Supernatural Creature Data Files: Vampires (‘Ordinary’)

Supernatural Creature Data Files: Vampires (‘Ordinary’)

Description: ‘Ordinary’ vampires are known as such for two reasons: they are the most common variety of vampire, and they are the closest to most modern depictions of vampires (barring the ‘aristocrat’ variety, although the more recent modern depictions are closer to ordinary vampires).  They lack most of the weaknesses associated with traditional vampires (the only exception being sunlight, and ‘holy’ powers).
            Their powers are limited, and fairly weak. Moderate increases to all physical abilities (seemingly random) such as strength, speed, co-ordination, resilience, etcetera. They are able to hide their true appearance (corpse like, but with overly red, healthy lips and red eyes) using ‘glamours’ (a low level perception altering ability that trained individuals can easily overcome). It can, however, be difficult to persuade individuals fooled by the glamour into seeing through it. Vampires need to drink blood roughly once a month (although not much); if they do not they suffer a series of symptoms (see physiology section).
            Ordinary vampires are bound to their creator (if still alive) through the ‘blood bond’. This reduces their mind to a fairly passive state, in which they only seek to carry out commands given by their creator to the best of their abilities. Critical thought and self-awareness seems to be almost absent, although they are not ‘dopey’ or easily confused any more than they were in life (as certain agents, overly fond of fiction, have discovered). Attempts to reason with bound vampires (even in the most extreme of situations) have found no deviation from blind obedience to their creator.
            The creating vampire may, whenever they choose, release the subservient vampire from the blood bond. This also occurs if the created vampire drinks more than a certain amount of the creator’s blood, or if the creating vampire is slain. Of interest is that drinking the creator’s blood will not immediately break the bond, but instead weaken it; leaving the created vampire not wholly subservient to their creator.
            During the first two years after becoming a vampire the created vampire will change greatly in personality. This effect is most pronounced during the first two weeks after creation. This effect is the reason most vampires are remorseless killers, and even those that do not see any need to consume all of humanity sympathise little, if at all. Combined with the blood bond, this results in the created vampires becoming very similar in attitude to their creators.
            Due to the nature of the blood bond, vampires tend to exist in small groups with one to three unbound vampires, controlling between three to ten times their number of bound vampires. The bound vampires are usually much younger and often still maintain ‘living’ identities, which are used to provide the funds needed to support the (often somewhat luxurious) desires of the unbound vampires. After about ten to twenty years a bound vampire is sacrificed (usually through a legitimate ‘death’) and a replacement created, to minimise suspicion. Notably, although this is the most commonly discovered form of arrangement, we suspect this is because destruction of a group rarely allows any vampire hunter to eliminate all bound vampires; and they, now free, will seek to create similar arrangements of their own. Additionally, this arrangement is easy to spot (for trained individuals) compared to other known setups.
            Like other types of vampirism, ordinary vampires are created through a ‘curse’ (see Supernatural Ability Data Files: Curses). They are a form of undead (like most vampire types) as the body of the human the curse is spread to is reanimated after death.

Physiology: As with other curses, the body of an ‘ordinary’ vampire is altered by the magic of the curse. In this case, the curse reanimates a ‘dead’ body (careful observation has revealed that though physically dead, life never leaves the body). The curse does cause some alterations to the body, however, most of the abilities of the resultant entity (the vampire) are from the curse; the curse itself provides the increased strength, speed, resilience and especially the glamour abilities.
            The result of the curse’s alterations is simply that the vampire is ‘better’ physically than they were as a human, although the extent varies somewhat randomly (no causes have been identified). Thus, in combat, they will likely be stronger, faster and harder to kill than an ordinary human. Thankfully this increased physical power convinces many that they do not need combat training, and they are as such rarely skilled in any other form of combat.
            Sunlight is the only ‘traditional’ weakness ordinary vampires possess. Exposure causes them to char and burn (usually without flame except in bright sunlight, and when skin is fully exposed). They are not as powerful as common folktale vampires,, and as such can also be killed using ordinary means (such as shooting). It is important to confirm any vampire kills: they have a habit of persisting on the edge of death for several hours, possibly even days, in a very close to death state when severely injured. They can be revived from this state using blood, even that from another vampire (which does not usually provide them with sustenance).
            Vampires create new vampires through sharing their blood with a dying human. The shared blood must end up in the dying individual’s bloodstream at least ten seconds before death; as such, most vampires cut themselves and press their wound against the wound they have been drinking from (frequently a palm pressed to their victim’s throat). Without sharing of blood, the dying individual will not return as a vampire, regardless of being bitten (or even being bitten repeatedly). Oral ingestion of blood is not effective.
            Ordinary vampires must drink fresh (cells must still be alive) blood at least one a month to prevent certain negative effects occurring. This amount does not need to be much; one hundred millilitres suffices (though most vampires will drink more than this). Extended denial of blood leads to the following symptoms: initially, an ever growing and gnawing hunger (bound vampires seem to have no trouble ignoring this), followed by increasing sunlight sensitivity (after a couple of years, reflected sunlight from the moon is enough to cause them to burn up) and eventually (after five to ten years) entering a ‘hibernation’ state. This state seems to keep them alive indefinitely, and they will awake from it whenever a suitable ‘meal’ (living human) is nearby. Please note that the only cases of vampires entering this state have been through our own experiments upon captured individuals, and as such this data may not reflect field operations.

Identification and Destruction: Identification of ordinary vampires is simple due to the ease with which proper training (which is part of all IPC agent training) can allow anyone (even non-psychics) to pierce the glamours hiding their true nature. Standard agent training should also include necessary subterfuge lessons to track vampires until location of all members of a group are identified (this may not be necessary if the identified vampire is unbound).
            Vampires may be killed in the same manner as an ordinary human; however they do possess greater resilience and thus will require greater damage to eliminate. Confirm kills on downed vampires – though their hearts do not beat, the curse that sustains them does give them a pulse. Their weakness to sunlight is severe enough that exposure for more than ten seconds will harm them enough to incapacitate; twenty or more seconds (depending on the areas exposed and level of exposure) will likely kill.

Other Details: Ordinary vampires were a known threat at the time of the IPC’s founding, alongside a couple of other supernatural entities. The first official encounter with vampires was also during the first action taken by IPC agents against supernatural entities (in 1970). A small group of vampires, in an arrangement that has been repeated by many other groups, were supporting a single unbound vampire who held control over the others. This group was eliminated with relative ease after being taken by surprise.
            For the most part, ordinary vampire groups are not a threat to trained individuals. They pay little attention, and as such fail to spot investigators spying upon them in almost all cases. As they have no special access to firearms or other weapons, and usually little if any training, they are simple for a well-trained and equipped team to eliminate despite their superhuman physical characteristics.