The vampires - often dubbed the Vashiir by their own number - are a truly ancient race, with their first number dating back as far as the ancient imperial dragons and the star elves. They're very well known for their extremely detailed and complicated social structure, as well as their origin being so mired in controversy and conflicting tales that it rivals their very powers for how little other races understand about the race.

Vampires have several notable biological features; a big one is that all vampires are elven in nature; even human or dwarven vampires (which are rare, but exist) become more like regular elves, regaining elven height and losing the visual traits of their original race. This is a curious trait, as it suggests that vampires might be one of the original elven races.

As elves, vampires have the traits expected of them; pointed ears, tall, lithe frames and graceful elegance, but they also possess a pair of fangs where their upper canine teeth would be. In addition to this, they also possess darker eye colours - often red, burnt orange or something similar to those colours, though perhaps the rarest eye colour for a vampire is actually the lighter ones, with bright, aqua blue and brilliant yellow being among the rarest eye colours for vampires - and typically only denote certain types of vampire.

Vampires have a lot of potent powers and traits tied to their biology, and while they have many more powers that are based on their Covenants, those are best left for another time. All vampires have the following traits, however.

Vampires possess near-complete immortality, but only so long as they remain sated and well fed; a vampire that remains in this state never ages, but as a vampire gets more hungry for sustenance, their natural immortality gradually shifts into extreme longevity (1500+ years), and eventually into normal elven lifespans. This is part of why vampires go to such lengths to have a steady supply of blood (and blood-related sustenance) to feed on; to retain their immortality. It impacts their various powers too, but immortality is the big one it impacts. As an interesting inverse aspect of this, as such a vampire gets hungrier, they also get more physically powerful and dangerous.

Additionally, all vampires of sufficient growth stages and power - so, not weak vampire spawn - possess the ability to Turn mortals into vampires; this is typically done through the administration of a bite from their fangs, but is a process that the vampire has to commit to; simply biting a mortal does not turn them into a vampire, but if a vampire wants to Turn a given mortal, their bite will do so. The power level of a mortal-turned-vampire in this manner varies wildly based on the power of the vampire that bit them; weaker vampires produce weaker vampire spawn, while the strongest vampires produce full-fledged vampires, bypassing the spawn stage entirely. Turning a mortal child is possible, but they will still age until they reach adulthood, as it is only at adulthood that the body is capable of sustaining the onset of true vampirism.

Vampires are fully capable of reproduction to continue their lineages, and indeed, this is fairly normal in their society; two vampires reproducing together create a vampire that is the average of their strength, while a vampire that reproduces with a non-vampire partner creates a vampire based on their raw power, exactly like how Turning mortals works. Vampires are a very rare race, so this makes non-vampiric mortals a core part of vampire societies, as the vampires rely upon them to aid in reproduction.

Notably, when vampires do reproduce, their children age as normal until they hit adulthood, and only at that point do their vampiric powers begin to manifest, halting their aging and such.

Vampires naturally progress through a variety of stages as they gather power; a vampire can be born or Turned into any of these stages, but they are sequential in nature; if a newly-Turned vampire begins as a lesser spawn, they have to proceed through both of the connected spawn stages before they can reach standard vampirism. Past a certain point, vampiric stages require Royal Vashiiri Blood to obtain, and this is a core facet that defines the myriad vampire dynasties. Below you will find some rough details of each stage and what powers are contained within that stage.

The weakest vampires; these are no stronger than even an apprentice elven mage magically, but already have the initial vestiges of vampiric strength, making them moderately stronger than most elven races. Still, these are the bottom of the vampiric rungs, and are often seen as runts and servants to stronger vampires.

More powerful vampire spawns start to develop the initial vestiges of vampiric blood magic - it's still not powerful, but it places them far above lesser spawn - and possess more vampiric strength. While this is only one stage above lesser spawn, it is generally twice as powerful, and while still seen as servants to stronger vampires, greater spawn are viewed with far less disdain among vampire courts than their lesser kin.

Once a vampire spawn amasses sufficient mastery of blood magic, they progress to the true vampire stage of life. This is where 90% of all vampires remain for their immortal lives, as even the weakest true vampires are every bit the match for the average elven mage, and their mastery of blood magic and blood-strength is far greater than any vampire spawn. This is also where vampires start to really earn their reputation for having supernatural beauty.

Elder vampires are easily several hundred years old, generally ranging in the high 500+ years of age as a true vampire before they can advance to this stage, though many true vampires can reach this stage, many choose not to, as elder vampires are known to lose their supernatural beauty - and many vampires are very vain. Still, for those that do, this stage is extremely powerful, reaching the pinnacle of blood-strength and near the pinnacle of blood magic - though there exists several techniques that they must still learn.

The pinnacle of standard vampirism, matriarchs and patriarchs represent the apex of non-royal vampires; compared to elders, they regain their supernatural beauty and they are also supernaturally youthful, appearing as young adults as opposed to whatever age they became vampires at (though children that are born or Turned into vampires also become young adults before their aging halts). On top of this, they also gain access to the truly terrifying abilities of blood bonding, allowing them to boost the abilities of other vampires - and mortals - by sharing their incredible power. Generally, the matriarchs and patriarchs are the leaders of vampire kind when in the absence of a Queen-Matriarch or King-Patriarch.

This stage requires royal Vashiiri blood - the willingly offered blood of another queen-matriarch or king-patriarch - to enter. Vampires of the same direct bloodline as one of these vampires can also enter the stage, but only if their existing queen-matriarch or king-patriarch (depending on their gender) step down or are killed. For the most part, no non-royal vampires reach this point, but exceptions have been made before (the current Queen of the Heptarchy is such an example).

This stage is the most powerful stage of vampirism, with a near-mythical level of power of magic and physical strength alike, the ability to Turn any mortal into any stage of vampire (aside from another queen-matriarch or king-patriarch) they choose, and the ability to fight an adult imperial dragon in melee or magic combat and emerge the victor.

Vampires require blood - or blood-related products - to sustain their immortality, though not to remain alive; the more blood a vampire consumes, the more 'steady' their immortality is, with it being less prone to faltering and causing them to die of old age. Similarly, a vampire that is starved of blood gradually begins to suffer the effects of their age again; being lightly starved doesn't affect immortality at all, but being heavily starved of blood reduces their immortality to being heavy longevity - in the span of 1500 years - and having no blood to consume at all results in a standard elven lifespan of 1000-ish years.

Because vampire immortality halts aging entirely, it effectively means that should it fail, vampires begin to age normally and can meet normal age-related ends, but consuming blood again to regain immortality once more halts the process, effectively drawing out the life of a vampire even if they only sometimes consume blood.

Nobody quite knows how vampires came to be; some blame the Dark Lord - but this is refuted by others, as the vampires long predate the Dark Lord's discovery of Pearalos (at least, as far as people know). Others believe that the first vampires were actually religious folk - nuns for example - that were turned by some kind of divine manner or other method. This origin has never been confirmed by anyone, but many believe it due to the similarities between aspects of vampire society and that of a nun convent... at least, a twisted version of one.

That said, while nobody knows their origins, the presence of vampires is a global one, though they do generally focus their population in the Vampire Heptarchy located in southern Thrain. Granted, there are also many confirmed vampire covenants elsewhere, such as the Salahad Covenant or the Jade Covenant, located in Salahad and Shirahanai, respectively.

Vampires are frighteningly intelligent, possessed of extremely high levels of intellect and cunning, and a similarly cunning mind that is very able to put their intellect and skills to use to further their goals; they're masters of magic and hoarders of knowledge both mundane and magical alike, and generally are very studious as a people, though this does not describe all vampire covenants, by any stretch.

Vampires boast some very extreme perception and sensory abilities, with all vampires having the ability to perceive the use of magic and its flow as magia across the world, but also the ability to sense the location of creatures with blood flowing through them. For most vampires, this is a vague sense, but elder vampires and up can see this extremely precisely.

There are several major organizations connected to the vampires, and they can be roughly split along three lines: the Covenants, the Dynasties, and the Vampire Heptarchy. Below, we will look at each of these in turn, starting with the Covenants.

Covenants form a foundational part of vampire society that transcends all other boundaries in many ways; they are the various communities of vampires that operate in roughly similar methods, be that through a focus on magic, a focus on martial prowess, cooperating with mortals, dabbling in dark magic, and much more. The choice of covenant is important, but it does not define any overt factional allegiances; some covenants have deep-seated hatreds of other covenants, but outside of those exceptions, two vampires that are each in different covenants can cooperate fine, and it is normal for even a dynasty to have members in different covenants, but a vampire can only have one covenant themselves, and the decision is permanent.

These are the parts of vampire society that the System recognizes, as the vampire perks and racial classes feature covenant-specific choices heavily, and as changing a covenant is impossible, the System itself enforces the selection and the adherence to it, and does not allow it to be changed even with a progression reset.

Vampires are a very feudal race societally, and a core part of their society is the Queen-Matriarchs and King-Patriarchs; these are the rulers of vampire dynasties - with queen-matriarchs being the norm, as vampire dynasties are traditionally matriarchal, but some exceptions exist, many of which are extremely influential - and vampires within their demesne - generally a region of land that the dynasty controls, or in the case of the most powerful dynasties, a region of land in the Heptarchy - swear fealty to that dynasty's rule, effectively becoming scions of that dynasty.

Dynasties aren't as universally influential as covenants are, as dynastic exiles - vampires without dynasties - are common, and dynasties only exert influence in their demesne, but their power is nigh-absolute within it.

The biggest bastion of vampiric power, the vampire heptarchy refers to the Kingdom of Lorenthia, the current focal point of vampire-kind. Lorenthia is the site of founding for the seven core vampire covenants - hence its title as the vampire heptarchy - and is the only vampire realm that is so heavily dominated by the vampires that they need not remain in the shadows.

Lorenthia is far from the only vampire realm on Pearalos, but the vampire heptarchy carries the largest sway of power over vampire kind, as the seven core covenants yet still reside here. Generally, the ruler of Lorenthia - the Vampire Queen, as Lorenthia is matriarchal - stands as the most powerful vampire of all of them, and outranks even queen-matriarchs, while generally having the power of all covenants behind her rule.