Vampirism

Vampirism is one of the most enticing and dangerous forms of undeath, a scourge upon the living and an eternally beckoning lure for the desperate and power-hungry.
Vampirism is infamous for both its power and how easily it is obtained and spread.
The scourge of vampirism was created by Ketior Fulgur and is exclusive to Humans.

Description

A vampire is a creature that has contracted the curse of vampirism, died and risen as an undead. This can occur due to a variety of reasons:

1. Blood drinking. If a creature willingly and knowingly drinks the blood of a Vampire, they become afflicted with the curse and die in short order. The creature rises as a vampire on the next sunset.
2. The Sanguinary Ritual. A Foul rite that involves the sacrifice of an innocent child, the Sanguinary ritual immediately transforms the Caster of this ritual into a Vampire.
3. Forceful conversion. A creature drained empty by a Vampire can be awakened by that Vampire as a Lesser vampire, if it so chooses. If the Lesser Vampire is able to drink the blood of its progenitor, it is freed of the domination of its master and becomes a full-fledged vampire.

From the Moment of conversion, a Vampire's soul will be locked away and the creature's former personality will start to become twisted the more time passes. Anything about the person becomes a twisted mockery, a dark mirror of what was there before. Love turns to obsession, annoyance to hate, pride to arrogance.

Traits

Vampires exhibit a set of powerful abilities:

1. Blood Thirst: Vampires crave and require Blood like living creatures require food. All of their abilities are fueled by the blood they consume. Only the fresh blood of sentient mortal species will do, preferrably of the same species the vampire originates from.
2. Immortality: Vampires are undead. They do not need air, sleep or food and do not age and are thus immortal. Vampires are one of the rare kinds of undead that retain their intelligence in undeath, as well as their ability to blend in with society.
3. Regeneration: Vampires rapidly heal any wound sustained, recovering from nearly any wound in under a minute.
4. Power: A Vampire's might and strength is increased drastically from what they were before.
5. Enhanced senses Vampires gain night-vision, able to see even in total darkness. Some can even make use of their smell or hearing to mimic echolocation.
6. Torpor: If well-fed, a Vampire can deliberately enter a state or deep sleep, lasting for centuries. During this sleep the Vampire becomes indisinguishable from a normal corpse, is unconcious and does not require any blood. For a while after waking up, the Vampire is greatly weakened.
7. Sunlight weakness: Vampires fear sunlight, as it weakens them and drains their blood reservoirs.
8. Minion creation: A Vampire can kill its victims by draining their blood, but can also choose to raise the resulting corpse as a lesser vampire or as zombies under their command.
9. Blood Frenzy: If a vampire begins to run out of blood, their abilities weaken and eventually stop. Their regeneration stops, their movements become jerky and uncoordinated, their intelligence decreases and they frantically charge towards the nearest source of blood, ignoring anything but the most available and direct source. If the blood frenzy lasts for too long, the vampire will starve and become seemingly a mundane corpse until it is fed blood.

Vampires have been known to unlock other abilities due to their nature, such as calling on the animals of the nights or blood magic. However, these are not universal Vampire abilities.
Taboo: Vampirism breaks the Taboo.

Lesser Vampires

Lesser Vampires are the weakest form of vampires known. They are created by vampires feeding on, and then deliberately raising the corpse of one of their victims as a vampire.
Lesser vampires are forced to obey every command given to them by their progenitor, and feel a sense of loyalty and twisted love towards them. Lesser vampires are bound to their progenitor until they drink their blood. If they cannot drink their progenitor's blood they remain a lesser vampire forever.
Lesser vampires also cannot sire other vampires.

Master Vampires

Master vampires are despicable, old monsters. They have delved deep into the depths of blood magic and unlocked special abilities such as transformation magic or Truly monstrous martial strength
Sometimes also called 'Vampire Nobles' master vampires are exceptionally dangerous creatures. They tend to be very experienced and smart, having survived for a long time. As such they are unlikely to be inebriated with their own power and instead they are oft careful, surrounding themselves with disposable lesser vampires and keeping their Operations Hidden.

Metaphysics

Vampires have no soul, in a sense. The soul of the human that they were originally is locked away and used as a power source for the vampire's supernatural abilities, being slowly consumed over time. With their minds and bodies unable to access their souls, they become unable to properly judge and regulate their own actions. This, in addition to the damage their soul acuumulates is why their personalities change and degrade.
Fortunately a soul cannot be destroyed by the vampire curse, only severely damaged.
The damage to a vampire's soul is also the reason why they drink blood. Traces of the soul suffuse any part of a creature, including their blood. Vampires do not drink the blood for its nutritional benefits but to absorb traces of their victim's souls and use them to repair the continually ongoing damage to their own soul.

Type

Supernatural