Vampires

Image (c) Artist Destinyfall
Permission was granted from artist for use on this site.

Description

When infected, a subject has three days with which to rid himself of the disease, after the three days, his body will become permanently infected and begins to change.

The first sign of this change is the purging of the body. The subject will become very sick, having to rid his colon and stomach of any matter. After the body is purged, the subject's physical form will begin to shift. The teeth will elongate, canines the longest, and those teeth immediately behind the canines (top and bottom) will be only slightly shorter than the fangs. All other teeth will be short, but have equal sharpness.

The eyes will also change, turning to a deep gold, deep onyx, or a deep red. Vampire pupils can be either round or catlike. The subject's heart and normal body functions will stop. Unused organs will shrink, while the stomach will grow, and new organs will be built. The tongue will elongate, and have a pointed appearance.

Vampires possess bat like wings, which can retract into folds in the back, which hide them from view. They have retractable claws on the fingers and toes. Their flesh in very pale (except when immediately after eating) and seems to have a rainbow sheen, much like mother-of-pearl, when exposed to light.

The main diet is blood. The bite of a vampire does not always infect the bitten. Vampires have been known to feed off an unknowing subject for weeks by using their claws to open a wound, drinking, and then sealing the wound with their saliva. A vampire's saliva is one of the strongest non-magical means of healing a flesh wound. It can heal most wounds in a few hours, leaving no sign of a scar.

When a vampire infects another, and they become vampires, the two are tied together in a parent/child, master/slave relationship. If the master vampire is killed while others are tied to him, they will be destroyed as well. To be free of this bond, the master must offer his blood to those tied. When the master's freely given blood is consumed, they will be free. If blood is forcefully taken from the master, those tied who drink it will earn nothing but his anger.

Gender Differences

Other than the aforementioned changes, vampires appear very much as when they were alive. The only differences in the gender are internal. Males have longer top canine fangs than female, and also tend to be more aggressive than females. Males have two stomachs, while females only have one. Males have a habit of eating the heart of their prey. One stomach is for blood, which has veins and tubes connecting to the heart for instant insertion of injected blood. The second stomach is for the tissue of the heart they eat. No waste product is made, as the males have an unknown way of digesting and using the entirety of what is eaten. No one has been able to study the inner workings of a vampire to know.

Habitat

Vampires, being primarily nocturnal, enjoy darker places, such as tunnels, dense forest, and terrain filled with caves. Many vampires have been known to sneak into cities and appear as one of the civilians while it feeds off the population. Vampires are most common in the Memoreik, Torretor, Antangil, and Deathglare Ridge.

Mannerisms

The personality of a vampire depends primarily on the personality of what he was like when alive. The disease does, however, affect the mind. Vampires tend to be more observant, darker in mind, cunning, and have a much higher intelligence than in life.

Older vampires are sometimes seen as great sources of knowledge for all kinds. From an older vampire, one might learn the location of a lost treasure or temple, or any amount of untold secrets. One must only be prepared to pay the vampire in return. Vampires have no use for money, and tend to ask for payment in the form of items, favors, sacrifices, or errands.

Strengths

A vampire's main strength is that of its physical power. They can rip men apart like wet paper bags with their bare hands. They are incredibly fast, with quick bursts of speed for attacking and dodging. They also have amazing abilities due to their supernatural disease. Vampires are not affected by any disease or poison. Normal weapons rarely affect them, unless the heart is pierced and the head is cut from the body. They are extremely graceful, never having the wrong footing and falling.

Weaknesses

With all their strengths and powers, vampires have powerful weaknesses. If the heart is pierced and the head is severed. Items that have been blessed by any god (of goodness) that is followed by a race will burn them. Silver is their main, and most powerful bane. Silver will burn them, marring the magic that holds their existence together. Wounds caused by silver cannot heal normally, but only by feeding constantly until the magic repairs itself along with the wound. Sunlight is yet another bane of the vampires. The vampiric virus cannot survive in the rays of sunlight. Sunlight causes a strong chemical reaction on the very flesh of the vampire, making him appear to burst into flame.

Abilities

Vampires have a small, and very powerful arsenal of abilities. The first set is physical. The ability to scale up any surface, climb ceilings and walls, their physical strength, and can blend into the shadows.

More supernatural and magical abilities appear and strengthen with ages. Mind reading, and telepathic communication with other vampires. Creatures of a chaotic, or evil nature will tend to be accepting of vampires, no matter the vampire's disposition. Mortals find themselves drawn to vampires, as if the creatures were magnets. Vampires can levitate, teleport short distances, and shift their forms into that of mist or fog. They can speak the languages they spoke as mortals.

Life Span

Though vampirism is a disease, it is a supernatural affliction. It freezes the subject in time, allowing them to live as they were when infected, until a hunger or other creature ends their existence.

Susceptibility

The vampiric disease only affects humans, elves, dune raptors, klavden, kalus, and dresall. The genetic makeup of other races has an inborn, natural repellent to the disease. This makes the immune races the perfect vampire hunters.

Half breeds are affected by this disease if the majority of their background has been disease susceptic races. If the race is half susceptible, and half immune, the race will have a fifty fifty chance of being affected.