The Nosferatu Chronicles: Origins

Vambiri is home to an advanced species for whom exposure to sunlight is fatal. When a cosmic radiation disaster decimates the planet, the Isla is the only ship to survive the panicked evacuation. After thousands of years in cryostasis, the Vambir arrive at Earth in the year 1459. A thruster malfunction in orbit causes the Isla to break apart, and the newly revived crew are forced to jettison the stasis pods of the passengers.

Mistaking a landed pod for a coffin, Transylvanian villagers open it and watch in horror as a ‘screeching demon’ is vaporized by the sunlight.

The Vambir inadvertently discover human blood has the same nutrients as the hemoplant (Vambiri’s only source of food), but those who ingest it are gradually transformed into psychotic human hybrids. Refusing to partake, Navigator Kevak urges Commander Mazja to order the Vambir to stick to their meager hemo-rations until a crop can be harvested. Secretly addicted to blood, she conspires to have Kevak executed, but he escapes with a supply of rations and seeds. When villagers catch a glimpse of him, they believe he is the demon responsible for the recent mysterious deaths and the legend of Nosferatu begins.

Living in secrecy, Kevak becomes the only unaltered Vambir remaining. Returning to the Isla's cloaked lifeboat while the hybrid Vambir are hunting humans, he initiates a radiation lock-out, cutting them off from their technology and daylight protection.

Now able to blend in with humans, the hybrid Vambir pose as foreigners and offer Prince Vlad Dracula their services as mercenaries in exchange for sanctuary. Impressed with their vicious fighting skills, Dracula welcomes them into his inner circle. Infatuated with Mazja, he refuses to listen to any criticism of their avoidance of daylight and other strange behavior.

Unsuspecting humanity has been set on a course for extinction by the assimilated Vambir, and Nosferatu, unjustly perceived as a monster, is the only one who can stop it.