Hope And Despair - The Heart of the Prophecy
The humans are on the brink of a descent that will end in their extinction. With medicine and technology constantly improving, they have become so far removed from the natural order that they're own evolution has slowed to a crawl. Unable to keep up with the changes in the environment around them, they are slowly dying.
Every attempt for the body to learn how to evolve, is treated as a disease that must be eradicated rather than being seen for what it is, mutations in the body that cannot complete because the cells are looking for an answer that isn't there.
That answer lies within the body of a single woman. However, in what must be done to allow her mutation to spread, she could easily become the one to both save the human race and enslave it.
The predictions within the Prophecy are not yet complete. Three paths for humanity are laid out, their roads branching from one single moment in time where the mutation needed to save them exists.
The Path Of Extinction says that the human race will die out within five hundred years after the turn of the century. This will happen because the woman who carries the answer within her blood will be killed before she can save humanity.
The Path of Black Fire says that the woman will be turned into a vampire by the ShadowCrafter. His blood, mixed with hers, will allow her mutation to spread, but inside it will be shadows of the Paragon who turned her. Most of humanity will not survive the spreading darkness, but those that do will be little more than slaves to a dark god.
Finally, the Path of Salvation and the survival of mankind, rests in the ability of this woman to not only stay alive, but to work together with the vampire god who wishes her dead. It is only with their combined powers that the human race, and thus the Descendants themselves, will be able to thrive. This is the path that most vampires choose to believe in.
The Prophets and Priests
Every few generations, a new prophet awakens within the vampires. This oracle has the power to decipher the words of the one before them, see further into the future, and see how the Prophecy itself has changed after there has been interference.
The Priests of the Prophet are an order who will pass down information from the Prophecy to the vampires, when the Ukhozi asks them to. Though they do not know his reasons for keeping the Prophecy shrouded in mystery, they do not question his judgment, nor his periodic interferences in events that will shape the outcome for mankind.