Vampires

Vampires are a species in the Monsterverse and Chienverse.

Apperance and Physiology
Regardless of race, vampires appear pale or sickly. They do not turn into bats, wolves, smoke, etc. Instead of blood, they have a sort of thick, brown ichor, the exact purpose of which is kind of nebulous because shut up. They have very slow pulses and low body temperatures, kind of like reptiles. Also like reptiles, they only need to, um, feed, once every two months or so.

They have minor psychic powers (don't ask me how a virus can cause this), greater strength than humans, and sharp teeth. Human blood comprises most of their diet, but they can still eat some foods (especially those they enjoyed in life) and drink water, coffee, soda, alcohol, etc.

Becoming a Vampire
Creating a vampire is a deliberate action and is almost impossible to do without meaning to. Paradoxically, vampires almost always abandon their "children". This may be due to the intense care vampire fledgling require in their first few years. Most vampires overestimate their ability to hunt (either humans or nonhuman prety animals) for two, which may contribute to the abandonment issue.

Vampires create other vampires by both biting humans three times and feeding them vampire blood at least once. Simply biting a human will not turn them into a vampire. Accidentally ingesting vampire blood will not turn a human into a vampire.



Carriers
Vampirism is a viral disease. Carriers are a rare type of vampire discovered by Melisende Swift and Rigel Neustadt. Carrier vampires do not express vampirism "immediately" after a short incubation period like normal vampires. Instead, after the requisite bites and blood ingestion, they live for a few years, then die and lie dormant for what would have been the rest of their human life span.

After incubation, carriers rise from the grave like a zombie and exhibit much stronger vampire traits than a normal vampire. They are also harder to kill than normal vampires. Whereas normal vampires can be killed instantly by staking the heart, carrier vampires may survive it if the wood is not of high quality.

The combination of two or more vampires biting a single human could be a contributing factor to a carrier vampire's increased presence of vampire symptoms, since the only known living carrier vampire was bitten by two progenitors. This may have caused the vampire virus lie dormant in her body while she was dead, slowly transforming her.

Biting a human more than three times or having another vampire contribute blood to the event may be a contributing factor to carrier vampirism. Or maybe something about those predisposed to 'carry' the virus makes their progenitors more likely to bite them more than three times or invite someone else to join in. Hey, don't ask me. Correlation does not imply causation, buddy.

The 'carrier' nomenclaure arose as a joint decision between Melisende Swift and Rigel Neustadt because they noticed that the disease is not expressed at all within carriers' lives; i.e., carriers have the disease but do not show it during the remaining time they are alive. In human biology, a carrier is an individual who carries a gene in their genome but shows none of its traits (e.g., a carrier for hemophilia can pass the gene onto their offspring, but is not hemophilic themself.)

Hereditary Vampires
Hereditary vampires are born, not created. They are born when a vampire, uh, calls on the stork with a human. The viability of the fetus is greatly increased if the human is involved somehow in the occult; i.e., a witch/wizard/etc.

Hereditary vampires have hilarious and overexaggerated superiority complexes over humans and "common" vampires, which is doubly hilarious when you consider that they're genetically half-human themselves. They also tend to be completely unaware of just how far-reaching their superiority complexes are, resulting in cartoon villain behavior roughly 70% of the time. These assholes are walking parodies, I swear.

The human who gives birth to a hereditary vampire will almost always die in childbirth. Hereditary vampires are considered akin to royalty among vampires, and vampire 'houses', or prominent families, adopt these offspring. Famous vampire houses include Dracula in Continental Europe, Swift in the United Kingdom, and Jackson/Jeannot/de Juan in North America.

Vampire Weaknesses

 * Exposure to direct sunlight for more than about ten minutes  results in symptoms similar to  cutaneous porphyria   and  photodermatitis  (probably icky pictures at the links idk)
 * Even relatively brief (~20 minute) exposure to indirect sunlight (e.g., a cloudy day, skylights, uncovered windows) causes sunburn
 * Crossing non-stagnant water (rivers, oceans, etc.) causes psychological distress similar to the effects of someone with claustrophobia taking a crowded elevator to a high floor
 * Sometimes-debilitating compulsion to count or organize small, identical items (rice, seeds, beads, marbles, etc.)
 * Must be invited into a private dwelling; lack of invitation does not prevent entry, but does cause the vampire to bleed from mucous membranes, which looks badass and scary but is really just inconvenient, messy, and slightly painful

Vampire Strengths

 * Can heal most wounds fairly quickly and completely (amputations are a no go, though)
 * Must be decapitated, dismembered, or stabbed directly through heart in order to be killed
 * With carriers, type of instrument used for heart stabbing matters
 * Increased physical strength regardless of body type
 * Minor psychic influence, especially on prey
 * Long life span; even weak vampires usually make it to 150 or so, and strong vampires can live for centuries

Trivia

 * I spent way too much time on this page.