Dead Apostle

RoaRemake.png|Michael Roa Valdamjong, the unofficial 28th Dead Apostle Ancestor.
Vlov.png|Vlov Arkhangel, the 19th Dead Apostle Ancestor.
 are humans that became vampires either by the use of magecraft (like Van-Fem, though this kind is rare) or by the actions of another vampire of similar nature (in this case, either a True Ancestor or another Dead Apostle). The Dead Apostles also includes creatures that weren't vampires from the beginning, such as animals. 
Among the creatures that fall under the vampire category, they are the most numerous.
They are the main targets of the Executors of the Burial Agency (Remake), an organization created for the purpose of stopping the spreading of the heresy known as vampires by exterminating the Dead Apostles and sealing The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors (Remake).
==Origin==
The original members of this kind of vampire were created to act as countermeasures in the case of a True Ancestor being overwhelmed by their thirst for blood. In exchange for losing their free will and becoming a tool to relieve the vampiric impulses of the True Ancestors as emergency meals, these individuals were granted powers and longevity similar to their masters. However, what they received was still a flawed form of immortality and it was soon discovered that they needed to suck the blood of others to survive. 
Just like the True Ancestors, these vampires have , which pushes them to suck the blood of others. But differently than the vampiric impulses of the True Ancestors, they have the physical need to suck the blood of others in order to maintain their own bodies. For those Dead Apostles who used to be human, it is something not entirely dissimilar from an expression of love.
The result of repeatedly sucking the blood of humans was the emergence of a sense of superiority in the heart of the servants of the True Ancestors. Such a thing eventually gave birth to a feeling of rebellion towards their masters, which then lead the servants to find ways of strengthening their mental control and escaping from the domain of the True Ancestors. After the rebellion, these blood-sucking humans became known as the Dead Apostles.
Dead Apostles first started appearing frequently around 20~100 AD deeming magi as their enemies and attacking them.Lord El-Melloi II Case Files material 
File:FirstCrusade.jpg|thumb|Nrvnqsr Chaos ravaging the battlefield with his beasts in the First Crusade.
SecondCrusade.jpg|thumb|The different Dead Apostles of the Second Crusade, one possibly Merem Solomon and his King of the Land.
ThirdCrusade.jpg|thumb|The Dead Apostle of the Third Crusade.
Every Crusade was marked by the appearance of a Dead Apostle on the battlefield, each attacking humans indiscriminately on all sides of the war.Fate/strange Fake Volume 2 - Chapter 3: Day 1, Early Dawn "Ensemble Versus Illusion" In the , Nrvnqsr Chaos attacked and "stained the desert with blood." During the , different Dead Apostles appeared, rampaging for three days and nights. During the , another new Dead Apostle appeared, but it was eventually slain through the combined effort of Richard I, , and the Hassan-i-Sabbah of that period.Fate/strange Fake Volume 3 - Chapter 8: Day 1, Afternoon (2) "The Wandering King's Rock'n'Roll"
Although the Dead Apostles are maverick and individualistic by nature, there is a form of ruling body among them: The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors (Remake).
In the original Tsukihime continuity, they were a group formed only by the original Dead Apostles who escaped from the True Ancestors, but by modern day it is more of a collection of very odd, but powerful bloodsuckers who are divided into multiple rival factions. Most of the original Dead Apostles were destroyed along the generations or sealed away by the Holy Church. Afterward, their seats among the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors were either left empty or filled by somewhat suitable replacements. 
On a side note, those sealed away are actually just placed into eternal imprisonment inside special coffins, for the Church lacks the means to definitely destroy them. Meanwhile, some of the factions of those sealed Dead Apostle Ancestors still remain and are slowly gaining power to either free their masters or destroy them. There are two primary factions that divide the Dead Apostles: there are those who follow the formal King of the Dead Apostles, Trhvmn Ortenrosse, and those who follow the Princess of the Dead Apostles, Altrouge Brunestud.
In the Tsukihime Remake continuity, they are primarily individualistic, with the exclusion of the five members of the , and not every Dead Apostle Ancestor is an enemy of mankind. The oldest Dead Apostle Ancestors are referred to as . Each Dead Apostle Ancestor creates and rules over it's own kingdom and they divide the world of Dead Apostles into 27 powers. The original twenty-seven were those who were able to escape their existence as "emergency rations" for the True Ancestors. As of the modern day, there are the "elders" of the BC era and the "upstarts" of the AD era.
In Fate/Grand Order, in the South American Lostbelt, there exists a species of created by Camazotz. Initially believed to simply be unintelligent dinosaurs, these Deinos have had their brains deteriorated and lost their intelligence, and are now neither living nor dead. Tepeu describes them as the jungle's malignant tumours that hunt animals around them to convert them into energy. They cannot be communicated with, and the only options when encountered are to run or to stop them.Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt - Nahui Mictlan: Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue - Section 2: Golden Sea of Trees Sion Eltnam Sokaris states they are vampires, and had their blood sucked out by another vampire to become one. She states that the lack of intelligence and shambling walk means they are Ghouls, akin to shambling corpses that instinctively seek blood, meaning they are lower-tier Familiars of a vampire that have been given some of that vampire's immortal blood. When killed, they disintegrate into dust.Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt - Nahui Mictlan: Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue - Section 12: Kingdom of the Dead
==Society==
For the Dead Apostles, amusement is the same as breathing. For those who were once human and achieved imperfect immortality, boredom is their greatest enemy. As soon as someone realizes they have no value – that their life is stopped, then their meaning of existence disappears too. So they started to wear down and to counter this they started to create their own amusement.
The Dead Apostles began a game of conquest and saw themselves as lords of a castle expanding their territories. Additionally, in the original continuity, Ortenrosse suggested a game of hunting the remaining True Ancestors. Most Dead Apostles choose their hiding place close to or in a human city, town or village and built it into a strong castle. They also prepare a coffin for themselves to sleep in, deep within these castles, are very cautious of their surroundings and let themselves be guarded by their loyal followers during the day. But they never let their followers feed near their castle or concentrate their victims in a single place or location. Experienced Dead Apostles also have an escape route ready for when their castle get attacked by the Church or if an individual stronger than themselves approaches, then they flee at once. But if an Dead Apostle is successful and manages to gain enough followers, they rule their city with an iron fist. The Church will be then to late to interfere, when they arrive, once a city is this far gone. And when the Dead Apostle is finished with devouring the city, they move on to a new hunting ground.
The Dead Apostles find territorial wars and power struggles within their own factions entertaining and, for their own enjoyment, they place their own blood inside the humans they preyed upon. These corpses go through the Growth Process (Remake) to become vampires and eventually kill their parent vampire in order to become new Dead Apostles themselves. Additionally, in the Remake continuity, a Rank V vampire can reach Rank VI and become a completely independent Dead Apostle from their sire without killing them. Then in Dead Apostle society the term "family" is used to indicate ones carefully acquired subordinates, those of Rank IV-V. They are seen and treated by Dead Apostles as sons and daughters who were adopted and turned for their talents. But still, for the Dead Apostles, killing another Dead Apostle is not something wrong, for the overall number of vampires doesn't change. However, those Dead Apostles, like Enhance in the original continuity, who want to destroy the existence of all vampires, in a manner similar to vampire hunters, become unforgivable traitors. 
In the original continuity, should a Dead Apostle be killed then all of its children vampires should die as well, but those who are treated as successors can live on even after the parent's death. While in the Remake, only those of Rank I-III known as The Dead die instantly and return to being corpses, while those of Rank IV-V can continue on. And since they now only need to supply blood for themselves, they can last for longer periods of time without feeding. So the area needs investigation even after the parent is exterminated, and the real job of purification only begins after that point. 
The Dead Apostles, however, try to maintain the balance between society and themselves. As for them a city or a village is nothing more than a farm and yet, they exploit humans in secret, for no other reason than self-preservation. They don't want it to be known that vampires exist at all and to protect their own lives, they hide the bodies of their victims, expand their territory, increase their followers, create their own society and use various magical techniques to make things appear not out of the ordinary. But there were also Dead Apostles, like Einnashe, with values unchanged since the Middle Ages and sucked blood with reckless abundance. The Dead Apostles set their own rules, and by abiding by them, enjoy bloodsucking as entertainment. 
Most of the long-lived Dead Apostles don't use their names from their human lives anymore, and they don't make up a new name for themselves, but the Church assigns them one. They add on names as they find new, special characteristics of the vampire, so some of them have names as long as spells.
The common goal of all Dead Apostles is to achieve perfect immortality that does not rely on the ingestion of blood. There exist a variety of approaches of Dead Apostles who tried to achieve it, but no one has succeeded yet. It could be said that another goal of all Dead Apostles is becoming an Dead Apostle Ancestor. Even those Dead Apostles at the very bottom, who were changed into vampires by lowly Dead Apostles with no standing or reputation, dream of one day being able to gather enough power to become one of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors themselves.
==Characteristics==
Although they appear to have capacities beyond human limitations, most vampires actually acquired their powers by constantly refining human-inherent abilities throughout their extended lives. In other words, anyone with a similarly long lifespan has the potential to reach a level comparable to the Dead Apostles. The Dead Apostles also lost the human ability to procreate.
Contrary to popular belief, vampirification is not the transformation of the body, but of existence. It’s like if the entry in the Root that read ‘human’ changed class to ‘Dead Apostle’ — it means that one has become a vampire in one’s very being. So one cannot undo vampirification by putting your soul into a human physical body, such as Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg using the Second Magic to transfer his soul to another physical body in a parallel timeline; as one who has inherited the Idea Blood of one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors, he has been infected on the soul-level, making it impossible for him not to be.
Also, contrary to popular belief, vampires can be killed with conventional weaponry. However, that is a feat near impossible to accomplish since their superior reflexes, senses, and physical abilities allow them to see and dodge a bullet after it has been shot. And as long as you are human, you can't deceive the vampires' sense of smell or their sense of taste, which can even detect alcohol in the blood of their victims. They can gain these inhuman physical abilities because their bodies are not connected by nerves, but by the blood of others. They also developed fangs to suck blood and can turn their hands into vampiric claws at will. 
Some standard abilities of a Dead Apostle include things such as levitation and the ability to turn invisible.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 6 - Fem's Casa (Upper)
Vampires like Dead Apostles also show signs of Mystery, a sliver of power that comes from the Root, which accumulates over time and grows stronger with age. Additionally, in the Remake continuity, Dead Apostles from Rank IX till vampires from Rank IV can sense the individual depth of the vampiric curse in each other at close proximity and one anothers location unless they make an effort of concealing it at will. High-ranking vampires are difficult to trap in an illusion, requiring a lot of work, but this can be done with the full power of Francois Prelati's Noble Phantasm or effortlessly with the Mystic Eyes of Roses.Fate/strange Fake Volume 7 - Interlude: Audition
They are able, in the original continuity, by training their abilities or by finishing their magical research, to develop their own special abilities. Examples would be the Dead Apostle Ancestor Gransurg Blackmore, who has the ability to change his shape into a large bird several kilometers in size, or the Dead Apostle Michael Roa Valdamjong, who altered his soul and attained the magecraft of Reincarnation. Most of the Dead Apostle Ancestors are able to utilize Reality Marbles and the top 10 Dead Apostle Ancestors can no longer be killed by ordinary means, having lived in Mystery for so long, that they even conquered the weakness of sunlight and move around during the day, the only way to defeat them is through an even greater Mystery.
While in the Remake continuity, vampire blood itself contains Ether, which holds the power to materialize whatever they want, but it is limited to the form their soul takes. At Rank V the vampiric curse runs so deep within a vampire's blood that it allows them to manifest special powers deriving from their parent vampire or perhaps arising from their own self. The Rank VI Dead Apostle Michael Roa Valdamjong developed a method of Reincarnation, which workings seem to be derived from a Principle that he stole from his sire Arcueid Brunestud in the past.
The artificially induced transformation of Noel, through the special drug Idea Replica, into a powerful Rank VI Dead Apostle allowed her to acquire the Mystic Eyes of Roses from the Dead Apostle Ancestor Rita Rozay-en. Noel also physically regresses to her fourteen-year-old self and developed the abilities to create and manipulate a large number of spears (bells) and to materialize the church from her traumatic past and it's surrounding area into reality.
While any vampire can develop or gain abilities at Rank V, only Dead Apostle Ancestors have an . An Idea Blood is the blood that makes an Ancestor an Ancestor, and at the same time is it a foundational commandment etched on their soul. A "Truth", a , that they have each attained through a vast amount of time and research, from something that the individual studied when they were human. And after they became vampires, such Principles become their "purpose for living" and path to obtaining true Immortality. Wherever an Dead Apostle Ancestor asserts their Idea Blood becomes their territory, subject to the influence of their Principle curse. The curse itself manifests as a unique power distinct from their other properties as a vampire. A singularity that paints over the planet's physical laws just by circulating blood.Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- - Moon Princess route - Day 5: "Fire and Blood II"
However, the downside of acquiring a power that humans originally would not have is that the genes that compose their bodies are constantly degenerating, and once they die, they won't leave a trace as their bodies turn into ash. The only way to interrupt and reverse this degeneration, even if just temporarily, is by regularly ingesting the blood of living creatures in order to absorb genetic information and stabilize their own bodies. On that note, even though human blood and especially the blood of virgins, because one's blood cells are more pure before one has exchanged bodily fluids with others, are the most suited to the needs of the vampires, the blood of animals is a viable alternative.
Due to their advanced age, Dead Apostles that have lived for at least one thousand years require enormous amounts of energy. Rather than a measure of their power, it is instead because compensation is needed for the maintenance of such a long-lived existence.Tsukihime - Near Side: Arcueid's route - 3/ The Black Beast I One such Dead Apostle, Nrvnqsr Chaos, has colossal meals including over one hundred people in ten minutes. 
Basically, there are a few "weaknesses" common to all Dead Apostles which are sunlight that greatly hastens their bodies' degeneration, magical energy depletion and the Executors, who use holy Sacraments and other holy weapons, from the Holy Church. Therefore they hide themselves, create their own society and use the advances of technology like a plane or a ship for their advantage. Higher-ranked Dead Apostles are careful not to operate too openly when feeding, as to avoid attracting attention from the Executors. The relationship between the two is like that of criminals and the police, with the mere presence of Executors in an area putting vampires on high alert and reducing their activity.Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- - Midnight Rainbow route - Day 7: "Crimson Vestiges I" 
On the issue of the actual bloodsucking process, a vampire can either hunt prey themselves or acquire the blood indirectly through the use of Familiars. The actual bloodsucking process is described as if all the life in the body is liquefied and sucked out, and the consciousness of the victim is destroyed. A victim that gets all of their blood sucked dies and becomes all shriveled up like a mummy. A vampire can either kill a victim or drain them completely dry and then intentionally skip the process (Remake) of becoming a vampire by turning the dead body into its Familiar.
Although The Dead are the traditional Familiars of the vampires in the original Tsukihime continuity, few actually use them today since their presence will alert vampire hunters such as the Burial Agency. While in the Tsukihime Remake continuity, The Dead are a classification for Ranks I-III of the vampire curse with the first Rank being the equivalent to the intentionally skipped process.
Dead Apostles invade cities by first looking for strong, suitable victims, suck their blood and turn them into servants. These servants, usually Rank III and above, can blend in with human society, because they retain their own free will and personality from when they were human. They expand their influence and begin to prey on other humans. The Dead Apostles themselves go into hiding once they have enough followers in order to sleep inside their coffin. They let their followers collect flesh and blood for themselves, but most of it is sent to the Dead Apostle.
The use of Familiars from different species is also somewhat more widespread. These Familiars are created when a vampire feeds his blood to a living creature. These creatures cannot disobey their master as there is both a mental and physical connection between the two. For a Dead Apostle living a long time and stabilizing his body with normal lives is not sufficient, so it's more effective to repair one's body by absorbing beasts, as they surpass the human species in this respect.
In the original continuity, by pushing their capacities to their limits, a Dead Apostle can possess about 30 animals of the same species. In the Remake continuity, they possess 1-3 animals with dogs or birds being the most common ones, as too many animals would cloud their soul. But in both continuities can they take in only one member of the Phantasmal Species that belongs to the Monstrous Beast or Phantasmal Beast-class as Familiars. Stronger Dead Apostles were known to have used Familiars of different animal species simultaneously, showing that the strength of the user's willpower is apart from others. Those Dead Apostles who repair their own bodies with beasts can return them to their previous forms and use them as Familiars when they need to.
Dead Apostles have regenerative powers which do not simply heal, but cause their bodies to turn their time backwards to a point in which they were unharmed; thus, you cannot cause wounds greater than the speed of their recovery. As their internal flow of blood fuels their regenerative immortality, still relies on their heart being connected to their body, it is possible to destroy a Dead Apostle by tearing their heart out. Crushing or destroying the heart within the body is insufficient, as they can restore it at the cost of a great deal of their supply of blood, but removing it cleanly will cause their Curse of Restoration to be disrupted and their physical body to wither.Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- - Midnight Rainbow route - Day 6: "Crimson Vestiges I"
An Arrow Noble Phantasm fired at Jester Karture.png|thumb|A Noble Phantasm fired at a Dead Apostle...
A Dead Apostle denying a Noble Phantasm (the Denial of Human History).png|thumb|... and the Noble Phantasm being denied.
A Noble Phantom Hammer hitting Jester Karture..png|thumb|A Hammer Noble Phantasm hitting a Dead Apostle...
Hammer 1.png|thumb|... and the Dead Apostle unharmed by the Noble Phantasm Hammer's attack.
Jester Karture eating a Noble Phantasm.png|thumb|A Dead Apostle eating a Noble Phantasm.
The Dead Apostles also can "deny" the power of Noble Phantasms made by man or those the Gods prepared for man, rendering them useless. Such a compatibility Advantage comes only against humans wielding such weapons, so if a Heroic Spirit wielded those same Noble Phantasms, or if the Noble Phantasms were made by the Gods for the Gods, it would work against the Dead Apostles.
Most vampires possess the Mystic Eyes of Enchantment, which are capable of high-level hypnosis within the user's field of vision increasing dramatically in effect by direct eye contact, while some possess other forms of Mystic Eyes but most of them are considered useless in the world of vampires. A rare number of powerful Dead Apostles posses Mystic Eyes of Enchantment that can tap directly into a person's brain and take complete control of their thoughts.
Dead Apostles are also known for turning into mist and there are two known versions of it. The lesser version is by transferring their consciousness into body doubles, which all Dead Apostles can create, to acquire information from a different perspective. Once it has served it's purpose, they cut the magical energy flow and it returns to dust, which gives them the impression of turning into mist. The high-grade version involves actual particle transformation, it defuses one's 'self' and scatters the particles that make up one's body. Their are only a few Dead Apostle who can do this over a wide area and for a long period of time.
Additionally, since they are related through the True Ancestors with the Moon, the lunar cycle over the Earth has effects on them. Granting to them more power than their normal state is depending on the lunar cycle.
Those who know magecraft make layers of Bounded Fields to form when creating their lairs. This invisible protection is similar to the ones that hide away the world of the Fairies, which fool even nature itself. The lair is accessible only by those who are invited in, and they are difficult to invade, taking even the trained Magi of the Mage's Association several years to find one. These lairs are enshrouded by darkness, by shadows, by longing for rationally, and by fear towards the taboo, so they cannot be found by humans.
==Growth Process==
===Tsukihime Remake continuity===
Dead Apostles who suck the blood of humans and replace it with their own pass on the curse of vampirism, as their victims are now reborn as vampires under the control of their sire. The curse of vampirism is divided into several steps according to its depth and the name of each step is derived from the Church, it has also become a common terminology in the World of Magecraft. The Dead Apostles themselves see the depth of the curse as a caste system, of social standing in vampiric society, in which Rank I-III are slaves, Rank IV-V are subordinates and Rank VI-IX are vampires.
While the normal growth process begins as an Rank III slave and then ascend the system, their is also the possibility that, when your potential is high enough and an Rank VI or above creates a Rank IV subordinate, you rise directly to Rank V.In contrast, Dr. Arach possesses a special drug known as Idea Replica that will force the vampiric conversion upon any human that takes it, even if they would not normally be able to develop into a Dead Apostle. Further doses of this drug accelerate the development process to the point where entire stages of growth are skipped completely, but an increased risk of a lethal overdose occurs with each state this bypassed.Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- - Midnight Rainbow route - Day 10: "Bow of the Skies II" In Fate Worlds, Norikata Emiya developed a potion with similar properties as part of his attempt to reach the Root.Fate/Zero Volume 4: Flames of Purgatory - Interlude: Sometime, somewhere 
When a human becomes a vampire, their body often will transform into the most beautiful form it can take, a process which can change both the vampire’s apparent physical age and physical features. They become an erotic work of art to which ordinary humans can’t compare. What precisely this looks like depends on the ideals of the newly turned vampire. In the case of Noel, her body regressed to resemble her 14-year-old self, and her face became more beautiful according to her standards.
*Rank I: — A marionette dancing to the tune of its sire. A being that had it's blood sucked and then replaced with that of the sire's. A corpse that will return to being dead if left without orders. A mere grunt which simply sucks blood and delivers it to it's sire. One of what are called "The Dead".
FlamingDead.jpeg|A Ghoul mutated by Vlov Arkhangel: Flaming Dead.
SpiderGhoul.jpeg|Krake, a small spider Ghoul.
SpiderGhoul2.jpeg|Metastasis, a large spider Ghoul.
*Rank II: — A corpse mimicking the form it had in life, possessing a will yet incapable of coherent thought. While its sire's magical energy keeps it from decaying, its insides have completely disintegrated. As the brain's decomposition causes it to seek flesh and blood instinctively, it is more savage than a Rank l: Corpse, as they can devour people in less than a few minutes. Could be described as a 100% loyal soldier that can be programmed by its sire, it also dies with it's sire's death or by the sire's decision to cut off their magical energy connection.Only one in a hundred people have the aptitude (immunity to resist the blood of the blood-sucking species) to reach this rank. However, even if they have the same aptitude, they may die depending on their viability. Among them, only those who can adapt to the blood of their sire and can endure can become IV or higher. Counted among "The Dead". Some of these beings may be mutated according to the whims of their master, such as Vlov Arkhangel's Flaming Dead and the spider-like monstrosities created by the spider-like Ancestor that seems to be related to Dr. Arach, possibly the same person.
*Rank III: — From this point on a creature that can finally be called a vampire. A living corpse, that hasn't fully regained its mental faculties and lacks its sense of pain and taste, but can simulate a human lifestyle on its own. A high-ranking soldier whose brain has been reconstructed after death, that follows its sire after understanding what kind of creature it has become. They are still bound to their sire and return to being corpses when their sire gets destroyed or by the sire's decision that they are not needed anymore. These undead act as commanders to the lower ranked Dead and are not fazed by sunlight, but require periodic embalming treatment in order to conceal their true nature. Counted among "The Dead".
*Rank IV: — An undead who acts as a fledgling vampire while maintaining its original personality. A half-human vampire whose inhuman physical abilities come at the cost of experiencing extreme coldness and thirst. A low-ranking knight, that according to the Church can hold its own against one of their Executors. When those of Rank Ⅵ and above carefully drink the blood of their prey, their victim starts out as a vampire of this rank. They may become anemic under the sunlight, though it doesn't burn them yet. In the magical world, one is considered "a person" up to this rank. A vampire who has reached Rank Ⅳ can now survive away from its sire. From the sire's point of view it has changed from an "object" to a "living thing", in a sense. Only one in a thousand people are able to reach this rank.
*Rank V: — Adding to the scope of Rank Ⅳ, at this point the curse within their blood allows them to manifest special powers deriving from their sire or perhaps arising from their own self. A High-ranking knight — a fully fledged vampire, that according to the Church can hold its own against several of their Executors.
*Rank VI: — A completely self-sufficient bloodsucker, who has lost the human ability to procreate. Though these Lords can create children through their bloodsucking incursions, they cannot sire a child that can exceed Rank Ⅵ — what you'd call a limit to these upstarts. Only one out of ten thousand people are able to reach this rank. The vampire lurking in Souya is of this rank. Villages fall prey to the disaster that is a "parent" raising minions. Vlov Arkhangel too was classified in this rank, but somehow managed to skip ahead.
*Rank VII: — Greater Dead Apostle. Those of Rank Ⅵ who were acknowledged by an Ancestor and bestowed with additional abilities. Though they share a name, this rank is of a wholly different scale from the previous one. To reach this rank is to become a poison that taints the land simply by existing. They are a heresy that ordinary Executors cannot cross blades with, noble vampires permitted their own free will. Greater Dead Apostles do not show absolute obedience to their parent Ancestors; given the chance they can defeat them and inherit their curse. However, even if they gained the same "freedom", there is a vast difference in the years the Ancestors have lived, making it difficult for a Greater Dead Apostle to surmount the scale of an Ancestor's existence. Also called , this is the level displayed by Ancestors' Fate Worlds counterparts in which Dead Apostles are weaker due to the strength of the Human Order being greater than Tsukihime Worlds.
*Rank VIII: — A talented vampire chosen by an Ancestor as their own successor. A prince or princess, who is in a position to inherit the Idea Blood of a Dead Apostle Ancestor upon that Ancestor's destruction. Among the Ancestors are also some who were captivated by beings that were not vampires and unexpectedly raised them to this rank. Assuming a minimum of two for each Ancestor, there are more than fifty Rank Ⅷ individuals. Some of them are even said to have been created in imitation of the True Ancestors. vampires of this rank are mighty, surpassing Vlov — who achieved entry into the Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors — in terms of their fundamental reserves.
*Rank IX: — The old Dead Apostles who broke free from their role as emergency rations and achieved victory in their struggle for independence as wholly distinct beings. A crimson stain that fell from the moon onto the earth. Long-lived beings who take in the life of humans and give rise to Rank Ⅵ Dead Apostles. Kings and Queens who have established the structure of vampire society that exists to this day, with each of them possessing their own Idea Blood. The scale of their existence differs on an individual basis, but they can be categorized into the "elders", active from before the Common Era, and the "upstarts", whose activities began in the Common Era. Vlov, having killed the Ancestor that had been his parent of the last hundred years, became one such new "upstart" Ancestor.
===Original Tsukihime continuity===
If a vampire injects some of it's own black blood into a human victim’s bloodstream, the said victim will be infused with some of the vampire’s own power and their body becomes unable to completely die. The black blood violates and burns the whole body from the inside. But in most cases however, the body dies and with it, the soul of the victim. The final result would be a mindless Familiar known as The Dead. But in the rare occurrence of the said victim possessing an high physical potential and the capacity of their soul is excellent, it prevents the body and with it the soul from dying. He will instead become a Ghoul and embark on climbing the ladder to becoming a full-fledged vampire. 
The extension of its powers, physical abilities and form is dependent on it's parent vampire, to whom it is bound, both mentally and spiritually. Example's would be Sion Eltnam Atlasia, the child of the Night of Wallachia, who acquired abilities related to manipulating or the children of Gransurg Blackmore who, rather than transforming from humans into pure vampires, get turned into hybrids with the heads and wings of birds. Furthermore, the powers of the blood, shared by vampire relatives of Dead Apostles, would exponentially increase when fighting together, since their powers are not calculated by addition but by multiplication.
====Shokushiki====
 are born when the body of a vampire's victim is unable to completely die. After, their corpse is buried and left for several years in the grave, their brain will rot and the human soul will be freed from the cage of the body. The decayed corpse now begins activity as a kind of living dead called a Ghoul. 
Their transformed souls, have now bypassed the necessity of the brain to hold the soul, as the soul is now separate from the body. The Shokushiki have mental capacities pretty much equivalent to that of a savage beast and they must devour other corpses to reconstruct their own degenerated flesh. After many years of this they restore their bodies and thus, their brain, which now anchors their soul again to the body. The soul can now reshape itself with the brain and the body and they fully recover their intelligence and memories.
====Vampire====
. After several years of development, a Shokushiki regains all of it's memories and a full human intellect. They finally become mature vampires who acquired their parents abilities and can now attain power of their own, move by their own will, capable of creating other vampires and having their own minions. It takes decades, of acclimating to life in the darkness, to complete this Growth Process. Satsuki Yumizuka was a rare case among rare cases, for an unknown Psychic ability that made her complete the rebirth into a full-fledged vampire almost immediately.Tsukihime - Far Side: Akiha's Route - 9/ Bloodsucking Ogre She is one of 27 to 30 individuals in the whole World who possesses this special idiosyncracy to become a Dead Apostle. The newborn vampire gains the necessary knowledge to understand the changes of it's body and quickly grows accustomed to living as a vampire.
However, it is still bound to the will of it's parent vampire, as they cannot escape from the rule of their sire's blood. They are forced, when they acquire blood, to supply the majority of it to their parent vampire. Consequently, the child vampire will eventually try to become a parent vampire themselves. They will start to threaten the world by creating servants of their very own, while remaining subservient to the vampire that made them. A vampire can only become a full-fledged Dead Apostle after breaking free from the control of their parent vampire.
==References==
vi:Tử Đồ
Category:Vampires
Category:Terminology in Tsukihime
Category:Life
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Category:Demons
Category:Characters by species
Category:Terminology in Tsukihime Remake
Category:Terminology in Fate/Zero
Category:Terminology in Fate/Grand Order
Category:Terminology in Fate/strange Fake
Category:Terminology in Lord El-Melloi II