Vampires: Their strengths and weaknesses

Vampires are descended from a loose society of witches, sorcerers, and conjurers in 11th century Europe. Information and rituals were shared amongst the group, and after one such ritual was circulated, members began to notice a strange affliction that slowly started to make their lives miserable. After several months, desperate for a cure, they met in Venice to attempt to cure the affliction. They all participated in a particularly difficult demonic summoning. While the demon could not undo the curse that had been placed upon them, it could ease the symptoms, allowing them to sate their hunger and thirst with the blood of humans, and giving them the strength and lasting health to enact the revenge that they wanted for their predicament, in exchange for their souls, and the souls of all of the children they might have. They agreed, and the first vampires were created.

A vampire's curse can be transmitted two ways, by birth and by blood. All of a vampire's children will be vampires themselves, regardless of the status of their second parent. It takes only one drop of of a vampire's blood entering the body in order for a normal human body to begin the transition to vampire (the exception being a human mother and vampire child).

Physically, there is little difference between the two types of vampires.

1. Physical Strength: Both are strong enough to bend a metal pipe or jump to the top of a two story building.
2. Speed: Vampires have reflexes twice as fast as humans, and are able to move at speeds up to seventy miles an hour.
3. Longevity: Most born vampires stop aging between the ages of 20-30, as the body completes the gradual change to vampire.
4. Healing: A vampire's body heals injury twice as fast as a human. Save fire, the sun, and decapitation, most injuries will not kill a vampire, though they can and do slow them down or even put them into a torpor-like state. When in a torpor, the vampire's metabolism slows down, preserving the blood in the body to be used for healing and sating hunger. Still, most of the time, a vampire will wake up from a torpor ravenous.
5. Most possess a natural aptitude for magic, though knowledge of magic is not innate and must be taught. Personal belief can affect this, with those who do not believe in magic showing little to no sensitivity.
6. Most vampires possess hunting and killing instincts to aid in getting the blood they need.
7. Senses: Eyesight, especially night sight, is considerably increased. Hearing is sensitive enough to hear their prey's heartbeat in a quiet room. Sense of smell is slightly more sensitive, to the degree of an exceptional human.

The weaknesses each type of vampire possesses vary based on how they were made. Vampires by birth show different weaknesses than those made by blood.

1. Vampires typically do not begin to change until they reach puberty. They do not reach their full strength and resilience until their mid-to-late 20s. Before the change, they are subject to all the same injuries, diseases, and aging as normal humanity.
2. Vampires by birth usually have red eyes, and even as children are often photosensitive.
3. As children, vampires tend to sunburn easily. Once they've gone through the change, vampires by birth are the group most affected by the sun. They cannot stand even indirect sunlight or they will burst into flame.
4. The perpetual hunger and thirst that afflicts most vampires does not usually affect a vampire's children until they begin puberty, but can under rare circumstances manifest in younger children. Younger children affected by this hunger are unable to eat or drink normally, and are required to drink blood, as their elders do. Vampires by birth are usually more affected by this hunger and thirst than those made by blood. While a vampire made by blood can be sated, a born vampire very often is not. Control is learned early in life, as vampire children are attracted to blood at an early age, before the hunger and thirst take hold.
5. Born vampires are born with the same instincts their elders use for hunting. They also usually are born less able to empathize with others and with a strong possessive instinct. All born vampires are extremely territorial, and it is not uncommon to find families returning year after year to the same ancestral home. 

In contrast, vampires made with blood show other traits.

1. They are frozen at the age in which they were given blood, regardless of age. The change, for this group, takes typically two years, in which the fledgling vampire will be more ravenous than at any other point later in life.
2. Their eyes usually do not change color, and remain the same color they were in life. They are usually not as photosensitive as born vampires.
3. Once fully changed, they are not as sensitive to sunlight as born vampires. They can stand indirect sunlight for minutes at a time with blisters and peeling to show for it.
4. Though they feel the same hunger and thirst as born vampires, it is not quite as overwhelming, and can be sated by feeding regularly. Control is not quite as important to learn, for this group, and many do not show the same restraint as born vampires when in the presence of blood.
5. Though they acquire the same hunting and killing instincts as born vampires, they are still subject to the same emotions they had as humans. While born vampires rarely feel love, empathy, or guilt, made vampires often do.
6. Most made vampires do not feel the same territorial instincts as born vampires, and they often wander. 


Both groups are subject to some of the same weaknesses.

1. Food: Holds no nutritional value for vampires who have completed the change. It tastes disgusting to them, and most find even the smell nausiating.
2. Water: Pure water is a poison when ingested, accidentally or otherwise. Depending on degree of ingestion, symptoms range from vomiting, dizziness, weakness, to torpor or death.
3. Hunger: Vampires are perpetually hungry and thirsty and must drink human blood to satisfy those cravings. Born vampires typically require more blood than made vampires.
4. Sunlight: No vampire can stand in direct sunlight and live. Direct sunlight ignites vampiric flesh upon contact. Indirect sunlight causes severe burns on made vampires, and it can ignite born vampires.
5. Fire: Both types of vampire are equally combustible, and avoid fire. Their flesh burns readily and is difficult to put out, once it's alight.
6. Wooden stakes: A wooden stake through the heart will disrupt the demonic pact, taking the vampire's strength and health. It will make it impossible for a vampire to feed while leaving the hunger and thirst. While it will not kill a vampire, the vampire will very quickly waste away into a living mummy, remaining unable to move and feed until the stake is removed.
7. Decapitation: A vampire will die when its head is removed.
8. Crosses: A blessed cross will burn a vampire's skin. Most crosses and crucifixes will make as vampire feel weak and sickened.
9. Mirrors: A vampire's reflection doesn't show in a mirror.
10. Conception: Vampires have a hard time conceiving, as the body usually rejects the fertilized egg, and it typically takes many years before a child comes to term successfully.

Order of the Red Serpent

While most of the made vampires are nomadic, not often staying in any one territory for more than a few years, born vampires have very strong territorial urges and blunted empathy, guilt, and other emotions, which make relations with other vampires difficult at best. In order to avoid conflict amongst themselves, the vampire families established a council to provide law and order for their kind, as well as settle disputes civilly, without need for bloodshed.

This council, for born vampires and consisting entirely of born vampires, was dubbed the Order of the Red Serpent by the early Church, and from early times has been the target of numerous unsuccessful hunts. The name was taken up by the vampires, and the name has enjoyed more success among the vampires than in the Church, where it has fallen into obscurity. Many of the older members of the council have ruby pins, rings, or other jewelry in the shape of serpents.

Membership in the council is established by a vampire's birth into one of the twenty-one original vampire families. For most families, the father would hand down his membership to his oldest son, in the event of his death. For some vampire familes, whose original vampire ancestor was female, that membership is instead handed down to the oldest daughter. Two families still possess their original vampire ancestors, and those ancestors still man the council. Sixteen of the other seats still remain active. The other seats belong to vampire families whose members have all been lost or are missing.

The Order of the Red Serpent passes laws to regulate vampire society as well as settles disputes between rival families and even disputes among made vampires. These laws are enforced by a police force consisting of lesser members of the major vampire families. Membership in the force is a status symbol as well as a matter of pride, and the council usually has plenty of vampires to enforce its wishes. This police force also deals with security threats from normal humans, such as someone trying to go public with proof of their existence, and even the ocassional hunter.

The Core Laws of the Order of the Red Serpent:

1. Respect the territory of thy equals and thy betters.
2. Thou shalt take care to keep thy blood away from mortals.
3. Thou shalt not create more than one vampire from a mortal every ten years.
4. Thou shalt never allow thy nature to become knowledge of a mortal.
5. Mortal hunters are to be killed, lest thou art to be counted among them.
6. Thou shalt never raise arms towards thy ally.
7. Thou shalt never leave evidence of thy feeding.

Other laws are added and dropped as needed, but the core laws have remained the same since the council first convened.

The Order of the Red Serpent has had its headquarters in Venice since 1347, and the council has maintained a strong presence in the city. The two oldest members of the council maintain their households in Venice. Other members of the council have their main residences scattered around Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

The D'Ambrosio Family

The D’Ambrosio twins rule jointly over their family’s territory and their seat on the council. They are two of only three surviving original vampires, and they claim Venice and the surrounding area as their hunting grounds.

Danilo D’Ambrosio is the hotter tempered of the two. He believes very strongly in vampire supremacy and their policy of keeping humans in the dark. He’s deeply involved in human politics and has been subtly influencing political races for centuries. What his money can’t buy, his magic can tip in his favor. Oddly enough, the volcanic temper drops away at home, and Danilo is a dedicated family man, helping his wife, Kelly, with Antonio and the twins.

Gregorio D’Ambrosio is the quieter of the two brothers. Cold and logical, he’s been accused of being as unfeeling as some of the machines he favors. Gregorio is a former priest who turned to the dark arts and now heads a team of vampires who use a blend of sorcery and technology to try to isolate and remove the weaknesses in the vampire condition. Most of the household, their staff, and the assorted hangers-on and lab assistants assume Gregorio is married to his work, but he and Dylan Woods have been sneaking out for long walks with Priest…

Kelly D’Ambrosio is Danilo’s wife. She’s been a vampire for five years now. In addition to her thriving sculpture business, she also has three children under the age of six. Given the difficulty that vampire women have with pregnancy, balancing her work, her health, and her family life is an immense source of pride for her.

Antonio, Cecilia, and Salvatore D’Ambrosio are Kelly and Danilo’s young children. Antonio is the oldest and so far wants nothing more than to learn to be a knight. His father indulges him with sword practice. Cecilia and Salvatore are twin babies at the moment. Salvatore spends a lot of his time in and out of his uncle’s lab, being treated for all manner of childhood illnesses.

Dylan Woods, a human musician. He doesn’t know about vampires and assumes Gregorio is an entirely ordinary overworked research doctor living with his politician brother and his family. Dylan is an American, a cousin of Kelly’s, and is using music studies in Venice as an excuse to keep an eye on Danilo for Kelly’s family. Dylan and Danilo do not get along, but Gregorio has so far managed to smooth over all of their fights.

Priest is the family’s greyhound. The dog is especially fond of Gregorio, and they’re a common sight along the canals at night.

Leonzio D’Ambrosio is one of Danilo’s grown children. He was born before they were cursed, and though he’s second generation, he’s far older than a lot of the vampires sitting on the council. Leonzio lives in Canada and rarely keeps in contact with the rest of his family. He and his father do not get along.

Frediano D’Ambrosio is another of Danilo’s grown children. He’s almost three hundred years old and is the former head of the Sanguinarium, the Council’s police. He still works with the group and is living in London at the moment.

(no subject)

“Look, Adrien, it’s not that I don’t agree with you. I do, but…”

“But you’re too cowardly to take a stand? Come on, Gregorio, you know this is our best chance to remain undetected.”

“Or our best chance to be found out for certain, this time. We barely managed to escape the last outbreak. If it had taken place ten years later, the humans would have found the toxin in the victims’ blood, and it would all be over. And now I’m getting word that at least a few of the deaths in Africa aren’t from the plague, but from us…” He shook his head.

Adrien gave a grim laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised. An opportunity to expand territory makes the young bloods greedy.”

Gregorio gave a sigh. “I can’t condone keeping humans closer to us than they already are. You know what’s happened every time we’ve tried keeping them for food. The toxin is carried in our saliva, too. A low dose over a long period provokes a response. They grow ravenous, heedless of all but hunger. Afraid of the sun and fire, but precious little else. We were lucky in earlier times, we could mask our purges as the Plague, polio…even damned dysentery. Plant a Plague victim in view on the pyre, and they were all too happy to let all the bodies burn.” Gregorio scowled at Adrien. “Now they have medicine. They ask questions. They’re very, very close to answers that would hurt us.”

“Which is why I want a feeding population. With careful control, it can be done.” Adrien spread his arms wide. “Look, you know where my territory is. The United fucking States. I can’t take a piss without worrying it’s on camera. It’s getting uncomfortable having to dispose of a body or more per week. Soon my son is going to need a supply as well…I’m going to draw unwanted attention regardless.”

“You would rather draw hunters than police?” Gregorio raised an eyebrow.

“I can take the hunters. Police would run me out of my territory and back to Moulins for good. I had a taste of that already. I like this age, I’m not giving it up.” Adrien’s voice was harsh. “Can Danilo be convinced?”

“Maybe, but it isn’t the house of D’Ambrosio you should worry about.”

“And who should I worry about, Gregorio?”

“Marcello Rovigatti leads the Sanguinarium now, and you and his mother, Velia, have never been on good terms.”

Adrien gave a snort. “That’s not true, once we were on very…intimate terms. That might be why she wanted my heart that one time.”