Vampire/Being Human

* Syfy
* BBC

**Vampires** are an undead, immortal supernatural species that consume blood to maintain their vitality. Their bodies are animated by their souls, which are kept trapped in their supernaturally-perserved corpses by the supernatural powers of vampire blood. Their bodies seem to work like living bodies, at least on a visible level, meaning they will not feel like they are dead as their bodies respond to certain things in ways of a living person would. Humans become vampires by an unknown process that involves a vampire's bite and/or a transfer of blood.

## History

The origins of the vampire race is unclear, but they have been around since at least the time of Christ. The oldest vampire shown is Mother, whose age was not stated, but was implied to be centuries older than the 1000-year-old Heggeman. Vampires arrived in the New World shortly after the first European colonization.

The vampires were initially ruled and governed by a very strict and traditional society which expected all vampires to adhere to their laws and rules under penalty of death, exile or being put to the ground; with the Royal vampires such as Mother ruling over the vampires and the Dutch serving as an elite. By the 21st century, vampires seemed to be located primarily in North America, particularly in Boston, although vampires apparently also lived in other parts of the world as the Dutch were initially located in Holland and several vampires have been known to originally hail from different parts of the world.

Circa 2011 - 2013, the Virus, a new flu strain, appeared and briefly infected the majority of the human population. Though the humans weren't majorly affected by the flu, it left their blood poisonous to vampires afterwards, crippling and killing vampires who drank from humans who'd been exposed to the Virus. As a result, the vampire race was severely decimated by the Virus over the course of the year, nearly to the point of extinction, and the original, traditional vampire society's regime apparently collapsed. However, the remaining vampires escaped extinction when werewolf blood was discovered to be a vaccine against the Virus' deadly effects on vampires.

Once the threat of the Virus was over, the remaining vampires in Boston began rebuilding and repopulating under a new rule by Kenny Fisher, under which they didn't kill humans and drank from donors; although it is unknown what happened to Kenny's budding new vampire society after majorities of the Boston vampires were slaughtered by Suzanna Waite and Kenny himself eventually killed.

## Creation

Vampires can turn living or recently-deceased humans into new vampires. The turning process has never been shown directly, but it involves biting the person that is to be turned on the neck. It would seem that the biting would require the fangs of the vampire to be used, as Gates was deprived of his fangs and was seemingly made him unable to turn humans, and according to him, unable to feed. It has also been indicated by remarks made by Suren and Rebecca about the turning process that the person must also drink a vampire's blood, with the dose only needing to be a "sip". In this instance, the victim was already bitten or dying, which may be a requirement to turn someone. The fact that Aidan, upon waking as a vampire, apparently didn't remember the turning process beyond being bitten, could suggest that the person being turned is unconscious throughout most of the process or suffers some memory loss. Jeff Weston turned after being attacked by Aidan when it was indicated that Aidan had only bitten and fed on him and hadn't performed a proper turning process on him; suggesting that it could be possible for an improper turning to occur on a person through just a vampire bite.

After the turning process is carried out on a living, dying or recently-dead human body, the person remains clinically dead for a length of time (seemingly a matter of hours or even a day's length), before awakening as a new vampire. From that point onward, the person's body will be kept physically frozen at the age they were when they were turned, and any injuries or any form of damage they suffered, including vampire bites, will be gone without a trace. Upon awakening, the new vampire has an immediate feeling of hunger and cramp from their new need for blood, which they usually give in to the moment their new vampiric senses and instincts are aroused by human blood for the first time.

When a person is turned into a vampire, a lasting supernatural parent-child bond forms between them and the vampire that turned them. It is usual for a new vampire's maker to look after and care for their vampire progeny and guide them on being a vampire.

## Diet

Vampires must drink human blood to stay healthy and maintain their strength and vitality; preferably blood straight from the source (referred to as 'live' blood). Though it is possible for vampires to alternatively sustain themselves on the bagged, preserved blood found in hospitals, it is not as effective, and can leave them almost as weak as humans compared to live-drinking vampires. Though vampires can drink animals' blood, it provides much less sustenance, and as such is only a weak deterrant to avoid killing humans when vampires' hunger gets out of control. Likewise, vampires can drink each-other's blood, but it will eventually leave them more hungry. Vampires are capable of consuming human food and drinks, but they do not get any sustenance from it, and it is actually almost tasteless to them.

An absence of blood in a vampire's system will cause them to become severely weakened and barely able to move, and they will also grow heavily and agonizingly starved-feeling. Blood starvation can also cause vampires to suffer hallucinations. It was shown with Suren that eighty years without blood can leave a vampire in an extremely desiccated, mummy-like state, barely able to move at all. Although vampires get stronger from feeding on blood, consuming too much, while increasing their healing and durability further, can cause them to exhibit symptoms of intoxication such as decreased reaction time and less sense of self-control.

## Appearance and Biology

Vampires are undead creatures, whose bodies are kept animated and supernaturally-preserved by the curse that causes vampirism. Due to their undead state, vampires possess few bodily functions, and no vital signs such as a heartbeat (although Aidan once mentioned that an electric shock could have a brief defibrillation-effect on a vampire's heart), and their bodies remain frozen at the physical age they were when the vampire in question was turned, no matter how far beyond that age the vampire has lived since being turned. While vampires' bodies do not age, they can still experience some other certain natural developing processes such as hair growth. However, any other type of change, such as blemishes developed by infections and non-genetic causes, or any signs at all of aging or wear, remain unable to manifest. Vampires also lose sense-based defects such as incorrective-eyesight that they had as humans, and are immune to non-supernatural forms of disease.

Though vampires normally appear indistinguishable from humans, they can switch from their human face over to their vampiric true face; their eyes turn pure-black, and some of their front upper-teeth sharpen and extend to form fangs with which they can directly feed or kill. There can be several specific variations between different vampires' fangs. Vampires seem to most commonly have just two canine fangs and sharpened lateral incisors, but they can alternatively have four lateral incisor and canine fangs, or just two lateral incisor fangs. Vampires' fangs can also vary in thinness and length from needle-like to more canine-like. If a vampire's fangs are removed, they do not grow back, rendering them unable to drink live.

Vampires can extend their fangs and switch over to their black eyes either at will, when they're in a state of agitation (such as feeling hungry, losing emotional control or fighting), or when they're expressing malice and malevolence and are about to attack. It has been suggested that vampires' use of their vampiric face probably acts as some form of adrenaline rush and enhances their capability to lethal efficiency. Ingestion of garlic can force vampires to reveal their vampiric eyes and fangs, and render them temporarily unable to change back to their human faces unless treated with certain herbs.

Bishop's rodent-like fangs

Aidan's bat-like fangs

### Physical Trauma

Vampires can endure significant physical trauma without the damage being fatal. They are resilient to damage and punishment that would be severe if not fatal to a human, and can make a full recovery from it just a matter of hours or days, although they can still feel the pain and suffering that the damage causes.

Vampires can heal quite quickly, but not instantly. How long a vampire takes to heal and how much pain they are able to take depends upon the severity of the injuries they have sustained, and also upon how strong the vampire is. Ultimately, so long as their heart isn't pierced with wood, their fangs are not damaged and they aren't decapitated, a vampire is able to fully recover and self repair any form of physical damage (including injuries that would be utterly fatal to humans, such as stabbing, impalement, flaying even gunshots to the head) within a matter of hours. If a vampires suffer severe enough physical damage they will be temporarily crippled by it, however the healing process is best accelerated and aided by drinking more blood than usual.

Vampires feel pain despite their inhuman endurance and healing factor, and thus can be temporarily greatly crippled by severe enough physical damage and even tortured. Vampires' vulnerability to pain and physical damage is higher the more weakened they are. It would seem that a vampire's weakness to pain decreases with age; as Aidan, when recently-turned, responded to physical punches much like a human would, while the centuries-old Bishop was barely fazed by hits and even stabs.

## Abilities

Vampires possess a number of abilities that make them deadly creatures. The strength and efficiency of most if not all of a vampire's abilities depends upon the vampire's blood diet; vampires' abilities work at their best when they're feeding live and at full strength, while the abilities of vampires who are weakened by being starved of blood or by a diet of bagged blood are more weakened. Vampires' powers also grow much stronger with age. Vampires' abilities can practically always overpower humans in combat, and they can also overpower werewolves in human form, depending upon a vampire's aforementioned diet health and how far away the full moon is.

* **Enhanced Vitality** - Vampires possess stamina, strength, vitality and physical capabilities well beyond any human in their physical prime. This allows them to physically exert themselves, even in a superhuman capacity for hours without showing signs of fatigue. Vampires can run, fight and exert themselves for longer than any human and in a greater physical capacity, though they can still feel fatigued and even be knocked out. However their vitality, like their other abilities is tied to their consumption of blood; vampires who drink live blood can exercise superhuman levels of agility and stamina, whereas those who drink bagged blood will be weaker and have less energy.

* **Enhanced Strength** - Vampires possess tremendously enhanced strength, being noticeably physically stronger than average adult humans, and werewolves in human form. They can exert much greater force than the average person, or werewolf with almost inhuman ease. An average vampire, regardless of their size or shape, are shown to be stronger than heavily built, greatly massed humans, as welll as non purebred werewolves. Vampires have shown to easily physically overpower humans, untransformed werewolves and even younger or weakened vampires of all shapes and builds, exerting a staggering and incapacitating force; this has allowed a vampire to throw another vampire of the same age flying several feet through the air. A vampire's strength increases with age, as a several hundred year old vampire was able to decapitate his maker using chains, a feat repeated by an ancient vampire with just a swift slice of her hand. Their strength has been described as inhuman, and being on par with that of a preditorial animal.
* **Accelerated Speed** - Vampires are much faster than humans and werewolves (in human form and possibly even wolf form); vampires can give sudden bursts of amazing speeds, about that of the fastest land vehicle or more, to the point where they can appear to be distorted blurs of motion and can get from one spot to another within just a second or two. This has allowed Aiden, directly after feeding freshly from humans, to cover the entire city of Boston, from Bishops building to the rooms where Josh was turning inside, all in a matter of 10 seconds or less. This immense speed also has an equally immense impact force against anyone or anything that a vampire hits while moving at this speed. It appears that vampires' super-speed is triggered by extreme emotional fear and motivation, analogous to hysterical strength in humans. It would also seem that this speed usually works when a vampire is at full strength from feeding on live blood and recently.
* **Enhanced Senses** - Vampires possess extremely heightened senses of sight, smell and hearing much greater than humans and non-purebred werewolves. Vampires can smell evidence of death, and can sense when someone who doesn't want to be seen is nearby (Some Thing to Watch over Me). They are able to hear the heartbeats of anyone nearby, especially when thirsting for blood (There goes the Neighbourhood: part 1), and can tell when someone is on their period, (Old Dogs, New Tricks) or pregnant purely from their smell (There goes the Neighbourhood: part 3). Vampires can smell humans from as far off as a mile away and assess their physical condition from their scent.
* **Enhanced Recovery** - Vampires are able to recover from any form of physical damage at a much quicker rate than most other creatures and certainly any mortal creatures; depending upon their blood diet and the severity of the damage. A vampire was able to completely recover from being attack and impaled within a matter of hours after drinking a sufficient amount of bagged blood. After completely feeding from two live victims, a vampire was able to regenerate all of the skin on their body in less than a day after it had been peeled off. Despite their tremendous regenerative abilities, there are certain injuries that vampires cannot recover from, like decapitation or staking, and they cannot regenerate damaged or destroyed fangs.
* **Mind Compulsion** - Compulsion or compelling is a vampire's ability to influence, manipulate and even modify a person's mind, will and memories with simple eye contact and verbal compelling. While it is an ability that comes naturally with vampirism, for some it is difficult to use. Compelling can also, if a vampire is poorly-skilled at using it, go wrong, causing its effect to wear off faster, or even drive the subjected human to suicide (Some Thing to Watch over Me). Compulsion does not seem to work on werewolves, ghosts and other vampires.

* **Enhanced Resilience** - Vampires possess far more endurance and stamina than humans, making them more resilient to fatigue and trauma. They are essentially invulnerable to most conventional causes of fatality, and are extremely resilient to fatigue and pain. Vampires can endure trauma such as high velocity impacts, damage to vital organs, gunshots, even impalement and eventually recover. There are however certain exceptions and restrictions to a vampire's resilience, with injuries such as a stake to the heart, decapitation resulting in instant death. A vampire that feeds on humans can quickly recover from impacts such as those created from falling from great heights, and can easily get back on their feet unfazed or partially fazed. Vampires weakened from feeding on bagged blood respond to physical stress and trauma in a more human manner.
* **Clairvoyance** - As supernatural creatures, vampires are constantly aware of ghosts, able to see and hear them in the same way werewolves and other ghosts can. They are also able to sense werewolves, who give off a distinct, dog-like stench that can only be detected by vampires and other werewolves. To vampires, a werewolf's smell is highly repulsive. Old and powerful vampires such as Mother can apparently also sense other vampires, even when they are out of sight.
* **Immortality** - Vampires are an undead supernatural species with and endless lifespan. Vampires do not physically age from the moment they are turned, and will maintain this physical age regardless of how much time has passed. Due to their advanced rate of recovery, they also do not develop any long lasting or permanent injuries, the only notable physical change that may occur is hair growth. Vampires are immune to conventional earthly disease and are capable of living forever, provided they are not killed through unconventional methods such as staking or decapitation.

## Weaknesses

Vampires cannot be killed by most conventional means that humans can; however they still experience pain, and can be crippled for days, or moments, depending on the trauma. Trauma that would hospitalise or kill humans may only temporarily hinder vampires, and there are a few specific natural substances which temporarily paralyse, weaken and cripple them. There are certain methods that can be used to destroy them. When a vampire dies, their body withers and burns away to ash, along with anything they were wearing.

* **Wooden Stakes** - A vampire can be killed by a wooden object, usually a stake, piercing its heart; although if it misses the vampire's heart, it won't be fatal, but still crippling.
* **Decapitation** - Cutting a vampire's head off will kill them instantly or near instantly.
* **Sunlight** - While sunlight is not lethal to them like in traditional folklore, vampires strongly dislike direct sunlight, which seems to cause them pain and discomfort, though they can hide it overtime, and they tend to prefer to go out covered up in daylight. According to Aidan, vampires were originally entirely incapable of going out in the sun, but they gradually adapted and are now merely 'photosensitive'.
* **Invitation Deprivation** - Houses owned by humans or werewolves cannot be entered by vampires without the owner's permission, unless the vampire itself either lives there or was turned there. Entering uninvited for more than a few seconds will cause the vampire to burn, and can fatally melt the vampire away if they don't get back out quickly. Interestingly, if the ownership of the house officially changes while a vampire is still inside it, the invitation is nullified, and the vampire will perish unless he or she escapes immediately.
* **Werewolf Blood** - Werewolf blood is non-fatally but cripplingly toxic to vampires. It causes vampires who ingest it to bleed heavily from their faces, rendering them too weak to even stand, and also causing them to experience violent seizures; although the effect only lasts for a matter of minutes before the vampire recovers. A vampire who has consumed werewolf blood will be rendered unable to create other vampires, instead creating defective, vampire-like mutants. The werewolf blood only remains in their system for a few weeks.

Sally calls it going "Joker-faced" because of how pale a vampire gets and their lips being stained with blood.

* **Garlic** - While not fatal, if a Vampire consumes Garlic, it will force them to assume their vampiric features (black eyes and fangs), as well as causing congestion. The effects can be countered by bathing in certain herbs: feverfew, mistletoe, or camomile.
* **The Virus** - If a vampire feeds from a human that had the mysterious new flu strain, then they will be fatally poisoned. The symptoms the vampire exhibits include increasing-greying patches across their skin, decreased rational thought and reduced effectiveness and acuity of their physical abilities. Eventually, after a matter of days, the vampire will die of the Virus's effects, unless their body has been vaccinated against the Virus's effect by consuming werewolf blood.
* **Juniper** - The plant juniper can temporarily render vampires severely weakened and paralysed if it gets into their system. The effects apparently take "a really long time to kick in." Human blood can acquire the effects of Juniper if ingested, but will only work if a large does is consumed (enough to kill the human).
* **Blood Withdrawal** - When vampires don't feed after a day or two, they begin to become sick and rabid; losing self-control over their bloodlust around humans, and even experiencing hallucinations. They will act aggressive and will slightly feel panicked and desperate for blood.
* **Blood Intoxication** - When vampires feed on too much blood they will begin to become intoxicated. In this mental state, vampires can be overpowered easier by werewolves that are a day away from transforming, and are at greater risk of losing self-control and attacking humans.
* **Werewolf bite/scratch** - A bite or scratch from a werewolf is capable of killing a vampire.
* **Physical Trauma -** Both trauma and damage can have the same painful, weakening, disorienting or stunning effect on a vampire as it does on normal humans, though they can recover from any form of trauma and damage, unless it is a stake in the heart. Vampires weakened from feeding on bagged blood respond to physical stress and trauma in a more human manner. In fact, enough physical trauma, especially that which is caused by a transformed werewolf, may be fatal to a vampire.
* **Loss of Fangs** - If removed, a vampire's fangs cannot be re-grown.
* **Headshot** - While a direct headshot won't kill a vampire or even knock it out, the brain damage it causes will partially but severely cripple the vampire's movements for a short time until they begin to heal.
* **Defective Vampire mind compulsion** - A defective vampire's mind compelling ability can work on normal vampires.
* **Blackthorn wood** - As demonstrated by Liam McLean when torturing Aidan, while not fatal to vampires, blackthorn wood can agonise them even more than regular wood would.

## Post-mortem

It has been implied that when vampires die, there is no afterlife for them, unlike with humans and werewolves; in that vampires cannot get a door to the afterlife, and instead of becoming ghosts, there's apparently nothing for the dead vampire. Bishop and Aidan both considered vampires' inability to have any afterlife to be a form of damnation. It has also been indicated that dead vampires cannot be resurrected. However, if a vampire is cured and subsequently dies as a human, then it will become a ghost and be given a door to their afterlife on the Other Side just like ordinary humans and werewolves.

### Cure

As vampires are the undead, a vampire's condition can be cured and their humanity restored, through using witchcraft to sacrifice a ghost's energy and give it to a vampire's body as life energy; which will restore the vampire's body to life and render the vampire human. The ritual apparently restores a vampire's soul as well as their body to its human state, as after Aidan became human and subsequently died, he was able to become a ghost and have a door to the afterlife. It would appear that a former-vampire does retain the ability to perceive ghosts after being cured though.

Although the resurrection ritual is indeed able to make vampires human again, a consequence is that without the vampire curse keeping the person's body frozen at the age it was when the former-vampire was turned, their true age will begin to catch up with them; starting with the cured vampire's internal organs and then eventually their physical appearance as well. Thus, if the former-vampire had lived beyond a mortal lifespan as a vampire before they were cured, then they will only have a matter of days to live before they die of organ failure.

### Other characteristics

Though it is possible to turn children into vampires, vampiric children are much more wild, volatile, feral and out-of-control due to the fact that children lack a certain form of self-control over their instincts.

## Society and hierarchy

Before being decimated by the Virus, vampires were known to have their own society and set of rules that they expected all vampires to adhere to. The ancient vampire Mother was the ruler, and the Dutch were an elite who answered to very few vampires at all besides Mother.

The hierarchy goes as follows:

* **Royals:** The royals were a group of politically-powerful vampires that governed their kind. Mother, a royal, was queen of all vampires. Other royals were mentioned to exist.
* **The Council:** The council was a group of vampires that served under Mother. They were likely a group of coven heads that met and discussed pressing issues, since Heggeman, the leader of the Dutch, was a member.
* **The Dutch:**  A clan of powerful elder vampires, who visited the American vampire clans every 50 years to evaluate them.
* **Coven heads:** The leaders of their respective vampire sects.

Most of the vampire covens and bureaucracy fell apart in the wake of the Virus, and the few surviving vampires now exist mostly independently. It is unknown if any of the Dutch still survive or if there are any covens left that are still operating.

### Laws

Some of the laws seen amongst the vampires' original regime before the Virus included:

* **Heresy** - It was considered heresy by the elders for vampires to not feed live and to have relations with a human. The punishment could be death for the heretic, or even the heretic's maker for not correcting their progeny's behavior.
* **Exposing vampires** - If a vampire exposed their kind to mortals, then they were usually punished by being put to ground (that is to say being buried alive underground to starve without dying). Suren was buried underground for 80 years for exposing her vampiric nature in full view of the public.
* **Creating an army** - The Dutch liked to ensure that no vampire coven had an advantage over another, and so they ensured that vampires that were turned without prior consent or who had a traitor for a maker were killed off.
* **Turning children** - It was forbidden to turn children because of their volatile lack of control over themselves. If a child was found to be turned, they were usually destroyed and their maker punished.

## Relationships

### Werewolves

Werewolves are viewed with disgust by most vampires. Werewolves give off a distinct scent noticeable to vampires and other werewolves which vampires find disgusting. Considering that vampires like to think of themselves as being organized and civilized, they see werewolves as wild, unkempt vagabonds. Some vampires have been known to strike up friendship with werewolves, but it is very rare because of the mutual animosity between the two species. Vampires also feel a certain amount of fear towards werewolves, as a werewolf in wolf form is one of the few beings more powerful than a vampire. Sally commented that the vampires watching the dog fights were terrified of the transformed werewolves involved. The Dutch member, Atlee, was frightened off by the idea of facing four werewolves during a full moon.

The hatred between vampires and werewolves is mutual. Werewolves often refer to vampires as "leeches" or "parasites" and see them as a blight on the rest of the world. Vampires and werewolves have been in conflict throughout history.

### Ghosts

Vampires can see ghosts as a nuisance, as they are sometimes haunted by the ghosts of their human victims. Information on interactions between vampires and ghosts is limited.

## List of known vampires

### Defective Vampire

People who have been turned by a vampire that is contaminated from drinking werewolf blood develop grotesque physical characteristics that are very different from normal vampires. These grotesque creatures have a greater thirst for blood and their attitude is more animalistic than other vampires, although within a few months afterwards these monstrous characteristics will partially fade.

## Gallery

Rebecca

Bishop after feeding

Defective vampire Jeff Weston, trying to feed off of Aidan

Vampires feeding on a werewolf

Defective Vampire

A vampire after 80 years of not feeding

Vampire Tommy

Bishop during the Revolutionairy War

Blake

Vampire rampage

Cecilia being tortured

Group of defective vampires

A vampire after drinking werewolf blood

## Trivia

* According to Toby Whithouse at Comic-Con, vampires are unable to practice witchcraft, because vampirism is its own innate, untappable form of magic.
* Contrary to the BBC version of *Being Human*, vampires in the SyFy version do not suffer from the weakness of religious objects, and they can be seen on film and in mirrors.
* It seems that they can't be resurrected unlike their BBC counterparts.
* It's possible that the creation of defective vampires was the reason that vampires banned feeding from werewolves. Even Aidan stated that not even he knew why it was forbidden.
* While in the Syfy series it's forbidden to turn children, it's not the same in the BBC series.
* It is suggested that, due to the mass decimation of the vampire race by the Virus, Aidan was possibly the oldest and strongest surviving member of the dwindling vampire species.
* Vampires can discipline themselves into feeding on miniscule amounts of blood. Suzanna Waite explained she only fed on a single heart pump worth of blood at any time she was hungry.

A **Vampire** is a post-human creature born from the reanimated corpse of a victim who has been “recruited” by another of their kind. Vampires are characterized by an animalistic craving for human blood which often compels them to perform horrific acts to satiate this drug-like urge. Some choose to fight this addiction by foregoing feeding or sustaining themselves solely on stored blood. However, most simply feed and even kill as they please - both for the greater nourishment that live blood gives them as well as the sheer pleasure and power of taking a life.

The danger they pose to human society has made them a highly secretive culture akin to the Mob so as to avoid mass extinction.

## History and society

The ancestors of modern-day vampires were strictly nocturnal, only emerging under the cover of darkness. This is why some modern-day vampires are greatly irritated when exposed to excess sunlight. It is also known that the vampires apparently had their own myths and legends, all of which originated from five dreams which the two original vampires had upon first drinking blood. (*Eve of the War*)

Humans seemed to have been aware of vampires up until around the 1600s - 1700s. Anyone accused of vampirism was imprisoned in underground prisons away from normal society. In 1665, a mass cull of vampires was arranged in Bristol, and all known vampires there were exterminated. (*Long Live The King*) It has since been presumed that the history of vampires has been covered up and disguised as a myth, making present-day humans unaware of their existence. Vampires were subsequently forced to lead double-lives as humans to avoid discovery and persecution. The first vampire to do this was Richard Turner, who moved to Bristol in 1630. Despite killing over 1,000 people, Turner was a highly respected figure amongst the human world and even ran for parliament. Turner's move to Bristol caused a mass migration of vampires to the city, making it the heart of the British vampire community.

As the centuries progressed, vampires became more concerned about their existence being discovered. Modern-day vampires usually had communities disguised as abandoned businesses, where they met and arranged killings. Many vampires were situated in positions of high authority, such as the police. These vampires were consulted to cover up any killings with false stories. Usually, a human coroner was blackmailed into confirming the cause of death as an accident or suicide.

A notable incident in which the vampires' identity was nearly revealed to humans was circa 2010, when vampires John Mitchell and Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri killed twenty train passengers in Bristol in what was known as the Box Tunnel 20 Massacre. Mitchell was later arrested after an investigation into the murders, and was brought to a local police department, where his picture was taken. As a vampire's image cannot be captured, Mitchell's identity was discovered, and vampires were exposed. However, Mitchell was later rescued by the resurrected Herrick, who murdered all those who had discovered the vampires' existence. The story was afterwards fully covered up by Edgar Wyndham, and the vampires returned to their unknown existence. (*The Wolf-Shaped Bullet*)

## Alternate timeline

In an alternate timeline where the Old Ones weren't killed in 2012 and their plans to take over the Earth from humanity weren't stopped, the vampires began attacking humanity and taking over nations, until eventually they took control over the Earth. In this alternate future, the vampires formed a Nazi-like regime as the dominant species over humans and werewolves, complete with fascist-esque propaganda and horrific concentration camps for humans and werewolves. The vampires also fought against a human-werewolf resistance for control of the Earth in the aftermath of the vampire takeover, and by 2037, the vampires seemed to have the upper-hand in the war and take numerous resistance territories. (*Eve of the War*, *Making History*, *The War Child*)

## Characteristics

### Infection

Vampires reproduce by turning humans into new vampires by a process known as recruiting. The process of infecting a human with the vampire curse has not been seen directly, but vague details of the process have been indicated by attempted recruitments (*No Care, All Responsibility*) and mentions and remarks (*Flotsam and Jetsam*, *The Trinity*). When a human is on the brink of death, a vampire can recruit that person by introducing some of their vampiric blood into the person's body. Though in most instances the cause of the person's dying state before being recruited is being bitten and fed on by a vampire, it can alternatively be a conventional cause such as deadly head trauma or a slash to the neck, without a vampire bite being necessary to recruit the person.

Afterwards, the person is clinically dead for a matter of hours. During this time, they have visions of the Men with Sticks and Rope, which is very traumatic for them. Upon awakening, the person is a new vampire. New vampires may initially feel nauseated upon awakening due to their blood pressure dropping and their heart rate decreasing, and their new craving for blood will apparently set in practically immediately. (*The Trinity*)

### Behaviour

After being recruited, at least some aspects of a vampire's mind will stay at the level of maturity it was on the day he or she was recruited; decades or even centuries later. For example, the vampire Adam Jacobs, despite being forty-six, behaved like an adolescent, as he was recruited when he was sixteen; and Hetty, who was recruited as a little girl, apparently still liked to draw ponies at the age of 465 (though this may have been sarcasm).

Usually, when they're on blood, vampires kill humans without a bad conscience and enjoy the rush and sensation of killing and destroying life. If a vampire kills and drinks blood, they also don't suffer from "bad" emotions, like guilt, loss, loneliness, grief or sadness. However, most vampires take care when killing to avoid drawing too much attention and sparking a big investigation.

Not all vampires want to kill at all. They can either attempt to fight their bloodlust and become clean of blood, or drink blood from humans without killing them. Though blood-dry vampires would appear in numerical terms to be rare, it was implied by Nick Cutler that it's actually common for it to happen to a vampire once at some point in their immortal life, but it virtually never lasts indefinitely before the vampire falls back to their bloodlust. (*Making History*) Staying clean of blood is very hard for vampires, since the withdrawal causes the memories of all the people they have killed and all the atrocities they have committed to come back to their mind. These "clean" vampires also have to deal with their "bad emotions" again, including their guilt and horror over the death and grief and other atrocities they caused/committed when on blood.

Many vampires viciously enjoy bullying, beating up, degrading and even killing werewolves. However, it would appear that these sadistic and prejudiced tendencies towards werewolves are down to the effects of drinking blood, since vampires have a much better, more stable and non-prejudiced attitude towards werewolves when clean of blood.

It is common for a newly-recruited vampire's infector to look after and tutor the new vampire. For example, the vampires William Herrick and John Mitchell kept a close partnership for over fifty years after Herrick recruited Mitchell during the First World War, and the fact that Mitchell did not do this for Lauren Drake, a vampire he had recruited, was seen as harsh and poor form by Herrick.

Vampires possess a biological drive to consume human blood, similar to drug addiction, except it's a natural craving that's a part of their nature. Normally, unless they have rejected and tamed their bloodlust, vampires are driven to regularly consume large quantities of human blood. It is apparently not the blood itself that quenches a vampire's thirst, but the life force in it from the human. Due to this, vampires find blood that has been removed and stored for more than a few hours much less satisfactory than fresh blood consumed directly from a live human victim. Vampires can also feed on other vampires' blood, but it is likewise apparently less satisfactory than human blood. Ingesting blood, more specifically live blood provides a certain high for vampires; live blood allows vampires to perform physically strenuous activity with greater ease and for longer (*Damage*) and makes them more resilient to harm (*Where the Wild Things Are*). Drinking live blood also improves vampires healing process (*Bad Moon Rising*). Vampires who drink massive quantities of blood, or drink blood after enduring withdrawal, then it will temporarily cause aggressive mood changes in the vampire's actions and demeanor. Though they immensely and addictively thirst for blood, vampires don't biologically-speaking need it for sustenance, and can survive dry of blood without any detrimental effect on their physical health for decades. Although, vampires abstaining from blood will have an intense craving for it and experience symptoms similar to drug withdrawal if they fail to consume blood after a great amount of time. This craving has been shown to cause extreme pain and cramps, and can even cause hallucinations in the very earliest stages (though these leave after a time). There isn't any known vampire who has managed to not drink blood at all. At a certain time, all of the vampires have given in to their bloodlust. However, there are some vampires who stayed dry for a long time. Hal Yorke didn't consume blood for 57 years, Carl for more than 20 years, and Mitchell for eight years.

### Biology

A vampire's normal heart rate is only one beat per minute, although it would appear they can cause their heart to beat faster in order to mimic a human heartbeat. When Mitchell was hospitalised after being attacked by Herrick, doctors initially couldn't find his heartbeat when they were trying to operate on him. When he was later shown in bed and hooked up to a heart monitor, the machine was bleeping in a regular rhythm, as would be expected of a human. This would imply that vampires can learn to control their heart rate to some extent. (*Bad Moon Rising*)

Vampires' bodies are apparently biologically dead, true to the lore of vampires being undead. George himself, when recollecting what he'd felt when he'd killed Herrick in his wolf form, remembered that Herrick's blood was cold. (*Bad Moon Rising*) Vampires' undead state immunises them against succubi's life-draining ability and allows a vampire to survive sex with a succubus. (*Hold the Front Page*) It also means that ghosts can apport vampires with them when teleporting, since ghosts can only teleport non-living things. (*The War Child*)

### Appearance

Vampires are usually physically indistinguishable from humans. However, when a vampire is aggravated or about to attack, they will "manifest"; their eyes will flash all-jet-black for several seconds or less, their upper-canines will be replaced by a pair of lengthened fangs, and they will be able to produce a hissing sound from their throat. Though vampires usually have no different physical traits from humans when not showing their vampiric eyes and fangs, it was implied that as vampires reach an ancient age, their physical bodies begin to slightly decay internally, and that this was the reason for the 3000-year-old vampire Mr. Snow's complexion (unnaturally pale skin, with black blood vessels visible beneath, and rotted teeth and nails). The 1000-year-old vampire Edgar Wyndham likewise showed unhealthy pale skin and darkening veins on his temples.

Vampires' image cannot be captured by any sort of film, camera or mirror. However, while vampires' image cannot be reflected or captured directly, if a vampire is wet and covered in water, then the water on their body will give an outline of them in photos. It is a strength, in that their image cannot be traced photographically through the ages, but a weakness, as it can reveal them in situations in which a mirror image or photograph is expected, such as a photographic ID card. Therefore, the vampire society holds it as a top priority that vampires are not arrested after killing their victims, as police mug shots taken would reveal the vampire race's existence to the human world.

### Abilities

* **Enhanced to Superhuman Strength** - Vampires possess vastly increased physical strength that surpasses humans' and werewolves' in human form. The strength of a vampire increases as they age. A young and newly-turned vampire, Lauren Drake, was able to lift an adult male high above the ground with a single hand, (*Flotsam and Jetsam*) a feat repeated by a 117-year-old vampire; John Mitchell, with even less effort (*Another Fine Mess*). Vampires are noticeably stronger than humans; as it required a large group of police officers to restrain a 117 year old vampire (*Though the Heavens Fall*). Two vampires over 90 years of age killed and mutilated 20 full grown adults; slaughtering them within minutes and with minimal effort, showing no evidence of injury afterward (*Damage*). Mr. Snow, a 3000-year-old vampire was far stronger and easily tore a human open one-handed (*The War Child*).
* **Enhanced Durability/Invulnerability** - Vampires are impervious to most forms of damage to the body, with the exception of wood piercing their heart, severe mutilation, and decapitation; Vampires have been shown to survive stabbing with wooden stakes (as long as the stake does not pierce the heart), although this still weakens and immobilises them (*Bad Moon Rising*, *The Last Broadcast*). Vampires can also endure most forms of blunt force trauma without any hinderance, allowing a Vampire to endure a car collision that would hospitalize a human, practically unharmed, (*Another Fine Mess*) and, according to Hal, shooting a Vampire, even through the heart wouldn't slow them down (*Being Human 1955*). The sustenance Vampires gain from live blood strengthens their resilience and recovery (*Where the Wild Things Are*), Vampires who abstain from blood are weaker (*Flotsam and Jetsam*).
* **Enhanced Senses** - Vampires possess keener senses than humans, having demonstrated such exceptional hearing and sense of smell. A vampire can detect sounds humans cannot; such as hearing an oncoming car over a crowd of shouting people when no one else could (*Another Fine Mess*), and, especially when thirsting for blood, hear the sound of someone's heartbeat (*Flotsam and Jetsam*). Vampires can sense a werewolf's presence purely by smell, as werewolves give off a unique scent that only vampires can detect. Vampires can also detect aromas such as cigarettes even when only trace amounts are present (*A Spectre Calls*), catch the scent of blood from far away (*The Pack*), and can tell if a vampire has been drinking blood purely from how they smell (*Another Fine Mess*).
* **Clairvoyance** - Like all other supernatural species, vampires are aware of, and able to constantly perceive ghosts. In fact, the supernatural perception of vampires seems to be more developed than werewolves' or ghosts'; as vampires are often able to identify werewolves on sight and can likewise identify ghosts instinctively, whereas supernatural species such as werewolves and ghosts are required to work out if someone is a supernatural upon encountering them.
* **Vampire Mind Control** - An ability that has only been displayed by a single vampire; Mr. Snow, a 3000 year old vampire possessed the ability to control and command the actions of any vampire (*The War Child*). He was able to command any younger vampire, even one as old as Hal Yorke to do whatever he suggests. The exact extent of this ability is unknown, such as if it affects beings other than vampires, or if it is an ability that only Mr. Snow has access to. It is possible that all vampires will develop this ability when they reach such an ancient age.
* **Regeneration** - A vampire's blood pressure drops exponentially, and their heart only beats once every minute, however this will not kill them due to their condition enhancing their healing process to an exceptional degree (The Trinity). Vampires, while able to be injured, are never seen to develop permanent or long lasting blemishes such as scars, even non fatal burns, injuries caused by werewolf blood will eventually heal. It also seems that feeding on blood will initiate the healing process, as it has allowed a vampire to recover from near fatal injuries like being stabbed with a wooden stake (as long as it doesn't pierce their heart) (*Bad Moon Rising).*
* **Immortality** - Vampires are effectively immortal. Each vampire's body is physically frozen at the age it was on the day they were recruited, regardless of how far beyond that age they have lived since being recruited. Vampires also seem to be immune to all forms of human disease, they're never seen to develop sickness, and seemingly possess the same vitality they had before they were recruited. It was once implied during a conversation between Hal and Adam that vampires' physical fitness level do not change after they have been recruited.

### Weaknesses

Though formidable, vampires do possess a number of weaknesses; ranging from irritating to fatal.

* **Sunlight** - Vampires can survive in sunlight, although they tend to stay covered up. John Mitchell was often seen in daylight wearing heavy coats and sunglasses, even when it was not necessary to wear such items.
* **Religious symbols** - Vampires are repelled by religious symbols and writings, almost to the point of pain. These symbols can be of any religion; for example, George Sands' Star of David and verses from the Christian Bible were both simultaneously capable of repelling vampires. However, a religious symbol will not affect a vampire whom its owner holds love, friendship and/or affection towards. (*Bad Moon Rising*) It is also known that the more vampires there are, the weaker the religious symbol's repelling effect on them altogether is. (*Where The Wild Things Are*) Elder vampires such as the Old Ones are unrepelled by religious symbols as well. Vampires can use humans' bodies, which aren't repelled by religious symbols, as barriers against said symbols' repelling effect on them. (*Hold the Front Page*) Also, when Herrick temporarily forgot that he was a vampire, he was unfazed by George Sands' Star of David. (Series 3)
* **Invitation** - Vampires cannot enter a private residence unless they have been invited in; otherwise, crossing the threshold will severely burn and mutilate the vampire and cause them extreme agony, although it does not seem to be fatal. (*The War Child*) However, once a vampire has been given permission to enter the private residence, they do not need to re-acquire the invitation to enter a second time, and can re-enter and exit as they please. (*The Graveyard Shift*) Through unknown means, vampire who become an Old One are able to enter a private building uninvited without being harmed (*The Wolf-Shaped Bullet*). Vampires are also unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as a church or any other place of worship. (*All God's Children*)
* **Garlic** - Although garlic does not pain a vampire, vampires display some degree of disgust for garlic, as John Mitchell was shown to cringe away from the garlic in Anthony McNair's van (*The Pack*).
* **Physical trauma** - Though it wouldn't kill them permanently like staking would, immense and severe physical trauma (such as decapitation, being mauled by something as strong as a transformed werewolf, or being fatally caught in an explosion) can kill a vampire.
	+ **Wood** - It has been implied that even if it doesn't fatally pierce their heart, injuries inflicted with wood are still very harmful to vampires; a stake to the chest that misses the heart will still excruciatingly cripple, immobilise and severely weaken a vampire; where being shot, stabbed or impaled by an object of any material other than wood has been said to barely faze a vampire. Hal also specified that weapons not made of wood, such as metal knives, won't do when killing a vampire (*Where The Wild Things Are*, *No Care, All Responsibility*, *The Last Broadcast*)
* **Werewolf blood** - Werewolves' blood is extremely toxic to vampires, corrosively burning their skin and bodily tissues like acid. It can kill them if they ingest it or if the blood is projected directly into their faces. When a vampire dies due to fatal injury from werewolf blood's acidity to them, their body disintegrates to ash just as they would from a wooden stake to the heart. (*Eve of the War*, *The Greater Good*, *The Last Broadcast*) Non-fatal burns to a vampire's body caused by werewolf blood also do not seem to heal as quickly as conventional wounds to a vampire would, and it has been implied that these burns last for a significantly long time. (*A Spectre Calls*)

### Resurrection

If a vampire has been killed by a method other than staking, then they can be revived and restored if a sufficient amount of other vampires' blood is allowed to drip onto their remains. This resurrection process also appears to regenerate the vampire's corpse, as after Herrick was resurrected from being ripped apart by George Sands in the latter's wolf form, his body's severed parts had been rejoined, and his body was in perfect condition despite having been dead for several months. (*All God's Children*)

After a vampire has been resurrected, they will be in an amnesiac state in which they do not remember their vampirism or their former life. It also appears that religious symbols do not affect vampires in this amnesic state. However, if and when a vampire feeds on enough human blood after their resurrection, they will regain their lost memory and personality, and their killer instincts will return.

### Post-mortem

Unlike humans, werewolves or zombies, vampires have never been known to appear as ghosts upon dying and then have a door to the afterlife. However, despite this, it has been implied that vampires' souls do actually live on after their deaths on Earth and share the same fate as other souls: to go to Purgatory and face the actions they'd committed on Earth, until their final resting place is decided. (*Lia*)

### Cure

A dream world engineered by Captain Hatch depicted that since vampirism originates from the Devil, destroying him would cause vampires to become human again. However, as this world was an illusion, it is unknown whether or not killing the Devil would have cured vampirism in reality. Otherwise, there is no known cure for vampirism. (*The Last Broadcast*)

There are a very few humans who are immune to vampirism; these immune humans' blood is poisonous to vampires, causing any vampire who drinks their blood to die.

### The Taint

The Taint is the sweetest blood. It's absolutely addictive for every vampire. When they smell a human with this blood, all they can think about is feeding and they can't control themselves anymore. Humans only have the "Taint" when their blood is poisoned, for example when they are bitten by a very rare spider. That's why no one has heard of the "Taint" for centuries.

## Supernatural relationships

### Werewolves

Vampires and werewolves have been shown to have a very hostile relationship with each other, seemingly lasting millennia. Most of the time they have a contempt for each other. Even in relatively civil interactions, werewolves are seen as dirty and unclean animals by vampires, and as inferior creatures. Vampires commonly insult werewolves and call them dogs, and are known to physically and viciously attack werewolves in streets and alleys merely for fun, and to use several other cruel and brutal forms of prejudice, attack, humiliation and injustice towards werewolves; among which are the Werewolf Fights. It is known that one major, organised conflict took place between werewolves and vampires in Europe from 1911 to 1918, until both sides called a ceasefire in order to find the source of the conflict and bring it to an end.

The most likely reason for the hatred that vampires have for werewolves, aside from repulsion and prejudice, stems from that fact that although a vampire is on average stronger than a werewolf in the latter's human form, a fully-transformed werewolf's strength greatly exceeds that of a vampire. It was implied that vampires' hatred for werewolves is more fundamental and instinctive than personality-wise; as Crumb, when a newly-recruited vampire, seemed slightly repulsed by the first werewolf he met despite most likely not knowing about werewolves yet before this.

If vampires do not kill and drink blood they seem to have a better relationship with werewolves. All clean vampires seen have a good or okay relationship with werewolves. During their clean times, Mitchell, Carl and Adam enjoyed to spend time with the werewolves Nina and George. However, after Mitchell committed the Box Tunnel 20 Massacre and killed a lot of humans, he suddenly acted mean to and shouted at George because the latter was a werewolf. Similarly, Hal when in his 'Good Hal' persona and clean of blood was shown to not at all mind werewolves' company or see them as inferior, while his 'Bad Hal' personality saw werewolves as animals and beasts of burden and treated them as such. It is possible that the difference in behaviour towards werewolves when a vampire is on blood and is clean of blood is because the vampires can control their instincts better when they are clean and aren't killing.

### Ghosts

Vampires have a small amount of awe and fascination towards ghosts. One vampire curiously questioned Annie Sawyer on what it is like being a ghost and continued to politely ask her other questions. Vampires and ghosts have both experienced death and seen the Men with Sticks and Rope. This makes them feel close to each other. Since ghosts can usually only be seen by supernatural creatures, they enjoy being recognised, known and seen by vampires. However, the relationships can also be quite difficult, since a lot of ghosts don't like vampires who kill humans. So some vampires want to stop killing (Mitchell, Hal, Crumb) or pretend that they do not kill anymore (Hal, Mitchell), others simply lose interest in the ghost after they realize that the ghosts are not satisfied with their way of living. (Seth)

### Demons

Vampires are aware of demons, and regard them and their halfbreed offspring with a level of awe and fear. This is most likely because demons' abilities are both powerful and unpredictable, and capable of influencing vampires with little effort. Hal Yorke was terrified of the succubus Yvonne Bradshaw and her abilities, even though she was unaware of her true nature, because her obsession-inducing power threatened to drive Hal to kill again. Demons are implied to regard vampires and werewolves as an indirect food source, as the Devil was known to feed on their strife and conflict.

### Succubus

Vampires are the only creatures a succubus, or incubus, can achieve a safe and normal romantic relationship with. While vampires are still susceptible to the magical influence of a succubus, causing them to all madly in love, their undead state prevents them from dying when the two species have sex. Also, as stated by Adam upon realizing the truth of Yvonnne, vampires apparently lose all interest in blood and are no longer bothered by it, suggesting the influence of a succubus removes the hunger. This makes the two species perfect for eachother, as shown with the relationship between Adam and Yvonne: vampires can be free from the hunger and live a normal life, while a succubus can have a real relationship with someone without killing them. However, a vampire can have a fear of being away from the succubus, as shown by Adam, due to the influence and can have sme difficulty with the truth of their feeling towards the succubus.

### Humans

Humans are a food supply for the vampires. A lot of vampires enjoy killing them and feeding from them. Some vampires, however, out of conscience, wish to avoid harming and killing humans. Said vampires may even form a friendship with humans, or romance though the vampire's hunger for blood always puts the relationship in danger. It is not seldom that a vampire kills his human lover or that the human lover is killed by another vampire, or that the human can't deal with the fact that the vampiric lover has killed other humans before.