Slaying the Vampire Conqueror is a standalone novel set within the expansive fantasy world of Carissa Broadbent’s Crowns of Nyaxia series. This universe is defined by a deep theological and political schism originating 2,000 years prior to the novel’s events. The central conflict is between the White Pantheon, a group of gods worshipped by humans in kingdoms like Glaea, and Nyaxia, the exiled goddess of night, shadow, and blood. Once a lesser goddess, Nyaxia was cast out after the White Pantheon executed her husband, Alarus, the god of death, for their forbidden marriage. In a rage, she created vampires and established her own society on the continent of Obitraes. Obitraes is divided into three rival kingdoms, the House of Shadow, the House of Night, and the House of Blood.

Atrius and his army hail from the House of Blood, who are reviled by the other vampire houses and feared by humans. One of their ancestors offended Nyaxia, and she cursed all Bloodborn vampires, condemning them to short, brutal lifespans. The only deity in the White Pantheon who shows some tolerance toward Nyaxia, is Acaeja, the goddess of fate worshipped by Sylina’s order. However, the novel’s ending frays the tentative link between the goddesses when Atrius sacrifices the Sightmother, one of Acajea’s most devout acolytes, to Nyaxia. The goddess of fate insinuates that the slight will carry grave consequences: “You have crossed a line here today. Done what cannot be undone” (314). Acajea’s warning suggests that the events of this novel will influence the war between the gods that unfolds later in the series. In addition, the Epilogue features Septimus, a scheming prince of the House of Blood first introduced in The Serpent and the Wings of Night (2022). In The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King (2023), Septimus opposes the series’ main protagonist, Oraya, and her love interest, Raihn. The prince’s primary objective is to break the curse on the Bloodborn vampires. He seeks Alarus’s remains, which confer great power on the wielder, and he flees after his attempted coup against Raihn fails. This intricate history of divine warfare and political strife provides the crucial backdrop for the novel’s plot, framing Atrius’s invasion of Glaea a desperate act rooted in millennia of exile and divine punishment.