Vampires

Vampires are interesting beings within the world of Aesyr. Mostly because they are the offspring of two different dark, forbidden magics...necromancy and blood magic. It is a unique form of magical innovation that hasn't been made until recently thanks to human ambitions and desires for immortality. The other races either do not care for immortality, or see immortality as an insult to existence, so it should be no surprise that Vampires are a inherent human concept.

Though, it should be stated that Vampires are in fact a subset of an even larger group of beings. And that would be Liches, but there will be time to discuss Liches in a different lecture.

There are also many different types of Vampires depending on Clans or Families, which have their own unique quirks. We'll be discussing further into detail on this Clans later on, but it'll be appropriate to give the general concept of Vampires in this section.

As stated, Vampires are the result when you combine necromancy and blood magic and spend years of research into trying to acquire Lichdom, or unnatural immortality. Thanks to this, Vampires are a classification of undead creatures that are still very much alive, in the sense that they have beating hearts and can have offspring that are naturally Vampires.

Thanks to the mingling of blood magic, Vampires no longer need to eat like normal humans. In fact, regular food does nothing for Vampires. Instead, they share a common trait with Demons, which is the need of lifeforce. Lifeforce is an essence that is in all living things, and creatures like Vampires and Demons feast off of lifeforce for sustenance as well as to increase their power. In fact, both Vampires and Demons have faced against each other in wars for thousands of years thanks to this, developing an undying feud between the forces of the necrotic and the infernal.

But while Demons can just feast on lifeforce by any means they prefer, for the most part Vampries can only consume lifeforce by means of drinking the blood of their victims. Again, for the most part, this may vary depending on the clan. For most Vampires that drink blood, the optimal method is by simply puncturing the neck and drinking from the vein, as that is where the most blood is being pumped the hardest throughout the body. Though, if a Vampire is particularly well off in their power base, they would tend to experiment with how to drink, which can even include making mortals into cattle so they can harvest bottled blood for later consumption at their own leisure.

The benefits and detriments of being a Vampire are pretty universal, more or less given certain Clans. For brevity, we shall mention these traits by means of a list down below:

Benefits:
1) Immortality
2) Natural increase of power in necromancy and blood magic
3) Supernatural speed, strength, and endurance
4) Immunity to diseases
5) Flight
6) Lich type that can bypass detect undead
7) Gain power and vitality from drinking blood

Detriments:
1) Creature of darkness, thus can be detected as such
2) Is weakened by sunlight
3) Harmed by natural purifiers (water, garlic, salt, etc)
4) Weakened by symbols of powerful faiths
5) Silver is incredibly fatal
6) Inherent power is determined by purity of blood to progenitor clans
7) Hated enemy of both the pious and infernal powers

Vampires can be found anywhere humans can be found and they have lairs of various types hidden throughout the Empire's territories. And given how the Coalition is spreading to the Steppes of Sorrow, chances are there'll be some lairs there cropping up.

If you have anymore curiosities about these dark creatures, we shall discuss more about their progenitor clans, as well as their prized servants.