Yhmpir

“I sought endless beauty in a world of blood and tears. The brilliance among shadows of madness and guile. To what do I find but a rain of sorrow and pain, staining my crimson velvet. Drenching my ashen wings. This world will shun my choices and never shall I be sung of in the legends of heroes. Yet I carry on. Not for glory. Not for fame. I am Yhmpir, born of dusk and dawn. I fight for purity and I fight for legacy. I fight for the Long Night, to cover us in its cold embrace. Though my people see me as a tyrant, I still bleed for them to the bitter end.   In the name of my father - saint Luciano, I am but a handcrafted angel. Here to lead the way out of the blinding light, into the sacred night.”

 

Origin

  Yhmpir are not born. They are made. When a mortal comes in contact with the Y-Serum - a rare substance which is directly injected through their spine and into their neural cortex. This mutagen directly infects the brain. Rewiring it, rebuilding it, expanding the nerves until the entire body starts transforming into something infernally divine.   They are bio-engineered transhumans. One third mortal. One third vampire. One third of angelic bloodline.   Beings created by the devious mind of Mayor Gunther Kueglemann and taught the philosophy and reasons to be by Dominus-Praetorius Luciano Penumbra. The fallen high-baron’s closest men and women which he cherishes like children. His knights of the holy and the defiled.   Transhumans of grace and savagery that weep tears of blood as they fight. Bringing swift and clean ends to the Golden Empire’s legionaries that seek to wrest back the lands of Penumbra underneath their control - yet oathsworn defenders of their father-saint, to bring a black and light blade to all vampires, all abyssal spawn and all hellish hordes that would threaten their people. Both within and beyond their cursed borders.     Yhmpir look humanoid at first glance, yet they are impossibly symmetrical in design. With high cheekbones, unnaturally perfect and evenly distributed muscularity and thick glossy hair. These are their humanoid features, altered by the divine lineage artificially coursing through their blood.   The ashen black wings, piercing crimson eyes and almost clawlike nails are part of the vampiric heritage to which they have been induced.   As a side effect from the Y-Serum aggressively transforming their bodies, around half of the Yhmpir have porcelain pale skin from a benign case of albinism. Turning their hair snow white, while the wings still remain black.     When an Yhmpir moves, it is less of a gait and more of a form of stance and dance. Their moves are fluid as if they just float above the ground. Leaving only the faintest traces of sound from their steps as they move at catlike speed with batlike instincts for eye to body coordination.   These are creatures that can dodge and parry bullets and effectively coordinate themselves to outmaneuver and outpace mortal foes even when encircled and surrounded.   Their most uncanny motions remain in how they can actively use their wings to fly short distances and glide while standing up. Practically making them invulnerable to falls. These wings can also be pressed back into their bodies, behind their shoulderblades - when they are fighting.  

Powers

  While the Yhmpir are undoubtedly extremely powerful - their perfections come at a cost. Even with a halo glowing behind their head, there is nothing harmonious about them. This object that shifts in colour and aura of the stance they invoke is not some angelic biological organ, but a magitech foci.   Their body and mind may be tempered to withstand an incredible amount of arcane withdrawal and a near infinite pool of mana, but it does not help their case when the forces they seek to master counter-act each other.  

Solar Shift

  The Yhmpir, unable to cast devastating solar spells like the Holy Imperator can, or even an adept priest of Ysand for that matter - instead allows themselves to be embraced by the sun. Divine and Vampiric heritage clashing violently as their eyes light up like two burning orbs. Their wings burst flames like an ignited phoenix and their claws coarse with smoldering force.   Drawing from their own warmth and that of the area around them - the halo turns oxygen into power that allows the Yhmpir to whirl through a throng of forces and carve at them with a molten blade. Making it hard to breathe and even stand close to them, without feeling uncomfortable due to the heat. This is their stance for combating vampires and when surrounded by crowds of foes.   The downside to the Solar Shift is the Yhmpir’s resistances to cold are rendered into weaknesses which water, frost and void magics can capitalize on.