Vampires

Vampires are a newly recognized species of people that live entirely off of the blood of living creatures. They have lived for centuries amongst humans in secret up until very recently, during which time their existence has emerged from the ranks of myth, and folklore to reality. Pre-dating even the 1400's, they have appeared in legends for virtually every culture in human history.
 * "...he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws..."
 * — Bram Stoker's Dracula
 * — Bram Stoker's Dracula

Origins
The vampires' origins remain unknown to humanity. It is uncertain if the vampires themselves know of their own origins, at least as far as humans are concerned. According to folklore and myth, the vampire's origin can be traced back to ancient Eastern Europe. Other strains of legend trace the vampire's beginnings to ancient Egypt.
 * List of vampires in mythology and folklore.

The Great Revelation
In 2020, unrecognizable symbols were found scattered across the world — both the virtual and concrete. It was discovered to be an intricate and elaborate code that required cracking by the most skilled and intelligent of the human world. It took one year for the code to be successfully gathered from all over the globe and finally cracked; then another year for the vampires to come to a unified decision.In 2022, a verdict had been met by the elder and most influential vampires, and despite the various propaganda attempts of all civilized nations' human governments to keep their peoples calm in the face of the possibility that supernatural beings were close to becoming a daily reality, vampires had "come out of the coffin".

Synthetic blood
For ten years prior to the Great Revelation, Ziodec Industries had been developing and perfecting technology that made cloning human blood to the point where it was not only possible, but could also be used in the medical field without hazards to human health. Legal research and development for synthetic plasma and blood had passed through special votes in 2018 and the program's success in the following years acted as catalysts for the vampires' outing. Today, vampires who wish to live in harmony amongst their human cousins live almost exclusively off of such synthetic bottled blood. These vampires are called Mainstream.

Humans and Vampires
Although it has been half a year since the official declaration of their existence was made, most humans today in smaller towns and less populated areas of the world have yet to see a vampire in the flesh. Vampire kind living with them is still held in great taboo for many people. While gay marriage has become legal in most of the United States of America now, legal marriage between vampires and/or their human companions still struggles for the same respect. Currently, murdering a vampire by any means other than self-defense is against the law in almost every country across the globe. Vampires have to right to own property in many countries, as well as run their own legal and legitimate businesses. They may also vote. However, all of the above rights can only be given to a vampire if they can produce proof that they are legal citizens or visitors of the country they inhabit.

Not all humans though shy away from the undead. Fanatic vampire fans are well in supply everywhere and there are many inter-species relations between humans and vampires that produce pleasure for both, minus the manslaughter. It is dangerous and unhealthy though for a human to be tapped so often and regularly by vampires, as humans can only regenerate their blood so quickly.

Even in the light of these social and political advances, however, humans radically against the integration of vampires into their society are still very much active. Vampire hunters do exist, in even greater number nowadays, some under the cover of law firms seeking to prosecute the undead for various crimes against humanity. A vampire has not yet been tried successfully in a human court of law for murder or assault. Other hunter groups take the guise of political and religious groups lobbying against vampire rights.

In addition, vampires themselves have not all proven open to the idea of integrating with humanity either. Vampires known as Renouncers have aligned themselves with radical hunters while other vampires, known as Rogues, have turned to behaving cruelly without any attempt at subterfuge in hopes that humans will realize they are below vampires on the food chain. thumb|268px|right|Evolution of the vampire from a human perspective.

Lifestyles
Since the big outing of vampires by the elder council, vampires have been taking their way of life and how to describe it with a whole new seriousness. A vampire's lifestyle/alignment does not always have something to do with the subspecies the vampire is of. For example, even a Nosferatu can try to live a reformed life. To date there are three kinds of lifestyles:


 * Reformed — These vampires are proud that the species has mainstreamed. Regardless of whether they do or do not feed off of real blood, they have reformed their ways of the past in order to live in harmony with humans. It is true that most of them don't solely feed on the more average people of the world, but all of them do see humans as their equals and some even seek intimate and personal relationships with humans.'
 * Conservative — Conservatives are either indifferent or conflicted about the idea of humans knowing about them and the notion of living with them peacefully as equals. They have the tendency to look down on most humans, but don't really judge other vampires by their personal choice of lifestyle. A human must be very special indeed for them to be bothered with their company for long. For the most part, conservatives live by a "live and let live" philosophy.'
 * Orthodox — Orthodox vampires do not respect humans nor do they value human life. They feel humans are below vampires and should only exist to serve their superiors with blood or hard labor. An orthodox vampire will never seek companionship with a human or a vampire who loves humans.'
 * Orthodox — Orthodox vampires do not respect humans nor do they value human life. They feel humans are below vampires and should only exist to serve their superiors with blood or hard labor. An orthodox vampire will never seek companionship with a human or a vampire who loves humans.'
 * Orthodox — Orthodox vampires do not respect humans nor do they value human life. They feel humans are below vampires and should only exist to serve their superiors with blood or hard labor. An orthodox vampire will never seek companionship with a human or a vampire who loves humans.'

Propaganda
Vampires have explained their condition to humanity as a virus. They claim they suffer from an incurable illness that makes them as they are and that it can only be truly considered contagious if a human is near death and ingests a great deal of vampire blood. There is a bit of truth to this, but for the most part, it is simply a rough euphemism for vampirism. The existence of other supernatural races is still widely unknown to humans and therefore this bit of propaganda is accepted only because humans do not know any better. There is something unnatural and, indeed, magical about vampires, but none of them besides Renouncers and Rogues want to share this frightening truth with humans for fear of further persecution and alienation.

For survival reasons, vampires protect their weaknesses and histories from humans with extreme prejudice more often than not. Officially, the Elders have explained that they are no less susceptible to death than humans, but of course that is not true. Very few things can permanently kill a vampire. The only way to kill all vampires, regardless of age, for certain is either expose them to extreme ultraviolet rays or sever the head from the body.

Types of Vampires
Unknown to humans, there are actually three sub-species of vampires, each with its own perspective on vampire life in regards to human life and each with its own set of special abilities. The Dark Gift, as some refer to vampirism, is different for every individual, but most share at least a few traits in common with one another.

Nosferatu
The oldest of the vampire race, turned to darkness in the dark ages and earlier, they typically hold fast to their old, brutal ways.
 * Main article here: Nosferatu Vampires

Lore
Aristocratic vampires were created around the 1700's until the early 1900's. They are practical above all else.
 * Main article here: Lore Vampires

Modern
The youngest vampires in existence today were born between the 1920's and present day. Reflecting the spirit of their respective age, they cling the most insistently to their mortal coil of all the vampires.


 * Main article here: Modern Vampires

Government
Because their kind is so scattered all over the world, vampires do not have a standard set of laws amongst themselves as humans and other peoples in more cohesive groups do. Usually, the vampire laws of an area depend on the coven or nest

which dominates the land. Covens, because of their typically greater size, are generally more official and strict with their laws about hunting and fights amongst each other than nests are. Sometimes a nest does not set laws at all for vampires visiting their territory. The leaders of the covens and nests act as sheriffs of the lands and they do not ever encroach on one another's jurisdiction.

What is known about vampires in terms of an official government is that there is a council of a handful of elders, which are widely regarded as the oldest and strongest still living. They are not all Nosferatu, however, as each elder is a significant — and possibly the first — member of each bloodline. Every one of the elders can remember there being no other like them in their place of residence when they were turned, therefore making each of them milestones in the evolution of the vampire race and pure sources of the bloodlines. The council determines what is best for vampires and are responsible for monitoring the peace among the covens. It is unclear how far their eyes can see, but most covens and nests are sure not to make waves in manners that would cause the humans around them to feel it necessary to violently persecute them all even more than they already do, out of fear that the elders might punish them and theirs as they have been known to destroy entire covens in the past which proved to be particularly unruly and dangerous to the survival of the species.

Feeding
Newly sired vampires need to feed every night as their bodies adapt to using blood to reanimate them. Their hunger is constant and can be overwhelming at times, leading to multiple and sloppy kills if their sire does not stick around to teach them to control themselves. The older the vampire, they less they need to feed, though of course there are those that kill each night simply for sport and fun.

They can smoke and they can drink alcohol, but it's not good for them and they definitely shouldn't drink or smoke for very long, or else they would need to feed on more than one human to get their bodies back in prime condition. As for human food, they stay away from it as it will make them violently ill and considerably weak.