Hunters
Hunters as they exist now are all the result of the work of Anders Van Der Heide, the man from whom Bram Stoker drew the character Van Helsing, and the rest of the original members of the group who hunted down Dracula himself (James Harding, David Semour, and Andrew Holder), along with Stoker, and Jeremiah Morgan, "Quincey Morris"'s brother. The men created a pact to continue the fight against vampires, and enlisted the help of families and friends, creating "The Midnight Society". It operated for several years on a European front, and then Morgan returned home to open a sister branch in the United States after rumors of vampires who were entering the United States.
The resulting US hunter agencies, which operated like private detective firms, were eventually absorbed by the United States government's secret Supernatural Elements division, forming a regulated network across the country. The agencies retain plenty of autonomy however, even training their own hunters on academy campuses across the country. The most famous is the Amarillo "Firebird" agency, the one begun and continued by the Morgan family.
Hunters carry a limited amount of gear that allows them to blend into the general population, as regulations prevent the existence of vampires from becoming common knowledge. Every hunter carries standard aspen stakes, and most also carry handguns with silver bullets. There is plenty of variety in permitted weapons, especially among older agencies, and many long-term hunters have developed a familiarity with a particular weapon of choice.
In addition to their weaponry, hunters wear leather jackets with high collars to protect them from bites, and often supplement the protection with leather wrist guards to prevent vampires from latching onto the easily accessible veins.
For more information on the details of this profession, see Vampire Hunter
Structure
Multiple agencies overarchingly controlled by National Huntmasters. While there are occasional bands of hunters who do not fall under the direct regulation of a national authority, these are rare and tend to be dissolved soon, especially if there is no strong leadership.
Each agency possesses its own Huntmaster, who is responsible for the agency's cooperation with overarching national guidelines. Second in command of each agency is a Director, whose duties are often determined partially by the Huntmaster. While most agencies have a Huntmaster who deals with legal matters and a director who deals with operations and tactical allocation, there is room for flexibility. Some Huntmasters take a more hands-on approach to their agencies, becoming involved in planning for large scale operations, and some almost entirely disappear into the background, preferring to allow their Director to manage the operations of the agency and dealing mostly with acting as a liaison to the National Huntmaster. A few agencies choose not to have an onsite Huntmaster and instead fall under the jurisdiction of the appointed head of the local regional court. This mostly applies to agencies with fewer than 100 active hunters or agencies that are primarily research and development oriented.
The U.S. National Huntmaster presides over a series of district courts known as regional tribunals, as well as the National Tribunal. While vampires are generally tried for their crimes in the regional courts, any cases of hunter misconduct are sent to the National Tribunal, to avoid local interests playing any part in the trial.
Vampires who have been caught in the act of so called 'great crimes', which are defined as crimes resulting in the death, hosting or turning of humans, or those attempting to settle border disputes with another coven, will automatically be tried in the National Tribunal.
Vampires simply accused of a crime are allowed to defend themselves in the regional tribunals. The difference is determined as such; if a vampire is accused of taking a host, but not found in possession of one when captured, the local court will try the case. If the vampire is in fact captured while holding a host, they will be immediately remanded to the authority of the National Tribunal.
Regional courts cover the following locations:
- Region A (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania)
- Region B (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas)
- Region C (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington D.C.)
- Region D (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington)
- Region E (Alaska, and Hawaii)
Culture
Vampire hunting is a 'family business' for the most part. Hunters often come out of families who have a history with the agencies, and are generally trained from childhood about the true existence of vampires and the skills and tools needed to fight them. Teaching their children how to stay safe and protect others is considered a key quality in a hunter who becomes a parent. While not every child of hunters becomes a hunter themself, many join agencies under various roles, even if active field duty is not their skill set.
Hunters believe that a team is better together than as individuals, and to defend, train, and support one's fellow hunters. Most teams are composed of a combination of senior and junior hunters, and it is a common practice for the senior hunters to be very involved in passing on their knowledge to younger generations.
While hunters stick to tried and true methods when those are most valuable, they also understand advancements that will improve the safety of humans, vampires, and hunters themselves are to be valued and sought. A common hunter saying within the newer generations is that you'll always be able to kill a vampire with a stake, but you can find them a whole lot faster with a computer.
Ethics
Hunters are well aware that fear makes them not only a liability, but a threat. A hunter who is constantly afraid is a danger not only to their own team but to innocent vampires as well. Every hunter is expected to understand that they are choosing to lay their lives on the line every time they set foot on the streets, and to act accordingly. The goal of being a hunter is to put one's own life in the gap between humans and vampires, and be willing to die in defense of innocents, whoever they might be. In fact, this core belief was the basis of the Chimera agency's original motto, "I would rather be wrong in death than in life".
Hunters also highly value selflessness. When everyone on a team values their partners' lives above their own, the likelihood that all hunters will come home alive is much higher, and self-sacrifice to protect one's team is the most honorable death a hunter can hope for.
Those who seek the darkness, find darkness. Those who seek the light, find light.
Founding Date
1902
Type
Government, Law Enforcement
Alternative Names
Hunters
Power Structure
Federation
Judicial Body
The National Tribunal and an associated regional court system
Controlled Territories
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