The Vampire Lord

The blood is the life. A simple truth, twisted and engorged by vampirism. And when the blood runs in torrents, and the cup of life runneth over, how perverted can that truth become?

An answer lies in the vampire lord. When a vampire is glutted on a hundred or more lives, its paranormal metabolism kicks into overdrive. Night itself is reified within the vampire's body as the blood is converted first into the typical profane energy which saturates the vampire's body and soul and makes it what it is. When the body is at capacity, and yet more and more sustenance presents itself, the vampiric mind, loathe to abandon any of its spoils, automatically begins to use the excess energy to weave tangible shadows that flow through the veins of the burgeoning lord. Their blood darkens, eventually being replaced entirely with dense, fluid midnight. This state, technically speaking, is not yet a lord, however, for it has yet to undergo the umbral metamorphosis which converts every cell in the vampire's body to living darkness.

While the vampire lord is more than adept at appearing human, its entire physicality it made up of evil made manifest. However, this form retains the accelerated metabolism initially kick-started by the vampire's feeding frenzy, and has roughly ten times the appetite it had before metamorphosis. Often, clever lords will sire subordinate vampires, send them each to feed on multiple humans, then drink their enriched blood.

Umbral Metamorphosis
When a vampire's blood is fully converted to umbraplasm, the body is ready to undergo what is known as the Umbral Metamorphosis. The vampire will seek out a suitable location to hibernate for a week, usually a well-guarded crypt deep in the earth. During its metamorphosis, it is wrapped in a chrysalis of umbraplasm, drawn out from the veins to wrap around the body. First it forms a thin sheet over the vampire's body, which sinks into the skin, fusing with it. Then, the remaining mass of umbraplasm begins to transpose itself with the vampire's flesh, slowly digesting itself. Eventually, it will have replaced every (important) part of the vampire. The only internal organs remaining are a swollen, onyx heart, almost crystalline in appearance, and the feeding apparatus. Unlike a stomach, the vampire lord's esophagus simply leads directly to its body cavity, passing briefly through something similar to a filter, which converts blood into the more energy dense umbraplasm. The soul of any killed and eaten by the vampire lord is destroyed and consumed, being completely digested within sixty hours. [Check when the lord is destroyed. -20% chance, +2% per hour passed, that the soul has been digested. (The soul is never digested within the first ten hours, making these a guarantee for any hoping to free or resurrect the soul of the victim)]
Similarly, their thralls are capable of carrying souls to their lord, although they cannot digest them. This prevents resurrection, but at least offers greater hope to their savior's efforts, as a thrall is much easier to kill, and the only time limit is until they return to their master, and, depending on their orders, that could be days or even weeks.

So, The Dhampir

When a vampire reaches its last remnants of energy, it goes into a sort of hibernation, being sustained only by the evil that goes to and fro in the earth, waiting for a splash of blood. When blood is absorbed and prey is near, the vampire rises, wroth with frenzy and desperation, seeking to feed. Of course, this is the normal process. However, should a vampire be interred in hallowed ground, or within a sealed coffin of a pure metal, it will instead continue to starve, unable to feed on vermin or unquiet spirits. The last vestige of darkness haunting the corpse will die. The corpse, however, remains revivified. In fact, it has been discovered - regrettably, in hindsight - that the "obvious" vampire symptom of being flush with life, was actually the beginning of the dhampiric transformation.

As hell's darkness leaves the corpse, the suppressed soul of the mortal refills it. The body is no longer forced to reject mortal sustenance, though it appears that their more esoteric abilities do still necessitate a sanguinary diet from time to time. Additionally, many of the vampire's weaknesses are purged along with the vampiric mind (that entity which perverts and suppresses the mortal soul of a vampire). Sun, silver, and even holy oil have no effect on these beings. Luckily, they seem to occur only when a human's will is strong enough to prevent the vampire from feeding, and they are fortunate enough to be interred as necessary for a sufficient duration. As a result, those few dhampir which do exist are looked upon by our church as allies, although they trust us far less. This, of course, is understandable, given the quantity of them slain at our command before we learned their true nature. 

They are Providence's gift to the penitent vampire, and carry a spark of fortune's light within their soul. The so-called "Vampire Lord" could be considered their own dark mirror. Please bear this in mind while more information regarding that subject is collected.

~Emmanuel Blochleach (in a letter to the Royal Athenaeum)

Vampires should be thirstier

A vampire that takes only enough to live, and sates its thirst little by little each day? Sure, that's nice, but I don't really think that's as exciting, especially when it's also the easiest to "get away with" in that you aren't killing anyone or starving yourself. So, instead, consider the following scale.

• Dhampir
• Bloodless Vampire
• Ravenous Vampire
• Sated Vampire
• Glutted Vampire
• Vampire Lord

Ignoring, for now, the special cases in bold, we shall begin with the state in which most vampires begin their unlife - Ravenous. Ravenous vampires have just enough blood in them to know they don't have enough. The dark force (whatever it actually is for your vampire) in them hungers for more blood. They are stronger than the average human, but almost entirely feral, especially when first embraced. A neophyte with no prior experience controlling their hunger, waking to bloodthirst with an empty or all but empty stomach, will almost certainly stumble around until it scents blood, then frenzy, falling upon their prey and draining it dry. If they were fortunate enough to feed upon a human, they will have reached the state of Sated. Any less than entire mortal sophont life's worth of blood (beast blood, while technically sustenance, provides no benefit as far as satisfying the Hunger) will leave them Ravenous. Now, most adult humans can lose, according to a quick google search, about 14% of their blood and be fine. So you'd need to drink 14% of seven and change - call it eight people's blood to reach sated. Per day. While ravenous, ceasing to drink blood is an ordeal. Most "conscientious" vampires try to reach a buffer zone between Sated and Glutted so that they can feed on less blood each day. Of course, that will eventually deplete, leaving them with difficult choices to make. Glutted requires (per day) the blood of ten humanoids (or one dragon, if available) and is sometimes called the "Noble" vampire, despite failing to be a true lord, because of their preternatural charisma. Their habits are all but human, and they often pass as mortal nobility, albeit with "quirks."

But suppose the neophyte has no prey, or the prolific sipper an attack of consciousness or dearth of prey? Suppose they starve until the last drop of blood in their hollow corpse is spent? They do not die, but fall into a sleep, often underground. Even a splash of blood or the ichor of worms and vermin is enough for them to move should true prey approach. And, should the opportunity arise, and the conscience of the human the vampire once was is not adamant,  move they shall. Otherwise? Well, I'll get to that in the next post: Dhampir.