Vampires are an old race that take great pride in their race and heritage. Intellectually superior, vampires, especially purebloods, may come across as condescending, but they always make sure to keep a graceful demeanor at all times. They try not to associate themselves with petty feuds among other races, and instead try to keep to themselves in large clans hidden away from humans.Being banned from one's clan is the worst punishment, even worse than being executed by the High Council vampire elder, Adrian Silivasi.
Vampires are able to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel stronger than humans and most other races. They can see in almost complete darkness, hear sounds too quiet or far away for the average ear to pick up (louder noises up to a mile away), their sense of smell can pick up the scent of blood from nearly a quarter mile away, and every object they feel is more vivid and real.
Due to their large intake in blood, vampires are stronger than the average human about their same size. This doesn't mean they can move mountains, but most vampires can easily carry twice their size without breaking a sweat. Of course, the less blood one consumes, the lower their strength will be. If a vampires goes more than three days without blood, most of the time they will barely be able to support their own bodies.
Though they may not be able to run faster than the human eye can catch, vampires do have a faster speed than several races. The average speed of a vampire sprinting at full speed is about 70 mph or 112km/h. A vampires top speed depends on their blood intake, how athletic they are, and their size.
Vampires require blood in order to survive. If forced to go a long period without it, the vampire will gradually start to grow weaker and lose some of their abilities. After about a week, most vampires will be near death unless they are able to find blood soon. The younger or newer the vampire, the more blood he or she will require in order to function normally.
Unlike the movies, vampires don't bust into flames as soon as a ray of light touches them. Though vampires are at their weakest when the sun is up or in the middle of the day due to the fact that they are in fact children of the night. Their strength is generally lower and most vampires tend to be very groggy and sluggish. A temporary relief to these symptoms is to consume a lot of blood, though it only works for a short period of time.
Since vampires are creatures of the night, holy objects can have a great effect on them. Items such as holy water or anything blessed by a priest can cause severe burns if left in contact long enough with the skin and make them incredibly weak. This effects Purebloods more than any other type of vampire, since their genetic makeup is purely vampire. Halflings may only get minor burns if touched with holy objects, since they are only half vampires. Ordinary crosses (ones that are not blessed) or items like it do not harm vampires.
Bloodlust is a type of madness that mostly plagues young, weak, or freshly turned vampires. Whenever a vampire that is more prone to bloodlust gets a scent of fresh blood, they are more likely to go crazy at attack the source. If the madness is strong enough, many young or freshly turned vampires are unable to control it and will feed regardless who or what they are feeding on.
Pureblood vampires are the original vampires, they are the only ones that can mate and have children as well as turn humans into vampires. Most pureblood vampires tend to have a special ability, such as levitation or in some rare cases are able to read minds. Purebloods tend to stay in their own clans and are considered royalty among the rest of the vampire types. Purebloods will age until reaching around the age of 25, in which they stop and stay the way they are until they are killed.
A turned vampire is a human that was turned into a vampire by a pureblood through a long and complicated ritual. Most tend to stay with the vampire that turned them until they are able to get past the bloodlust stage and are able to conceal themselves from the humans. These vampires don't have any extra abilities, though they are stronger than halflings. Turned will stay the age they were turned until they are killed, though children that were turned tend to be killed by the other vampires due to the fact that they are too immature to handle their new powers. Though some adult Turned still try to persuade Purebloods to change children, so they can have one of their own. If caught, the Pureblood, Turned adult, and Turned child will be put to death immediately. The youngest allowed turned vampires is 16 years of age.
____Halfling vampires are considered to be the lowest vampires of them all. A halfling vampire can only be created when a pureblood vampire mates with a nonvampire. A halfling vampire is very rare, since purebreds prefer to keep within their own race, so most halfling children end up being raised with the mate rather than the actual vampire. A halfling's abilities are watered down compared to the other vampire types, they may be stronger and faster than the average human, but they're no where near Purebloods or Turned. They also have the same weaknesses, though not as severe as the other vampires. They age slower than humans, for every five human years they age only one, but will eventually die of old age due to their nonvampire side.
