Vampires

Oh there is so much to choose from and it is ALL available to you- or not- as you see fit.  There are only a few things that apply to all vampires regardless of age and ability:

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1. Sunlight will burn you to bits and kill you within a minute of direct exposure.

2. Decapitation is final. Even if they put your head right back on. It just lets out the magic smoke, man.

3. A stake through the heart is a significant wound and must be removed by someone else. It won't kill you unless you take the weakness. Non-vampires don't typically know that, however.

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We do ask that you balance out your character.  Don't take all the talents but have none of the weaknesses.  NO ONE likes a Mary Sue. Even if his name is Chuck the Cantankerous.

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Becoming a Vampire: The only way to become a vampire is to be drained of your blood and have it replaced by a vampire's.  There are dozens of rumors about how you can be a vampire such as being bitten, cursed, buried alive, some sort of contagion, or a cat jumped across your corpse.  The truth, however, is that it can only happen via drain and refill.  You very possibly could have been lied to, and believe you're cursed, but you weren't.  Feel free to use your imagination. 

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Sunlight? Are You Serious?!?: Yes. We are. Our sim is not always night-time, either. Sun comes up, sun goes down. In general, the sun cycle matches SLT HOWEVER we don't want to restrict people depending on their online availability or timezone. You are free to call for a night zone as long as everyone around agrees.  We also aren't going to police your private scenes- say whatever time it is that you want- within reason. If you are a vampire that did something warranting sunlight, you can't avoid consequences by always claiming night.  So be reasonable :)  One last thought on sunlight: Yes, you can get a ring or some sort of piece of jewelry that you can wear which will protect you from the sun if you wish. We do, however, want you to get one ICly and drive RP.  If there's not a magic wielder in game who can make one for you yet, we'll happily NPC the storyline for you. 

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Age, Ability, and Talents: The older you are, the better you can be at your abilities and talents. If you were turned into a vampire a few months ago, you probably can't turn into a cloud of smoke, or burst into bats yet.  There was that one night you suddenly could "see" sound like a bat, but it was gone just as quickly and your head hurt for a month.  So basically, don't be an amazing expert at everything if you're young. Embrace learning. Make mistakes. Makes for fun RP. 

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Local Collectives: Vampires have always leaned toward spreading out to avoid detection. Too many in a small city and the hospitals and clinics tend to start to notice too many anemics while the police are quick to notice too many dead bodies missing their blood. Historically of course, there have been covens and leaders in cities all around the world, ruling it in their own fashion. There has never been a known Vampire Council.  So there must not be one. Right? 

Since 2012, some cities have turned feeding vampires into a very lucrative- and above board- business even, a real 'by vampires, for vampires' sort of business.  These one-step-above brothels are common and tend to attract younger vampires who can't fend for themselves very well yet. But not always- sometimes when you're 200 years old, you're just sick of chasing your own food.

All of this to say, vampires will band together or stay apart, depending on the vampires in the particular city.   Your character may be from any stripe.

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Leadership: Just like collectives, there is no one scheme of leadership that rules everywhere. There is a Vampire High Council that is run out of New York City. There are rumors of similar councils in London, Dublin, Paris, Rome, Rio, Mexico City, Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Stalingrad. How these councils function and the true reach of their law is largely a mystery as they only intervene when someone Royally Screws Up (tm).  For the most part, the strongest and oldest will be looked to for leadership, or they'll just claim it and keep it through fear, example, or simply the lack of a challenge.  Leadership at Thirteen Pines is always decided by players and story.  The current eldest vampire in Thirteen Pines is only known as Gramma Perkins. She lives in a cabin up near the Ski Resort and stays out of local politics. She's not an active leader, and lets the city do its thing. She has been known to entertain now and then- no one in their right mind would decline an invitation. Word has it the last official vampire head of the city missed a Sunday Tea dance. No one has seen him since.

Please see the Discord Vampire channel for the current leads of Thirteen Pines.

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General Abilities

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All of these are considered the Basics of being a vampire.  You may be able to do all of these things simply by being a vampire.  You do not HAVE to be able to do them. If you want your character to be very young and still learning, or just not a very good vampire, or not be aware you can do some things by nature of how you were created, you are not required to know how to do them. Have a question about something not listed? Ask!

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Special Note: Ignorance of your abilities does not give you license to create complete havoc and ruin other people's RP.  Behaving ICly in a destructive manner will likely get you hunted and killed.  You cannot nope out of consequences.

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• Speed: You are 5x faster than the fastest human.

• Strength: You are 5x stronger than the strongest human.

• Self-Healing: You heal 5x faster than humans.

• Flight: You may fly short distances. In our world, that means you can fly across the city with ease. The older the vampire, the further they can fly.  An ancient once tried to cross the Atlantic Ocean but there's only so far you can get before the sun comes up. 1000 Meters down to avoid sunlight is too deep, even for an undead, to withstand the simple science of water pressure.  So keep it reasonable.

• Mind Powers: All vampires are capable of listening in and speaking to the minds of those whose blood they have tasted for as long as the blood remains in their system; anywhere from a few hours to a few days if you drink a significant amount. It does not go the other way- your meal can't hear your thoughts unless you project them.

• Creation: All vampires are capable of creating new ones.  Similarly, you are able to create a human servant, or ghoul if you prefer, who will be bound to you as long as you regularly feed them blood. Most can only handle one or at most two servants. Only those of significantly increased age (...above 1000) can handle more servants.  Some of truly ancient age it has been rumored have been able to create servants out of races other than human, but that is extremely rare. (See Talents below)

• Blood Abilities: Not to be confused with blood magic. Just like Mind Powers and the ability to create vampires and ghouls/servants, vampires can do other things with their blood- but ONLY their blood. Not the blood of others. It is their very life force- so it can be manipulated by the "owner".   We want to be fairly open here to give you creativity, but in general, things like: making a knife with your blood that would last for a few hours, tracking someone who has ingested your blood (as long as it is in their system), similar items like that.  You can heal others with your blood, such as hiding your bite marks by rubbing your blood on it. Keep in mind, the bigger the wound- the more blood it would take to heal it.  You can't stop a fatal wound from killing the target unless you make them a vampire. There are a lot of possibilities here and rather than try to be exhaustive with the list, just ask if you want to do something and why you think you should be able to.

• Blood Sense: Blood is your game. Your senses are heightened naturally. You can definitely tell a human from a non-human by scent... but not necessarily exactly what kind of non-human.  Hybrids and Mythics are too mingled to get a clear scent. If the person is cut or you can smell, taste their blood directly- you can tell what they are if you have previous knowledge to know so.

• Blood Effects: Various racial blood will effect vampires differently.  You are free to choose how deeply the blood effects you.

  • Humans: The staple to any vampire diet.  If the human is on drugs or drunk, you will feel some of the effects, but not for a very long time. There is no boost for the Humans with Frills. Its just human.

  • Shifters: Drinking Shifter blood will make you very short tempered. It will roughly double your strength and speed while it is in your system, however, it also dilutes your natural blood abilities making it impossible to use them

  • Faeries: Its like drinking LSD, Shrooms, and a dose of X all at once. Good luck.

  • Magic Wielders: Allows you to pick one magic that they are capable of doing and give you the power to do it yourself. HOWEVER, you can't control it. The magic wielder gets to tell you what you get.

  • Sea Dwellers: Sea Dweller blood makes your voice able to be VERY convincing to others. Not quite hypnosis but you are a lot harder to ignore.

  • Hybrids: it depends on the hybrid- but it would take on a diluted version of the list above

  • Mythics and Others: Work it out with the other player. It can be positive or negative. The only thing that should be consistent is the blood-bag makes the call and must be consistent with everyone.

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General Weaknesses

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Below are some general vampire specific weaknesses that you can chose from in our story world. You can also pick other more general human-like weaknesses like phobias, personality traits, or mental and physical conditions or ailments.  This is not an exhaustive list, but just some to give you a head start as you flesh out your character. It is a good idea to take a weakness for every talent you will pick from the talent list (or from your own list).  Again, we're not going to be policing and requiring an application- we're all adults- so please be reasonable.  Want some kind of weakness that isn't here? Ask!

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• Day Sleeper: No matter how old you are or how hard you try, as soon as the sun comes up you are out cold.

• Picky Eater: You can survive on any kind of blood, but for some reason you can only gain sustenance from a very specific type of meal: blonde human men, latin redheads, only people who speak Italian, or maybe animals only.

• OMG Where am I? : Whoopse, you no longer have a reflection in Mirrors and don't show up on Film or Digital Cameras. It could be a curse or you just believed it so much that it happened. Hard to say, really. However it happened, oopse. 

• Aversion to Religious Iconography: Crosses, sure, but maybe you're Jewish and the Star of David makes you cower in fear. You can pick any sort of religious iconography to fall into the trope of vampire mythos here. Along with it is the inability to enter a particular pantheon's house of worship or the homes of those who are devout. This also covers holy water.

• No Invitation, No Entry: Without an invitation, you can't enter someone's home. Public places are open.

• Scattered Objects: If someone scatters seeds, grains, rice, or other small items in front of you, you are compelled to not only pick them all up, but count them one by one.

• Allergic to Garlic: This is one of those ones where some vampires just do it because they think its true. Its been so ingrained... it has become true.  You actually will burn from the inside if you ingest it, if you touch it your skin will burst up in angry blisters, and smelling it will burn your nose up. Ouch! This damage heals at human speed.

• Cannot Cross Running Water: Another one of those old folklore tales that has been told for so many centuries that it became true for some.  There are several ways in and out of Thirteen Pines that don't require crossing running water. But within the area, you may find yourself stuck if you're not careful.

• Aversion to Silver: It Burrrrrrrrrns! Silver will leave permanent cuts that won't heal, burns that won't scar, and if it gets in your bloodstream you're really screwed and down for a good while til you can get more blood in you- or it may kill you if its enough.

• Death by Fire: Fire will burn you, period, and you'll go up quick no matter who the vampire is, however, taking this as a weakness means fire is one of the other ways you can actually meet that final death.  Taking this weakness also means that burns are permanent and cannot be healed, just like silver.

• Stake Through The Heart: Like Fire and Silver, this is another one of those areas where some vampires can be permanently killed this way.

• Hungry Eater: Most vampires can eat less and less as they get older as they have learned to make their blood go a very long way.  You, however, have to eat every day- and eat significant amounts. If you don't have blood every day, your strength, speed, stamina, everything begins to be draining.

• Horrifying Visage: Some vampires have been below ground and living off of sewer rats for so long, they have tainted their blood.  People bitten by these kinds of vampires will slowly start to decay and become disfigured.  Think your typical Nosferatu. Even though vampires have been outed, the Nosferatu have largely remained hidden away. Information about them has mostly only come to light by those who have stumbled into them.. and stumbled back out into daylight.  NOTE: if you take this Weakness, please contact Admins for some special perks.

• Blood Rage: The vampiric beast within you is so strong that your temper is sometimes hard to control. This goes beyond a simple 'short temper' sort of weakness. This is the type that will require lots of willpower checks.

• Allergic to Vervain: Another popular myth that is completely true for you. However it happened, whether your maker just said you would be, or it was a belief from watching this television show your GF couldn't get enough of, you're susceptible to it.  Reaction is the same as garlic + it will drop the vampire to "human" levels of strength and stamina as well as zero blood abilities or powers for a minimum of 24 hours- longer if you ingested more.

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Available Talents

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Below are some of the more common talents that vampires have available to them.  You may choose a couple of these to have in addition to the abilities all vampires are able to do.  Again- be reasonable. Don't take them all.   Also, if you think of a really cool talent that I didn't list, ask!

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• Mist or Cloud Form: You can transform yourself for short periods of time; to get through a crack in a door or the space between a window and a frame. At most, it lasts a few minutes.  When it wears off, you reconstitute where there is room for you to so or not. Trying to smoke through somewhat porous metal that is several feet thick, for example, may end poorly for you if you aren't fast enough.

• Pleasurable Bite:  Your bite is, by default, not painful.  It will invoke pleasure, bliss, joy, sexual arousal, existential harmony... whatever the victim (That is, the other player) feels resonates with them the most- they get to choose the feeling, not the vampire. 

• Maddening Bite: Your bite, by default, will invoke a flavor of madness. It can be any stripe of what most would call "insanity" or "crazy". (No judgement, just easy words to use) The victim gets to choose OOCly how they are effected. It could make them hallucinate, make them hear voices, drive them to debilitating depression, whatever the player OOCly chooses. It can last anywhere from 30 minutes to sunrise when it will just suddenly stop. 

• Animal Form: You can transform into one animal. Most can turn into a bat but some have even taken on wolf or cat forms. You only get one.

• Bats!: You can turn into a cauldron of bats with a burst of confusion for those who are engulfed. It only lasts about 10 minutes. Note: You cannot take this and Animal form both unless you take Bat as your animal form.

• Addictive Blood: Those who taste your blood become addicted to it. While this can be advantageous and give you a modicum of control over others, it could also be dangerous.  It does allow your mind and healing powers over those people to be twice as effective.

• ​Hypnotic Gaze: If you can catch the direct eye contact of the other person, you can attempt to make them do or believe whatever you tell them.  Please note: This is an ATTEMPT.  You must negotiate with the other person OOC ahead of time and they have the option to resist. You and your victim can use the Dice in Discord to determine the outcome as well if you wish.   It is generally frowned upon to use this too much and more than one vampire have found themselves on the wrong end of a sword when abused on the local townsfolk.

• ​Non Human Servants/Ghouls: Only the very old can manage to control and make subservient a non-human companion.  The blood is simply too strong and the will is harder to overpower.  It CAN happen, however.  If you and someone else wish to RP together in this sort of fashion, chat with an Admin first so we can see if it will work.

• Blood Bond: You and another vampire are bound together by blood. A ritual known only between the two vampires (i.e., whatever way your history/backstory describes- player discretion save that it must be significant. No "I sprinkled blood in their dinner and they're mine muwahahaha"). This is a TWO WAY bond and both players must take the talent.  This allows the two vampires to always know generally where the other is (within a 10 mile radius), to feel each other's emotions, and to tell if the other is lying.  If one dies, it is usually also terminal for the other out of grief.  IT IS PERMANENT.  There is no removing this except potentially through death.  See an Admin if assistance is required. Note: Your Servants/Ghouls will be bound to you by default, you do not need to take this.

• Create Blood Bond: This is a ONE WAY bond between a vampire and another supernatural (it may also be a vampire, and be one way).  This requires a significant ritual (See above, no blood sprinkling) and allows the vampire to always know where the one bound to them is, feel their emotions, and tell if they're lying.  Death may take down the vampire as well, but less likely than the mutual bond. This is not permanent but may require some blood magic that would have to be sought out from very old vampires or casters. This does NOT make them a servant.  This is usually done for protection.

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