PurpleXVI posted:

Vampires, and in general the undead, have been very rare(Black Slayers only, really) or non-existent(in the case of vampires) in Feist's previous books.

The Assassins introduces the first vampire, and now in Return/Tear of the Gods there's an entire plague of them.

The writing does imply that the undead generally exist, though, since the faithful of Lims-Kragma are noted as really hating them. So it's possible that the undead were previously a regular issue until a bunch of angry death cultists went out and made them just plain dead.

EDIT: Oh, and The Assassins doesn't have a werewolf... but it does have a werepanther when an evil wizard assassin turns himself into one.