Vampires
Basic Information
Anatomy
One of the most basal humanoid races on Terra, vampires vary very little from the appearance of their human cousins, with the only significant differences being in their teeth and biology. Vampires have enlarged canines on the upper and lower jaws, sometimes being 'double fanged', or having extra pairs of canines, usually on the upper jaw. They are also noted to have an eye shine at night due to their nocturnal nature and excellent night vision.
Vampires being so closely related to humans are often regarded as being indistinguishable from them aside from behavior and culture by other less basal races. It has been noted that many vampires once interbred with humans, similarly to Mages, and are their closest living relatives.
Biological Traits
Vampires have a repulsion to sunlight, due to a condition found in all members of their race that can cause severe burns, permanent blindness, and skin cancers extraordinarily fast. While most vampires will not immediately die from a short exposure to sunlight like in many myths and stereotypes from the human era, in is painful and stressful for them, and repeated exposure can be deadly over time, particularly if cancers develop. Vampires also, like werewolves, react with extremely violent allergic reactions to silver. Widespread anaphylaxis and shock caused by contact with silver dust or having it on their skin can be deadly in minutes if they are not rushed to a hospital or given medication right away. As such, many vampires often carry emergency anti-allergy medication such as epipens at all times, in case of emergency. As for dealing with sunlight, most vampires are nocturnal, with those who venture out in the day wearing protective clothing or carrying specially made umbrellas to avoid direct contact with the sun.
Growth Rate & Stages
When young, there are very little differences between a vampire and a human aside from their teeth. As they enter advanced age however, vampires will begin to look more monstrous. Their ears become pointed and elongated, they lose much of their body fat, and begin to resemble skeletons wrapped in flesh. Older vampires are known for being much more susceptible to injuries and burns from the sun than younger ones and having much thinner skin, and being at risk for cuts and lacerations along with more brittle bones that break much easier. Often their scleras will darken as well, becoming a deep black or red. Elderly vampires are considerably more frail than younger ones, and susceptible to more grievous injuries. In the past this made feeding difficult, however modern times have averted much of the risks associated with old age through bagged blood and improvements to mobility devices such as wheelchairs and canes, along with great advancements in medical technology and blood magic.
Ecology and Habitats
Vampires are most at home in urban areas, although their population can be found all around the globe. Though they are less common in particularly harsh environments, due to the risk of not being able to obtain enough blood to live, it's still not rare to see them from the far north to the harsh deserts. Vampires are an incredibly successful race, and one of those that were the least impacted during the War of Black Ash due to their prowess with blood magic and being less reliant on crops. As such, vampires, besides fairies and mages, are one of Terra's most numerous populations.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Vampire's needs are very similar to all other humanoid races, with the exception of that vampires must have a significant amount of blood in their diet. As such, they are relatively widespread, and can get by in most environments easily. Most vampires obtain their blood through government programs in areas where it is uncommon for them to live, and areas high in population will see blood being sold for Vampires in grocery stores and even in refrigerated vending machines. Vampires who do not feed on blood regularly are known to suffer effects similar to scurvy, with wounds opening, severe nutritional problems, and are prone to difficulty healing injuries and passing out from low iron content.
Vampires who do not consume enough blood can be prone to several health issues throughout their lives such as malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, vision loss, increased sun sensitivity, and more brittle bones, which for vampires in advanced age, can be deadly. These health issues impact children and the elderly in much higher extremes. Temporary effects of not enough blood in the diet can cause stomach upset, dizziness, pale or ashy skin, and headaches, though all symptoms will typically resolve within a few hours of eating a proper meal.
Along with allergic reactions to silver, vampires also commonly have food allergies that are widespread within the species, the most common among them being to the garlic and onion family, that causes severe upset stomach, rashes, hives, and intense cramping if consumed. Typically this reaction is most severe and the most concerning in children, and some vampires will grow out of it in adulthood. Typically, even if having grown out of their allergy, most vampires will still avoid the onion family in their diet.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Vampires are incredibly social, if aloof in their way of showing it. They will form long lasting bonds with just about anyone that gains their trust and when having bonded with less long lived races, will often watch over their families for centuries. As they are generally reserved and quiet, it can be hard to determine if one is being friendly or not, as vampires are more often about actions than they are about words.
A vampire is a fierce ally to have as they do not take any slight to their, or their own friends and allies', honor or reputation lightly. They highly value their social rankings and often seek to always improve themselves, along with the lives of those close to them, as not doing so is seen as selfish, rude, and a disgrace. Treating others with the highest respect is seen as a norm, and accidentally addressing someone below their correct ranking or titles a massive social blunder.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Like humans, vampires also suffered greatly under the dragons, and in many dragon dominated areas, are known to still face discrimination. Angels in particular are known to be extremely prejudice to vampires.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Global
Average Intelligence
Human Intelligence
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Vampires, as a more basal race, are less affected by magic and also less capable to use it than most other races. However, vampires as a race have some of the most advanced techniques in blood magic available to them through a shared culture with the Blood Dragonflight in those that can use magic, and are often highly trained and much more skilled in this field than those who are not vampires themselves.
They also have some of the best night vision of any race, seeing incredibly well even in almost perfect darkness.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Names are quite commonly passed down for generations, with many surnames originating in the human era and due to cultural exchange in the past, many are shared with influential human families of times long passed.
Gender Ideals
Gender roles are quite relaxed in Vampires compared to their human ancestors with little distinction if any at all between different genders in style, and no distinction at all culturally aside from an individual's preferred aesthetic. Makeup is very common for all genders and often worn heavily. Clothing is a mark of status, with the more elaborate being seen as more attractive. It is quite common to see vampire men wear dresses and women to wear pants or trousers year round, along with jewelry and other forms of personal ornamentation. such as piercings and tattoos.
Courtship Ideals
Courting between vampires is an elaborate affair of playing a sort of game of cat and mouse through elaborate but thoughtful gift giving between the involved parties, boasting of their own accomplishments and fluffing the details as a test to see how much their suitor has been paying attention and expecting them to tear down exaggerated details, and extremely lavish meals. Not only when courting a vampire is a person expected to impress them, but they are meant to impress their family as well, who are often given gifts and taken to meals just as lavish and at times, pretentious.
Blood Drop Crystals are a significant item in the courting and marriage culture of vampires, usually made with the blood of the one proposing or their family and made into a custom piece of jewelry, commonly rings, earrings, pendants, or brooches as a way of welcoming the person to the family. They are also sometimes given as a wedding gift after a proposal for the same reason.
Average Technological Level
Vampiric society has some of the most advanced medical care in the world, thanks to their advancements in understanding blood borne diseases and the cloning of blood for consumption.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Vampiric society remains as one of the last holdouts for human era languages to be regularly spoke in the same forms as their now extinct cousins. Latin in particular is a good example, still widely spoken by most European vampires. English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi are also quite common languages in use by vampiric households, using human era dialects that oftentimes are so old and distinct from their modern forms, that vampires speaking them may be nearly impossible to understand to modern dialect speakers.
Common Dress Code
Most often vampiric apparel consists of dark colors, accented with bright reds, deep purples, or muted blues. Gold and greys are reserved for those of high social status, such as nobility, celebrities, and politicians or priests.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Burial and Death Rites
Among vampiric society, there is a long lasting tradition where their dead are cremated and remains stored in family mausoleums. These mausoleums are typically massive, holding multiple generations worth of ashes and bone fragments in partitioned chambers, organizing the remains based on which branch of the family tree a person belongs to. Ashes are stored in elaborate urns, often made out of red, black, or gold glass. It is thought that the cremation tradition started in the early human era, due to some regional human beliefs that vampires and 'witches' had to be burned to prevent harm to humankind, and this later became a tradition in vampiric circles. Ground burial is seen as a massive disrespect to vampires, stemming from later human belief of entombing vampires, staking them, and burying them in the ground with rocks or bricks in their mouths. Differences in burial traditions has caused numerous cultural conflicts with angels and werewolves in the past. One burial tradition common among vampires is the mixing of remains when a mausoleum becomes too crowded to store any more remains. The remains of the oldest branches of the family tree will be combined and distributed to other mausoleums in order to still fit in the same urn, and allow members of the family who may live too far to come to the traditional mausoleum to still have their remains with that of their family. This greatly saves space, particularly in large families with many branches and many children in each generation.Common Taboos
A social underground among vampires has developed over the years, seeing many, particularly among younger generations, to adopt lighter, simpler clothing, and images of the sun adorned on their clothing. So called 'Sun Chasers', vampires belonging to this group can be seen about in the daytime, something that may result in grievous bodily harm if the proper protective clothing, magics, and charms are not used correctly. Shunned by many of their more traditional kind, Sun Chasers reject traditional norms such as only finding employment at night, staying within the traditional regions, and ideals held by most of their kind.
History
The early history of the vampiric race is largely unknown and lost to time, overshadowed by that of Humans. It is largely accepted that Vampires may have evolved alongside humans and to have lived among human societies throughout their shared histories.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Vampires are in general, friendly to most races, with the exception of Werewolves and Angels. These races have a long history of war and conflict with one another, the cause long since forgotten. Even so, there are still exceptions, as many individuals have been able to work past the large cultural gap between their races.
They are common allies of Demons and Arachne, due to shared cultures, pantheons, and shared conflicts with the Angels.
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Homo sapiens hemo
Origin/Ancestry
humanoid
Lifespan
800 to 1400 years
Average Height
5'9" to 6'5"
Average Physique
All humanoid body types
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Vampires share the same skin tones and eye and hair colors with their human cousins, but also have a wide array of their own. Truly black hair is much more common among vampires than it was for humans along with white, gray, and red being seen in higher proportion as well. Vampires eyes often come in deep reddish brown, red, blue, green, and violet, with yellow or gold being uncommon but not incredibly rare.
Their eyes often reflect light in the dark, being usually a yellowish green hue. When underfed, their skin and eyes often become pale and pallid, giving them a sickly appearance.
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