[Author’s note.  Unfinished fiction piece from the 1990’s]

Vampires:

Main Entry: vam·pire

Pronunciation: ‘vam-“pIr Etymology: French, from German

Vampir, from Serbo-Croatian Wampir

Date: 1734

World Synonyms: Asanbosam (Africa), Civateteo (Aztec), Uttuku (Babylonian), Nosferatu (Central Europe), Ch’ing Shih (China), Vrykolakas (Greece), Estrie (Hebrew), Rakshasa (India), Baobhan Sith (Scottish)

1: the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep

Type: necrobiological

Appearance: varied, see text below

Powers:  see below

Description:

Like all necrobiologicals, vampires are not truly dead nor are they truly alive.  In 1956 the Spitzzenbergen Institute in West Germany discovered what would be dubbed “the vampire virus”. More accurately described as virus GX-211 shortly after their breakthrough research on zombie proliferation in the Caribbean, and the discovery of GX-209, the zombie virus (Case file Ht-1952-004),

GX-211 is a liquid borne virus found in all bodily fluids of a vampiric revenant.  Transmission of the virus takes place after a bite.  The virus cannot sustain itself outside a protein liquid base and becomes inert in other liquids such as water, where the protein media is not in place, and is thus safe to handle.

The virus is quite large in size for a virus about 8 microns in size.  In shape the virus is a hexagonal base pod which houses the RNA sequence, a long cylindrical structure connects this to a flat pad with gripping footpads, which hold onto the cell wall.  The RNA injector at the end is designed to pierce cellular structures and inject the RNA strand (see Figure 1 in Appendix A).

GX-211 contains one molecule of linear positive-sense single stranded RNA with a hetero-adaptive protein “hook” on the end of the strand allowing it to adapt itself to various animal life forms.

Distribution of the virus is worldwide.  Transmission of the virus is by direct physical assault from an infected host.

Inception and metamorphosis:

Usually the revenant will kill the victim through shock brought about by blood loss or strangulation.  The virus upon injection will begin to process any remaining blood in the system to propagate itself in the host system.

Once a sufficient number of viruses have propagated, a Gestalt-like link is formed between the viruses, that is not fully understood, A secondary viral/ blood cell is created (GX-211a).

The viruses as a collective whole start acting as a semi-sentient being.  The first active target of this being seems to be the central nervous system, in particular the pathways to the brain stem to fully stop any lingering immune response and gain access to cell division processes and stop decomposition.

In laboratory analysis using human cadavers, the average rate of “resuscitation” took between 48 and 72 hours depending on the amount of damage the cadaver had sustained previously.  The most successful results of course from just dead subjects.  Tests on cadavers more than 36 hours but less than 192 hours yielded poor results. No resuscitation was found in cadavers older than 192 hours. (Deavers & Hopkins, 1983)  (See Figure 2).

Anatomical changes also occur at this time.  Vital organs, bone structure and biochemistries are altered to suit the needs of the new vampire. GX-211’s mutagenic properties allow it to manipulate the basic cell structure of the host to its needs.

The gestalt being will begin the transformation by burning fatty tissue and sugars in the body to provide energy to make changes and sustain it itself the first few hours until the first “meal” is ingested.  Thus another vampire is usually present to help obtain this meal.  This possibly explains the link between “master” vampires and their “children”.

Possibly the most important change is to the musculature of the vampire.  All fatty tissue is dissolved away and ingested.  Lean muscle is put in place, allowing the vampire to gain immense strength.

Unlike most creatures the vampire has full or nearly full control of its autonomic bodily functions, allowing it to perform feats such as quick healing of wounds, change its basic shape to a certain degree, and move very quickly.  Additionally this allows the vampire to “ignore” pain from wounds.

The digestive system is simplified and streamlined to accept a liquid only diet.  A description of the vampire’s digestive cycle is not included here, but can be found in other literature (Scoates, 1967)

Lungs are totally absorbed into the surrounding tissue, and the epidermal layer’s pores increase slightly in size to accept a wider gas exchange from the surrounding atmosphere.
Contrary to the notion that vampires do not breathe, they do rely upon an oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange to exist.  However the gas exchange is much reduced so that one Liter of air would suffice a vampire for a day.

Nasal and olfactory ducts increase in number in the nasal passages leading to a heightened sense of smell.  The number of rods and cones in the vampire’s eye increases twofold leading to heightened light perception at night.

The epidermal layer is also important in an oft forgotten subject, waste disposal.  Without any lower GI tract the vampire must get rid of waste salts and materials through its outer epidermis.  The vampire’s epidermal layer sheds at a rate five times that of a human.  The resultant layer of waste product covers the skin.  This explains why some vampires have a “chalky” or pale appearance, and for the pungent rotting smell associated with vampires. (Scoates, 1971)

Disease is rarely a factor for vampires.  The vampire’s immune system is extremely aggressive.  The immune cells actively seek any foreign bacteria or viral bodies and incorporate them into the body by “eating” the intruders and depositing the remains in the digestive system by way of the arteries.

Lab experiments using several strains of bacterium and viruses have failed to produce and appreciable results.

Lastly, the vampire’s most recognizable feature also emerge.  The human canines are lengthened and narrowed to a sharp point, to allow them to bite into tissue and bone.

The brain changes very little through this process.  The only change is an additional structure found at the upper base of the spine  This structure is totally foreign to human cellular structure.  (See Figure 3).

The psychological make up of the vampire is little changed from the original human.  The brain structure is little changed very little and can in fact retain much of the previous owners memories and psychological makeup.

Vampires can and do suffer human related psychological and psychiatric problems.

The lack of available mental health professionals to aid them with these problems coupled with a vampire’s impressive physical prowess had led to some truly horrific results involving anti-social and psychopathic behavior (Case File JTR-054-1871 through1893 inclusive).

Cognitive skills are usually on par with the victims former skills, though some atrophy is usually experienced due to decomposition damage to the brain, however long term surveillance of some subjects has determined that vampires can and do learn (Case File Lst-083-1845 through1972 inclusive)

Life Cycle:

After a gestation period of no more than 72 hours the new vampire will seek to feed and start interaction with its environment.  A post gestation period ensues that can last anywhere from three days to two weeks, during which neural pathways are reformed and repaired and motor skills are refined in the new vampire.  Speech is usually the last skill re-acquired.  These “infant” vampires are usually referred to as neo-vampires in technical literature, or as “goons”, “stiffs”, or “dummies” by field operatives.

Following this period the vampire has full independence, and is in fact ready to restart the “reproductive” cycle.

Old age is rarely a factor in a vampire’s life; due to its ability to control autonomic processes to such a high degree and repair damage done over time.  Reliable documentation exists of subjects over seven thousand years in age existing as late as 1993 (Case File Lil-001-001)

The vampire is of course nocturnal (Bram Stoker only said that vampires could walk in the day as a literary device).   The deadly relationship between sunlight and GX-211 is not fully understood.

Current speculation suggests that the virus is Helio-sensitive to some part or some combination of the electro-magnetic spectrum.  Due to its ability to process and redirect energy so quickly it is suggested that the intensity of daytime radiation from the sun may actually “overload” this process with energy and cause a catastrophic energy cascade resulting in the vampire’s demise.
The individual cells will overload with energy and burst releasing energy as longwave radiation (heat) and burn up the vampire.

Regular electric lighting at night does not affect vampires.  Attempts to use floodlights or portable spotlights have met with nothing but failure.  Flashbulbs at close range however, will elicit a pain response.  Research is ongoing to determine what parts of the EM spectrum work best against vampires and into developing portable light sources that will affect them.

Fact and fiction:

Hypnotic powers – Myth.  Certain individual cases have exhibited powers of persuasion that are higher than the norm however statistical analysis of cases has shown that this figure corresponds to a statistical equivalent among attractive or personable humans (Wheatley 1986)

Religious Icons – Myth.  In laboratory conditions vampires have been exposed to a variety of religious paraphernalia from all the major religions and have not exhibited any measurable physical response.

However in some test subjects of Eastern and Central European extraction, Christian religious paraphernalia elicited heightened psychological responses ranging from cringing away from the object to a need to attack the object.

This may be do to the early church’s widespread persecution of revenants, and the Templar knight’s successful campaign against them in the 13th century Poland (Malenkov and Ito, 1972)

(Side note: Many recently “created” vampires have taken to wearing religious symbols as a form of rebellion against elder vampires)

Reflection – Myth.  Vampires like any other material object will absorb visible light and reflect light frequencies that their skin or clothes do not absorb.  They are perfectly visible in mirrors and in visual surveillance and recording devices like cameras.

The myth is prevalent enough for researchers to devote time to hypothesize however.  Some researchers feel that older vampires may be able to use some form of telekinesis and create a powerful magnetic field to bend light rays around their person and render them invisible.

Shape changing – Partial fact.  The ability to control their autonomic reflexes allows a vampire to change some aspects of its physical being, most particularly its internal organs.

The ability to change shape seems to be a ‘learned’ action.  Most vampires over 100 years can change facial bone structure, height, weight, and skin pigmentation.

Vampires over 500 years seem able to change their physical structure even more radically into animal shapes, and even plant shapes.

No reliable witnesses have been eyewitness of a vampire turning into a mist.  However vampires over one thousand years old may be able to accomplish this

Magic – Partial fact.  The manipulation of eldritch energy by human operators has been documented in laboratory-controlled environments. (Stills, 1959).

Approximately 1 in 500,000 humans have a genetic predisposition that allows their minds to manipulate eldritch energy to a small degree without any directed control.  About 1 in 10,000,000 can consciously concentrate this enough to a point where it can be considered under directed control.

It is not unreasonable to expect a similar percentage of vampires to have the ability to manipulate eldritch energies to the similar proficiencies as humans.

Flight – unknown –  As mentioned above older vampires may be able to manipulate energies to generate some flight characteristics.  No subject under surveillance or taken in custody has show this ability.

Damphyr – unknown – The Damphyr (alternate spellings Dampyr, dampire) is a half vampire half human hybrid sometimes called a “day walker”.  The damphyr is supposed to have the power of a vampire without the vulnerabilities.  No subject matching this description has ever been catalogued.  However researchers refuse to rule out this horrifying possibility.

Vampire History and Social Structures:

Vampires have traditionally been grouped into a basic unit called a “family”.  This unit usually numbers between 2 to 12 individual vampires, however larger families have been known to exist.  The leader vampire, known as a “master” vampire, will dictate policies for the family.  This vampire is usually a hundred years older than the other vampires, and has usually created or “sired” them.

He is responsible for finding a “haven”, a safe place for the family to reside, leading hunts, for travel arrangements, and for interacting with other “families”.

Larger associations do exist called “clans”.  These are discussed below.

The leader will have the privilege to feed first, to choose lieutenants, and will usually distribute out any monies from victims, or any other material goods.

Newer contemporary vampires prefer a looser social structure with the “master” vampire more analogous to a gang leader.  The leader is constantly under challenge and has to reassert himself over all others in the group constantly.

Myths exist concerning vampires as far back as 5,000B.C.  Further, revenant like creatures are mentioned in various stories as far back as 7,000 B.C.  However, very little is known concerning European vampire history as a whole until the 20th Century.  Histories from pre-Columbian America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Far East are rarer still.

In the middle ages, the Catholic Church issued general edicts against vampirism along with several other enemies of Christendom.  However only one direct action was ever sanctioned.  In the 1232 Pope Gregory IX directed the Knight’s Templar order to launch a campaign against several vampire clans overrunning southern and eastern Poland.

The Templars sent 300 knights along with 1,000 men at arms and squires to root out the vampire infestation.  By burning entire villages along with their inhabitants (humans included) and digging up several graveyards the Templars massacred entire clans and drove other clans to Russia and the Balkans.  Vampires would not be seen again in Poland for another 400 years

Several individual profiles have been compiled concerning lone individuals over several centuries.  However as a whole they are not well catalogued. The few history’s that have been gathered from manuscripts and interrogations are at best suspect.

European vampires arrived in the New world in the late 17th century mainly in French and Spanish colonies.

The founding of the city of New Orleans in the early 18th century would provide them with a base of operations in North America.

In Europe of the19th century vampires flourished.  With the catholic church being diminished in power many clans and families returned to areas they had previously shunned and set up operations.

Paris, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Vienna provided particularly good hunting grounds.

Secondary infestation sites included Moscow, Prague, Bucharest, Stockholm, Bordeaux, and Berlin.

It is known that high ranking and powerful vampire clans did support the central powers in World War I and the Axis powers in World War II.

In both cases the vampire clans were offered uncontested dominion over large portions of Central and Eastern Europe should Germany emerge triumphant.  In exchange for this, the clans offered their services as assassins and spies.

During these wars the British and later on the American intelligence communities became aware of the vampire threat and formed countermeasures to deal with it.  Thankfully, Germany lost both conflicts and the vampires were forced to hide from the victors.

After the Second World War the massive oppression by the soviet NKVD (and later the KGB) and its Eastern European counterparts forced several clans to emigrate to the west.   Some clans were exposed by this and were wiped out in successful operations in the 1950s.  A couple forcibly splintered off into smaller clans, which fought amongst themselves for superiority.

Traditionally families were linked to one another in a loose confederacy of clans.  These clans usually had “blood ties” to one another.

Older more prestigious vampires had titles such as Count, Duke, Overlord and Emperor, all reminiscent of European noble houses.  These alliances however have been shaken by internal and external strife recently.  A bloody fratricidal war ensued between two of the largest clans in the early 1980s, drawing in several smaller clans.

A peace was brokered in 1988 and an electorate was set up to choose an uncontested Emperor.  The new Emperor’s reign was short however as one of our special operations teams infiltrated past their security and successfully assassinated him.  Ever since then, the clan structure has steadily deteriorated.

The remnant clans have retreated from public view and have become more insular since then.  New “recruits” to the clans are chosen more carefully and scrutinized for long periods of time before being approached.  Additionally some vampire groups are operating in a new hierarchy more reminiscent of terrorist cell groups than the old traditional family or clan.  These groups take direct action against humans without permission or even knowledge of the senior members of the clans.

It is unknown whether the vampire clans know of our organization or not.  The clans as of this date have undertaken no direct actions against our operatives or operations.

Vampire Diet and Habits:

Unlike popular myth vampires do not exclusively feed on human blood. Laboratory tests have shown that vampires may feed on many sorts of liquid proteins from many types of animals.  In tests vampires have ingested and processed blood from various types of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and even cephalopods (i.e. squids). To adequately derive nutrition however the vampire will seek similar life forms.

From surveys and random observation of subjects, it is estimated that up to 85% of a vampire’s diet is non-human in origin.  However all vampires hunt human prey.  Why they still hunt humans is unknown.  It is speculated that they derive some protein chain not found in other types of blood that they need to survive.

Subjects in long-term custody exhibited lethargy and weakness after being denied human blood for more than 2 months but still fed non-human blood.

Family groups will usually go out and hunt in small groups no larger than 5.  Vampires usually will stalk solitary victims in open areas such as alleyways and parks.  These areas will provide over 75% of a vampire’s successful hunts.

Most modern vampires will acquire the blood of cattle, swine, or poultry from markets or butcher shops along with meat and consume the blood discarding the meat.

There is no recorded instance of vampires engaging in ranching or keeping animal livestock.  Most likely due to the animals panicked and often violent reaction to vampires.

A small vampire clan in the southeastern US set up a blood processing plant in the late 1980s.  They processed 90% of the blood for local hospitals and kept the remaining 10% for themselves.  After several pints of blood turned out to be tainted with AIDS, it was realized they had not processed the blood at all and were shut down.

Alternately some vampires will resort to family pets such as cats and dogs for blood.  Some vampires will travel from pet shop to pet shop purchasing the animals to keep themselves supplied; if this is not feasible they may steal pets from suburban neighborhoods at night.

Rarely a desperate or battle weakened vampire may resort to feeding on rats.  The practice is culturally shunned however as it is seen as below them to feed on such animals Unfavorable comparisons to ghouls and other revenants are often made of those that feed on rats (Interrogation 295;101-108)

Although some vampire families have successfully taken over small remote villages and towns this is rare.  The ease of modern travel and communications makes it more likely that outsiders will venture into these towns and expose the vampire family.

Even rarer still are the few vampire families that have blended into human society posing as rich autocrats.  These lucky few vampires enjoy the privacy and security afforded them by wealth and the protection afforded to them by publicly posing as real human families.

Recently though the vampires have begun to target places where humans are intoxicated such as discothèques, bars, and gatherings known as raves using drugs to immobilize their victims.

Alcohol, narcotics, and sedatives are being used more and more to subdue victims. A human will usually be disabled and brought back to a haven to be fed upon by the group as a whole.  The bodies of those not being turned into vampires is usually buried in remote areas or disposed of in other ways.

By necessity vampires inhabit the poorer more crime-ridden parts of large cities.  Prostitutes are a ready source of food in the vampire diet.  Not only are they readily available in the areas that vampires inhabit, but also they are rarely missed if killed.  Even if a body is discovered most police departments will consider the death related to his or her line of work and not investigate further.

Alternative hunting methods include the establishment and maintenance of a bordello.  Several historical examples exist of this type of operation.  A bordello will be purchased or set up.  Most of the prostitutes at this establishment are human females.  Only the owner and a few of the “girls” are vampires.

The vampires will carefully screen patrons to the bordello to choose victims that will not be missed or that can be easily dismissed as never having any ties to the bordello.  The mason Diabolique in Paris is a good example.  The bordello operated from 1717 to 1793.  It is estimated that between 8,000 and 12,000 patrons to this establishment fell victim to the vampires in this time period.  Ultimately the bordello fell victim to the French revolution for suspected royalist ties.

A less preferred method of feeding are donors.  Certain humans with sexual fetishes for vampirism will readily provide some vampires with nourishment of their own free will.  This symbiotic relationship presupposes that the donor receives some form of sexual gratification and is not killed by the vampire outright, and that the vampire receives a sufficient source of nutrition from the donor.

Most vampires shun this method of feeding for two reasons.  Firstly is the proliferation of blood borne diseases in the late 1970s to the present.  Although venereal diseases will not infect vampires, the vampires can act as carriers and spread the infection to humans.  A sudden outbreak of venereal diseases in a small, concentrated population will serve as a marker for vampire hunters.

The second and most important reason that vampires shun this method is the lack of hunting.  Hunting is almost as important for vampires as feeding is.  The appearance of a vampire getting a handout of blood is degrading to them.  Vampires that exclusively feed using donor blood are referred to as “toothless“ by other vampires. (Interrogation 313; 212-214)

The newest most disturbing method of hunting by vampires is called “ranching”.  Extremely wealthy vampire families have been able to use their wealth to set up small compounds in out of the way places run by human conspirators.  In these compounds homeless transients, runaway teenagers, and other unfortunates are brought by force to live out their days in captivity.  They are generally housed either in cages or closed warehouses, well fed and urged to breed.  The population is kept artificially low by culling the older humans and sending some out to the master’s table to be eaten.

This method of vampire feeding was only recently discovered in a remote part of Wyoming where a special operations team found and shut down one of these camps

Familiars and human interaction

Human accomplices and servants are known as familiars.  These humans are bound to the vampire family or to a Master vampire.  Folklore attributes this link as some sort of mystical or mesmeric link.  Research shows that this relationship is usually simply based either on greed, an emotional attachment, or fear.

The vampire will either promise great riches or threaten the human and force them to serve him.

In some cases the link is psycho sexual and the familiar will feel devotion to the vampire and will fanatically protect them from harm or discovery.

However the main cause for humans to serve vampires is greed.

Methods of Control