Your Vampires Are Different

Vampire bat/fruit bat hybrid. Sucks the juice out of fruits.

Redacted, perhaps?

Edited by Eagal on Sep 16th 2020 at 6:32:39 AM

I have at least two stories that feature vampires, but for the sake of brevity I'm only covering the newer and more prominent of those.

• They're technically dead. However, the only sign of this that's always the case is that they do not generate body heat and as such are generally room temperature. A well-fed vampire looks very much alive and even has a heartbeat. A starved vampire, on the other hand, has no heartbeat and looks very much like a walking corpse.
• They're immortal so long as they can get blood on a regular basis and aren't exposed to their weaknesses. The amount of time they can live without blood is comparable to the length of time a human can live without food (that is, they can last a while but will eventually starve).
• Ala traditional vampires, their need for blood is the need to drain life from others in order to prolong their own existence and keep living beyond the point they should have died.
  • Fortunately for the friendlier vampires, this doesn't require killing the victim and won't affect their lifespan (unless enough blood is drawn to have a negative effect on their health).
  • However, to live solely on blood requires a lot of it, which usually means fatal results for victims (or just a lot of victims). Otherwise they need to supplement the blood diet with "normal" food.
  • It needs to be human blood; animal blood might be able to fulfill a nutritional requirement, but it won't do anything to extend the vampire's lifespan.
  • Furthermore, the blood type of the victim needs to be compatible with the blood type of the vampire. Drinking blood of an incompatible type can actually harm the vampire, much like receiving a donation of an incompatible blood type can harm a human.
  • Blood from a blood bag can work. Unfortunately, getting a hospital or blood bank to actually part with one for feeding purposes is an uphill battle; those are meant to be donated to humans in need of them, not fed to vampires.
• Humans can become vampires, but this doesn't happen through bites alone. Instead the human needs to drink the blood of the vampire ala Dracula, after which they will become a vampire upon death.
• Appearance-wise vampires look more or less the same as their human selves. Likewise, becoming a vampire cannot force personality changes in and of itself.
• They have fangs; a larger pair on their upper jaw and a smaller pair on their lower jaw.
  • Newly changed vampires tend to have a bit of a lisp until they get used to having fangs.
  • They don't suck blood; they use their fangs to make an incision and then lap up the blood, much like vampire bats. The act of feeding dulls the pain for the victim, although it also prevents their blood from clotting.
• They don't have a reflection. This can extend to not showing up on photography and film if the methods require a form of reflection.
• They're simply nocturnal as opposed to actually being harmed by sunlight; they can walk about in the daytime with no problems.
• Vampires cannot heal wounds without drinking blood (as they're technically dead).
• While stakes and decapitation are effective and are guaranteed to kill a vampire, they can die of other wounds if they're severe enough.
• Any aversion to holy symbols is purely psychological; unless it's heavy enough to work as a weapon and the wielder actually wants to use it as one, the symbol is incapable of physically hurting the vampire. This also depends on the vampire; it's most effective on vampires that were really religious as humans and tends not to work on most present-day vampires.
• They're allergic to garlic; it causes symptoms similar to hay fever. It's not fatal unless the vampire eats a lot of garlic, however.
• They're durable and have higher sensory abilities than humans (particularly smell and eyesight), but otherwise lack outright supernatural abilities.
  • Their eyes tend to glow at night much like a cat's as a result of their heightened eyesight.
• Their origin is largely unknown in-universe. While Dracula is merely a work of fiction in this story, some do speculate that the first vampires were indeed Transylvanian.
• They don't have dedicated society of their own. Some vampires choose to try and blend in with humans, others go the Dracula route and have homes on the outskirts of human society, and still others try and eke out on existence on the streets.
  • The vampires of a particular area do tend to get to know each other, and support groups are common.

edited 15th Apr '15 8:41:15 PM by Yomegami

In my universe, vampires are not undead creatures but are biological predators with supernatural origins, similar to vamps in Blade and the Strain. I've designed vampires as being humanoid predators who have existed alongside humanity since they were created. Vampires look no different visibly from humans, but they have numerous internal differences that set them apart from them.

Vampirism is a virus that exists within the bodily fluids of a vampire and can be transmitted through a bite or ingesting vampire blood. But the virus is weak and can be easily fought off by a healthy immune system, so in order to turn a person, the vampire must either drain their victim to near death or the victim must be so weak that their immune system is unable to fight off the vampire virus. This virus is fast acting, with an incubation period of six to twelve hours, and within 24 hours the victim is already undergoing the change. During this process, they suffer symptoms similar to the flu. After 24 hours, the victim awakens as a newborn, and very thirsty, vampire.

Vampires possess razor sharp fangs (top and bottom canines) and claws which they use for both feeding and fighting. Both have evolved to be retractable. Their digestive system has changed to process only a liquid diet, and will only accept blood and liquids like water, coffee and soda. Their saliva possesses a narcotic that paralyzes their victims for easier feedings, and keeps the blood flowing. Vampiric saliva also has healing properties when not in use. Vampire eyes are just as varied as human eyes, but when angry, hungry or aroused their sclera turns pitch black and their irises turn blood red with black pupils. Their hearts beat once per minute, and vampire blood appears black as opposed to the normal red of human blood.

Vampires sustain themselves on blood, mainly human blood for full nutritional value. They can survive on animal blood, usually the blood of mammals, but it is not as healthy or nutritional and can weaken a vampire over time. Drinking reptile blood is even less healthy. Vampires cannot digest solid foods and their body will violently reject it if they try to eat it. A vampire requires a few liters of blood to survive, but they do not need to feed frequently. A single human can keep a vampire fed for a week or two. Without blood, a vampire will become significantly weaker before dying of starvation.

Vampires possess superhuman physical and mental abilities. The average vampire is 3 to 5 times stronger than a human, and can run at 25 to 30 miles per hour, while leaping about 10 feet in height. Their senses are boosted to superhuman levels, able to hear, see, touch and smell things imperceptible to humans. Their minds are similarly capable of processing multiple things at once to better handle their enhanced senses. They possess a strong and durable bone structure that can withstand hard impacts from great heights. Vampires also possess superhuman healing abilities, able to survive injuries that could kill a human and even regenerate lost limbs or critical body parts and organs.

Vampires age slower than humans, and can live for hundreds, even thousands of years. They can die of old age, but most vampires die long before then due to their dangerous and violent lifestyles.

Contrary to myth, not all vampires can shapeshift, turn into mist, or possess hypnotic abilities. Older vampires have been known to develop unique singular abilities that can range from mental powers like telepathy, telekinesis and hypnosis, to physical powers like shapeshifting or even elemental manipulation. A vampire only develops one supernatural power over the course of their lifetime, though why and how is still a mystery that is widely debated.

Vampires mainly reproduce through infecting and turning humans, but they can also reproduce sexually. Vampires born as they are called purebloods. Natural reproduction is rare among vampires however due to vampire birth rates being so low that a vampire couple will at best have one or two children in their lifetime.

Vampires have numerous weaknesses. Sufficient enough physical force can severely injure them enough to be fatal, and they are most vulnerable in their eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Sunlight does not kill a vampire, but prolonged exposure can severely weaken them to the point of dehydration and loss of strength. Vampires are allergic to silver, and if it gets into their system it can be poisonous; wounds caused by silver heal slower than normal. Fire is a good way to negate a vampire's healing abilities, and like silver, wounds caused by fire heal slower.

Vampire society is strictly hierarchal. At the top is the vampiric royal family, upon which a queen rules the entire species, and her throne will be inherited by her daughter and so forth. Below the royal family are the noble clans, pureblood families with several smaller families affiliated with them. At the bottom are mainly common purebloods and turnbloods, former humans. Such vampires usually form small groups or covens that usually consist of 2 to 4 vampires at a time, though larger covens are not unheard of.

The vampire race owes its origins to Nyx, goddess of darkness and sister to Hemera, goddess of light and mother of humanity. When Hemera created humanity, the mortals shunned Nyx out of fear and worshipped only Nyx. Enraged, Nyx cut her wrist and let her blood flow, forming a woman from her blood in her image. The woman's name was Lilith, the first vampire, who was made to be stronger, faster, and keener than humans, and possessed claws and fangs to defend herself. Lilith was born with a hunger for the blood of humans, and even animals, and Nyx had also given her the ability to create more of her kind through biting them. In time, Lilith increased the numbers of her race to sufficient numbers, and gave rise to the first vampires of the species.

Edited by Kisshot420 on Aug 28th 2020 at 9:34:28 AM

The “Dark Thirst,” as it’s called, isn’t an actual biological pathogen, but in many ways it acts like one. Essentially there are sixteen major Lineages with different powers and weaknesses. Other, rarer “abberant” Lineages exist (mostly due to interbreeding between preexisting Lineages or factors like a newly converted vampire having drugs in their system at the time) but “Pure” vampires tend to look down on them. All vampires share a need for blood, as without it they’ll slowly go insane and eventually irreversibly regress to a completely feral state. Vampires who succumb to this are known as Ghouls, and being locked up until this happens is often used as a punishment for younger vampires. All Lineages have some level of aversion to sunlight, ranging from “irritation” (which gets worse the longer they go without feeding) to “death”. Vampires become stronger and faster with age (although they’re always noticeably stronger and faster than any human) and develop new powers over time depending on the Lineage. On top of the sunlight thing, different Lineages have different weaknesses. The country of Tenebrosa is ruled by the Council of Elders, made up of the eldest of each of the major Lineages, and the Old One, the oldest vampire in existence, whose Lineage is unknown. Most of Tenebrosa’s population are actually humans required to periodically give blood, but life there is generally decent, if only out of pragmatism on the government’s part. Meanwhile the Guild of Shadows are an international assassin’s guild separate from the Tenebrosan government, who are actually somewhat more progressive in that regardless of Lineage it’s possible to advance in the hierarchy (violently). Both the Guild and the Tenebrosan government are willing to convert and recruit humans that distinguish themselves, but rank generally correlates to age, at least by default.

Can walk in the daytime, with a lot more bat-like qualities. Rather than being the sort of archetypical sexy vampire, they’re a lot more feral and violent, but only when hungry. Also, they tend to have different blood “tastes”: some like older blood and prey on nursing homes, while others like young blood and hang around schools.

i love the blood taste idea! thats rlly cool :D

my storys about anthropormorphic animals, so my vampires are more like deformed bats. theyre not very intelligent and are just a species evolved to hunt humanity; vampires are to people as lions are to gazelles.

they eat blood and meat, and will decimate a body after killing it. they have a form of "genetic albinism" that makes them sensitive to sunlight, so theyre nocturnal. due to being nocturnal, they have heightened senses of smell, sight and hearing. instead of seeing color, they can see heat, which aids them in hunting. theyre very strong and muscular and are able to take down an able-bodied adult easily.

vampires have long, sharp teeth and claws, and legs designed for leaping. they're seen as a dangerous wild animal that should be avoided at all costs.

my vamps are non-sentient because the main characters a vampire hunter, & i didnt want the moral implications of "murdering another person for needing food".

Vampires came in two or three different kinds;

The Cainites were created long ago by the First Vampire, Cain, who worked with a group of humanoid aliens called the Vonnic Kingdoms, and Cain received the "mandate" of King Vonh to create ordered society on Earth. He created an order of Vampires, conflicting with the Mages, who believed King Vonh's mandate passed to them instead. There was a big war, and the establishment of the Masquerade that separated the "Magical World" from the "Mundane World".

The Cainites at first had it as official policy that they only ever feed upon guilty people. This fell through quickly, and they resorted to outright breeding humans for private use - Milatha Canaan for example would indulge in massive opulent parties where blood-drinking and sex were common place and often occurred together.

Then came the Anterior Vampires, established long after. The Methuselah, spawn of the Cainites, grew resentful of the abuses the Cainites rained down, and the indifference of Cain to his spawn acting this way. The Methuselah, comprised of a number of Biblical baddies including Judas Iscariot, rebelled against the Cainites, their "order" being decided by who rebelled first.

The Cainites were overthrown and forced into their distant Court in the far frigid north. Only Greenland has a remaining Cainite Court presence.

The Methuselah promptly formed the modern Vampiric Courts...and then engaged in all the excesses of the older Vampires, and became tyrants that their kindred now resent. They believe they have the Vonnic Mandate now, and a number of them maintain a number of evil schemes, collaborating with Magic Gods, and planning ways to take over the mundane world as soon as the Masquerade spell fails.

The modern Court is comprised of ten different types of Vampire, representing the Ten Original Vonnic Kingdoms aspects they want to emulate.

The Court home base is located on the secret island of New Canaan, which partially exists in an alternate dimension consisting of eternal darkness. Every 13 years, the Unholy Assemblage is conducted, where Vampires from across the world come to New Canaan to discuss issues facing the "People of the Blood" the last 13 years.

The latest was in 2018, with the subject being "Holy fuck, Trump is awful and we had nothing to do with him."

Oh it's so wonderful to see the thread I started so many years ago all grown up!

@Nick The Swing Your world is always so immensely layered that it's like peeling back the levels of an onion. I mean that as a compliment by the way!

[[The latest was in 2018, with the subject being "Holy fuck, Trump is awful and we had nothing to do with him."]]

Ha ha, Even Evil Has Standards at in full display I see. Reminds me of the Resident Evil jokes featuring the various bioterrorists horrified by COVID-19 and swearing it definitely isn't one of theirs.

These vampires are a setting of mine that has run for over 16 years, that I've started posting about on here recently.

They come in three (technically four) strains or "Types" as they are referred to in-universe. Listing only three of them here since one is so rare they almost never appear.

• Type 0: The weakest and lowest of all vampires. These arise when a Type 2 vampire has bitten and fatally drained a victim of blood without destroying the head or heart of their "meal" afterwards. Without this precaution, the corpse will rise as a mindless drone with only rudimentary instincts geared towards aggression and feeding. Type 0s are essentially zombies, but they crave blood instead of flesh/brains. They are not picky about their desired meal and will attack sapient mortals and animals alike to get their desired meal, ripping brutally at their flesh to gulp down the blood. They are subject to the absolute control of the Type 2 vampire who "made" them and will automatically follow the verbal or mental commands of their master and are usually used as servants and cannon fodder. Type 0s can be humans, Thasmians, dwarves or elves since the elven immunity to becoming vampires does not apply in this case. The bodies of Type 0s will rot, but far more slowly than an ordinary corpse, especially of the master Type 2 vampire wills them to stay active. Type 0s possess incredibly enhanced strength but are mostly quite slow and shambling...although they will suddenly demonstrate incredible speed if their master orders them to pursue a target or fight. At other times they move in bizarre ways like running while waving their arms, skipping, or dashing from side to side while hugging their torsos. When not being given active orders, they will mostly stand still, but given the opportunity they will attack bystanders to drink their blood on pure instinct. Occasionally they will demonstrate shards of personality from the living person they once were, but this is rare. They lack the supernatural weaknesses of Type 2s such as garlic, sunlight and holy symbols of the Corpse Hound but can be killed via dismemberment or a blow to the head or heart in the same way as a Type 2.

• Type 2: Most common form of vampire; when someone says the word "Vampire", this creature is what comes to mind. Type 2s are humans, Thasmians and dwarves who have been fatally drained of blood by a Type 2 vampire with the Type 2 concentrating all their will upon forcing the soul of the victim to stay in their body. This is an extremely slow and mentally taxing process for the vampire, but when successful, results in the birth of another Type 2. Type 2s do not decay like Type 0s, but they are very clearly walking corpses. For example in the case of humans their skin is sick, waxy pale or grayish and close inspection of their eyes reveals them to be slightly glazed. They do not blink or shift weight or even breathe—things living people naturally do. If they wish to pretend to be alive, they have to employ a skilled mortician to make them up to appear alive and work on honing their mannerisms to appear similar to a living person. They have Cute Little Fangs but when using their powers, their mouths fill with razor sharp teeth like sharks and their eyes turn blood red. They are equipped with Super-Strength, Super-Speed, can make undying slaves out of people by giving them access to their blood and can control the minds of the living via their Hypnotic Eyes. They are incredibly weak to sunlight and exposure to even the faint light of dawn inflicts first-degree burns while full noonday sunlight will destroy them within five to ten minutes. Garlic in any form acts like an irritating chemical, though it is not fatal on its own. Anyone who ingests garlic is immune to being hypnotized by a Type 2 until it naturally leaves the body. Religious symbols depicting the Corpse Hound (this setting's version of The Grim Reaper) will repel them and cause them to temporarily show signs of decay. They do not age and are immortal unless killed by someone or something. Regardless of how good or evil they were while a vampire, they are all subject to a period of agonizing damnation within the Hound's stomach upon their deaths as punishment for being undead and defying the cycle of life and death imposed by the gods.

• Type 3: The original strain of vampirism and the rarest in all the world—only 35 exist. They are also the most feared and dreaded and throughout much of history they were considered natural disasters because of the futility of trying to stop them once they locked onto a village or town to prey on. They are monstrous Bat People with red flayed-looking skin that functions as a tough, natural armor. Their height and general shape varies depending on what race they once were. A formerly human or Thasmian Type 3 vampire may stand 14 feet tall and be bipedal while a dwarven Type 3 will be 10 feet and have a more quadrupedal stance. They can take the shape of their former human, dwarven or Thasmian form, though this becomes harder and harder as they age and forget what they once looked like. They are incredibly strong and fast capable of flying for miles at high speeds. This strength and speed, combined with their Absurdly Sharp Claws lets them tear apart the bodies of others like wet tissue paper, even if the target is clad in heavy body-armor. The bodies of Type 3 vampires are actually composed of vast amounts of blood from the Founding Vampire, the Monster Progenitor who made them, with this blood being under the control of their soul. This means that they can shift and alter their physical form in a limited way. Examples include hardening their skin, sharpening their claws, exuding a storm of hard razor-sharp spikes to tear apart hordes of enemies or releasing a massive cloud of crimson mist that causes all who breathe it to suffer massive internal bleeding. Being made of the Founding Vampire's blood also means they can be temporarily wounded but never killed with conventional weapons, since they will regenerate From a Single Cell. Their most terrifying power is a horrific scream that can lobotomize the minds of all who hear it and turn them into slaves addicted to the sound of their new master's voice for the rest of their lives. They have several weaknesses, the first one being that they must hibernate for a period of 13 years after being allowed 26 years of activity. Secondly magic that revolves around the use and control of blood can easily defeat them, due to their bodies being made of a fraction of the Founder's blood with their soul given stewardship over it. They are immortal and undying, and can only be killed by the Founding Vampire himself. He has complete control over them and they are helpless to resist any orders he chooses to give them. They cannot create other Type 3s but must instead take “candidates” to the Founding Vampire and beg him to turn the one they wish to join their ranks. One of the Type 3s, a fellow named Isaac Marsden, is a heroic figure in this setting, though no less gruesome than his counterparts.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Nov 15th 2020 at 4:52:14 AM

Thanks! Your world is pretty impressively detailed too. The Vampires at least the older ones and a number of the younger ones are by and large aligned with Republican interests - they are after all by and large literally blood-drinking rich people who want to turn the entire world into a perpetual feast.

They just cannot STAND him. He's stupid, he panders to people the Vampires consider disgusting and unproductive, he's done damage to the world they consider themselves to have "stewardship" over, and he puts himself first rather than going for anything they wanted done.

Been sitting on this for a long while. Sorry if there are any weird line-breaks.

Vampirism is a curse in the literal sense; that is to say, while it can be transmitted by a vampire, it also can be bestowed by a sufficiently powerful magic-user. Conversely, it can be removed by the same, for most strains.

Most vampires cannot handle direct sunlight; Momentary exposure causes searing pain, and prolonged exposure results in disintegration. Submerging them in running water can do much the same, but it's less potent; it takes longer, and they can potentially escape from it. Raw garlic is a possible weapon; its strong scent and their heightened senses makes being around it deeply unpleasant, even painful (this extends to other powerful smells; sewers are good hiding places, and cautious ladies of the night put on nauseating amounts of perfume to ward them off). However, the efficacy could be compared to that of pepper-spray; some of them will be completely incapacitated, while others will simply shrug it off. Vampires may be incapable of crossing thresholds or entering holy places, dependent upon the individual (more on that later).

A vampire's canine teeth elongate as part of the transformation, becoming their fangs. These fangs are incredibly sharp, and their saliva is known to inhibit pain-response. The other teeth, however, remain essentially as they were in life. As a result, a restrained bite, piercing the skin with only the fangs, will be relatively painless, especially if the vampire takes time to "prepare" their victim beforehand, while a "full" bite, bringing all the teeth to bear, will be a violent, painful thing, and often cause the victim's body to twist and convulse, tearing the skin further and exacerbating matters.

Physically speaking, if not killed outright, a vampire's victims recover quickly, with few complications. Depending upon just how much blood was taken, survivors may experience varied effects, but will typically report mild anemic symptoms for approximately a week, and always exhibit an increased appetite lasting roughly a month, during which time they also exhibit an unusual resilience to new diseases and an apparent alleviation of any existing conditions. An average human can supply a dose approximately once every two weeks without serious risk to their physical health; one way or another, a vampire who wishes to indulge more often will need a new source soon.

In the wake of a vampire's feeding, the victim's mind will instinctively find itself drawn to the bite and the events leading up to it. The exact effects are dependent upon the victim and the circumstances of the feeding, and can range anywhere from trauma to infatuation. As might be expected, this effect has created both the most driven of vampire hunters and the most devoted of Renfields.

When mortals contract vampirism, they go through a number of physical changes. Over a period of time dependent on how much of the creator's blood was shared and the amount of blood the fledgling has access to, canines elongate, the eyes shift to hellish red, feral yellow, or a cold, unearthly blue, and the body alters towards a more beautiful reflection of itself. This transformation seems to be at least partially informed by the disposition of the new vampire; height, muscle definition, and in the most extreme cases, even hair and skin color can shift dramatically, potentially rendering the subject almost unrecognizable. This can make things awkward if the fledgling attempts to reconnect with those it knew in life.

The curse of vampirism also warps the mind, accentuating the worst aspects of an individual's personality, while twisting their benevolent tendencies into perversions of their former selves; insecurity becomes deadly jealousy, devotion becomes obsession. A desire to prove oneself becomes a desire to be worshiped, while passion devolves into zealotry. This corruption can be resisted, or even reversed, but its grip is firm, and its roots deep; a fledgling who seeks to maintain their identity will face a long struggle against an enemy no mortal preparation can truly prepare it for.

This also extends to certain other facets of the vampire's personality; a scholar who takes meticulous notes during experiments may begin taking notes obsessively even on innocuous activities, and a fastidiously polite individual may find themselves utterly incapable of breaking protocol. It's from these quirks that stories such as vampires counting rice, getting stuck at a cross roads, or being incapable of crossing a threshold arise. In the old days, common-folk who were turned typically died off quickly, lacking the necessary resources and privacy needed to sustain themselves long-term; someone was going to notice if people turned up exsanguinated and Philip the butcher was only leaving his house at night these days. The most successful vampires, therefore, tended to exist among the wealthy, giving rise to a disproportionate number of vampires for whom decorum and etiquette became a psychological compulsion. As cities have become more common, the smallfolk have gotten a much better chance, though they still face a number of challenges that their well-to-do cousins can largely ignore.

Most vampires instinctively disdain contact with mortals. Most rationalize this away by denigrating them as livestock, "too slow," or "easily replaced." Beneath all of these defenses, however, a vampire's aversion to mortal contact is ultimately an expression of their curse; when interacting with a mortal, a vampire is forced to acknowledge that for all it has gained, as powerful as it may be, it has still lost something in trade, something these supposedly "lesser" creatures have, and carry with them without any thought. Proud by nature, vampires resent this, and coat their insecurity with a protective layer of contempt.

Vampires who associates with mortals will invariably find "favorites." Certain mortals they decide they simply must have to themselves. Be they talented artists, knowledgeable scholars, or timid wallflowers, these favorites occupy a special place in the hierarchy, and many vampires prize each of their favorites above entire cities of lesser mortals. For all the comfort an luxury their patron may lavish upon them, however, such favorites walk a razor's edge; a single misstep can cost them everything.

Then, there are Renfields.

Edited by Dragon573 on Jun 1st 2021 at 9:56:32 AM