Vampiric Traits

Common Traits

Drinking Blood

A vampire must consume one-third of its body weight in blood once per lunar cycle. Not all vampires feast at the same time, and their feasting date is typically the same day they were turned unless they have made a conscious effort to change this date. Most vampires keep this date, as a starving vampire doesn't make the best company. A vampire can survive six weeks after their feasting date without blood; however, after three weeks, the body starts to break down its own blood, taking it from other parts, such as tissue and bone marrow, slowly leaching the vampire of its power.

Nocturnal

All vampires are nocturnal due to their weakness to sunlight. Their senses are sharper at night, allowing them to see clearly as if it were day and hear even the softest footsteps around them.

Shapeshifting

Vampires have the unique ability to shapeshift into bats, which allow them to fly during the night. They are able to stay in bat form indefinitely. These bats are also vulnerable to sunlight. Vampires cannot fly when not in bat form.

Hierarchy

Most vampires are either thralls or severed. Thralls are connected to the lord who turned them, acting as extensions of the lord's body yet still having minds of their own. A thrall is compelled to follow all directions of the lord, but are not constantly controlled, allowing them a sparse freedom. Severed are vampires who have broken free of their lord (either through killing the lord or magically severing the tie). Only severed vampires can become lords, as the severing process removes the inhibitor, preventing them from producing venom. Lords are vampires that have converted at least one thrall to create the unique vampire hivemind.

Conversion

Severed and lord vampires are able to convert non-vampires into thralls. While feasting, a vampire can release a neurotoxin in the form of venom into the victim's body. The vampire is immune to this neurotoxin, allowing them to continue feeding while the victim changes into a thrall. The neurotoxin first paralyzes the victim, then kills them by melting their organs and reshaping them into that of a vampire. Once the process is complete, the victim reawakens a vampire with their memories intact and under the control of the lord.

Rare Traits

Super Strength

Vampires are at least twice as strong as they appear to be. This makes them formidable foes in fights.

Other Traits

Hivemind

A vampire hivemind is a network of thralls and a singular vampire lord. This hivemind is telepathic, giving the hive the ability to communicate silently with one another. A lord can hear all communications within a network, while a thrall can only hear the conversation they are currently participating in. Lords develop the ability to filter through the hive, allowing them to mentally adjust the volume that they are hearing different conversations at so the hive does not overwhelm them.

When communicating with non-vampires, vampires focus their telepathy on the non-vampire, speaking through a singular connection. Due to non-vampires being inexperienced with telepathy, this can often lead to a garble of thoughts and feedback, making conversations extremely strenuous.

Weakness

Sunlight

If a vampire is caught in sunlight, their body will burn and turn to ash after one minute. Vampires that survive this are left scared in the places where their bodies burned. It is theorized that due to vampires being corpses, they aren't meant to see the light of day and therefore their bodies react violently to it.

Holy Water

No one quite knows why vampires are vulnerable to holy water, as other undead aren't. It is theorized that due to their tendency to pose as god-like beings, the gods are angry with them and thus holy water burns their skin in an attempt to kill them. Regardless of the reason, holy water works similarly to sunlight, except it melts the vampire. The puddle will eventually evaporate.

Over-Consumption

A typical feeding only weakens the victim(s), leaving them alive for future feedings. However, a vampire can ravenously consume the entire victim, including the bones, organs and skin (though vampires leave the brains to avoid prions). This is called over-consumption, a process which takes the biological material of other creatures to increase the vampire's size. As a vampire is classified as a corpse, it thinks any dead material consumed is part of its corpse, taking on the mass rather than digesting it, allowing a vampire to grow exponentially (though there are only a few documented cases of vampires over eighteen feet). Despite their size, gravity still acts on them as if they were their original size, a phenomenon that remains unexplained. A vampire cannot return to its original size.

Regardless of their size, the vampire still needs to consume one-third of its bodyweight in blood, making larger vampires not only harder to hide but also feed.