Hunters as they exist now are all the result of the work of Anders Van Der Heide, the man from whom Bram Stoker drew the character Van Helsing, and the rest of the original members of the group who hunted down Dracula himself (James Harding, David Semour, and Andrew Holder), along with Stoker, and Jeremiah Morgan, "Quincey Morris"'s brother. The men created a pact to continue the fight against vampires, and enlisted the help of families and friends, creating "The Midnight Society". It operated for several years on a European front, and then Morgan returned home to open a sister branch in the United States after rumors of vampires who were entering the United States. The resulting US hunter agencies, which operated like private detective firms, were eventually absorbed by the United States government's secret Supernatural Elements division, forming a regulated network across the country. The agencies retain plenty of autonomy however, even training their own hunters on academy campuses across the country. The most famous is the Amarillo "Firebird" agency, the one begun and continued by the Morgan family. Hunters carry a limited amount of gear that allows them to blend into the general population, as regulations prevent the existence of vampires from becoming common knowledge. Every hunter carries standard aspen stakes, and most also carry handguns with silver bullets. There is plenty of variety in permitted weapons, especially among older agencies, and many long-term hunters have developed a familiarity with a particular weapon of choice. In addition to their weaponry, hunters wear leather jackets with high collars to protect them from bites, and often supplement the protection with leather wrist guards to prevent vampires from latching onto the easily accessible veins. #worldbuildingwednesday #amwriting #writersofinstagram #vampire #vampirehunters #worldbuilding https://www.instagram.com/p/B1JDtRaAckQ/?igshid=1hw9h6vv9v7z6
