| Origins:
Vlad the Impaler, dying on the
battlefield, fused with a Leech from Biyo Lyn (the Dark
Plane). The Leech consumed his soul in exchange
for its extraordinary powers. Now he lives through
the blood of others, and those he shares his
leech-tainted blood with, must do the same.
|
| Physiology: |
Vampires look like pale, but otherwise normal human
beings, their extra long canines growing when they
feed. Their body temperature is a few degrees
colder, with the exception of up to a day after a full
meal.
Vampires require blood to keep their body from decomposing,
to regenerate body tissue and to increase the strength
of their vampiric abilities. The minimum a vampire
must consume to continue surviving, is a pint of human
blood every 30 days. Other types of blood can be
substituted to satiate the appetite, but have no
nutritional benefit to the vampire. Consuming
cold blood, or the blood of a being who is already
dead, acts as a poison, increasing the rate of
deterioration of the body.
To feed, a vampire's canines elongate and become
hollow, like a funnel, to facilitate feeding. A
vampire can hide these puncture marks with their saliva,
which has very minor healing properties.
The strength and existence of a vampire's unique
abilities is proportionate to the amount of blood a
vampire consumes on a consistent basis. A list of
vampiric powers follows:
| -Acute senses/ night
vision: |
All vampires have
heightened senses, being especially sensitive to
sound. They can see in the dark as easily
as a normal person can see during the day.
This abilities does not increase with an
increase in blood intake. |
| -Speed: |
All vampires have
improved reflexes. There is a small
increase in speed the more blood is consumed on
a regular basis. |
| - Psychic ability: |
Vampires have the
ability to read and influence minds. All
vampires have a weak base in this ability,
allowing them to hypnotize unwary victims into
complete complacency. However, the more
blood that is consumed, the more dominate the
will of the vampire becomes. |
| -Shadow Travel: |
A vampire who feeds
at least once every six days can move by teleporting
through pools of shadow. Possible distance
of jumps increases the more blood is consumed. This ability is negated if a
vampire is pinned to something through its
heart. |
| -Blood Channel: |
Only vampires who
consume large amounts of blood per day can move
through blood as per the shadow travel
ability. This form of travel explodes the
being traveled through. |
| -Regeneration: |
Just as long as a
vampire consumes the minimum amount of blood
required to sustain their body, a vampire can
regenerate minor wounds within seconds.
More serious wounds (like limb regeneration),
require larger amounts of blood. |
| -Silence: |
Moderately strong
vampires have the ability to 'give up' sound
like their dark planer counterparts. When
this happens, the vampire cannot speak, but they
also make no sound when they move. |
Due to the fact that their lineage heralds
from a dark, soundless plane, vampires have several
weaknesses related to this. They are as follows:
| -Sun allergies: |
The more frequently a
vampire consumes blood, the more allergic it
becomes to UV light. Vampires who only
consume the minimum requirement will suffer only
3rd degree burns in direct sunlight, whereas a
more powerful vampire could burn to ashes. |
| -Fragile: |
Due to the constant
state of decomposition, most vampires are
physically more fragile than human beings.
However, their fast regeneration, and increased
strength and speed through the consumption of
blood, tends to make up for this fact. |
| -Core |
The heart, the organ
that provides blood to the rest of the body, is
the vampire's core. If the heart is run
through, or removed, the vampire cannot
move. If the heart is destroyed completely
(through incineration), the vampire eventually dies. |
Possibly the most important feature of a vampire, is
that once it has been turned, it no longer has a soul,
as that aspect of their being is consumed in the process
of their turning (see Extra section on Making a
Vampire). What this ultimately means, is that when a
vampire dies, it does not return to the realm of the
dead as every other living thing does, but instead
ceases to exist completely. This fact greatly affects a
vampire's personality, as will be discussed in the
Sociology section.
|
| Sociology: |
When a vampire is turned, its personality does not
change, but it does suddenly understand that it is no
longer connected to the Universe as a whole, because it
no longer has a soul. In this they are isolated
from all other manner of being in the Universe. Because
of the desperate knowledge that when they die, they will
cease to exist completely, even the meekest of vampires
will prey on humans to survive. Normally, most
vampires driven by the isolation their notoriety
provides, will become desensitized to the violence inherent
in their survival and become the insane killers everyone
views them as.
Because of the perceived volatile nature of vampires,
most people won't associate with them. Because of their
isolation from supernatural society (even demons,) they
have formed their own social structure divided into
clans based on their ideals in respect to
humanity. The major clans are as follows:
| Familia: |
This is the largest
vampire clan, although it is the least well-known
(as a cohesive group) in circles outside of the
vampiric community. Its most prominent
doctrines are secrecy and support. The
vampires of this clan practice relative moderation
and restraint when feeding, not out of concern for their
victims, but to avoid drawing attention to
themselves; to increase their chances of survival.
The vampires of this clan tend to have low to
moderate powers, and have the largest support
network. This clan is divided into families
that range the world over, the Father's (a
non-gender specific title) of each
family meeting once a year to discuss the
affairs of the vampire nation. |
| Misericordia: |
This is a well-known
faction, but not a particularly large one, as it
has the greatest fluctuation of members in and out
of its ranks. This group takes a minimalist
approach to feeding, trying to prevent as little
emotional or physical trauma to their victims as
possible. They are the weakest and gentlest
faction, because they are always testing the
limits at which they can abstain from blood
consumption. Because of their strict doctrine and
consideration for their victims, many of
Misericordia's members are newer vampires who move
on to the larger sects as they 'grow out' of their
gentler nature, in favor of easier survival and
greater support from the vampiric community. |
| Tentatio-Onis |
This is the most volatile
clan of vampires, and thankfully not very cohesive
as a group. They are the murderers, considering
all others their prey. They are often sociopaths,
mass murderers, cult leaders or stalkers.
They don't really meet, and their members
frequently die, but there is a mutual respect
among them, and they will help each other out, if
convenient. |
| Vis Vires |
This is a clan whose existence
cannot be confirmed. They consider
themselves as gods and are secretly trying to take
over the world by indirectly controlling all of
the other cultures. They are powerful, and
see all others as their pawns. At least that's
what people think. |
| Solus |
This is not actually a
clan, but the term used to refer to the vampires
independent of the network. Only the most
powerful vampires can survive on their own like
this, able to do as they please, and stand alone
against all who oppose them. They also tend to be
the most suicidal of the vampires, as they are
usually the oldest of their kind. Generally
they are withdrawn from the world, and appear to
have no particular agenda. They rarely ally
with anyone. |
There are smaller vampiric clans, but their
individual doctrines vary little from these major
groups, most of which are loosely included in the
Familia Clan.
|
| Affiliations: |
Vampires as a whole have no affiliations due to the
believed volatile nature of their kind. However,
small clans, or individual vampires, have been known to
form temporary alliances with persons outside of their own kind.
|
| Extra: |
Making a Vampire:
Converting someone to vampirism isn't a
particularly complicated process, but the chance of success
is very low. To accomplish the transition, a vampire
must drain the blood of a living being till they are
on the edge of death, then feed that being their
leech-tainted blood, at which point the soul is
consumed and the person becomes a vampire. The
main points of failure are the person dies too
quickly when being drained, or the soul cannot
be consumed by the leech, and the person dies
naturally. Outstanding Cases when Turning:
For the most part, a vampire retains all of its
abilities as a human when it is turned, with a few
exceptions. Witches, when turned, lose all of
their powers, as their powers require a connection
to the Universe. Shape shifters on the other
hand, even after being turned, retain the 'animal'
part of their soul, and thus can still change, and
will remain as a soul fragment when they die.
When they are reincarnated, they will come back as
their animal counterpart, or make good hosts for
angel and demon incarnations.
And that's the basics of Vampires.
|
|
|
Unless otherwise stated, the comic
"Strange Fruit" and all other content on this site
is, for good or ill, the property of me ^__^
Strange Fruit is hosted on Keenspace,
a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.
|
|
|
