Note: For convenience, these excerpts have been translated from the original Russian.
Those reading this book will have one of two reactions. They will regard it as an interesting work of fiction, or they will already know the truths contained within.
What, then, is the purpose of writing it? I suppose it all comes of the very human desire to leave something behind us. Then again, there is also a certain amount of closure in setting down the events of my life, as if the past can finally be laid to rest.
I was born in Russia. Not the Soviet Russia of modern days, but the Russia of old, the empire whose history spans many centuries. It is a claim that few now living can make, and of these, even fewer were old enough to remember the revolution which swept away all which had gone before. I, however, remember the revolution and the decades which preceded it in detail which is all too painful for me.
My only consolation at the loss of all that I had devoted my life to is that this too shall pass, and it is scant consolation indeed. Even should I endure to see the fall of the Soviet Union, that fall will not return to life all those countless millions who have died in its name.
Yet despite my hatred of the present regime, I am still Russian enough to take a certain pride in the accomplishments of my people. Though I would say that these accomplishments are in spite of, rather than due to their leaders.
But I digress.
I was born Nicholai Andrei Sandovich, in the year 1835. I died in the year 1917. While I still like to think of myself as human, it is no longer true save in my own mind. Mine is the curse of immortality, the eternal craving for blood to prolong my unnatural existence. It has been close to sixty years since I last laid eyes upon the daylight world, and as long since my exile from Mother Russia.
Make no mistake - we are as varied as the mortals who surround us, both in attitudes and abilities. Ours is a world of darkness, strife and, most of all, blood. <p>I will not waste time making my enemy's death look like an accident -- I'm not accountable to anyone and my other enemies wouldn't believe it.
The Evil Overlord List, #102
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