Sanguine Vampiris: An Exploration - By Nicholas Cuthbert: Archbishop of the Most Holy Church of the Mirror of Pseales

Summary of Chapters:
On Source: Vostok is the source of all vampirism, or rather the Abyss made Vostok the source of all vampirism. Whether that was through creating Vostok with the disease or hand picking him to be the first host doesn’t really make much difference to all those affected by the disease.
On Infection: Sanguine Nocturnus is a disease that is contracted by absorbing a bodily fluid of another infected. It moves through the body like a normal disease and can be cured through strong, but conventional, countermeasures such as potions and trained clerics. After three days spent untreated it advances to Sanguine Vampiris, otherwise known simply as vampirism. Symptoms include weakness of fire and red eyes.
On Mutation: The disease is heavily prone to mutation when being spread. Any vampire that bites another being forces the disease that enters the body to adapt and change over the three day gestation period. The less alike the vampire and victim are, the more it mutates. More mutated versions will create more monstrous vampires, until eventually the most mutated stains will either be unable to spread or simply kill their victims.
On Reproduction: Vampires are also able to spread their influence by reproducing in a conventional way, however they can dilute their level of vampirism by copulating with lower levels of vampires or non vampiric beings. The mutation of their disease, while heavily lessened, is still present even through conventional reproduction between two vampires of equal status.
On Types: The levels of vampires are lower, ones that are predominantly monstrous in appearance and action, with only a base desire to serve higher leveled vampires and to sow chaos, and are actively harmed by sunlight; moderate, ones that are human with heightened senses and abilities, and are uncomfortable in sunlight but can stay for fair periods of time with hoods or other sun guards; and higher, ones that are vastly powerful with many abilities unique to their strain, they also are not harmed by sunlight unless they stay out bare skinned for long periods. There are only 12 known higher vampires in existence, 10 them leading their own clans, with the last two following the Vostok clan. All of these are direct descendants of Vostok. There are far more middle vampires and countless lesser vampires and vampiric creatures.
On Death: Simply exposing a vampire to lethal trauma will not fully dispose of it. A single piece of brain matter can eventually reform into the same vampire. To dispose of a vampire fully, the body must be burned or the head must be chopped off and the mouth stuffed with garlic for at least three unbroken days. For some as of yet unexplained reason the garlic will keep the recovery effect in remission long enough for the vampire to fully experience death. Lastly, if a vampire's remains are sanctified after death, all those that were cursed to a life of a vampire by that being will be cured (along with all that have been turned by those vampires themselves and so on). This effect will not, however, extend to the vampire that infected the sanctified one, nor those vampires born from normal reproduction along the same disease line. So theoretically, killing and purifying the remains of all 12 high vampires would purge the world of this curse for all time.
On Behavior: Because of the nature of the mutation, despite vampires being immune to aging, vampires can never breed more of a higher or equal grade to themselves; and so as they are slowly killed off they will eventually be reduced to nothing but moderate vampires, then lesser, then eventually nothing at all. Vampirism’s natural defense is to instill a strong will to survive that forces one to amass power and defenses in an effort to stay alive and through doing so keep vampirism alive.
On Blood: A vampire must feed on blood to survive. Sapient race’s blood is far more nutritious than other blood. While a vampire can carefully drain a person’s blood in a way to keep them alive, not infect them, and also give them the necessary resources survive; they can survive on a single humanoid for the extent of the its natural life. To contrast that, a vampire would need to eat an entire cow’s worth of blood to survive a single day. A monster’s blood is useless with no nutritional value, but having a monster vampirized to defend its biter is a useful concept for a vampire. This, theoretically means that a vampire can tell if someone is a changeling or not based on their blood taste. Lastly, vampire blood is toxic. A trade in blood between vampires of even similar levels will lead to excruciating pain for both parties. And blood trade between two of different levels will find the higher level vampire’s blood tainted and weakened to somewhere in between their original state and the lower level vampires state. The lower leveled vampire will experience extreme pain and, in some cases, death if the level difference is significant. Luckily for vampires however, the taste of vampire blood is so strong that they, in most cases, will spit it out before any adverse effects are felt even in dilutions up to a 1/100 blood to other liquid ratio.