Vampires

The Midnight Aristocracy

Of all the creatures under the powers antithetical to the pillars of creation, vampires hold a particularly infamous and well-earned position of fear and hatred. Their history is said to stretch all the way back to The Age of Myth, when the fabled "Blood Mother" bestowed this virulent curse to the mortals who became the Firstborn. Though the blood of these wretched abominations has developed and branched over the years from those first apex predators, this has only made them far more of a threat to Cerebor. They can be found potentially anywhere in the world, in deep cavernous wombs of the earth or hiding in plain sight of the "chattle" they hunt. Their agents are numerous and their influence unfathomable. Were it not for several key factors inherent in vampires, these voracious lords of undeath would likely have overwhelmed all life on Cerebor by now.

Made by the Blood

Vampires are bound together and empowered by a common element: blood. They require the blood of the living to maintain their strength, both physical and magical, maintain their sanity, and in some cases to prevent themselves from withering to dust. It is this thirst that drives them and continually erodes notions of morality, mercy, love, and all other noble mortal virtues they may have once possessed. No matter how hard they may struggle, all vampires are doomed to lose all semblance of mortal life from their identity. In its place will grow a cold, cruel, and imperious predator who sees the living as merely playthings to sustain and entertain their new undead betters. It is this predatory nature intertwined with the vampiric existence that brings many to take the visage of nobility, tailored after their previous mortal cultures, and actively position themselves to wield power over mortals whether their vampiric nature is secret or not. The intoxicating power of a vampire corrupts the mind and withering scraps remaining of their souls, deluding them into believing this curse makes them superior to living beings, making it only right that they should present themselves in a way that conveys that superiority in every facet of their new unlife.   While a woeful twisting of the diabolical truth, it would be foolish beyond imagining to dismiss the raw power of a vampire. Even a vampire of "thinnest blood" can possess the strength of ten men, with senses heightened to match or exceed the natural predators of the night, and possess a resilience to attacks and damage that would be outright fatal to a mortal. And those "True Vampires" are in a league all their own: speed that exceeds what most eyes can track, strength to rival that of giants, senses that become truly supernatural, and a myriad of innate magical mastery which they can use to enthrall mortals, beasts, and most disturbingly raise entire armies of undead to do their bidding. Their greatest strength perhaps is the most mundane on the surface: their ability to blend in with their prey. Unlike many undead, vampires do not inherently possess rotting features or other signifiers of death (so long as they feed, of course). To many, they appear to possess all the mortal traits of their lineage prior to undeath. Some even inherent features that make them more alluring and beautiful to many mortals, aiding their deceptions all the more. It is only through a keen eye or subjecting them to specific conditions or observations that a vampire can be definitively parsed out from their mortal counterparts. More over, vampires can still think as though they were a living mortal, a boon many undead and other abominable entities lack. This allows vampires to be master manipulators, puppeteering their prey to further insulate themselves in security.

Undone by the Blood

For all their power, cunning, and inherent lethality, vampires are still very cursed beings. The blood they must consume is a thirst that can never be fully slaked and in fact grows greater and great as the years become decades, decades become centuries, and for the select few when centuries become eons. This comes with many logistical and metaphysical concerns for a vampire. The more they must feed, the more ensuring their prey is left sustainable becomes an issue, which in turns opens themselves up to their facade fading and their true nature becoming known. As their hunger grows, their ability to resist the call to feed drastically decreases. Their powers will fade, their bodies will begin to show signs of decay and rot, and what remains of their sanity will curdle into bestial madness. While many boons are matched with flaws, vampires are also burdened by outright disadvantages. It is said Pelor was so enraged upon his discovery of their kind that his righteous fury was forever bound to the light of the sun. Because of this, vampires cannot withstand sunlight. Even the strongest of vampires cannot hope to withstand full exposure for more than a minute before they are immolated and experience their final death. This is what forces them to be nocturnal predators, though no vampire would suffer their pride to admit such a thing. Wooden stakes, particularly those of White Ash, can paralyze a vampire if stuck into the heart. Running water also acts like an acidic agent to their skin, those who possess powerful faith or divine magics cause extreme aversion and terror in vampires, and most insultingly to these proud predators: They cannot enter a mortal's residence without permission.   The greatest undoing is poetic justice in the eyes of those learned on these creatures, that being the existence of other vampires. Those Firstborn of the Blood Mother were quick to fall into infighting, plotting, and undermining one another while also being struck with a crippling loneliness they could not get rid of...at least not through their fellow Firstborn and mortalkind. The Firstborn created the "Blood Kiss", the ritual act of murder that turns a mortal into a vampire, and bestowed it to former friends, lovers, and those they felt would make fitting companions in undeath. Many Firstborn found out all too late that they had given birth to those that would give them final death, for vampires are so swelled with power, predatory nature, and a lack of mortal compassion that they are doomed to succumb to paranoia and hatred of others of their kind. To this day, vampires are often vigilant first and foremost of fellow "Kindred" than they are mortal hunters. Yet, they are compelled to eventually grant the curse (purposefully or accidentally) onto others by a force they cannot control. Even within broods of a single lineage, the politicking and machinations against one another is rampant despite their supposed shared blood. It is even said to become a vampire is ultimately to lose your free will, for it is whispered the Blood Mother herself calls to her children through the cursed blood to fulfill her own plans and purposes for Cerebor, and that no vampire can resist this call.    

The Blood, Bloodlines, and Organization of the Damned

Vampires have their own culture and myths, just as unique and complicated as the mortal ones they shed. It is believed that the vampiric blood has a potency to it: those whose blood is closer to that of the Firstborn are more powerful and in turn more deserving of lordship over other vampires, while those further and further down the line are seen as scarcely vampires at all. Sometimes Blood Kisses are purposefully diluted to create "thinner blooded" or "Lesser Vampires". While being at the lowest rungs of vampire society, it is believed that these vampires lack the weaknesses, or at least the intensity of them, that their "full blooded" sires possess. While this means their powers are lessened as well, this doesn't prevent them from being all the more despised by other vampires who know that their lessers can enjoy mortal indulgences now long stripped from their "superior blood".   Bloodlines are a concept that each Firstborn has a lineage that stretches down to the current age, which vampires can trace their origins back to. Some believe that the bloodlines give them unique traits or powers not seen in another bloodline, but these differences are closely guarded secrets kept from mortals and Kindred alike.   Most vampires organize themselves into "dynasties", which are headed by a patriarch or matriarch and comprised of numerous broods, or as they prefer to say "families". Vampires do hold a semblance of loyalty to the organizations they found or belong to, but not to the detriment of their self serving nature. One common practice of vampiric organizations is the obfuscation of the current state of the vampiric world to mortalkind. Due to their self-destructive nature, vampires have learned that to allow mortals a peek beyond the veil of night into the world of vampires is to invite the masses of the living to seize opportunities when vampiric wars and plots have severely weakened them as a whole. They have become accustomed to spreading misinformation and manipulating mortal affairs to distract as many prying eyes as they can, keeping them safe to go about their bloody business. This important work is often saddled to the lower vampires amongst their ranks, not only because it is ceaseless and thankless work, but because these vampires are the closest in mindset to mortals. However, this on occasion has also seen a servant use their burden as a knife to stab into the back of their masters to seize power...  

An Age Old Feud: Vampires and Dragons

When animals in the wild require the same resource, conflict is sure to arise. This is no different when it comes to the ages old enmity between the children of the night and dragons. This common resource they fought for control of is unfortunately a sentient branch of the Tieflings, that being those whose lineage has earned them the name "Gem Tieflings". For dragons, specifically Chromatic, these beings are living trophies of opulence and status. For vampires, Gem Tiefling blood is unfortunately a potent magic reagent that is seen as a rare delicacy by the highest of vampiric society. Because of this, vampires have long waged secret wars against dragons to steal away their captives in order to build sustainable sources of empowering magical blood. This strife has ultimately been the detriment solely of the Gem Tieflings themselves, who were almost wiped from existence were it not for the intervention of the benvelolent Metallic dragons and other allies of order. In areas where one or both of these predators is believed to reside, Gem Tieflings are often met with aggressive "suggestions" to relocate, as many fear the strife that could arise if these feuding foes realize the object of their desire rests in their midst.