Vargheists

The Vargheists are vampires undone by their own curse, noble bloodsuckers who surrendered so utterly to the blood-hunger that flesh and mind alike warped into monstrous new shapes. Grown huge and bat-winged, their faces stretched into snarling muzzles crowded with fangs, they retain nothing of the poise and cunning that once defined them: only an endless, screaming appetite. The lords of the Soulblight Gravelords keep these degenerate cousins chained in crypt and oubliette, loosing them upon the battlefield as living weapons when subtlety is no longer required. Vargheists strike from above, plummeting out of the dark on leathery wings to seize prey in raking talons and tear it apart in a frenzy of blood. They feel no fear, obey no order beyond the direction of their hunger, and do not stop while anything living remains to be rent. To their vampire masters they are a cautionary tale given claws: a glimpse of the ruin that waits for any who cannot master the thirst.