The world developed mostly as normal. Breakthroughs in the arts and sciences either directly attributed to vampires or, in rare cases, funded by vampires. Gunpowder was quickly eliminated after a small group of humans discovered its properties and its creators were hunted and killed. Since then, weaponry has stalled at swords and bows.

Much of the modern technology is still in existence. Phones, electricity, and most methods of transportation currently exist. However, vampires use 100% renewable energy. Their jealous protectiveness over their territories makes them hesitant to use methods that may destroy them. Logging, farming, and fishing are all done at sustainable rates under the watchful eye of the vampires and mages.

Creatures of supernatural beauty and physical prowess, vampires once stalked the night with deadly efficiency as the most dangerous predator on earth. Faster, stronger, and often more intelligent than their mortal subjects, vampires are only balanced by three things; their inability to walk in sunlight, their vulnerability to fire, and their need for human blood.

However, vampires in modern day no longer hunt and feed on terrified victims. Instead, vampires act as both a ruling class and celebrities and are generally the only ones who have any classical training in the variety of art forms they engage in to pass the centuries. Those that don’t find some hobby engage in bitter and petty socio-political wars to help entertain them over their eternal lives. Although, only mages know of the intense rivalries that exist in the upper echelons.

In this world, vampires may be born between a vampiric father and a mage mother. Although technically infertile since they are dead, vampires have since pushed mages to develop a ritual that allows vampires to Sire children.

Physiology:
Vampires’ appearances vary as much as humans’ do but all are exceptionally beautiful. A vampire’s eyes change instinctively to match their moods, a lighter shade when pleased or amused to near black when furious. As a vampire’s hunger grows, their eyes slowly turn red. Vampires may also influence both mage and human emotions and actions through a simple form of hypnotism requiring sustained eye contact. It is generally referred to as compulsion or thrall, although the ability does not actually compel others to do something. Instead, it allows the vampire to shift the intensity of a target’s emotions and lowers their inhibitions, rendering them more easily persuaded. Targets of compulsion say while in a vampire’s thrall, they feel light, warm, and comfortable.

Unlike the turned, purebloods are able to temporarily take the shape of a bat. The turned on the other hand, can actually stomach regular human food but end up regurgitating it before the sleep next.

Vampires also require mortal blood, mage as per the treaty, to survive. Most can survive a night or two without feeding but the longer a vampire goes, the more likely they are to frenzy. Vampires who frenzy fall into an animalistic like rage and hunt down the nearest source of blood regardless of the person and drink until they are dead. Vampires entering a frenzy are absolutely desperate and will destroy everything in their path until they find a food source. If they cannot find a food source by first light, the vampire falls into torpor and won’t awaken until fed an entire human worth of blood. To assist in drinking blood, vampires have non-retractable, hyper-extended canines that act as fangs to piercing flesh.

As the undead, vampires do not have a heartbeat and the vast majority of their internal organs are shriveled and withered in comparison to mortals. Vampire’s insides are primarily a soup of blood, withered organs, and a petrified heart. Vampires instinctively draw on the vitae within blood to heal and empower their physical strength and senses. If the heart is pierced, a vampire does not die. Instead it enters a torpor until the object is removed. Vampires can only die through extensive injury, decapitation, sunlight, or fire.

For centuries, the practice of turning, known as the Embrace, was the only form of reproduction vampires could achieve. With mages making procreation possible, the two methods of vampiric creation have different significances. Birthing new vampires is the preferred and the only legal method, in most cases, of vampiric creation any more. Although born of a mage parent, these vampires are never born with magic and are considered true blood vampires.

The Embrace however, was outlawed at the start of the treaty with exceptions made by the council every few centuries and when saving the life of a mortal. The Embrace is a brutal and painful experience, the vampire feeding the victim its blood once the mortal was drained of nearly all its blood. The Embrace is torturous, especially for mages who have their magic stripped away in the process. Nearly 75% of mages do not survive the turning, their pain magnified as something so intimate is stripped from them.

Sociology:
Vampires own this world. Using a feudal system, powerful vampires known as Counts rule over territories , lesser vampires, and humans alike.These vampires in turn are under the authority of the Moonlight Council and its Lords and swear fealty to the Queen, the head of the council. Vampires run the government, are the wealthiest in the upper class, and dominate most non-labor industries. The notable exception is the entertainment industry, which has both vampires and humans working on and producing projects but only in recent years.

Vampires strongly believe in the social hierarchy. Rules set from above are ironclad and followed to the letter. These beliefs were integral to the founding of the treaty, keeping some of the more adventurous families from breaking rank and hunting humans for sport again. It was reinforced by the council in the 1500s when it was rumored a young group of rebellious vampires turned against the council and the treaty, hunting Queen Noila’s personal villages as protest. In less than a week, the fangs of the offenders hung from the Queen’s neck and they were staked outside for the morning sun. The younger generations now fit easily into the treaty since they have never experienced anything else but they tend to chafe under the heavy hand of their elders, unable to move upwards due to vampiric immortality.

Interactions between vampire and humans change depending on the individual and their viewpoints.Traditionalist families, families who still believe in hunting for sport and pass these views to their offspring, tend to look down on and belittle their mages, turning them into cheap servants or pets all while staying within the bounds of the treaty. Most however are modernists, treating their partner with respect. Many of these relationships extend further into their lives, starting business together, entering a romantic relationship, or managing the vampire’s career.

Mages were, and still are, the saving grace of humanity. Lower on the social scale that any vampire but higher than normal humans, mages are humans who were gifted the ability to cast the magic intrinsic in their blood. Between their magic, their ability to walk in the sunlight, and their natural ingenuity, mages make excellent bodyguards and partners for the vampires. Those who find themselves as part of a team of mages generally find themselves in scholarly occupations, whether it be research or teaching, or as part of a vampire’s guard.

Physiology:
Mages carry the same variety of appearances as their mortal kin. They are otherwise as fit as other humans although appearances and physical prowess can be altered greatly when applying appropriate magical enhancements.These skills are taught later on in a mage’s schooling.

Mages’ magic each manifest as a singular elemental specialty that is their primary magical ability, although they will be taught a variety of arcane magic later on. While learning their magic, each mage also develops their own casting method. These methods vary from runes and incantations, to channeling through weapons and wands. And necessity also plays a large part in that development. The basic elements-fire, water, air, earth- take very little in the ways of casting method, easily manipulated through will alone. The more complex elements-light, darkness, life, plant- all require some degree of casting medium. Arcane magic always uses incantations.

Sociology:
Humans stand at the very bottom of the totem pole, while mages stand slightly above thanks to the treaty. Quickly isolated from normal humans, mages are shrouded in an air of mystery to most humans. That coupled with their vampiric involvement, makes humans consider mages to be a step above them but still several steps lower than even a turned vampire. As a primary feeding source, vampires hoard their mages and keep them close to their circles out of purely selfish reasons. At best, mages are considered valuable assets and at worst, pets. The Council added an amendment to the treaty shortly after the 14th century, forcing vampires to allow their mages time to visit their families after their training was complete.

Mages have no say in their assigned vampire. Many mages throughout history have suffered gross abuse but technically don’t have to put up with any mistreatment at their partner’s hand. However, reporting abuse to the Council often results in light reprimands to the vampire and even more brutal punishments for the mage behind closed doors. Social standards demand mages put up with the abuse. In modern days, abuse has lessened but not entirely disappeared.

Crimes committed against a vampire are judged more harshly if it is a human committing them while vampires suffer only reprimands in the opposite case unless it brings bodily harm or death to the human.

Humans with capacity to use magic are generalized as Mages. These humans are otherwise unordinary. If they were stripped of their magic, they would be just another human. Some humans, although rarely, awaken to their magical potential early, able to produce some magical effect from early on. These early bloomers have their magic sealed away or at least severely limited until they turn 18. Having awakened magic through puberty has resulted in catastrophic events, many leading to the death of the caster since their body can’t yet handle the stress of magic. Most however do not know of their potential until they undergo the mandatory Awakening ritual.

The Awakening ritual allows mages to temporarily tap into a fledgling mage’s magic and determine if it can be consciously harnessed. The mage undergoing the ritual holds a specialized focus, often a crystal, as the caster proceeds. The focus glows if the person holding it has magical potential and stays dull if they don’t. Most of the time, the magic isn’t strong enough to determine the mage’s element. If it is, the crystal will glow a color or hold an image that gives a clue to the mage’s magical affinity, or element. These range from the common fire, water, earth, and air to lightning, darkness, ice, light, life, plant, etc. Magical affinaties come in a wide variety and new ones are catalogued every few years.

Just as mages differ in elements, mages differ in casting styles. From runes to incantations, to pure mental manipulation to weapons and wands, there are some general concepts for casting. The base elements-Fire, Water, Earth, and Air-require very little in terms of casting apparatus. These mages generally need neither word nor wand unless they are attempting something extraordinarily complex, just will and a gesture. As the affinity moves away from the basic elements-Life, Light, Darkness, Lightning, Ice, Plant-mages require a focus or incantations, possibly both, to safely channel their magic.

Arcane magic is elementally neutral and requires complex incantations to be cast without infusing it with the mage’s elemental property. Arcane magic is used to create wards and bindings, cast specialized rituals, and enhance the mage's abilities in ways their elemental magic may not be able to. One of the first arcane spells any mage learns is dark vision.

There are several forbidden magics, the primary two being Necromancy and Blood Magic. Those who show an element for these incredibly rare magics are promptly shut away and never heard from again. Both of these magics have the capacity to control vampires without their knowledge and they refuse to allow mages that ability. However, both of these magic types can be learned as arcane magic to their full potential unlike most other magics. Though it is rumored among the mage circles that the last and most powerful arcane Blood Mage forced a vampire to turn them and they now sit on the Council as part of one of the Noble families.

No God-modding, don’t be rude OoC, the standard.

Since mages and vampires assigned partners at random by the GM, each player will be allowed to create one vampire and one mage. You do not need to create more than one character if you need.

Please post at least once a week! A stagnate RP is a dead RP after all! But life happens so just give everyone, or at least the GM, a heads up if you will have difficulty posting.

Make sure to stay in contact with the RP! I have a discord channel set up for ease of communication but PMs and posting in the OoC work just as well! Please request the discord link via PM!

This RP has the opportunity for a lot of dark and explicit content. Please contact the GM if there are subjects you have a hard pass on just in case those subjects have a possibility of coming up.

Romantic relationships and what they entail are allowed but please do not post explicit content in the RP. If you wish to RP explicit scenes, please do so outside the RP and, if something important happened between the characters, allude to it in later posts.

She has special fireproof clothes, but her regular dress is more regular and urban. She's a little on the short side, and doesn't weigh much. Her skin is light brown, her hair curly. Though fire doesn't burn her, it does make her skin sooty black, changing the actual pigment and not just leaving a residue. It fades after a few hours, but even so, she finds it hard to hide when she's been using her elemental power.

Cassandra entered the school immediately upon her awakening, and with an air of infamy and expectation. Neither feelings were from anything she had done.
Cassandra came from an out of the way town(the kind with one McDonald's, and no Walmart), and until she was ten years old, had an older brother, Able. Her brother was a mage, with a powerful affinity for the element of life. But he Awakened early. Normal circumstances would have him contained so he could not harm himself, but the local Count was lax, and it was another Vampire altogether who discovered Able. The vampire, William Hess, belonged to no particular family(whether by choice or not, Able never knew) and saw the opportunity to have a mage unregistered, and unknown by the Moonlight Council. Never having a mage before, or been around them in general, William underestimated the risks, and overestimated the reward. Able was strong, very strong, but that would be the undoing of both.

His family never knew about the awakening. Able, coerced by his impromptu partner, kept his magic a secret. As his body degraded, be did his best to grin and bear it, but Cassandra, who was close to him, knew something was seriously wrong. Her parents didn't believe her, at the age of ten, and just believed Able was sick during the last few weeks of his life.

An experiment prompted by Hess finished the job of destroying his body, drastically altering it in the process. Hess fled, having no real feelings for Able, and left him to die. He was found, and lived long enough to tell his short, but sad story to an agent of the Moonlight Council. His family was never shown the body, the agent's mage cremated it the moment he stopped breathing.

Though Able made no mention of any other parties, and it seemed clear they had never known about this, the Roth family was put under surveillance that continues to this day(though now disguised as tutors and helpers for their remaining child). Within an hour of Cassandra's own early Awakening, a mage was at her bedroom door to seal her power away. As should have been done for her brother.

Cassandra and her whole family were spirited away to a new city and a new life, somewhere the Council could not only watch, but guide Cassandra's development. She was tutored, taught those skills most useful to a future vampire partner, though without the ability to put any of the magic into practice.

Though she knows it's just another stage of the vampires keeping eye on her, Cassandra is excited and hopeful that her time at Noila Academy will put her on more equal footing with some of the vampires, and her life will cease to be controlled as strictly.