Vampire

A vampire is the result of one of two things. Either a human becoming infected with the VX Virus and being transformed or when two vampires mate. Vampires can be fully awake during the day, however the virus makes them incredibly sensitive to sunlight. This occurs to such an extreme degree that after first being turned the vampires skin will literally burst into flames if fully exposed.

Abilities

All abilities increase with age, all vampires have one ability that increases faster than others, this is their specialty.

• Superior strength
• Superior dexterity
• Superior speed
• Superior durability
• Either use of magical energy or psionic energy (never both)

The abilities of a vampire are powered by blood, and thus they need to feed more often the more often use their abilities. A vampire's specialty uses less blood than a non-specialty. While it is referred to as if it is some kind of fuel, it should be noted the the blood needs to be consumed and digested to restore abilities or restore a vampire. This does happen quickly but the body does not store excess blood it simply consumes blood until it is full.

Weaknesses

Contrary to popular belief and the religious rhetoric holy water, crosses, or other symbols of faith and god have no impact on a vampire what so ever.

There are only 2 ways to kill a vampire:

1. Burning
2. Decapitation

Strengths

Vampires, when turned by the VX Virus, no longer need food to sustain themselves. In fact, they have trouble digesting food at all anymore and gain very little (if anything) from it. There are, of course, exceptions made for especially bloody steak may provide some nutrition (but not much). This has the advantage that they cannot be poisoned, even if someone has them eat pure arsenic it won't phase them at all.

During the viral transformation muscles become stronger, bones become able to bear more weight, and connective tissues become able to withstand more pressure. As such a vampires body becomes vastly stronger than a human from day one. In addition to this the nerve fibers are altered in significant ways and reflexes become quicker, this is a slower process though and takes time for a young vampire to understand and use their new found strength effectively. Skin becomes thicker and has a greater elasticity allowing it to better resist being punctured or cut (though it becomes more flammable).

Vampires begin to gain a patience as they age, whether this is from being around so long, a new outlook on being ageless, or a change in the brain is unknown.

Sustenance

A vampire is fed by blood. To be more specific the body can no longer process and gain nutrition from normal food. The vampire's body requires whole blood to properly sustain itself and the entire digestive system adapts to this cause. Food can taste good and memories of favorite foods can inspire old tastes when it is eaten but after transformation there is a quality to the food, it is no longer the highlight it was an the taste is dulled all around. After transformation most vampires seek pungent and incredibly strong flavors to enjoy foods they once liked.

What truly provides the experience of being both sustained and satisfied, however, is now blood. Blood plasma will do a vampire for extended periods of time, the same way a human can get by for a long time on vitamins and energy bars. It isn't very good for anyone and it doesn't gives any sense of satisfaction or fullness. Vampires all have particular tastes of what blood types taste good. Many use blood as a sauce with human food to glut themselves on both.

Starvation

A vampire cannot starve to death. When they are without blood for long enough they loose their abilities and begin to age rapidly. Eventually, their body become unable to stay conscious and they fall unconscious until they can sense a blood source nearby.

Normalcy

When completely sated and full a vampire will be indistinguishable from humans except that their skin color remains constantly ghostly pale, even if they use magic or psionics to go out in the daylight, they will not tan. However, when fully fed a vampire is able to act as a normal human.

Mating / Pregnancy

The act of mating, with a human or a vampire, requires that they be completely fed for an extended period of time to be effective. Mating between two fully fed vampires can cause a vampiric pregnancy with is incredibly painful during development for a female vampire to carry the child to term and requires her to consume incredible amounts of blood to be able to maintain body functions, feed the developing child. The child's existence is tenuous at best and even a lack of sufficient blood for a day or two can cause the child to be stillborn.

Human / Vampire Mating

Mating between a human / vampire can cause a child to be formed. This only is able to happen from a male vampire impregnating a human female, which creates a Vampiri. It is very difficult to do this, however, and requires the vampire to be completely fed throughout the encounter. This means they cannot use magic, psionics, or physical abilities.

More common is for the act of sex with a vampire to create a bond between human and vampire during climax. The VX Virus is not passed on but some yet unknown component is passed from vampire to human during climax which bonds that human to the vampire. This bond begins small and grows rapidly with each repeated encounter. Eventually a Vampiric Servant is created who is completely and totally loyal to the vampire which made them.

Society

Since it is possible to create a vampire through birth rather than changing a human there is a general tiered society, based mostly on how many generations back a vampire has before his or her parents were human. This is measured as generations pure. While a human turned vampire is considered to be less than a pure vampire, they are accepted as a kind of lower-middle class of vampire unless they prove themselves to be unreliable and then they will be relegated to the lowest levels of vampire society, though they will still be in higher esteem than Vampiri.

Half-breeds such as the Vampiri, are hated within vampire society and outcasts of society. Similarly Broxa are hated as well but they are feared to such a degree that even the highest pure vampire will likely not challenge one.