Vampire (Vam-pie-err)

Summary

Greed is a timeless evil, one that has long been at home in the halls of the powerful. Those who covet what others possess, or what they themselves lack, invariably become consumed by it. It is an ever on-going battle—a timeless struggle most are simply born into. Upon Veltrona, those who bear this evil proudly the most are the vampires.
The rich and powerful envied the likes of the jiuweihu and dragons. Timeless, or near timeless, beings swathed in immense power, vast knowledge, and riches of bygone ages if they were so inclined. For humans, nebusah, baarham, and other 'short-lived' peoples, it was a living dream before their eyes. Those who would remain beyond time's deathly grasp, something no amount of money they had could ever pay off.
Still, they tried. For ages those consumed by the need to live at any cost in turn consumed others. Profane research, sacrifices to vile beings, and many more unnameable deeds were done. Fruitless in their entirety, until the discovery of the vampyr. Monsters gifted in blood magic, they touched upon the very essence of life itself with unerring mistressful skill. Necromancers, mages, and cultivators descended upon them.
From their efforts, greed took the form of a new, terribly eternal existence: the vampire.
They were parasites given power, draining the life and mana from the living to sustain and embolden themselves. So it came to be their craving for blood dominated their existences, for blood is power, and the vampires covet power the most of all. Drunk on their newfound 'freedom', they turned upon each other as much as everyone else. Thus the first vampire ancestors waged war, fought, and died–but their heinous legacy endured, secreted away by wretches.
To be a vampire is to embrace forsaking one's self; to choose power, at any cost, no matter how it is obtained. The allure of this poisoned chalice captivated all kinds, time and again, from the desperate to the tyrannical. One cannot really 'become' a vampire on accident, for the process is too involved for that. Still, that it happens so easily perhaps speaks of how close one can ever be to falling victim to vampirism.
As time passed, the vampire families passed down their strange and esoteric cultures across the world. Those who succeeded had their lineages stretch from horizon-to-horizon, and so many civilizations became plagued by them. Eventually, the vampires began bearing fruits of their own; children inheriting their obscene powers, yet without profane natures. Forsakened, for the crime of simply being born, so it seemed. Whether a kind of anaxial or a trueborn, they became an existential threat to 'converted' vampires. Their enemies looked on with no small appreciation for the irony of watching the vampire families tear each other apart.
Being the inheritors of evil necromancy, the surviving families are often seen among the likes of undead. These wronged dead become their servants and armies, chattel to the whims of their deranged mistresses. Because of this, they end up either as allies or enemies to Grave Queens, and the two are not far apart from one another. It is this that often makes the vampires associated with the undead, if not undead outright, but the latter is technically incorrect.
In the end, to be a vampire is to pursue power, and theirs is the most troubled path of all to take.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The original species makes up the bulk of the physical characteristics.
Vampires are notable for possessing the following: crimson/blood shot eyes (dinural species), or 'liquid metal' gold/silver eyes (nocturnal species). They are always slitted, but each vampire has unique 'cuts' that bleed off the pupil, as if about to rupture.
Well-fed vampires exude a healthy if somewhat quiet aura, while starving ones quickly become gaunt like an emanciated corpse. Scales and other hardy but inanimate skinned species do not typically show which state they're in very clearly. As a rule, the soft tissues are almost always the best place to look, whatever and wherever they are. Decaying vampires quickly become inanimate as they dry out, little more than thin layers of skin, shriveled organs, and a skeletal-like body.

Biological Traits

Vampires typically inherit their original species' traits.
Innately Magical – Regardless of the original species' properties, vampires are instinctually tuned to the usage of magic. This can result in some basic and universal manifestations, such as a hypnotic gaze or manipulation of shadows. If the originating vampire has any training in magical usage, they acquire a sharp increase in potency and capability.
Blood Feeding Organs – Depending on the original species, vampires possess elognated canines, teeth, or mutated claws. In general, these serve as piercing mechanisms to puncture living creatures and drain their mana-rich blood from their bodies. This is not strictly necessary, as eating the prey alive conventionally can suffice as well.
Quasi-Immortality – Vampires regenerate from regular feeding, effectively making them ageless and in a prime state of being. They are bound by this need to feed, however, as starvation will quickly accelerate their aging processes. Compared to the likes of jiuweihu, theirs is a poor imitation of immortality.

Civilization and Culture

Relationship Ideals

Strength is the singular defining trait almost any (cultured) vampire cares for, followed by everything else. One must have the power to survive in a world obsessed with their eradication. Adherence to troublesome or crippling ideologies is seem as abhorrent, even when that paradoxically conflicts with their pseudo-sense of honor. However, unlike some other species, strength is not purely about physical or magical prowess. An economically or socially wealthy person can be just as attractive to them thanks to their habits of culturally blending in.
As a whole, proving one's self to their vampire aspirant can earn a fanatically deadly loyalty. If their mistrustful nature is broken in, they refuse to let go of those who earned their love, even past death itself. They often attempt to turn their beloved into a vampire as well, making any long-term prospect with them a potentially damning one. This is almost always an ongoing effort to convince their beloved, as a forceful turning may simply create an eternal, bitter hatred between them.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

To survive and function as a greater whole, the vampire families took on rules and laws with utmost seriousness. As any law is only as powerful as those who enforce it, this too became a tool for the reigning families. In no small amount of irony did they end up simply becoming the civilizations they sought to leave behind, the jailors to their own destinies. Thus the eternal struggle in a vampire civilization: those too weak and bound by the laws, and those who wrote and executed them. Tyranny in its purest form, unfettered by lofty ideals like universal rights or common decency.
It must be said they are not without class, etiquette, or nobility. More than some twisted mirror, the vampires have their own ways of climbing the hierarchy and working in their given lot. It matters little to one's growing power to destroy the roots of greatness, only children do that. Their society and normal civilizations overlap greatly as a result, most peasant and common folk not that bothered by them. As one gains in status, however, they enter into the games of vampires, either as a tool or feeding fodder. Rare are those who can survive without themselves becoming a vampire.
How the 'great' vampires decide on their own fates is where some of the most terrible conflicts are born from. There are those, drunk on entertainment and hedonism, that made the likes of the Twilight Reverie. Others took to conquering in earnest, brandishing themselves and their might in the wars of nations. Some, content to rule over their own little corner of eternity, play the vampire games with themselves ad nauseum.
A kink in this self-destructive cycle comes in the form of their offspring. Vampire born children inheriting the power but not the nature; free, in the truest sense, from greed. They covet blood to sustain themselves, and indeed, grow powerful, but it does not control them as it does 'converted' vampires. They are frightening to the converted, enemies that could supplant them and reach greater heights with ease. So it came to be that many families banned having such children, and all who did would be executed. There are always those who, as they say, defy this.
The vampireborn that survive often become allies of the vampire hunters, destroying their wicked sires in return for safe harbor. Those who've escaped the ways of vampires disappear across Veltrona, living life as only someone powerful and free could imagine doing so. It is impossible to escape the shadow of their legacy, but these good-natured vampireborn may yet offer a graceful path forward for their kind. Over the course of eternity, however, their struggles–for however many centuries it has been–has only just begun.

Inspiration

European mythology; vampire bats