Editing Vampire Broods (section)

===Genesis of Unlife===

Vampires are parasitic undead beings whose feeding and reproductive cycles are debase blasphemies.  While the true origin of the abominations might never be known it is certain they are completely predatory to humanity, yet inseparably tied to their host species.  Scholars almost universally agree they are a bio-engineered race whose origin lies long ago during a godless time, making them yet another horror unleashed by reckless ancestors.  What spurred the creation of such monsters is much debated, but it is generally accepted that the Vampire is either the dark fruit of an attempt at immortality or the abject failure of this endeavor, perhaps both.

Despite human origin and appearance the Vampire is truly alien.  For one they rely exclusively on necrogenous to defile the dead and raise more of their kind, using their Ichor as a catalyst to reanimate corpses.  The “parent” Vampire who gives the blood is called the Progenitor, while the raised “offspring” is called a Progeny; for indeed they are now related by blood.  This process, called Ascension, is arduous and draining for both the Progenitor and Progeny, requiring extremely large quantities of blood over a long and painful ceremony.  However, if successful, the Progeny rises as one of the undead, retaining the mind and soul they had in life but now chained to inhuman instincts.

Vampirism is inherent to the Ichor, the invasive genetic material rewriting the DNA of the host, slowly merging their genome with a xeno-beast until nothing human remains.  Indeed, the Ichor even contains a psychic resonance, believed to be soul-shards of the Dark Mother herself, that warps the spirit and awakens latent [[Psyker|psychic abilities]].  But this process takes time, and when first spawned a Vampire is little more than a reanimated cadaver taking their first bumbling steps as a true predator of the night.  Assuming the fledgling Vampire survives through the slow metamorphosis, consuming enough blood and retaining their sanity in the face of alien instincts, the Ichor coursing through their veins will metamorphose their necrotic bodies more and more, transforming them until not a trace of humanity is left in their tattered alien soul.  Ichor is unstable, however, and many Vampires suffer from bestial mutations, the weak-willed even completely devolving into feral monsters as their alien hungers override any vestiges of the human psyche.