If you’ve been keeping up with The Blood of Dawnwalker, then you’ve doubtless heard about the premise. Coen, the titular Dawnwalker, is battling against ancient vampires led by Brencis to save his family within a 30-day time limit. And while we’ve seen enough to conclude that Brencis is evil, narrative director Jakub Szamalek told IGN that there’s a method to the badness.
“I’m allergic to antagonists who are bad for the sake of being bad, and then they make illogical decisions just to deepen their badness. I wanted Brencis to feel like a very rational actor who has a particular goal. He does want to take over, and he does want to become a feudal Lord in this little valley, but he doesn’t have some ‘mwahaha’ supervillain plan to kill everyone or destroy the world.”
Instead, he wants to establish a “vampiric feudalism” where denizens essentially “swear allegiance to your vampire Lord” through “taxes and blood.” The Vampire Court is on hand to help him, but the team was keen to flesh them out as actual characters, each with their own quirks.
Interestingly, Szamalek also revealed the process by which the vampires create new spawn: By embedding one of their teeth into the intended target. This is inspired by Cadmus, who “when facing danger, would throw dragon’s teeth into the earth and these fully fledged, fully armed warriors would spring up to life and defend him.”
And while that does limit the number of spawn that can be created, he noted that, “The older they get, the more teeth they have. They grow extra rows and, at some point, these teeth start bursting through their skin in weird, unexpected places. Some of the oldest ones are bristling with teeth sticking out of all sorts of weird places, and it turns into body horror.” So now you know what game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz meant by the game’s vampires being “different” from other, more traditional depictions.
Launching on September 3rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, The Blood of Dawnwalker promises a roughly 50-hour-long adventure. Though Coen could burst into Brencis’s castle and face him at the start (potentially losing because of the difficulty), he can spend his time growing stronger and dismantling the Vampire Court’s various machinations. You can learn more about the infamy system here, but if you’re keen on doing your own thing, even killing innocent NPCs, nothing is stopping you.
