The alchemical creation of life is the most controversial and prodigious feat of the semi-arcane field of study. The creatures, Homunculi, are artificial beings of roughly humanoid countenance. The most stable and malleable of these creations are the homunculus robutus-testa. Vigorous, orderly, resolved, long lived, and notably cased with a carapace.
Height and weight vary significantly.
((Authors note: more of a bestiary entry then a individual character bio. Nonetheless, its fits the character sheet topic far more than general topic or worldbuilding notes. I'd like to keep my monsters in order for my RP's.))
"These fiends all! How many of us have lost kith and kin to these abominable corruptions of the spirit? No more! No more, I say! Brandish your steel and flame! Praise thy god and make ready! Tonight the flock will overwhelm the wolves!"
-Father Malachi of the Graceful Concordat's rallying cry
Table of Contents:
1.) History 2.) Infection 3.) The Nature of the Beast 4.) Treatment
History
The exact origins of the scourge of vampirism is a hotly debated topic amongst doctors and religious leaders alike. Most peoples recorded histories have some story or another about nocturnal bloodsucking monsters. However, these stories are drenched in superstition. More recent repots however, recent by four-hundred years more about, regard them as having an origin in the red Plague of the ancient (now ruined) city of Sargal.
The all resources are strictly second hand. All accounts congruently regard the water as being tainted, causing a mass plague to break out across the great city. Reportedly those who drank the tainted, pinkish water became infected with blood leaking out from every orifice. Most died. This resulted in the ruling class quarantining most of the city and eventually abandoning it. The inhabitants, effectively left to starve in their prison turned to cannibalism to survive. The populous was no more. What remained and it thought to have escaped that ruined city would be the progenitors of vampires we are dealing with today.
Infection
1.) Incubation: This variant of the disease is bloodborne, and transacted via exchange of any bodily fluids.
2.) Prodromal: In 1-3 days. The victim will gain a low-grade fever, though most victims immune system will kill the virus before any symptoms occur.
3.) Illness: In 3-7 days. An intense fever will set in with intense headaches and muscle aches.
4.) Decline: In 8-12 days. Symptoms gradually, improve.
5.) Convalescence: In 9-15 days. Symptoms subside, the victim will develop anti-bodies that will prevent infection by Vampirism Lux-Flagellatus Type A for the rest of their life time.
1.) Incubation: Far more malevolent a method than simple bloodborne contact. It requires a conscious desire for the vampire to propagate its condition. It demands that the the vampire drain the blood of its victim and transfuse the victims' blood with its own.
2.) Prodromal: In 2 hours-24 hours. The infected blood will have reached organs and infect them. The unique virus will begin overwriting RNA and DNA structures. The victim will enter a catatonic state. Body temperature will decline to 62.3' F. Breathing will slow to point of being nigh undetectable. Though theoretically possible, the chance of the young (aged 0-14 years of age) and the old (50 years and on) will not survive this process.
3.) Mutation: In 3-9 days. Still in a catatonic state the victims' DNA and RNA have been largely overwritten. The victims' skin and hair will take on a ghostly white paler consistent with albinism. The eyes will typically take on a unique form of ocular albinism vitris (the condition usually affects the retina hindering the transfer visual information to the brain) which causes acute light sensitivity but semi-improved night vision. More severely, the tongue will develop into a proboscis and the saliva will begin producing anti-coagulants. The amygdala will engorge and testosterone production will skyrocket. The body will also begin creating the hormone crimosanquinegine.
4.) Convalescence: In 6-10 days the victim is now a fully transformed vampire. They will exit their catatonic state. Only returning to it every 96 hours for 3 hours to rest. They will now seek out human blood to process it into energy, hydration, and produce more crimosanqinegine.
The Nature of the Beast The vampire: a biologically distinct mutation stemming from humanity and now biologically immortal creature is hyper aggressive entity that must digest human blood in order to survive. They are however not without higher reasoning capabilities, resulting in them nesting themselves in societies. The longevity of the species means a devious intelligence from advanced age. Phycological screening of captured subjects suggests a commonality of these disorders: anti-social personality disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy.
Treatment No known treatments or cures have been discovered. It is recommended to consider euthanasian or extermination for the sufferers.
((Author's Note: given the dependence of a character of mine as well as a setting, it would be a good idea to define base line vampires in the said setting. It is worth considering moving these two entrys to my humanoids.))
