Nightcreatures

Nightcreatures (Paranthropus *nosferapoda* chiropteromorpha), as opposed to P*. n. anthropophagus* which refers to ghouls, are incredibly large, hematophagous batlike creatures possessing two hearts and humanlike arms in addition to wings. They are regarded as the final stage in the "aging" process of blodliches (which gradually progresses over the course of 4,000 years) rather than an individual species. However ordinary humans that have been infected with ChPV-V and the ghoulification curse can become werebats in a matter of months. The human werebat is also undead and possesses the same or similar biology to that of an Elder, the primary difference being that they can reproduce with another of their kind thus creating a lesser species of werebat known as *Desmodus anthromorpha*.

## ChPV-V

**Chiropteran Parvovirus V (ChPV-V)**, an incredibly slow-acting, transgenic variation of DrPtPV (Desmodus rotundus Protoparvovirus), plays a big part in the aging process of H. upirus. The viral strain itself is somewhere between a protoparvovirus, an erythroparvovirus, and an exogenous betaretrovirus. The virus uses lysis and causes the body to slowly deteriorate over the course of almost 3,000 years. It is highly resistant to environmental trauma, including digestive enzymes, making it much easier to spread via contaminated food and water sources. ChPV-V cannot infect or be carried in organisms other than vampire bats, those transformed by HV and species of the species nosferapoda. ChPV-V is probally the most slow acting virus in existence, slowly transmutating the infected (over the course of 1500 years if the infected manages to survive that long) into a huge batlike creature called a "night creature", also known as a werebat, the Kali bat, an Elder, and *liliac nosferatul* in Romanian. This transformation is the only aging process a matured wampyr will experience since they are undead and therefore any form of biological aging has ceased altogether. Undeath is not the same thing as immortality, although wampyri are able to constantly regenerate stem cells (of which they are highly suffused with) and are also able to regenerate telomeres.

## Transformation Process

Night creatures are also referred to as chiropteranthropes, werebats, man-bat, the Acients, Elders, or elder blodliches/wampyri. They are very similar to the white-winged vampire bat, except they are nearly the size of a brown bear with long pointy bat ears, elongated humanlike arms that have large leathery wings attached, a ghoulish ectomorph body that is somewhat humanoid but also quadrupedal, much thinner fangs, and dark, hairless and dark leathery grayish blue skin. Their eyes are also different, slowly over time the sclera darkens to a more black tone, loss of pigment in the iris brighten its hue to more of a pale icy coloration. But by the time 1,200 years have passed the iris suddenly begins to darken as the infected loses it's night vision ability and develops nyctalopia. Instead of relying on their sense of sight for night-time vision, night creatures make rapid high-pitched squeaks called "ultrasounds" and are also capable of echolocation. Their noses have special flaps and folds of skin on their faces called "leaves". After the 900 year mark the iris and cornea will slowly expand to take up more of the eyeball's surface, making the iris appear somewhat smaller.

 **After the 900 year mark:** All these changes happen gradually over the next 600 years. Hair becomes coarser and thicker over the following decades, the hands, feet and face become bruised and swollen as if they had been severely beaten. Soon this swelling and bruising spreads across the rest of the body as the victim experiences new bone growth. Like bears and other large mammals, an increase in melanin turns the skin a very dark grey, in spite of their ethnicity. They also develop methemoglobinemia causing the skin to become more blue. Melanin levels increase until the skin is a dark bluish gray color. However, the eyelids, nose, lips, soles and palms always become dark and thick, while the breasts and genitals remain somewhat lighter in color. The hair on the scalp is gradually shed as a sort of frizzy white mane grows from the head, neck, back and chest. The fur becomes shorter and bristly until eventually becoming shorter than peach fuzz. After about 350 years after the 900 year mark the genitals atrophy, fall off, and fuse with the anus forming a single hole. The elder wampyr's jaw is set at a lower hinge than a younger wampyr, the mouth gaping like a snake's when feeding. They develop retractable proboscis like tongue, capable of extending up to two feet from the mouth. As the structure of the tongue is modified tissue from the human lungs and throat, night creatures are incapable of human speech (however they can communicate telepathically). Hair and toenails are gradually lost, while the external nose atrophy. The nose is then replaced with what is a cross between a chimpanzee nose and the nose of a vampire bat which consists of a short, conical muzzle. It also lacks nose leaf, instead having naked pads with U-shaped grooves at the tip. The nose is rather flat and has long, thin nostrils. The toenails grow curved black keratin claws which are durable enough to rake through flesh. As the hands and feet swell and bruise, the nails on the serum-glazed fingers and toes come loose and soon fall out as the distal phalanx bones grow into rather straight claws, which slowly erupt from the former nail beds as hard keratin (the same black keratin as the toe claws) forms around the new quicks. Starting off short and small, these claws can grow to over 3 inches long, with tangible girth and thickness. The middle fingers of both hands grow thick and lengthen, and a 7 inch long curved talon grows in place of the lost fingernail.  The hands then become so that they slightly resemble a cross between bear paws and the hands of a Komodo dragon (apart from the long thick middle fingers), limiting the use of their thumbs while making it easier to climb and move on all fours. They feet also change too. They are digitigrade with two thick clawed toes and a claw thumb further up close to the leg. From the arms sprout leathery batlike wings with retractable hooked claw thumbs used for gripping and pulling, and the hands morph into those of a vampire bat when the wings are in use. All the bones in the skeleton become hollow like a birds so that once the wings are developed the night creature can used them for flight.

500 years after the 900 year mark the original teeth fall out and new ones take it's place.  They grow thin needlike front teeth that are specialized for drawing blood and the back teeth are much smaller and thinner than in other bats (that is in relation to the rest of the body since night creatures are huge). Unlike the teeth of most mammals, the teeth of werebats do not have enamel. The inferior colliculus, the part of the bat's brain that processes sound, is well adapted to detecting the regular breathing sounds of sleeping mammals. Night creatures have the best hearing of all younger wampyri because of their huge pointy desmodus-like ears. By the time 800 years have passed since they were turned, they slowly develop autosomal recessive hypotrichosis causing all their hair to become incredibly sparse. A fully transformed night creature can walk, jump, and even run for extended periods of time by either walking like a gorilla with their fists or using a unique, bounding gait, in which the forelimbs instead of the hind-limbs are recruited for force production, as the wings are much more powerful than the legs. The digestive and circulatory systems of a night creature are simplified and fused, the wampyr's interior organs most resembling a series of connected sacs. Nutrition from blood feeding is transported throughout this system via a thick, viscous, oily, black fluid that forms the werebat equivalent of blood. All bodily waste is excreted from a single rectal orifice in the form of a pungent ammonia-based spray; a night creature will excrete for the entire duration of a feeding, purging old food as it consumes new blood. A werebat will lie in a state of suspended animation for an entire day, rising the next night as a nascent chiropteranthrope. Late stage night creatures also develop a much higher sensitivity to UV rays despite their increased melanin.

An aged wampyr can use either human disguise or senescence reversal (an ability shared with Turritopsis dornhii allowing it to revert back to a younger state) to assume a much more humanlike form. Using senescence reversal will also extend it's lifespan whereas human disguise could end up having the opposite effect.

**After the 900 year mark:** All these changes happen gradually over the next 600 years. Hair becomes coarser and thicker over the following decades, the hands, feet and face become bruised and swollen as if they had been severely beaten. Soon this swelling and bruising spreads across the rest of the body as the victim experiences new bone growth. Like bears and other large mammals, an increase in melanin turns the skin a very dark grey, in spite of their ethnicity. They also develop methemoglobinemia causing the skin to become more blue. Melanin levels increase until the skin is a dark bluish gray color. However, the eyelids, nose, lips, soles and palms always become dark and thick, while the breasts and genitals remain somewhat lighter in color. The hair on the scalp is gradually shed as a sort of frizzy white mane grows from the head, neck, back and chest. The fur becomes shorter and bristly until eventually becoming shorter than peach fuzz. After about 350 years after the 900 year mark the genitals atrophy, fall off, and fuse with the anus forming a single hole. The elder wampyr's jaw is set at a lower hinge than a younger wampyr, the mouth gaping like a snake's when feeding. They develop retractable proboscis like tongue, capable of extending up to two feet from the mouth. As the structure of the tongue is modified tissue from the human lungs and throat, night creatures are incapable of human speech (however they can communicate telepathically). Hair and toenails are gradually lost, while the external nose atrophy. The nose is then replaced with what is a cross between a chimpanzee nose and the nose of a vampire bat which consists of a short, conical muzzle. It also lacks nose leaf, instead having naked pads with U-shaped grooves at the tip. The nose is rather flat and has long, thin nostrils. The toenails grow curved black keratin claws which are durable enough to rake through flesh. As the hands and feet swell and bruise, the nails on the serum-glazed fingers and toes come loose and soon fall out as the distal phalanx bones grow into rather straight claws, which slowly erupt from the former nail beds as hard keratin (the same black keratin as the toe claws) forms around the new quicks. Starting off short and small, these claws can grow to over 3 inches long, with tangible girth and thickness. The middle fingers of both hands grow thick and lengthen, and a 7 inch long curved talon grows in place of the lost fingernail.  The hands then become so that they slightly resemble a cross between bear paws and the hands of a Komodo dragon (apart from the long thick middle fingers), limiting the use of their thumbs while making it easier to climb and move on all fours. They feet also change too. They are digitigrade with two thick clawed toes and a claw thumb further up close to the leg. From the arms sprout leathery batlike wings with retractable hooked claw thumbs used for gripping and pulling, and the hands morph into those of a vampire bat when the wings are in use. All the bones in the skelton become hollow like a birds so that once the wings are developed the night creature can used them for flight.

500 years after the 900 year mark the original teeth fall out and new ones take it's place.  They grow thin needlike front teeth that are specialized for drawing blood and the back teeth are much smaller and thinner than in other bats (that is in relation to the rest of the body since night creatures are huge). Unlike the teeth of most mammals, the teeth of werebats do not have enamel. The inferior colliculus, the part of the bat's brain that processes sound, is well adapted to detecting the regular breathing sounds of sleeping mammals. Night creatures have the best hearing of all younger wampyri because of their huge pointy desmodus-like ears. By the time 800 years have passed since they were turned, they slowly develop autosomal recessive hypotrichosis causing all their hair to become incredibly sparse. A fully transformed night creature can walk, jump, and even run for extended periods of time by either walking like a gorilla with their fists or using a unique, bounding gait, in which the forelimbs instead of the hind-limbs are recruited for force production, as the wings are much more powerful than the legs. The digestive and circulatory systems of a night creature are simplified and fused, the wampyr's interior organs most resembling a series of connected sacs. Nutrition from blood feeding is transported throughout this system via a thick, viscous, oily, black fluid that forms the werebat equivalent of blood. All bodily waste is excreted from a single rectal orifice in the form of a pungent ammonia-based spray; a night creature will excrete for the entire duration of a feeding, purging old food as it consumes new blood. A werebat will lie in a state of suspended animation for an entire day, rising the next night as a nascent chiropteranthrope. Late stage night creatures also develop a much higher sensitivity to UV rays despite their increased melanin levels.

An aged wampyr can use either human disguise or senescence reversal (an ability shared with Turritopsis dornhii allowing it to revert back to a younger state) to assume a much more humanlike form. Using senescence reversal will also extend it's lifespan.