The Vampire - Formerly the master of the night, the Lord of the undead, now, the most common and well accepted species in the Metahuman community. Vampires are cold, pale, technically dead, and they drink blood to survive (about once or twice a week, to be comfortable). Many of them are able to fly, turn into bats or smoke, or even hypnotize people, although that depends on their age and their level of skill. Others who have built up a tolerance are able to spend brief periods of time in the sun, especially if covered by a parasol or other shade, but it is very uncomfortable and most vampires burn up fairly quickly in direct sunlight. Vampires are fast, agile, immune to physical damage outside of destruction of the heart. They are extremely sensitive to holy artifacts of any firmly held religion, as well as silver weapons. Vampires are the most numerous of the Metahuman species; they can be found in all major cities and countries. To accommodate them, a thriving blood-donation and blood-delivery industry has cropped up; also, a serum exists that can temporarily cause a Vampire to 'become human' again for about 24 hours, essentially returning a heartbeat, warmth and other superficial traits. That serum is readily available to the public; There is Also a cure to Vampirism, which only works once - it, however, it very hard to find, kept out of the marketplace by an independent inventor who distributes it as best as they can. For some time, public opinion of Vampires was very negative; a group of Vampires attempted to form an independent state and secede from the union, while others committed terrorist attacks in order to regain their former position. However, tensions have been improving slightly for a little while now.
Werewolves are not nearly as common as Vampires, but they are nearly as widely known due to the familiarity the public had of the 'fictional monster' before it was known to be true. Werewolves come in many forms - full transformation into wolves, bipedal wolf-men, and other types in between. Some can control their transformations, some have no control - again, this depends on their ability to train, as well as natural talent. However, All werewolves, regardless of the type, lose control over themselves and enter a wolf form every full moon. There is no known cure for Lycanthropy, but it is a fairly manageable condition. Werewolves are very fast and strong, and heal quickly, but are very vulnerable to silver weapons.
Occasionally, people born to human parents develop powers as they age, powers of a very wide variety. These types of people are called 'supers', and they have been at the center of some of the most violent conflicts and secret wars involving metahumans. There are a number of organizations made up of Supers, some meant as havens from a world that shuns them, and others sworn in service of some sort of earthly deity that blessed them. Usually, when supers are in the news it's because a Mall was blown up or someone got assassinated. Rarely are these people harbingers of good news - their power is immense, but so also are their conflicts.
Mermaids and Mermen come in two forms: Freshwater and Saltwater. Saltwater mermaids are much what we know of Mermaids to be - human on top, fish on the bottom, mystical beings living under the sea in an Atlantis of their own, dangerous and unknowable like the sea itself. The Freshwater Mer are much more unusual looking - appearing to be strange, froglike humanoids, Freshwater mer look something like the creature from the black lagoon, but with colorful scales and elaborate clothing. Their societies are complex, mostly located in the great lakes; they are local and much more familiar to humans than their Saltwater bretheren, though not in a good way. The Mer remained unknown for quite some time, until in the summer of 2011 one of their children were caught in a net and photographed, creating a minor buzz. A week later, Mer Warships rose out of the River where she was taken and assaulted School City, killing civilians and laying siege to the Hospital. As it turned out, this was an angry mob, defying the commands of their government, infuriated by the kidnapping of this child as well as pollution destroying their cities and homes. Disorganized and aimless, the invasion was swiftly crushed, the survivors kept in prisoner of war camps. Days later, a treaty was reached with the Mer government, beings known as the 'Ancients', and peace was restored. Since then, the Mer relations remain tense. Mer Rebels continue to occasionally take action against human structures, but their power is limited. Humans still blame and sometimes hate the Mer for their invasion, and the deaths caused, and the Mer in turn hate the Humans for their part in the conflicts, and the tensions that followed.
There are two different ways to wield magic. The first is to be born with magical ability in your blood. Those with an innate ability to defy the laws of nature are similar to Supers, but come in a different form, and are not limited to the one power. They gain strength and knowledge as they age and learn more about their ability, and with enough energy and knowledge, there are few limits to what a Magician can use their abilities for. The other way to wield magic is much more dangerous - Spellcasting. These people who do this - Witches and Warlocks, spellcasters, are ordinary humans who have gained unnatural knowledge and learned Spells, tools with which they can Break the laws of nature, a dangerous and possibly evil act. Without innate magic in their blood, Spellcasters, who typically work through a combination of incantations, magical ingredients and ritual, can transcend the limitations of the flesh and wield power they have no right to. Not only can this backfire on the caster, but it is also dangerous for the world itself. For this reason, spellcasting is very taboo among the circles that are even aware of it.
Archons are the pillars on which the Metahuman world rests. Responsible for the creation of many of the supernatural creatures in the world, The Archons are semi-divine, unknowable beings, scattered throughout the world and very small in number: There were at their peak only twelve, and now there are much fewer than that. Their minds are infinitely more complex and massive than any other beings, and they see and observe much, if not all. They have no specific physical form, and feed off of Aether fonts, places on the earth where the life energy of the world and sentient beings flows. Very few know about their existence, and almost none have ever met them, but from what those people have seen, it seems that the Archons were sent to earth to Run existence, to do the work of an abandoning god. However, it seems that almost all of them have lost their path; they have diminished, shriveled to almost nothing, or grown corrupted and turned against their initial purpose. Some have simply vanished entirely. All of them are scattered, completely out of contact with the others. The True danger of the Archons, however, is not in them themselves, but in their sheer ability to be misunderstood; So often mortals will do so much in the name of an Archon, wage wars, massacre enemies and pursue disparate goals out of their desperation to serve a higher power, despite the fact that the Archons' wishes are very rarely understood.
