How do vampires in your setting work?

Same way everybody else does. They send in an application (without a photo). They go through the job interview. They start working on the next Monday.
They are diligent too. They are in the office first (before the sun rises even) and they leave last (after sundown).

Frankly, they are a boon to any company.

>>50648350
They drink human blood and can be active during the day, but they prefer nighttime since it makes them a bit lethargic and they can't heal without their day sleep. They can consume blood to fake normal bodily functions, are repealed by religious symbols if the holder believes in its power, detest garlic to the point of vomiting when they drink from someone who ate some and are confused when confronted with large numbers. They can be killed by the classical stake in the heart or decapitation, and burn easily. There's also a subs-species of Orlocks who can drink animal blood and are stronger than the average vampire, but they burn when exposed to sunlight.

Vampires are either demonized sorcerers who have invited spirits into their body to possess them through means of blood rituals, or are the semi-corporeal manifestation of the same spirits void of a willing vessel. Sometimes, those spirits possess the corpses of the sinful and recently deceased instead of a living patron. Their abilities are diverse and typical, but stem from a place of demonic authority rather than some kind of fae creature. The only time when blood may be needed for sustenance is when the demonic spirit is possessing a corpse, and daylight is not detrimental to their existence, but rather their disguise.

So basically vampires irl

File: cast him in.jpg (15KB, 350x262px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 350x262px

Like this.

File: bustup_03_16.png (161KB, 960x560px) Image search: [Google]

161KB, 960x560px

>>50648888
>So basically vampires irl

>>50648350
They don't, they live of fortunes they build many years ago.

>>50649013
The quads verify.

>>50648350
They don't, they're on welfare.

>>50648350

A small, fragile, but largely stable society of about no more than 1000 individuals worldwide. The oldest known vampire is from around the 10th century, the most recent from the late 1980s.

Metaphysical origins are unclear, and in general, they are just as in the dark about their own origins as most mortals are about larger philosophical questions. Some are convinced they have a clear answer and go through unlife accordingly, others just sort of muddle through and latch onto what seems convenient at the moment.

They need to drink blood at least once a week or risk falling into a torpor state, with that risk increasing the longer one abstains. The longest any of them have gone without has been about four months. Some believe that you can regain mortality if you manage to go without blood and avoid sleep for ten years, but the reasoning for this varies between individuals. Because it leads to sleep rather than automatic death, vampires known to the larger community often check up on each other on a monthly-to-yearly basis to make sure nobody's had an accident and fallen asleep in a dangerous place.

Sunlight's a no-go and leads to immolation. Decapitation and stakes through the heart do what they would do to anyone.

Crosses hurt. Not holy symbols at large, just crosses. None of them know why that's the case because none can claim to be old enough to have known Christ. Since the religious implications bug them, they tend not to discuss the topic too much, and have tried to secularize as much of western society as they can reasonably influence to downplay the problem. They haven't contributed as much as they'd like to this trend, but pretend as if they are the true rulers behind the throne to impress mortals and play up their strength to other creatures of the night.

Making another vampire is a selective process, not because the vampires themselves are particularly careful in who they choose to sire, but because the process is opaque even to them.

File: VAMPMONK.jpg (898KB, 1920x3292px) Image search: [Google]

898KB, 1920x3292px

>>50648350
trying to run a hamon user campaign I haven't finished writing anything out but I think they are created to achieve immortality and take on more monsterous features to show that they have fallen to drinking out of people to live

this guy is built to be a foil to the party and not to be DIO but I haven't decided on a personality

>>50648350
Dio von Carstein, but with some Nosferatu

>>50648350
>They'll drink any kind of blood. Human blood used to be the shit, but now it's considered pretty meh now that there's so many humans. Exotic blood makes vamps all giddy, though! Like tapir blood, for example.

They were created by being possessed of tortured animal spirits. The typical practice of making your own attack spirit that you could sic at people on command was to tortue an animal and then entrap it's spirit and do it some more until it become utterly corrupt and evil.

One in particular was basically put in a cage with other such spirits and fought and ate the other ones until it essentially ascended and became strong enough to kill the guy who created it and went on a rampage.

Everytime it possesed a human the human would become beastial and drink blood and eat the organs slaughtering everything in sight. The kick was that the spirit would then jump into the body of it's killer and the cycle would continue until one warrior of the church managed to resist it's overwhelming blood lust and retained their sense of self now able to access it's powers. However, now they are utterly twisted and inhuman.

To create more, when you bite someone you let a piece of that spirit into the person your biting. If they resist the bloodlust they become a full on vampire. If not, then they become your thrall and are essentially mindless ghouls.

File: IMG_5979.jpg (811KB, 1000x1671px) Image search: [Google]

811KB, 1000x1671px

>>50651865
Who are you quoting?

>>50651967
No one. No idea why I formatted it like that.

>>50651865
Wooden weapons are so effective against vampires because vampire blood makes plant life go COMPLETELY INSANE.
A wooden stake can grow into a brand new tree if the vamp is potent enough.

>>50648350
They don't, they have people to do that sort of thing for them.

File: 1446161732338.png (1MB, 900x1083px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 900x1083px

>>50648350
Demonic pact with the prince of darkness(natch). They pledge to serve him and get the gamut of cool powers. Gaze hypnotism, bat form, unkillable unless staked or beheaded. Supernatural speed and strength. That sort of thing.

But they font pass the powers on a bite, no turning that way. It's a literal pledge to a dark power, kinda like a warlock pact. He is a literal physical being, and grants his powers through ritual and sacrifice.

Monsters have a hierarchy of blood purity. When a monster breeds with a human the offspring is about 80% of the monster's blood purity, blood purity directly correlates to strength of powers. blood purity can be increased through rituals known only to demons who like to keep secrets.
Devils and Demons are 100% pure, Vampires, Werewolves are about 80% pure and it goes down from there.

Vampires specifically vary by what kind of devil blood they got in their veins. They can range from Dracula level super monsters to Nosferatu level scrubs. Drinking the blood of a vampire will give you their powers and any strong memories they had. (loved ones, locations of treasure, etc.)

Blood: a regular human's blood can sustain a vampire for 1 day. the stronger the human, the sweeter tasting and longer lasting the effects are. blood of other monsters can vary from repulsive to fine wine in taste. If all of the creature's blood is sucked from its body the creature becomes a mindless ghoul.

weaknesses:
>Sunlight instantly kills lower-tier vampires, lords can survive in it for about 1 hr unprotected.
>holy items cause burns and prevent regenerative powers temporarily
>weapons made of the bones of other monsters are effective, but do not provide any advantages unless the weapon was specifically made to kill vampires.

Culture: Lords will control castles and their surrounding lands, Such land attracts other monsters to dwell under the Lord's rule. Vampires are the most experienced practitioners of blood magic and students of the school are almost always vampires themselves.

>>50648350
Vampires are an evil spirit that covertly possesses the body of anyone who is vulnerable to possession, such as those who never engage in the purification rituals of whatever the local religion is. they live alongside the victim biding their time and learning all about that person life. When the host body dies and the soul leaves, the vampire takes over and animates the dead body and uses blood only as a magical fuel to prevent the body rotting like any other undead. It has most of the memories of the victim since it was actually there to see much of the victims life, but is not actually them at all. They perpetuate the myth that you actually BECOME a vampire in order to lure in cultists who seek power and immortality, but really all they are doing is gathering hosts for other vampires to inhabit.

Y'know the classic versus scenario of vampire against werewolf? Well, I can think of one other monster that makes a far better rival for the blood suckers.
MUMMIES.
Think about it.
Vampires sleep in coffins. Mummies sleep in sarcophagi.
Vampires can shapeshift. Mummies can shapeshift.
They're both powerful magic users.
They're both wealthy, high class creatures.
I'd say they're a perfect match.

>>50652613
That makes a weird amount of sense.

File: 1475313622741.png (415KB, 1200x1200px) Image search: [Google]

415KB, 1200x1200px

Liches who suck blood because they can. They don't need blood to survive, but they choose to use it. They can stop being a "vampire" at anytime, but many stick with it. Some even like to cultivate the imagery.

>>50648350
They don't, they are socialists.

File: 1475285050122.jpg (90KB, 736x1043px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 736x1043px

>>50648350
Vampirism is one of a number of potential results of a human interacting with demons. A "first" vampire comes from an occultist drinking the black sludge from one of the Agartha world engines allowing a demon to effect them in a very physical manner. The disease infects the host and urges them to drink blood while eliminating their need for food and boosting their physical and mental traits.In drinking blood the host gains even more incredible power at the cost of their humanity. The holy things that repel a vampire have no power unless the vampire actively drinks the blood of man as until that point they have not broken any covenant. Generally if a host does not drink blood the disease withers and the host returns to normal. Though, there have been reports of some infected who never return to normal such as Markus and Edith Schwarzbart, a jewish couple who survived a Thule Society experimentation camp.

>>50652613
There's also the juxtaposition of day and night.
Vampires can only come out at night, and mummies are strongly tied to the sun.

>>50652613
>both also have a habit of leaving dessicated corpses around
What if mummies are just cooler vampires with sun powers and ashy skin?

>>50648350
They don't. They're basically bloodsucking freeloaders. Except they refuse to be on public assistanve becaude that's how the gobernment finds you, and they don't pay taxes.

>>50654348
I like to think they're two different species of undead who happen to multiple parallels between each other.
I see the rivalry between them being based off political power plays and good, old fashioned grudges.

>>50652613
>>50654291
>>50654348
I like this.
>swarms of bats and beatles
>clouds of mist and sand
>chains and bandages
>knock down, drag out brawls between ancient, super powerful, undead rich folk

>>50650694
I like your vampires. How much blood do they need to drink? What powers and strengths do they have? Do they have any of the other typical vampire weaknesses like can't cross running water, counting rice, or needed to be invited in?

>>50648717
Made me chuckle, bud.

>>50648350
Mine are apex predators who use minor magical abilities to catch their prey. They are vulnerable to sunlight, with freshly made vamps experiencing intense discomfort and an inability to use their powers, and older vamps ranging from minor burns to total immolation.

They are strongest when they've recently fed, giving them an incentive to always be stalking their prey. They also appear most human after feeding, with starving vamps becoming more and more bestial and insane. They can be killed by decapitation or total incineration, staking them merely paralyzes them on the spot.

In their magical arsenal are minor hypnotic abilities based on eye contact, the ability to command lesser beasts, and the ability to, not become invisible, but to cause the casual observer's eyes to simply glide over them without truly seeing them. They are also, of course, preternaturally strong, agile, and possess extremely keen senses. Being undead, they also do not age, and only recover from damage by feeding on the living.

Very old vampires can go longer without feeding and still retain their power, and many develop ever more powerful abilities as they age, but these vary from individual to individual.

Vampires most often travel between a number of lairs or dens located nearby middling-sized settlements, so as to routinely take prey while remaining unnoticed. Only the very rare, often quite old, vampires remain within a city or cosmopolitan area for very long.

Becoming a vampire involves being bitten, then completely exsanguinated and laid to rest in unconsecrated ground for three days.

These are my standard vamps that I use in most campaigns, but in my pet setting there are also a number of different species which vary greatly in characteristics and abilities. When in doubt I borrow heavily from American Vampire.

>>50648350
>>50648350
unnaturally prolong their lives, control the government from behind the scenes, mask it all by letting the citizens "vote" on which dark seed will govern them, pretty much just like real life

I never even considered adding them.

I really like how WoD does vampires, both the powers and clans with different bloodlines.

>>50648350
The dont exist. That is they are faking it. All started with a single conman in over his head who ended up becoming mayor of a town he couldnt run properly. Local bandits where an issue. An issue he decided to solve the only way he knew how. One thing lead to another and now one of the largest cities in the world is run by a "vampire" upper class. This upperclass maintains its power by fear alone. No one is brave enough to challenge them so they dont have to prove a thing. Funny thing is werecreatures are real and they have a fondness for using werebats and werewolves as gaurdsmen. The guardsmen are composed of mercenaries who really couldnt care any less as long as they still get paid.

File: 1445561217128.png (589KB, 760x1000px) Image search: [Google]

589KB, 760x1000px

Bumpin' with vampire art.

File: 1453083822106.jpg (531KB, 1081x790px)

531KB, 1081x790px

>>50656324

File: 1457556658585.jpg (405KB, 936x1152px) Image search: [Google]

405KB, 936x1152px

>>50656377

File: 1457556882280.jpg (216KB, 1797x1482px) Image search: [Google]

216KB, 1797x1482px

>>50656395

File: 1457560069252.jpg (2MB, 1400x1823px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1400x1823px

>>50656428

File: 1457565153240.jpg (555KB, 1484x1920px)

555KB, 1484x1920px

>>50656466

File: 1456029081534.jpg (294KB, 1600x1131px) Image search: [Google]

294KB, 1600x1131px

>>50648350
Mechanically, a blend of VtM with the vampires from GURPS Black Ops. Fluffwise, it's actually a horrific undead blood parasite from Space Vampires (the Mythos kind) that propagates and drives you raving mad with cannibal addiction and rage. Infected can't actually die from no blood, they just starve endlessly and bleed attributes until they become ferals out to eat anything that moves.

The blood parasite basically takes over brain functions to feed its undead blood addiction, by making you the vehicle for feeding, with horrible mutations and hammering every single neuron in your happy places whenever you taste blood. It's less that the living is dull, but that blood and flesh becomes like the best thing you will ever have again.

Some of them manage to balance out into sanity and powers, but it's uncommon and fucked up.

File: 1457565403242.jpg (116KB, 800x1131px) Image search: [Google]

116KB, 800x1131px

>>50656488

My Vampires don't drink blood, they drain a persons life force, especially from those who 'have purpose' in the world, like adventurers, heroes, and royalty, but also people who impact others in different ways, like farmers, teachers, inventors, ect.
They are also very difficult to completely kill. Even if their body is completely destroyed, the creature's souls can continue on and take control of an intact corpse, which over the next few hours will reanimate and shift its appearance to the vampire's original one.
However their greatest weakness is to faith/love, people that pray or have symbols (And beleive in what they represent) completely repel the vampire, even burning them if they are close enough. Most of the time the faith is related to religion, but it doesn't have to be, example; a mother holding a locket with her child's picture, or a soldier reciting letters from his family back home will repel them too.
To completely end a vampire, one must first incapacitate it (Often just by trying to kill it), then place an object of faith on it chest (It must be YOUR faith), and wait with it for at least five minutes, until the corpse completely crumbles to dust.

>>50648350
I go old school with vampires.

Black velvet cloaks. Widows peaks. Control creatures of the night. Burst into flames under sunlight. Mind control their victims. In modern fantasy I describe vampirism like a virus but for traditional fantasy it's got more to do with demon worship and blood magic. In either case getting bitten turns you if it doesn't kill you.

They can come in all sizes from the brooding snowflake who curses his immortality to the sexy hedonist in BDSM gear to the old man standing on his porch hungrily watching school children walk by. The thing that unites them all is that they get incredibly bored after a few decades and start obsessing over stuff to give them something to do.

File: 1457565464267.jpg (73KB, 600x849px)

73KB, 600x849px

>>50656545

File: 1457565879009.jpg (150KB, 600x900px)

150KB, 600x900px

>>50656609

File: 1457570370079.jpg (110KB, 671x1000px) Image search: [Google]

110KB, 671x1000px

>>50656620

I try to avoid putting much thought into putting vampires into my settings because it'll inevitably lead to me tumbling into my magical realm.

File: 1457570395879.jpg (690KB, 792x971px) Image search: [Google]

690KB, 792x971px

>>50656633

File: 1457580777242.jpg (56KB, 720x545px)

56KB, 720x545px

>>50656744

File: 1457650284946.jpg (196KB, 671x1024px)

196KB, 671x1024px

>>50656794

File: 1457643755460.jpg (313KB, 1372x1165px) Image search: [Google]

313KB, 1372x1165px

>>50656804

File: 1457650541371.jpg (15KB, 252x441px)

15KB, 252x441px

>>50656839

File: 1467830272276.jpg (78KB, 900x586px)

78KB, 900x586px

>>50656867

>>50648350

they are a class of undead that need to consume x or y to remain sane/powerful/unliving. zombies dont fall into this class because they were never sentient undead.

My vampires are basically Trioxin zombies.

They are a horrid bitch to deal with.
Undead a just a travesty. You never want to deal with them.

File: 1479495776988.jpg (258KB, 425x1105px)

258KB, 425x1105px

>>50656894

File: 1355481015271.jpg (105KB, 492x650px)

105KB, 492x650px

>>50656919
I really prefer undead to be that way too. I enjoy them more as costly and horrible abomination that eats LIVES, instead of common place canon fodder. Something to make you feel a gross particularity to the idea of 'this thing is un/anti/inverse of alive/dead'

There is one in my campaign, he's a normal vampire but he really doesn't want to be. He has to drink blood, but he has servants he treats well and they donate to him. He does lots of alchemical research to try and find a way to undue his vampirism. Before he turned he was a cleric of Pelor.

File: 1479514246402.png (166KB, 287x287px) Image search: [Google]

166KB, 287x287px

>>50656937

File: 1480066002717.jpg (58KB, 500x684px)

58KB, 500x684px

>>50656972

File: AN ECLIPSE IS HAPPENING.jpg (110KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

110KB, 500x500px

>>50656970
Same deal with one of mine. She was the head of a knightly order, her brother was the king, she was in good with the queen. Shit elf bard comes along, gets the king murdered, the queen enslaved as a wraith, and the knight a vampire. She's started to finally approach something like golconda after a good six year career coming to an end, and graduating to paladin.

File: 1480179318364.jpg (58KB, 736x538px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 736x538px

>>50656999

>>50648350
The only reason they are called vampires is due to journalists making clickbait articles. It's just a disease that requires frequent blood transfusions, with side effects of making the patient extremely pale, sensible to light, and somehow reduces their need for sleep.
Most "vampires" are medically diagnosed and get blood pouches from hospitals.
However, there are confirmed cases of poor vampires, mostly in countries without healthcare either raid clinics, or operate fake blood donation campaigns. At least one case, nicknamed by the media "the Exarchian Dracula", simply commit a series of murders to get it directly from the source.

File: 1457565214663.jpg (583KB, 825x1275px) Image search: [Google]

583KB, 825x1275px

>>50657013

>>50648350
They're fairly low-level demonic spirits which, lacking an identity of their own, try to steal them off the dead by harvesting residual memories from their corpses. These beings originally have a very ephemeral existence, being little more than an illusion. In the early stages, they use the darkness and the power of suggestion to trick your eyes into seeing them in the shadows, but clear light will show there's nothing there or that it was just the silhouette of a tree all along.

They can't do much harm unless they're allowed to, but one becomes more vulnerable and more clearly able to see and recognize the vampire the more convinced they are that it's real. They often try to take on the forms and identities of people's loved ones so that they'll want to see the vampire and "invite it in", so to speak. Given the chance, the vampire will feed on the life of any who allow it to, slowly converting them into their thrall and stealing their substance to make themselves more tangible and potent.

Eventually their thralls all wither away and die, with their identities stolen by the vampiric spirit to seek out new victims. These spawn aren't truly independent entities, but are actually just extensions or masks of the the central demon that is their sire. They aren't limited to using just one at a time, though using more splits up their stolen essence.

When it comes to killing vampires, the methods are deceptively simple. You just have to get people to stop feeding the thing and to refuse it its stolen power. Most of its ability to do harm comes from people believing it can. If you truly believe the vampire holds no power over you, or that it's not welcome in a place, then it loses much of its ability to do jack shit to you. Undoing the demon's deception is all it takes to purge it. Staking corpses isn't truly necessary, but it's a good symbol and the resulting peace of mind does wonders. Folk remedies for warding off vampires work under similar principals.

>>50657073
Now the illusory nature of the vampire is why they lack reflections or shadows. There's nothing actually there to cast a shadow or to be reflected in a mirror. It just makes you think there is. It's only in the more advance stages that they become more of a tangible threat and physically impact things. Ordinary methods still help, but at this point it takes a little more effort to drain it of its reserves of stolen power. A competent exorcist will be able to do the trick, but the vampire will throw a desperate tantrum if it senses such an effort to destroy it.

Still, that's better than the alternative. Left unchecked, a vampire will become a cruel parody of a god, hungry for sacrifices and expanding its influence until it has an entire nation enthralled in its service.

File: 1462930284791.jpg (572KB, 945x1167px)

572KB, 945x1167px

>>50648350
Have a template.

>300p
>Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; DX+4 [80]; HT+4 [40].
>Secondary Modifiers: HP+4 [8]; Per+4 [20].

>ADV: Vampiric Bite (1/1 Ratio) [38]; Night Vision 9 [9]; Less Sleep 5 [15]; Discriminatory Smell (Emotion Sense, +50%; Blood Only -40%; TD: Revulsion (Garlic), -5%) [16]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]; Damage Resistance 4 (Tough Skin, -40%) [12]; Doesn't Eat or Drink [10]; Super Jump 1 [10]; Unliving [20]; No Blood [5]; No Vitals [5]; Catfall [10]; Sharp Claws [5]; Fangs [2]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Tireless [0]; Unaging [15]; Blood Strength (Berserk, -40%; No HP, -10%) [30]; Blood Healing [50]; Infravision (Blood Only, -40%) [6]; Double-Jointed [15].

>DVD: Weakness (Sunlight, 1d/minute, Variable, -40%) [-36]; Unnatural [-50]; Frightens Animals [-10]; Vulnerability (Silver x2) [-10]; Vulnerability (Fire x3) [-45]; Vulnerability (Holy x4) [-20]; Partially Unhealing (Blood Heals) [-20]; Blood Hunger (Uncontrollable Appetite) (9) [-15]; Berserk (Uncontrollable) (Only When Blood Hungry, -20%) [-30]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Infectious Attack [-5]; Pallor [-10]; No Body Heat [-5]; Dread (Holy Ground; Cannot Be Trapped, -50%) [-5]; Restricted Diet (Blood) [-10].

>Traits: Vampires still need air and sleep! Blood Hunger lasts until the Vampire has drained an amount of HP equal to their HT, plus however much they have lost. Under Berserk, ST is tripled, but NOT HP.

>Blood Healing: Vampires can force-heal themselves, but only when in a state of Blood Hunger. This forces them to concentrate for a full turn and make a roll against HT, at a penalty equal to the most recent injury (e.g., a Vampire whose most recent injury was 9 points must roll against HT-9). If the roll succeeds, the Vampire instantly heals back dice of damage equal to the margin of success! This WILL heal crippling injuries. The penalty to the HT roll may be reduced by spending FP, with a +1 for every FP spent. This can only be used once a day!

File: Caine.png (148KB, 555x566px)

148KB, 555x566px

There is only one vampire. Millenia ago, he/she (it really doesn't matter, he's been everyone and everything countless times) etched a crest of blood onto his entire civilization, and consumed them all with a single ritual.

He's sort of like the Lady of Pain mixed with Dr. Manhattan. A lot of the weird shit in the setting is the result of him fucking around over the millenia. Nevertheless, he is invisible and almighty. Only a few organizations know of his existence, though none are foolish enough to provoke or attempt to stop him.

>>50648350
Vampires are the result of a primitive form of ritual blood magic; though inefficient, the process binds a continual exchange of blood for power to the body, making the process effectively automatic. This means that they are vulnerable to various forms of anti-magic, both specialized anti-vampire or anti-blood magic and general purpose.

Vampires do not have any large scale social organization; while there are a handful of vampire polities, these are dependent on the power and charisma of the polity owner. Normally, they are on the bottom rung of the supernatural ladder, as in modern times the positive effects of vampirism can be re-created without the negative effects while requiring less magic to function. However, the viral nature of vampirism means that it can produce in short bursts numbers that no other method can manage, as well as reproduce without any high level of education required.

Vampires run hot; the magic used to power them gives a normal body temperature of 45C. As it runs dry, the temperature decreases; at 32 C they are almost dead. As part of the fight or flight response, blood can be burned at higher levels for superior performance, resulting in a corresponding increase in body temperature. As safety features were not able to be implemented at the time the vampire ritual was designed, there is no upper limit; it is possible for a vampire under sufficient stress to start boiling himself alive.

>>50648350
Vampirism is contracted like a disease spread by a vampire's bite. A bitten person will become sick and, unless cured within a week, will die. A few days after death, the body rises as a vampire. In areas where vampires are known or rumored to live, bodies of people who died form mysterious illnesses are usually cremated.

A vampire that has recently fed on blood can pass off as a mortal, albeit one with veyr pale skin and bloodshot eyes. They retain all their bodily functions and can walk in sunlight (although it is extremely uncomfortable and they're weakned by direct sunlight). The longer the vampire goes without feeding, the more corepse-like and monstrous they become, and their vulnerability to sunlight increases, untill eventually they'd burst into flames when exposed to sunlight.
To kill a vampire, one needs to decapitate it or burn the body. Piercing the heart won't permanently kill a vampire, but will stun it as long as the object remains lodged in its hear, giving you time to burn or decapitate the body. They can regenerate from other injuries over time, but injuries caused by silver and holy weapons regenerate much slower.

Aside from normal vampires, there exist two related creatures:
Dhampir are the result of a male vampire siring a child with a human (as long as they've recently fed on blood, vampires retain all bodily functions so they could sire a child). A dhampir is a human with very weak vampiric traits and weaknesses (ie. they're stronger and more agile than average, find sunlight uncomfortable, and have an urge to drink blood). However, the main thing is that they share a blood bond with their father, allowing the vampire to sense them and make them very suggestible to his commands. As such, vampires sometimes create dhampir to act as spies and minions.

>>50648350
They are pseudo liches who had their body frozen in time.

Blood is just the vessel with which they steal peoples time, Sunlight doesnt kill outright but it makes their time move again so a well fed vampire can stand a fair bit but a starved one ages in seconds.

There is no infection, but a entirely drained person becomes a sort of negative time zombie, unable to change so they won't starve, decay nor learn, they relenrlessly seek to devour the living in a futile mimicry of the vampiric time drain.

>>50657522
The other type of vampire creature is the pureblooded vampire, or vampire lord. They are the result of a female vampire having a child, either with another vampire or a human. This happens extremely rarely because to actually have a child the vampire would have to have a steady enough supply of blood to remain in the stage where she has biological functions through the entire pregnancy (and furthermore the amount of blood needed per day to remain in that stage increases a lot as shes's not only maintaining her own body but also keeping the fetus growing). If she does manage to do that, however, the resulting child will be a being born into vampirism rather than merely being turned into one, and has far greater control over their vampiric abilities.
Pureblooded vampires can't pass off as humans as their appearance is obviously monstrous (looking like something between Nosferatu and a monstrous bat-human hybrid), but they're even stronger than regular vampires, don't burn in sunlight (although it still greatly weakens them and is very painful), and are innate spellcasters (vampires in general have limited magical abilities; they can to hypnotise peple and the more powerful ones can turn into mist or change their shape, but pureblooded vampires are essentially full-blown sorcerers). Some scholars theorise that pureblooded vampires are the original vampire race, and the standard undead human vampire is just a stage in their parasitic reproduction cycle.

>>50652613
Warhammer fantasy does this with tomb kings vs vampire counts. It usually ends with vampires getting BTFO

>>50654541
>Swarms of beatles
>bandage-swathed John and George leading clone armies against the bloodsuckers
>Campaign success

>>50648350
They're "Ambassadors" of the LE Empire that focuses on debt. As in, everything in existence is in debt to their god for "Creating" souls, and all their earthly works are to repay him. Of course, being an EVIL God he adds interest and sets the exchange rate of souls to worldly accomplishments to pretty much make it so that there is no feasible way of paying back his initial investment. Even collecting the souls of others doesn't count, because he owns the initial soul already so at best you can claim to have gathered whatever accrued value (once again, set to be negligible against the original value of your own soul) the owner of the soul had added. Which hopefully is more than the interest accrued for your existence.

The Empire is seen as his representative organization and is a theocracy, so by serving the Empire you can request and be allotted more of its resources to further the Gods goals.

For most people, working as hard as they can every hour of their life will allow them to die without having any interest owed on the original cost of their soul, allowing them to be reabsorbed by the God. Interest left on the soul at death is punished by transforming them into tortured undead.

For the very few who manage to not only pay off their interest, but to pay some small pittance towards the principle, they are rewarded by being made into less-tortured undead such as Vampires and Liches. They are then granted the rights to enforce the laws of the Empire and to devour the souls of non-believers and continue to pay off their original debt (while still accruing interest on their own soul). Theoretically, it is possible to eventually pay off your entire principle debt of existence and at that point you will be able to develop as a godly entity yourself. Theoretically.

File: 1293410727349.jpg (239KB, 1100x1100px)

239KB, 1100x1100px

>>50648350
something like this;

well there's a pretty interesting cosmology set up in a trio of books, The Dragon Hunter's Handbook, The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, and The Demon Hunter's Handbook, that goes something like this; Dragons are the original inhabitants of Hell and when the Fallen Angels are cast into Hell they chase out the majority of Dragonkind(including a powerful Dragon Queen who birth's most of Earth's Dragons) who flee to Earth(and continue to be dicks there), Lucifer disappeared during the Fall and so Ba'al' Zebub takes over as King Dick of Hell, then sometime around at least a couple thousand years ago(possibly even earlier) one of Ba'al Zebub's chief lieutenants Vampyrath attempts to rebel against him and fails, in the aftermath Baal'Zeebub using an early earthly Hell Cult sacrifices Vampyrath in a ritual that empowers a human follower with a rather significant portion of his might, and thus is Lord Vampyr the first and greatest vampire brought into existence

basically in this setting almost everything supernatural comes from one of three sources: Dragons, Demons(and Demon derived Sorcery), and Undeath(and other Hellbourne curses like Lycanthropy, which notably enough, were-creatures and regular animals can both become vampires in this setting) which are all rather intertwined

>>50657370
Father from Fullmetal Alchemist?

>>50656744
dammit, Sandra! You wasted an whole box of koolaid on shitty 80s parties AGAIN?

Me first next time ;P

Initially it's a loophole in the metaphysics that's a path to power. The power gained by drinking blood can be used in other means. This also can lead to demonhood which covers the more traditional vampire image. Vampiric groups are spearheaded by these true vampires, but are mostly made up of mortal blood drinkers, who are also often mages.

File: guess he lost his head oh wait shit what the fuck.jpg (26KB, 587x409px)

26KB, 587x409px

Necroscope levels of horror.

They're little more than parasites, although they do not originate from this plane. In their natural state, they are are little more than mindless leeches, but once they establish themselves in the flesh of a host, things start to get fucking horrifying.

The host does not lose themselves to the parasite, but they are changed irrevocably. The parasite spreads throughout the entire body of the host, modifying their flesh and organs to suit it's own needs, as needed, in a form of enforced mutual benefit. The host is, by all accounts, a human being, but their flesh and bone can warp and modify in whichever way is beneficial at the time. The parasite wants to feed, and the host is driven primarily by an insatiable thirst for blood.

Worse, the cells of the host/parasite form some sort of hive mind, allowing parts that are removed from the primary host to function and act independently. They're faster, stronger, they heal in moments. Cut them into pieces and each piece will adapt and seek to unify. The nervous functions are pulled from the brain and spread throughout the body much like an insects.

It's the thing meets Dracula. It's the stuff of nightmares. They consume entire towns. The only way to kill it is to burn every shred of flesh, every drop of blood.

The term 'vampire' refers to any who have been blessed or cursed by Gula, God of Gluttony and have few unifying traits other than a constant need and desire to feed off of some aspect of mortals, whether it be their flesh, blood or emotions. True Vampires are Gula's favoured, and feed directly from their victim's Will, basically the setting equivalent of XP.

File: image.jpg (39KB, 533x300px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 533x300px

Are twilight vampries unironically among the strongest in fiction?

>>50648350
They don't exist

>>50649390
Nigga what

>>50658906
Yes, but they aren't vampires. They are x-men with a glitter problem.

>>50659326
"Vampires aren't like that!!!"

Calling the wahmbulance, sit tight, anon.

>>50654541
Mummies are sort of like 40k dreadnaughts, old clerics of a specific faith that opposes vamps are mummified and intombed until needed

>>50658906
Not even in the slightest.
Anne Rice elder vampires have that title, I think.

>>50659452
You have to admit that there are certain trends that identify a creature, even in a work of fiction, as the thing it is called.

It's like having a elves, except they live for only a few years, are obsessed with industry, are made out of brass and are ugly as sin and can't sing.

It follows no previous conventions of what an elf is to the point where you have to ask why are you even calling it an elf.

As it is with Twilight Vampires. Don't react badly to the sun, glittery skin, don't need human blood, x-men style super powers, no aversion to running water, no obsession with numbers, no aversion to silver, no pain in the presence of religious icons, can go into peoples houses uninvited and aren't mentally stuck in a previous era.

Why even call them vampires?

I don't even dislike Twilight for this. I like x-men movies.

File: sphere-monolith.png (549KB, 466x642px) Image search: [Google]

549KB, 466x642px

When the young new species called humanity began spreading throughout Africa in sufficient amounts, an army of alien probes dormant in Earth's orbit descended to Africa.

The probes landed and waited for mankind to initiate contact. Most tribes would bring offerings to these probes. The probes would gather data over a few hours and left.
Except for one probe. That probe contacted a tribe that suffered a plague of anthrax seeping into the water - brought on by wildebeest cadavers that had died in in the migrations. The chief had already passed away before the probes descended. The shaman, terminally ill performed many rituals in front of the probe, hoping that this strange shiny stone animal would grant some of its mystical power and heal the sick tribesmen.
Moved by this faith, the probe gifted the shaman with the gift of creating life. The tribe was healed, and all was well - and the probe left Earth.

The tribe had become strong, and the shaman had travelled with the tribe from the African plains to the land of the Fertile Crescent. The shaman had seen many chieftains come and go, and he noticed how mankind was slowly taking over the world, improving itself, growing. Mankind no longer needed him and his "god given" powers, so he stopped healing his own body allowing himself to die sooner or later.
The shaman passed away, and the tribe was inconsolable. To ease the pain, they consumed the flesh of the shaman... and you can guess the rest.

The probe didn't know that humans in prehistoric times commonly performed cannibalism on their dead relatives. In times of sickness, the humans were aware enough to avoid these cannibalistic rituals. The microscopic machines that granted the shaman the gift of life were ingested by the tribe, and without the guiding thoughts of the shaman, these microscopic machines went haywire inside the bodies of the tribe...
A small error in the probe's judgement caused the vampire curse.

DIO but is an unwilling servant of Robby Rotton

>>50648350
I'm partial to bestial vampires.

In addition to being hollow for the intake of blood, vampire venom can serve as either a powerful paralytic or a styptic agent, depending on the breed. They mate for life, prefer nocturnal activity, and may have evolved (or degenerated from) a much more powerful and magic-adept ancestor species.

This latter species may or may not still be around.

>>50648350
They all origin form a an ancient mage known as "the necromancer". Every member of his order was a stupidly powerful motherfucker, but he had two unique features : standing next to him for too long would have you killed (how fast depending on your vitality and how much he cared), and he was completely immortal. No amount of physical harm could separate the soul from his body, and he would come back to his activities once patched up.
The thing is : what if his body is burned to ashes and no friend of him is here to help ?

To take control of someone's body is hard but manageable for such a sorcerer, but his deadly aura would kill the host in a matter of seconds.

Vampires are the solution he developed : half-dead monsters that can serve as a host for his soul if things ever went to shit. They are tough and survivable, with great regeneration and a long lifespan (if you are ever to live in one of these bodies, better make good ones), and they can multiply as long as there are humans around.

The only problem is their need for some magical catalytic substance in order to maintain the spell that keeps them alive. Fresh human blood being the most common by far.

>>50659548
>2016
>still believing the debunked 'Out of Africa' myth

Your whole post is a 0/10 idea anyway

>>50648350
They all have personalities based on characters from the Player Haters Ball sketches on Chappelle's Show. Undeath gets so boring they eventually have nothing better to do than to hate on a family for centuries over minor sleights.

>>50648955
Great choice.

>>50660775
I haven't read anything that would disprove the very large amount of fossil and genetic showing the earliest hominids evolved in Africa and that earliest modern humans are from there as well.
Now, the idea that the Homo genus only spread out of Africa very recently, evolutionarily speaking, is shown to be inaccurate (there's fossils of Homo erectus found outside Africa, which would indicate migration from Africa to Eurasia happened for the first time quite early in the evolution of the genus), but the earliest hominids still evolved in Africa and Homo sapiens also spread from Africa to rest of the continents.

>>50659506
>As it is with Twilight Vampires. Don't react badly to the sun, glittery skin, don't need human blood, x-men style super powers, no aversion to running water, no obsession with numbers, no aversion to silver, no pain in the presence of religious icons, can go into peoples houses uninvited and aren't mentally stuck in a previous era.

The same could be said about many vampires in fiction, and the vast majority mentioned in this thread. in fact almost none of the things you listed are really needed to make something a vampire. The biggest problem with twivamps was the whole glittering in the sun aspect which I've never seen before. It still plays on their classic aversion to sunlight, even if in this case it's about risking exposure rather than actual weakness

>>50658850

Necroscope had some fine body-horror vampires. Good choice anon.

>>50658906
They're fairly strong, but most of their power comes from the author not understanding physics.

>>50655722
>How much blood do they need to drink?
If they stick to the guideline of drinking about once a week, no more than a pint. It's the "safest" way for them to get blood, but requires that they have regular access to mortal servants or some other kind of willing donor, which most in the larger community do.

If they abstain - and sometimes they have to because they're travelling or can't get easy access to a donor, among other reasons - then the amount they need to drink increases. Going as little as an extra week means drinking enough to put a human at risk of death without a transfusion. Longer than two weeks and a human is going to die to sate the vampire. Over a month and you start getting the source of unexplained massacres in local news as one human's blood isn't enough to be satisfactory.

What bothers most vampires about this is that they don't seem to actually need this much blood, and if they really think about it, most of it is wasted when they have to engage in slaughter. It seems more like they're sating a deferred addiction rather than a physical requirement.

It has to be human blood. Animal blood doesn't sate and it tends to taste like pennies anyway.

In the event a vampire has to be woken up from a slumber, only a trickle of blood has to pass their lips, but it has to come from a freshly-killed human.

>>50655722
>What powers and strengths do they have?
Some of their powers are obvious, and some are unproven and may be the result of magical thinking. Some are entirely temporal.

Apart from sunlight, a stake through the heart and actual decapitation/total destruction of the head, they can heal most wounds. Fire can leave scars, especially if caused by sunlight, and lost limbs aren't coming back, but everything else will be healed without issue. While massive trauma can take time to heal, they don't seem to need extra blood to do this - just to escape danger and wait out the healing time.

They are all stronger and faster than one would expect, although this enhancement is in reasonable bounds - they can't sprint at the speed of sound, or tear a stone building apart, but are all as physically adept as a track star/professional strongman champion. This works well for tracking and holding onto prey but leaves them at a disadvantage compared to more vicious supernatural creatures.

Heightened senses include greater hearing at the level of being able to detect a heartbeat, used for, again, tracking prey, and to help determine if their prey is too close to death when feeding.

Their only natural weapons are their teeth, but those can be quite nasty. Their actual appearance is what you'd expect from plastic dime-store fangs, but those are more than enough with their strength to rip apart a throat or shred someone's limb. Getting into a grappling contest with a vampire is a losing proposition, and even more dangerous creatures will try to keep them at arm's length and avoid going to ground.

Most vampires believe they have some form of mesmerism. Maybe they do. It seems to be more effective for older vampires, which could mean it's a real ability that develops over time, or it could be magical thinking as older vampires have had more time to develop social skills, making it seem as if they are good at getting people to do what they want.

>>50664984
Cont.

Most of their real powers aren't physical, but social. Contrary to the image of the lone vampire in a crumbling castle, they are fairly social creatures. Their low population and need to ensure that they avoid slumber in the wrong place means they tend to gather in small groups of at least 3-4. Even reclusive vampires tend to have at least some other trustworthy associate they can call on for help. In the wild this means that prey is rarely dealing with just one vampire.

In addition to this, they have deep pockets which tend to be freely shared. Some careful investment of plundered Templar wealth in the 14th century created a kind of central bank for the society (don't call it the Blood Bank, that's tacky), and vampires known to the community can receive a monthly stipend to invest on their own.

This can be increased if they want more money by doing favors like hunting down information leaks or taking care of troublesome rivals, and this money is frequently re-invested by individuals to ensure they have access to their own funds. Vampires can also tap into the central bank for more money in a crisis, albeit with the expectation of performing favors. This can put mortals and some supernatural creatures with fewer contemporary ties at serious risk as they are simply outspent in whatever plans they have.

File: 1456643543001.jpg (202KB, 1080x1080px)

202KB, 1080x1080px

Does anyone remember Vampire Byzantium?

http://4archive.org/board/tg/thread/44156053#p44157195

Random click pic

They don't.

They leach off welfare.

>>50660775
>2016
>Still having issues about sharing ancestory with monkeys and blacks

File: Shame the third act was so fucking bad.jpg (87KB, 507x755px)

87KB, 507x755px

>>50665416
Vampire Byzantium or Vampire "Byzantium"?

>>50652387
Now I'm thinking about a vampire qt tending to her garden by spilling drops of her blood on her flowers.

>>50648350
They don't, they're all LONG dead (properly this time), the curse extinguished when Magic departed the world.

I mean, I guess if they resurrected the God of Death and aggravated him enough, he might make the same mistake he did the first time and bestow the curse once again.

>>50648350

They don't.

They have servants.

They have internal alchemy which transmutes human blood into whatever nutrients they need and rapidly seals their wounds. A vampire's stamina is determined by their blood storage, a healthy vampire has far more energy than any human.

Destruction of the brain or heart instantly kills them. They can die of blood loss from normal wounds if they haven't drank any blood recently, but if they are well-fed they can shake off flesh wounds in minutes.

Silver (and by extension, all forms of mithril) making contact with their blood causes permanent unhealing wounds that can become necrotic and spread throughout the body.

Their weakness to sunlight highly varies. Resistance is based on:
>genetics
>regular exposure to sunlight = more resistance
>more physical activity = more resistance
>more blood drinking = more resistance
>younger age = more resistance
Sunlight exposure shortens their lifespan. Most vampires set on fire in the sun, elders turn into dust, but in extremely rare cases energetic young vampires are merely fatigued and bothered by the sun.

The less energy a vampire exerts, the less blood it needs. They can hibernate for years without blood if they need to. A vampire that is running around and getting wounded all day will need to drink liters of blood daily to survive, and they won't live as long as lazy vampires.

At a certain age based on their generation, vampires go through a brutal process called mortification where they shed their hair and skin and become nosferatu. They become extremely frail at this stage and their sensitivity to light can become so great that they must be isolated to dim or black tombs. After mortification, the mind slowly rots away and the body petrifies.

Generations and lifespans:
>Precursor (immortal)
>Vanalt (3000)
>Naerik (1000)
>Ekrall (600)
>Kalorr (400)
>Brall (200)
>Renkil (100)
>Nix (60)
>Lower Nix (50 to 10 to instant death past generation 10)

>>50660775
Fuck off /pol/.

The usual "humans turned vampires" are really only dicks if they were dicks as a human (or become assholes later in life afterwards.) Otherwise, despite the whole "needing to drink blood" thing they're generally like any other person. Most of them tend to be aristocrats, rulers, ect., and are either tyrants or reasonable, taking as much as they want and using their power to rule with fear, or requesting the occasional "sacrifice" of several healthy people only to just give them jobs at their home as a part-time blood bank, part time whatever without killing them.

The ones that are the indirect cause of vampires are a more monstrous race that, despite being intelligent, really see everything else with blood as just food. Few human vampires may work with them, but most are opposed for a variety of reasons. Vampire hunting clans tend to be started and guided by the reasonable vampires to hunt these monsters down.

I like the concept of vampires as unnatural horrors, but I also like having them more subdued and human-like. I figure why not both?

>>50660775
>debunked myth
There isn't even a competing theory that's taken even remotely seriously. The closest thing to controversy about it is how much post-Sinai formation we've gone through, and how much differentiation we've really gone through thereafter.

>>50671778
Don't bother dude. /pol/ is redpilled so hard that if they had a time machine and saw the origins in Africa, they'd call it a hoax.

>>50665416
Oh shit I remember that setting. Had potential to be of greatness. Many ideas to steal.

>>50660775

Where the fuck else are they supposed to come from?

File: image.jpg (155KB, 1200x720px)

155KB, 1200x720px

>>50658850

File: 74607.jpg (36KB, 225x350px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 225x350px

>>50658906

Hahaha, no.

>>50676667
>already near-invincible
>becomes even more invincible

Alucard, pls, Alucard.

That reminds me... what the fuck will Alucard do when Sir Integra eventually dies? She's got at most only like 20-50 years left, given her smoking habit, probably on the lower end.

He'll be without a master. The Hellsing bloodline will be extinct, Alexander is dead, Seras is a vampire... he doesn't have any humans left to respect.

>>50676739

He'll keep searching for that one exceptional human to put him down. How that will happen, I haven't the faintest clue.