Vampire

Blood-drinking undead of significant power.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Undead

• Alignment: Infernal

• Energy: Msawhat

• Lifespan: Undead

• Diet: Blood and souls

• Habitat: Anywhere

Origins

The first perpetrators of exploitation tarnished their souls with msawhat and returned as vampires.

Description

Vampires vary in appearance. Their base form is usually a rotting version of what they were in life, sometimes bloated, wrinkled, or ruddier than their living selves. If they consume enough blood, they can change forms into animal forms or other mortal forms.

Procreation

Vampires create new vampires by draining the blood of their victims and using their power over them to turn them into vampires. The creator-vampire has control over their “offspring” unless they choose to release them or unless they are destroyed. They target people with vulnerable souls - people without blessings, trauma victims, children or the elderly, people who have committed terrible crimes, people who worship infernal powers, people who are outcast or otherwise not protected by society, and so on.

In rare circumstances, a vampire will use their blood powers to restore their own virility. This allows them to make a child with a mortal - almost always a womb-bearing mortal and a seed-bearing vampire - that results in a dhampir. These are commonest in eastern Jesenranu.

Necromancy

The commonest method of creating a vampire is when a vampire drains the blood of a mortal and turns them into a vampire. This requires that the vampire not fully drain the mortal, but keep them weakened for several days until they die of blood loss. If they are buried without appropriate protections, they will rise again as a vampire.

If a mortal wishes to turn themself or another mortal into a vampire without engaging a vampire to drink their blood, they must perform specific profane rituals. This varies by culture, but always involves avoiding preventative measures, exposing vulnerable souls, and blood rites.

Powers

Vampires' powers vary by vampire, however, the following are some powers possible:

• Aging and de-aging their appearances

• Alter height

• Breaking protections (usually through rituals, like flying in a cross shape over a building)

• Cause or spread disease (either through touch or by aura)

• Entrancing gaze

• Flight (usually using a body part, such as wings, hair, or tongue)

• Hook feet

• Inflict misfortune

• Intimidating or terrifying presence

• Levitation

• Metallic teeth or claws

• Metaphysical projection (sending their phantasms out)

• Mind reading

• Poisonous breath

• Possession

• Rapid healing (often conditional)

• Sadistic empathy

• Separable, independent body parts (including hands, head, or even splitting their entire bodies in half)

• Sharpened body parts (tongues, fingernails, teeth, fingers, etc.)

• Shattering shrieks

• Spider-climbing

• Supernatural strength

• Vanishing (1 to 12 times per day)

Vampires may retain some of the powers they had in life, but they can only use them if they are fully fed.

Resistances

If a vampire is slain, they must be buried in special ways to keep them from returning. This varies from vampire to vampire, but some common ones include the following:

• Being buried at a crossroads

• Being buried on holy ground

• Being removed from their death place through special exits

• Being buried with their mouth full of dirt

• Being buried with their mouth full of garlic or other alliums

• Being staked through the heart

• Having their head removed

• Having their hearts or heads filled with steel or iron

• Having hawthorn driven through their legs or left in their footwear

• Having their corpses burned

• Having their graves sealed with a stake, holy water, boiling water, or other materials

• Being killed by a dhampir

• Having their leftover parts (if they separate body parts) destroyed or sealed with materials such as salt, garlic, metals, or ash

Materials known to be able to kill a vampire include but are not limited to garlic, onions, silver, hawthorn, onions, salt, ash, celestial religious symbols, aetherial powers such as poarta or ashar, daggers, sunlight, vinegar, spices, the tail of a stingray, steel, iron, poppy seeds, wild rose, blackthorn, rice chaff, jujube seeds, adzuki beans, or vinegar.

If not killed by one of these methods, they will be restored eventually.

Blood Powers

Vampires must feed on blood or they become weak. They must feed once a month or they will lose power. If they feed more often than this, they will gain power. The basic powers they gain are listed above, but blood from specific species may grant them different powers. If they drink enough blood or take the victim’s soul, they gain a variety of powers.

Vampires can live off a little bit of blood from a single mortal victim or a lot of blood from animals. They do not have to completely drain or kill either to survive. If a vampire drains enough blood to kill a mortal victim, that victim will rise as their mindless vampiric slave. If they completely exsanguinate a mortal victim, they will also take the mortal’s soul, which gives them significantly more power.

Alternate Forms

Vampires may use their blood powers to change their own forms temporarily. Some common alternate forms include the following:

• Ball of light

• Bat

• Cat

• Fireball

• Firefly

• Flea

• Mist

• Nighthawk

• Owl

• Phantasm

• Rat

• Turkey

• Vulture

• Wolf

They may only take the form of an animal they have actually seen before in person. If they can take the form of an animal, they can exert influence or control over the same kind of animal.

Weaknesses

Poarta and ashar will burn vampires. Celestial energies harm them. Other weaknesses vary by vampire and how much blood or how many souls they have eaten, but some common weaknesses include the following:

• They have no reflections and are stunned by mirrors

• They are repulsed by garlic, rice chaff, jujube seeds, adzuki beans, or vinegar

• They cannot cross running water

• They cannot enter a private building uninvited

• They lose all special abilities in sunlight

• They are weakened or killed in sunlight

• They are burned by silver or variants of silver

• They can be bound via special command words

• They are repelled by certain animal characteristics, such as rooster’s crowing, donkey hooves, chicken blood, or the blood of black dogs

• They are compelled to count spilled objects such as coins, seeds, or sand

• They are compelled to untangle knots

• They are weak to certain kinds of leaves and wood, such as peach wood, gandasuli

• They are bound by certain religious symbols or other common iconography, such as the bagua symbol or crosses

• They are sometimes weak to fire or cold, depending on the local beliefs

• They are repelled by the sound of bells

• They can be wounded by common tools when real weapons fail - brooms, hand axes, awls, etc.

• They can be identified if a child of seven is dressed in white (the color of poarta) and placed on a white horse near their grave at midday. The horse will seek out the vampire’s grave.

• They are unable to attack their families if their families keep pictures or portraits of them from when they were alive

• They are unable to leave their graves if they are buried face-down

All vampires must remain near their grave or the dirt from their grave or become severely weakened. If they cannot return to their graves, they turn into black tar.

Immunities

Some vampires will use the power gained from devouring a soul to have an immunity to one of their weaknesses.

Behavior

Vampires are very powerful undead. Many use their powers to integrate with the local ruling classes and exert control and power over the living, allowing them to use the living as livestock to feed off of. Others live on the fringes of society in secret, hunting the living to survive.

Culture

The original vampires from Wymar and Kael’Ras are the Wymarians. They are elite, powerful nobles who use their wealth and skills to manipulate and terrorize the public, create an army of undead, and maintain control of the entire region. The Wymarian dynasty is ancient and evil, potent necromancers who are feared around the world. Throughout eastern Ansulym, Wymarians are part of the ruling elite. They adhere to local customs, but make sure to make necromantic arts and exploitation of the living as part of their life.

National Cultures

Vampires have different names in different cultures, with different powers and behaviors associated with them:

• Aana Marutha: Vimalan vampires in a region where the old ruling class has been overthrown, the Aana Marutha are the remnants of the former rulers. They are known for their lust and sexual manipulations and assaults. They wield and are associated with peccatum.

• Abchanchu: eastern Palhuric vampires who disguise themselves as the elderly, as hapless travelers, to lure people in and drain their blood. They are mostly isolated bandits and murderers living on the fringes. They are associated with and wield bedrog.

• Adze: western Taggaran vampires whose alternative form is a firefly. They can possess mortals, sending their tarnished souls into the bodies of victims, which causes everyone who lives near to the victim to fall ill (usually malaria). They then fly in as a firefly and drink their blood. They usually target families who are facing difficult times. They are associated with and often wield vile energy.

• Alukah: Mahadi and eastern Jesenranic vampires known for using their long hair to fly, using a wolf form, and being able to render wombs infertile. Local lore says they must be buried with earth in their mouths. They are associated with and often wield mollesse.

• Aufhocker: central Jesenranic vampires known for their many different forms. They prey upon people on the fringes of society, usually "undesirables" deemed "impure", or more vulnerable victims like the elderly. They ambush them by leaping upon their backs and drinking their blood. They use their weight to exhaust victims before feasting. They are unable to enter the victims' homes, so if the victim manages to carry the Aufhocker to their house, they can force them off by entering it. They are known to lurk near bridges, around crossroads, near water sources, deep in the woods, or on paths through hollows or other remote areas. They are also often found near their own graves in cemeteries. If they can, they will rip open the throats of their victims before they get home. Sunlight and church bells repel them. They have many animal forms that they will take, as well as sometimes appearing to be a goblin, women of various species, or other local beings.

• Estrie: eastern Jesenranic vampires whose alternative forms are usually owls, cats, or phantasms. They can fly if their hair is unbound, but they can be forced to bind their hair by special commands. If they are harmed, they can heal themselves by eating the bread and salt of those that harmed them. They must be buried with their mouths full of dirt, or they will return. They are immune to celestial energies and may enter consecrated grounds, unlike other vampires. They are associated with and often wield thorn energy, which they use to make themselves alluring.

• Estruch: central Jesenranic vampires who were cursed for their oath-breaking and rejection of celestial powers and betrayal of the people. In undeath, they focus their attentions on building an army of dhampirs and undead slaves. They are associated with and often wield blasphemy.

• Golathonih: Ansulymic vampires known for their preference for mist forms and their power within Furich Amol. They are extremely powerful and often undead validuses, retaining many powers from life. They are associated with and often wield corrogatio.

• Guajona: central Jesenranic vampires, usually women, who wear black cloaks that cover their whole bodies, and are covered in warts and gnarls in their skin. They have bird legs and only one tooth, which is black and sharp and juts out from their chins. They hunt at night and hide during the day. They are known for their stealthy movements and targeting young children. They drain them to near-emptiness and leave them barely alive. They are associated with and often wield quaestus.

• Hortdan: Baiskazani vampires known for their animal forms and use of invisibility to stalk victims. They are known as weaker and less focused, more animalistic than other vampires. Sometimes called Xortdan. They are associated with and often wield baleblood.

• Jiāngshī: hopping Unbulese or Wuordonese vampires who have stiff bodies and greenish white skin. They dress in ancient clothing and move around by hopping with their arms out. They absorb and contort ashar (qi) when they drink blood. They avoid the daylight and hunt at night. They sleep in their coffins or in caves. Jiāngshī form when people’s energies are out of balance, which allows the msawhat to corrupt them; this is often manifested as a bolt of energy or corrupted animals being drawn toward the coffin. Traditionally formed of bureaucrats or administrators of the feudal ruling class, they are often depicted as wearing special robes and having a paper seal on their forehead, but they don’t always dress this way. Their stiff bodies force them to hop in order to move around. They are weakened by mirrors, peach wood, rooster’s cries, jujube seeds, fire, the hooves of a black donkey, vinegar, the bagua symbol, rice chaff, adzuki beans, handbells, thread stained with black ink and chicken blood, the blood of a black dog, awls, axes, brooms, holding one’s breath, and their obsessive compulsive need to count dropped items such as coins. They are associated with and often wield hollow energy.

• Kyūketsuki: Tenzanese vampires who go out of their way to be like the Wymarian vampires (the “classic” vampires). They are considered pretenders and wannabes, but they are very powerful and wield (and are associated with) fusei as well as their oni counterparts.

• Lang Suir: Tunvohese vampires formed when someone murders a pregnant woman or a woman giving birth. This act causes the woman’s killer to be infused with corruption that causes them to become an undead, vampiric being that takes on her appearance, but with hair that goes to their feet. This vampire can release their head, dragging their entrails and spinal column with it as it floats in the air. Culturally, they are depicted as wearing green robes. They have long fingernails and often longer than proportional arms. They shriek. They fly by flapping their arms. They prefer the blood of newborn children, thus giving them both msawhat and pravum to wield. They are said to rest in the sakat bushes or rengas trees. They often control or take the form of nighthawks and owls. To prevent a lang suir from appearing, the murdered woman is buried with glass beads in her mouth, a hen's egg under her armpits, and needles in the palms of her hands. Gandasuli will repel them.

• Lugat: extremely violent Sharian vampires known for lurking in very dark places (caves, wells, ruined castles), Lugats have a frightening presence. They can ride the winds and use their gaze to lure children or other vulnerable victims. They are associated with and often wield void.

• Manananggal: Vada’daro vampires who have a bat-like appearance. They separate their upper and lower bodies (leaving their intestines hanging out) to go hunting and are known to be in a state of violent delusion at all times. They dwell in the rainforests and jungles, stalk mortals, and hunt in villages at night. They are associated with and often wield ibbissu.

• Mandurugo: Vada’daro vampires who often take the form of young women (usually because they once were). At night, their tongues become longer and sharper, and they use these to slice up victims while kissing them or seducing them. They are known to hide amongst the living, posing as part of a married couple, and flying at night to other communities to feed. They are associated with and often wield arnum.

• Mjertovjec: Yaidevi vampires with purple faces who are associated with infernal witchcraft, zoanthropy, and treason, they are strongly associated with Eldritch energy and often wield it. They serve the Eldritch and go out hunting only after midnight. Local wisdom says they will be lured by a trail of poppy seeds and can be cornered and staked into their graves, then burned.

• Moroi: Rendruan vampires known for using their ability to send out phantasmal images of themselves, the Moroi (or Moroaică for the women) are fond of wolves (and wolf forms), associated with hairiness, and have cultural ties to the Strigoi, who are more powerful in the region. They are very wealthy; they are associated with and often wield drenante. They are tied to the merchant class of Rendru, whereas the Strigoi are part of the feudal aristocracy.

• Mullo: Jesenranic vampires with possible origins in Dabusen or elsewhere, they wear all white, keep their hair so long it touches the ground, and tend to have physical abnormalities from their original species caused in death. They often seek revenge on people they knew in life or those who have some object they once owned. They often wield and are associated with desumane.

• Muroni: vampires of eastern Jesenranu. They are known for their preference for many different animal forms. They wield stravomenos (which they are associated with) to erase memories of anyone nearby so that they are believed to merely be wild animals. They live on the fringes of society and are not considered as powerful as other vampires.

• Obayifo: western Taggaran vampires known for using their powers to possess people’s bodies. They emit a glow from their armpits and orifices at night due to the wielding of sterisi, which mingles with the msawhat within them to ignite. It is often said that mortals can spot them because they have shifty eyes and talk often of their hunger. They can turn into a ball of burning msawhat and fly through the sky.

• Pichal Peri: vampires of Highreach, mostly in Vimala and Kesarah, they often wear their hair down over their faces and have feet that are backwards. There are more women among them than men. They often stalk people in the montane forests and strike lone travelers. They will grow in height to intimidate people. They are associated with and often wield slitna to move through the mountains.

• Sasanbosam: western Taggaran vampires who are often short beings with iron teeth, iron-hook feet that point in both directions, and long legs. Their skin is pink, their hair is long and red. Their eyes are huge and bloodshot. They have a 20’ bat-like wingspan. They dwell in the trees, entangle victims in their sharp hook feet, and eat them. They are associated with and can sense misfortune.

• Soucoyant: Reever Sea vampires, sometimes called Asema in some regions, they are reclusive and aloof. At night, they remove their skin (which is often wrinkled) and place it in a mortar, then turn into a ball of fire. They use their plasma form to enter through the smallest openings. They drain blood through soft flesh and leave heavy bruising. If they kill a victim, they can possess them. They make deals with local demons (who hide in silk cotton trees) and are known for wielding infernum. Locals use spilled rice to expose them and cover their removed skins in salt to kill them. Evil locals will use their skin for spells. They are associated with infernum and have roots in Taggaran rituals.

• Strigoi: Rendruan vampires who are perhaps the most well-known in the world as their most notable leader, Count Emerit Suliţă, is historically notorious for his use of impaling as a punishment. Known for their use of animal forms, vanishing, and their tyrannical rule, the Strigoi are part of the feudal aristocracy of Rendru whom are targeted by the many resistance forces there. They are the reason the country is associated with the wielding of poarta, which is the aetherial magic used to oppose them. The Strigoi spread many stories about their own origins (that they are born the seventh child of the same sex in a given family, people who were sinners in life, people who died without being married, from execution for lying under oath, from suicide, or from some sort of curse) in order to hide their true origins as vampires. Their weakness to alliums is well known, and they are culturally known to despise incense or local holy feast days. They shave their heads if they are not bald and often distort their bodies to have long, hairy tails. They often wield their control over the weather to punish the locals. They also target local livestock or crops. Locally, the Strigoi are killed by local priests who stake their hearts with oak, yew, or ash wood, followed by a nail or knife, then binding within their coffin. They are associated with and often wield cacophony through their voices.

• Suangi: Gamayaranese vampires, usually male, who devour blood, organs, and souls in one feasting. They stuff the body with leaves after they eat, then used as puppets. The Suangi are often killed and ritually eaten by the families of their victims as a means of destroying them. They are associated with and often wield brown aether.

• Talamaur: Oaball'yuan vampires who use gossamer light to turn phantasms into puppets to hunt for them. They pose as the living, but local lore says they will be exposed by the smoke from burning indigenous leaves. This smoke would cause them to shout the names of their puppets and victims. They would often take a phantasmal form themselves, but any injuries to their phantasm would appear on their body.

• Tlahuelpuchi: central Palhuric vampires who pose as mortals and dwell with their living families. They target infants and children at night (leaving their upper bodies bruised), using an alternate shape to hunt in secret. Their other forms are always accompanied by a faint glow produced by the use of uafas to make themselves more terrifying. Because they target children, they often allow them to live to adulthood, slowly changing them into vampires over the course of many years. They make alliances with local powers to remain hidden, keeping to strict territories. When they change form, they leave their legs behind, usually then taking on a bird form (turkey or vulture). They often partially infect their families in order to keep them from snitching.

• Upiór: eastern and central Jesenranic vampires who maintain specific appearances - red hair, using their left hands, disguising themselves by walking with a limp, having a unibrow, having a double row of teeth, having grey birthmarks, bigger heads, and having no body hair - that they use to be part of a special noble grouping in their culture. They often use their powers over their bodies to have an extra heart. Their eyes glow and they often carry their heads in their arms. They are associated with and often wield imperium to enslave others.

• Vjesci: Aeslan vampires, sometimes also called Wupji, who are said to target victims who were born with a caul on their head. Thus, locals remove the caul, dry it, ground it, and feed it to the child on their seventh birthday to prevent this. This works, but anyone can become a vampire in this area. They retain a redder, more full look in death. They return at night, eat their death clothes, some of their own flesh, then seek out victims, usually family or neighbors. They like to ring the local church bells to lure in victims. Local lore enforces religion to prevent people from becoming vampires. Special rites called Pustô Noc involve checking the body of the recently dead for signs of undeath. They are deeply patriarchal and are associated with and often wield tandh.

• Wurdulac: northern Ranic vampires known for taking wolf forms and turning their whole families into vampires. They are part of the ruling classes of multiple northern Ranic countries, especially Vesturia. They are associated with and often wield razdavit’.

Dhampirs

Dhampirs are the result of procreation between a living mortal and a vampire. They are more likely to have power over the undead, can recognize vampires by looking at them, can see invisible vampires, and are known for their mild shapechanging powers - cosmetic changes, like altering hair color or skin tone at will. They often choose to have dark hair. They do not need to drink blood to live, but they often prefer rare meat. They have weaker bodies, no nails, and are very agile (making them sometimes seem boneless). Some have tails. They are often vampire-hunters or assassins for vampire masters.

Dominions

Vampires belong to any or all undead dominions, usually as powerful leaders within them. Most vampires are part of the Raesian, Srisian, Campionese, or Agikaani dominions.

Within the Raesian Dominion, they make up a significant part of the ruling elite, with the Vampire Manifest and certain powerful ancient vampires making up part of the political circle that runs the Dominion. They are also part of the ruling nobility of Kael’Ras as a whole.

Within the Srisian Dominion, they are part of both the Srisian nobility and the Srisian faith. Those who cannot achieve the necrarach form often choose to become vampires, using similar arts as the Talamaur of the southern Island Bridge, though these arts were appropriated from them. They are not part of a distinct vampiric nation, but part of the Srisian nation.

Within the Campionese Dominion, they are usually wielders of drenante, similar to the Moroi of Rendru, but within the context of the Talunese nobility. They are usually middle-ranking or high-ranking parts of the Dominion and involved in political maneuvering and financial affairs.

Within the Stolzene Dominion, they are usually Aufhockers or other wielders of feirua. They are considered experts on blood and take up an important role in the complex of the Stolzene conspiracy-state. They are lower ranking ostensibly but wield immense power.

Esoterica

Vampires are undead and therefore beings of msawhat. They therefore cannot wield any celestial or aetherial esoteric powers, and their poioumenonic powers are often limited. They can wield shebvic and paradoxical powers. Their wielding of nommic powers is almost always tainted. They are fully capable of wielding psionic powers, but emotional powers are always negative, soul powers are always corrupted, and physical powers vary by vampire. However, blood energy is almost always in use.

Other than msawhat, vampires most often use quaestus, razdavit’, imperium, gossamer light, drenante, and desumane.

Religion

Wymarians worship Ölümsüzlük, the bringer of inmortality, as the progenitor of their species. They partake in the higher levels of her temples, being powerful leaders, and believe that she laid the original curse that created them.

Gender

Wymarian views of gender are very patriarchal.

Economy

Wymar is a feudal society.

Military

Vampires are very strong and capable individually. They sometimes serve as officers in eastern Ansulymic militaries.

Outside View

Vampires are feared and hated by the lower classes the world over and revered and feared by ruling classes.

Notables

• Anton Lukin, ancient vampire nobleman, destroyed

• Count Emerit Suliţă, ancient vampire nobleman and warlord from Rendru, unknown status

• Erasmo Kruebbe, vampiric eugenicist, destroyed

• Oulu Ile, vampiric slave of the Champion of Bones, destroyed

• Sânge Cenușiu, Vampire Manifest, Aeonian

• Sava Savanovic, ancient vampire lord, Aeonian

• Van Danislev, ancient vampire lord, destroyed

Estimated Populations

• Aana Marutha: 5,000

• Abchanchu: 1,000

• Adze: 1,000

• Alukah: 1,000

• Aufhocker: 500

• Estrie: 500

• Estruch: 100

• Golathonih: 500

• Guajona: 500

• Hortdan: 500

• Jiāngshī: 5,000

• Kyūketsuki: 1,000

• Lang Suir: 1,000

• Lugat: 500

• Manananggal: 1,000

• Mandurugo: 1,000

• Mjertovjec: 500

• Moroi: 500

• Mullo: 500

• Muroni: 500

• Obayifo: 1,000

• Pichal Peri: 5,000

• Sasanbosam: 1,000

• Soucoyant: 100

• Strigoi: 1,000

• Suangi: 5,000

• Talamaur: 50

• Tlahuelpuchi: 500

• Upiór: 500

• Vjesci: 500

• Wurdulac: 500

• Wymarian: 10,000

• Other: 10,000

Sample Stats

PRO 14
ATH 14
STR 14
AWA 14
WIL 14
PRS 14
STH 14