Vampire

Elmenhilde Karnstein, a Vampire

**Vampires** (吸血鬼, *Kyūketsuki*) are a species of supernatural beings in *High School DxD*.

## Summary

Like the Devils, Vampires are residents of darkness that have existed since ancient times. They have similar rankings and weaknesses like those of High-Class Devils. However, Devils are residents of the Underworld, while Vampires are beings that live in the darkness of the human world with their center of the population being located in Romania. They may seem similar, but their views and culture differ greatly although, like Devils, they have a long life span. Vampires also have a strong fear and hatred towards Werewolves as they are natural enemies, as seen when vampires looked at Loup Garou with fear and hate due to sensing him being half-werewolf.

The Vampires are a race of supernatural creatures even more proud and aloof than the Devils. In fact, the discrimination between Vampires and other species is so strong that it has reached the point that Dhampirs, like Gasper and Valerie, who was born from Vampire Lords and Human mothers, were treated badly even by their own family members. Hunting humans is the true nature of a vampire for their source of food. Male vampires will use human women for their own pleasure and make them bear a child and female vampires will use human men for their own pleasure and bear their child.

Several hundred years ago, there was an incident that split the world of Vampires, where the Vampires argued between choosing a female true ancestor and a male true ancestor in order to retain the purity of pure-blooded Vampires. This incident eventually gave birth to the **Tepes Faction** (ツェペシュ派, *Tepeshu-ha*), a male-dominated Vampire faction and the **Carmilla Faction** (カーミラ派, *Kamīra-ha*), a female-dominated Vampire faction. Both factions became at war with each other after the Tepes Faction recently got hold of a Longinus possessor.

Vampires do not get along well with other races and have a strict, pure-blooded aristocracy and are so arrogant that not even a single family has ever cared about their servants even a tenth of much as the Gremory family has cared for their servants. Also, any Vampire with a human in their parentage, whether humans-turned Vampire or are descended from one, are never allowed to become nobles and considered substandard members of the species, assuming that they're even considered Vampires in the first place.

However in Volume 16, during the Vampire Civil War, it was shown that some Vampires went against their pure-blood principals and sought enhanced body modifications, the modifications turned out to be part of Rizevim's plan to turn them into mass-produced Evil Dragons as reinforcements. Later on in Volume 21, the remaining Vampires joined the anti-terrorist group D×D in helping to repel Trihexa, with both the Tepes and Carmilla Factions putting aside their differences and battle together, possibly indicating to now have a different viewpoint towards other races than before.

After the events of the civil war in their homeland in Volume 16, the vampires' cold-hearted discriminatory nature has changed to where they now do not discriminate against other species and are instead working with them, as shown by Elmenhilde Karnstein who is much more calm, sweet, sensitive and kind.

## Appearance

While physically similar to humans, Vampires have beautiful doll-like faces, with a set of sharp fangs in their mouths and a pair of red eyes. Pure-blooded Vampires have no reflections on mirrors, lack shadows, and have a corpse-like skin tone. Unlike Devils who have bat-like wings, vampires possess bat wings that are similar to dragon wings. Vampires cannot be photographed as they do not show up in the photo.

## Abilities

Vampires are known to be able to control bats, transform into a flock of them, and use them for reconnaissance. They can also change their appearance to their liking. Vampires can either breed insects and bats, or they can change parts of their bodies into them.

They can also gain more power by drinking the blood of certain beings, such as when both Gasper and Elmenhilde drink Issei's blood. In Volume 23, it is revealed Vampires could gain a variety of different abilities when they drank the blood of certain beings.

Their very presence, also, creates a cold aura that can be felt by others several meters away, even while being inside a building that the Vampire is outside of. In Volume 15, it is revealed that Vampires are also able to create and manipulate fog, often using it to create barriers and search for enemies. High-Level Vampires can create enough fog to blanket an entire town and can transform into fog itself to avoid attacks or escape. Vampires can also manipulate shadows and darkness. All Vampires also have increased physical abilities.

Vampires can create their own peerage. They do this by biting people's necks during a full moon, where the person is then under the absolute rule of the vampire. This process is much easier than the Devil's reincarnation ritual. However, this ritual is only used by low-class vampires who want to increase their power and is seen as a disgusting act, by the higher classes.

## Weaknesses

Being creatures of the night, Vampires are weak against sunlight. Vampires also need to drink blood occasionally to stay alive. Vampires are beings that can’t enter buildings unless they are invited to come in. They cannot walk across running water and hate garlic. Like Devils, Vampires are also weak against objects related to the Church, such as crosses and holy water. They also can't heal themselves unless they sleep in their coffins.

## Variants

### Pure-Blooded Vampires

 File:Elmenhilde Shin DxD color.jpeg
**Pure-Blooded Vampires** (純血の吸血鬼, *Junketsu no Kyūketsuki*) are the descendants of the original progenitors of vampires. Pure-Blooded Vampires are aristocrats that only recognize fellow Pure-Blooded vampires as equals and view all other races beneath them. They are noted to be very arrogant and discriminatory, especially towards Dhampirs, who they as inferior and refuse to recognize them as equal to themselves. Several hundred years ago, a incident occurred which split the world of pure-blood vampires as the vampires quarreled over choosing the true female ancestor as the leader of vampires or choosing the true male ancestor as the leader of vampires, giving birth to the to the **Carmilla Faction** (カーミラ派, *Kamīra-ha*), a female-dominated Vampire faction and the **Tepes Faction** (ツェペシュ派, *Tepeshu-ha*), a male-dominated Vampire faction.

### Dhampir

The **Dhampir** (ダンピル, *Danpiru*) are hybrids born of the union between Vampires and other species. These types of Vampires have all basic Vampiric powers but are immune to their weaknesses such as the effects of sunlight; although it still seems to cause them some discomfort.

### Undead

The **Undead** (アンデッド, *Andeddo*)are humans who have low tolerance against vampires and have been bitten, resulting in them turning into living corpses. They attack living humans and eat them alive, where any bitten person also becomes an undead, repeating the cycle. This cycle can only be broken if all the Undead is slain, or the source, the vampire is slain instead.

## Factions

### Carmilla Faction

The **Carmilla Faction** (カーミラ派, *Kamīra-ha*) is a Female-dominated Vampire Faction. The current leader and Queen of the faction is Queen Carmilla of the House of Carmilla. In the past the when the pure-blooded vampires quarreled over who should inherit the position of the true vampire, several houses allied with with the House of Carmilla, as they supported the House of Carmilla becoming the leading power among vampires, giving birth to the Carmilla Faction, which began to quarrel with the newly formed Tepes Faction over the right to inherit the position as the leader of vampires. Their conflicts were mostly political along with a few skirmishes, until the Tepes Faction got hold of the Longinus; **Sephiroth Graal**, which they used to enhance their solders and overwhelm the Carmilla Faction. Seeking to even out the disparity in power, the Carmilla Faction attempted to recruit Gasper Vladi, a former Tepes Faction vampire who recently awaken his true power, in order to fight for the Carmilla Faction. After the schism and coup in the Tepes Faction, the Carmilla Faction supported King Tepes' and the original members of the Tepes Faction against the rebels, in exchange for King Tepes being in the Carmilla Faction's favor. Unbeknownst to the female members of the Carmilla Faction, a large number of its male members had been temped by the promise of the power to eliminate their weaknesses and couldn't bear being oppressed by the female members of the faction as they sought to strengthen the rights of male vampires within the Carmilla Faction, accepting the power of being enhanced by the Holy Grail. The Vampires of the Carmilla Faction that were enhanced by the Holy Grail were transformed into Evil Dragons that ravaged the vampire country, leaving the country weakened and in need of assistance of the other mythological faction to rebuilt.

Known houses affiliated with this faction:

* House of Carmilla
* House of Karnstein
* House of Vordenburg

### Tepes Faction

The **Tepes Faction** (ツェペシュ派, *Tepeshu-ha*) a Male-dominated Vampire Faction. The current leader and King of the faction is the 4th King Of Tepes Faction; King Tepes of the House of Tepes. In the past the when the pure-blooded vampires quarreled over who should inherit the position of the true vampire, several houses allied with with the House of Tepes, as they supported the House of Tepes, becoming the leading power among vampires, giving birth to the Tepes Faction, which began to quarrel with the newly formed Carmilla Faction over the right to inherit the position as the leader of vampires. Their quarrel continued for several centuries in a continuous stalemate, until the Dhampirdaughter of the King Tepes; Valerie Tepes, manifested the Longinus; **Sephiroth Graal**. Seeing that as a opportunity, King Tepes had his son Marius Tepes help Valerie harness the power of the Longinus to enhance the soldiers of the Tepes Faction, making them resistant to the traditional weaknesses of vampires and increasing their power, as the soldiers of the Tepes Faction overwhelmed the soldiers of the Carmilla Faction. Unbeknownst to King Tepes and most of his loyal supporters, Marius had allied with the Khaos Brigade, as with the Khaos Brigade's help, he turned against the King, ousting him and his supporters as well as leaving the King near death, forcing the King to ally with the Carmilla Faction. The rebels of the Tepes Faction were defeated by members of the Carmilla Faction and the Occult Reseach Club, as Gasper Vladi killed Marius Tepes and his supporters in retaliation for Marius seemingly causing Valerie's death. As Rizevim Livan Lucifer revealed himself, he used a special command which transformed all of the vampires of the Tepes Faction that were enhanced by the Holy Grail into Evil Dragons that ravaged the vampire country, leaving the country weakened and in need of assistance of the other mythological faction to rebuilt.

Known houses affiliated with this faction:

* House of Tepes
* House of Vladi
* House of Manthar

## Known Vampires

### Carmilla Faction members

* Queen Carmilla (Queen of the Carmilla Faction)
* Elmenhilde Karnstein (Noble of the House of Karnstein)
* Millarca Vordenburg (Noble of the House of Vordenburg)

### Tepes Faction members

* King Tepes (King of the Tepes Faction)
* Marius Tepes † (Former Mayor of the Tepes Faction)
* Lord Vladi (Head of the House of Vladi)
* Unnamed Vampire from the House of Manthar †

#### Former Tepes Faction members

* Gasper Vladi (Dhamphir Daywalker; reincarnated into a Devil) (Former Member of the House of Vladi)
* Valerie Tepes (Dhamphir Daywalker) (Former Queen of the Tepes Faction)

## Trivia

* Carmilla refers to the Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella and character of the same name, Carmilla was a female vampire who preyed on the female lead, whom she expressed romantic desires toward.
	+ Karnstein refers to Carmilla's real identity as Countess Mircalla Karnstein (Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla).
	+ Vordenburg refers to Baron Vordenburg, another character from the Carmilla novel, a descendant of the hero who rid the area of vampires long ago. He discovered that his ancestor was romantically involved with the Countess Karnstein before she died and became one of the undead.
* Both Tepes and Vladi refer to Vlad III the Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula.
* Resting in a cardboard box is quite popular among vampire kind as it is just as narrow as a coffin.
* Vampires sleep in coffins.
* Vampires can be diagnosed with dragon blood poisoning if they consume too much dragon blood, as seen when Elmenhilde collapsed from consuming too much of Issei's blood.