Post by Trygon on Dec 7, 2012 20:46:56 GMT
Vampires (Homo Sanguineus)
Background
Vampires are a race that evolved from a sub-species of human that had adapted to thrive in dark caverns, forests and during the night. This people, the Homo Nocturnus, had developed a mutation that caused the ability to rapidly regenerate cells, allowing them to adapt fast to their specialised environment and give rise to both the Vampire and Troll races, before vanishing all together, likely as a result of being killed off by the competition and their own child species. Vampires spread throughout Northern Europe and Eastern Asia, thriving in cooler, darker parts of the world. Rooted deep in their blood is an insatiable desire to dominate which rivals even that of humans and was a trait which leads them to wage war on any other races they encountered, seeking to enslave all life and assert their status as Alpha Predators. Of course, the other races were also going to war with each other for other similar reasons and eventually Humans would rise victorious through sheer numbers and push their grandchild offshoots into obscurity.
However over time the status quo would change with the rapid expansion of the human race into grand civilisations, causing many people to seek out Vampires for the wisdom they had, for they were a complex race with much to offer regarding the management of people. It was their organisational and leadership abilities that almost allowed them to take the world once upon a time even whilst being vastly outnumbered, not only fighting well themselves but also using humans on their side to their full advantage. And it was that through the political and military power of nations that a union between Vampire and Human kind was forged and since then they have shared everything from culture to religion. Vampires, whilst mostly independent, have a massive influence in the human races elite classes, never directly controlling anything but always getting a word in that they feel is in their favour. However many humans are suspicious of Vampire intentions, for their World Leaders never draw attention to the fact that Vampires still lust for global dominance and the flesh of mortals to this day.
Biology
Vampires look very close to humans, coming in both European and Eastern Asian ethnicities but always with very pale skin, a pinkish to reddish eye colour and hair colouration that varies from white being the most common, followed by many shades of grey, the darker the rarer. Most Vampires would be considered albino by human standards. Both male and female Vampires have an average adult height of 6-7ft and are quite fit, with an athletic build. They must keep themselves strong and healthy, which is all the more important due to the fact that they are first and foremost carnivorous predatory animals whom get very ill very fast if they do not look after themselves. They are very strong, with dense muscles and bones. A vampire could easily tear anything from gorillas to sharks to bits and are terribly powerful in combat.
All Vampires have sharp teeth and can distort their jaws almost like a snake to stretch open far enough to make proper use of them, easily capable of tearing off limbs and rending flesh from bone. Like sharks, if they lose teeth they re-grow them extremely quickly. Vampires also have glands that supply their upper canines with necrotic venom. If left untreated, the venom will eat away at the victim’s body, destroying their cells. Vampires will bite the neck of their prey so that their venom will get into the blood stream and cause damage to vitals faster. Eventually it will attack the brain of the victim, putting them in an ultra-violent zombie like state, though still vulnerable to attack. Vampires are immune to the venom and can feed on prey items without concern. Though in this day and age, most carry antidotes and even go as far as to have artificial organs in them just to combat vampire necrotic venom. Of course, this isn’t a luxury the poor can afford.
Vampires also have enlarged ears in comparison to a human, their design very similar to that of a Vampire Bat. This is largely due to Vampires having a highly advanced hearing system. They can pick up the sound of breathing from a fair distance and it is very hard to hide from them. On top of this they use echolocation to navigate and forage in total darkness. They generate ultrasound from their voice box and emit it from their mouth. The frequency of Vampire calls is so high it is beyond the hearing range of humans, much to the benefit of the vampires. Vampires often use ultrasonic signals to transmit simple messages to each other when in battle.
Vampires also use infrared radiation to locate blood hotspots on their prey using hidden pits on the side of their noses. They also have an exceptional sense of smell, sniffing the scents of conflict from a fair distance.
Whilst many of a Vampire’s senses are far greater than that of a human, there is one sense that is not. They have poor eye sight, as a result of adapting to a nocturnal lifestyle. Their vision is very blurry and they are colour blind, but they can make the most of what little light they can get and can see in the dark better than humans can, their eyes lighting up with eye shine when exposed to light.
Vampires are immortal and quite hard to kill due to their ability to heal most injuries very quickly. Because of this, Vampires almost never die of natural causes and retire, not due to old age, but due to heavy scaring and disability. Of course, life has enough dangers to see to it that more than half of all Vampires born never make it to their five hundreds. Vampires can regenerate terrible wounds in the matter of days and never have battle scars other then when something is removed entirely. This same regeneration is what allowed them to adapt so quickly to their environment, but has come with a terrible price.
Vampires cannot receive transplants or modifications as their body will always reject foreign intrusions in less than an hour. And due to their total conversion to a nocturnal lifestyle, Vampires have an extreme Melanin problem and have no defence against UV radiation. If left out in the sun for just a small amount of time, their skin will begin to feel like it is burning, causing immense agony. Any longer and it will develop boils and begin to flake, eventually developing various types of cancer. Leaving a Vampire in the sun for 48 hours will put them in a coma, and another 12 will result in their death. This was often used as an execution method and is still practised even now by the cruellest of people.
Vampires breed in an awkward way which is entirely due to how complex they are. Firstly the female Vampire needs to be in season, which happens during winter, the darkest months of the year. Female vampires are only fertile once every five years. It will take three years just for a baby vampire to grow enough to be born, and after that it will take 54 years for the newborn to reach adulthood.
All Vampires are instinctively protective of children, even if they are not their own, and this is because of how much effort it takes just to produce a single child. This instinct is so great that most Vampires will never harm human children as they remind them far too much of their own young in appearance and will even go out of their way to make sure they are out of harm. Vampires are often hired to act as bodyguards for the children of the human political and upper classes for this very reason.
The average lifespan for a Vampire is around 400-500 years, with only the strongest and the smartest continuing on longer, some reaching as far as 2000, by which point they are left crippled by the rigours of life.
Culture and Society
The great foundation of all Vampire society is influence. If you create meaningful change and be a useful asset to the species you are a valuable member of the race. Vampires believe that the worth of an individual is literally decided upon how much rightfully acquired power they have. And there are many factors involved with this. Someone that has risen to power from a low position will be respected immensely, where as someone that inherited power will be looked down on as a cheat. Even in Global Vampire law, when someone dies all their wealth is distributed to charitable causes and when someone retires they cannot control who gets their position, even if it is regarding a personally owned company.
As a people, they are one of the wealthiest races in the World. They make up a small portion of the population and yet command a fairly decent portion of the power. Almost the entire species is governed in an Aristocratic manner. They are counselled by the richest, smartest, strongest and most popular members of their family household, also known as 'Houses'. Each House is very large and they are extended upon by arranged marriages with other Houses and the conquering of weaker Houses. Whilst all the Houses tend to share traits such as smart dress codes and certain classical decor styles, they sometimes have changes between them. Houses tend to represent the culture the founding Vampires came from, or at least that of the most dominate.
Since Vampires are almost exclusively predators many of their instincts are formed around hunting and it is hardwired into them to seek out prey. As a result many Vampires relish any opportunity to get involved with a fight, be it lethal or non-lethal. Both hunting and contact sports are extremely popular, as is many other sports involving the use of weaponry. Almost all Vampires have been in military service at least once in their life and all Houses maintain an army used to further their cause and provide security. Military Service is one of the highest honours a Vampire can achieve and they respect long serving soldiers with the highest of regards. They take events such as Veteran’s Day so seriously that it is illegal in many Vampire communities to be out of uniform or formal wear in public during the entire day, as it is to speak without absolutely having any other choice in the matter.
In combat Vampires are heavily disciplined and are amongst the finest infantry in the World. They always have a plan and they never treat even their human troops as expendables. Whilst they are all programmed to eat their kills, they only do it on the battle field if they must and with the introduction of human farming they find it disrespectful to eat fallen enemies as they would what they consider to be nothing but food.
Vampire generals often only use armoured and aerial assaults if it is completely necessary and the consensus is that it is more true to their ways if they fight by gun and knife. Regarding the Vampire armoury, they have access to some of the most advanced equipment available. They are extremely well equipped and much of what they use is not used by any other race except the Trolls on as big a scale. Vampires make a lot of wealth out of hiring out their services and selling military hardware to Human nations, many Houses having grown extremely prosperous from the business.
Vampires are generally highly civilised when not fighting, holding politeness and well-spokenness with high regard. However there are many things that humans claim them to be barbarians for, the most infamous of which being their surreal practises regarding the consumption of human meat. They will say that eating human flesh and drinking human blood is a massive part of their tradition. And this is based on some truth as during the cold barren times in early history, Vampires often survived by hunting humans as prey and likely have this connection burned into their psyche.
They rationalise their need to feed on human by farming them for their meat and blood and claiming that these humans are not proper people. The very nature of their race does mean that Vampires feel as if they can say which humans are allies, which are food and which are vermin, since they believe humans are far beneath their level. Humans used to be farmed in horrible conditions, however Vampire culture became developed to the point where they began to feel regret for their treatment of their “livestock”. They started to drug human livestock so they were in a child-like state for the duration of their lives and created enclosures for them that mimicked a warm, homely environment, almost like they were staying in a hotel. They took this further with modern times, modifying humans to grow faster and stay in an unassuming mindset till they were ready for slaughter, which was now done in their sleep.
Vampires now say that through all these methods what they are doing is completely ethical, however many human rights movements across the world have protested the simple fact that they believe that humans should never be treated like livestock.
Outside of their shady dealings in the human meat industry, Vampires actually treat the humans that are employed by them rather well. A Vampire House might have a few hundred Vampires in it, but it will have tens of thousands of humans working for them in the various businesses they run, in the armies they maintain and to simply serve their general day to day requirements and upkeep. Vampires offer their employees the best equipment, good pay, health care, accommodation, insurance and a retirement scheme, so many of the less fortunate flock to dangerous cities to try and get work with them. Unfortunately Vampires want quality over quantity and only hire in so many people, leaving most hopefuls to mediocre pay in Troll run factories or enslavement and death from Lycanthropes and Human gangs.
Religion and Beliefs
Vampires are actually quite religious. In many of the main world religions, from Christianity to Hinduism, Vampires have been everything from Saints to wise men alongside humans. However very few Vampires actual follow these religions themselves. The bulk of them follow a belief system which has existed for a very long time, but was officially founded as a religion in the 1980s with a proper name and world recognition. The current universal name is the Church of Ascendancy and over 60% of all Vampires are involved in it.
The core belief is a basic explanation of why the Vampire race exists. They believe that their desire to take control of the World and gain influence is at a level that is unnatural when compared to other beings with free-will and that therefore there must be a reason to why they came to be. They believe that when a Vampire passes on, they will become a God, and the more followers they can gain in this world using their inbuilt instincts to dominate the stronger a God they will be. They believe strongly that Gods are made by their followers and that World Religion proves that Humans desire something to worship and something to command them. Many members think that all the religions are right, however their figure of worship or affection was probably once a Vampire with great power over the mortal people of the World, which is why they still have power even in death and why humans still claim to be influenced by their desires and needs. Members of the Ascendancy Church say that the sheer power of Religion and Faith can be no coincidence and that it is only logical that it has something to do with how Vampires fit into the big picture.
There is no real organisation or official scriptures for the Church of Ascendancy. It thrives off word of mouth and getting hold of Vampires when they are young. It is very easy for Vampires to practice as all it requires is that they carry on doing what they do best. However many members have unusually large numbers of humans under their charge, most of them not even serving as anything other than something to promote a Vampire, heralding the brilliance and genius of their boss. Since most of the other races do not take their beliefs seriously, followers of the Ascendancy Church are very private about their religion and never mention it to non-Vampires.
Other then the main Vampire Religion and a few exceptions tied mostly with the other World Religions, the rest of their people are either Agnostic or Atheist, a good 35% or so. A lot of Vampires believe that if their Religion isn't right or lacks evidence, then all other Religion has to be false.
Background
Vampires are a race that evolved from a sub-species of human that had adapted to thrive in dark caverns, forests and during the night. This people, the Homo Nocturnus, had developed a mutation that caused the ability to rapidly regenerate cells, allowing them to adapt fast to their specialised environment and give rise to both the Vampire and Troll races, before vanishing all together, likely as a result of being killed off by the competition and their own child species. Vampires spread throughout Northern Europe and Eastern Asia, thriving in cooler, darker parts of the world. Rooted deep in their blood is an insatiable desire to dominate which rivals even that of humans and was a trait which leads them to wage war on any other races they encountered, seeking to enslave all life and assert their status as Alpha Predators. Of course, the other races were also going to war with each other for other similar reasons and eventually Humans would rise victorious through sheer numbers and push their grandchild offshoots into obscurity.
However over time the status quo would change with the rapid expansion of the human race into grand civilisations, causing many people to seek out Vampires for the wisdom they had, for they were a complex race with much to offer regarding the management of people. It was their organisational and leadership abilities that almost allowed them to take the world once upon a time even whilst being vastly outnumbered, not only fighting well themselves but also using humans on their side to their full advantage. And it was that through the political and military power of nations that a union between Vampire and Human kind was forged and since then they have shared everything from culture to religion. Vampires, whilst mostly independent, have a massive influence in the human races elite classes, never directly controlling anything but always getting a word in that they feel is in their favour. However many humans are suspicious of Vampire intentions, for their World Leaders never draw attention to the fact that Vampires still lust for global dominance and the flesh of mortals to this day.
Biology
Vampires look very close to humans, coming in both European and Eastern Asian ethnicities but always with very pale skin, a pinkish to reddish eye colour and hair colouration that varies from white being the most common, followed by many shades of grey, the darker the rarer. Most Vampires would be considered albino by human standards. Both male and female Vampires have an average adult height of 6-7ft and are quite fit, with an athletic build. They must keep themselves strong and healthy, which is all the more important due to the fact that they are first and foremost carnivorous predatory animals whom get very ill very fast if they do not look after themselves. They are very strong, with dense muscles and bones. A vampire could easily tear anything from gorillas to sharks to bits and are terribly powerful in combat.
All Vampires have sharp teeth and can distort their jaws almost like a snake to stretch open far enough to make proper use of them, easily capable of tearing off limbs and rending flesh from bone. Like sharks, if they lose teeth they re-grow them extremely quickly. Vampires also have glands that supply their upper canines with necrotic venom. If left untreated, the venom will eat away at the victim’s body, destroying their cells. Vampires will bite the neck of their prey so that their venom will get into the blood stream and cause damage to vitals faster. Eventually it will attack the brain of the victim, putting them in an ultra-violent zombie like state, though still vulnerable to attack. Vampires are immune to the venom and can feed on prey items without concern. Though in this day and age, most carry antidotes and even go as far as to have artificial organs in them just to combat vampire necrotic venom. Of course, this isn’t a luxury the poor can afford.
Vampires also have enlarged ears in comparison to a human, their design very similar to that of a Vampire Bat. This is largely due to Vampires having a highly advanced hearing system. They can pick up the sound of breathing from a fair distance and it is very hard to hide from them. On top of this they use echolocation to navigate and forage in total darkness. They generate ultrasound from their voice box and emit it from their mouth. The frequency of Vampire calls is so high it is beyond the hearing range of humans, much to the benefit of the vampires. Vampires often use ultrasonic signals to transmit simple messages to each other when in battle.
Vampires also use infrared radiation to locate blood hotspots on their prey using hidden pits on the side of their noses. They also have an exceptional sense of smell, sniffing the scents of conflict from a fair distance.
Whilst many of a Vampire’s senses are far greater than that of a human, there is one sense that is not. They have poor eye sight, as a result of adapting to a nocturnal lifestyle. Their vision is very blurry and they are colour blind, but they can make the most of what little light they can get and can see in the dark better than humans can, their eyes lighting up with eye shine when exposed to light.
Vampires are immortal and quite hard to kill due to their ability to heal most injuries very quickly. Because of this, Vampires almost never die of natural causes and retire, not due to old age, but due to heavy scaring and disability. Of course, life has enough dangers to see to it that more than half of all Vampires born never make it to their five hundreds. Vampires can regenerate terrible wounds in the matter of days and never have battle scars other then when something is removed entirely. This same regeneration is what allowed them to adapt so quickly to their environment, but has come with a terrible price.
Vampires cannot receive transplants or modifications as their body will always reject foreign intrusions in less than an hour. And due to their total conversion to a nocturnal lifestyle, Vampires have an extreme Melanin problem and have no defence against UV radiation. If left out in the sun for just a small amount of time, their skin will begin to feel like it is burning, causing immense agony. Any longer and it will develop boils and begin to flake, eventually developing various types of cancer. Leaving a Vampire in the sun for 48 hours will put them in a coma, and another 12 will result in their death. This was often used as an execution method and is still practised even now by the cruellest of people.
Vampires breed in an awkward way which is entirely due to how complex they are. Firstly the female Vampire needs to be in season, which happens during winter, the darkest months of the year. Female vampires are only fertile once every five years. It will take three years just for a baby vampire to grow enough to be born, and after that it will take 54 years for the newborn to reach adulthood.
All Vampires are instinctively protective of children, even if they are not their own, and this is because of how much effort it takes just to produce a single child. This instinct is so great that most Vampires will never harm human children as they remind them far too much of their own young in appearance and will even go out of their way to make sure they are out of harm. Vampires are often hired to act as bodyguards for the children of the human political and upper classes for this very reason.
The average lifespan for a Vampire is around 400-500 years, with only the strongest and the smartest continuing on longer, some reaching as far as 2000, by which point they are left crippled by the rigours of life.
Culture and Society
The great foundation of all Vampire society is influence. If you create meaningful change and be a useful asset to the species you are a valuable member of the race. Vampires believe that the worth of an individual is literally decided upon how much rightfully acquired power they have. And there are many factors involved with this. Someone that has risen to power from a low position will be respected immensely, where as someone that inherited power will be looked down on as a cheat. Even in Global Vampire law, when someone dies all their wealth is distributed to charitable causes and when someone retires they cannot control who gets their position, even if it is regarding a personally owned company.
As a people, they are one of the wealthiest races in the World. They make up a small portion of the population and yet command a fairly decent portion of the power. Almost the entire species is governed in an Aristocratic manner. They are counselled by the richest, smartest, strongest and most popular members of their family household, also known as 'Houses'. Each House is very large and they are extended upon by arranged marriages with other Houses and the conquering of weaker Houses. Whilst all the Houses tend to share traits such as smart dress codes and certain classical decor styles, they sometimes have changes between them. Houses tend to represent the culture the founding Vampires came from, or at least that of the most dominate.
Since Vampires are almost exclusively predators many of their instincts are formed around hunting and it is hardwired into them to seek out prey. As a result many Vampires relish any opportunity to get involved with a fight, be it lethal or non-lethal. Both hunting and contact sports are extremely popular, as is many other sports involving the use of weaponry. Almost all Vampires have been in military service at least once in their life and all Houses maintain an army used to further their cause and provide security. Military Service is one of the highest honours a Vampire can achieve and they respect long serving soldiers with the highest of regards. They take events such as Veteran’s Day so seriously that it is illegal in many Vampire communities to be out of uniform or formal wear in public during the entire day, as it is to speak without absolutely having any other choice in the matter.
In combat Vampires are heavily disciplined and are amongst the finest infantry in the World. They always have a plan and they never treat even their human troops as expendables. Whilst they are all programmed to eat their kills, they only do it on the battle field if they must and with the introduction of human farming they find it disrespectful to eat fallen enemies as they would what they consider to be nothing but food.
Vampire generals often only use armoured and aerial assaults if it is completely necessary and the consensus is that it is more true to their ways if they fight by gun and knife. Regarding the Vampire armoury, they have access to some of the most advanced equipment available. They are extremely well equipped and much of what they use is not used by any other race except the Trolls on as big a scale. Vampires make a lot of wealth out of hiring out their services and selling military hardware to Human nations, many Houses having grown extremely prosperous from the business.
Vampires are generally highly civilised when not fighting, holding politeness and well-spokenness with high regard. However there are many things that humans claim them to be barbarians for, the most infamous of which being their surreal practises regarding the consumption of human meat. They will say that eating human flesh and drinking human blood is a massive part of their tradition. And this is based on some truth as during the cold barren times in early history, Vampires often survived by hunting humans as prey and likely have this connection burned into their psyche.
They rationalise their need to feed on human by farming them for their meat and blood and claiming that these humans are not proper people. The very nature of their race does mean that Vampires feel as if they can say which humans are allies, which are food and which are vermin, since they believe humans are far beneath their level. Humans used to be farmed in horrible conditions, however Vampire culture became developed to the point where they began to feel regret for their treatment of their “livestock”. They started to drug human livestock so they were in a child-like state for the duration of their lives and created enclosures for them that mimicked a warm, homely environment, almost like they were staying in a hotel. They took this further with modern times, modifying humans to grow faster and stay in an unassuming mindset till they were ready for slaughter, which was now done in their sleep.
Vampires now say that through all these methods what they are doing is completely ethical, however many human rights movements across the world have protested the simple fact that they believe that humans should never be treated like livestock.
Outside of their shady dealings in the human meat industry, Vampires actually treat the humans that are employed by them rather well. A Vampire House might have a few hundred Vampires in it, but it will have tens of thousands of humans working for them in the various businesses they run, in the armies they maintain and to simply serve their general day to day requirements and upkeep. Vampires offer their employees the best equipment, good pay, health care, accommodation, insurance and a retirement scheme, so many of the less fortunate flock to dangerous cities to try and get work with them. Unfortunately Vampires want quality over quantity and only hire in so many people, leaving most hopefuls to mediocre pay in Troll run factories or enslavement and death from Lycanthropes and Human gangs.
Religion and Beliefs
Vampires are actually quite religious. In many of the main world religions, from Christianity to Hinduism, Vampires have been everything from Saints to wise men alongside humans. However very few Vampires actual follow these religions themselves. The bulk of them follow a belief system which has existed for a very long time, but was officially founded as a religion in the 1980s with a proper name and world recognition. The current universal name is the Church of Ascendancy and over 60% of all Vampires are involved in it.
The core belief is a basic explanation of why the Vampire race exists. They believe that their desire to take control of the World and gain influence is at a level that is unnatural when compared to other beings with free-will and that therefore there must be a reason to why they came to be. They believe that when a Vampire passes on, they will become a God, and the more followers they can gain in this world using their inbuilt instincts to dominate the stronger a God they will be. They believe strongly that Gods are made by their followers and that World Religion proves that Humans desire something to worship and something to command them. Many members think that all the religions are right, however their figure of worship or affection was probably once a Vampire with great power over the mortal people of the World, which is why they still have power even in death and why humans still claim to be influenced by their desires and needs. Members of the Ascendancy Church say that the sheer power of Religion and Faith can be no coincidence and that it is only logical that it has something to do with how Vampires fit into the big picture.
There is no real organisation or official scriptures for the Church of Ascendancy. It thrives off word of mouth and getting hold of Vampires when they are young. It is very easy for Vampires to practice as all it requires is that they carry on doing what they do best. However many members have unusually large numbers of humans under their charge, most of them not even serving as anything other than something to promote a Vampire, heralding the brilliance and genius of their boss. Since most of the other races do not take their beliefs seriously, followers of the Ascendancy Church are very private about their religion and never mention it to non-Vampires.
Other then the main Vampire Religion and a few exceptions tied mostly with the other World Religions, the rest of their people are either Agnostic or Atheist, a good 35% or so. A lot of Vampires believe that if their Religion isn't right or lacks evidence, then all other Religion has to be false.