Coen

You play as Coen, and on paper he’s the opposite of the usual vampire-game power fantasy. He isn’t a brooding aristocrat or a centuries-old predator — he’s a young peasant from Vale Sangora, the eldest of four children, who started working the silver mines beside his father as a boy. He dreamed of leaving the valley to find adventure but never could; his family needed him, and he refused to abandon them.

How he became a Dawnwalker

That mining past is the hinge of the entire story. Years underground gave Coen silver poisoning, and when the vampire lord Brencis tries to turn him, the silver in his blood stops the transformation from completing. Coen is left caught between two states: fully human by day, vampire by night — a Dawnwalker.

The premise ties the mechanics to the emotion. You’re human in daylight because Coen is still human, clinging to the people he loves. You become a monster at night because that’s the price of the power he needs to save them.

What drives him

Coen’s quest is intensely personal rather than world-saving. His sister Lunka is stricken with the plague; his mother is Esme. When Brencis saves Lunka with vampire blood and then turns that mercy into leverage, Coen is left with roughly 30 days to save his family — the stakes that frame the whole adventure. (It isn’t a punishing real-time clock; see our 30-day time limit explainer.)

Playing as Coen

Because Coen straddles two natures, how you use his vampire side is a running narrative choice — embrace the monster for raw power, or hold onto his humanity. For how that plays out in combat and progression, see our combat and hex magic and vampire powers and wolf form guides.