Vampire / Venator sanguinis

Vampires, creatures of the night, cold blooded hunters hungry for warm blood, disguised as humans, elves, orcs, dwarfs or demons. Pretty scary right? As I explained earlier about Vampirism, they go back to Galmo and Nyx, two evil gods. Since then, vampires have evolved into many different forms in the different parts of Aar.  

The Looks

It is very hard to tell a vampire apart from a normal person. Over time there have been many tales on how to spot them - they have no mirrorimage - false, they are hurt by garlic, also false, they start dying when they come close to holy objects - partly true, but onto that later. The truth is pretty simple. Or not. You can see it in their eyes - there are fine silver and red veins running through the iris. When the vampire hasnt fed in a while, these will become more prominent. But when you are this close, you are pretty much dead... Except you are a really good fighter or got some other aces up your sleeve. These creatures were made to hunt their own and have been given some powers to suceed at this task. Another method are cats and dogs - they can sense them - they will either flee in panic upon sight or will attack them - but that doesnt necessarily has to mean the person is a vampire, so yeah, the methods are simple, yet tricky to put into action.  

Culture

Since they get hunted down mercilessly, vampires started forming secret societies pretty much their whole existance. And these societies watch their territory for new intruders - when a vampire is caught it takes years until the suspicions finally die down again so the societies most likely will kill a newbie right away and dispose the body somewhere it will never be found. For a new vampire it will be pretty tricky to survive on their own, but if they manage to get in contact with a society and join them, they can look forward to an eternity of scheming and cabal for power and keeping their secrecy.
Some on the other hand start living in the wild and prey on farmers and travellers, never staying in one place long. Most often these are the ones who have been driven mad by the thirst and are degenerated to merely more than animals.
  Some on the other hand made it their goal to take over a whole town. Due to their decendence from two gods, those blessed directly with the curse by their aetheric ancestors Nyx and Galmo, recieved the ability to ensnare weaker minded folk and turn them into their willless servants. A good example is "the tragedy of Greyrock".
  A more or less well known tale of horror about a remote mining colony in the Black Rock Pinnacles. Back in the day, in an especially hard winter a couple showed up in the middle of a snowstorm. The few remaining miners who havent left the colony for the winter to Bregen took them in. Soon the change started. Some started to notice that some of their fellow miners seemed kind of absent - just staring into a void or working like a zombie, not really realising what they were doing, all while humming some wordless mantra nobody understood. It started with a few old folks, but soon spread among the some other miners. At this point some of the more smarter ones realised it must have something to do with the mysterious couple, because all that started a few days after they showed up. And it only affected those who have been taken care of by the stranger lady who claimed to be a medicine woman. She gave the elderly potions and performed strange rituals on them, but it seemed to help - at first they behaved more agile and acted ten years younger - until they fell into that trance.
Unfavorably for the few sane ones left, the ensnared colonists turned on the 10 men and women left free from the spell when they tried to drive out the couple and killed 7 of them on the spot. 3 flew to the mountains - which was pretty much a death sentence in the middle of winter. After weeks the one teenage girl who flew with her brother and her cousin made it to Bregen. Her cousin was eaten by a cavebear and her brother froze to death one day away from the citys gates. She herself lost 4 Fingers and a foot to the frost and fell into a coma for a few days. When she woke up, nobody belived the nonsense she was sputtering about monsters enslaving the whole colony and performing dark magic. She was sent to an asylum where she spend a few years until the son of the Govenor of Bregen became warily after the third caravan went missing that was sent to the moutains to pick up the ores that piled up in the mines during winter.
In the end he sent an investiagtor and 50 soldiers to find out what was happening there. It took two months until the investigator returned - without the soldiers. They have found out that the couple where vampires that enslaved the townsfolk and used them to lure travellers, caravans and other folk that had the bad luck to pass the colony into their trap for an endless supply of blood. So far their plan worked pretty well, if they hadnt took the caravans in that were supposed to pick up the ores...
But thats where the real plottwist comes in. The investigator came into the colony and immediately sensed something was off. The vampires servants brought him into the mine, where he was faced by the couple. They knew their dealings would come to light if they let him leave, but if they would kill him the govenor would sent another one with more men and would hunt them down. So they flattered and ensnared the investigator who has been dreaming of beeing more than just a better secretary in the city guard of Bregen for a long time. In the end he gave in and they turned him into one of their kin. They arranged a feast for the soldiers who have been starving for the whole journey - it was early spring, and after the harsh winter it was still pretty cold and the rations were tight. So everybody joined in happily - the couple thought they could buy the investigator with ethernal youth, but he was more cunning than they thought - he told his men that the feast was a trap and that the couple hatched a plan to murder them all - so a battle between soldiers and the colonists ensued which led to most of the participants getting killed. In the end - just as he planned - the investigator was the last man standing and returned to Bregen. He brought the heads of the couple - the insane teenager from the asylum identified them and the investigator was welcomed back with high honors, known as the vampire slayer from then on...
  The tragedy of greyrock is just one example for vampires infiltrating clueless societies.  

Vampire hunters

The most famous ones are the "Decendents of Arbitr". They are a tightly organised group of mercinaries who follow the doctrine of Arbitr, a demon god who - contrary to what you think had the goal to erase all evil spirits, witches, necromancers and undeads from existance. He gave them his light - a spell casted by faith that indeed burns weak undead and conjured creatures on the spot. But even the strongest ones have a hard time to resist the "heart of arbitr". They reside in a highly fortified castle on a small island right next to Nodden. 
  Apart from them, there are numerous other groups who wrote the extinction of vampires and other "beasts and creatures" on their banners, but they all lack the decendents discipline, knowledge, weapons, equipment and commitment to erase their enemies.  

Weaknesses

Opposite to many stories, there is nothing that is foolproof to kill a vampire. The only thing they show a weakness to are blessed weapons and holy spells and objects. But the effect depends highly on the deity. In case of Arbitr or the god of the votaries of light a vampire really have to be a skilled to survive the contact with their spells, only those turned directly by Nyx and Galmo are able to resist them for a while - but even they have to flee. Only in places where the influence of Nyx and Galmo are strong they are able to neutralise holy magic - near mass graves or old battlefields vampires are immune to holy magic, in churches or chapels on the contrary they will get lit with holy flames pretty much in the spot. 
The only more or less natural weapon is fire - when he is completly void of blood a vampire burns quite easy - but it is everything but easy to convince them to get near a fire in that state...   In case of weapons, the only thing that kills a vampire for good is beheading, something sharp through the heart or any other wound that would be instantly lethal for a normal person. If they recieve other wounds and escape they can even regrow limps when they get to drink enough blood. So if you fight a vampire, use a weapon covered in holy oil blessed by Arbitr and light it on fire - or cover your arrows or bolts with it. Anything else wil probably leave you as a dried corpse without a single drop of blood left in some ditch.    My piece of advice in that matter - better avoid them, it is very risky to fight a vampire and all you can get from a dead one are some cool looking teeth. A vampires bones are supposed to be an elixier of youth which is supposed to give you back up to 20 years - but I can assure you, that is nothing more than a fairytale.    

A vampires abbilities

So why do people choose a life of constant hiding and hunger? Now, ethernal youth can be a curse as it can be a blessing. But beeing able to survive most wounds and regrow bodyparts in case of loss is really something to consider. Not talking about the improved nightsight, smell and hearing. Most people fall for the feeling of total superiority - you dont just feel better and more worthy than everyone, you actually are. But in exchange you submit to the influence of two of the most evil gods to exist. Its a tough choice in the end.