Vampires

[The City]

Vampires

Overview

• Classic Vampire: Immortal,Pale, Beautiful, Vulnerable to sunlight
  
• Fangs are retractable
  
• Folklore of them having no reflections, fearing garlic, crosses or religious symbol are not true
  
• The only things that will truly cause lasting harm to a vampire is sunlight and fire.
  
• They feed on human blood: they do not even need to feed every night only as they deplete their blood source (by using their powers or by being bled).
  
• Animal blood can also be drunk, but it only has half the effectiveness of human blood.
  
• Drinking the blood of other vampires causes them to enter into a euphoric state.
  
• Vampires usually drink from each other for pleasure, but to feed on other vampires for survival is considered a grave social sin.
  
• The main characteristic of vampires is that they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense emotional suffering and aesthetic passions.
  
• To become a vampire, one must be drained nearly dry, a heart beat's away from death. When they are close to death, with one breath to spare, the vampire will offer their own blood for the individual to consume. The change will occur immediately and are very apparent-- their eyes become luminous, their skin pale and smooth, their fingernails like glass, and their hair will grow back during their sleep if it is cut.
  
• Vampires never age, they will remain frozen the way they were the moment they were turned (hair length, body shape, musculature etc.)
  
• They cannot support life, so they cannot breed with other races.
  

Powers and Abilities

• The vampire’s power is tied with the store of blood in their body.
  
• Their powers are called Dark Gifts, the more of their power that they use, the more the blood supply gets depleted.
  
• Using up all their blood, effectively turns the vampire into dust.
  
  

  Basic Dark Gifts
  

• Vigor Gift - Inhuman Strength
  
• Celerity Gift - Inhuman Speed
  
• Sensory Gift - Heightened sense, especially hearing. Vampires can see very well in the dark
  
• Suspension Gift - Vampires can walk on walls and ceilings
  
• Ignorance Gift - Rapid Regeneration, enough to recover lost limbs
  
• Vestige Gift - Vampires can see, smell, taste, and touch spiritual entities.
  
• Blood Speaking Gift –Vampires also display the ability to obtain memories, emotions, and experiences through drinking the blood of other vampires.
  
• Turning Gift - Of course, each Vampire also has the ability to turn others into their kind, but few have the will to let a person survive. The act of turning something, is also something the vampires consider near sacred, and do not take lightly.
  
  Advanced Dark Gifts
  
  
• Older vampires have more powers.
  
• Vampires need to be at least 700 years old before they can develop these abilities
  
• However, vampires can also gain advanced Dark Gifts if they regularly feed on an Ancient Vampire.
  
  
• Mind Gift - Telepathy and Telekinesis
  
• Cloud Gift – Sustained Flight
  
• Haze Gift – Ability to transform into a gaseous, mist, or fog-like form.
  
• Resistance Gift – Some of the ancients have gained a resistance to the effects of sunlight.
  
• Fiend Gift – This allows a Vampire to shift their form, into that of a large swarm of bat-like creatures.

Weaknesses

• Sunlight Kills them
  
• A Vampire must be in direct contact with sunlight, so hiding under the shadow of a tree or a building can keep them safe.
  
• Also vulnerable to artificial sunlight/U.V. rays ut to a lesser degree
  
• Any significant damage done to their circulatory system that will prevent it from working will kill them.
  
• A complete decapitation where the head is separated from the body, will effectively kill them as well, unless the body and head be rejoined within twenty-four hours.
  
• They suffer from bloodlust, especially when they haven't fed.
  
• As mentioned before, they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense emotional suffering and aesthetic passions.
  
• Magic which is purification in nature do damage them as well.
  
• Since Vampires are essentially magically reanimated corpses, they can also be susceptible to powerful necromancy.

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[Crisis]

Vampires - Extended Lore

Overview
The vampire’s beauty carries with it a mystique, and a confusing attraction that can be compared to how people can’t help but look into the darkness, despite the inherent feelings warning them not to. People get attracted to them, much like they do the ideas revolving around death and the afterlife. All Vampires begin as normal humans, until they are turned into a creature of darkness. As a rule, Vampires do not reveal their existence to the world, and have been effectively doing so for millions of years. They have even gone as far as spreading rumors that have become ingrained in folklore to throw off the normal human populace.

The stories pertaining around Vampires are not always true. Folklore speaks of them having no reflections, fearing garlic, crosses or religious symbols. These however are not true, and the only things that will truly cause lasting harm to a vampire is sunlight and fire.

It is human blood which vampires wholesomely feed on in order to thrive. They need blood, they do not even need to feed every night only as they deplete their blood source (by using their powers or by being bled). Human blood is preferred as it is more nutritious and is a more powerful source for vampires to utilize their power. Animal blood can also be drunk, but it only has half the effectiveness of human blood. They can also drink the blood of other vampires, and this causes them to enter into a euphoric state. Vampires usually drink from each other for pleasure, but to feed on other vampires for survival is considered a grave social sin.

They do not age physically (instead becoming more "statuesque" as they age, developing very smooth, white skin), and in all but a few cases, vampires younger than a thousand years old can usually be killed by exposure to sunlight or fire.

The main characteristic of vampires is that they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense emotional suffering and aesthetic passions. They are usually quite attractive, even beautiful, as being turned into a vampire releases all of the person’s potential of beauty.

To become a vampire, one must be drained nearly dry, a heart beat's away from death. When they are close to death, with one breath to spare, the vampire will offer their own blood for the individual to consume. The change will occur immediately and are very apparent-- their eyes become luminous, their skin pale and smooth, their fingernails like glass, and their hair will grow back during their sleep if it is cut. Vampires never age, they will remain frozen the way they were the moment they were turned (hair length, body shape, musculature etc.)

As they lose all natural bodily fluids, they are essentially rendered incapable of procreating. Vampires are more or less magically reanimated corpses, they cannot support life.

Powers and Abilities
The vampire’s power is tied with the store of blood in their body. The more of their power that they use, the more the blood supply gets depleted. A vampire who exhausts their blood supply because of overusing their powers will effectively turn to dust once the last drop is gone. Vampire blood is considered a magical substance that can be utilized by mages for various magical rituals.

Basic Dark Gifts

• Vigor Gift - They are inhumanly strong, possibly equaling the strength of five average humans paralleling their body size. As they grow older however, this strength increases and the ancients are known to be able to overpower younger werewolves with ease.
  
  
• Celerity Gift - They also move exceptionally fast, sometimes seeming only a blur of movement. They can evade gunfire and effortlessly perform feats of acrobatics that would otherwise leave a normal human dizzy and exhausted.
  
  
• Sensory Gift - Their senses are more finely tuned than that of humans, their sense of hearing possibly the most developed out of all five. They can usually track down their prey with the beating of their heart alone. Vampires can also see very well in the dark.
  
  
• Suspension Gift - Certain aspects of physics are unable to touch vampires normally. One of these is gravity, although vampires cannot fly (except for the Ancient ones) they can easily walk across walls and ceilings as they do the ground. It is not exactly similar like how spiders or lizards do it, but vampires unconsciously shift the effects of gravity around them. As a result, even their clothes and hair do not dangle to the ground.
  
  
• Ignorance Gift - Vampires are immune to most attacks other than their known weaknesses because they are apparently able to heal quickly. Vampires are known to feel pain, they just get over it quickly. All vampires can potentially heal from any non-fatal wound, including incomplete decapitation but time and blood are needed. A bullet wound, for instance, would heal within seconds, but serious burns from a fire would require decades, if not centuries, to heal.
  
  
• Vestige Gift - Floating between the state of death and life, vampires are supernatural creatures who are able to interact with the immaterial world. Vampires possess the ability to naturally see ghosts and other types of spirits and even go as far as to touch them.
  
  
• Blood Speaking Gift –Vampires also display the ability to obtain memories, emotions, and experiences through drinking the blood of other vampires. Two vampires who frequently feed from each other end up creating a permanent empathic link, which allows them to sense the general state of each other and always have an awareness of their location. When younger vampires feed from ancient vampires on a regular basis, their abilities increase exponentially and at times they may manifest advanced Dark Gifts despite not achieving the sufficient age yet.
  
  
• Turning Gift - Of course, each Vampire also has the ability to turn others into their kind, but few have the will to let a person survive. The act of turning something, is also something the vampires consider near sacred, and do not take lightly.

Advanced Dark Gifts

As a vampire grows older, they develop new and more powerful abilities. It should be noted however that these advanced powers require more blood to be spent than normal vampire abilities. Vampires need to be at least 700 years old before they can develop these abilities, and need around a hundred years before they can perfect it. These Vampires are called the Ancients. However, vampires can also gain advanced Dark Gifts if they regularly feed on an Ancient Vampire. It makes sense to say that the older the vampire is, the more powerful they become.

• Mind Gift - This is the ability to communicate and read thoughts, especially of humans, and to move objects with the mind. This gift is used largely to obtain blood – since via telepathy a criminal or amoral human can be sensed. A vampire of sufficient power or age may also unwillingly 'hear' the thoughts of all the humans within range of this power, leading to old vampires saying: "If you do not learn to silence the voices, they will drive you mad." The older the vampire, the heavier the things they can lift with their mind.
  
  
• Cloud Gift – This is an evolution of the suspension gift. The vampire learns to manipulate the warped gravitational field allow them to achieve flight.
  
  
• Haze Gift – Ability to transform into a gaseous, mist, or fog-like form. This includes clothes and whatever the else the character is in physical contact with at the time. With sufficient age and practice, a vampire can also learn to turn other being into mist but must consciously maintain them in that state or else they will revert back to their solid form.
  
  
• Resistance Gift – Some of the ancients have gained a resistance to the effects of sunlight. Their healing factor is able to keep-up with the injuries inflicted by sunlight and fire. However, they will still die once their blood supply is completely depleted.
  
  
• Fiend Gift – This allows a Vampire to shift their form, into that of a large swarm of bat-like creatures. They retain the common features of chiroptera order but are infinitely stronger and more durable. Each single fiend is an extension of the Vampire and shares a hive mind. As long as a single fiend survives, it can revert back to the vampire’s original form. The older the vampire, the greater the swarm he can transform into.

Weaknesses
The Vampire’s main weakness is sunlight. They are unable to step out during the morning as they will begin to burn. The older a vampire is, the longer it will take for them to burn, for the simple reason that their regeneration works faster than new vampires. Ultimately they can only stay in direct contact with the sun for two hours or so with every single second in blinding agony. A Vampire must be in direct contact with sunlight, so hiding under the shadow of a tree or a building can keep them safe.

Vampires are similarly vulnerable to artificial sunlight or U.V. rays. Albeit to a much lesser degree than naturally occurring sunlight. Vampires also have a weakness to fire as it is one of the few injuries that they cannot regenerate from immediately. They can also survive most injuries but there are trademark weak spots in the vampire physiology. Any significant damage done to their circulatory system that will prevent it from working will kill them. So a rupturing of enough blood vessels or the destruction of their heart will kill them. A complete decapitation where the head is separated from the body, will effectively kill them as well, unless the body and head be rejoined within twenty-four hours.

Apart from their physical weaknesses, Vampires have weaknesses in their mental and emotional faculty. They all possess this blood lust, the younger ones are more susceptible to it than the older ones. But as a whole, a Vampire cannot go extremely long without feeding, else they go into a frenzy. A Vampire will also require a sufficient amount of willpower to pass on a free meal.

As mentioned before, they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense emotional suffering and aesthetic passions. This makes them easy prey for demons who take advantage of their emotional weakness. Vampires, although not necessarily evil, do have souls which are considered tainted by some form of magic. Therefore magic which is purification in nature do damage them as well. These are some reasons why many folklore about vampires always being evil exist.

Finally, since Vampires are essentially magically reanimated corpses, they can also be susceptible to powerful necromancy. However, the older a vampire is, the more resilient they become to the magical control of others.