The Vampire
Author: Justin

Species Name: Vampire
Origin: Spectral Plane
Average Growth: Varies
Average Weight: Varies
Average Lifespan: Immortal
Special Characteristics: Unnaturally pale, not usually seen in daylight

What is a vampire? Vampires are beings that exist solely to feed upon everything else within existence. To many, vampires are the epitome of destruction, for they will devour anything to feed their palate. The life force of the living is what satiates their hunger, meaning that for their continued existence, they must prey upon others to exist. They do not go around during the daylight hours, for they tend to suffer immense pain from the light of day, and can run the risk of dying should their negative energy be burned away by the sun's rays. However, vampires will not die of natural causes. As such, they can be considered immortal.

What does it take to kill a vampire? Intense amounts of sunlight can kill a vampire. However, they're usually smart enough to get out of the sunlight before it kills them. A wooden stake through the heart can paralyze a vampire, leaving them vulnerable to the sun and thus causing death. Positive energy, channeled from the positive energy plane or from some other source, can cause incredible damage and can, in extreme cases of usage, slay a vampire. Fire tends to scorch a vampire, but it cannot kill them, since such a thing cannot easily harm the negative energy that their life is based upon.

Vampires are not things of life, and because of this they do not have a known power level like others do, since it is based upon the life force of the person. However, after having devoured someone else's life force, they will begin to register, although far below the power of the person they devoured. Yet they are far from being weak, being supernaturally strong, fast, and endurable. That which could slay a living person will not do so to a vampire. Energy attacks based on life force, such as ki attacks, will do little to harm a vampire, as their natural auras of death and the like will dampen the attacks.

Innate Powers

Vampires can sense the living, and know how strong someone's life force is. This is the equivalent of being able to sense someone's power level.

Vampires are incredibly strong, fast, and durable, meaning they have an edge over the living. While it's rough to gauge the true extent of this, it only increases with time. Older vampires are much, much more powerful than younger ones.

Unlike those who rely on the living energy to fuel their abilities, vampires draw upon the dead or negative energies, which support their existence to fuel their abilities. With it, they can do anything others can do with ki, but their attacks are unusually powerful since living people have a harder time responding to these assaults.

Special Limitations or Weaknesses

In order to fuel their existence, they must constantly feed on the living. Without it, they will weaken and eventually die.

In direct sunlight, a vampire will be slain eventually. However, vampires slowly gain a greater tolerance to this, as they grow older.

A wooden stake through the heart will paralyze a vampire.

Positive energy channeled from the positive energy plane or elsewhere will harm a vampire greatly.

Natural Psionics

Vampires can shapechange into some things, such as bats, wolves, and spiders.

Vampires have a natural presence, which surrounds them, allowing them to make others believe that they are not what they truly are. This is a mind-influencing effect, and can be resisted by those skilled in psionics or magic.

Origins

Vampires are originally born from lost souls within the Spectral Plane, usually in Gaia however those that come over from other universes have been known to be around, very dangerous and usually very old. These souls, having already been around and bombarded with negative energy from the negative material plane, find bodies and reanimate them. Since they have been dead for some time, the bodies are not alive when the souls return, but become vessels of death and destruction.

Vampires come into creation through a number of ways. The first and perhaps most well known is to be slain by a vampire. A person who is slain by a vampire through its bite is totally drained of life force. At this point, there is no chance to come back, unless the vampire is destroyed. The victim's soul has been devoured by the vampire, and will continue to give it sustenance for any amount of time, the more powerful the soul the longer the vampire can exist upon it. However, if the vampire wishes to return the person's soul, it will animate the body as a newly created vampire.

Another method of creation is being born a vampire. Now, how are vampires born if they are things that do not live? Rather than going about the usual method of procreation, a vampire can bite a woman and, through the bite, imbed some of its essence into her. The woman will quickly fall ill, close to death's door, as the negative energies within her fester and grow, killing her in the process. By the time the negative energy comes to fruition within her, the woman will die. Through the dying process, a new vampire will be born.

The third method of creation is when magic goes awry. Sometimes, though, a person can go about this on purpose, to become a vampire. Vampires created through magic gone awry are known as mana-vampires, and are much more dangerous than their regular counterparts. Rather than being forced to live upon the life energy of others, mana-vampires can devour the mana of the world to "live" on, allowing them a frightening range to subsist on. However, they can drain the living of their life force as well, and coupled with their magical capabilities, they are frightening opponents.

The last method, and perhaps the most rare of the origins, is the creation of a vampire when psionics are involved. Psychic powers rarely go wrong, so the creation of a psionic vampire is usually purposeful. These vampires are on the same caliber as the mana-vampires, for their psionic powers do not diminish after their change into the undead state. In addition, they usually subsist upon the psychic energy of others, and while psychic practitioners provide more energy than others, even the common person can provide them with some psychic energy and life force.