Fernam

Fernam
Gender	Male
Race	Human (formerly?)
Affiliation	Blood Knights (formerly)
Occupation	Soldier (formerly) Blood Knight (formerly?)
Status	Unknown
Appearances	Diablo Immortal (mentioned only) Book of Lorath (mentioned only)

Fernam was the founder of the Blood Knights.

Biography

Centuries before the destruction of the Worldstone, Fernam was a soldier assigned to protect a lord in Gea Kul, who was was infatuated with vampires and their immortality. One day, a vampire imprisoned in the lord's keep broke free, killed the lord, and gravely wounded Fernam during the escape, infecting him with vampirism. Fortunately, the lord's top Mage—a premier scholar on the subject of vampirism—had performed a ritual on Fernam to stop the spread before he was transformed into a feral, mindless thrall. The Mage was successful in keeping him alive, but instead of granting immortality, Fernam unexpectedly inherited some of the vampire’s power.

The Mage had been mortally wounded in the scuffle, and with his dying breath, taught Fernam how to perform the ritual that saved his life. At any moment, Fernam could succumb to his newfound darkness and transform indefinitely into a vampiric thrall. After cheating fate, Fernam took his lord's wealth and moved into the catacombs below the keep. He formed the order of Blood Knights, used the catacombs as a training ground, and passed on knowledge of the curse-suspending ritual that saved his life along with the way of his preferred weapon, the polearm.

At a point, Fernam made a helm to symbolize his war against the darkness.

Legacy

Fernam later disappeared, and was replaced by a Blood Knight council. All Blood Knights take the same oath Fernam made—"all that remains of my life, weighed against the darkness."

Before he left, Fernam entrusted his birthmantle, stained with the blood of dozens of vampires, to his order. The mantle became a treasured artefact, and it was an affront for it to be worn outside a chapterhouse.

After Fernam vanished, he was accused of vagrancy for not assisting his order. Replicas of his original helm were made, which saved enough Blood Knights from decapitation that it has acquired its own legendry status, and led to murmurs of the first knight watching over the chapterhouse still.

Two relics of Fernam are known to survive; the Crown of Fernam and the Fang of Fernam. Taken together, the two artifacts represent the duality that exists within all Blood Knights.