Vampires (Fleshkin Variant) | A Pawn's Creations

A variant of vampires born from the fleshkins (of Paradise's Ruins), who feed on the other mortals' blood and exist as an underworld society.

With their parasitic nature who feed on blood, flesh, and organs for their survival, they're often avoided and feared by the non-vampires. With them outcasted from the human society, they formed their own society with their strongly hierarchical nature, in the shadows of the other mortals.

Storylines/Story collections involving these vampires are in Vampires of the Flesh!
Fleshkins are only used in meta context. They'll be referred to as "humans" or "mortals" in the rest of the article.

Nature

Conditions and differences from mortals

When one becomes a vampire...

They develop a need to consume parts of human to sustain themself. This newly developed kind of hunger is often described as "vampiric hunger" as a distinct concept, bearing many similarities to human's concept of hunger or thirst. (They can still consume regular food. But they'll have to satiate this hunger for humans in one way or another.)
They stop aging physically, and are unable to die from age. Physical ages listed in a vampire's profile page is essentially the age they became a vampire.
They gain supernatural enhancements to their existing senses (strength, speed, resistance, etc.). They may gain more abilities as they get more acquainted with their vampirehood.
They often look physically identical as the time they weren't a vampire, save for the additional fangs.

Blood Feeding

Blood is the most accessible and most readily harvestable part of humans, hence it being the most popular way to satisfy vampiric hunger. Typically, blood is packaged and distributed to houses by specialized blood suppliers. However, vampires are also known to engage in hunting and drinking blood directly from their preys.

A direct way to consume blood is using their fangs (gained from becoming a vampire) to pierce someone's skin and drink blood from them. They can choose to consume blood from humans or from fellow vampires.

Most vampires are taught the ritual to induce trance/unconsciousness and seal wounds in their targets for ease of covering up.
A vampire's saliva may have different properties, depending on their vampiric abilities. It can prolong bleeding, numb wounds, etc.
When a vampire drinks blood from the other vampire, they're essentially taking the "nutrients" needed to satiate the vampiric hunger. The act of drinking fellow vampires' blood (and letting other vampires drink their blood) can be the emergency means for survival, a display of power, or even a display of intimacy.
When drinking blood, they may be able to inherit/absorb other vampires' abilities and memories, or even inherit a nonvampire target's memories.

Blood Distribution

Their most convenient forms would be blood packets.
Animal blood is the cheaper and more accessible blood, while human blood is considered more of a luxury.

Link

A psychic connection unique to vampires, and the basis of a vampire's relationship hierachy. It's sometimes referred to as Soul Link, for a more concise term.

All vampires are Fangs—a subservient role to another vampire, or their Masters. A master may have various fangs under their control (or even have no fangs of their own), while all vampires/fangs have one master they directly serve under.

The link breakage mainly happens via the death of a person in the relationship. If a master were to lose a fang, they only lose a vampire under their control. However, if a fang were to lose a master, they often find themself lost, directionless, and may cause unnecessary troubles for the entire society—so it's either up to the master to make a will to transfer their fangs to another master at their death, or the other vampires will try to claim a masterless fang for their own.

The master in a soul link is able to:

Initate telepathic communication with their fangs.
Command, control, and puppet their fangs to do their bidding.
Teleport to their fangs, or teleport their fangs to themself.
Perceive things from their fangs' senses. (E.G. Being able to see through their fangs' eyes.)

Most masters can only use these powers (most effectively) on their direct fangs, not their fang's fangs and anything further down in the hierachy.

Vampires typically break away from the humanly expectations to raise children. Many see themself as being freed from the obligation to spend the rest of their lives raising children.

However, this value can be heavily internalized by many vampires prior to becoming one, and some may have this value rub into the way they perceive master-fang dynamics. But at the end, whether it's familial, platonic, romantic, or even sexual—the dynamics between a master and their fangs are about power and control first.

Powers

Basically the "magic system" for vampires. Each aspects of their powers are commonly prefaced with "Vampiric" adjectives (e.g. Vampiric Abilities, Vampiric Rituals, Vampiric Artifacts)

Abilities: Superpowers channeled from a vampire's own body.
- Basic Abilities: What they immediately receive upon conversion process. These typically take form of supernatural enhancements to their existing abilities/senses from their time as humans (strength, speed, resistance, etc.).
- Beyond the basic abilities, they're able to unlock different types of vampiric abilities too. When a vampire lives long enough, they naturally earn the "space" to possess more abilities inside their body.
Rituals: What allows vampires to perform more intricate and impressive supernatural feats, without (entirely) relying on their vampiric abilities coming from their body. These can range from simple chants to elaborate ceremonies.
- The specific details of rituals are often closely guarded and shared only with trusted vampires, often with hidden motives or prices to pay. They're also frequently traded and sought after in markets.
Artifacts: Tools or objects with innate powers, allowing vampires to perform even more impressive feats. These are the rarest sources of power, heavily sought after by houses.
- This is the eldritch part of their powers, typically created from materials outside the Mainland.

For additional notes on these powers...

The lines between these three aspects of vampiric powers may blur together. For example, some abilities may only be usable with the use of rituals or artifacts, or some rituals require abilities and artifacts to pull off.
To use rituals and artifacts, being able to utilize vampiric abilities is a must (even if it's just basic abilities).
It's also possible to "convert" rituals into abilities, allowing vampires to independently pull off rituals with just their body/mind. This requires through understanding of the rituals and having the space for new abilities.

Rituals

Conversion

Similar to regular blood feeding, the process to convert someone into a vampire involves drinking the target's blood. However, it's often combined with techniques passed onto by the former masters to complete the ritual. The process roughly involves draining the target's blood, replacing the target's blood with their own, and connecting their psyches together. This process creates a Link between the vampire and the newly-turned vampire, forming a bond between a Master and their Fang.

Transferring a vampire to another master involves the same conversion process. It's possible to stealthily form a link with a vampire belonging to another master, but masters often imbue a protection to their fangs to prevent this kind of scenario.

All vampires began as humans, and the vampirism is only spread through other existing vampires turning non-vampire humans into one and integrating them into the vampire society. Reckless attempts to convert will often result in punishment to the converter and/or the execution of the newly-turned vampire. As far as humans and the vampire themselves are generally aware, once you become a vampire, there's no way to turn back into a human.

It's said that the original vampire is still alive and roaming somewhere, watching over all vampires.

Society

More of their society will be written later!

Their society is generally divided into different houses/families, which operates with their own rules and codes.
A vampire usually adopts a new name once they get converted. However, they can still use their old name from their mortal days to interact with mortals, serving as their another identity. (And they can keep creating aliases and such in the future, too.)
Vampires with diurnal schedules typically take on missions revolving around infiltrating and masquerading as humans, while nocturnal vampires tend to take on missions revolving around hunting and attacking humans.

On cannibalism and consumption

Blood is the most accessible way for them to satiate their newfound hunger for humans. However, at times, they do cannibalize on other humans too. Cannibalism does induce a trance on the mortal targets, but it'd be much harder to seal wounds via saliva.
Younger vampires without a history on cannibalism tend to be the most squeamish about eating flesh, so they mostly opt for drinking blood to sustain their vampiric hunger until they're comfortable eating humans.
Older vampires have more demand for human flesh.
The rest of the humans they kill are frequently sent to the morgue, where they can be promptedly disposed of afterwards. The workers at the morgue are frequently allies to vampires or they're the vampires themselves.

Interactions with nursery and family systems

"How do they interact with how families are structured?"

They generally opt out of (and are often prohibited from) the whole nursery and caretaking system.

However, they frequently dispose of/donate the corpses to the morgues as a part of their work. Morgues are typically more subjected to the vampires' involvement. Sometimes, they may have a mutual relationship too.
In a way, them being banned from nursery system frees them from one of the most restricted paths at the end of their lives. No more being obligated to babysit at the end of their life, when they can fuck around with fellow vampires for as long as they can until they get shot.
It's still possible for them to infiltrate in the system, however.
The vampires are generally divided when it comes to whether they should bother with the nursery system in their crimes.
- On one end, there are those who wouldn't discriminate or make an exception for those systems. They seek to gain control over this system for long-term benefits, and actively fight against the humans' attempts to protect it from vampires.
- On the other end, there are those who prefer to keep it untouched so it can organically produce and raise more people for them to feed on, and it doesn't risk blowing up their covers (with how the nursery systems tend to be heavily against the vampires).
- It's basically a dilemma of what would be the most best approaches for their society (which interacts with their societal values).

House Nocturne

For infodump regarding them... More details and info will be added when I get around writing/brainstorming more about them.

Lord Valerius is a handler who mainly focuses on taking out threats from the house, whether through killing or sabotage.
Lady Hemlock is a handler who mainly focuses on espionage missions, building relationships with neighboring houses and gathering information on the other houses.

History

It's said that the original vampire—titled the Master of All, was once a human. However, the details of their vampirehood vary, from it being a disease they contracted, a curse inflicted upon them, or even a natural condition for them. Nevertheless, there were tales of them terrorizing the first humans who lived among them. Even after their banishment, their fangs continued to live on and multiplied throughout various regions in the shadows, building a long-lasting line of vampires exploiting mortals for their own survival.

Somewhere, in all vampires' minds, they know the first vampire is alive somewhere, possibly puppetting all of them right now.

To preserve and ensure the safety of vampirehood, the Master of All bestowed their title onto their very own fangs—and those fangs would become different iterations of the original Master of All. To take one of them down is to create another vampire taking their place, bounding all vampires into this line of command.

Should you break free, your flesh would eventually join them.

Vampires

Cielo Alessi

A vampire with a little care for the world.

Valerius Laguardia

A vampire of many faces.

And for those without profile pages just yet...

Matthias

An eccentric medic for House Nocturne.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lord Valerius

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Valerius: Good friend slash master!!
Tatiana: A co-worker and a close friend.
Enigma: Her fang!!! Look at her!!!
Cielo: A new co-worker and friend! She wishes the best for her future.
Morticia: Her care for Tatiana also extends to her fang. A little hard to get acquainted with but she's alright.

Miscellaneous:

Enigma

A masked mercenary for House Nocturne.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Matthias

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Matthias: Her good ol' master...
Tatiana: ...Comforting. Her other master.
Morticia, Cielo: An ally and a friend.
Valerius: Not too fond of her.
Nightshade: (A rival.) Die.
Hemlock, Angeldust: Annoying.

Miscellaneous:

She is an expy of Lord Elysian.
5'10

Tatiana

A stern broker for House Nocturne.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lord Valerius

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Valerius: Master.
Matthias: A good friend.
Cielo: Good luck out there.
Morticia: Her dear fang.
Enigma: Matthias' fang.

Miscellaneous:

Morticia

A spy for House Nocturne.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Tatiana

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Tatiana: Her master...
Enigma, Cielo: Friends who make her feel like shaking them sometimes.
Matthias: Eh... She's alright.
Valerius: The master's master.
Angeldust: A long-time beloved friend even before they became vampires.
Hemlock, Wolfsbane, Nightshade: Distrust. Feels threatened by them in "they're keeping my friend away from me" way.

Miscellaneous:

She is vaguely inspired by MORS.
5'10

Lady Hemlock

A charming vampire. A hostess and an informant for House Nocturne.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lady Vivian

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Nightshade, Wolfsbane, Angeldust: Her dear fangs ❤️
Valerius: Her dear friend ❤️
Valerius' fangs (and their fangs): An interesting bunch...

Miscellaneous:

Nightshade

An "unremarkable" attacker for House Nocturne, and Lady Hemlock's bodyguard.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lady Hemlock

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Hemlock: Master.
Wolfsbane, Angeldust: Her co-workers.
Enigma: (Rival.) Your suffering brings me a great joy.

Miscellaneous:

She is an expy of Commodore Moonsilver.
5'10

Wolfsbane

A brooding driver for House Nocturne, and Lady Hemlock's bodyguard.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lady Hemlock

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Hemlock: Master.
Wolfsbane, Angeldust: Her co-workers.

Miscellaneous:

Angeldust

A flashy entertainer for House Nocturne, and Lady Hemlock's mediator.

Pronouns: she/her

Master: Lady Hemlock

Allegiance: House Nocturne

Relationships:

Hemlock: Master.
Nightshade, Wolfsbane: Her co-workers.
Morticia: A long-time friend whom she wishes to protect, even from a distance.

Miscellaneous:

She is an expy of Lovel.
6'2

Hierachy

A list of master-fang relationship hierachy!

"..." indicates ranking gaps for currently unnamed characters.
If the list grows in number and the text doesn't fit the screen size, you can scroll the list horizontally!

The Masters of All
- ...
  - Lady Vivian of House Nocturne
    - Lord Valerius
      - Matthias
        
        Enigma
      - Tatiana
        
        Morticia
      - Cielo
    - Lady Hemlock
      - Nightshade
      - Wolfsbane
      - Angeldust
    - Lady Esther
      - Cielo (formerly)

Miscellaneous

Changes and Retcons

07/02/2026: Apart from blood, they now eat flesh. It'd be very wasteful if they hunt humans down for blood but they don't even eat the flesh too.