Vampires

A vampire is a kind of Blooded. Vampires are common throughout the world, predators that prey on normal society. Most vampires are not able to transmit their curse to others by accident, but instead it must be done through careful ritual. Most of the time.

It is said that a gift is also a curse, and a curse also a gift. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the vampire. On the one hand, they are granted great powers and tremendous boons. On the other hand, they are cursed to live a life they may not have wanted to live, and their powers are balanced out by new weaknesses they would not have faced in life.

Vampires on Ayaria are inherently monstrous, and not for the noncommittal. Once a character has become a vampire, there is no way of fixing it. Vampires cannot die, cannot be cured, and cannot be tamed to defy their predator instict. They are monsters through and through.

Not all who are infected by a Blooded become vampires. For those unfortunates who refuse the Red Dream, see Wasting.

Ascendancy

There are three kinds of vampire: fledglings, peers, and elders. Fledgling vampires are of course those who have just been cursed. Peer vampires are ones who have experience with their life. Elder vampires are frightfully powerful creatures, leaders of entire bloodlines of vampires, and masters of their new life.

Bloodlines

Beside for outright rank, there are also different kinds of vampires. These clans are all founded by a progenitor who may or may not still be alive, and are wiped out when every last vampire of that bloodline has been consumed by members of another bloodline. When a vampiric bloodline is wiped out, the bloodline who consumed the last gains the powers bestowed to their bloodline.

Uninitiated

A vampire must be initiated into a bloodline to become part of it. Each bloodline has its own unique initiation ritual. Becoming initiated into a bloodline is a major event in a vampire's life in its own right, and is the greatest influence on the direction their life will take from that point on. For a fledgling to become a peer, they must be initiated; for a peer to become an elder, they must come to lead their bloodline.

Becoming A Vampire

A prospective vampire must first of all not be a vampiric thrall. Attempting to make a thrall into a vampire will simply kill the thrall. Assuming that requirement is met, the ritual to create a vampire is thus:

The prospective vampire must have their blood drained to the point of near death. This done, their creator must give them a pittance of their own blood in turn. This is the point of no return. Once the creator's blood has been given, the prospective vampire must complete the ritual or they will die. If the ritual is attempted during the day, the prospective vampire will also just die at this stage.

Soon after they consume this vampiric blood, the prospective vampire will feel a sort of insatiable hunger with no self control. They seek the blood of the living, turning on their creators if they’re not properly restrained or guided. They cannot be reasoned with, and will stop at nothing to consume any sapient creature's blood. They have until the sunrise to fully drain someone of their blood lest they wither away and perish from accelerated starvation, so they’re quite desperate in this time and anyone can be a target. The unfortunate target must die for this process to complete, otherwise the transformation is incomplete and the effects of their creator’s blood will gradually fade until the fledgling vampire dies with the sunrise.

Once they’ve killed someone and drank of their blood, they will feel extreme lethargy. They’ll be drawn to find somewhere dark and hidden in order to rest and sleep, with some extreme examples being digging themselves a shallow grave to do it, for they don’t need to breathe during this final part of the change. Once they wake, they will be officially a fledgling vampire, with all the changes in place (i.e fangs, red eyes, etc).

The Bond

Between every vampire and their creator, there is a bond between them that is unlike any other relationship. Be it something more romantic or familial, it seems somehow more intense and closer than in their mortal lives. While it is likely that such relationships begin positively, after all the creator of this fledgling vampire has likely taken some risk in order to change them, all emotions toward their progenitor are heightened. Meaning that should the relationship sour, the intensity of that sourness will be manifold what it would otherwise be.

The bond allows the creator to have a sense of the wellbeing of their spawn, and if they’re within the same area (think a city) they’ll be able to eventually track them down and locate them, wherever they’re hiding. In contrast, spawn have a sense that their creator is near though cannot pinpoint them, and if their creator dies they’ll feel the pain as if it were their own, though injuries are phantom ones and no physical damage is done. They’ll feel an emptiness for a time until they return. If a fledgling consumes the life blood of their creator, they will become a peer even without a clan and feel only the memory of their connection with their creator.

A vampire's creator is able to overpower the will of their spawn, exactly as if the creator were invoking the true name of the spawn.

Feral

Vampires must constantly balance between two extremes: starvation, and overindulgence. If they consume too little, they will be driven mad by hunger and lose themselves to their curse, becoming feral. If they consume too much, they will be driven mad by ecstasy and lose themselves to their curse, becoming feral. Thus, though they depend on blood, if they wish to survive for any length of time they must learn to discipline themselves.

Starvation

The longer a vampire goes without feeding, the more animalistic they become. Literally their human fading away, to be replaced by the base instinct to consume. The desperate need for sustenance.

Overindulgence

The more a vampire embraces their curse, the more cursed they become. But they do not see it that way. They become sociopathic, unable to see the people they feed on as that, people. The more pleasure they feel from feeding on others, the more they wish to experience it again and again. Their emotions begin to slip, trending toward the negative and sadistic. Even their fellow vampires, they will see as mere competitors for the chance to imbibe another indulgence.

Vampire Traits

These are all the traits uninitiated vampires can have. Traits unique to vampire bloodlines will be listed as part of those bloodlines.

The Curse

An uninitiated, fledgling vampire has all of these. For the purposes of character trait limits, just list Vampire as a trait and remember these are the downsides.

Name	Description
Vampiric Immortality	When a vampire dies, they do not stay dead. Their body will enter stasis, and there it will remain until conditions are favorable for it to reanimate. If the conditions are not favorable for long enough, the vampire may ressurect into a different corpse that gradually changes to resemble their previous form, their old body becoming ash.
Sunlight Sensitivity	This character is weakened by sunlight. Their skin burns easily under its intense light. Every round they spend in direct sunlight, all of their attributes reduce by one.
Overstimulated	This character's senses are heightened to a far too intense degree. They are easily overwhelmed if not outright crippled by overstimulating environments.
Immortal Infertility	This character cannot bear children with other immortals. They can with mortals.
Vampiric Hunger	This character constantly craves blood. Consuming blood is like experiencing the sweetest ecstasy. Feeding from another person reduces all of their victim's attributes by one for the remainder of the day. Drinking from someone to the point of death raises the vampire's attributes by one for the remainder of the day.
Fangs	At times of heightened emotions or when hungry, the vampire's incisors will grow more pronounced and into obvious, sharp fangs.

Fledgling

Fledglings have their choice of two traits. One of these traits must match a trait their creator has. These traits do count toward the character trait limit.

Name	Description
Nightvision	This character can see perfectly in total darkness, albeit only in shades of red.
Daywalker	This character ignores the Sunlight Sensitivity curse.
Heightened Senses	This vampire ignores the Overstimulated curse. For the purposes of perceiving something in their environment, their effective Cleverness is raised by one.
Vampiric Healing	When this vampire feeds on others, their wounds stabilize and they heal all injuries they sustained overnight.
Compelling Gaze	This vampire's eyes are red. When they make eye contact with someone, if that person has less than half the vampire's Erudition, that person will feel compelled to obey the vampire's words. This does not work if the vampire's commands are antithetical to their victim's nature.
Claws	The vampire has long, sharp nails that become longer, sharper, and more monstrous claws in times of heightened emotion or when hungry. When attacking with Prowess, they provide a bonus of 1.
Sharper Fangs	This vampire's fangs are always visible. They become especially pronounced and monstrous when in times of heightened emotion or when hungry. When attacking with Prowess, they provide a bonus of 1.
Nimble	This vampire's base Prowess raises by one.

Peer

Peers have upgraded versions of the traits traits than when they were fledglings. They can also choose one additional trait from this list. If they chose the Daywalker trait, they can also choose a new trait from this list as it has no corresponding upgrade. They lose the Overstimulated curse, even if they did not choose Heightened Senses.

Name	Prerequisite	Description
Bloodsense	Nightvision	This character can sense the presence of creatures with blood in their vicinity (10 meters) without needing to see them or have line of sight on them. This works through walls and other barriers.
Inhumanly Strong	Very Strong	This character is inhumanly strong, capable of feats that defy the limits of a human body.
Vampiric Regeneration	Vampiric Healing	Within moments of feeding, all the vampire's wounds heal and they are refreshed as if from a full day's rest.
Dominating Gaze	Compelling Gaze	This vampire's eyes are red. When they make eye contact with someone, if that person has less than half the vampire's Erudition, that person will feel compelled to obey the vampire's words.
Bigger Claws	Claws	The vampire has long, sharp nails that become longer, sharper, and more monstrous claws in times of heightened emotion or when hungry. When attacking with Prowess, they provide a bonus of 2.
Even Sharper Fangs	Sharper Fangs	This vampire's fangs are always visible. They become especially pronounced and monstrous when in times of heightened emotion or when hungry. When attacking with Prowess, they provide a bonus of 2.
Vampiric Senses	Heightened Senses	For the purposes of perceiving something in their environment, their effective Cleverness is raised by two.
Inhumanly Nible	Nimble	This vampire's base Prowess raises by two.

Elders

An elder gets one additional trait to reflect their ascendancy, and their prior peer traits also upgrade. While the traits listed here are upgraded forms of the peer traits, note that the elder would actually work out a unique trait for their character with lore that reflects the bloodline they took over.

Name	Prerequisite	Description
Vampiric Will	Dominating Gaze	This vampire's base Erudition increases by two.
Telekinesis	Inhumanly Strong	This vampire is able to express their inhuman strength without raising a finger, able to interact with their environment out to a range of ten meters. If attempting to use this on a person or an object held by a person, they may only do so successfully if the person has a Prowess lower than the elder's Erudition. If the target's Prowess is lower, the vampire's Erudition is reduced by their Prowess; if the vampire's Erudition is higher, it is reduced by the target's Prowess.
Vampiric Prowess	Bigger Claws or Even Sharper Fangs	This vampire's base Prowess increases by three.
Inhuman Perception	Vampiric Senses	For the purposes of perceiving something in their environment, their effective Cleverness is raised by four.
Vampiric Grace	Inhumanly Nimble	This vampire's base Prowess raises by three.