Once, the blood-sucking monsters known as vampires were little more than stories told to little children and gullible adults, meant to instill a fear of the dark and unexplored corners of the world. What exactly they were was never clear, but they were fearsome and terrible all the same. Then one day, in the darkest hours of a senseless war - some say one of the innumerable skirmishes between Duwallen and Stirge, while others say the early feud-wars between the Dwarves and the Gnomes - the dread god Ullecate answered the desperate pleas of a doomed platoon, granting them unholy power at a terrible price. Against seemingly impossible odds, these ‘fortunate’ few were able to win the day, unaware of the burden they had been saddled with. It would only be later, when these war-torn men and women attempted to return to their normal lives, that the true cost of their success would become known.
Blood sucking pariahs, worst of the ills the gods in our lady's shadow placed upon our fragile planet, due only a swift death with the hottest of fires. Where they are found, may our dim reflection of Her radiance purge them from the world and bring warmth to those souls so inflicted.
Biological Transformation
First and foremost, it is a little-known fact that the true cause of vampirism is not magic or a divine curse or even a disease as most people understand them. A vampire is the result of a parasitic bond between a mortal and a semidivine creature with no widely-agreed-upon name. Most see vampires as powerful monsters freed from the shackles of mortality, when in reality they are more shackled than ever, held captive within their bodies by something that grants them immense strength and fortitude, but for a terrible price.
Vampires are, biologically, dead. Were it not for the intervention of the parasite, the organs that remain functional within their bodies would be incapable of keeping them alive for longer than a few seconds at most. With the parasite, however, they are capable of far more than your average naturally-occurring undead being.
When a mortal is first infected with vampiric parasite, they react to it as if it were a potent poison. Their blood thins and is gradually devoured by the growing parasite, and eventually they succumb to blood loss and heart failure. There are reports from individuals capable of interacting with the spirit world that this death process goes so far as to even begin to allow the mortal’s soul to leave the body. It is at this point, however, that the parasite’s true intentions become clear. Latching onto the mortal soul, it drags them back into their failing body and binds them to it in a way not dissimilar to the connection between a lich and their phylactery. Then, the parasite devours the victim’s heart, takes its place, and rapidly begins to alter the host’s other organs. The primary change involves creating specialized connections between the esophagus and the bloodstream that allows them to essentially transfuse themselves with blood simply by drinking it. In this way, the mortal is locked into a state of symbiosis with the parasite. The former’s soul is the only one of them strong enough to coerce their shared body into motion, but the latter has taken control of the primary systems keeping them both fed and functional.
Aside from the organ adjustments, vampires will also develop denser bone structure, thicker skin, and most famously of all, pointed teeth - usually in the form of enlarged canines or incisors - in order to facilitate piercing veins.
Vampire parasites, and by extension their hosts, feed on blood, though there is some heated debate on precisely why. While it’s clear from modern autopsies that most things that the parasite gleans from what its host eats find their way into the vampire’s circulatory system, scientists continue to debate why they specifically seek out blood rather than, say, nutrient-rich water, thin soups, or alcohol. Some believe that it has something to do with the soul of those whose blood is devoured; that perhaps some of it flows through mortal veins and can be filtered out by the parasite. Others claim that the parasites merely seek a replacement for their host’s blood, which the parasite steadily fed on as it developed, and continues to absorb over time even whilst pumping it through their body. Whichever the case may be, there has yet to be a case in which a vampire has been known to eat anything other than the blood of a mortal creature and actually gain sustenance from it. Magic keeps their body functional, and that magic can be provided by the parasite easily enough, so long as it is fed. Anything else the vampire eats will simply bypass the parasite's modifications, be broken down by the stomach, and leave the body via the normal route.
Psychological Effects
Its whispers - incessant whispers - claw at the back of my mind with words too quiet to make out. I know what it wants. Half the time, I want it as well. The other half... well, I still want it, but if I scream loudly enough, I can sometimes drown the cravings out...
First-hand accounts of the effects of vampirism on an individual's psyche are rare, but what few have been gleaned over the past few centuries have been incredibly eye-opening as to why. In addition to their biological connection, it seems that the vampire parasite and their host share a psychic link as well. Through the host, the parasite is fully aware of the world around them through the traditional senses, and it even seems to be capable of gleaning information directly from the host’s thoughts under certain circumstances. Most insidious, however, is the parasite’s ability to manipulate its host.
During the early stages of their lives, and when sufficiently fed, the parasites are capable of little more than speaking with their hosts, begging incessantly for food and attempting to coerce the host into procuring it for them. As a vampire’s hunger grows, however, so to does the power of both the parasite and host's body. Desperation forces the parasite to draw on reserves of power that jump-start the body in a way that food and age do not, allowing it to draw magic in from the surrounding area in order to increase the capabilities of the host in all ways other than mental. The host becomes stronger, faster, and more resilient to injury, but at the same time, they rapidly begin to share the same hunger as their parasite. Coupled with a feeling of slowly losing consciousness, this makes them mentally sluggish, instinct-driven, and open to suggestion.
It is here where Vampires are at their most dangerous. Even those who might seek to use the powers their parasite grants for humanitarian purposes pose a great risk to those around them should they ever lose track of their feeding cycle, allowing their hunger to grow too great for them to hold off entirely.
Symptoms
Immediately upon infection, soon-to-be vampires have sometimes described a sensation of something squirming around beneath their skin, though this seems to be in the minority of cases. In all cases, loss of blood will eventually make the victim drowsy and light-headed, and the growing parasite can often cause them to suffer a stroke as it grows large enough to entirely block heart vessels. If victims survive this stage and remain conscious, the last possible feeling they will experience is an intense pain around the heart itself as the parasite begins to devour it from within.
Treatment
While it is believed possible to stop the vampiric parasite from reaching and devouring a victim's heart for a short window of time after entering the host's body, once it is in place, it becomes less a matter of curing a disease and more one of slaying a monster.
Vampires are notoriously difficult to kill, as they seem generally unaffected by pain, blood loss, or physical shock. Upon learning about the location of the vampire parasite, many would-be Vampire hunters jump to the conclusion that it should be as simple as shooting them in the heart and allowing the thing to die. Of course, were it so easy, vampires would not have remained long as the insidious plague on the world that they are. The parasite acts similarly to slimes or amoebas, all but ignoring physical trauma and persisting so long as even a fraction of its original mass remains intact. While it is certainly possible to weaken or even incapacitate a vampire by harming the parasite-heart, it takes a significant amount of effort to ensure that every last fragment of the thing is destroyed. What’s more, the vampire parasite can regenerate its lost mass quite rapidly by drawing magic - and sometimes even the mass of their host - into itself. It grows more proficient in these abilities as it matures, is more consistently fed, or alternatively as it gains power through desperation when fed poorly.
To date, there are three methods that have been consistently proven to be effective at killing vampires as quickly and definitively as possible:
- Fire or Extreme Heat, particularly when applied directly to the heart. Like most flesh, the vampire parasite reacts poorly to the application of extreme temperatures, though heat is most readily accessible to most, and fire can partially cauterize portions of the parasite, greatly inhibiting its ability to repair itself. In ancient times, a popular means of applying this was either to use burning weapons, or outright attempting to impale vampires with burning stakes. The effectiveness of the fire itself certainly caught on, but there was a popular misconception for nearly two centuries that wood itself, when stabbed through the vampire’s heart, would be enough to kill them.
- Divine Intervention. While the vampire parasites were the creation of one god, a significant number of the rest consider them to be an affront against nature, and against mortals in particular. Gods of life and death especially have no great love for vampires, for reasons that should be obvious. Because of this, many gods have taken indirect action against the spread of vampires, by quietly including arcane effects that seriously wound vampires on contact into any items they might bless or enchant for one reason or another. To date, there are no confirmed records of a god acting against a vampire directly, but there are many whispers that some of the most powerful, vile examples of vampire kind have suddenly disappeared without a trace, with no mortals speaking up to take the credit.
- Soul Magic. A field of magic that is often feared, and for good reason, is that which affects the mortal soul. It skirts the lines of the natural laws of magic itself, and is often considered a blasphemous act against the gods to meddle with one. However, one of the most prolific vampire hunters in history, a Kiarren ex-Demon hunter by the name of Mwuaji‘ukuu, was said to have perfected a technique that allowed him to extract the very soul of a vampire’s mortal half, leaving the body without anything strong enough to direct it. After such an act, the vampire would be left defenseless, the mortal’s soul could be collected by the appropriate psychopomp, and the day would be saved. Sadly, most tales of Mwuaji‘ukuu’s ancient exploits speak at great length of his unmatched hubris, and all end with him tearing the soul out of a vampire strong enough to drive the body on its own. Caught off-guard by such an unexpected event, and with the vampire unfettered from the chains of its mortal half, he was quickly struck down.
Concerns of 'Vampire Outbreaks'
Although the general populous typically believes that vampirism can be spread through vampires biting victims and leaving them alive, the reality of the situation is thankfully slightly less dire. Vampire parasites seem to require a great deal of energy, food, and spiritual strength in order to multiply. However, they do so asexually, and so the threat of one vampire becoming multiples increases for as long as one remains alive and feeding. It is currently unknown how newly-spawned parasites are removed from the host body and spread to new hosts, but as nearly every reported survivor of a vampire attack has recovered without contracting vampirism themselves, it appears to be something more subtle than the legends claim.
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