The Slaughter Cult and Alfred's vampire church truly existed in very similar circumstances. Both were hated by everyone, perhaps even worse. To the gods, vampires were an utterly detestable species. It was bad enough that they fed on people, but more importantly, once they turned intelligent beings into vampires, those souls could no longer return to the gods' domains and could only eventually flow into lower planes such as the Abyss and the Hells.
Thus, vampires had actually lived rather miserably these past years. They held no value whatsoever. The two things the gods valued—faith and souls—were both things vampires could not provide. On top of that, vampires weakened the gods' ability to harvest faith and souls. This made their living conditions even worse.
For a race with no value at all that also caused losses for the gods, surviving and reproducing until today had already been no easy feat.
In the past, vampires had merely been a minor problem. They were skilled at hiding, and their strength could not be underestimated. The price of wiping them out completely was too high, so the gods had more or less tolerated their existence. As long as they did not cause any major trouble, no one would deliberately go looking for them.
Of course, if vampires were discovered, the various churches would not show them any mercy.
But now, Alfred actually wanted to ascend to godhood, and that touched the gods' most sensitive nerve. After all, vampires reproduced by turning others into vampires! This method of stealing faith was practically cheating. Other gods needed faith, had to preach, organize churches, and do all manner of things. But for vampires, once they gave someone the Embrace, the new vampire had no choice but to believe in the god of vampires.
Moreover, expanding one's