Guillermo del Toro FX vampire thriller The Strain will return for Season 2 this coming weekend amid the madness of Comic-Con, and its heightened visual palette has hit a new level. FX has released a new animated prequel short introducing the “Occido Lumen,” a key plot point of the new season with a dark and violent history.

The new three-minute animated short traces the origins and history of the Occido Lumen, a series of tablets (and later, a silver-plated book) with inside knowledge of the vampire Strigoi, which itself plays a key part in the new season. As you can imagine, those who come into possession of the text usually come to bloody ends, but will any such fate befall the cast when Season 2 premieres this Sunday?

So reads the official Season 2 synopsis:

As the second season unfolds, the transformation has begun. It can no longer be denied — New York City is rapidly falling to an evil epidemic, and no one is coming to its rescue. Its citizens must fight or die. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his unlikely allies tried to take down the embodiment of this evil — the Master — and failed.

Now Eph and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) concentrate on creating a biological weapon to wipe out the creatures, while Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) searches for an ancient book he hopes will reveal the strigoi’s entire history…and possibly a way to kill them.

Meanwhile, the Master is out for revenge, unleashing new and even more terrifying breeds of bloodthirsty creatures after our team. Our team must find a way to defeat him before the infection spreads too far and becomes irreparable … before they become monsters themselves.

New aspects of the series will include the vampire hunters glimpsed throughout the first season, literary characters Quinlan and the masked luchador Angel, as teased by del Toro at Comic-Con 2014. Additionally, The Amazing Spider-Man star Max Charles will replace Ben Hyland as Zach Goodweather, owing to more complicated storylines to come for the character, while the first trailer also revealed American Horror Story: Asylum star Lizzie Brochere.

Preview the origins of The Strain in the animated prequel above, and start counting down to the July 12 premiere!

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