Vampire

**Vampires** are undead beings created by Death to serve as his agents in bringing about the extinction of all life. They survive by drinking the blood of humans and animals. They have no blood of their own, resulting in a deathly pale skin tone, and possess a pair of fangs to drain their victims of blood in order to survive and continue using their powers.

## Notable members

* Horace Enfield
* David Iscaas

## Transformation

After being infected with vampirism, a human experiences symptoms that usually indicate anemia, such as weakness, paleness of the skin, and loss of consciousness. These symptoms gradually become worse over a period of days or weeks depending on the individual, until the human seemingly dies. This state only lasts until sundown, though, after which they rise again as a vampire.

### Generation effect

There are seven "generations" of vampires, determined by who has turned whom. For example, if a fourth-generation vampire turns a human, that human becomes a fifth-generation vampire, and so on. The only exception are first-generation vampires, which were turned by Death himself.

There are virtually no differences between generations, except for their ability to turn others.

* First, second and third-generation vampires will turn any human they bite into another vampire.
* Fourth, fifth and sixth-generation vampires can *choose* whether or not they turn their victim. If they choose not to, the victim will simply suffer from the amount of blood drained by their attacker. They do not necessarily die unless a fatal amount is taken.
* Seventh-generation vampires cannot turn anyone at all, simply draining their victims of blood until they are satisfied.

## Abilities

### Enthrallment

While uncommon, a few vampires possess a psychic ability that can only be described as a mix of hypnosis and mind control. By making eye contact with their victim, they can force them to do their bidding directly or enthrall them. An enthralled victim remains under their vampire master's control even when eye contact is broken, until they or the vampire dies or their master willingly releases them from the spell. All vampires are immune to the effects of enthrallment, even those who don't have the ability themselves.

### Regeneration

Any damage caused to vampires' bodies, they can regenerate as long as they have blood left in their system. The more blood they have, the larger the amount of tissue they can regrow. A powerful, well-nourished vampire can even regenerate their head or limbs, or even their whole body, from a small piece. However, once a vampire uses up all the blood in their body, they become as killable as anyone else. Additionally, any cut-off pieces of vampires' flesh decays as much as it would have if the vampire had died instead of turned (for example, a vampire who turned a few days ago would hardly decay, but a hundred-year-old one would turn to bones or even dust).

### Shapeshifting

All vampires are capable of changing their forms, but there is a limit to what aspects of themselves they can change. For example, the color of hair, eyes and skin will remain the same, and vampires cannot change into anything that doesn't resemble their anatomy. For most of them, this means they can only turn into mammals, but some skilled and experienced vampires can turn into birds, reptiles or even amphibians and fish as well. Turning into a creature that can fly is the only way vampires are capable of flight at all.

### Smell

Vampires have an acute sense of smell, especially where blood is concerned. They can sense its presence even when it's still inside a living being, and assess whether it's drinkable or not.

### Strength and Stamina

Due to their undead nature, vampires have increased physical strength and endurance and don't need to sleep at all, even in a weakened state.

## Weaknesses

### Barriers

A vampire cannot enter any home or property besides their own without permission or invitation from the proprietor. If they try to enter anyway, they're stopped by an invisible barrier. They also cannot cross running water, with similar effects if they try to.

### Religious symbolism

Certain symbols of certain religions, most notably Christian crucifixes, fill vampires with a sense of dread that can escalate into dizziness, nausea and even unconsciousness that lasts until the symbols are far enough away from them. The bigger and/or closer the symbol is, the stronger its effect, but it's never lethal.

### Silver

While silver isn't the only way to damage vampires, since any kind of blade can pierce them, it *does* cause wounds that take longer to heal for some unknown reason. Simply touching silver will not harm a vampire, though.

### Spices

Some spices, especially garlic, irritate a vampire's skin or digestive tract and can even have a poisonous or allergic effect. It is never enough to kill one, though.

### Sunlight

The light of the sun burns through vampires' bodies, causing severe damage to the skin and, upon longer exposure, the underlying tissue. It can even burn holes into vampires if a lens, eg. a magnifying glass, is used.

## Reflection

Most old-fashioned mirrors show no reflection of vampires as they're backed with silver, but most modern mirrors, being backed with steel instead, *do.*

## Loss of self

After a certain number of years, which varies from case to case, vampires rapidly lose their self-awareness and become bloodthirsty creatures with access to all their abilities, but no more compassion or humanity left in them. This process, like vampirism itself, cannot be reversed.