This article is about a fictional being in a game scenario. For the general folklore surrounding vampires, see Vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

.

A vampires is a fictional creature in the role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

s and books based on the World of Darkness

World of Darkness

"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...

setting by White Wolf Game Studio. The concept of a vampire in WoD takes many elements from the folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 surrounding traditional vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

s in Western culture, and adds a number of specific features for the sake of game mechanics.

The vampire that walks the World of Darkness is an undead

Undead

Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...

 creature. It is a former human being that has undergone the "Embrace" of a vampire, being completely drained of blood and then fed some by their sire, a vampire who has turned a mortal into a vampire through the embrace.

Vampires need blood (which they call vitae) in order to sustain their undead bodies. It can be human, animal or vampiric blood (but animal blood is not as good, and vampiric blood has potentially troublesome supernatural

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

 properties — such as the ability to create a blood bond).

Vampire bodies do not function like the bodies of living organisms. They are (more or less) preserved in a life-like state, but they do not age or die from illness.

Weaknesses and strengths

Vampires instinctively fear fire, so much so that even a candle flame can induce a state of near psychotic fear, known as Rotschreck. But as in sunlight they do not fear it as much because of their regenration powers, they can regenerate the dead skin cells to replace the burnt skin cells faster than the sunlight burning and killing the already dead skin cells. They receive serious damage from both (sunlight can be fatal after very short exposure). Vampires are also vulnerable to so-called "True Faith", that is, the strength of a person's true religious conviction (which is, fortunately for vampires, very rare). Such faith need not be religious per se — one of the rulebooks mentions a yuppie

Yuppie

Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...

 repelling a vampire with his credit card

Credit card

A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...

, thanks to his faith in the power of money.

Driving a stake through a vampire's heart will paralyse him and induce a death-like state. Damage done to other parts of the vampire's body, with any kind of weapon, is significant: it will incapacitate the vampire, and most vampires are not able to heal severed limbs. Decapitation is fatal. Vampires are immune to all diseases, drugs and poisons, but can be affected by some if present in the blood of their victims, and can be carriers and spread blood borne diseases through feeding.

World of Darkness vampires are not normally affected by garlic

Garlic

Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...

, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 or the like, and usually cannot be appeased with offerings (as in some traditions). Though players can have their characters be affected by these, they are most likely psychological fears. Some vampire clans have specific weaknesses, such as needing some earth from their place of birth to sleep, or not casting reflections. Certain vampires have exhibited traditionally accepted "weaknesses," such as being unable to cross running water or an aversion to religious icons.

from dawn to dusk most vampires tend to sleep to regenerate most limbs and skin quicker but they are not most vulnerable when they are sleeping, some vampires even tend to have super hearing in which will let them wake up when they hear an enemy coming to slay or kill them. and the rumors that they are weak during day is wrong they are just as strong during the day as they are the night.

Blood is vital for vampires, and they can only have so much blood in their body and they must continuously spend it to heal injuries, use their powers or even simply to make their dead body move. When a vampire does not have any more blood in its body, it falls into torpor and cannot be reanimated unless someone feeds it with blood or a period of time has passed. This period ranges from a few days to several years, depending on the individual vampire's humanity - a measure of how much the vampire has retained of his former self and how much he has given in to his "inner beast".

Vampiric powers are manifold, and include normal staples seen in movies: great strength, speed, super hearing, long distance sight, charisma, and resilience to damage are commonplace. Other powers, such as shape shifting, telepathy, invisibility, control over animals and the dead, and others can be learned, though most are restricted to the vampire's clan.

A few vampires strive for a Nirvana-like state called Golconda. This vague concept encompasses salvation, redemption, a mastery over the vampire's bestial urges, and a high degree of Humanity; effects might be to lose the need to drink blood or even a return to a human state, though these are described as mythical even in in-game literature. Vampires in Golconda spend only one blood point a week, are immune to the effects of Frenzy and Rotschreck, and can raise all Traits and Disciplines up to 10, ignoring their generation limits.

Origins

In the old World of Darkness (as depicted in Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....

and Vampire: The Dark Ages

Vampire: The Dark Ages

Vampire: The Dark Ages is a role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Game Studio in 1996. Later, in 2002, the gameline was replaced by Dark Ages: Vampire...

), vampires descend from Caine

Caine

-In fiction:* Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve in Abrahamic religions* Caine, brother of Abel and mythical first Vampire in the World of Darkness* Caine, the antihero of Heroes Die, a novel written by Matthew Stover...

, the first murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

er, cursed by God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. Caine Embraced three childer (the Second Generation), who in turn Embraced thirteen (the Third Generation, called the Antediluvians

Antediluvians (World of Darkness)

Antediluvians is a term used by White Wolf Game Studio in their fictional role-playing game, the World of Darkness.According to in-game legends, antediluvians are the vampires of the Third Generation. Supposedly they were created by Caine's first childer, Enoch, Irad & Zillah...

). These were the beginnings of the 13 vampiric clan

Clans and Bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade

In White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade, a clan is a group of vampires "related" by blood; i.e. the vampiric equivalent of an extended family or lineage...

s. With each subsequent Embrace, the resulted childe becomes weaker as they become further removed from Caine. The standard generation in the modern setting is the 13th (twelve steps removed from Caine).

In the new World of Darkness (from Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness...

), the origins of the vampire species are more mysterious. With the removal of the generation concept, the idea of single source became less certain. Common theories include that the Roman soldier Longinus became a vampire after piercing the side of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 on the cross, or that the first vampire was Dracula

Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...

 or a mysterious figure called the Crone. Some have even suggested that each of the five main clans in Vampire: The Requiem had a different origin.