Vampire (Blood)

They walk the shadows, seeking the precious life blood of the unwary. Woe to he who walks the night unguarded, for death stalks in the dark.

Vampires are afflicted with a type of Vampirism. Blood Vampires, or traditional vampires, feast on the blood of other organisms to survive.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Vampires retain the physical characteristics they had before being turned. Their skin's ability to produce melanin has been damaged by the turning, leaving vampires to be more susceptible to the rays of the sun. The production melanin of the eyes has gone into overdrive, darkening the pigmentation of the irises to near black. Some pigmentation shifts more to a dark, blood red. Hair pigment is unaffected by the transformation, though in some people it will darken to garner extra protection from the sun.
The top canine teeth fall out before 'death' and are replaced by longer fangs on a hinged muscle joint, like a snake, during the transformation process, if the victim is lucky. The saliva of the vampire acts to prevent clotting factors.
The lymph nodes in the throat, located under the bottom jaw, metamorphose to store ingested blood and digest it before sending it into the blood stream. The vampire's own blood is mixed in within the glands, absorbing the nutrients to transport to the rest of the body. These nodes also connect to the fangs, allowing the vampire to inject blood directly into a victim's blood stream in order to turn them. Like snakes, they control if the bite is wet or dry. They are only able to inject what it's glands hold (approximately 2 oz per node) at a time, unless they force more of their own blood into the bite. This also sacrifices undigested blood and the necessary minerals and nutrients the vampire requires to sustain itself. Once a victim has been envenomed, they are no longer suitable to feed from.
Muscle and bone structure remain primarily unchanged, though strengthened by the transformation.

Genetics and Reproduction

Vampires retain their ability to reproduce sexually, albeit with difficulties.
Male vampires experience a lower sperm count. The genetic material is often damaged by the change, though older vampires, somewhere in the range of five hundred years old, seem to have a higher sperm count and healthier sperm.
Female vampires are not quite so lucky. Due to the drain on bodily resources, pregnancies are often terminated after several weeks by the mother's body. The unfortunate ones who are not often perish within the womb from nutritional deficiencies. There is a very thin line between proper nutrition for the mother and her offspring that can in theory produce a healthy child, but this has yet to be recorded. The offspring unlucky enough to make it to birth is human, despite the mother's vampire blood. This has been attributed to the pity of the Goddess Marada. They are born weak, deformed, and showing symptoms similar to offspring born of opiate addicted mothers. They often do not survive long after birth. Attempts to turn the offspring before they pass have been unsuccessful.
There is only one recorded successful birth that lived past infancy, the child was severely deformed with withered legs and light sensitivity. After six years of tending to the child, the human father brought it to the church, where it was laid to rest in the arms of the Goddess by the priests and the suffering ended.
Offspring conceived before the mother was turned face a similar fate to their counterparts, though the children closer to birth, typically 8 or 9 months, have been known to survive with minimal impact, save the addiction like symptoms. Once they have recovered, they lead normal, healthy lives.

Growth Rate & Stages

Pre-Turning, the vampire experiences symptoms typical of normal sickness rapidly progressing to a death like state. While this is called death, it is not a true death. It is a death like coma, similar to the frogs found within the Kal-Za'al mountain range, who freeze with the snow and cold, then return to life when thawed in the spring. The vampire then begins it's metamorphosis.
Post Turning, the death like coma ends and the vampire generally finds themselves buried alive, granted that they were not embalmed as it is customary in the Golden Kingdom, so named for it's sprawling sands. This panic triggers the first use of their new found abilities to break free from their grave. Unfortunately, this expends energies that the vampire often doesn't have and triggers the second stage of it's growth cycle faster than those who do not use their new found abilities.
After the stress of their first use of power or twelve hours awake, whichever comes first, the vampire enters a starvation mode, regardless of if it had fed or not. This is an effect of the turning hitting the waking mind. This feral state can last from days to years, depending upon the stress and needs of the vampire. An improper diet and constant torment can drag this out. A vampire able to feed well and not burn it's energy defending itself will exit this stage within days.
Once the vampire has regained it's senses, it re-enters the normal bio-rhythms for it's race, albeit delayed or halted depending on diet and aging factor.

Ecology and Habitats

The optimal environment for a vampire is somewhere dark and has a ready source of food available. They can thrive in large cities, small villages, or natural wilderness, so long as prey is abundant. The desert, for instance, is not ideal for them.
Interaction with it's habitat depends on the stage of growth and each individual vampire. A vampire in the throes of it's feral stage will hunt at night, indiscriminate of what it is hunting so long as it has blood to drink, where as a vampire who has past that feral stage generally attempts to blend in with those around it or isolate itself.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Vampires have a delicate digestive system after the changes and are no longer able to digest meat product. Their abilities and body primarily use compounds generated by digesting proteins though, and lack the ability to produce iron. The vampire's diet primarily consists of plant matter, specifically plants that are high in iron and protein (spinich, nuts, etc).
While this diet can sustain a vampire, it lacks minerals and vitamins required by the vampire's body to function properly and must be supplemented with blood. The blood of their own race is typically best for them, as it replaces exactly what the body needs to function, but blood from other animals, particularly a combination of several depending on the race, can substitute what is missing. Ignoring this biological need is dangerous for the vampire, as it will weaken the body, accelerate aging, and risk triggering another feral starvation mode state.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Vampire blood is an addictive substance that enhances the physical abilities and senses of the consumer. Used in alchemy, it can be distilled to negate the physical enhancements, leaving consumers with the high that comes along with it. The high of a vampire's blood is typically felt in the enhancement of the senses and a feeling of invulnerability that dampens the consumer's risk processing abilities.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Due to the changes in the body from the disease, the muscle and skeletal systems are more efficient, giving them supernatural strength and speed. They are capable of lifting four times their own weight or moving three times as fast as they once were able to, but even their bodies have limits and pushing it can result in damage. They are capable of going up to a week without sleep, though they do suffer mental sluggishness and visual/auditory hallucinations when they push to the full week.
Vampires exhibit an accelerated healing factor and slowed aging as well, though this is entirely dependent upon the vampire's feeding habits. Proper nutrition has shown that superficial wounds will heal within hours to days, depending upon the nature of the wound, and generally leave no scarring. Wounds inflicted by an allergen take weeks to months, often leaving scars and weaknesses. Aging is virtually halted with a proper diet. Likewise, an improper diet and nutritional needs going unmet can lead to even the smallest cuts bleeding out and aging to accelerate.
A vampire's senses are enhanced by their change as well, granting them a stronger senses. Their sense of smell and hearing are comparable to the common cat's. They gain low light and dark vision, but are blinded by full daylight.
Commonly, vampires become in tune to the spiritual flows of the world, giving them similar abilities to Shadow Dancers, but not quite to that extent. The most common ability to manifest is the ability to cloak in shadows, becoming indistinguishable from the darkness around them. Rarely, they gain the ability to create illusions or hypnotize victims. Unfortunately for them, the turning causes them to lose all ability with the elements and familiars.

Civilization and Culture

History

The blood vampire is the oldest known species of vampire. While much of the history eludes scholars, enough has been gathered to create a rough outline of the race's existence.
The first confirmed vampire is King Draclau Vesbin of Rovana. He sought power to defend his home land from an invading orc fleet. He sought out aid from well known necromancer, Rasputine Mirkovi. The attempt to render Draclau immune to injury and death instead inflicted him with a severe illness, leading up to the death of the monarch. Rasputine was sentenced to death for Draclau's death. He proved quite difficult to kill, requiring complete dismemberment and a stake through the heart.
Upon hearing of the death of the king, the orc fleet took advantage of the situation and began their invasion of the coast. Draclau rose from his grave two months into the siege. He became the terror of the battlefield and a living legend for some time.
After Draclau successfully repelled the invaders, he used prisoners of war to feed himself until he ran out of his supply. Draclau began to demand sacrificed from the villages in order to maintain himself, lest he become a blood thirsty monster that ravaged the country side. His reign extended beyond his natural life span until the day that the peasantry rose up under the lead of Gregori Mirkovi. Draclau was slain in the same way that Rasputin was, leading some to believe that the necromancer was a vampire himself. Accounts of the period, however, suggest that Rasputin was killed ritualistically in order to appease the gods for his use of unholy magicks.
Unfortunately, Rasputin's rituals and spells survived for centuries bound in a heinous tome, which fell into the hands of several mages gifted with the ability to raise these dread creatures through history.
Most recently, within the last few hundred years, the book fell into the hands of Duchess Izzabette Battry, obsessed with youth and beauty, used the spells contained to become a vampire. She enthralled her staff to bring her young maidens. from surrounding provinces. She used these women like cattle, bleeding several dry on the peek of the full moon to bathe in their blood before consuming it. She even went so far as to turn several she was fond of into vampires on these nights when she had an adequate supply to replace the blood she lost from the turning. She is the first vampire known to have turned another being.
Duchess Izzabette was eventually sealed inside her stone tower by the surrounding populace with her thralls and children. It is believed that they have perished in the walls, but no one knows for certain. Marada's priests have taken permanent station within the surrounding villages and maintain wards and seals on the tower for the past several centuries to prevent the escape of the blood duchess.
Following the discovery and destruction of vampires within a community, discord and chaos follow. Accusations tear communities apart and many poor souls, departed and living, are accused of being these dread creatures. Bodies end up exhumed and defiled or impaled. Innocent men, women, and children were put to death by iron stakes being impaled through their hearts. Scholars have discovered two recorded cases of this cruel punishment being administered to infants, one as young as four months. In one extreme case, these bouts of hysteria have lead to the eradication of an entire family.

Common Myths and Legends

Garlic, Rosemary, and Lavender repel vampires: This myth stems from the allergy developed to these herbs after turning. While they are not fatal allergies, the allergy is strong enough to cause hives on contact, violent nausea when ingested, and in the case of the smell of garlic, strong enough to cause mild nausea and sneezing. These herbs are known to disrupt disease and dark energies
Vampires cannot cross running water: This myth stems from the fact that vampires will avoid deep or quick running water. Bone density changes during the transformation, rendering them unable to swim.
Vampires burst into flames in sunlight: This myth is related to the effects of sunlight on vampires. While they do not burst into flames, their skin lacks the protection they had before turning from the sun's rays. They reach second and third degree burns in a matter of hours in the mid summer sun.
Silver Repels/Kills vampires: This myth is actually a hundred percent true. Silver is what is known as a holy metal, blessed by The Twins: Marada & Em'End to combat necromancy. Unfortunately, the curse is made from the same essence as necromantic magic.

Lifespan

900 years