Vampire History
In the years leading up to the Larsan Folly, the Archadians and Rozarians wasted no time nor expense in seeking new weapons, new means to attack each other in ways that there could be no effective defense. In Rozaria this research bore fruit. For years, they had experimented in construct technologies; but not merely in creating better mage constructs. Instead they researched the implantation of construct cores into living beings, rather than machinery. At first, the test subjects invariably died, but the toils of the researchers eventually revealed that a combination of cores based in white magic and blue magic would produce an organism that remained viable for several years after implantation. On the books of the empire's accountants, the project was referred to as Ardent Crucible.
The tests eventually led to orders to create a new army for Rozaria; a small army of elite living constructs, built with the twin white and blue magic cores. It was acknowledged that the subjects used to build the Ardent Legion wouldn't live for more than ten years; but this suited the Rozarian lords quite well, as it would give them ample time to deal a fearsome blow to the Archadians without having to worry about their creations later turning on them. They were almost finished when the Larsan Folly laid waste to both empires.
The conditions of the folly brought about a variety of effects to many different races living across Ivalice, but the Rozarian military subjects implanted with construct cores experienced one of the most startling. The blue and white cores inside their bodies combined, and took on life, while the bodies of their hosts could not withstand the change and, to a man, they grew ill and died in a matter of hours. Death proved short-lived, however; the new creatures born of the construct cores returned their bodies to life, awakening a new race of beings.
The first things they noticed about themselves was the most obvious; their bodies had gone pale, once they had re-awakened from death, and that sunlight was painful to bear, to the point of causing serious burns much more quickly than it did for ordinary people, and to a man their teeth had grown emphasized fangs. The second thing they noticed was more subtle; though the newly arisen symbiotes had returned them to life, they had robbed their bodies of the ability to replace their own blood. Several of them died before they could find a suitable source of blood. The rest destroyed an entire town, as in their overwhelming thirst they drained the inhabitants dry; man, woman, child. Even farm animals and pets were not spared.
Only days after the Larsan Folly, the legionnaires realized that they could not continue in this way. Traveling from town to town and destroying all inhabitants would not long remain sustainable; and so they decided to scatter. They divided themselves into groups, and each group set out for a different city in Ivalice; somewhere they could hide amongst the populace, and survive without causing so much damage as to be found out. They agreed that in one hundred years time, their descendants would each send a representative to an agreed upon location, to speak again. As they scattered, word also spread of the town where all the people had been drained of blood. The members of the Ardent Legion found themselves with a new name; they were called Vampires, a name that stuck to them well enough that they chose to adopt it rather than fight it.
In each of their respective cities, the vampires settled in and quietly developed their own ways of live amongst the rebuilding populations. Some aspects of their culture proved universal. They hated direct sunlight, as their bodies no longer produced the pigments needed to guard against the harsh light of the Ivalician sun; and so they grew to prefer heavy clothing, in black and dark colors; hooded robes became popular, though sometimes the women would use heavy parasols to block out the sun, and allow them to display their hair. Secret codes and languages became common, as did an attitude of quiet reserve, at least when in public.
There were many differences, as well; depending on the values of the cities in which they settled, the vampire covens molded themselves to their surroundings. In Archades, for example, they tended towards rigid, military behavior at all times, taking a regimental attitude towards keeping themselves hidden; while in Kandhala they came to operate some of the most notorious taverns and brothels in the pleasure districts and slums, where all manner of gambling and drinking and pleasures of the flesh can be had; for a price paid both with coin and blood, of course.
By the time a hundred years had passed, it turned out that the vampires wouldn't send representatives from their descendants; they were all, in fact, still alive, save those who had fallen in violence. When they met, they discussed what each of their groups had learned; that they could take blood without necessitating the death of their victim, that they did not age so long as they were well fed with blood, and how they could create more of their kind. If a victim were drained to within range of death but not slain, and then were made to bite the vampire in turn... then traces of their symbiote would be bourn on their blood into the new host, and unchallenged by an immune system so weakened by the loss of blood they would die, and rise once more as a vampire.
The implications were not lost on the vampire representatives; the elders, as they called themselves. They saw the potential for a vampire society to spiral out of control, to the point that they would outnumber the food that they preyed upon; humes, elves, and other sentients were their meals of choice, naturally. (They could subsist on livestock and beasts, but any vampire would compare the two diets as the difference between gourmet meals and a diet of flat bread.) Over the course of several months discussion, they set forth rules that all vampires would be bound by, and wrote them into the first chapter of tomes they called the Books of Death; they are the rules of the shepherd, and how a vampire coven's flock must be governed and managed. The book was scribed into several volumes, one for each coven; for each the first chapter was identical, and the rest of the book was devoted to recording all of the vampires in that coven, along with their deeds, triumphs, disgraces and crimes, and eventually their deaths. The vampires further created a single, master volume to keep track of all; the Book of Doom, which is kept well hidden and guarded, in a location that changes every few years.
- The first rule: The shepherds must not outnumber the flock. The vampires knew that their survival depended on a readily available blood supply, and that it be enough to sate the thirst of their entire race. By necessity, they needed to keep their own numbers in check. Therefore, they stabilized their population. Each elder had brought to the meeting a list of the individuals in their coven, and it was agreed that no new vampire would be created until an older one had died.
- The second rule: The flock must not be roused against the shepherds. Vampires must operate either in secret, or with approval from the populace; since the latter is unlikely, the former generally must prevail. The elders agreed upon the necessity for their society to remain secret, and hidden away from the prying eyes of the public masses.
- The third rule: The shepherds must govern the flock. In order to preserve their anonymity and their existence, the vampires knew they would be well served by having influence over the rules of the game of politics, and not merely being players in it. Each coven was assigned the responsibility of ruling their city of residence as best they could; not obviously, for this would risk breaking the second rule, but rather to find positions as advisers and bureaucrats, and whisper in the ears of the mighty to help them to make the right decisions.
- The fourth rule: The shepherds must cull the flock. Sometimes, inevitably, someone would find out the truth. While the vampires were not above the notion of taking on thralls to serve them, if someone found out and tried to warn others about the vampires in their midst, then they would not be served by squeamish behavior. The threat would need to be destroyed, swiftly and cleanly.
- The fifth rule: The shepherd must govern his children. Whenever a vampire was given dispensation to create a new member of their race, he would be permitted to choose an individual from the common races at his discretion. However, he would be responsible for that individuals actions for a period of not less than twenty years, to ensure that the new vampire understood the rules and would abide by them. Any gross failings on the part of the offspring would result in equal punishment levied against their progenitor.
- The sixth rule: The shepherd must guard his flock from thieves. If a vampire were created without the approval of an elder, then that vampire's existence would immediately be forfeit. Such rogue vampires, however they had come into being, would be ruthlessly hunted down and destroyed, and their names entered into the books of Death and Doom as such. If their creation was not accidental, as is possible (albeit rare), then their progenitor would suffer the same fate, in accordance with the fifth rule.
- The seventh rule: The shepherd must be governed. Each coven would have an elder, to guard his number and be the final decision maker in all matters. The books of Death and Doom would have a separate chapter to record the elders, meaning that such vampires would have their deeds recorded twice. As writing in the books was also the responsibility of the elders, they would naturally write their own history. Each elder would also be responsible for choosing an heir, ensuring that when they died (the vampires ultimately proved to have a lifespan of about 200 years), the most capable vampire from their coven would ascend to leadership.
With their books in hand, once more did the vampires scatter back to their respective cities, to lay down the new laws amongst their brethren. Thus armed, though each coven differed wildly from the others, they brought their disparate societies into line. Some of them had to adapt to the new rules; the Succubi of Kandhala, as they called themselves, had to take their blood from their customers in bottled form to drink later rather than simply biting them as they had done before, and the Nosferatu of Archades could not continue to create new members of their number as they wished. However, as civilization rebuilt itself and became more aware of what transpired within their view, the rules proved to be the salvation of the covens; and today, the vampires remain among the people of Ivalice, unseen and ever present, with a whispered voice in the ears of the mighty and fangs ready to take the blood of the meek.
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