x.Vampires

[``Constantine]

These are the facts ar bout vampires. They may be subject to change at any time. If they are changed, you will be notified.

St. Kieran Kiss Headquarters: Circus of the Damned Master of the City - Constantine Temoin - Henry Fitzroy Third - Anton Fourth - Luna

[``Constantine]

• The vampire culture is headed by the Council, a groups of seven enormously powerful, super old vampires that are centered in Europe, mostly in France. They are all Soudre le Sangs, and all have their own unique powers.
  
  
• A vampire is a being that was once human, but has become deceased. Through necromatical forces, the dead is animated, and is given the ability to walk once again. However, because it is dead, a vampire cannot create the nutrients that its body needs to stay in peak, and thus must obtain these nutrients via a different source: to drink blood.
  
  
• Vampires must feed every night, or else they will weaken. No, it's not true that they will die, but it does increase the chance that when they die the next morning, they won't wake up the next night.
  
  
• If a vampire finds a person to feed from (human, were, shifter, or even something else {must be alive, though}), and they feed from this person regularily, this person is their Pomme de Sang, their Apple of Blood. A Pomme de Sang is treasured by the vampire, and the vampire will often reward the Pomme, provide for them, and take care of their needs.
  It is considered a serious social faux pass to take blood from the Pomme de Sangs of other vampires'; this has actually been the start of wars, before.
  
  
• A group of vampires is called a "Kiss"; sometimes, people refer to them as flocks, or even covens, but most vampires prefer the term "Kiss".
  
  
  
• Vampires cannot go out in the sun. If they do, they will spontaneously combust and turn to ash. A very painful death.
  
  
  
• Newly turned vampires spend their first years ruled by bloodlust, and then they gradually gain the ability to control themselves. However, until the baby vampires gain this control, they must be watched over by a stronger vampire, usually the vampire that turned the human. It is considererd a great dishonor to turn a human and then abandon it.
  In some cases, the Master of the City will watch over the newbie (usually by means of flunkies). There are some cases where a human is turned by a vampire who does not have the control that is needed. If this happens, then the responsibility for the newly turned falls upon the shoulders of the one that created the other vampire, or so on until a vampire with enough control is reach.
  
  
• To turn a human, the "parent" must bite the "child" at least three times, enough to drain all of the blood; the deceased will stay dead for three days, and on the third day, it will rise.
  
  
  
• Each "Kiss" of vampires is lead by a Master of the City [ usually, a Kiss' territory will consist of a city and the land around it. The size of the territory controlled depends on how big the Kiss is and how powerful the Master of the City is]. The Master of the City is a vampire that is powerful, usually the most powerful vampire in the Kiss; normally, this vampire has reached the rank of "Master", but not always.
  The Master of the City also controls all the vampires within his Kiss that have taken the Blood Oath to him/her;; it is his power that allows the lesser vampires to rise, and it is his power that makes their hearts beat.
  
  
  
• Vampires have two types of ranks, the lessers, and the Masters. Masters are vampires that make their own hearts beat, rather than another Master making their heart beat. They rise every night on their own, and usually have an animal-to-call. An animal to call is a species of animal that a vampire has gained control over (ie: wolf, tiger, butterfly [and yes, butterflies have happened]). The vampire may call and control the animals that are his to call.
  An Animal-to-Call [while it sounds exactly the same as the animal-to-call, there is a distinction. Note that animal and call are capitalized; this indicates that it's a specific noun, rather than a general thing. It's usually inflected upon differently when being said] is a single creature that the vampire has bound to him via marks [see MARKS]. It only happens with Vampires whose animal-to-call has a corresponding lycanthrope (were-animal). For example, if a vampire has wolves as his animal-to-call, then he might take a werewolf as his Animal-to-Call.
  Some masters actually gain the ability to have more than one animal-to-call: for example, Belle Morte has all cats (tiger, lion, panther, leopard, etc). Padma the Beastmaster can call all animals.
  
  
• Masters have power, what exactly depending on who their "Soudre de Sang", their "Fountain of Blood", is. A Soudre le Sang is a Master vampire that has reached a level of power where it is its own bloodline, and exists solely under its own power; it also means that any vampires it creates are descended from it, not the vampire that created the Soudre le Sang.
  
  
• Most powers are gained with age.
  Depending on which bloodline a vampire comes from, their powers can be anything from Violence to Pain.
  Once they reach a certain age, vampires can mesmerize (pull an Obi-Wan: these are not the droids you are looking for) humans; if they do mind tricks on mass groups of people, then the effects are almost nill. But if a vampire performs mind tricks on a single person, one-on-one, then there are permanant effects. A vampire can call and control that human whenever. These humans are what vampires call "Renfields," after Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the fictional character Renfield. Before the book was published, they were called 'slaves'.
  
  
• The more powerful a vampire is, the earlier it can rise. If a vampire is still young, it rises after night fall. If vampire is really old, and has ammassed enough power, it may well rise before sunset.
  ALL VAMPIRES DIE AT DAWN, except for special circumstances.

[``Constantine]

THE MARKS
A Master vampire may obtain a human servant (no, it's not what you think it is: those are Renfields) by means of a power callled "marks". Marks are metaphysical ropes that bind a master and their servant.

First Mark:
It's different for every vampire, but essentially, it begins the process fo binding a vampire and a human. It allows the master and servant to speak mind-to-mind, and gives the human extra strength, making it harder to kill.

Second Mark:
This allows a master to gain sustenance from the servant (via the human eating food, which transfers the energy the human obtains from eating to the vampire). This is a good thing (for the vampire) because it means that it can go for a period of time without partaking in drinking blood. He could travel somewhere and go relatively unnoticed.This mark also allows vampires to taste again.
This mark allows for the servant and the master to share dreams (well, to share the human's dreams: vampires don't sleep, and don't dream).
The human will be bound closer to the vampire, and will gain almost total immunity to vampires (especially to the Master vampire that is binding the human.
The second mark is given as the first one was.

Third Mark:
This mark involves the sharing of blood: both master and servant must drink each other's blood. There is also a mark just like the 1st and 2nd marks.
This mark allows for humans to possibly gain powers, but only those that the master has. If the human has any latent talents (say, the human is an animator, but actually, deep down, has a sleeping ability to be a necromancer) these latent talents will emerge, and/or strengthen.
The vampires power will also grow, and get stronger.

Fourth Mark:
The final mark. It is done the same as the thrid mark, but with words said [TBA] during the taking of blood. This mark totally, irrevocably, binds the master and servant(s) together. The servant stops aging, and appears the same forever as it did when it was bound. The fourth mark makes human servants almost impossible to kill.

A human servant is so tightly bound to the vampire that if any one of them dies, they all stand a VERY good chance of dying as well.
One way that keeps a bound pair/threesome from killing each other is vampire tricks that cause an attraction between them (yes, it happens man-to-man, too). The urge to touch and cement to marks that bind them is strong.

Somtimes, a master will form a triumverate, formed of the vampire, the human servant, and the Animal-to-Call. The binding for this is done the same way the binding for human servants is done.

[``Constantine]

The Vampric Council

1. Belle Morte
"Beautiful Death"

French
Her power is lust: all forms of it
over 2000 years old
her bloodline is the most prevailant in the world - at one point in history, before WWI and WWII, Belle pretty much ruled the world.

2. Morte de Amor
"Lover of Death"

French
His power is death - literally; he is a "rotting vampire", which means that he and his kind can "decompose" their bodies.
He's around 2000 years old.

3. The Traveller

His identity is unknown. The Traveller is aptly named, because his ability is to occupy "hosts", and can travel from place to place this way.
His bloodline is rare.

4. The Earthmover

The oldest (well, not quite, but for all purposes, yes, the oldest) vampire in existance. He's short, barely five feet tall, and looks odd - probably on account of the fact, that unlike the people of today, he's a neanderthal - a caveman.
There are not many of his line; his powers are actually rather unknown, save for the ability to move earth, hence the nick name.

5. The Beastmaster

Indian (India Indian)
The Beast Master has been a bad Hindu - his tastes run to the exotic (in bed and out of it);; His ability, obviously, is to control all aspects of animals, natural and un-.

6. The Dragon

Nordic
She comes from the Northern lands, and was most likely a Viking;
Her ability, her power, is violence, violence of all sorts; she gains power from conflict and rage, war;; Those of her bloodline have this ability,as well.
Most of her bloodline has stayed in Europe and Asia.

7. TBA

TBA