Vampire (ToF)

**Vampires** are a distinct race in the Tides of Fate canon. A race that has only existed after the Advent of Magic, they are mysterious and not much is known about them, other than the fact they are Near-Humans and have immense magical power. Vampires inhabit the continent of Betoriv, only in the ruined city of Bismuth.

They are a race that shares deep ties with humanity as well as the goddess-like entity Odyss. Vampires are greatly feared due to the advanced and powerful magic which they are capable of using. They are thought to have been descended from humans, due to their apparent similarities in natural capability.

## Origin

The origin of Vampires is not certain, but they are known to have existed only after the Advent of Magic, many years ago. They are thought to have been descended from Mages who fled Betoriv during the time where magic was outlawed, and thus their origin is from humanity, although this cannot be confirmed and much about them remains mysterious.

It isn't known what drove the vampires to support Odyss, as their existence predates the first appearance of Odyss, which means she couldn't have given them power or created them from humans. It is also unknown why they have confined themselves to Bismuth before the birth of the Zero King, for their magical power would have made dominating Betoriv a breeze before magic became widespread and spires were built.

In the Modern Age, a long-lost Seraph stated to a certain human that the Vampires were once Seraphs themselves before they were tainted by darkness, which made them into the Vampires they are today.

## Modern Age

It is known that the vampires continue to serve the entity Odyss, protecting their dark Queen as she is sealed within the walls of Bismuth. There is not much known about them, other than the fact some live in the mountains of Northwestern Betoriv that marks the divide between Bismuth and rest of the continent, isolated as they can no longer leave the mountains in fear of getting destroyed by the spires that straddle those mountains.

Vampires in the mountains tend to shy away from the people of Betoriv, unless they are actively provoked. As the mountains to Bismuth always seem so foreboding and dark, it is rare that people even approach them, and all sights of Vampires are made from sightings by those brave or foolish enough to approach the boundary.

The society of Vampires in Bismuth isn't very well known, and many theories abound about how it seems, but it can be safely assumed that they have a culture very similar to humans.

## Traits

Vampires are known to look very similar to humans, if not exactly the same, other than several distinguishing traits. For one, all vampires have brightly coloured eyes that are in various shades of blue, green, red, violet or amber, and none of them possess black eyes. All vampires are further able to sprout feathered wings (of various colors other than pure white) for high speed flight. Vampires can have any hair colour, and they are known to always have pale, fair skin. Unlike what many think of them, Vampires do not have fangs, and can blend in perfectly with humans if their wings are not shown. It is known that Vampires are able to breed successfully with all other Near-Human races, other than the Natives of Flinrock, the Asterians.

While there are myths of vampires, and many ascribe many facts to them due to misunderstandings, Vampires actually reproduce like any Near-Human species, and are not undead, having standard families in their home state and living like normal people would. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't a disease that affects humans, and people cannot be turned into Vampires, but have to be born as one. Vampires are not affected by the sun, they are not affected more by silver, and neither does holy symbols do anything to them.

Vampires are always born strongly attuned to magic as well as Vitakinesis, already having three Vitakinetic Circuits in their bodies upon birth, and have a strong affinity for the casting of magic of many different kinds. This means all Vampires can perform the powerful offensive spell Death Grip, as well as multiple other life-based magic. Vampires are extremely talented in Flash-Casting, but their use of human-based language limits their incantational speed.

Vampires are always born with a high circuit count exceeding that of the normal human average. Their circuit quality is often very high and their mana pools on average are large, which makes all of them high-tier mages if they choose to learn spells. The average vampire is known to have great magical affinity, and normally will possess a Weapon Form Grimoire or greater.

Vampires are known to be able to absorb parts of spells that hit them to restore their own internal energy reserves. They receive a significant bonus to spell damage via the addition of mysterious life-stealing energy from their own magical power, which flows to their weapons as well. All vampires can summon wings for flight. Their fingernails are able to change length and are as hard as steel.

Vampires naturally are able to manipulate life energy, which can allow them to rapidly drain energy from an area to restore their own. Other powers that vampires are known to have include turning into toxic, life-stealing mist that can fly at supersonic speeds for a moment and the ability to heal themselves or others at high speed by charging blood with energy.

Vampires are able to forcefully revive a corpse via injecting their blood into it and charging it with magical energy, turning it into a violent, mindless puppet with reinforced strength and an unnatural thirst for blood. These undead are known as Ghouls, and serve their master unflinchingly, although their violent impulses and immunity to pain makes them deadly foes in combat, due to retaining their magic and skills, despite not having sentience or intelligence. If a Ghoul is slain, it breaks apart. Most vampires can only do this once a day.

All in all, vampires are almost like a superior breed of human, having powerful physical capabilities and advanced magical ones. Due to their excessive level of power, it is not easy to find any other race which has equal prowess in magic or physical ability.

## Other miscellaneous details

Concerning the society of the Vampires in Bismuth, it is claimed by some that they follow a societal order based on Betoriv, with the legendary Order of Celebrant and their most trusted generals effectively serving as the governors and leaders of their small nation, but this remains as speculation by most if not all scholars of the other races that know of their existence.