Vampires are widely known as blood sucking beasts - But are quite different in each adaptation they appear in.
This page is written to be clear about what a vampire is and isn't in Risk-Taking Nobody.
This page is written to be clear about what a vampire is and isn't in Risk-Taking Nobody.
Vampirism can be classified as an illness, an condition, but most accurately a curse. Vampirism is a curse made by a once powerful being, born and dead far before anyone could even remember their name. Vampirism is no longer a threat to the nations spread across the world, but it still exist, and might continue existing forever.
Vampirism can be cured, but vampires may never fully recover and return to their normal human appearance and physique. So when vampires get cured, they don't turn back into humans, they become elves. You can read more about this under the headline "Cure."
Vampirism can be cured, but vampires may never fully recover and return to their normal human appearance and physique. So when vampires get cured, they don't turn back into humans, they become elves. You can read more about this under the headline "Cure."
Vampirism is rarely embraced or excused by humans. Whenever any vampires were seen, they were kidnapped and experiemented on. Mostly experimented on to get a cure, but also to kill and clean out all the vampires in society. Everyone was scared of vampires, and vampires themselves were scared of humans. Vampires wanted to be close to their loved ones, but didn't know how to deal with the extreme hunger for human blood, especially from the ones they loved.
During Elliot's time, there was an epidemic of vampirism, it spread like wildfire through the masses. Vampire hunters roamed everywhere because of this. To hire a vampire hunter could be expensive, but it was sort of like the only safety net you could get if you were scared of vampires. Hundreds of vampires got both killed and tested on. Some wanted it, a lot did not. Curses like vampirism and lycanthropy shaped the world drastically, and people started both fearing and banning sorcery. Humans were cruel to vampires, while animalia and animals acted more welcoming. However, as time passed along with all of the vampire hunters, vampirism said to be off the planet's surface, and it got pushed into history books rather than newspapers.
Those vampires that fled felt no motivation to seek out more humans. Most of them went up far north, because the sun went down earlier, and made plenty of shadows in the dense forests. But they would never thrive, and would often die of starvation. Only very small villages exist, made by and for vampires. Other places they could survive at was where animalia and animals lived, as curses and magic are seen quite differently by them. And vampirism is a human only curse, so animalia were not at risk in the same sense as a human would be. But secrets and knowledge about vampires died with the vampires as soon as they were stated to be extinct.
Being a vampire hunter used to be a profession that was both looked down on due to its brutality, but also looked up on because of the sacrifice. Vampire hunters are experts at hunting and killing vampires, and were often hired in the past to different villages to get rid of them so the curse wouldn't spread. It's ironic how the people who knew the most about vampires didn't know how to cure them. A heap of these hunters got wealthy around the vampire epidemics, and if you're a descendant of a vampire hunter you're probably well off. There are plenty of tattered old anti-vampire kits and weapons against vampires from the past. These anti-vampire kits usually contained a stake (out of any material) silver bullets, a lighter, pliers, a mirror and a saw. More advanced tools like silver shackles, flamethrowers, silver stakes and more was used by professional and rich vampire hunters. But now a days, in Calli and her friend's time, they don't roam around all proud and bossy like they used to. Vampire hunters in the modern time are more obscure, but they're respected as protectors of a distant past. In modern time people talk about vampires as if they're extinct, and so the newer generations don't think active vampire hunters are needed anymore. The modern vampire hunter have rarely seen or encountered a real vampire, and usually has a job preserving vampire hunter's history. A lot of them have museums or tours to show how it used to be like. |
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Vampirism is spread through a bite. Usually vampires kill their prey by the blood loss or an infection. But if a prey, who's bitten, doesn't die it will gradually turn into a vampire. The process isn't fast, a vampire slowly turns during one or two months. After a prey is bit, they faint due to the curse taking over. If they're lucky (or unlucky) they wake up after some hours. They'll notice some instant changes, like that their eyes have gone completely white (if they ever happen to notice that) and that their ears has grown longer. They'll also feel a thirst for blood whenever their hunger kicks in. Longer into the transformation they will lose their teeth, they fall out one by one and gets replaced with new, deadly and sharp teeth. Same thing happens to their nails, new, more durable and sharp nails take their place. This process with the teeth and nails take place the first month. |
Their hair also gets affected, it becomes a lighter colour overtime. The older a vampire is, the whiter their hair is. Another more slower process is the regeneration that vampires gain alongside their immortality. The body slowly shuts down, causing the heart to stop pumping blood. The regeneration becomes stronger, and at the same time that happens they become more and more weak towards sunlight and silver. When the regeneration is fully gained they can no longer go into direct sunlight without getting burned.
What it feels like being a vampire: Your heart does not beat, and you don't need to breathe. There's no warmth or cold, you don't feel any sensation of touch what so ever. The body doesn't work, and you lack many kind of bodily sensations. You can feel any emotion and that would be the only thing that results in any bodily reaction. You still feel hunger when empty, but no pain when injured. Only fear and shock may surface over injuries, or any other emotion. Your sense of touch is horribly bad, but your sense of smell and taste is heightened like nothing else. Sight is also enhanced, now being able to see in the dark, and in pitch darkness. The loss of touch is compensated in your hearing, and thus you hear everything, and anything, around you.
What it feels around a vampire: Touching a vampire is like touching a corpse. It's cold, it's damp and it's unnerving. Vampires tend to smell pretty bad from being isolated from society, and they don't look good either. Their clothes are usually ruined and bloody, same with the skin and hair. A vampires teeth are even colder than the vampires body, and if you're ever bitten it's first a very numbing sensation due to the extreme cold, and then a sharp, freezing pain.
What it feels like being a vampire: Your heart does not beat, and you don't need to breathe. There's no warmth or cold, you don't feel any sensation of touch what so ever. The body doesn't work, and you lack many kind of bodily sensations. You can feel any emotion and that would be the only thing that results in any bodily reaction. You still feel hunger when empty, but no pain when injured. Only fear and shock may surface over injuries, or any other emotion. Your sense of touch is horribly bad, but your sense of smell and taste is heightened like nothing else. Sight is also enhanced, now being able to see in the dark, and in pitch darkness. The loss of touch is compensated in your hearing, and thus you hear everything, and anything, around you.
What it feels around a vampire: Touching a vampire is like touching a corpse. It's cold, it's damp and it's unnerving. Vampires tend to smell pretty bad from being isolated from society, and they don't look good either. Their clothes are usually ruined and bloody, same with the skin and hair. A vampires teeth are even colder than the vampires body, and if you're ever bitten it's first a very numbing sensation due to the extreme cold, and then a sharp, freezing pain.
Vampires look dead, even though their bodies haven't started rotting. A vampire's skin doesn't become radically paler when they die, just less lively. The blood flow has stopped, and any blood only pumps around when new blood is injected into the body, mostly through bites. The hair also lose it's colour, like it's suddenly ageing. It becomes paler as time goes on, until it's completely white.
A vampire has both longer ears and nails. The nails are very sharp, and usually a darker colour than human nails. A vampires eyes are completely white, or in rare occasions completely black. It's a sign of the undead, but also a sign of magic. Vampires can range from looking beautiful and elegant, to messy and neglected. A lot of vampires who live outside of any kind of society stop taking care of themselves, not taking care of their hair, teeth, nails, and so on.
Vampires feed on blood, only. The blood does not have to be fresh, it can be any creatures blood, mixed with anything else. For an example; water or soda. The blood can also be rotten; but it's not tasty or nutritious.. Vampires love the blood from humans, it's a favorite, and second best is blood from hybrids or animalia.
Vampires are both faster and stronger than humans. When a vampire look into a mirror, no reflection shows up. It does not appear on photographs prior to it's transformation either. Vampires have sharp nails which can cut trough wood, and its bite can pierce through steel. Its hearing is superior to humans, as well as its sense of smell. They can see much better in the dark, and if they can't see they compensate that by their superior hearing. Vampires regenerate quickly, but can't re-grow body parts. Most injuries heal quickly, but to kill a Vampire in one hit is near impossible unless you use the right tools. Vampires can not turn into a bat, or any other form. They are to remain in their "human" shape.
All of these traits are very dangerous, and there's no wonder where the human fear for vampires came from. The downside (or upside, depends on who's side you're on) is that these abilities are pretty much useless when a vampire is near starvation. The hungrier a vampire is, the weaker it becomes. Vampires can last longer in starvation than humans can, and they become more and more desperate the hungrier they become. Another weakness of theirs is silver, some say this is due to the curse, but only the ones who knows a vampire's true origin knows why. Silver burns a vampires skin, it's extremely painful to the touch. An injury caused by a silver item heals much slower than an injury made by any other material.
Vampires do not die because of:
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Vampires can die because of:
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Breaking a curse, especially a curse as strong as vampirism, ranges from being easy to being almost impossible. The curse laid upon vampires is fueled by hate, hope and curiosity. Strong emotions from a skilled caster such as the one who cursed all vampires only mean problems for anyone who's gonna tackle it. Only someone as strong (or stronger,) skilled and emotional as the original caster can break the curse. Humans are not naturally skilled or knowledgeable about magic, and there are extremely few humans who can break a curse as strong as vampirism. Vampires who're living in areas occupied by animalia and hybrids have a better chance finding someone who can help than a vampire living among humans.
As said in the intro, vampires post cure are no longer seen as humans, but as elves. They're supernatural, they keep the teeth and ears, alongside some abilities like super hearing, see in the dark and affinity with the nature and magic. They however regain their normal eyes, hair, skin and flesh. Their shadow and mirror image also return, and post cure they can be seen in photographs as well. They don't keep the super strength, speed and healing, but it still stays over average compared to a human. Elves also live much longer than humans, because the super regeneration/healing lingers.