Vampires and Dhampires
Mythology and Creation Story
The Curses of the Gods
Creation and Education
Traditions
Offspring, Birth and Dhampires
Abilities and Powers
After seeing the bumbling attempts of her siblings to make an intelligent species, the Dark Lady chose to create something inherently different from the others. She took the best aspects from her sibs designs, and made them powerful and far superior to her siblings. She then made her children hunters of the weaker, dumber races.
Of course, the siblings were instantly jealous, for they didn’t have the vision to make true hunters. So each, with their mother’s blessing, placed a curse on the new children of the Dark Lady. One by one, we were denied the warmth of the sun and fire, and grew to fear wood and bright water. The Dark Lady then increased our instincts so we could overcome these weaknesses. Then the Dark Lady felt ultimate betrayal, as her mother placed her own curse on us. She bid that food be denied us, and that our love for the weaker races blood now be a need. She then bade that a pure vampire be never born perfect again.
The Dark Lady was enraged, but she would not let her children die out. She reached out and improved upon our curse, allowing us to take other races and make them our spawn. It was also so weak that it did not stop us from bringing forth the much weaker dhampires. Unable to thwart the will of the Dark Lady, the other four gods banished us across the sea.
It was a dark time for us, and our forefathers found themselves feeding from each other. We would not be alone for long, however.
The Dark Lady eventually found herself at war with her jealous siblings, and created new children. None were as powerful, however, as her first children, and She taught her demon mages how to bring us back. We, in turn, taught them how to worship the Goddess correctly. Together, we’ve led Chaos for millennia...
Each of the other gods, in a vain attempt to limit Chaos’ creations, placed a curse on the vampires. Irotana even turned their hunters’ tendencies against them, turning their ritual of drinking the blood of their prey into a hunger that could only be sated with blood. Tyrea, the most conservative of the lot, decided to give her children a weapon against the vampires. She made wood, easily found and crafted, fatal to vampires. Chaos was able to limit the curse, so that only wood that pierced the heart would paralyze her children. Tyrea, bound within the curse, could only make it so wood from her scared grove would be fatal, and again, only if it pierced the heart.
(In game terms, it means that wood from Tyrea’s sacred grove will actually disintegrate a vampire heart the minute it penetrates the organ. Of course, getting some of this kind of wood would require a great sacrifice from the supplicant. Normal woods will just paralyze the vampire, making it unable to do anything that requires the muscles to move. )
Aeryon was disgusted with the creation of the vampires, and wished to never see them again. Since he could not destroy them, he chose to make it nearly impossible to hunt in the day. He made it so they could not go into the sun without burning away. Chaos was able to twist this as well, although not as much as she’d have liked. Sunlight will burn away the eyes of a vampire, leaving them unable to see.
(In game terms, this means that sunlight will cause the vampire's eyes to ignite into flame. If not careful, the eyes will burn completely out, leaving the vampire blind for two days while they grow their eyes back. Even if they are covered with a substance that allows the vampire to see while out in the sunlight, the eyes will still smoke and the skin around them crisp black, making identification as a vampire fairly easy. This does not keep them asleep during the day. As long as they are in a place the sunlight can’t reach, they are unaffected.)
Laugar sought a way to protect his mers, who were being less affected than the others because they lived mostly underwater. He took a substance his people had created, bright water, and gave it corrosive properties. It would dissolve the flesh of a vampire on contact. Chaos laughed at her brother’s attempts, and concentrated on countering their siblings’ and mother’s curses. Unimpressed, Laugar modified his sacred pool so that the holy water would do enough damage to kill them.
(Holy water from Laugar’s scared pool is very rare, and a drop will leave a hole the size of a fist in the flesh. Obviously, this could also dissolve the heart of a vampire. Getting this water requires a sacrifice made at the pool, as supplies are limited. Much more common is bright water, now called holy water, made by the druids of Laugar, which acts more like an acid, leaving permanent scars only where it touches. Holy water has a slight glow to it, and does not disperse in regular water, rather floating on it unless it is in a closed jar.)
Of all her siblings, Claeryn was the most deeply angered at his favorite sibling’s creation. He made it so that fire would burn vampires almost instantly, feeding off their flesh like dry leaves. Chaos was able to modify it, but again, not as well as she had hoped. Vampires wouldn’t die as quickly, but they would burn far easier than the other races.
(In game terms, vampires burn at a lower temperature than the other races, and more quickly as well. The won’t be putting out candles with their fingers any time soon; their likely to have to regrow the hand.)
Irotana’s curse was the one thing Chaos couldn’t make weaker. Irotana put a virus into the vampires that fed off their own blood. When she did this, the virus made it impossible to digest other food. It made the conception of pureblood children a bad idea. It also made the use of their abilities far more taxing. This was the blow that weakened Chaos’ first attempt at creation the most.
Chaos did the one thing she could, she made it so the virus could be transferred to another in the vampire’s saliva. She then told her children that if they could give the victim enough of their own blood, they could make the virus attack the victim and make them a vampire as well.
(In game terms, this means that vampires are living, breathing beings. Their hearts still beat, and their lungs still work, moving the blood and air to the stomach catalyze the blood burning. These functions are not necessary for a vampire to survive, but he won‘t be moving too fast or far without them. It also makes draining another vampire dry without magic involved impossible, as it would send the vampire that did the draining into anaphaltic shock, much the same way mixing blood types in normal transfusions on other races would.)
A vampire can choose any other species to convert, including demons, but all abilities that are associated with that species disappears after turning. New vampiric talents that are equivalent may appear, but the will need to relearn then as any they would any of their other new talents. Physical characteristics will probably be kept, although they may be different after the transition sets in. You will not grow any new features except for fangs and very pale skin, however. Also, mers may well find that they can breath under water, but they cannot shift into their fins any longer.
Once chosen, a vampire must drain the victim of his blood, and give his blood back in return. After the ceremony, both with be hungry and weak for many days. It is up to the creator to have ready supplies waiting, or the spawn may turn on him.
Within a short amount of time, the spawn will show which abilities it has, and training will begin. Aside from the training of his abilities, he will be taught to hunt, and of the myth of the creation of vampires, to better understand their glorious place in the world and Chaos. The spawn will also have to physically adapt to his new body. He will find hunger a compulsion that must be taken care of, lest it control him. Things that were less or not obvious to him before will jump out: the sound of the pulse running through a body, the smell of blood in the tiniest amounts, the warmth of a body. Like any sensation that you are constantly bombarded with, the obviousness soon can be controlled, but it never goes away.
One thing that almost all spawn are grateful for is the natural healing time for vampires. Without the healing ability, most vampires will still heal a flesh wound in days, and a broken bone in a matter of weeks. It does have it’s limits, however. They cannot grow anthing that’s been removed back, and major damage, like having their body crushed or split in half is lethal. Also lethal are the removal of the heart and head. If blood can’t be burned, the vampire will starve, and they still need their brains to run the workings of their body.
To feed, a vampire must drain the equivalent of a normal adult human once a night, although any type of blood is fine. If using their abilities, this will rise depending on their use. A vampire using an ability once a night won’t make a dent in his hunger. A vampire using a physical ability in a fight may need to drain an extra child or less. A vampire using the same ability in a battle may find himself draining several captives very shortly after the fighting is finished or lose control.
Unless the creator dies, the spawn isn’t ever very far from it’s creator for the first couple of months. This is more to protect the creator’s own blood pool than concern; a spawn that goes feral can depopulate a cavern in a week, or ends up dead at the hands of the Priesthood or guards. Rarely will a creator just throw a spawn out; they are investment of time and resources, and even a failure can be used.
The one thing a new vampire can hold on to is it’s memories and skills he learned in his old life. A Master swordsman is still a Master swordsman, and a sailor still knows the seas. What the spawn chooses to do with the information is up to him.
Vampires have many traditions dating back to their time in exile. None are necessary to survival, but are commonly associated with vampires anyway.
Sex is just as desirable and effective as a vampire as any other race. However, very few pureblooded vampires have been even conceived in millennia, and fewer have made it to birth. Those that have were killed within days as the hideous, deformed monsters that were delivered went feral within hours of birth, and were unable to be pulled out of that state.
The virus that makes a vampire who and what he is mutates every time a new spawn is created. The virus adapts to the host body even as the host adapts to feeding the virus. It becomes a part of the host’s genetic structure, as vital as the code to breathe. It only stands to reason, then, that any offspring of the vampire will have that same virus. In dhampires, the effects of the virus is lessened by the presence of the other race’s DNA. In purebloods, however, both mutations of the virus would be present in full force and trying to feed off the same blood. The result is an insatiable hunger in the child that can never be quenched.
In female vampires who get pregnant, the requirement goes up to feed the baby as well. If she is carrying a dhampire, it is of little concern as the hunger can be sated. If the child is pureblood, however, her requirements go through the roof, and she will most likely spend nine months making everyone within sight very uncomfortable, as suddenly they may well be her next meal. For this reason alone, most pureblood pregnancies are terminated within a month of conception.
Few dhampires exist simply because most of the time the pregnancy is unwanted. Those that are born are usually to mothers of other races. During the pregnancy, the mother of these type are very weak, as the fetus feeds off her blood. If the dhampire makes it, she will never be as strong as their vampire parent. The dhampire will take most of its other parent’s physical traits, although many have pale skin and stunted fangs. Dhampires live about a thousand years, and still have to feed off blood. For half-breeds, it’s once a lunar month. Any other fraction of this would need to feed more or less, depending on how much of them is vampire.
There are three types of abilities that a vampire may manifest. Dhampires will manifest abilities as well, but very differently. There are various powers under each type.
Training time for each of the categories is different. It takes about four hundred years to truly master an aspect of your physical body. To master the manipulation of a sentient’s mind or heart in one way or another takes about five hundred years. And while there is always more to learn, the time it takes to be considered a master of a magical ability varies from one to the other. You can never start a vampire with more than four abilities, and only one can be mastered.
Physical abilities are speed, strength, endurance, and heightened senses. Endurance encompasses stamina and how thick-skinned a vampire is. They are also those abilities that are reactionary, and you have to be trained NOT to use them all the time, and properly. For example, J’hara’s speed has been mastered. If she hadn’t trained, she wouldn’t ever be able to move at a normal pace, nor control her movements at high speeds, and find herself running off cliffs or flying into walls. She would also have to feed almost seven times a night, which would be time consuming and inconvenient.
Dhampires will find that they are, physically, superior to the race that was the other parent. They do not have to be trained to use this superiority the way vampires do, but they will never be equal to a vampire who has any of the physical abilities.
Mental/Emotional abilities are ways that a vampire can manipulate other sentient creature’s minds. Only those with truly strong wills or protected by the Goddess are unaffected. It should be noted that a dhampire will never exibit more than one of these abilities, and they still have to be trained to use it. They are:
Magical abilities are the abilities that use the energies nature provides for us to work with. All of them require a great deal of study and research to be used effectively. The level of the ability doesn’t change; it manifests at the level it will stay for the vampire’s existence, and some are stronger than others, and some never manifest at all. Each is extremely potent, and takes a different amount of time to master. A dhampire may learn the other race's equivalent to healing and magic, but they will never manifest shape shifting. They are: