Alright, I've made a ton of progress on the vampire post. It's not actually finished yet, as I still have a couple of things to hammer out, like where the royal vampires of Tepes and Carmilla families are in the world and if the whole Society for the Tolerance of Vampires should even exist in this world. Probably for the latter.
Anyway, the current post:
Vampires, a catch-all term for dark magical humanoid that drink blood, includes many creatures as blood is an excellent medium for transferring magical energy. Among these, the most widely recognized are the Cainites and Kindred, terms used by the Sabbat and Camarilla respectively. They are also referred to as Dead Apostles by the Church, however this is only accurate when referring to a specific vampire lineage blessed by a True Ancestor.
These vampires are classified as Living Dead, along with zombies, and are descended from the biblical Cain who was cursed with vampirism. Mostly divided up into thirteen clans descended from some third generation vampires called the Antediluvians. Vampire's evil nature comes from what they refer to as "the Beast" or "the Hunger" which makes them want to consume blood. Certain hungers can be cured by certain emotions. Kindred have a strong fear and hatred towards Werewolves, as they are natural enemies.
Kindred need blood, which they call vitae, in order to live and gain power but are incapable of ingesting anything else. Though some blood-based magic pastries can be consumed. The blood of magically powerful virgin sapients is best, but even mundane humans have enough magic to feed even elder vampires in sufficient number. Some creatures have blood that is too powerful to drink much of, for example, vampires can be diagnosed with Dragon Blood Poisoning if they consume too much dragon blood.
Vampires can be both born and turned.
The process of turning, the most common way a vampire is created, is known as the Embrace. During the Embrace, a vampire drains a candidate of all their blood and replaces it with a single drop of their own. This causes the corpse to rise as a starving vampire almost instantly, only the highest generations take any amount of time. The vampire who initiates the Embrace is the Sire; the new vampire is the Sire's Childe.
The rarer process of birth requires a vampire that has achieved Golconda, a state where they've regained their humanity and succeeded in their
suspire vision quest. These vampires regain the ability to produce biological children and can do so either with other vampires that have achieved the same or other races to birth Dhampirs. Hybrids that have all basic vampiric powers but are immune to their weaknesses; although it still causes them some discomfort. Dhampirs, however, often face discrimination, even within their own families, as vampires are an exceptionally proud and hierarchical species.
Being creatures of the night, Kindred are inherently vulnerable to "True Faith", sunlight, holy power, light, and fire. Sunlight can be lethal after very short exposure to all but the strongest vampires. As supernatural creatures, vampires can't enter buildings with a boundary without an invitation and are unable to cross running water. Vampires cannot go near or get involved with anything that has to do with the White God due to his Heaven System declaring them enemies.
Each vampire clan descends from a different antediluvian, which marks their powers and affects their personality, weaknesses, and strengths.
The only clan whose powers are unrelated to their antediluvian are the Dead Apostles, a Tzimisce variant that were granted Idea Blood by a True Ancestor. Idea Blood is a foundational "Truth" etched on their soul, a Principle curse that becomes their "purpose for living" and path to obtaining true Immortality. Wherever a Dead Apostle circulates their Idea Blood, the surroundings become their territory, the world's physical laws painted over by their Principle curse. The curse itself manifests as a unique power.
Dead Apostles are the emergency rations of True Ancestors. The modern clan is divided between those who obey the True Ancestor and those who do not wish to be consumed.
True Ancestors are a type of a nature spirit—Fairy—born from a pact between Gaia and the Ultimate One of the Moon. Their vampiric nature stems from Gaia incorporating the Moon's concept of blood-drinking into its reality. The True Ancestors exist to represent the interests of the world, unmediated by human belief. They are agents of Gaia's Counter Force, and are natural & inherent enemies of humanity. Drinking blood is a psychological but not physiological need for them.
The clans are divided between three sects and while you can find members of any Clan in any Sect, some Clans greatly prefer certain Sects due to their origins having similar goals. There are also independent clans and even clans unknown to most vampires.
The sects are as follows.
The Camarilla is the biggest and most organized sect of vampires. They are primarily based in Europe, but have influence nearly everywhere in the world, apart from certain parts of Asia. The Camarilla sect has the oldest vampire clans and oldest generation, which love to upkeep old traditions and secrecy. They like the current status quo and want to maintain it. The Camarilla also actively working to hide the origins of vampires due to wanting to distance themselves from Caine. Their biggest weakness is that they do not change and are run by elders, some of which that remember the time of Ancient Egypt.
The Sabbat is the second-oldest Vampire sect that still a major player on the world stage and one of the rivals to the Camarilla. They're Cainite extremists with plans to destroy the status quo. They believe in Caine and the Antideluvians and are at war with the Camarilla desiring to turn humans in chattel. They're tightly organized, willing to accept new members, and far more reactive to the modern world than the Camarilla. Their goals vary wildly, from some wanting more freedom like the Anarchs to wanting to hasten the end times.
The Anarchs are the youngest and smallest major player among the Vampire sects, forming in the 15th century but only taking off rather recently. They are vampire anarchists who want to tear down the Camarilla and grant themselves freedom. They still want the Masquerade unlike the Sabbat, but they want to be equal to the elders, which is something the Camarilla will not allow. They are sorta antagonistic but sometimes allies with the Sabbat.
The clans are as follows.
Camarilla
Sabbat
Anarch
Independant
- Giovanni
- Black Court
- Creator: Vlad II Dracul
- Founder: Vlad III Dracula the Impaler
- Pure-Bloods
- Description: A clan of vampires born from two vampire parents. They are aristocrats that only recognize fellow Pure-Blooded Vampires as equals and view all other races beneath them to the point that Embracing non-vampires disgusts them.
- Appearance: Humans with beautiful doll-like faces, with a set of sharp fangs in their mouths and a pair of red eyes. Pure-Blooded Vampires have no reflections in mirrors, cannot be photographed, lack shadows, and have a corpse-like skin tone. Vampires possess bat wings that are similar to dragon wings.
- Strengths: They have superhuman strength and endurance, can breed and control bats and insects, turning into a flock of bats, and can change their appearance to their liking. They can create a cold aura from a distance, manipulate darkness and shadows, create and control mist, and turn into mist.
- Weakness: Can't heal injuries unless they rest in narrow spaces, traditionally coffins, though modern substitutes like cardboard boxes have become popular.
Beyond the Kindred Canities, there are vampires with different origins, such as the following.
The Kuei-Jin, also known as the Jade Court, are the corrupt remnants of the Wan Xian, the "Ten Thousand Heroes", great immortals purposed by the White God to fight the Yama Kings in the Underworld. After they descended into depravity, the White God cursed them to rot unless they fed on chi, which they can do from a distance through breath. New Kuei-Jin are born from sinful mortals who clawed their way out of hell and into a human corpse. Since that time, the Wan Kuei, the fallen Wan Xian, have developed a redemptory religion. They mostly operate in Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam.
The White Court, despite being referred to as ones, are technically just humans cursed to consume a specific emotion that varies on bloodline, such as lust, anger, fear, and despair. They reproduce sexually and do not suffer most vampiric weaknesses. Their only major weakness is the opposite emotion from what they feed on, such as love, harming one that consumes lust. These positive emotions can linger on items and burn White Court vampires.
Drowned, a secretive and cryptid-like type of vampire that dominate Latin America with alleged connections to indigenous gods. Whether they are their own type of vampire like the Kuei-Jin or groups of Cainites with a divergent culture is a subject of in-universe contention.
Striges aren't vampires themselves so much as they are malicious, vaguely owl-esque shadowy spirits that have some sort of connection to vampirism. Often try to push vampires to be more monstrous - to give into 'the Beast' - and less human.
Ghuls, alchemist mages who gained immortality at the cost of needing to commit cannibalism, are considered pseudo-vampires.
