Vampires are one of many species in this universe. They are undead, hanging between life and death, all thanks to a substance named liquid shadow.

Nobody quite knows what liquid shadow actually is made off, but it is theorized that it comes from something called the Void. The Void is the place that connects all shadows in the realms, the heart of all darkness.

There are various other things that have spawned from the Void, such as Voidlings. They are creatures made off of Void particles and function as the messengers of the Void. They live mostly hidden away in the shadows.

For vampires liquid shadow replaces their original human blood. They are the only creatures that have a connection to the Void, but aren’t directly spawned from the Void.

Having liquid shadow run through your veins has several consequences: one needs a regular feeding of human blood to keep the liquid shadow ‘alive’. Shadows cast on surfaces are purple instead of black. Pupils turn red after a feeding and will slowly turn to grey the more times passes. Sunlight will slow and eventually clot the liquid shadow, and must thus be avoided the majority of the time. Vampires also cannot see, notice or feel silver. Bodily regeneration is quicker than that of a human, but not unlimited.

There are three ways to turn a human into a vampire. The first way, the most painful one, is Infection. A vampire will only inject a small amount of liquid shadow, enough for it to start consuming and replacing human blood. The process is long and painful, but because of the blood acting as fuel for the liquid shadow, the vampire starts out strong and doesn’t need a feeding for a while. Most vampires have agreed on this method to be inhumane, and should only be used in very dire situations and with the explicit consent of the human.

The second and most common method is Half. The vampire gives half of their liquid shadow, making the process easier and less painful. It does leave the vampire more vunerable, especially if a feeding hasn’t been recent. Human blood will be consumed fairly quickly, but it won’t generate as much energy as the Infection method. The new vampire will need a feeding quite soon.

The third and last method is Gift. With this method a vampire will sacrifice themselves to turn a human. There are only very few cases known in vampire history, most of them being lovers. The vampire can save a dying human, but in turn will die themselves. The liquid shadow will fully replace all the lost blood. Because there wasn’t much blood to begin with, the newly turned vampire will be weak, and should consume blood as soon as possible.

Along with the strength provided by the liquid shadow, a vampire can have a variety of skills. The most common ones are shadow traveling, illusion and Voidling communication. Almost all vampires will have at least two of these skills.

Shadow traveling uses the pathways of the Void to travel from one point to another in an instant. However, as the vampire is not spawned directly from the Void, the Void requires a small bit of liquid shadow as an offering. Young vampires and vampires that do not feed frequently will not be able to travel often in this way.

Illusion helps avoid detection by humans, and most vampires will use it to hide their red pupils. It can also aid in making a story more believable.

Voidling communication is the power to summon a Voidling and have it relay a message to for example another vampire or the vampire can ask the Voidling to do recon or research. The Voidling can however decide to not fullfil the vampire’s request, and a good relationship must be build. Most vampires will have one specific Voidling that will act as their messenger, and they will function in a similar way as a familiar to a witch.

Other, less frequent skills include persuation, mind and/or body control, and manifestation.

Persuation can be devided in three subcategories: Romantic persuation, situational persuation and Voidling persuation. Romantic pesuation is the practice of letting a human think they are atracted to the vampire. This practice is banned as it is mostly used to feed off of humans without their clear consent. Situational persuation is the practice of steering the human away from unfavorable situations, for example when a human questions the vampire about their shadow. Voidling persuation can be used to make the Voidling accept a request more easily, but it will damage the relationship between vampire and Voidling.

Mind and body control is the practice of taking over the human’s mind and/or body. As this leaves a human in a seriously vulnerable position, this is also banned.

Manifestation lets a vampire create an object out of thin air or summon an object from the Void. Manifestation is a high level skill as it requires a large amount of energy. Aditionally, storing an object in the Void requires a continuous offering of liquid shadow, with the amount depending on the size of the object.

Though a vampire is technically undead, a vampire can still die. A vampire dies when they are drained from their liquid shadow fully, severing their connection with the Void. Besides Gift turning, there are a few other ways to kill a vampire. The Church’s favorite method is the Light infused silver bullet. Because of the silver, the vampire doesn’t notice the bullet and also cannot extract the bullet from the body. The Light, a holy power that neutralizes anything the Void touched, can then drain the vampire of the liquid shadow.