Classification: anthropomorphic hemovorous aberrants.
Colloquial name: vampires, Darkkin.
Origins: Vampires have existed for several millennia, as evidenced by Jing the Ancient, who was three and a half thousand years old upon death, being turned and entering the vampiric life as part of the already-established Coven, the international organisation of vampires. With vampires needing humans to reproduce, and their bodies being resistant to subversion by Vorsook nanotech, there have been theories that vampires were created to act as Earth's antibodies against alien invaders, alongside weres and witches.
Vampires are living beings rather than undead, with the changes to their physiology being caused by the vampire virus (or V-squared) that also acts as their bodies' protection against foreign influences.
Description: vampires are pale, though not inhumanly so, have short fangs, and are most often attractive by human standards, an effect caused by V-squared, with ugly or deformed vampires being marginalised until recently. Vampires are physically ageless, which can lead to those turned young retaining their childlike appearance from when they were human even as their minds mature.
Vampire hearts beat, though much slower than human hearts. This relative inactivity is also visible on a larger scale, as vampires become unnaturally still when shocked, surprised or uncertain, which, between their paleness and lack of the small movements humans unconsciously make, makes them resemble mannequins. Vampires need blood like humans need both food and water, and blood can revitalise them when they are gravely wounded or drowsy from waking up in the evening (vampires become sluggish during daytime, though sunlight itself does not seem harmful to them, causing them to enter a state resembling hibernation). Vampires are incapable of sexual reproduction (for lone exception, see file: Tanya Demivova), which makes them reliant on humans in a manner either parasitic or symbiotic, depending on one's views.
Behaviour: vampires mostly retain their personality from their human lives, although this might be altered by the process of being turned and the increased sensory input that comes with vampirism. Vampires also commonly sport aggressive or predatory personalities, in the sense of constantly being on the lookout for weaknesses in both enemies and allies, as well as not shying away from confrontations.
On a species-wide level, the majority of vampires are members of the Coven, a global meritocratic gerontocracy. Since vampires value prowess in all walks of life and become more powerful (and, obviously, experienced) as they age, it is unsurprising that the Coven is led by the oldest vampires, a trio of vampires referred to as Elders who tend to be a thousand years old at minimum.
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Threat level: local; vampires start at one and a half to twice as strong as fast as humans, traits that become more pronounced as they age. As they approach a century of age, vampires become able to bend steel and punch through humans while moving as blurs to them, while Elder vampires can easily crush and dismember their younger kindred, flatten cars with single, small movements and react in fractions of a millisecond.
Vampires also become more durable they become. Both the skin and bones toughen, becoming impenetrable to most man-portable piercing weapons. Vampiric endurance is also superhuman, in terms of both pain tolerance, as vampires can keep fighting through the loss of extremities and limbs without any inconvenience except losing access to the body part itself, and regeneration, as vampires can regenerate from having their necks snapped and their heads twisted almost all the way around over time. Older vampires, aged five hundred years or more, can reattach lost body parts and regrow limbs.
The most versatile ability shared by all vampires is the power to bend physics by subtly manipulating dark matter, alongside other aspects of the universe. This allows them to move and lift things far larger than they should be able, ignore leverage, remain in place instead of being flung around handling weights far greater than theirs, stick to surfaces and pseudo-telekinetically pull or push objects. Some vampires possess rarer abilities referred to as Gifts, which can range from telepathy to an uncannily accurate reading of odds similar to precognition.
Collaboration: the Coven is generally a neutral, self-interested organisation that might nevertheless be prompted to benefit their Earth as a whole by the right incentives. Retaining prestige and power, as well as not being hunted by bigots, are appealing enough option when backed by a power such as our Collective. The Coven understands power, so they understand all joint efforts are going to go down according to our wishes, should worst come to worst.
While the Shaper dislikes gunboat diplomacy, they are also aware that the Coven tends to end up being led by people who value both hard and soft power and put their interests first. In this regard, vampires are very human, or similar to ourselves before our arrival to Earth.
Neutralisation: While simulations show that even a single, unarmed reptilian would be a threat to the Coven as a whole, the Collective has decided to list counters to them for the sake of our less capable allies. As mentioned above, vampires are vulnerable during daytime, though it should be noted that their durability is passive and that the Coven employs human security, which would be enough to deter most would-be vampire hunters. Silver does more damage and causes more painful wounds to vampires due to a metainformational advantage.