On The Subject Of Vampires:
were they once irradiated humans? monsters from another world? or had they always been evolving alongside humanity?
the latter is the answer.
there has always been man, and there have always been vampires.
we fought with them, since the time of knights and horses. since bombs rained down on their hives. the pale terrors. the many-fanged. bloodsuckers.
long and bloody battles decimated the human population.
to counter the adaptations and protect the walled-off cities, the Church trained hunters known as Priests. ripped from their parents in childhood, taking vows of celibacy in teenage years, they are warriors with mystical, telekinetic-esque abilities. able to tackle the creatures on common ground and survive. they were the front-liners.
yet, the vamps were no easy combatants.
instead of bearing down in a straight line, they move with eye-blink speed in concentric circles. knowing point a and point b will see you able to harm one. starting point and ending point, like the ripples of a stone tossed on water.
their claws easily shred common metal and cloth, able to puncture layers of materials. wicked sharp, long as a man's own finger. their hunger for blood and flesh nigh insatiable.
they communicate through a series of screeches and the clicking of their fangs. some would say this is like echolocation, drawn to bounced vibrations like bats. that being said, they have no need for sight, as smell and sound alone guide them.
the Drones are emaciated, hunched things. tail-less, hollows sunken into their faces. fishbelly-pale with mappings of dark veins. the Guardians are much bulkier, with fangs like old-world sabretooths.
their Queen is recognizable by her differing color-scheme, dark red like freshly-spilt blood. her unique physiology is marked by a pair of skin-flap wings from wrists to ankles, and a brow ridge resembling curled horns.
Familiars are unlucky humans who ended up begging to be turned, seeking the change so they didn't have to wander the barren, salt-and-dust flats of the wastes. at the mercy of elements or bandits.
once bitten and infected, they turn sycophantic and obsessive, only following simplistic orders given by their Masters. their ears become pointed. their eyes are clouded, chalky skin with pronounced veins. they lose their hair, bodies shrunken-in like ghouls.
only one man has ever encountered a human-vampire hybrid......and lived.
