Swidhelm Folkling

Swidhelm Folkling was the first publicly known Vampire, one of the two founding fathers of the Republic of Keldorn (the other being Yenos the Dark, his mentor), and a key figure in Dead Man's Rise.

Early Life
Swidhelm was born on the 67.42625124, into an Etrandish noble family in Eastern Etrand. Not much else is known about his early life.

Corruption
On a fateful night, on the 99.84634509858, Swidhelm fell ill after fighting a red-eyed and pale-skinned man. The reports say that the corpse-like man ambushed Swidhelm during the evening, and the fight turned into a chaotic brawl, with both sides exchanging blows, biting each other, but Swidhelm eventually prevailing, albeit wounded and bleeding. While the healers could stop the bleeding and treat his immediate wounds, not even the wisest of priests had any answers to the strange condition that Swidhelm fell into, having a deadly phobia against the sun and looking like a corpse. Out of desperation, Swidhelm's family turned to pagan witchdoctor named Yenos - or more precisely, an atheistic necromancer pretending to be a pagan witchdoctor.

Yenos told a mixture of lies and truth to the concerned subjects and family - that Swidhelm was suffering from a disease that made him require "blood transplants" to survive, and that he could no longer hope to walk under the sun for prolonged periods of time ever again, with his condition making his skin very sensitive (in truth, Vampires younger than three centuries burn to dust under the sun). Yenos also made up various falsehoods to have excuses to be constantly near Swidhelm, whose trust he gradually gained. Eventually, Yenos managed to corrupt Swidhelm, and secretly began his training.

Combining his pre-existing martial training - as well as training from being a former member of the Knights of the Golden Light - with the necromantic teachings of Yenos, Swidhelm became the first Death Knight. At the same time, Yenos himself gained the knowledge of transforming into a lich. Under the lich's corrupting influence, Swidhelm gained a taste for human blood and came to completely disregard religion, embracing the darkness. The two began to hatch their secret plan of building an undead army and conquering Etrand from within.