Vampirism

Blood-Suckers? What world did you come from? The vampires here just feed off your mana. It's a little gross to think of it like this... but they're essentially licking the sweat off of you. Eugh..

— Angela Esther Lloyd

Causes

Most leading causes of Vampirism are due to a deviation in the mana pool, this is usually due to a genetic deviation at birth.
Though another method of contracting Vampirism is through specific concatenations. Usually a curse, or a hex. Though in cases like these, the concatenation requires a mixture of blood and soul magic used for a proper effect and often malicious purposes. But even in cases like these, the spellcaster runs a high risk of contracting Vampirism themselves.

Symptoms

Vampirism causes a mana-pool to reverse it's generation process, causing the mana-pool to drain at a fixed rate rather than generate mana. The mana pool becomes like a second stomach, although it only processes mana for energy. This allows vampires to live off nothing but mana, however- if empty, the mana pool will send hunger signals to the vampire.
Neglecting to fill the mana pool has an inevitable cause of exhaustion, and a desire to feed (On mana).
All vampires have an uncanny function to drain mana from anything they come into direct physical contact with. This means so long as they are directly touching something that is holding mana, their body will leech the mana from the external source.
Whilst not a surefire way to detect Vampirism, the afflicted's mana pool is contaminated with red mana by default in addition to whatever mana colors they have.

Treatment

Whilst there is no cure for vampirism, it can be offset by an external source of mana generation for the afflicted to make use of. So long as there is a reliable supply of mana provided, the mana-hunger remains staved off.

Prognosis

If left untreated, a vampire will cycle through the mana-hunger until they eventually must feed by draining mana from any source they can.
Whilst not fatal, it does prove highly inconvenient and can pose the risk of unconsciousness if hunger is left untended for too long.
Vampires will often become possessed by the mana signature of those they feed on, taking on similar characteristics in personality. This effect lasts a relatively short while, though the more pips fed on, the longer and more potent the effect persists.

Sequela

Most vampires adapt their behavior to function within societal standards, this means that they must find creative ways of sourcing mana externally. Though they can never shake the red colored mana that is rooted permanently in their pool. The side-effects of red mana are not severe, but it can be disorienting for someone who contracts vampirism via a curse, often leading to uncontrollable mood swings for an extended period of time.

Prevention

Feasibly, the best solution is for the afflicted to carry a high quality mana crystal to act as a pseudo-mana pool.
The least sustainable method is to use mana injectors, which artifically boost the mana regneration rate temporarily for an extended period of time.
Other solutions involve having a personal attendant on hand at all times, with which one could drain mana at regular intervals.

Cultural Reception

To the educated, vampires are viewed as people with a disability. As daily life on Midbaar has incorporated the use of mana and magic for most needs.
However, the common person is moreso afraid of the vampire. Fearing that being drained will transmit the condition to them. (This is a common misconception, as Vamprisim is non-transmittable.) Or that they bite and will transmit Vampire Spots.

This is a stub!

This article is still under construction!

Type

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Rare