sorceress Aamshed created a spell that could magnify a vampire's power, but Aamshed twisted the spell so that it could only be cast on a vampire's home soil (which, in Varnae's case, no longer existed), and it could only be cast every 2,000 years. When the next opportunity came to cast the spell around 1 AD, Varnae attempted to mystically raise Atlantis, but Aamshed foiled his plans. During the Viking Age, Varnae traveled to North America, where he discovered a colony of Vikings and battled the Norse god Thor. Eventually, Varnae tired of his existence, and set events in motion that would grant him a successor as the Lord of the Vampires. In the 15th century, Varnae manipulated a war between the Turkish Lord Turac and Dracula, who was then the mortal Vlad Tepes, prince of Transylvania. During a battle with Turac's forces, Dracula was fatally wounded by the immortal Apocalypse, but was saved from death when he was bitten and transformed into a vampire by Varnae's servant Lianda. Varnae rewarded Lianda with death, and rewarded another minion, Nimrod, with a taste of Varnae's own blood. Varnae named Nimrod the Lord of the Vampires, then set Nimrod against the fledgling vampire Dracula as a test for Dracula, who was his real choice for the title. As Varnae watched from afar, Dracula slew Nimrod and his lover Lala, only to be slain alongside the assembled vampires by a mortal priest. Varnae arranged for one of his minions to deflower a virgin near the waters where Dracula's ashes had been scattered; exposure to the former virgin's hymeneal blood was enough for Dracula to return to life. Dracula then slew the minion and confronted Varnae, but Varnae effortlessly overpowered Dracula. Varnae then forced Dracula to drink his blood to the point of saturation, placed Dracula in a coffin to sleep through the coming day, and walked into the dawn to die in the sunlight. In the modern day, the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau sought the blood of a vampire; she had been given a potion in the 19th century by the immortal Cagliostro that would make her temporarily ageless, but each draught of the potion required a vampire's blood. Doctor Strange, the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, had previously used the Darkhold's Montesi Formula to destroy all of the Earth's vampires (including Dracula) and prevent any more vampires from being created. Although Laveau had once