Vampires

Vampirism is currently considered a condition brought on by a virus. (There is major controversy in the world today about it's classification as a virus. Some people are trying to move to get it taken off of the infectious diseases listing. Currently, it's still listed as a virus because it is spread like one, and vampires do not occur without the infection.) The vampiric virus, that is, and it causes one to become a vampire. In other cases, it can be fought off, or it will have an instantly fatal reaction. 10% of people will be killed outright if there is an attempt to change them into a vampire. 20% will fight off the virus, and go on with their lives. 70% will turn.

Turning a person into a vampire is full of ritual and tradition, which the vast majority of vampires follow (and to remain within legal requirements). The intended new vampire must be fed off of a total of three times before the turning can be attempted. (note: feeding off of anyone only requires a bite (no instruments involved it has to be from the fangs), and to drink at least a mouthful of blood--it does not have to be a lot taken from the person) the time between feedings generally needs to be 12 hours or more, no one's especially sure. After that, there needs to be an exchange of blood between the intended and the vampire. This is where it gets dangerous, at least for the intended. When the turning is supposed to occur, most of the blood does need to be drained from the body. And while the movies would have people believe that can be done in .2 seconds flat, the reality is it takes a while. Blood exchange with the vampire has to occur before the body dies, though some vampires play it safer, and letting the vampire 'virus' kill their intended instead of risking bringing them too close to death before exchanging.

Once a person has 'died', they will remain dead for three days before they rise again. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way to tell in the interim if a person will actually rise again, or if they've died outright from a reaction to the virus.

Vampires are undead. Meaning their living bodily systems are no longer functioning. While they can breathe, they don't have to. Vampires do not eat. They have no way of expelling the consumed substances(or even digesting), unless they choose to vomit afterwards. While some vampires choose to do this to help cover their vampiric nature, it's generally not practiced. They will bleed if injured, though not nearly as badly as a human would. They seem to have more control over the blood in their bodies than others do, though this comes from concentration as well as practice. Uses include the ability to have proper intimate relations with others, blushing, stopping major bloodloss from injury, etc. Some are merely ways to fit in better with society and not be so obviously vampiric, others are more survival tools. Being they don't produce tears anymore, vampires cry blood. That whole shape shifting thing? Total crap. As for fangs, yes, they do have fangs, and no, they aren't hideable or retractable.

Vampiric Abilities
Popular fiction does have a couple of things right. One thing is they can incite lust in people. However, this will only work upon people if their orientation works for you. If you incite it in someone who does not have any inclination towards the vampire's gender, it won't do them any good...it'll just make them want to find themselves a suitable partner. Another thing they can do is a low level hypnotism, making people more likely to follow their instructions as long as they are kept simple.[for example 'go outside' will likely work. 'go to the store and get me some cookies' will not.] This works much easier on weaker willed people in general, and if the target is drugged in any way(this includes alcohol). Also, once a vampire has fed off of someone, these abilities have a much higher success rate upon them.

Vampires are physically better than humans. They are moderately faster and stronger, and generally more able to take physical injury than normal people. This doesn't mean they're superfast and can move faster than the eye can see, but they'd win all the foot races in the olympics.

A vampire's bite is either pleasurable or painful--and it's entirely dependent on the donor. If it is willing, it's not a bad or painful experience. If it is unwilling, it most certainly is. Since vampires 'came out', there's been an increasing number of people volunteering to become blood donors, usually in exchange for the promise of being cared for, or eventually turned.

Feeding
How often does a vampire need to feed?

That depends on how much they take, but as a rule of thumb, if a vampire drains a human entirely, they don't have to feed again for a week. If they take less, they'll have to feed more often.

What happens to a vampire if it goes too long without feeding?

If a vampire goes too long without feeding, they get ravenous and go rampant, gorging themselves on anything with a heartbeat. Note, with this, they won't just take enough to stop the hunger, they will kill anything and truly gorge themselves, basically killing anything in their paths.

If they are caged, or restrained and physically unable to feed, they will still go mad and ravenous, but eventually they will go dormant. Once dormant, they are helpless and the only thing that will rouse them from this is being force-fed. A dormant vampire is a very easy target!

Vampiric Curses
Vampires are in fact hampered by several drawbacks due to their nature. All vampires suffer from these, there are no exceptions.

• vampires are highly allergic to sunlight. Their skin will blacken and ash in seconds. A few minutes of exposure can reduce a vampire to a pile of flakey ashes. Because of this, and their physiology, they are nocturnal creatures, and most won't even risk being awake during the day, let alone moving around.
• vampires have no reflection, nor are they capturable on film in any manner. (the only exception to this is infared, which is an entirely different spectrum.) Note: as a result of not casting a reflection, vampires are actually able to see anyone who happens past their mirror that's in the Inbetween.
• vampires are repelled/burned by religious paraphernalia(note: this does not have to be strictly christian) this extends to ground. They cannot walk on holy ground, consecrated ground, etc.
• -vampires need to be invited into homes (note: public buildings do not need invites. Nor do hotels, even if someone is 'living' there, or dorms. For an apartment block they can enter the common spaces - each individual apartment is a 'home', the parts in between are not.)
• for any drugs to take effect on a vampire, it will need to be ingested with it in someone else's bloodstream. injecting a vampire with anything will have no effect beyond annoying the vampire.

Bloodlines
Vampires have some 'families' which are called Bloodlines. What they are are like-minded vampires, who value certain traits in humanity, and strive to turn those who fit in with that. They have their own agendas generally speaking. Vampires do not have to be part of any Bloodline, and many are not. Bloodline vampires are either turned by an existing Bloodline vampire, or they can join the Bloodline at a later date. However they must be sponsored and approved by elders to join and a Bloodline will not accept a member of another Bloodline (even if you have already left one Bloodline) - they will only accept vampires of no existing affiliation.

Within Bloodlines, vampires have a pecking order, which generally means the oldest are at the top, the fledglings at the bottom, though there are exceptions made for those who excel. Bloodline vampires may or may not live together in a community. Some vampires choose to live with their Bloodline family, others prefer to live apart - but whatever the choice of the individual vampire, they are expected to uphold the beliefs and ways of their Bloodline. Punishments are harsh for those who stray - it is accepted that it is better to formally resign from a Bloodline, in the knowledge that you will never be accepted by that or any other Bloodline again, than stray from the Bloodline's path.

There are many and various groups that claim to be Bloodlines around the world - many of these are little more than small groups of vampires who have decided on a way of life. There are four groups which are acknowledged worldwide to be Bloodlines. It has long been established that to create a new official Bloodline, the new bloodline must be formally acknowledged by all of the current official Bloodlines. the problem is that nobody has been able to get all four of the Bloodlines to agree to any of the claims to new bloodlines.

The current four official Bloodlines are:-

Katharos
These are the purists of the vampire world. They consider themselves to be the standard to which all other vampires strive. As far as they are concerned, they are the best and everyone else is trash or wannabes.

They have the strictest rules of admission - they accept only the smartest and most well educated. Until recent times they accepted mostly males, though their numbers have started to equal out in recent times - a couple of hundred years ago, a woman had to be outstandingly exceptional to be accepted. These days, she simply has to be as exceptional as her male counterparts. They are also the are also the strictest when it comes to enforcing their rules. Any member of the Bloodline who breaches their rules is immediately cast out and condemned to death - all other members of the Bloodline are instructed to do their utmost to ensure that the sentence has been carried out, or suffer the same fate.

They are the historians of the vampire race. They seek knowledge of all types, and often collect treasures and items of note and record. These are then passed down through the Bloodline as necessary. As such, they are often perceived as being very wealthy individuals, however this is often not quite the case, as they would never sell these possessions.

Katharos' are very particular. They choose their victims carefully, and the Bloodline frowns upon taking any kind of drugs through the victim's blood. They do allow alcohol-filled blood, though recommend it be a wine or spirit of a fine age or vintage. Katharos' view humans as cattle - or, at best - pets. they're useful, they're necessary, but they're far from equals.

Venuste
Members of the Venuste are the artists of the vampire world - and art covers a whole host of possibilities. Some Venustes are musicians, others models, actors, writers, painters. What they all are are both beautiful and creative. Venustes are remarkably shallow at times - they believe that if something does not have outer beauty, then it cannot have inner beauty. And if something has outer beauty, then inner beauty will either be present, or it will follow in time. Or, if it doesn't, then it can be killed and looked at until the outer beauty fades away.

Venustes believe in art for arts sake. It does not need a reason, it is the reason. They turn and accept only the beautiful and talented. They have continually boasted some of the best artists in the world's history, and even some in more recent history. These are the vampires that most humans react best to, because they most closely follow those in popular literature. They've been known occasionally to let humans believe those things about them, because it's amusing for them, and humans generally will let their guard down if they believe they're talking to someone who's 'zomg so much like Lestat!' or the like.

Generally speaking, vampires of this bloodline are kind to humans. They're pets, but they're good pets. If they aren't forced to kill, they normally choose not to. Though there are some Venustes who hold the opinion that there's a lot of art to be gotten from a corpse, blood, maybe some entrails.

Renfield

Hands down the most misunderstood and occasionally pitied bloodlines, the Renfield line is kindly put--a little off. Unkindly put, they're mad as hatters. Their contribution to history and the vampire race in general has been a lot of wild, erratic behavior. It's thought that the chupacabra legend was really just a bunch of Rens starting something up out of pure boredom, and whenever they're bored enough again, they go create another hoax just for kicks. They're responsible for most of the disinformation spread about vampires throughout history, they seem to take great pride in making up more crap to sling at the media.

They tend to have meetings, and no one's aware of how they inform one another that they're having them, but cities have been destroyed in their wakes. They are also known for being highly annoying with bouts of clarity where they just Get Things. Whether it's just eerie coincidence or some extra perception, no one knows. It fails about as much as it works, so there isn't any discernible pattern. (Rens spread the rumor that they're really faking it when they're wrong, however, just to make everyone all the more paranoid.)

Rens' opinion on humans is as varied as their collective insanities. Some of them adore humans, and would do anything to help them. Others could care less, still others specifically seek out to kill them whenever they can. Rens also occasionally like to masquerade as other Bloodlines. Scarily enough, it's even worked in the past, events taking place and getting Bloodlines into trouble with their elders, only to find out later it wasn't one of them at all.

Rens turn the mad. Universally, there's something not quite connected right upstairs in everyone they 'bless' with vampirism. Of course some have been known to actively seek out to drive a target mad, just so they fit the criteria. Those who they accept into the fold must also be crazy in some fashion.

Ferals
These vampires give in to their more animalistic nature. They see themselves as above humanity most certainly, and they love to flaunt that. They're much more pack-oriented than other vampires, you'll rarely get a lone one. They live fast, wreck havok where they go, and don't boast better natures. They're fully at home with their homicidal tendencies, and work more to hone it than curb it. Near all of them have immortality complexes, and whole packs have been known to wipe themselves out, because they keep going and won't go to ground.

These are the psychopaths of the vampire world. They're cruel and sadistic by nature, they love blood and carnage, and they love making others fear them--not just humans, but other supernaturals as well. They didn't give themselves their name. The other Bloodlines chose to call them that, a derogatory term, though later the Ferals looked upon it as a badge of honor.

Ferals will turn anyone, seemingly at random. And if that person does not turn out to be as bloodthirsty as the Bloodline requires, they will simply slaughter them. If a feral decides to leave the Bloodline, they better know how to run hard and fast and be good at hiding! ferals will also only accept another vampire into the Bloodline after they have 'proved' themselves - usually by mass murder.