From the introduction: Targoviste, Wallachia. The year of our Lord, 1475. The human wife of Dracula, Lisa Tepes, has just crumbled to ash - having been burnt at the stake in the main square by priests in front of a group of onlookers. The crowd is horrified as the furious, demonic visage of Dracula appears in the flames, cursing the humans of Wallachia for taking the woman he loved from him. He vows to rain his wrath down upon them, giving them a year to wipe away all traces of their existence from his land and leave before the forces of Hell itself comes to claim their souls. A massive explosion wracks the square in front of the cathedral, and fire begins to rain from the sky.