Regions of Helea
A traveler’s account of the quarantined province — its cities, its ruins and the dominions of the vampire masters.
Helea is a mountain-bound province of Eslania, cut off from the rest of the world since the sky went dark. Its regions were not always a battlefield: there were factories, railways, chapels and tourists. This chapter follows the roads of the province as they are today.
Eslanian City
Eslanian City sits at the center of Helia State and grew fast with the industry of its suburbs. When the Drobeta Industrial Complex prospered, its population swelled — and when the vampires attacked and the complex declined, the city emptied. What remains is the Slayer foothold: three fortified bases where dispatched soldiers live and train. Each base keeps medical assistants, skill instructors and weapon merchants for the soldiers, and the three are linked by an underground waterway that once served as the city’s sewers.
Two treasures anchor the Slayer faith in the city. The Raohm Holy Place keeps the Medal of Romell, the most decorated soldier in memory; the Temelie sacred ground keeps the holy garment that covered the dead. Both are connected to the underground waterway and both may only be visited during fixed hours — and if either relic is stolen, the entire race suffers. Deeper still, near the public cemetery, lies the old crematorium, an underground dungeon with six known entrances.
Castle Limbo
West of Eslanian, in the heart of the forest, stands Castle Limbo — an ancient fortress once famed for its medieval underground jail. Today it belongs to Bathory. The castle’s southeast dungeon, Bathory Dungeon, serves as a refuge for her clan; its first floor is restricted so that young vampires are not preyed upon. The Ghorgava Tunnel runs beneath the border, connecting Limbo Dungeon to Bathory Dungeon — the route the Slayers use to infiltrate the castle.
The Hilanom holy place, connected to the fourth floor of Limbo Dungeon, holds the bottle of virgin blood that granted Bathory her eternal life. On the very bottom floor waits Elizabeth Bathory herself, wounded by her war against Blood Tepez and hidden away while her faithful followers — among them Vrykolakas, the kidnapper of virgin girls — work for her restoration.
Drobeta Industrial Complex
Born from the second industrial revolution, Drobeta once produced revenue that covered half of Helia State. When the city of Eslanian turned its attention to tourism, the plants began to fall silent; after the Vampire invasion, nothing was left running. Its refineries, mills and treatment plants now stand as monuments to a dead economy.
Perona
Perona lies between Drobeta and Lake Timor, and for years it lived off that position: the place where the resources of the industrial complex were shipped out and goods were shipped in. When the vampires invaded Drobeta, Perona emptied into a wasteland. Only the marks of wild animals remain around the old town.
Castalo and the Ousters Village
Castalo, together with Lake Timor, was one of the great attractions of Eslania — flat plateaus held between the Serba Mountains, on the boundary between Helea and Ukria. Long before the city turned to tourism, it was revered as sacred ground; after the clash between humans and the Ousters, it became an accursed one. On the upper plateaus stands the village of the Ousters.
Beneath the village lies the dungeon that tells their history: the hatching room where they were bred, the kitchen, and the hibernation chamber where they slept for five hundred years behind a seal. A strange hole opened in this dungeon one day, and through it the vampires came — the last paradise of the Ousters lies in ruins, and the race now fights for its destiny.
Mt. Rodin and Castle Rasen
Mt. Rodin was the storehouse of the province: steep slopes full of minerals and lumber that built Eslanian, and coal mines that fed Helia State. When the people left, the mountain became a wasteland. In its northeast lie the Kali Cave, once a tourist destination known for its limestone pillars, and Castle Rasen — the lair of the vampire master Blood Tepez.
Rasen was built in the fourteenth century for defense, an inner castle inside an outer castle. Its basement, once a shelter meant to keep people alive for years, is now filled with corpses and bones. In its holy place rests the reverse-cross that the lord of spear prizes above all; and deep inside the inner castle, Tepez keeps his court — and his meal, seen through the bodies of humans pierced on spears.
Lake Timor
Lake Timor soothed visitors with clear water and beautiful shores — until the third master, Gilles de Rais, came and froze it whole. On the little island in the middle of the frozen lake stands the tower called Lust Top, the lair of the third lair master.
The Tutorial Zone
Outside Eslanian City, the north tutorial zone serves as the temporary command center of E.V.E, the core of the Slayer group. It is where every new Slayer is dispatched for training: commanders issue the first briefing and basic weapons, and the zone is defended as best as E.V.E can manage — which, as the commanders admit, is never perfect. South of the city, recruits face their first real battle against low-level vampires captured by veterans for training, while E.V.E provides medical care and supplies.
