The �Broken Hand� Knowledge Base for Vampire Types and History V4

"Most importantly, who was Auric Vanderhof?" I broke my brain answering this one.

The

"Broken Hand"

Knowledge Base for

Vampire Types and History V4

by Kevin Chelsea

 

 

Vampire types

 

 

Kin, the human applicants

 

Some humans always had a fascination with the world of the vampire. From the days of purebloods to the modern day hybrid. Though the method of 'turning' a human had changed after the purebloods died out. The act of changing a human to a vampire could also be called 'breeding'.

 

Kin are the humans subjecting themselves to vampire rules, law, and tradition. In the hopes to be turned so they become a part of one of the clan. They mistakenly think that Kin is a version of 'kinfolk', associated with vampires as though they were being treated as family. Or already a minor part of the clan. What they learn when they're turned is that Kin came from the archaic word 'Kine' which means cows or cattle. The Kin were expected to give themselves to a vampire if that vampire was in dire need of food. None were ever turned or bred that way, the Kin was always killed. Kin, knowing vampire law and traditions, accepted this practice. Understanding that their lives in the clan would be just as expendable.

 

What the Kin don't know is that the vampires could see the humans that couldn't be turned. So a lot of the humans called Kin, were just that, a ready source of food that couldn't be turned. How they were seen to the purebloods isn't really known, it's suspected that they saw it is the same way as the hybrids see the halo around the Kin's neck.

 

The halo isn't seen any further than only a few feet away. The halo a blueish white fog that hovers around the neck. It's more of a collar than a halo. But since it's a very dim glowing light that floats along with the human, it's called a halo. Humans that can not be turned do not have this halo.

 

Modern day humans are turned by drinking a large quantity of a hybrid vampire's blood. Humans that can't be turned die horrible deaths if they do try to drink vampire blood. It congeals inside the human stomach and turns into more of an acidic compound than blood. This is kept very secret until a Kin is actually turned and welcomed into the clan.

 

It should be noted that the method of 'turning' a human had changed after the purebloods died out. Previous to the hybrid method of 'breeding', the pureblood had to bite a human to change them. The story of how the hybrids discovered this fact is described in the vampire history below.

 

Purebloods

 

Life span – eternal if they can feed. A pureblood that was exposed to direct sunlight would burst into flame and continue to burn until they were only a pile of ashes. Purebloods would die very quickly if they had to go without blood. Like a human without water, they died long painful deaths.

 

Purebloods had been around since the days of the earliest civilization. They were a heavily structured, self-correcting society. Laws on their 'breeding' under heavy scrutiny. They were more of a roaming nomad culture before any civilizations were really getting established.

 

Purebloods could not conceive children. So children had to be conceived and born before any human was to be turned. It was only very rarely done since vampires didn't like seeing their families grow old and die before their eyes.

 

Their laws forbade any 'breeding' that wasn't authorized by the clan as a whole. This was, and still is, one of the standing laws that was punishable by death. Since every vampire clung to it, it was accepted that if found guilty, the one offender would go to their death knowing what they had done. With a tradition inbred into the clan, it was more instinct than a rule after thousands of years.

 

Purebloods were very strong, the strongest of all types. Yet their weakness was always the sun and if they were not able to feed.

 

Most of the pureblood history is lost to time. It is mostly remembered as legend. Names and events are lost. The continued existence of purebloods is speculation at best. There are none in any of the major European areas, any that are left would be in Asia or an outlying area like the “new world”s. Such as North America, South America, Australia, the Middle East, or the African continent.

 

It should be noted that the speculation is near laughable to modern day vampires. They know that there were purebloods, but they assuredly died out during the black death. Like the stories of mythical creatures, they see the existence of any modern day pureblood only as fable.

 

 

 

Pureblood Evolved

 

Life span – The same as purebloods if they could've controlled themselves. But with a more ravenous WANT of blood. They didn't need to feed as often as they did. Their want for feeding was passed on to the hybrids in a form of blood addiction if the hybrids begin feeding on blood.

 

One of the interesting facts, before the purebloods died out, was that they were evolving. Rather, the humans they were 'turning' were the ones evolved. In rare cases, some of the new vampires would be immune to direct sunlight. The heavily traditional purebloods saw this as an aberration and something that should be killed. The newly turned Evolved vampire clung to the old rules and let itself be killed. It was the one chance genetic quirk that may have saved the purebloods, but their own mindless adherence to their old ways doomed them to extinction. Though, the ravenous Evolved pureblood may have doomed the human race to extinction if they were allowed to continue their existence.

 

One of the rare cases of vampire breakouts, spreading like a plague, lead to the deaths of many innocent humans. A few of the purebloods were killed by roaming Evolved vampire groups. Still, their weakness was not having the experience to keep their need to feed under control. They would go into a blood frenzy and wind up changing a few more humans that survived their attacks. The problem spread enough that the purebloods had to expand their ranks. A miniature war between the two ended very quickly. The purebloods put an even tighter hold on who could be come a vampire, then that new vampire would be mentored.

 

The pureblood Evolved species had near the same amount of strength possessed by the purebloods. Yet, their weakness was their animal nature. They were hunted and exterminated by purebloods. Any of their Kin would be killed outright.

 

 

Hybrid vampires

 

The purebloods of Europe died out with the last vampire plague victim. The last ditch attempt to save the vampire species from extinction came from the last few dying purebloods trying to pass on a heritage as they saw it. They turned a few of the Kin in hopes that there might me the Evolved and they could carry on the species in some new way. This decision was seen as barbaric to the human populace by the second generation hybrids. The story of how this simple decision split the vampires down the middle is described in the vampire history section below. Another genetic quirk appeared from within the new vampires. These were the hybrids. The hybrids found themselves not in need of blood. They could eat and live as regular humans. Which meant they could live and die as a human if they chose.

 

A few of the first turned Kin were the Evolved version of the purebloods, they doomed themselves to extinction by their own ravenous means. The evolved purebloods died out from feasting on humans with the plague. They were still of the old pureblood needs, the same way a human needs water to live. That spelled the end of their very brief species.

 

The hybrids had no idea what to do. They were still ingrained with a little of the very strict pureblood clan laws and culture, but with their ability to live without blood, they had to come up with an evolved way to survive and keep their species alive. How they started a new age of vampires is covered in vampire history below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vampire history

 

The origin of the vampire isn't known by any of the European hybrids. The loss of this kind of history is part of vampire archaic law of the purebloods. Since they thought they were going to be eternal, they didn't bother to keep a record of anything. Most of their known history is only their laws and tradition.

 

It's not known how old vampire species really are, but they had been around in the times of earliest civilization. Exactly how vampires came about is unknown, what is know that the earliest vampire purebloods was a clan that had lived for thousands of years. Only adding to their ranks every few hundred years or so when one of them died or was killed. The exact number in that roving clan isn't known.

 

During the last century of the first millennium, in a space of only a few years, there was an outbreak of vampires. It isn't know who exactly caused it, but it had been one of the new vampires to the clan. She was an evolved vampire and in her blood frenzy, created another vampire. It doubled and doubled. The new evolved vampires began to create their own roving clan. They managed to keep their clan a secret until they wound up killing one of the purebloods in a frenzy.

 

This caused a miniature war. The purebloods, while stronger, needed to feed to have the strength to kill these new vampires that were growing quickly out of control. The new vampires were spreading in their blood lust. Though they were murderous, the evolved were still getting their own Kin. Purebloods would kill both the evolved and their Kin. In the race for more strength, many humans were killed. The purebloods exterminated the evolved outbreak and everything fell back into place.

 

When the bubonic plague hit the human populace, it affected the purebloods the same way. A pureblood that fed on a plague victim would take on the appearance of the first human descriptions of vampires in Europe. The plague would act on the vampire, making their food intake near impossible after being affected by the disease.

 

It came with flu like symptoms at first, they would begin to vomit any blood their tried to ingest. This was new to the purebloods since they were an almost eternal species, they would actually begin to die. Becoming a grim form of the living dead. They would become bloated as their internal organs rotted inside them. Their skin would take on a very ruddy look which is common to human decomposition. The rare times they were seen by humans, they'd been trying to feed and their face would be covered in blood. It was an incurable disease for the vampire and to contract it was a sure death sentence.

 

The purebloods in their vain attempts to stay alive went through their clan's Kin. By the end, only a very few of them remained. Of those, none of the very educated or experienced Kin survived. These are the ones that were turned in the very last attempt to continue the species. The new vampires that emerged were the hybrids. The disease had affected the need for blood, somehow it genetically merged humans and vampires.

 

The new hybrids were created from humans who weren't Kin for very long. So the species had lost a very big part of its history and tradition. A very new thing that the hybrids had to learn was that they weren't either pureblood or pureblood evolved. Also, to try and turn a human into a vampire, by means of biting, only injured the human. The wound was usually fatal so this lead to another discovery. Blood would become and addiction if a vampire drank it more than a few times. That lead to the discovery that a vampire could actually regulate their age. The vampires that didn't indulge in feeding on blood found themselves getting older.

 

This lead to a series of experiments by a small group of three hybrids. One, a noted scientist who will remain nameless, found out that by drinking enough blood, a hybrid will regenerate to a younger form. A hopelessly addicted hybrid had actually drank himself to death. Becoming an infant and then regressing to a stage where even a vampire's immune system broke down.

 

Another breakthrough was when a hybrid, that was living and growing older without ingesting blood, had actually impregnated a human. The baby was heavily studied. In the more gruesome experiments on the baby, they scientist fed it blood. It was that way they found out that it was a human child. The vampire father of the child could not be distinguished from any other human by means of testing. The human child grew up normally. Eventually died after a average human life span, but never showed any traits of any vampire inclinations.

 

The father of that child lived a long and normal human lifespan. Considering the ability for hybrids to live eternally if they so chose, he lived to a ripe age of 76. A considerable feat in the days where the life span was considerably shorter.

 

For an estimated 70 years, the hybrid population was actually getting smaller again. Down from an estimated 65 to nearing 25. Vampires getting old and dying natural deaths was something they didn't govern since they were a relatively new species. The number of vampires didn't grow at all since they didn't know how to turn any humans.

 

In the scientists various experiments, he finally drew some of his own blood and fed it to his lab assistant. Who was, incidentally, a Kin for the clan the scientist was a part of. The clan that lived in that area. After a few more experiments on the Kin, he fed the Kin human blood. It was an amazing feat considering it was all trial and error. The Kin found himself craving a little more blood. The scientist had created the first vampire in decades, wholly by sheer chance.

 

This was very unwisely celebrated by a huge, huge by the standards of the pureblood law and tradition, influx of new vampires. New laws were put in place to keep from a mass vampire outbreak. A governing body was put in place by the few oldest hybrids who were already considered leaders since they actually knew of purebloods. After the new growth of the hybrid vampire population they had to start making new laws. It was agreed that a governing body was needed. The new hybrids came to be known as the Second Generation.

 

Right from the beginning of the Second Generation, there was already a division among the species. The Second Generation of hybrids speculated on their own history. A lot of it was hearsay from the oldest vampires that barely knew pureblood laws and traditions. Half of them saw that the purebloods could have spelled the doom of humanity if any of the humans they had turned were one of the ravenous pureblood evolved species. The other half argued, without knowing that it was actually a fact, that the pureblood evolved species would have just died out from feeding on black plague victims.

 

The Second Generation split, but with the governing body regulating the vampires and the lives they wanted to lead. The half that were angered by the purebloods callous disregard for human life decided they were going to live their lives as human and die out. They called themselves the Vehemists. While they did keep to themselves, a few of the radical vampires who were of the opinion that they themselves were a next step in evolution, considered the Vehemist beliefs a threat to their existence. They considered the Vehemists another coming of the black plague.

 

A rumour started that some of the more insistent Vehemists were actually considering attacking the rest of the vampires. The attack would be a very rudimentary form of biological warfare. Somehow they would reinfect the human populace and try to kill the vampires that drank human blood. The rumour, while ridiculous, did start a movement in the governing body to try and get the human ruling class under control of the vampire population. The players in this part of vampire history are noted in the section below.

 

The European history of the vampire ends here for us. Since they, to present day, have a firm hand on any of their dealings, we will look at the modern day vampire and how they came to North America. How we, of the Broken Hand, had to deal with the vampire outbreak is chronicled in the Vampire Playbook section of this knowledge base.

 

 

 

Vampire notables

 

In the 15^th century, one of the appointed leaders of the vampires, Lazzlo, pushed for the vampire society to try and get a more prominent foothold in the human's ruling class. He didn't have to push hard since a lot of the vampire population were being persuaded that they were actually the next step in both the human and vampire evolution.

 

Lazzlo did manage to get some of the human ruling class within their ranks, but it was rare that any of the could be or would be turned. Then it was found out that an entire family very, close to one of the Hungarian royal family, could be turned. The father of that family was named Royal Ambassador Matthias Farkas. Lazzlo tried with money, women, guarantee of eternal life, but nothing he tried was working. Farkas was a religious man who didn't want to deal with the recent rumors of living dead. He considered Lazzlo to be such.

 

Lazzlo, against the judgment of many of the vampire leaders, decided to use a more threatening means to get his way. He threatened to kill Farkas's first born son if he didn't get his way. Farkas bartered a deal that let Lazzlo have a slave of his own choosing. A pittance of a maiden per month. What he was really after was the son. Lazzlo didn't get the ambassador himself, but the son would prove to be a valuable ally.

 

The slave that Lazzlo took for his own choosing was one of fiendish device on the part of Lazzlo. He chose a priest that he would help rise to through the papal ranks and have a very powerful ally in the house of the religious. To the modern day, the European vampire's governing body uses that hold they have in the major religions to manipulate the populace.

 

With Lazzlo in control of the ambassador, he turned the 3^rd son when he was in his late teens. For a few years after that, all he did was teach the boy ways of cruelty. Which wasn't condoned by the other vampire leaders, but they knew that having such high profile humans under their control was very useful.

 

The 3^rd son had lost his birth name and started going by the name Zuric. He lived a few years as a human, keeping in touch with the ambassador and his family. Making sure that Lazzlo's orders were followed. He was more Lazzlo's son that Farkas's. Eventually Farkas died and the first born son took his place. Since Zuric wasn't known to the first born son, he didn't even recognize him as a brother, they had drifted apart. Lazzlo had abandoned the family, seeing that there were better opportunities that came from the religious side of his dealings.

 

Zuric began to despise Lazzlo for this. He saw it as abandoning Zuric after decades of his faithful service. All the things that Zuric learned from Lazzlo came into sharper focus when Zuric made the wholesale slaughter of what he thought was the most powerful religious section of Lazzlo's interests.

 

This split the two, they weren't enemies, but Lazzlo realized that if he continued teaching Zuric, eventually, Zuric might try and usurp his position. It is by chance that Farkas's second son learned that he had a younger brother. He always suspected it, but he was told that his younger brother died when he was too young to remember. The 2^nd son got part of the story from the 1^st born, but even that had been mostly lies told by Lazzlo to the new ambassador.

 

The 2^nd son disappeared and wound up as a Kin in Great Britain. Nobody there knew who he was and Lazzlo was too far into dealing with Zuric and trying to keep the religious from turning on him and the rest of the vampires. The 2^nd son was beginning to lose hope that he'd be chosen to be turned, he was an old man and on the verge of just giving up.

 

There had been rumors around that there was a revolution starting. It came into sharper focus when one of the older vampire groups in England had been slaughtered by the leader of the revolution, Zuric. To rebuilt their number in Britain, the 2^nd son was chosen to be turned. By then, he was a very old man.

 

After completing the transition to vampire, he learned that the vampire governing body was starting to crumble. The heads of the more powerful groups in different countries were being targeted. The remaining leader had abandoned his burgeoning quest for more power in order to deal with the leader of the revolution.

 

The old man, a young vampire then, traveled back to Hungary to see what he could learn about his past. He got there just in time to see that Lazzlo had killed the entire royal ambassador's family in retribution for Zuric's continuing war against Lazzlo and his governing body. The old man found his older brother dying of injuries. He related a whispered rumour that the vampires that had done this were doing it as revenge against the royal ambassador's youngest brother, Zuric, who had been sacrificed to save the first born. The 2^nd born had been presumed dead since he disappeared.

 

That's when the 2^nd born son found out that his younger brother was the cause of it all, he swore revenge on all of the vampires. He The 2^nd born called himself Auric, meaning to spread the word that Zuric is his brother and that Auric blamed everything on Zuric. Though he did try to keep his human name for a while, but found that it was too hard to explain why he had the same name as a man who should be dead. Finally, he gave up his human name and accepted who he was, Auric.

 

The word spread slowly among the vampires. Auric grew in strength and began his relentless search for Zuric across all of Europe. What the governing body didn't know was that Lazzlo and anyone following him was the next target for Auric.

 

Auric called himself a Vehemist in truth. After he was done getting his vengeance, he'd let himself grow old and die. Eventually, Lazzlo summoned Auric and offered him a seat at his side. That it would be good to have a Vehemist by the self-proclaimed leader of all vampires. Auric turned down the position, saying that all he wanted was Zuric dead. With that, Lazzlo begrudgingly offered to help Auric hunt down their common enemy. Lazzlo had given Auric power to execute in exchange for his help to defeat Zuric.

 

They scoured Europe for Zuric's location, they followed the reports of a small band of unknown Kin. Zuric was starting to build his own clan to rival Lazzlo's. Zuric learned that he was being tracked and abandoned his Kin, that was a first for all vampires. Either Kin would be killed outright or turned.

 

The Kin started trying to find Zuric. Eventually, they were found by Auric and Lazzlo. Before anything could be gotten from them, Auric killed them all in a frenzy of anger. Auric felt that he should have known that Zuric would do anything to escape. Lazzlo finally saw how dedicated Auric was in his quest to find and kill Zuric.

 

Lazzlo knew that Auric would present an almost identical threat to his leadership so he had to get rid of both of them. Luckily, word spread that Zuric was in England, trying to get to the New World. Lazzlo helped Auric track down Zuric, but before they could really catch him, he disappeared all together. Auric stayed in England, keeping an eye and ear open for any bit of news.

(The following is told in detail in the story of Auric's Journey)

One day, heard about a local ship that had just come back from the open sea on a trading run. The crew came upon an empty boat that had been going along with the current. They didn't know what to make of it so they sailed up beside and was going to board to look for survivours. What they found was that the deck shows signs of a very bloody struggle. Rains had washed most of the blood away, but down below in some of the holds and cabins, there were signs that the sailors had tried to barricade themselves in for protection. The doors were broken and inside was the brownish rust colour of blood covering the floor. Hand prints in blood covered the door and the walls. Whatever happened to the crew of the ship scared the other sailors so bad they scuttled it to try and rid the seas of a haunted ship.

 

Auric heard this story and knew that Zuric must have stowed away on a hip bound of the New World. He thought that Zuric probably stowed away on another ship and was continuing his journey. Using that crew as his food source as he sailed. It was only a guess, but it made sense. So, he contacted Lazzlo and told him that Zuric was headed for the New World most likely and Auric had a plan to to follow.

 

During his stay in England, he'd been contacted by the governing body and told to carry out an execution. There had been a vampire in the rural areas who turned a woman without authorization. They'd been recently married and where trying to settle down. Auric, who hated vampires who took it upon themselves to start turning the humans, said that he'd handle it. Worse, tracked the man to a local small town tavern and saw that he'd kidnapped a young girl. Auric followed the man to his home and watched in horror as both the vampires killed the innocent girl.

 

Auric had stopped taking blood for a while so he'd actually started to age again, he knew that he probably could handle the female even though she had just finish feeding. The male would present a big problem though and he'd probably hurt or kill Auric. So he waited until they wanted to get rid of the corpse, it'd been drained of as much blood as they could get out of it. The man carried the body to the woods and Auric broke in to kill the woman.

 

Auric knew from the scientist's experiments that vampires could live on another vampire's blood if they got to them before too long. After too long, the nutritional value of the vampire blood was lost. But, it was also very well know that a vampire drinking another vampire's blood is so unpleasant that it would be its own very effective deterrent. Auric thought that he could get by that with pure hatred. These vampires killed an innocent, the female shouldn't even exist as she did.

 

Auric ripped out the woman's throat, she tried to fight back, but Auric was way too powerful. He hated it, but he drank as much out of her as he could. When the man returned, Auric was filled with fresh strength and killed the male vampire easily. Auric forced himself to drink all of his blood as well. It became known that Auric was to be the executioner for the area. Even thought vampires knew what Auric did, they saw it as his own grim punishment he dished out and the only way he'd enjoy his blood since he was publicly a self proclaimed Vehemist. Auric hated to admit it, but he was becoming addicted to blood. Yet he would only drink blood from other vampires.

 

That's how Auric planned to cross the Atlantic. He would approach Lazzlo with the idea to take a ship and build in it some very strong cells. In them they would throw in vampires who were scheduled for execution. Then they'd take illegal Kin and store them in another part of the ship. Keep each away from each other and when Auric needed to feed, he'd take one of the Kin and feed it to a blood addicted, starving vampire.

 

Lazzlo was twisted enough to actually laugh at the plan and give Auric his full support. Auric made his journey with only one problem. A foolish sailor on the ship strayed too close to the door of one of the vampires cells. Auric made sure that the other vampires saw what happened to the offending vampire. That was enough to keep them in line.

 

The story of Zuric in North America is chronicled in the Vampire Playbook section of this knowledge base.

 

The last thing to add to this vampire history section is what little is known about the real vampire interactions with each other. Every bit of history we've made it to attain has actually been relayed to us from Auric himself. Most of what we have written down here has been confirmed with vampire historians we've contacted in most of the European continent.

 

Since it is relatively in our own interests to stay out of the way of the world. To keep a tenuous balance with nature as we know it. We do not keep the history of vampires in any areas what have not been a problem for Broken Hand.

 

As a interesting side note. It is rumored that the daughter of a well known vampire historian had been killed by Zuric himself. The daughter is rumored to be on the trail of Zuric. While we can not go to her aid, we do hope she knows that if she is spotted by Zuric, any of Zuric's clan, or any of their Kin. She will mostly be killed quickly.

 

Another note. We are keeping a very close eye on any dealings between Auric and Zuric. They have a very interesting dynamic relationship going on. Zuric will not kill too many humans in order to feed. We suspect that he knows of us and is being cautious. But we see that every time Auric is getting close to Zuric, Zuric will feed to boost his strength. That will cause Auric to make sure that he is at his strongest and he will kill one of Zuric's clan. While, for the most part, we don't condone their activities in North America, the vampires are actually their own self-correcting system.

 

 

 

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Writer's FAQ.

 

 

        Do your vampires sleep?

Only when they're not on a feeding cycle of blood. Blood causes the vampire to regenerate

 

Can your vampires see in the dark?

Not in the perfectly pitch black, but with the smallest amount of light, they can see almost regularly.

 

Do they have fangs?

No, but when they feed, they can open their mouth wider. They don't unhinge their jaw like a snake, but it's the same thing. Big mouth when they feed if they need it.

 

Can female vampires get pregnant?

Only if they stopped feeding on blood. The regenerative properties of a vampire would actually 'eat' the fetus without the vampire knowing it happened.

 

So a female vampire has a menstrual cycle?

No, the same way a vampires body would absorb a tiny little fetus... you get the picture.

 

 

How do the vampires know they've started aging again?

Their vampire regenerative properties stop so they find that they actually need to sleep like a regular human.

 

So they just turn into humans?

Yes, but that is a hell of a lot harder than you think. Their addiction to blood would be like a human addiction to the worst drugs out there. Crack, Meth, Heroin, all that wonderful stuff. Which isn't an easy thing to stop, it takes years for the wanting of blood to wear completely off even after the vampire's regenerative abilities have faded.

 

 

Can any humans be a Kin?

Oh yeah, anybody can, if they actually survive meeting a vampire. Remember, some of them are blood addicted crazy junkies who wouldn't mind killing you to get their fix. Then at that, you survive not being eaten, you find a vampire in a position of power that wouldn't kill you for just knowing what he really was. Then you have to accept that your life is pretty much forfeit to that vampire. If he's up for a midnight snack and you're there, he can kill you if he wants. If he uses you for food, it's deeply instinctive that they have to kill you. It's their law because it's their instinct. Think of it this way, would you go and lop off a cows leg and let it live just because you wanted a hamburger or something? No, the humane thing is to...

 

 

Vampires can be eternal according to you, how do they die?

Humans can kill vampires, it's just very rare. Since a vampire can use their strength to move very fast. Not instantaneous, but pretty darn fast, it would take a massive amount of luck to kill one. Get yourself a thick piece of rawhide leather, then go find yourself a wooden spoon, using the blunt end of the handle, push the spoon through the leather. That's what trying to stab the vampire, with the sharpest instrument you can find, would be like.

 

But the older vampires that have been around for centuries are even stronger than that. They'd be able to react to the lightest touch, turn and knock your silly little head clean off with a backhanded slap. So the best way to kill a vampire is to get another vampire to help you somehow. Might want to reread that Kin faq, if you know that a vampire is a vampire, you're dealing with a being that sees you as food and not much more. The only ones that would treat you a little better are the Vehemist vampires. And those are really hard to find since most of them are dead or dying. Granted, they're living a human life, but when you have the ability to be eternal, whats 80 or 90 years to a vampire? Therefore, they just consider it “already dying” to be a human.

 

Okay, so a Vehemist vampire who feeds on blood is a hypocrite?

Yes. And you don't have to be nice about them. But, a vampire who drinks blood and calls itself a Vehemist is more than likely a vampire hunter themselves. Drinking second hand human blood by killing vampires is how they get along most of the time. That is even rarer than a human killing a vampire. Vampire's blood to another vampire is the taste equivalent of fingers on a chalkboard. To the vampire, it stinks like a whole line of overflowing summertime portapotties at an over crowded, month long, chilly eating festival. For a vampire to even subject itself to that, the vampires convictions have to be something to be admired. Even a hypocrite can have honourable motives.

 

 

Okay, so how does a vampire kill another vampire?

A vampires physiology is about the same as a humans. They just regenerate a lot faster. The older the vampire, the faster they regenerate. Let's say an older vampire has to kill a younger one. She tracks the younger vampire to wherever he lives, then she'll follow that vampire to somewhere out of the way and you can let your imagination take over from here. Let's say you're a vampire and you had to kill a human. It's the same thing for vampires. A young vampire will just bleed out if you injured it enough, I'm talking ripping their lungs out should do the trick. Or you can save yourself a lot of trouble by ripping off the head of a vampire. There is nothing mystical about a vampire heart, it has to beat just like ours so removing it would be a bad thing.

 

And the old vampires?

Okay, you're super badass and the terminator of all vampires. First, you'll have to wear them down. Let's say you rip off their arm. The arm won't grow back, but the wound would heal leaving a freshly healed stump that looks like it was always like that. You punch your hand through his chest and think you'll rip out his heart, the wound would heal around your wrist and you'll have to tug on that sucker pretty hard to get it back out.

Mind you, you'll have to be moving pretty fast since you're up against a near immortal who dies very hard.

 

 

Okay, vampires are very strong from the get go, what about when they turn back into humans?

Well, they can't regenerate as they could before so any strength they had fades as their ability to regenerate fades. They turn into a regular human that can't be distinguished by regular humans.

 

        What about by vampires? Can they spot a Vehemist?

Nope, they are humans, remember? If a vampire killed a Vehemist, their blood would taste like regular blood.

 

Well, what if a human who was a vampire wants to get young again?

Well, that would be like asking a drug addict why they would want to subject themselves to an addiction again after they fought so hard to get off of it. In most cases, where a human wants to turn back into a vampire, it's mostly for revenge. What can I say, that's human nature. But since they're being watched almost constantly by some group, either the European governing body or by a mysterious secret society who wouldn't like too many vampires running around making trouble, soon as they break basic vampire law, they're put on a list of vampires to be hunted and killed. Forever hunted until they are dead.

 

For humans who are just plain vain and don't want to get old and die. They have to get authorization to 'turn' themselves so they can resume drinking blood. To do that, they have to approach a vampire in power and almost become a Kin again. Though they do know vampire law so they know that they are taking their lives into their own hands.

 

There are vampires who choose a human life, but keep close contact to their vampire counterparts so if they have to, they can easily gain authorization to be a vampire again. Though, this practice is considered highly dangerous because, once a vampire is human again, that human is considered on the same level as Kin.

 

A few vampires choose murder to try and regain strength and youth, but that goes against basic vampire law. Don't kill innocent humans.

So what are the basic laws of vampires

The European governing laws are simple, they're in place to keep a delicate balance. If there are too many vampires who feed on blood, too many humans will die. So they keep a very close eye on vampire groups and their Kin. The vampire groups are deeply instinctual so law is rarely broken. Breaking a law is a death sentence. In the worst cases, the governing body is rule of law. Usually, the group will enforce these laws themselves.

 

No unauthorized 'turning' of humans. (this includes a vampires changed back to humans, these vampires can 'turn' themselves by ingesting human blood, but it's considered breaking the law. Yes, even if the human went and stole some blood bank blood, that person 'turned' a human without authorization.)

No killing innocent humans for food.

 

Long story short, the vampires laws are instinct meant to keep balances in check.

 

What about the north american vampires?

The only north american vampires are really self correcting. Plus, they aren't my characters outside what I put together from a short history. If I may say so, I'd say what the Broken Hand knowledge base says about them. Zuric doesn't want to create too many vampires, Auric would just kill them anyways. Zuric doesn't want to give Auric to have an always readily available source of food. Since Auric is a self-proclaimed Vehemist, he won't kill any human for food. That's not to say that he didn't kill any humans, he just didn't use any for food.

And here's the cool part that .Bunnie. created and I just guessed or made up. Auric gains his ability to sense when other vampires are near from his drinking of vampire blood. Zuric has lesser vampires following him, those lesser vampires have small groups of Kin. So Auric tracks those and uses them to find Zuric. Auric leaves a trail of vampire corpses behind him as he chases Zuric.

 

What is a fact from history, is Auric and Zuric are among the most very powerful vampires on the planet. Lazzlo, poor guy, created them both in his own twisted way. So he's sitting over in Europe somewhere, wringing his hands waiting to hear who won the epic battle between Auric and Zuric.

 

 

What can do you call the vampires?

Well, the first vampires were the Purebloods. Then after that, Pureblood Evolved, then came the Hybrids. But they don't call themselves that, they're just vampires. If I had to call them anything, I'd probably say they are the Second Generation Vampires, split into two main groups, the Vehemists and just regular ol' vampires. Since being a Vehemist is really saying ex-vampire. But there are the Vehemist radicals who are the hunters like Auric who are only trying to eradicate vampires so all that will be left on earth are humans.

 

        Purebloods > Pureblood Evolved > Hybrids – Second Generation – vampires and Vehemists

 

 

Are there any Purebloods left?

Maybe, but probably not. They died out because they were actually weaker, in most part, than Pureblood Evolved or even the Hybrids. For all their strength, they were only ashes in the wind when it came down to it.

 

Why doesn't sunlight affect the hybrids?

Magic. No, I don't know. I don't want to say something like, artistic license, or it's cliche for vampires to hate or die in the sun. Because the Purebloods died in the sunlight. Pureblood Evolved could survive sunlight, only aversion to it was trying to keep to a tradition of night time vampires that were the purebloods. The hybrids got a couple of things from purebloods. Ability to survive sunlight, ability to live a human life if they chose. But since the evolved were a genetic quirk, an actual evolution, the vampires were actually trying to change, but thousands of years of instinct fought against it. The last shot at continuing the vampire bloodlines were the genetic roll of the dice from the dying purebloods.

 

They created a few of the vicious evolved, who died out because they couldn't stop themselves from feeding on bubonic plague victims even if they knew it would kill them. The other offshoot was the hybrids. Which was a logical step in evolution. That why they split, half had the instinct of feeding on blood, the other half, distraught that the purebloods last shot could have easily spelled doom for humanity if it happened at any other time in human history. Everything was just chance.

 

Think of it this way, if there was no bubonic plague, the purebloods would most likely still live in their extremely traditional small society. Killing off any new vampires they created that were immune to the sun. That's not to say that another disease would have came along and destroyed the species anyway.

 

So the second generation vampires are immune to AIDS and Small Pox and Swine Flu and the Common Cold, but they died from the Bubonic Plague?

No, the purebloods died of the black plague. The hybrids, who feed on blood, have a regenerative immune system that will defeat anything thrown at it, but if they choose to live as a human, they're just like us.

 

But you said that the purebloods were strong!

I sure did, but think about it. There are different races out there that are weaker against certain diseases than others. Same with vampire, nature found something that worked on both humans and purebloods. Who's to say that there isn't a disease that is evolving now to shut down only the vampire regenerative systems, but leaves the human populace unaffected? The humans could be carriers and not know it, vampires feed and die, could happen. Or, maybe a disease will come and kill all the humans, vampires are the only ones left on earth so they all turn into humans without human blood. They turn into humans eventually, get the disease and die too.

 

Could vampires live on synthetic blood if there were such a thing?

They tried and it turned out that it's like popcorn. I mean, they'd have to drink 50 gallons of the stuff to get the same nutritional value as a teaspoon of human blood. To drink that much would ultimately create a massive addiction that would be detrimental to say the least. Besides, instinct would make feeding on it seem like an abomination, almost taboo.

 

 

Author's Note

Now with a "writers FAQ" I made this part up too, nobody really asked me any questions, I'm just having fun pretending. New version, added a few more questions. I really should've kept notes when I was writing Auric's Journey because I thought of some pretty hard questions I could've added to this.

Reviews

[.Bunnie.]

Well, like all writers need editors, I can certainly say you'd be a valuable asset as a researcher! I'm not sure if you actually looked up some of this stuff, or if it was all fictional....sounded like you researched. It sounded very factual and historical. Is that what you were going for? If so, great job!

And okay, now it's totally bugging me!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember hearing this story from SOMEWHERE (or like, the little tidbits of it) and I know you said it was from our group, but for the life of me, I CANNOT remember where! It's one of those odd random very unimportant things that bug the living s**t out of you for the rest of your life until it clicks back into your head. :P So what was this from????

[Norma M Sutton]

I think my head is still spinning. Great details in this.

[Sean M. Addams]

very interesting piece here.... lots of cool facts here.... overall i liked this alot... nice job on this!!