Vampires

((Full lore written by Mack))


GENERAL HISTORY



((NOTE: THIS HISTORY SKELETON IS NOT FINAL AND MIGHT VERY WELL COME TO CHANGE))



Vampirism has, since the beginning revolved around the drinking of blood. The very first vampires were the true children of Shar, not because they were born from her, but because they returned to her, and drank her blood, becoming one with her like none of her other children could. Since then, the gift of the goddess of darkness has been passed through the blood of her children, generation after generation. Rumors speak that the origin of vampires traces back to Shar in the void. Shar seeked to create a champion for her cause in the mortal realm, and thus created what is today referred to as a "Blessed" vampire. (Other aliases: Gifted of Shar)



The story according to the rumors;



"The first vampire was a great being indeed. He walked the realm, following Shar's every bidding. He later found a girl, which he fell in love with. When he told her about his "condition", she was of course frightened. When she found out he fed upon blood, she tried to escape. But he quickly caught up to her and overpowered her, as he cried "Love me!" he plunged his fangs into her neck by instinct, draining her completely. When he realized what he had done, he quickly acted, and used his fangs to cut his own wrist, getting as much of his own blood into her veins as he could. He took her with him to the Void. And when she woke up a few days later, she had also grown fangs, and turned into a vampire. But not quite as strong as the original. And thus, the vampire was born.





The vampire used to be a feared thing. Upon learning of their feeding habits, guards and militias all over Oldenland banned all vampires from towns, outcasting them completely. That has only recently changed for reasons unknown. Only in Occitan are vampires still banned from towns. But due to the very hard task of telling vampire from human coupled with the fact that vampires are hard to kill, the Holy Legion has virtually given up. Although there is still a law against vampire presence inside Occitanian borders.



FEEDING AND BLOOD





Blood is the only source of nutrition for all vampires, and any attempt at consuming any other source of food will not satisfy any hunger the vampire is experiencing. The food itself will be broken down in vampire's stomach and then cast back up in the form of vomit after roughly a day.

Vampires have different tastes in blood. Much like humans and other races have different tastes in food. It's all about personal preferences. One vampire might love the taste of kazuth blood, but hate orch blood. Another vampire might love human blood but hate kazuth blood. It's all dependent on the individual.

One general thing, however, is elf blood. Elf blood will always taste sour and/or bitter to vampires. Due to the purity of the blood, vampires will barely even feed on elves while in bloodrage.

Unfortunately for those vampires that attempt to live in peace with other races, blood culled from the veins of beasts seems inadequate to fully feed the Hunger despite a Vampire's personal tastes.

Another thing is vampires feeding on other vampires. Their gag reflex will immediately activate and make them throw up, should they attempt to feed on another vampire. Vampires will never feed on others of their kin. Not even when the Hunger takes over.





APPEARANCE





Vampires keep most of their human attributes when turned. There have been cases where vampires are known to change hair and/or eye color to something very obscure. Such as purple, orange, red and so on. Of course, this also means that vampires are known to change between the more normal ones too.

The only other difference between vampires and their previously human selves would be the fangs. But not even this is a certainty. Although it's very rare, some vampires have never grown fangs. But this has been discarded as a simple genetic retardation.



SIRING





Siring can be referred to as the vampire way of preserving their species. Siring is the act of turning someone into a vampire through a simple process. But the process is also dangerous. Both for the vampire and the victim. Or lucky one. Depending on personal views.



The process goes like this;

The vampire must first drain the one to be sired of all blood, and then replace it with their own. But the right amount of blood is needed. Since vampires can still bleed to death, they need to be careful when siring, and make sure that they can close their own wounds quickly, or they will die.

25 % of the vampires blood is needed for the sired one to survive. Any less, and it will not survive the process. Any more, and the vampire itself will die.

Should two vampires attempt to sire the same individual by giving part of their respective blood, the hunger will take over instantly and cause the vampires to fight to the death. It is said this is to combat abnormalities within vampire society.







THE "LESSER VAMPIRE" (or "normal" vampire)





Vampires are strong creatures, holding up to three times the strength of an average human. Vampires in their dead state are also excused completely from breathing. They still retain the automatic reflex of it, but they do not require oxygen to survive.

Created by Shar as the ultimate weapon, they are filled with unholy energy to the extent that if a human was to be infused with the same amount of unholy energy, they would not survive. Due to this natural level of unholiness, vampires can sense dark energy and auras. Only to the extent of roughly 6-9 feet, depending on the age and hunger state of them. They can also sense eachother fairly easily.

Vampires also can not die from heart failure or loss of other vital organs, and they are immune to all diseases and poisons. However, they can still die from bloodloss. The rate at which a vampire's wound is also greatly increased, as they can easily heal scrape or cut in a matter of hours.

A medium-sized stab would heal in roughly a night. One thing vampires do not do however is regenerate lost limbs.

Vampires have enhanced senses. Hearing, sight, and smell are five times as sensitive as any human, and aids the vampire greatly in their hunts for blood. Vampires also have greater reflexes than humans. There are even sayings of vampires smashing arrows out of the air with their hands. But this has never been proven.

Since they are such impure beings, vampires can easily be defeated by pure items and magic. For example; holy magic, fire, silver, and even sunlight. Common misassumptions say that garlic works as a deterrent against vampires, and that a stake to the heart will kill or paralyze them. This is all of course only folk lore, and does not actually work.

A vampire can remain out in the sun for a maximum of two hours, before their blood will begin to quickly evaporate.

The vampire can live up to eight-hundred years before finally dying.

They do not sleep. But they still get tired. Instead of sleep, they have adopted a sort of trance-like state, in which they seem to be sleeping. They lose all awarness of the world around them. But they can still wake up any time they want to. An hour of this trance-like state is all that is needed for a vampire to feel completely rejuvenated.



The normal vampire also has a certain resistance to spell. This resistance is complicated at best, as it only defends against pure magic. Magically conjured fire or ice will still work against them, seeing how these are in physical existance.

Holy spells also seem to negate this spell resistance entirely. Spells that would normally heal other beings will instead burn and cause immense pain to vampires, as their unholy energy conflicts with this.



Vampires are completely infertile by nature. The male vampire still produces sperm, but the sperm dies as soon as it is born, and is then left to rot in the vampire's bi-testicle. The female vampire does not ovariate, and therefore does not menstruate.

Vampires are also unable to learn any form of magic due to unstability within their "unholy field", which is the same as a sacred field for other races, only made entirely out of dark energy.





THE HUNGER





The hunger is a manifestation within every vampire. It can be called a beast which resides within them, which forces them to feed. Should a vampire neglect their feeding, the beast will break free for a short while until the vampire has received blood. The beast is a reckless being and will throw itself upon anyone nearby to feed. Completely disregarding its own safety, or that of the vampire itself. As the hunger grows, the vampire can feel a lot stronger and faster. But this comes with a price, as the hunger grows, blood-levels within the vampire will start sinking, and she will bleed a lot more should she get wounded.

Common symptoms of approaching bloodrage is when the vampire's irises turn red, and slowly begin to glow. The glow intensifying, the closer it is to going feral. Other symptoms include but are not limited to sudden headaches, unwarranted physical pain, depression, aggressiveness and paranoia.

How long it takes for the hunger to actually take over can vary greatly. Certain vampires have a strong will and it could take up to a week for it to take over, but going without blood for so long would cause extreme physical and mental pain to the vampire as they are starving themselves. Normal-willed individuals would take roughly 2-3 days before the hunger takes over.

The hunger is inevitable.





THE GIFTED OF SHAR




The blessed vampires are extraordinary indeed. Vampires often created, or "upgraded" by Shar herself to become exactly like the original vampire. The gifted vampires of Shar are created as personal enforcers of Shar. They are even stronger than normal vampires, and can function entirely without blood in their bloodstream. If less efficient. Some say they hold up to fifteen times the strength of a normal vampire. And they have even better senses than them. Compared to a human, a Gifted of Shar has roughly twelve times better sight, hearing, and sense of smell. Their reflexes are amazing. A vampire focused completely could easily dodge a bullet from a few feet away. But they need to focus in order for these reflexes to really kick in. And they retain a natural immunity to magic and sun damage. But the gifted are even more impure than the normal vampires, and thus will instantly die should their blood come in contact with silver or blessed material.. Holy magic is not very effective against blessed vampires due to their immunity against magic. But it will often stun the gifted one, time depending on the amount of magic.



Blessed vampires are rare occurances, and when they are not acting on Shar's behalf, they often like to proclaim themselves as leaders over the "normal" vampires.

[TO BE REDONE]

If someone wants to help me redo this, feel free to ask.

I wish to help

Updated and some more general information added

Major update. Revised everything. Looks more personal now.

Good job Mack, looks a LOT better.

Big revise by Squire Mack. Good jorb.