Norcferatu Heartless

Devotion or delusion? The Heartless don't care.

These orc-dhampir hybrids, known as the Norcferatu Heartless, have taken the blood cult's rituals to new extremes. In an act of misplaced piety and symbolic purification, they have literally removed their own hearts. This brutal rite, performed with crude blades and guided by superstition, is said to sever emotional weakness and fear of death. Whether or not it truly grants them any advantage is debatable, most experts agree it does absolutely nothing. And yet, the legend persists. The removed hearts are preserved in unholy amphorae, bound in iron and blood-sigil wards. Some wear them on chains. Others hide them in shrines. None dare destroy them, for the Heartless believe their soul still resides within.

In combat, they are unstoppable fanatics. Melee brutes with unnatural resilience, they charge headlong into enemy lines, impervious to pain and utterly indifferent to their own survival. Their bodies are riddled with scars, not from battle, but from self-inflicted mutilation, each one a badge of loyalty to a cause that offers no redemption.