly by Rictor, sworn to never engage in the politics of the other undead. Though not all of those who belong within its ranks believe in this neutrality, for the most part they have remained unscathed by the wars of the syndicates, only on the rarest occasion fighting en masse for a common cause. As small as they are, they are extremely powerful, having centuries of solitude to perfect their arts.

The five syndicates are set in their ways, but a time draws near when old hatreds must be put aside and new alliances formed… for the world of the Vampire Syndicates, a time of true desolation approaches.