Ciatlen Venitius is a character in Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer. He was a vampire that wondered if it was acceptable to take the life of others to stay alive.
Ciatlen is the author of the Journal Scraps that the party can find over the course of the game.
Biography[]
Ciatlen was unsure if it was morally acceptable for vampires to feed on living creatures to stay alive. He hoped that the wise old vampire Korbu would be able to answer his questions, so he decided to travel to Ravage Roaming and find the Crypt of Korbu.
On his way, he visited Ravenshore, but was chased from the city by a torch-wielding mob. In Garrote Gorge, he witnessed the bloody struggle between the dragons of Deftclaw Redreaver and the dragon hunters of Charles Quixote. He wondered if the uneasy alliance between the vampires and the necromancers of Shadowspire was better. The vampires fed on necromancers, meaning that the vampires didn't need to battle anyone to feed, but the selected necromancers still died.
When he reached the Crypt of Korbu, Ciatlen learned that Korbu was dead. Most likely, he had decided to let himself die, rather than taking the life of another to survive. Ciatlen decided to bring his remains back to the elders. A few nights later, Ciatlen fed on a young knight. For the first time, he felt uneasy about taking someone's life. "We experience eternal life, but at the cost of the lives of others." The next time he fed, he had the same feeling of dread.
Ciatlen decided to head north through Alvar on his way back to Shadowspire. He then headed to the Ironsand Desert, where he could rest in the larder of a tribe of friendly cyclopes. While staying there, Ciatlen made up his mind, deciding that it was not right to take the life of others to stay alive. He realized that the strange feeling had been remorse, and that Korbu must have felt the same. He hid Korbu's remains, hoping that the old vampire would be forgotten and left to rest in peace. He then decided to lay down and die, right there in the cyclopes' larder.
