Vampires
The Basics
Vampires are creatures that need to drink blood to survive. The blood can be from any creature that breathes oxygen, because it is the oxygen in the blood that their body absorbs from each feeding. This means they can drink the blood of humans, witches and shapeshifters, or some animals if nothing else is available. Animal blood will not sustain a vampire for long. Vampires can only gain oxygen from blood, they will not recieve any power or magic by drinking from a shapeshifter or witch.
Becoming a Vampire
There are no rules about making a human a vampire, although vampires are expected to show good judgement and be careful. After all, no one wants a serial killer becoming a vampire.
To change a human, a vampire must feed from them and then the human must feed on the vampire's blood. This needs to happen over two days, and the second must drain the human of blood. After this feeding the human will 'die'. They will awaken as a vampire within 24 hours of the last feeding. The new vampire will be desperate for blood when they wake. Their creator needs to provide them with fresh blood straight away and keep them from killing the blood donor. After a few days the blood lust will calm.
Not all humans will survive the change. It has been known for a human's body to reject the vampire's blood and simply die from being drained.
Feeding
Vampires do not need to kill to feed. They can bespell a human with their gaze so that they do not fight them. When a vampire feeds their eyes change to a metalic gold or silver.
Weaknesses
Vampires can be harmed by wood, decapitation and fire. A wound made with a material other than wood heals quickly, and if wood enters the blood stream it acts like a poison. Sunlight does not hinder a vampire in the slightest. Vampires look and act like humans, and cannot be repelled by garlic, holy water or other holy items. They are also not demonic or creatures from 'hell', they are simply a different genetic species.
It is also possible for a vampire to starve to death if they are unable to feed. This form of death will only occur if a vampire has not fed for several days, because their body is without oxygen. This is an extremely painful and torturous death for a vampire as the cells in their body begin to die.
Aging
Made vampires stop aging as soon as they are changed since their body technically 'dies'. They will forever be the age they were when they became a vampire. Born vampires can choose to stop aging whenever they wish after they have reached the end of puberty. Once a born vampire has stopped aging they cannot start aging again. It is more pratical for a vampire to wait until adulthood (18 years of age) before stopping the aging process.
Powers
Vampires have quick reflexes, super-human strength, and powerful mind abilities. Their senses are extra sensitive, although not as strong as a shapeshifters. They can identify a species by their sense of smell or by tasting their blood.
A vampire's mind abilities depend on whether the vampire was made or born, and then what lineage they have. Made vampires can capture a human with their gaze, bespelling them to remain still, lose time or to make them lose consciousness. This makes it easier for the vampire to feed. Once a human is bespelled they can also flip through their thoughts and memories. Some humans have more resistance to a vampire's abilities than others. A natural resistance can limit how much information a vampire can read from their mind and how long they can be bespelled by a vampire's gaze. Vampires can also communicate with one another telepathy or whisper things inside a human's mind once they have bespelled them.
Born vampires are part of a particular lineage. They have all the mind abilities of a made vampire, as well as abilities related to their specific line. See the familty lines section below for more details.
Power comes with age, and younger vampires cannot hold a human's mind for very long. The elder a vampire is the easier they will find it to bespell a human, and they will find it easier to bespell human's that have a natural resistance to vampires.
Family Lines
The lineages of born vampires are ancient, and vampires are patriarchal. Although the male inherits, the children could inherit either lineage. Vampires cannot produce children outside of their species, and as the reproductive system of made vampires is dead, the lineage of born vampires has been kept pure. The powers of each lineage is a simple matter of genetics and a vampire child can only inherit one set of these genes. Vampires have a steady fertility rate, not as high as humans but children are not rare either. Children begin to exhibit signs of their lineage when they hit puberty.
The Family Lines are as follows:
Beauvais: The Beauvais line is of French descent. Vampires of this line have the ability to enter the dreams of humans when they sleep. If they have previously bespelled the human they will be able to enter their dreams without any resistance. Beauvais vampires can create dreams or nightmares.
Jasray: The Jasray line is of Eastern and Oriental descent. Vampires of this line can identify bottled up emotions in a human and release them. Depending on the emotion this can cause a variety of reactions, and vampires of this line rarely consider the affect their actions have on human lives. They often manipulate humans to gain something for themselves, and do not care if a human ends up dead.
Kilgar: The Kilgar line is of Scottish descent. Vampires of this line have the ability to cleanse the blood of vampires, witches and shapeshifters when they have been poisoned. By drinking the blood of the victim they can remove the poison (wood for vampires, iron for witches and silver for shapeshifters) from their blood stream. Cleansing the blood of a vampire is risky since the wood can poison the Kilgar vampire.
Lawley: The Lawley line is of European descent. Vampires of this line can create lust in others, and their abilities are not limited to just humans since all species feel lust.
Moriarty: The Moriarty line is of Irish descent. Vampires of this line can identify the fear of any creature and make them believe that their fear has manifested.
Osei: The Osei line is of African descent. Vampires of this line are able to whisper into the minds of huamns. They are able to make people hear voices or sounds (such as animal sounds) in their head. This ability can be used to make a human do something and believe it is their own idea, as well as making them believe someone else has said or done something. There is always the risk that the human will be driven mad by 'hearing voices'.
Taite: The Taite line is an old Germanic family. Vampires of this line are especially beautiful and can use a form of glamour to make themselves more appealing. Their bite can temporarily enchance the physical appearance of the victim, and this can become an obsession for other vampires, witches and shapeshifters.
Breaking Humans
Using their abilities or lineage powers, a vampire can permanently break into a humans mind. A vampire needs to be alone with the human for several days, sometimes a week depending on their natural resistance to vampires. The vampire will begin by bespelling their mind and gathering information from their mind. They will then use a variety of psychological techniques such as captivity, fear, starvation, and physical or emotional torture to weaken the human. They will eventually break the human's mind and will power by using their abilities. The vampire will read the human's mind and repeat it back to them so they begin to feel their is no escape. Born vampires will use their lineage to aide them in their goal.
The end result is a broken human who's mind can be easily entered by a vampire. The vampire then begins the process of rebuilding the human's mind and life to include their servitude to the vampire. If they do not rebuild the human's mind any vampire will be able to enter the human's mind. The result is a human that knows that vampires exist and what the vampire is capable of doing to them. Not all broken humans appear to be broken. Some may appear to be confident, outgoing or fearless, when in reality even the humans that talk back to the vampires are scared of what a vampire can do to them.
Broken humans work for vampires in a variety of ways. Some have an impersonal relationship with the vampires and run errands, provide information, or provide them with humans to feed from. Other vampires choose to have a more personal relationship with broken humans
A vampire will keep the human/s they have personally broken as their own servants, and will rarely lend them out to other vampires. Broken humans can be identified by vampires by a tattoo that looks like an ordinary celtic knot design on their shoulder.
Interaction with other Species
When it comes to interacting with other species, the vampires are the most active of the supernatural species. Some vampires are all about business, providing information to the witches and the shapeshifters in exchange for something. Other vampires are more interested in having a good time with either species.