(True) Vampires
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| Vampyre Girl by Benjamin Giletti |
They aren't exactly common, which is a good thing: if more of them existed across the multiverse then humanity's myriad incarnations would stand no chance against the night, at least on paper. In reality, Vampires would never truly win or lose: day and night are opposite sides of the same coin, as are life ans death. Vampires cannot exist without human to feed upon and thus the fears of a massive vampire uprising and destruction of humanity are unfounded.
True Vampires are a form of Undead: like other revenants they combine the undying and transformed existence of a deceased human with its mind and will shackled to a near indestructible body which defies entropy. However, True Vampires are more than mere revenants as each of them carries a small sliver of primordial power, passed down from the progenitors of their misbegotten kind. Vampires are not a 'race' but a condition, a state of being and in some ways a mantle. Some Vampires are, of course, as the stories say created by another Vampire following an act of feeding but this is not the only way they are created. As a form of highly evolved and potent undead, it has been known that lesser vampiric creatures can ascend to become a True Vampire, either through being elevated by their master or from stealing/acquiring the primordial essence of a True Vampire. Permanent destruction of a Vampire's essence is difficult and its metaphysical lifeblood, so to speak, can seep into other dimensions, in places or even other beings. Such power is generally left to slowly wither and vanish (over the span of centuries) but cunning undead or even mages of some stripe can acquire this power and undergo a metamorphosis into a True Vampire. To do so requires one to already have a vampiric nature, meaning either a real need to feed on the life force of others (as many Revenants do) or being a truly foul individual whose life has been built on parasitism, exploiting and ultimately sucking dry the life or life fruits of others.
On their Progenitors
The progenitors of the vampiric 'race' are long lost to history and presumed to be destroyed or defeated. This isn't exactly true but it help those dwelling on supernatural matters to sleep more soundly. Their progenitors were spirit-like but not entirely pure spirits. They were creatures of the Primordial Night, embodying things which Primordial Man feared: the dark, the unknown and the predators lurking in the dark places where they could not see. When primordial humans (both in the mythical and historical sense, even if those are in contradiction) gathered around the campfire they told stories of monsters lurking in the darkness. These were no mere myths or tall tale of primitives: these were truths.
Did these myths create vampires or did the vampire create the myths? Nobody knows for certain but it would certainly help explain the Vampiric weakness to fire. Vampires hate the heat, flames and bright light because these embodies both the glow of the sun and the power of fire, which Primordial Man wielded against the dark. The darkness of the vampire is not simply the absence of light, but rather this eerie darkness which brings about fear and isolation. It is less about the darkness itself and more about what we fear lurks inside it.
Vampire Mentality
The vampires aren't the same kind of monster as demons: they don't exist purely to torment. They are capable of kindness and mercy, for one thing but we have to understand that on a metaphysical level, vampires are to human what we are to what we call cattle. It is in their fundamental nature to be predators, even if that predatory urge can be tempered by what remain of their humanity.
Fortunately they are lazy creatures. As they age and lose more and more of their humanity, they slink away into torpor and prefer to rely on their minions as they grow disconnected from the world. There is a great sense of boredom and confusion in the vampire's mind, which is fortunate. They simply do not 'get' our world anymore, a world which has become so disconnected from this fear of predation and darkness. A world where light can be commanded to appear with the flick of a finger. However should a vampire not feel so disconnected from our world...then this is where they become a threat to humanity again. A select few of their kind adapt: dark forests and cave become dark alleys and sewer. The animal form of the predator is replaced with inconspicuous urban vermin.
However one must remember that these are not the erotic, foppish vampires of modern pop culture: while they might be able to fake it, underneath all this is an alien intellect and a primordial hunger. These creatures, these modern predators, are extremely cunning and utterly ruthless: if they manage to grasp human society, the modern mentality and how everything 'tick' then they become expert manipulators. They become like spiders at the center of a very, very complex web and at any time that spider can slowly walk up to the fly and gobble it up...
Vampire Cults
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| Titan Flesh Cult by Antoine Lataille |
It is not uncommon for these vampires to form cults, although they wouldn't really be recognized as such as not all of them are religious in nature, at least not on the surface. However, functionally these are very much 'cults' for purpose of an urban fantasy and/or horror story. The people there live to serve the vampire as their master, their god sometimes: they just don't call it a 'God' but its all the same. They gather in secret, speak in codes and surrender themselves body and soul to the need and the agenda of their vampiric master. Some are debauched sex cults (granted, this is rare: most vampires lack any kind of sexual drive) while others center around drugs, with a vampire controlling a part of a city's drug market and using the money it can make purely to cover its tracks, as they generally have little need for anything money can buy.
Some Vampire Cults are more directly dangerous: as Vampires are 'free agents' (beyond their own alien needs, anyway) those with a desire for power can accrue a wealth of supernatural favors and trinkets, trading them with spirits, demons or stranger creatures yet. Such a fully formed vampire cult become more of a witch coven than anything else.
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