[Lore] The Vampire Mega-thread

Before we begin, I'd like to mention that this guide is a suggestion for our servers lore, lots of time has been put into it, and I've covered many aspects of vampires to give as detailed an explanation of what would happen and how the vampires strengths and weaknesses would effect them. I've done this with quite a bit of research, along with having 2 years experience in med school, I'm fairly confident that I've properly calculated the vampires advantages and disadvantages when compared with the true limitations of the human body.




The human body is truly astounding, a simple punch originating from the hip can deliver up to 900 pounds of force to the targeted area, if it were the head, it'd be a knock out punch. 






Part 1: The vampire species:


    The first thing to understand about vampires in our particular lore is that there are three different types, they are the following:

Dremor : The weakest of the vampire races, this species relies more on the ability to manipulate the mind and ensnare the senses to hunt. A Dremor needs a considerably smaller amount of blood than the Augustine or Nosferatu do. Although they experience the same reaction when they come into contact with the substance known as Vervein, they are able to withstand the rays of the sun and UV lights without bursting in the flames. 


Augustine : This vampire is probably the most classically accurate if you were to view vampires from the perspective of Bram Stocker. These vampires posses a considerable amount of strength and speed, and while not as skilled as the dremor, are capable of emotion manipulation as well. These vampires show intense reaction to being exposed to UV light, most lower ranked of the Augustine burst into flames immediately, and even the stronger ones can withstand the light in periods of up to 2 minutes of what has been described as the worst pain imaginable. 

Nosferatu : These vampires are incredibly rare, as they have been hunted almost to extinction, partly due to being the most distinctive, and partly due to their strength and speed being the most threatening. They don't look even remotely human, their skin is grey and wrinkled, they walk with a hunch and run in the same way. Their hands are tipped with razor sharp claws, and they're far stronger and faster than an Augustine of the same level. They often live in secluded ares such as the sewers or back alleys in order to draw less attention to themselves.


Part 2: Basic Vampiric powers and weaknesses:


When covering the following powers that any vampire will posses, the rank of said vampire or the strength of the species isn't being included, this will be covered in the next part, which will explain in detail the various strengths of each class and rank of vampire.






The following is a list and brief explanation of each power a vampire posses, detail will be given to each strength in the next part:

Enhanced Strength - Scientists and doctors alike continue to be surprised and astounded by the resilient nature of the human body, in particular, it's muscles. When a muscle is working, muscle fibers twitch and tense in order to provide the necessary amount of strength to complete the attempted action. The more fibers in a muscle-group that twitch, the more strength can be added to an attempted action. Mental caps exists that our brain places on our muscles to prevent them from twitching or tensing all at once. The reason why is that although this gives someone almost superhuman like ability in terms of strength, it also heavily damages the muscles in the process. Vampires have had these mental caps taken off, so to speak. Giving them access to untapped potential that existed even whilst they were alive. Although, there are clear limits to what each rank and class of vampire can do.




Enhanced Speed - Similar to how our muscles have the capability of bringing great bouts of strength in everyday people, the rate of speed at which a muscles fibers will twitch attributes to speed. The faster they can twitch, the faster the movements of the attempted action, this includes awareness and reaction, as well as running or moving in general, a vampires muscles have been streamlined to twitch at near superhuman levels, granting those who's bodies develop to its potential, speed that would rival some of the fasted men alive.



Enhanced Senses - It is relatively unknown as to how the vampire obtains its senses, however considering there have been people who've existed in the world, who have been able to do things such as recognize a face from a mile away, or individuals who could smell even the faintest of chemicals, even individuals who's hearing range could cause a dog whistle to affect them, speculation is that during the process of turning, the eyes, ears, and other senses are replaced by stim cells that recreate the connections and physical flaws and corrects them, giving them untapped ability in perceiving the world around them.



Influence over mortal emotions - It is unclear how well a vampire is able to influence the mind of a mortal, but Dremor are the most skilled at it. The Augustine and Dremor both have an almost alluring scent containing pheromones that attract humans, it is also, based on its potency with other scents on a vampire, a vampires identifying scent as being a member of its own kind. This is the scent that lycans and other vampires can pick up on. Through speech, direct contact, or eye contact, a Dremor (and to a lesser extent, an Augustine) can manipulate the chemicals in a person head, this creates artificial emotion or a willingness to please that the predator can exploit.



Extremely fast healing - The cells that have existed in a vampires body before it was turned are gone, replaced instead by mostly stim cells, these cells react and grow quickly to replace damaged tissue and cells at a rate much faster than a human can. The reason why is that instead of having a large variety of cells skilled at mostly one thing, a stim cell is able to perform its duty by changing into what is needed after an appropriate amount of stim cells have been produced, which are produced by the consumption of blood.


Resistance to great physical trauma - A vampires body, depending on its age, can withstand blunt trama rather well, the reason why is due to the fact that their nerves have been deadened to ignore most input. However, these nerves being exposed to Vervein, or UV light, sets them off violently so, giving more violent pain and reaction from the vampire who's being exposed to such stimulus. 




No need to breathe - During the process of turning, the blood is changed to be more of a dismole role in the importance of the body. No longer needing to be oxygenated, this is the secret behind the vampires immortality. The more oxygen our blood carries and processes, the more worn down it becomes, however without the need for oxygen, the red blood cells are no longer being rusted by oxygen, as a result, the aging process also stops. This consequently, makes it so that a vampire would not need to breath, as his blood no longer processes the oxygen.


Limitless energy in a fight - Without the need for oxygen, the body is not tired without it, instead it draws on other sources for its energy, maintaining the bodies functions by means unknown by science, although we know it has to do with how their body processes foreign blood, tests are inconclusive and theory's are to widespread to give a definitive, universally accepted hypothesis.



The ability to turn others into vampires - This can only be done by those who've had quite a bit of time to adjust to their bodies new abilities, and is done by draining the chosen of most of its own blood before introducing the blood of the sire (The vampire). The body will then die and utilize the information stored in the red blood cells of the vampire to rewrite much of the 'instructions' that the cells of the once human body had.


UV Light: Perhaps the oldest known enemy of the vampire, is the sun, and more specifically, UV Light. While the dremor are excepmt from the sun ensuring their demise, they will experience migranes and great discomfort at almost any rank. Augustine's will burn within a manner of minutes with the exception of the most oldest and powerful, and Nosferatu will burn regardless of rank.

Vervein: A substance not known to the general public, called Vervein, burns the skin and flesh of vampires at the touch, with the exception of several that build up an endurance through constant application of small amounts, however this takes at least 200 years, and doesn't prevent pain and some damage, this herb is toxic to most all vampires, and even its smell will drive a vampire away.

Werewolf venom - Carried on the teeth of lycans, can cause several reactions in vampires, and while some can build an endurance to it, most don't have the age or experience with this lesser known weakness to anticipate it.

Blood - A vampires survival depends on if they can ingest enough blood to keep their structure intact. A vampire going through even the first stages of starvation will begin to feel rather agitated, their skin will begin to become brittle, and by the time that they're 5 days over their minimum blood intake, a vampire will go into a blood rage, killing anything and everything in its path in order to obtain substinance. 


Part 3: Basic Vampiric powers, based on rank:

The following is a explanation of the limitations of the various powers each vampire holds based on its class and rank.


Class: Dremor


Fledgling:

At this stage, a Dremor's body is no more powerful than that of a normal human being, they retain their own physical limitations that they had when they were alive, pain is still felt relatively normally, although some have a higher tolerance, the diffrence is non-measureable. A dremor fledgling would only be able to manipulate emotions on a small level, such as making them feel specific emotions such as fear or attraction. 

UV Light isn't fatal, however when exposed to it for periods of up to 10 minutes, a Dremor Fledgling would pass out. Vervien causes horrible reactions depending on how the poison is introducted to the system, and werewolf venom is equally debilitating to the young vampire. Vervein and werewolf venom will both negate the Dremor's ability to manipulate emotion.

A Dremor Fledgling must feed a minimum of once a day (OOC) in order to maintain their new structure, if a fledgling were to go three days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.


Sanguine:

A Sanguine Dremor has a similar structure to that of a fledgling, however at this point the body has begun to streamline its muscles in a way that would make most, even those unathletic in life relatively athletic, most being probably physically fit by human standards. Sanguine Dremor's are able to control a few more emotions, along with fear and attraction, they can make someone feel jealous or angry now as well. They are not yet able to give those emotions directions in a way that would provide for useful hypnosis.

UV Light now causes migranes and can cause the occasional dizzy spells when exposed for periods of 30 minutes, a Sanguine can expect to pass out within an hour of constant exposure to UV Light. Vervien is still equally debilitating to a Sanguine as a Fledgling, as is werewolf venom. Vervein and werewolf venom will both negate the Dremor's ability to manipulate emotion.

A Dremor Sanguine must feed a minimum of once every 2 days (OOC). If they were to go 5 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Adept

An Adept Dremor's body has begun to develop and stream line, they are able to react on the level of a professional athelete, and even the most common Adepts could life between 200-250 pounds without much strain. They are able to place thoughts into a persons head through eye contact or touch at this point, and are able to manipulate emotions to where they can be associated with specific items or people.

UV Light is more of an irritation at this point than an actual problem, however don't expect an Adept Dremor to be able to spend a full day out in the sun, 6 or more hours of constant exposure will cause nausia and fainting spells. Vervien is still devestating, and  however an Adept Dremor would be able to stand to be in the same room as a plant without being driven out by the smell. Werewolf venom is still dangerous to a vampire of this rank. An Adept cannot perform its powers of manipulation in any capacity when in the same room as Vervein, and direct application will disable the power until the body is healed.

A Dremor Adept must feed a minimum of once every 3 days (OOC). If they were to go 7 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Veteran

A Veteran Dremor's body has begun to numb a bit, they can take more punishment than they could as a human, but most high calliber bullets would still shred easily through the flesh of a Veteran Dremor. This rank can however, influence emotions via verbal command, as well as touch or eye contact, they can even begin to force and create false memories in a victims mind, however these tend to not last long, and inexperienced individuals in manipulation risk blowback at this delicate stage of development of this particular power.

UV Light is still an irritation, however they can remain in the sun indefinetely at this point without much more than a headache and a cranky attitude. Vervein is still harmful to the body if placed in direct contact with the vampire, and will break any grip the vampire has on the mind of another, as will werewolf venom.

A Dremor Adept must feed a minimum of once every 4 days (OOC). If they were to go 9 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.


Elder

An Elder Dremor isn't something to be messed around with, an average Elder could lift about 400 pounds if they decided to push it, they are able to react quickly to combat situations, and to an untrained eye, their movements would be hard to follow. An Elder also has a better control over planting memories in a victims mind, and through direct touch and eye contact, they can remove certain memories, or even obscure important ones.

UV Light isn't even an irritation at this point. Vervein still does quite a bit of damage, and its precence can disrupt the manipulation power of a concentrating Dremor elder. Werewolf venom is equally effective in this.

A Dremor Adept must feed a minimum of once every 5 days (OOC). If they were to go 11 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.


Master

Master Dremors are a rare sight indeed, they are on par with an Adept Augustine vampire, able to lift between 400-500 pounds easily. They're skill in manipulation is unmatched, able to utilize pheromones on top of their usual tools for hypnosis, victims who've managed to escape a Dremor's mental grip have reportedly been under control for up to years at a time without break. Their bodies are pretty hardy, once again matching the resiliance of an Adept Augustine.

UV Light isn't even considered to affect Dremor masters in any capacity, your best bet with dealing with a Dremor is to break its concentration with Vervein or werewolf venom, however unless you're directly applying the two compounds, they will be useless.

They must feed a minimum of once every 6 days(OOC) if they go 14 days without feeding, they will go into a bloodrage.



Class: Augustine


Fledgling :

At this stage, an Augustine's body would not have developed proficiently enough to allow assess to the strength they potentially have without injuring themselves. A vampire at this stage, if it were an average human being, would be able to lift 250-300 pounds without injuring himself, clearly well trained individuals and bodybuilders would still be able to beat out a vampire strength wise. In terms of speed, the body has yet to develop the advance muscle fiber twitch speed older vampires are capable of, and while they are able to react at a faster rate than an average human, its abilities are well within reach of a human who'd undergone training as an athlete of practically any kind. 

The Vampire body has also, yet to develop in such a way that would prevent or increase pain tolerance to anything higher than it was before the individual was turned. The nerves, while no longer receiving the proper nutrition, continue to operate normally. However they have by this point, developed the strong aversion to both UV light and Vervein, Vervein being highly toxic to a Fledgling. Vampires of this rank would not be able to ignore fierce blunt trauma, and the devastating force of a bullet is still very much felt to a vampire this early on in the game. 

This rank must feed a minimum of twice a day (OOC). If they were to go 2 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.


Sanguine :


The body still has yet to deaden the nerves in a Sanguine system so pain is still felt normally, however the muscles have begun their development and the Sanguine can now lift 300-400 pounds without injuring themselves, any higher and muscle damage and stunted growth could occur. Reaction speed is now rather high, muscle-fibers have begun twitching at a faster pace, however this gives them no more speed than a tennis player or a skilled fencer.
 UV Light still causes almost instant skin ignition. Vervien causes severe reactions, as does werewolf venom.

This rank must feed a minimum of once a day (OOC). If they were to go 3 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Adept :

At this point in an Augustine's development, the muscles have developed now to where they could reach speeds that would be hard to follow by a human eye, and they would be able to lift between 400-500 pounds without injuring themselves, the nerves have begun to respond less and less to pain, and a vampires physiology could withstand the impact of 7 bullets of decent caliber, only to be healed with lots of time and blood. 

Vervein and UV light still pose a problem, as only a few shots of a Vervein round would place the Adept Augustine into a coma while the body focuses on healing. UV light is extremely painful and the skin will ignite within a minute, immense pain being felt during the entire time.

This rank must feed a minimum of once every 2 days (OOC). If they were to go 5 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Veteran:

The vampire could now lift about 500-600 pounds, and easily break bones with punches or kicks to unarmored humans.  UV light can be bared for about two minutes before setting on fire, though they would be in a lot of pain during the time. At this point their eyes begin to turn a kind of glowing hazel color, it is at this point that the vampire's body begins to develop to its true potential, and it is after this rank that vampires become truly terrifying.


This rank must feed a minimum once every 3 days (OOC). If they were to go 7 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Elder:

The vampire could now lift about 700-900 pounds, and has built enough resistance to UV light to stay outside for extended periods of time. They can survive about 16 bullets to the chest with extensive blood nursing, and they're not gonna be running around for a while after it, but they'd be alive. In terms of vervein rounds, 9-10 should suffice to put such a vampire down, unless they have a resistance of course. Their eyes are now a light shade of hazel, and they can move at a blur even to other vampires (up to the rank of adept).

This rank must feed a minimum of once every 4 days (OOC). If they were to go 9 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.

Master:

Congratulations, you've reached the recognisable peak of vampirism. Past this age, they don't even bother with rankings. You can now walk in the sun indefinately, albeit uncomfortably, and lift 1000-1500 pounds without much difficulty. To all other vampires but elders and other masters, you are now a blur in combat (if using your full abilities). You can take about 20 bullets to vital chest areas before your body shuts down into a healing coma, at which time you might be capped in the head. Vervein rounds would take about 13-15, depending on how vital the areas that they hit are. Past this point, your powers continue to increase with age, though to most other than vampires, no difference would be noticable. Their eyes are now a dark hazel colour, and they can break bone with little more than a clip of a fist or foot (Unarmoured).

This rank must feed a minimum of once every 5 days (OOC). If they were to go 11 days without feeding, they would be sent into a bloodrage.





Class: Nosferatu


Fledgling
Sanguine
Adept
Veteran
Elder
Master




Note: I really don't know much about Nosferatu in the server as I've only dealt with them a couple times, if I could get some imput on this aspect, or perhaps have it filled in by someone who knows this class well, that'd be great.

The only complaint I have about this is that you're limiting vampires to human body constraints without assuming that the vampire blood and protein synthesis that is extracted from other blood can't push their body beyond their own limits?

Think of it this way, i'm no medical student but this is a Vampire RP and vampires are not real (I hope not..); vampires should be much stronger than their physical manifestation permits-- with such drinking blood and age and training at all shouldn't stop their growth at 1000-1100 pounds of force. As stated above, it is unknown to medical science how vampires work, as they don't breathe. If you factor that, how are the muscles able to work if they are deoxygenated?

The point i'm trying to get to is, vampires are a freak of nature and a mystery, limiting their powers to a human body is understandable, but imo shouldn't be done. Their powers should be a mystery as well. A master nosferatu shouldn't be limited to 1000 pounds of force, for all we know, he's drunk enough blood and over the years his body has synthesized alien proteins to provide enough power to lift things thousands of pounds in weight.

Idk, I can understand why vampires are limited to the human body-- I just dont necessarily agree with it.

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ON A SIDE NOTE:

This is why I prefer Dremors. I don't have to use my body to gain advantage, I prefer the use of mental powers and the influence over others as well as my Hemokinesis, it is very intriguing and I believe fits the character well.

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ON ANOTHER EDIT, i'd like to see a lore of vampire history  I want to make a player-based group on it as well.

Great guide!

I thought vampires were all supernatural, though? This is a good explanation for their abilities, however.

I offered to write actual lore behind everything.

I haven't begun to even place limitations on Nosferatu because they indeed, aren't human.

However in terms of Dremor and Augustine? The fact that they maintain the same physical appearance would likely mean that they maintain the same max limitations as that of a human under great duress, the only difference now is, they can access a portion of that strenght


Also, scientists are at this moment creating a kind of micro-machine that oxygenates your blood FOR you without needing to breath, so it might not be to long before humans themselves don't need to breath to live.

Just a wee little bump, wondering if this has the potential to be moved to the vampire Lore or not, thread kinda died out with a definite answer.

I'm just a little worried, how many vampires are at a master / elder level? I've heard some rumours of basically every single vampire being 1000 years old, which if were true, means that we have a lot of OP gods beyond measurable proportion of roleplay, wandering around on the server.

There is a roster, 5 at master level, 0 at elder level, most of the master rank vampires are very conscious about how we rp

What Turner said. We did have an elder, but I think that char PK'd. I myself have a veteran, which is below that, which I chose to apply for said rank because we didn't have any veterans.

Yes, the Elder LePaul Abraham was PK'ed after meeting the sun.

The rest of the masters are extremely aware of how they RP and make it so that powergame is rarely an issue---and try to keep it that way. I am not an admin here... but I think I can speak for all of us when I say---we have enough master vamps.

It's more of a worry that if I roleplay on my character and try to kill le evil vampire, I'll get my head ripped off before I can even draw for a weapon. Because somehow I accidentally picked a fight with some kind of master/veteran level vampire.

That's a risk you're going to have to take IC, and I know quite a few normal people who've taken down master and elder vampires simply through clever planning.

People need to be careful about who they pick a fight with, on both sides really, I've had to go against Nicole's nature and go ham on some FEAR before because someone gets out of their league while in an enclosed space with Nicole, but on that same note, not all of the vampires are hostile, some even hate fighting out of self defense. I know most, if not all, the master vamps OOCly on some level, some are old friend, some I just recently met, they are all RPers that are on a level that I'd trust them not to just snap and kill you for no good reason, I certainly wouldn't do that, I'd be happy to introduce you to what type of people the master vampires are, or atleast what Nicole is like, through steam/steam RP, I actually think your name sounds familiar, like someone I had on my friend's list from some ancient Dark RP and cleaned off when I went through cleanings

By no means do I think we should strip anyone of their Master rank seeing as I've heard no complaints about any of them. However, I do think we should start treating Master and Elder ranks the same way as we'd treat Veteran magic users; as in, keep them low in numbers purely for the sake of balance and fairness.

Well yea, how I want it set up is that Elder and Master ranks cannot be attained ICly through roleplay, they need to be application only, where as you can rank from a Fledgeling, to Sanguine, to Adept, to Veteran, Veteran being months of RP in server, like, 4 months.

That's a really long fuckinf time. Just saying.

4 months? I've already been here almost two, that's not really so terrible when you think about it.

Alright you guys, the vampire lore here is now official, Nosferatu will be up soon as will a detailed combatRP guide.