Vampire

A **Vampire** is a demihuman who acquired the vampiric *animus* signature through either contraction of the Violet Plague, or who was born to one or more vampiric parents.

Despite popular belief, vampires are not inherently evil. The Violet Plague, which was the most common way of contracting vampirism, causes madness in infected individuals for the first 3 to 5 days.

## Physical Changes

A vampire's physical body goes through several changes:

* Their canine teeth elongate and sharpen to razor points
* The density of their muscle fibers increases massively, making them much harder to injure
* Their eyes become a purple color, as their chemical makeup changes to better see in the dark
* Their bones become approximately 15 times harder, while maintaining flexibility.
* Their reflex time shortens to surpass that of all known predatory animals.

While the durability these benefits grant is automatic, any usage of their superhuman strength results in a toll on their *Animus*, which can lead to a Bloodlust.

## Inherent Magic

Vampires will find that they have a degree of control over inherent magical powers, even if before their transformation they were not magically inclined. Recorded so far are the following powers:

* Turning partially invisible, but only in low light conditions
* Creation of zones of magical silence
* Shadowtravel
* Hypnosis via the gaze
* Rarely, memory modification

## The Sun

Despite the rumors flying around, vampires are not, in fact, destroyed utterly by sunlight. However, they do suffer several drawbacks while sunlight is making physical contact with them:

* Sunlight immediately and irreversibly dispels any magical effect they create with their powers.
* They become unable to utilize their superhuman strength, and their reflexes slow considerably.
* Their healing factor slows significantly, and if the wound is directly exposed to sunlight, doesn't function at all.
* Their irises will physically emit light in the form of a glowing purple ring while sunlight touches any part of their body.
* Vampires still infected with the Violet Plague will recoil, as their eyes and skin are extremely sensitive to light.

## Bloodlust

When a vampire utilizes their healing factor, innate magical abilities, or superhuman strength, they consume the latent magic that makes up their soul: their *Animus.* Unfortunately, this has some obvious downsides.

A vampire can safely tap into their abilities once or twice in a day for short periods of time without taking too large a toll on themselves. However, if a vampire uses more than their constitution supports, Bloodlust begins. The vampire's mind is slowly clouded by thoughts of consuming fresh blood, and they feel weaker. This effect does not recede until the vampire feeds, restoring magical energy to their body and satiating the bloodlust. If left unchecked and unsatisfied, a hungering vampire will slowly slip into a madness not unlike that caused by the Violet Plague, at which point their animal instincts will cause them to hunt and feed on the nearest prey they can find.

While flying into a murderous rage is almost universally frowned upon in civilized society, some vampires weaponize their own starvation in battle, gaining blood as quickly as they lose it. This state is referred to by many names between cultures: Bloodrage, Scarlet Fever, and The Beast are a few names for it.