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A Vampire is an undead creature which subsists on the blood of the living; namely that of warm-blooded creatures such as humans and other mammals. Driven by bloodlust and endowed with immortality, vampires have preyed upon humans for millennia and have thus been hunted in return.
Like many other inhuman denizens of the Earth, vampires enjoy a delicate anonymity; protected by a thin veil of ignorance perpetuated both by literature and superstition as well as the machinations of societies such as the Vatican which seek to either exterminate or exploit them.
As a breed, vampires are effectively endangered. While it is relatively easy to create a new vampire, or even a whole coven, vampires have deliberately kept their numbers down to ensure anonymity and a steady blood supply. Additionally, hunters have similarly policed their ranks.
History
Origin
- "Cain - first son of Adam and Eve - slew his brother Abel out of anger and was cast out of Eden into the wilderness. He wandered for a time in solitude and suffering until he met the woman called Lilith. (...) God sent His archangels to warn Cain, to save him from the evils of Satan, but Cain rejected them and welcomed Lilith's embrace."
- – Passages from Chapter XXVI of Father Francis Del Guidice's The Book of Demons and Other Preternatural Beings. [src]
According to the lore understood by the Vatican, vampires are the accursed progeny of Cain and Lilith; the First Murderer and the First Woman respectively, both tracing their early days back to the Garden of Eden and both having been exiled from the garden for defying God's will.
Characteristics
Siring Process
Originally human, vampires are created through the process of siring. As they are resurrected corpses and thus void of any miscellaneous bodily fluids or organic functions, they cannot procreate as humans do. Instead, they must kill and convert living humans into their bloodline.
Coven Structure
Powers & Abilities
Powers
- "They are, however, very quick, very strong, and very agile."
- – Transcript from Father Del Guidice's book. [src]
- Unending Unlife: As per their undead nature, vampires are effectively immortal; they do not age nor decay with the passing of time, instead becoming stronger and more experienced as the years go on - remaining cosmetically frozen within the appearance they had at the moment of their resurrection.
- Enhanced Healing: Their unnatural tolerance for pain brought on by their deadened nerves make vampires highly resilient creatures. Wounds from common weapons - even gunfire - mend themselves in seconds without causing them any seeming discomfort. In extreme cases, they can reattach a severed limb.
- Unnatural Stamina: As they are arisen corpses, vampires are insusceptible to some of the same limitations and requirements of a live body. Their lungs do not actually need oxygen; although they can still drown or asphyxiate, it will not kill them - merely rendering them unconscious and dilapidated.
- Increased Strength: As paranormal predators of mankind, vampires innately exhibit strength far beyond that of any human; sufficient to press the weight of a large car. Experienced vampires casually dismember men single-handedly; beheading them with a swipe or sending them across a room with a touch.
- Inhuman Speed: Intended to hunt their prey through stealth and celerity, vampires are among the fastest bipedal creatures on the Earth; able to move at blurring velocities sufficient to sidestep bullets and catch any human without strain. They regard their speed and senses as their best assets.
- Heightened Senses: As predators, all vampires possess preternaturally heightened senses of smell and hearing; sufficient enough to parallel those of a bloodhound or a bat respectively. Their sense of eyesight is also noticeably augmented; sufficient to see clearly even when under complete darkness.
- Surface Adhesion: In addition to their preternatural speed of movement, vampires possess the ability to crawl upon sheer surfaces such as walls and ceilings with a grace comparable to that of a vampire bat. They usually use this ability to survey their prey and move about unnoticed in the shadows.
Abilities
- Scent Tracking: With their senses of smell and hearing being particularly attuned to the smell of blood and the sound of a heartbeat respectively, vampires are natural trackers; effectively making them blood hounds. Once they have a creature's scent, they can always recall it whenever they hunt.
- Stealth Hunting: When vampires move slowly, they unconsciously exhibit a preternatural silence as well as seeming to simply fade out of a person's peripheral vision; provided they are alone and remain outside of their target's field of vision, never speaking to them directly or making any ruckus.
- Unarmed Fighting: Even if a vampire has no experience with unarmed fighting, the increased strength and accelerated reflexes they experience upon being turned endow them with an innate ability to defend themselves from attackers as well as learn to better use their new speed to outsmart opponents.
Weaknesses
- "Any exposure of the flesh to direct sunlight will cause vampiri to spontaneously combust, and burn until naught but ashes remain. (...) The surest way to kill a vampiri, other than by sunlight, is by transfixing its heart on a wooden stake."
- – Transcripts from Father Del Guide's book. [src]
- Immolation: Vampire blood is noticeably combustible in that it functions like a flammable oil. A vampire's unliving flesh is similarly susceptible to flames; comparable to a dry piece of wood being set slight. With this knowledge, those who would hunt vampires have utilized fire as a weapon.
- Strong Sunlight: The sun is universally regarded as the bane of a vampire's unlife; it is what drives them into the darkness and compels them to fall into a deathly slumber during the daylight hours. Its brightest and largest rays are like pillars of flame perpetually descending from the heavens.
- Anatomical Loss: Although they exhibit exceptional regenerative capabilities, vampires do possess limits to the amount of damage they can recover from. Decapitation or having their hearts extracted will kill them, as can severe explosions at ground zero or being submerged in destructive elements.
- Cardiac Arrest: Despite being a reanimated corpse, vampires retain a functioning circulatory system; their hearts kept beating by the mystical energies of their bodies to ensure a blood flow. If the heart is pierced or otherwise stopped, circulation ceases and the immobilized vampire desiccates.
- Bloodlessness: Although they possess seemingly limitless stamina, vampires are limited by the amount of blood in their circulatory system. If a vampire does not feed for at least a week or is drained of blood from an outside source, they will begin to starve and weaken; and will soon desiccate.
- Sleeplessness: All vampires are compelled into a deathly coma with the coming of the sun. In this state, their hearts stop and they begin to desiccate; being effectively fully dead. As they age, they can resist this slumber to a degree; but ultimately succumb as their bodies begin to bleed out.