Edgar Markov is the founder of the Markov bloodline, and the very first vampire of Innistrad. Thousands of years ago he was an aging human alchemist, experimenting with ways to achieve agelessness for himself and his only grandson, Sorin. When famine was sweeping the land, the demon Shilgengar convinced Edgar to start experiments with blood. Markov and his sons trapped the angel Marycz in his laboratory and exsanguinated her, preparing a decoction from her blood and created a ritual which caused his subjects to feed on the blood of other beings.