Vampires are, in the broadest sense, sapient undead who feed on the essence of living beings, and are able to turn humans (be they mundanes, mages or psychics) and animals into vampires through specific methods of consumption.
But before these methods can be elaborated, the different categories of "vampire" must be described. It should be noted that feeding on others and an infectious nature does not make one a vampire: after all, a man-eating were can also make more of itself while feeding, due to how therianthropy spreads. Weres, however, are alive, and the touch of silver can reveal a being's nature, should its behaviour be confusing. Despite old myths spread by Primus and supporters among his descendants to trick those who would hunt them, mundane silver is not harmful to vampires.
There are two categories of vampire. According to rumours and the shaky claims of postcognitives, who have all admitted they are unsure whether their visions are reliable, there used to be four: vampires who drank blood, lifeforce, emotions and memories, with the former two still surviving today. It is said, among vampires, that the greatest among the emotional and mental vampires struck a deal with forgotten gods in order to gain the means to strike down Primus, whose power and prestige they were jealous of (the detractors of these legends consider this propaganda and empty boasts, meant to prop up the Bloodfather and started by Primus himself, or his followers). It is far more likely, they said, that the extinct vampires were wiped out by the pantheons or their worshippers, either in retaliation to some slight, or to prevent their rise to power.
Though Primus is widely-known as the "First Vampire", it would be more accurate to say that he is the progenitor of "western" vampires: not those who live in the western world, for there are plenty outside it, but those who are descended from him and share his abilities. These Primusians, as some call themselves in hopes of currying favour with their distant, apathetic ancestor, crave blood the way a human would crave water after hours in a desert. Drinking blood quenches this thirst for second to minutes, while also strengthening the vampire. The amount of power gained through feeding varies depending on both the quantity and the quality of the blood; a were's would yield a much greater boost than a human's.
Primusians are capable of feeding on themselves, such as by biting down on their tongues, but vampire blood tastes like cold, wet mud to them - an unappealing prospect to undead whose sense of taste only lets them taste the metallic flavour of blood at the best of times, and nothing at all in other moments. Many vampires grumble that this was a decision of the pantheons who cursed Primus, to keep them from becoming stronger on their own, while others praise the Bloodfather for fashioning his children in such a way that they are dissuaded from cannibalism.
This is not the main reason for the unpopularity of Primusian ancestor cults, but it certainly does not endear them to vampires who, for one reason or another, have been banned from buying blood.
Oher substances that are chemically or metaphysically similar enough to blood can also be consumed, though the taste and effects varies.
Primusians (who most of the world pictures when thinking of "vampires", even though they comprise less than a third of Earth's vampiric population) possess great physical aptitude, endless stamina, an inability to feel pain, immunity to non-holy esoteric effect (though blessed powers or objects can both alter and hurt them), and a slew of exotic abilities most famously described in Bram Stoker's Dracula. They can shapeshift into bats, wolves or mist, with their physical abilities staying the same in the first two forms. More skilled vampires can become swarms of bats, packs of rats, owls, or other creatures traditionally associated with the night. They can mentally dominate those who look into their eyes (which are, shapeshifting aside, crimson, with black, slit pupils) for as long as they wish, providing no mental protections, such as those inherent to many paranormal species. As a vampire grows in skill and power, they can move or shape objects, beings and other aspects of creation that within their line of sight.
Vampires cannot use their esoteric powers while exposed to sunlight or running water, which has caused more than one bat fledgling to fall, immobile, in the river they were attempting to fly over as a bat. This is a popular method of combating vampiric criminals, which is why hydro/photokinetics are valuable while battling them.
Primusians reproduce by biting the neck of a living mundane, mage or psychic. The symbolism of this act removes the soul of the victim, which goes to wait in the aether or an afterlife until the vampire's death, after which it reunites with their mind. The soul is replaced by a metaphysical void that acts much like it, while also rendering the vampire immune to spiritual attacks, including holy ones: after all, there is nothing to damage.
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After being bitten, the fledgling's bodily functions cease, their blood thickening and darkening in colour. Their skin becomes as white as marble (or grey as ash, if they were dark-skinned in life), their teeth lengthen and sharpen, and the most prominent aspects of their personality become more pronounced. While vampirism does not "make people evil", despite speciesist propaganda, some sires do turn only problematic people, which is enough to mislead casual observers.
Should a human be killed by a bite elsewhere, or by the vampire's strikes or powers, they will become a wight. Much like zombies raised by necromancers, wights do not feel pain or exhaustion, are mindless, and provide their killer with different sets of senses, as well as ana array of abilities, except for sou-based ones, which are lost when the spirit departs upon the wight's death.
While vampires are unable to use magic, lacking a soul (comparisons drawn between themselves and soulless magic have led to the conclusion that something in the nature of vampirism is still human enough it cannot comprehend or allow soulless magic. Fringe researchers claim this is a conspiracy enforced by the jealous pantheons), they do retain any psychic powers they have had in life, which might grow or change, depending on the individual.
Besides the instincts resulting from turning, vampirism freezes the body in one state, shapeshifting and holy wounds notwithstanding, which can prove detrimental to healthy development. This is why turning minors or mentally-ill people is outlawed by the Global Gathering.
Jiangshi is the term used to refer to the strain of vampirism originating in what is today China, and whose members comprise most of Asia's vampiric population, and over seventy percent of the world's.
Jiangshi, or jiang-shi (literally "hard" or "stiff", though more popularly known as hopping vampires), are famous for their tendency to move by hopping, arms outstretched. This has been compared to a strigoi's urge to count spilled sand or rice grains, or commit horrifically evil acts. Between this mental tic and their hunger for lifeforce, jiangshi can be considered closer "cousins" to strigoi than Primusians, even though they physically resemble their western vampiric relatives more, except for their eyes being the colour of jade.
Jiangshi share the abilities of Primusians, while also having the power to sense, move and shape lifeforce with their mind (this being separate from their ocular domination power, having similar effects while also being usable on things outside visual range). Should they completely drain a human's lifeforce, they will rise again as a jiangshi. A corpse might rise as a hopping vampire, should it remain unburied, after the other funeral rites have been observed, for lightning to strike its coffin or a black cat (especially a pregnant one, which makes undeath more likely) to leap over the coffin.
Should the corpse belong to someone who still wanted to live, for various reasons, they might return as a jiangshi - another similarity to strigoi. While the threat of a "jiangshi virus" launched by a necromantic crime syndicate caused unrest in China during the mid-eighties, this was later concluded to have been a metaphor for the conditions likely to create hopping vampires becoming more widespread, cloaked in more intimidating terms.
The first jiangshi was Muchen Xu, who was born as an Ardipithecus three point two million years ago. He learned of the Tao while fleeing from Atlantean slave raids, developing his grasp of cultivation as he sought one hiding place after another. Xu's undeath, if anything, brought him closer to his spiritual side, an irony he has always found amusing. Xu began moulding his flesh and expanding his mind as mankind's ancestors evolved, always keeping pace in terms of appearance. His first attempt at forming a cultivation sect before his undeath resulted to an attempted assassination by his apprentices, who were split between wanting to kill him because he was undead and wanting to kill him because he had become more powerful, and in a manner that hadn't required effort from him - for Xu's lifeforce had been burned away in an unlucky attempt to bond with the Tao. The latter assassins, according to Xu, almost certainly disdained his transformation because he had grown stronger while still drilling them like before. All of them, however, were united in their conviction that the sect's leader had to die.
This, according to Xu, has always been the most common trait his many enemies have shared.
After cultivating enough to start warping the fabric of creation on a large scale, Xu retreated to the Tao Cluster, where he carved out a pocket reality, where he could train, study and relax at his leisure. This was when he named himself.
In the modern day, Muchen Xu splits his attention between his students, his harem (categories that overlap less often than his critics claim), the Tao Cluster, and the neutral universe it is connected to, especially its version of China.