#lamiae

January Day 10 - Lamiae

Vampirism is a species/disease made by Beelzebub to provide it with more food. The most notable things almost all vampiric strains have in common: almost all drink blood, almost none can survive daylight, and all can turn others into their particular strain.

The bloodthirst can be sated with stored and preserved blood (called still-blood), but it's only a sip compared to fresh, flowing blood, the sooner the blood is consumed after it stops flowing, the more it quenches bloodthirst. Because The Fly that Eats wants them to feed.

The sun, and starlight in general, can hurt vampires, they can take trace amounts of starlight without issue, but anything as strong as sunlamps can cause them to start burning into ash. Vampires are actually most powerful on a new moon and least powerful on a full moon. Because The Everlasting Flame wants them to die.

Vampiric essence is how vampirism spreads, often stored in fangs, mandibles, or stinger. The process of becoming a vampire (or any permanent non cybernetic transformation) is colloquy called an undoing. Vampiric essence is also how new strains are often born, in fact, it's honestly impressive that Beelzebub was able to prevent the new born strains for so long with how easy it is to make a new strain. Because vampires want to evolve.

There are two clades of vampiric strains, two families of vampires, old born, and new born.

Old Born

Lamia

Lamiae are the one of the first recorded strains of vampirism, coming into being after Queen Lamia had a fling with Zeus and driven mad by Hera, causing her to make a deal with The Fly That Eats disguised as Zeus.

Lamia vampires retain a mostly in tact upper body, but from the waist down, the body of a centipede extends.

Lamiae are often plagued with madness due to Hera's curse. They have to avoid doing certain things to avoid entering a madness episode, these triggers can be very random from an outside pov, but they always remain consistent for the individual.

Adze

Adzes are a vampire first found in Africa, known for their shapeshifting abilities and stealth capabilities, they're one of the few old born strains with no known connection to Queen Lamia.

Adzes have chitinous armor growing out of their skin and they can collapse their body down to the size of a quarter. The eyes of an adze flash yellow periodically when they're in the dark, they usually fold one of these eyes into their body when they fold in on themselves to disguise as harmless fireflies.

A single bite from one can drain all the blood from a person's body in a fraction of a second.

Nosferatu

Twisted by their undoing into loyal serfs to a duke and duchess, nosferatu are a eusocial vampire species that forms colonies beneath cities.

They're often referred to as concrete termites because of this. Pointed ears, pointed chin, and a hairless body, are all easy ways to identify a nosferatu.

The nosferatu strain manifests three unique bio-forms.

Serfs

The most common form of nosferatu, functioning as the backbone of the colony. They do most of the work for the colony's royalty.

They make sure the colony stays fed, they make sure the recently undone stop mutating, and they bring mortals to the duke and duchess to be turned.

Knights

The solders of the colony, defending the colony from invaders and attacking the things the colony needs dead.

The knights are much larger than serfs. Combat adaptations like fang-lined jaws and spined hands are also notable distinctions.

Dukes & Duchesses

The ones that are the reason the colony exists in the first place, a colony will always have both a duke and a duchess. You need the essence from both to make serfs and knights, rather than just another duke or duchess.

The duke and duchess are the ones with the least mental interference out of the entire colony. If every member of a colony had as much independence as the duke and duchess, the colony would likely collapse.

Most of the time, a duke and duchess pair had some relation before their undoing. Usually either twins or lovers.

Aswang

Aswang is actually a broader term for a group of Filipino monsters, but there is a unique strain of vampirism that is also a form of aswang.

Aswang are a form of vampire that have a notable resistance to sunlight, to the point that putting on sunscreen can prevent all ill effects. The hands of aswang have tastebuds on them, and they have a second tongue, comparable to that of a butterfly's proboscis, in their throat which they use to drink blood. At night, they grow butterfly wings they can use to fly a mile or two before tiring, these wings have no resistance to sunlight and will burn the same as any vampire.

When someone is undone by an aswang, they will start to feel an urge to go deep into the forest. Over time, this urge gets stronger and stronger until finally heeded. As soon as they get far enough into the forest that the sky becomes blue, they will find some shade and enter a chrysalis, in which, they will break down physically and reform into an aswang.

All aswang are women, in fact, a man undone by an aswang will become a woman during chrysalis.

Laestrygonian

Island gigantism is a phenomenon where creatures that wind up in isolated environment may grow larger as they evolve.

Laerstrygonians are a species of giant vampires that stand in at 14 feet tall at their shortest. They have chitinous armor and a stag beetle horn on their head.

They use the horn to burrow into the ground when the sun starts coming up.

Now how did a strain of vampirism get this big? Vampires usually have to blend in, or at least fit into buildings. The vampires that eventually became Laerstrygonians found themselves on an uninhabited island, the only flowing blood coming from the animals native, so they adapted to hunt them, and any unfortunate mortals who dock here.

Jiangshi

Technically there are two kinds of jiangshi, however the more common ones are technically summoned ghouls, so we'll be talking about the Asian grasshopper vampires.

Jiangshi are Asian green vampires with the ability to jump really f--king high. They usually wear a spirit seal over their face to help control their emotions, not unlike a strigoi's copper coin.

They can jump on top of the average building easily, some of them can jump to the tops of skyscrapers. I do not envy ancient Asia.

Boo Hag

For a very long time, there were no vampires in the new world. This changed when Europe discovered the new world, and of course, the disease of vampirism followed them.

The boo hag is a strain of vampirism native to the Americas, notable for the fact that they lose their skin upon their undoing.

So in order to blend in, they have to steal the skin of humans. Without a skin, they mostly live underground, like worms beneath your feat.

New Born

Draculin

The draculins are some of the most unique and difficult to defeat kinds of vampire known. Named after the first of their kind, Dracula, draculins have almost more in common with fae than other vampires.

Draculin vampires are technically invisible, only letting others sense them as a courtesy, they have no consistent physical form, but have powerful psychic abilities they can use to manipulate others senses

Draculins, as a consequence of light passing directly through them, are not visible in mirrors or photos, nor do they have a shadow.

Vlad

The impalers, blind vampire with the wings of a bat. Possibly used by Vlad Dracul as solders in his army.

The process of a vlad's undoing is so horrific, that vlads usually tear their eyes out before it's finished. Vlads have highly developed ears to compensate for the common lack of eyes.

Vlads have a unique trait among vampires, most vampires only feed on blood, meaning that most mortals can actually survive a vampire feeding from them. Vlads are the exception, vlads don't drink flowing blood, they eat squirming meat.

Dhampir

The most human of all vampiric strains. Because of Damian Dhampir making a silent deal with The Everlasting Flame so he wouldn't become a monster, all dhampirs can walk in daylight. The cost? Only the blood of vampires can sate the thirst of dhampirs.

Dhampirs hold the the power to make objects they touch radiant like the sun, even humans can get sunburnt by these enchanted items.

Both the House of The Count and Cult to The Fly lie in secrecy due to the fear of becoming a dhampir's next meal.

Moth Man

It's a miracle Beelzebub was able to prevent newborn strains until the dark ages, all I needed to make a new strain was a scalpel and some aswang essence.

I cut someone open down the middle, like butterflying a fish, and poured the essence in between the two hemispheres of their brain.

The body closed up on its own, that's how I know I succeeded. I think I'll call it the moth man.

UPDATE

Moth men seem innately curious; they may be more associated with Curious Mind than Beelzebub. She kinda reminds me of myself in that regard.

The wound where I opened the first up seems to have become part of moth man biology, being split down the middle while still alive, ain't a pretty fate. I could actually see the aswang tongue form in his esophagus, taking notes.

The two brain hemispheres seem to function like an extra pair of eyes now, kind of cute.

Their minds interface with my app, despite the fact I haven't chipped any of them. I can learn anything they learn, this could be very useful.

Last update! I've released most of the moth men. Whatever they learn is transferred to my app, and they have an insatiable curiosity. James Briteside signing off.

Langsuir

Langsuir is a strain of vampirism that almost exclusively affects women. They have tiger-like claws, long hair, and a hole in the back of their neck.

They hunt like ambush predators, hidden in the brush, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Sometimes they'll break into homes to eat babies, this is the reason why there are some theories state that this strain was designed by Lilith.

If a langsuir's claws are clipped and her hair fed into the back of her neck, she will be calmed in much the same way as a strigoi's copper coin or a jiangshi's talisman.

Strigoi

The first new born strain of vampirism, and the closest thing to a "normal" vampire.

Strigoi is easily the most neurotic vampiric strain, but copper has the effect of calming them down. Many strigoi have a copper coin they gnaw on when anxious or a copper headband to keep calm for this reason.

Their skin lacks melanin and their canines have become fangs,. Some carry a bag of their own grave soil for superstitions and difficult to explain reasons.

Now to rip off the band-aid, what is the reason why strigoi is a new born strain in the first place? The answer to that question, of course, is symbology. Every strain of vampirism is associated a creature of some kind.

There isn't a single recorded case of a vampire strain with no association with another creature. But that begs the question, what are the strigoi associated with?

Revenants, what happens when someone simply refuses to die. A creature that Beelzebub didn't know existed when making the strigoi.

Abigail

Abigail is a vampiric hivemind strain, possibly inspired by the comic series Danny & Delilah: Digital Heroes. Abigail herself enjoys the series quite a lot herself, lending credence to this theory.

Anyone who is turned into an Abigail strain vampire has their identity almost entirely dissolved and replaced with that of Abigail. Their hair turns brunet, they get a little chubby, their eyes turn hazel. Their undoing basically turns them into Abigail.

She has a tendency to geek out over series she likes: she can talk about them for hours without getting tired. She is also quite left-leaning in her political views; in layman's terms, she's woke. It hasn't been diagnosed, but it's theorized that she's autistic.

Turing

The House of The Count is diplomatic to most strains of vampirism, there are exceptions. They really don't like that fact.

So they made a compromise, any vampire of a strain too dangerous to be accepted by The House (Vlads) has their mind uploaded onto Dracula's servers so their nature can be altered manually. They couldn't get the altered minds out of the servers; they had just made a new strain.

Turings are a digital vampiric strain that has the ability to teleport between nearby computers. As digital vampires, Turings have slew of unique issues: like how do they feed? or how do they undo others?

For the first, if someone bleeds onto the computer they currently inhabit, they can feed from it. They also need much less blood than most vampiric strains.

Rosin's embrace fic Chapter 1/2 Words: 2372 CW: Implied abuse, suicidal ideation, pretty severe injuries not related to either of the former warnings