Vampires

**Vampires** — see also: Master Vampires

## Introduction

Most vamps spend their immortal lives as little more than slaves, serving whoever made them without the ability to break away or to refuse an assignment. But some, usually those who were the strongest willed in life, over time gain power. When they reach master level, they can make other vampires to serve them, and are usually given some autonomy by their makers. Seventh level is the lowest master rank, and most never progress past it, but for those who do, each additional step up the ladder gains them new abilities and more freedom.

## About

### Vampire Mythos: Characteristics

Vampires could not tolerate sun for long lengths of time. They have no problem looking at religious symbols and can even consume garlic. Unlike vampire legends of old though, they can feed off of a human without biting them and can absorb blood through their skin. Vampirism also does not enhance their appearance in anyway, though all vampires have the ability to enthrall others. Vampires are divided into categories with the various master levels having the most powers. It turns out that if one was a strong being in life, one was likely to be a strong being in death. They are highly organized and the birth of each new vampire, must be recorded with the vampire council. Each vampire is beholden to their creator, and only the strongest vampires have the ability to create new ones. ~ Fangs For The Fantasy

### Powers & Abilities

* Absorb blood through their skin.
* Can make someone believe they look like a movie star with a mere suggestion.
* Some of the most powerful vamps can stand daylight in small doses if they're willing to expend a lot of energy for the privilege.
* Examples of some Individual powers:
	+ levitate themselves and others
	+ strip the skin off a body from across a room
	+ rip a beating heart out of a chest with a thought...and more
* Vampires have amazing recuperative powers.
* The sun in Faerie doesn't harm vampires.

### Weaknesses

* Newly made vampires were the weaker ones.
* Vamp bodies don't die unless both head and heart are destroyed.
* Vulnerable to sunlight—mostly just the younger vampires.
* The only thng from the old legends that works: sunlight, stakes and garlic, and the latter only if employed as part of a protection ward.
* **Dragon Blood**: causes a lot of damage, even to a vamp, and slows the healing process down. Pritkin used it on Tomas and his face didn't heal as normal.
* Can not do the kind magic that mages do—if a mage is turned, they lose their magic, so no vamp mages.
* Fire—Vampires are mortally afraid of fire.
* Vampires have a hard time entrancing people who are drunk, high or crazy or under a prior suggestion—because their minds don t work right.

### Nature / Traits / Characteristics

* Vamps tend to forget that what would be annoying for them, like a bite from a poisonous snake, would be a bit more serious for the mortals who worked with them.
* Vampires often become territorial after feeding from the same human repeatedly.
* Not afraid of Holy items, auch as crosses, holy water, etc. Many came from a cristian background and still have crosses of their own. Mircea Basarab's family crest showed a dragon embracing a cross, a sign of the family's Catholicism.
* They run as hot as a human, unless they're starving—it's human blood that feeds them.
* Practicality is one of the defining vamp characteristics.

### Vampire Healing

* Healing trance: Vampires stayed unmoving and immobile for up to several weeks when the injury is bad enough. Vampires healed themselves or they didn't—there weren't a lot of medical or magical remedies that worked on their systems.

### Energy Draw / Feeding

* Vampires can draw blood from a distance—no need to break the skin.
* Vamps take life energy through blood, which in magical terms is the repository for the life force of a person. When they feed, they receive part of the donor's life, which substitutes for the one they lost when they crossed over, at least for a while. They don't always ask first.
* Difference between a vampire and a ghost drawing energy from a human is that a ghost could absorb life energy directly and vampires had to get it through blood—Ghost can skip that step.
* Senate, that its members were so powerful that they had to feed only about once a week
* Can't feed very easily from Mages—it's difficult to get past their wards; his training would probably tell him that some form of threat was being made.
* Fey blood wouldn't work as vampire food.
* Vampires don’t need to eat food—any below master level have nonworking taste buds.

### Laws and Customs Regarding Feeding

* In vamp circles, feeding has strict rules. Even the same norm can't be fed from regularly, as it creates a feeling of possession in the vamp involved and can lead to all sorts of problems because of jealousy. But taking blood without permission from someone connected with our world is considered even more of a violation. That's not only because of the often sexual by-product of the feeding process, but also because anyone recognized as part of the supernatural community has special rights.
* Any prisoners taken alive were always used for food. A warning is given for the first offense, along with an object lesson to make it memorable. If the lesson is impressive enough, most people don't have to be told twice. ... Any living enemies are dealt with like this, but they are allowed a second chance, which is more than the Circle gives rogue magic users.
* One of the few things considered truly depraved in vamp circles is to waste blood, even that of shape-shifters. Blood is precious; blood is life.
* "Vamps don't go around killing humans unless they try to kill them first. The Senate doesn't like it—too many chances someone will see and start dangerous rumors, or that a new vamp will fail to dispose of a body and cause an investigation. Unrestricted hunting hasn't been legal since 1583, when the European Senate made a deal with your Circle. Even Tony's guys don't do it."

### Vampire Bites

* Vampires could control most norms through their bite: one was usually enough, two always were, and after three, the victim became a vamp bound to his or her master, so it was a moot point.
* Vamps only bit—left a fang-marked humans behind—if they were making a point.
* Vampires can't summon Cassie through a bite—likely because of a ghost always so close, interrupted the signal.
* A master can detect another's bite.

### Making a Vampire

* The act of creating a new vampire is a delicate process. Any deviation can have very unfortunate results:
	+ He or she stayed dead after three days
	+ They rose without any higher brain functions, a horrible mess called a Revenant.

#### Master and Servant Bond

* Master Vampires and servants usually have a bond.
* Servants won through force had to be kept that way; it was never as close a relationship as through blood ref name="CP1ch311">*Touch the Dark*, ch. 11</ref>

#### Conditions for a Strong Bond

* The human to be changed must by pure—that is with no bites from another vampire in the last few years
* They have to be willing and at peace when they are made
* They have to be healthy, or at least not seriously ill.

#### Possible Conditions for a Weak Bond:

* Poison vampire-candiadate with a slow-acting toxin—hey would die before it became obvious that they were seriously weakened, and the poison would not harm them once they rose a new vampire. Yet it would severely diminish their attachment to their master.
* Or they could be given a stimulant powerful enough that they remained aware and afraid through the transition, instead of peaceful and euphoric.

#### Transition

* The transition to vampire doesn't make you gorgeous if you were plain, intelligent if you were stupid or powerful if you were weak... But occasionally it does give someone who was overlooked as a mortal a chance to shine.

### Inner Warning System

* Vampires sense when the dawn is approaching. They may have reactions like talking too much, dropping things. etc. The younger the vamp, the earlier it started. It was sort of a built-in security net to make sure no one ended up getting fried.

### Vampire Law

* Vamp law was very simple: If a vampire caused problems, that vampire was guilty, and the guilty had to pay. If a vampire's quarrel was with another master, his own master might stand up for his servant, if he/she were useful enough to make it worthwhile—either by a duel or reparations. But a threat to the Senate could not be intervened with. There was no power higher to which to appeal. And, intent wasn't nearly as important as in human courts. Nobody cared why you did something.

### Physical Description

* Vampires look pretty much the same way they did when they were alive.

### Other Details

* Considered serious stuff in vamp circles to exert their will over another vampire's servant.
* It wasn't a good idea to show fear or weakness in a court situation.
* It isn't size that matters in a fight, it's power and strength.
* Masters had to report their newly made vampire or they risked their own heads.
* Magical creatures can't be turned—and they taste really foul
* Vamps had never been all that interested in other species' affairs.
* The old ones don't have temperature fluctuations based on whether they have eaten recently or not.
* Vampires believed that War Mages were dangerous, bloodthirsty and crazy.
* Any living enemies are dealt with like this, but they are allowed a second chance, which is more than the Circle gives rogue magic users.
* vamps can't read ghosts.
* Vamps don't waste blood, ever,
* Only vampires get an automatic death sentence for defiance.
* Some vampires, those that can eat food, love to eat garlic in their food.
* Legends claiming that a demon came to roost in every new vampire had been caused by the hysteria of the Middle Ages.
* Demons are normally considered unwanted competition by vampires

## Vampire Characters

* Mircea Basarab
* Tony
* Tomas
* Louis-César
* Raphael ~ "Rafe"
* Marco Carales
* Cassanova (Vampire and Incubus)
* Kit Marlowe
* The Consul ~ "Cleo"
* Alphonse
* Radu Basarab
* Eugenie
* Alejandro
* Jules
* Fred
* Rico
* Rico and Miguel

## Gaining Power

✥ Most vamps spend their immortal lives as little more than slaves, serving whoever made them without the ability to break away or to refuse an assignment. But some, usually those who were the strongest willed in life, over time gain power. When they reach master level, they can make other vampires to serve them, and are usually given some autonomy by their makers. Seventh level is the lowest master rank, and most never progress past it, but for those who do, each additional step up the ladder gains them new abilities and more freedom.

## Hierarchy

✥ "All vampires are under the control of a master, either the one who made them or the one who bought them from their maker or won them in a duel. The only way not to have a master is to reach first-level master power yourself. Anything else, including killing off your own master, won't do any good; someone else will simply bind you to them. Since there are fewer than one hundred first-degree masters in the world, and they mostly hold seats on one of the six vamp senates, this makes for a nice hierarchal structure and keeps everyone organized. Most masters give their more powerful followers some freedom, although a certain amount of their revenues are sent as yearly "presents," and any servants they make are subject to their masters' whims. The masters also check on them from time to time, like Mircea with Tony, because they are always responsible for them."

✥ Vampires lived in extensive social families, sometimes a hundred or even a thousand strong. Each member fit into a complex hierarchy that was hard to comprehend. All those members are servants of carrying ranks who were controlled and dictated to by those higher up the chain of command. This also held a certain amount of freedom from having to deal with the fallout.

## Master Vampires

✥ Master levels are simply a convenient way to talk about how powerful a particular master has become. They move from level to level (assuming they don’t plateau at some point as most do) when they grow in strength. So, yes, it is a designation based solely on power, not influence, wealth, intellect, or some other measurement. But if you’re looking for an outward manifestation of a master’s power, there are markers along the way. — *Karen Chance* ~ Louis-Cesare | Karen Chance's Ramblings

See main Article: Master Vampires

## Politics

The governing body that controls the actions of all vampires in a given area is called the Vampire Senate.

## Vampire History

✥ During the Reformation, the six senates had collectively banned open warfare as a way to solve problems. With Religious wars breaking out all over Europe there was a lot of spying going on. There was more notice of the Supernatural Community resulting in increased staking of accused vampires and burning of accused witches—most of who were humans—though they sometimes hit the real mark. To avoid more attention, Senate Wars and House feuds started to be resolved through duels. That evolved to choosing champions to duel for them.

✥ It was constant war once," Mircea continued, as if he knew what I had been thinking. "Between us and the humans, between families of vampyre, between us and the mages, and on and on. Until the senates rose, until they said enough, or we will destroy ourselves in the end. No one wants to return to that, especially the conflict with the humans. Even if we won against the billions who would oppose us, we would lose, for who would feed us if they were gone?" He looked at Pritkin. "We do not wish for huge numbers of us, running wild, with no supervision and no hope of secrecy, any more than you do. We bite to drain a subject in an execution, or to frighten as with the captives today. But for a normal feeding," he said, returning his attention to me, "we prefer a gentler method." — Mircea Basarab to John Pritkin

## Related Characters, Groups, Places, etc

* Cassandra Palmer
* Consul (Position)
* Vampire Senate
* North American Vampire Senate
* Silver Circle
* M.A.G.I.C.
* Dante's Casino
* Sebastian
* Pythia
* Pythia Court
* Black Circle
* South American Vampire Senate
* European Vampire Senate
* Second
* Revenant

## Events in the Series

*This section may have **spoilers**. Think of the book title as a "Spoiler Warning" if you haven’t read it yet*.

## Quotes

"This guy was part of a group that tried to kill us a few hours ago. But the vamps aren't going to kill him, at least not this time. A warning is given for the first offense, along with an object lesson to make it memorable. If the lesson is impressive enough, most people don't have to be told twice." — Cassandra Palmer
"If we fed on the population at large as you seem to think, Mage Pritkin, how could we avoid making thousands, even millions of new vampires? It only takes three bites over consecutive days from a seventh-level master or higher. Can you believe that, with no restrictions, it would not happen time and again? Either by accident or intentionally? Soon, we would be no longer merely a myth, and would again be hunted." — Mircea Basarab
"Okay, how about a riddle," the head burbled. "What's the best way to a vampire's heart?" It paused for a couple of beats. "Through his rib cage!” — Shrunken Head
## See Also

* Master Vampires
* Vampire Senate
* North American Vampire Senate
* Revenant
* Werewolves

## Book References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 3
3. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 6
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 5
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 10
6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 10 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch10" defined multiple times with different content
7. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 7
8. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 14
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 11
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 5
13. ↑ *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 1, p. 2
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 11 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch11" defined multiple times with different content
15. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 4
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9
17. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
18. ↑ *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 22, p. 266
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9
20. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 13

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