Shilgengar's Ritual
Shilgengar's Ritual was an event on Innistrad that happened c. -2421 AR.
Shilgengar's Ritual was an event on Innistrad that happened c. -2421 AR. It is the origin of vampires on Innistrad and would shape the future of the plane for millennia.
History
During this time, the demon Shilgengar caused a great famine in the lands of what would become Stensia and then manipulated the aging human alchemist Edgar Markov into turning to blood magic to find food for his kin. Edgar was experimenting with ways to achieve agelessness for himself and his only grandson, Sorin, and when Shilgengar's famine swept the land, the demon managed to convince Edgar to start his experiments with blood. Edgar and his sons trapped the angel Marycz in his laboratory and exsanguinated her, preparing a decoction from her blood and creating a ritual that caused his subjects to feed on the blood of other beings. It provided sustenance to those few, but the demand for blood also culled the overall population, reducing the number of hungry mouths to feed. However, when he forced his grandson to turn, the trauma of the transformation caused Sorin's planeswalker spark to ignite. Sorin soon left the plane and his grandfather for the first time. However, worried about the state of his homeplane, he would frequently return to visit his home.