Vampires

~*~*~*~ ABOUT VAMPIRES ~*~*~*~
VAMPIRIC ORIGIN
VAMPIRIC PROPERTIES
VAMPIRIC GIFTS
VAMPIRIC AGE
VAMPIRIC LIFESTYLE
VAMPIRIC RULES
VAMPIRIC INJURIES
VAMPIRIC DEATH
LORE OWNERSHIP

VAMPIRIC ORIGIN
The vampires of the Children of Darkness follow the lore of Anne Rice’s vampires. In the novels of Anne Rice, Those Who Must Be Kept are the progenitors of all vampires who are also regarded as the King and Queen of the Vampires, or the divine parents; Akasha also known as the fount. Originally King Enkil and Queen Akasha of Kemet (now Egypt) circa 5,000 BC, they became the first vampires when an evil blood spirit named Amel was able to enter the body of Akasha through a wound and fuse with her heart and brain. Akasha then turned Enkil into a vampire to save him from the inflicted wounds received to both by the citizens of Kemet by drawing out nearly all of his blood and then allowing him to drink nearly all of hers.

The term “Those Who Must Be Kept” was coined by the ancient vampire Marius referring to the fact that what befalls Akasha and Enkil also befalls all vampires; if they are injured, so are their children, if they die, so do all vampires. An example of this is explained in the story of Marius’, their caretaker, who sought to be free of them, and placed them in the sun. The two lived, but weaker vampires were destroyed by spontaneous combustion. Long before Marius came into conservatorship of Those Who Must Be Kept, they were nearly completely inanimate, seated seemingly unconscious for centuries without moving.

To us, vampirism is an affliction that can neither by cured or reversed.  Once you are a vampire, you are a vampire for the rest of your eternity and you will be regarded as such.

VAMPIRIC PROPERTIES
The vampires we use for role play are different in several ways from classic vampires like Dracula. They are not affected by the usual weapons against classic vampires: garlic, holy water, crosses, and they cannot be killed with wooden stakes. Like classic vampires, most do choose to sleep in some form of coffin or safe haven, even underground, during the day because sun exposure can cause severe pain, even death. Also, during the day, most “sleep”, however, this differs from “mortal sleep” as: a) they become dead bodies, and b) the dawn often triggers their sleep against their will. They do not age physically (instead becoming more “statuesque” as they age, developing very smooth, even whiter skin), but vampires younger than a thousand years old (called children of the millennia) can usually be killed by over exposure to sunlight or fire, however those effects lessen with passing age.

They need blood, but in some cases they can go without for a great amount of time. The older they are, the less blood they need. Human blood is preferred as it is more nutritious, but animal or creature blood can also be drunk. These vampires are able to distinguish different types of blood, from the common O- to the very fine, rare AB-. The more rare human blood often creates a sort of “drunkenness” within the vampire that takes it, but this does not reduce their power or ability. Vampires prefer their blood served warm, thus the kill of a human is the most satisfying. Blood is the life of a human soul, thus when a vampire kills a human, much of that human’s memories and experiences are passed on to the vampire. Vampire blood is said to induce a feverish high for humans, and too much of it will make them very ill, but it can also transfuse its regenerative powers to help heal wounds.

In order for a vampire to make a human his or her fledgling, they must drain their target almost to the brink of death, then infuse the human with their own vampiric blood. The human then suffers a horribly painful mortal death, one that many vampires are not able to remember often. Once the human body is dead, the vampire can then be undead. Once a vampire is made and they are reborn to the world, they must immediately drink excessive amounts of blood, human or otherwise. Most “newborn” vampires must drink heavily every night and that can continue for many decades.

They can possess stereotypically “vampiric” magical powers, such as changing into bats or wolves, and some of the stronger, older ones do have the power to fly. Most of them also have the power to read the thoughts of mortals and weaker vampires. They have other physical abilities: they can move very quickly (faster than human eyes can see), and possess extremely great strength and heightened keen senses. Very old vampires or ones who have been made or strengthened by feeding on blood that is close to the root of the divine parents may have additional gifts like the ability to move matter with the mind and the ability to set things ablaze by the force of will. They have many artistic talents, like singing, painting and acting, and a preternatural “understanding” of any type of problem, puzzle or machine. They also have the uncanny ability to almost perfectly mimic anything (movement, playing musical instruments, etc.).

The main characteristic of these vampires is that they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense suffering and aesthetic passions. They are usually quite attractive, even beautiful, as vampires tend to make fledglings from humans they have grown to love. Their physical changes are apparent: their eyes become luminous, their skin pale and reflective and their fingernails are like glass. Furthermore, if their hair or nails are cut, they will grow back as they were when they “died” during their sleep. As they lose all natural bodily fluids, they are unable to have children in the traditional sense. However, since the first creation of Akasha and Enkil, the divine parents from which all vampires come from, vampires have “evolved” somewhat. Some attain the ability to communicate with spirits, some even have the ability to resurrect recently deceased humans. Thus, the myth that a vampire couple, female and male, could in essence give birth to a “true vampire” may eventually prove to be no myth at all.

VAMPIRIC GIFTS
With age comes knowledge and experience. With this concept in mind, we have created a leveling system that allows characters to gain new vampiric gifts as they complete player-written quests. To gain a new gift, you must complete the associated quest with the associated LEVEL of that gift. Some gifts are granted at rebirth, while others have pre-requisites or are even forbidden to be used at all.

These gifts can be taught and learned through epic quests.  Each gift has a certain number of levels that you can gain as you quest through. The BLUE ones are the basic gift that all vampires get, the RED ones are the ones that can only be attained after having maxed out all your other gifts.  (See Guild Quests)

Basic Gifts — the two basic level gifts that all vampires are born with are Heightened Physicality, Immortality, and Glamour denoted in BLUE above. If a vampire choses to spend additional points into physicality, their powers are increased.

Pre-Requisites — in order to develop either the Fire Gift or Killing Gift denoted in ORANGE in the above section, a vampire must have maxed out all the levels of the other quests before they embark on the quests for these gifts. You can only spend a max total of 3 points into any of these gifts.

Forbidden Gifts — these Gifts are forbidden for free use. Only an Elder would be able to evoke this gift and only in the presence and with permission of the other Elders of the coven where careful guidance is given and they are guarded and protected.

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Immortality Gift (0). All vampires are granted the basic gift of immortality.  This means they do not age in appearance, they do not get sick from mortal illnesses, nor do they ever die a mortal death.  This does NOT mean they are invulnerable.

Spell Gift (0). This is also sometimes referred to as “Glamour”. All vampires are able to glamour mortal beings which allows a vampire to cloud the mind, bending the mortal to his or her will for a short while. It also allows vampires to basically erase memories and replace them with suggestive memories of their own. This gift is essential in the hunt.

Heightened Physicality Gift (8). All vampires have superhuman senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, feel) and strength, and are able do things many times faster than humans can, with little or no effort. They can move faster than the human eye can detect, see in the darkest of nighttime, pick one sound out of even the noisiest area, and raise the volume of their voice to painfully loud levels.

Turning Gift (5). The Turning gift is also a basic gift that comes with every vampire made, although newborns will often fail at it causing true death rather than transformation. The stronger you are in the turn, the easier it is for you to regenerate the blood spilled into your progeny, mortal death is faster and less painful, and the more vampiric gifts are passed onto your younglings. Those made by vampires with increased turning ability are often stronger, feel less hunger, and are easier to adapt.  A chemical bond occurs between sire and progeny immediately after a turn, as described in the Bonding Gift. New vampires are not able to train their Turning Gift until around the age of 300 years.

Calming Gift (5). The Calming gift can work on both vampires and mortals alike.  It allows to the gifted vampire to calm its subject by touch.  The Calming gift has also been known, at its higher levels, to reduce pain, anxiety, depression, paranoia, and other such ailments in their subjects temporarily. It cannot cure the afflictions however.

Form Shift Gift (5). Vampires can take on the shapes of beasts or creatures, and with even more age and skill, the shape of other mortals. Vampires can also transform themselves into a mist or dust cloud drifting in the air, they can modify their sizes in certain limits, becoming either larger or smaller. The elder vampires can also transform themselves into other people; however only in physical form.

Bonding Gift (5). Blood transference allows a vampire to share his or her thoughts, memories, intentions, and emotions with another vampires. The Bonding Gift heightens the deepening of this effect between two vampires; mortals cannot be bonded. It becomes a chemical bond, often alluding to a more emotional connection. This can only be achieved if both parties are willing to engage in it and can be broken by the more dominant vampire; a releasement. The higher the skill in this gift is, the stronger the bond will be.  This gift is not limited to sire/progeny relationships, but sires automatically bond their progeny as part of the Turning Gift.

Flight Gift (8). Flight is a power most strongly exhibited by the Children of The Millennia or any vampire that has drunk the blood of the fount. Often the gift is passed to the fledglings of the millennia vampires. Most, if not all vampires dislike or even hate flying as they find it extremely unsettling due to it being a clear, visible sign that they are truly no longer human.

Mind Gift (8) (the combined abilities of telepathy and telekinesis). This is the ability to communicate and read thoughts, especially of humans, and to move objects with the mind. This gift is used largely to obtain blood – since via telepathy a criminal or amoral human can be sensed, and many of the vampires refuse to feed on the innocent, this allows them to identify their prey.

Reflection Gift (8). The reflection gift allows a vampire to reflect what they see about a person in their eyes to know their true intentions, their deepest desires, and true characters. A person can see their true selves in the eyes of the vampire with the gift.  The higher the training the more the viewer can see about themselves.

Regeneration Gift (8). Vampires are immune to most attacks other than their known weakness and even then are apparently able to heal quickly, especially if they feed or are placed underground. All vampires can potentially heal from any non-fatal wound, but time and blood are needed. A bullet wound, for instance, would heal within seconds, but serious burns from a fire would require decades, if not centuries, to heal. However, the greater the damage done to them, the stronger they will be when they are fully healed.

Fire Gift (3). A power usually only developed by a Child of the Millennia. With the Fire Gift, a vampire can set alight an object or being of their choice. The Fire Gift is specially fatal to vampires, as the “changed” blood found within their bodies ignites easily, thus resulting in instant combustion and fatality.

Killing Gift (3). Another power usually only developed by a Child of the Millennia. Like most gifts it comes with age, thus the older you are the more likely you are to develop it. The exact nature of the power is unknown, but it seems to cause numerous fatal ruptures in the entire cardiovascular system.

Shielding Gift (3). Another power usually only developed by a Child of the Millennia. Like most gifts it comes with age, thus the older you are the more likely you are to develop it. This gift allows the vampire to create a nearly impenetrable force field around a building they occupy, drawing raw energy from the building materials within it.

Body Snatching Gift (0). The Body Snatching Gift allows a vampire to completely exit his/her undead body and inhabit the body of another; mortal or undead. This leaves the body of said vampire vulnerable, open to others that may wish to possess it. Vampires leave all their other gifts with their undead bodies, thus a mortal of great power or another undead may thief that body. The likelihood of recovering one’s own body if snatched is very slim. This gift is reserved for the ELDERS of the guild and can only be performed within the presence of the High Council that can guard the body.

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As mentioned before, vampires are ever evolving, thus new gifts have sprung up. You can role play any new “gift” you want within our guild and theme, but we ask that it must be documented and you must allow other vampires to use the documentation freely for their own characters.

VAMPIRIC AGE
Like a fine wine, vampires only get better with age.  When first turned, a vampire is rather weak and has very basic gifts or abilities. Unless guided and taught in the ways,  a vampire has to fend for itself. Learning on his/her own how to feed, why to feed, who to feed on, and how to deal with new challenges and way of life.

Most often the first lesson learned is how powerful the thirst can be. For the first few years a vampire is ravenous, almost the brink of insanity. Nothing can come near it without the call of the thirst taking over. Those fledglings that retain their master, often learn to carry flasks of blood with them wherever they may go to quench the thirst.  Though, no flask will keep them in check around mortals that come to close.  This uncontrollable desire for blood passes after a few years, usually subsiding and kept under control by the turn of their first decade.

The second lesson is the burning. Without a master to tell you that you cannot venture out during daylight hours, newborns are often easily burned.  And without knowing how to regenerate from their injuries, they succumb to the sun’s powerful effects.  Daybreak will often cause severe exhaustion in newly born vampires, often calling them to the dead sleep that helps us to regenerate and  heal. As vampires grow older the effects of the sun and the exhaustion felt at daybreak gradually dissipate.  An ancient would be able to tolerate the sun’s indirect rays for often a few hours, although shade is always needed.

Thirdly, vampires will grow accustomed to mortal drinks as they age.  They will be able to enjoy a glass of wine with time and adoption.  Foreign drinks may cause an adverse effect, making the vampire sick to their stomach.  Vampires may NEVER, EVER ingest mortal food, not even with age, as this will cause serious repercussions that only dead rest can cure.

VAMPIRIC LIFESTYLE
Vampires are, if not anything, spoiled brats. They live lavishly in almost preposterous wealth. They can be quite arrogant and seem to always know it all. And many do… know it all. They are absolutely super powerful, know it, and flaunt it. They crave absolutely dominance over any situation, and are almost always political in nature. They are aristocrats taking high ranks within the society in which they roam, pretending to be humans. That pretention is commonly referred to as the “masquerade”. Most of our vampires loathe the thought of the masquerade, especially the ancients, but often use it as a tool to achieve interaction with humans that brings them closer to their prey or goal. Ancient vampires have a much tougher time utilizing the masquerade among humans because their physicality gift, but newer once are less adverse to its use as can more easily pass for human.

Vampires often take on a lover, human or vampiric, as it softens the blow of eternal loneliness. Humans have a natural need for socialization and since vampires were once human, their physicality gift increases that nature. It is why vampires often seek the company of covens. Covens are groups of vampires that swear allegiance to each other. There is usually a coven leader, typically of great age and knowledge, and several co-leaders of the same. These covens formulate rules that member vampires must adhere to.

Vampires cannot eat human food, nor easily drink human fluids.  Doing so makes them sick, often vomiting the contents of their unliving stomachs. However, some vampires make it a point to grow accustomed to the discomfort that is felt when drinking regular fluids such as wines or water or liquors. This aids in keeping the masquerade.

VAMPIRE RULES
There are several rules that are typical and well known to all vampires. Some of the larger covens also add certain rules of their own to these basic principles. Breaking the rules is punishable by a tribunal, which often leads to the destruction of the vampire in question.

Basic Rules

ONE: That each coven must have its leader and only he might order the working of the Dark Gift upon a mortal, seeing that the methods and the rituals were properly observed. Coven leaders from all known covens would all follow a similar protocol or face retribution. Marius, as coven leader, has granted Consularis the right to sire at will; provided they have taken the territory’s population of vampires into consideration. It is their primary responsibility to educate new vampires created by either their own blood as sire, or those choosing to swear fealty to this coven. There is an entire quest devoted to the “Trials of the Newborn” and to those that wish to “Swear Their Fealty” that you must be available to participate in. Members of lower ranks can choose you to be their mentors if they are disassociated, however if they are sired by another coven vampire you may only do so with their expressed permission. You are forbidden from forming a blood bond with another sire’s progeny, regardless of your mentorship status.

TWO: That the Dark Gifts must never be given to children under the mortal age of 18, or to those who cannot survive on their own.  No sire may resurrect or otherwise summon the truly dead and then turn the summoned or resurrected being. It is also against the laws to turn creatures and then set them free; they must be kept until they are fully trained in the Laws. Be it further understood that all mortals who would receive the Dark Gifts should be beautiful in person so that the insult to God might be greater when the trick is done thus any mortal that is crippled, maimed, or disfigured cannot be turned.

THREE: All our gifts increase naturally with age and the ancients are the most powerful beings in existence. Injury, burning — these catastrophes, if they do not destroy the newly made vampire will only increase his powers when he is healed. The effect of the Dark Gift is unpredictable, even when passed on by the very young vampire and with all due care. For reasons no one knows, some mortals when born to darkness become as powerful as Titans, others may be no more than corpses that move. That is why mortal progeny must be chosen with skill. Those with great passion and indomitable will should be avoided as well as those who have none.

FOUR: That no vampire may ever destroy another vampire (lest their sire), with the exception of what each coven leader or his/her council mandates as law. Coven leadership has the obligation to lead the old ones and the mad ones into the fire when they can no longer maintain eternity as they should. It is their obligation to destroy all vampires who are not properly made. It is their obligation to destroy all those who are so badly wounded that they cannot survive on their own. And it their his obligation finally to seek the destruction of all outcasts and all those who have broken these laws, known as the Blood Hunt.

FIVE: That no vampire shall ever reveal his true nature or the nature of another vampire to a mortal and let the mortal live, unless that mortal chooses to live in amoroso with the vampire. No vampire must ever reveal the history of the vampires to a mortal and let the mortal live. No vampire must commit to authored for-profit published writing the history of the vampires or any true knowledge of vampires lest such a history be found by mortals and believed. And a vampire’s name must never be known to mortals, save from his tombstone, and never must any vampire reveal to mortals the location of his or any other vampire’s lair. Some covens choose to ignore this rule, but most other vampires live by it. So this must be honored.

VAMPIRIC INJURIES
Contrary to popular belief, vampires while immortal creatures, can be severely injured. Within our lore, an injured vampire can choose to either display their vampiric nature and seek shelter (coffins, mausoleums, crypts, even in ground) which helps to speed their regeneration or they can choose to keep their natures hidden thus needing the assistance of other coven members or friends to get them to a safe place to regenerate.

The other note to take into consideration is that traditionally vampires are in fact dead corpses. When we are in our slumber, we turn into marble-like corpses. Thus the closer to that state of being we are, through injuries, or death the more marble-like we become. We become paler than usual, heavier than usual, and our eyes become more translucent. Taking shelter is a specious manner is our best bet to keep our nature hidden.

VAMPIRIC DEATH
Vampires cannot die too easily. They are stronger than mortals, usually taking more than 1 to overwhelm a vampire. Their age and physicality gifts play strongly into the ability for any mortal to kill a vampire; the more points spent into physicality and the older you are, the more improbable it is to kill you, but not impossible. The only effective way to kill a vampire is to decapitate their heads, burn their bodies, and scatter the ashes. If this is not done properly, a vampire can seek the aid of the under ground to garnish sleep. If a vampire sleeps, which turns them into dead bodies, upon rising they will be restored at their basic level. Upon restoration from such a violent event, it would take an impressive amount of blood as well as many, many moons to restore completely. If they have high points into regeneration, this can take hardly no time at all.

Resurrection of a vampire is possible, though extremely rare.  The body of a vampire must remain intact in order for it to be even a sliver of a possibility.  If a vampire is in ashes, scattering the ashes will undoubtedly, irrevocably make resurrection utterly impossible.

Nothing else will kill a Ricean vampire; not stakes, not holy water baths, not even setting you on fire, nothing. Children of the Millennia are extremely improbable to kill. All of this must be worked into the storyline for killing off your vampire character. NO PLAYER HAS THE RIGHT TO KILL OFF YOUR VAMPIRE CHARACTER WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT AND A BEFITTING STORYLINE.

LORE OWNERSHIP

This lore was adapted by Maria Espino (based on the lore by Anne Rice) who plays Pandora and Marius, loremaster. Any updates and changes to it are reviewed by the lorekeepers, Sue Patterson (Bianca and Maharet & Mekare) and Adam Carter (Armand).