Vampires



Vampires. We've all heard about them. Creatures of the night that can live for centuries, millennia even... At the cost of the lives of their numerous victims. While some take a certain secret pity of them, others, usually mad man, actually envy their near-immortality. Most merely fear and hate them, and with reason.

Above all, vampires are cold, murderous and deceptive, or at least that is what the legends say...

Overview.
Strengths: Increased speed. Increased Strength. Keen sense of smell and hearing. Regeneration. Illusion. (Read more in next section.)

Weakneses: Sunlight. Loud noises and pungent smells. Holy weapons and spells. Their Heart is a vulnerable target.

Immunities:  Spells that effect 'souls'. Most poisons.

Notes: Must feed on 6 gallons of human blood per week or deteriorate. Hunted and hated in almost all societies.

(please read below for more detail.)

The Vampire.
Vampires often walk in the guise of a mortal, such as a human, through the use of their innate illusion magic, though do not be fool, beneath this guise they are in fact, hideous monstrosities.

Due to their undead nature, vampires share many of the classic immunities (Ex: Immunity to effects that would affect their soul, as well as most poisons), and weaknesses (Generally, weakness to holy magic) of normal undead. However, unlike unintelligent undead, they are very much able to feel pain. Apart from that, they share some others strengths and weaknesses, including: Vampires have a superior amount of strength and speed when compared to their human counterparts. How superior depends on how strong they originally were, and how old they are.

Usually, an average teenage girl who has just been turned into a vampire will have around the same amount of strength and speed as your average tiger: Generally, those that reach 100 years or more are the ones considered truly threatening (Despite the fact they don't age: Many still die at a young age, be it at the hand of other vampires wanting to eliminate competition, or vampire hunters that are smart enough to see through their disguise. Most of such deaths happen exactly when they are still weak and inexperienced.).

They also seem to have the ability to alter their appearance: While this is merely a illusion, changing their image but NOT their true bodies, thus making it useless in combat; this is one of their abilities that makes them so good at infiltrating in normal human society, as their true appearance is usually quite twisted and monstrous. They have an impressive regeneration ability; Given a couple of days-Or much less, if they feed during the regeneration-They can grow a lost limb, or even, a lost head. It is strongly believed such regeneration is mostly responsible for how they do not age.

Their sense of hearing and smell are also far sharper then the ones of a normal human, although the same cannot be told about their sight, which will be exactly as good as it used it to be: Even then, they can guide their selves through such other senses as well as a human through his eyes: In extreme cases, they can even listen to ones very heartbeat at a distance.

However, the curse does not comes without its weaknessess.

Their regeneration depends on the heart being on a good state to work: Thus, the simplest, most guaranteed way to permanently kill a vampire is simply to strike their heart somehow. Injuries caused by holy weapons or magic don't seem to quite regenerate as well as normal; It can take months, if not years, for them to grow back a limb if it has been cut off by a holy weapon. There is also, of course, sunlight; It burns their skin as fire would burn ours, causing immense pain and, obviously, death, if they are to stick around it for more then a few minutes.

Their keen sense of hearing and smell is not always a good thing for them either, as very strong noises or smells can be literally painful to then. They depend on a relatively constant supply of blood to survive: Usually, about 6 gallons a week of human blood is enough to keep then alive and strong. If they spend too long without feeding, besides an ever-increasing pain from the thirst itself, they will after a couple of weeks, stop regenerating, and begin rotting and decaying, although the process can be reversed if they DO get the blood they need to survive.

Their bite is not, in and by itself, automatically lethal or infective: In fact, elder vampires will usually keep a... Cattle, so they are not forced to hunt as often. It DOES produce a neurotoxin which acts in a similar way to morphine, anesthetizing the victim and leaving them slower, more lethargic, and less likely to succeed at escaping.

Being undead, they are completely unable to reproduce conventionally; But their blood is highly infective, and if it enters in contact with a human bloodstream, or is ingested by such human, the transformation shall begin. On the first three days, while the person is still mostly human, has a soul, and does not actually hunger for blood yet; it can be reversed by entering contact with holy magic; After becoming a full vampire however, nobody knows if there is any mean to make then human again.

An anonymous vampire once described their racial thirst as:

-- "It is not quite a hunger or thirst, at least not alone, not in the way a human would understand it... It is also a... Desire. AS if you could feel every cell of your body craving for it, something as physical as psychological. It is the kind of pain a human would probably never experience... And, when you satiate such hunger... Words cannot describe the ecstasy it causes... Or how much you hate yourself, for loving it."

Vampiric Origins
Not much is known about the exact origins of vampires: However, there are rumours that long ago, a mage tried use magic to resurrect his dead wife, however, the process didn't go quite as planned. While her body was restored, her soul, as one would call it, was not... Instead, she was possessed with a deep hunger for the blood and life of humans. Regardless of their origins, vampires still hunger for human lives.

The combination of their infiltration abilities and their illusions make them a very real threat on the lives of everyday citizen. While Vampires are more common in Draconia where the government does essentially nothing against them, some live in secret within the Kingdom of Dagnia.

Unlike what the stories tell, not all vampires are completely evil. After all, vampires keep their intelligence, memories and not rarely, at least initially, keep the personality they had as humans. Merely, their hunger is so strong, eventually emotions like empathy, love and compassion begin to fade away from their psychology, until eventually, it has reached a state on which there is no hope of redemption for them: They are now simply monsters to be put down.

But there are a few who fight against it, who fight to keep as much of their human personalities as possible... They will usually try and find some more... Moral... Form of sustenance, be it animals, criminals, or in rare cases, even volunteers... But still, these few are simply too rare, and the well deserved bad reputation of their kind winds up staining them as well.

They have grown to become a full-on plague in Draconia. Mostly because some of its clans have... Deals... With the pirates that rule there. Essentially; In exchange for serving them as assassins, they gain permission and protection to hunt as they please. Draconia is probably the only place in the world where it is actually illegal to hunt vampires... In Dagnia, they are far, far rarer and the very few that exist are, while not more benevolent, at least more... Subtle... In their methods. That does not mean however, that people wont disappear because of them... Merely that their bodies wont be found.