The First World War (also known as World War I or WWI) was a major military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved all the world's great powers. During this time, an Irish soldier by the name of John Mitchell, who was fighting on the side of the British, came across a group of vampires in France picking through corpses on the battlefield. Their leader, Herrick, agreed to spare the rest of the men if Mitchell allowed himself to be bitten, thus transferring the vampire curse onto him.