Editing Vampire Broods (section)

==The Vampire==

Since before the dawn of the [[Imperium]] have the hungry dead dwelt in the shadows of the galaxy.  Lurking in cathedrals of power to gore-spattered lairs they have preyed upon Mankind for eons, spawning horrors beyond number and ruling from the darkness.  Though they wear the guise of Man they are no longer humans but shapeshifting [[Xenos|alien]] abominations, raised from the deceased in utter blasphemy.

The Vampire is a horrid nocturnal creature born of mad science in the distant past.  They are undead, the xeno-blood flowing through them animating their necrotic flesh.  Despite the fact each Vampire was raised to unlife from a previously human existence, retaining their personality and mind, the process remakes their very genetic structure and mutilates their soul until they are transformed into something obscene.  Vampires are gifted with unholy powers but shackle to an alien hunger for blood in order to sustain their unliving flesh.  This sanguine sustenance is the very crux of their existence, and though they can learn to control this vile thirst ultimately it enslaves them.  However, if fed fresh blood regularly a Vampire can survive indefinitely, granting them an odious form of immortality.

To the unwary observer the Vampire appears human, perhaps even beautiful, albeit pallid and eerie.  Yet this is but a mask, a human skin they wear over the darkness of their alien soul, and many Vampires bear predatory mutations that reflect the beasts they truly are: unnatural rot, large claws, distorted bat-like visage, boney spurs, vestigial wings, and more.  Some have even thrown off the guise of Man entirely, willingly or unwillingly succumbing to the ravages of their blood, fully transforming into monstrous chiropteran beasts: massive, stooped and rotting with calcific protrusions, tattered membranous wings, and a savage fang-filled maw dripping crimson.  If it can be said that Vampires have a true form, this would be it.

Drawn to their lies of immortality and power many have fallen sway to the Vampire, only to be used as pawns in their ambition... if not simply used as food.  And yet some show true promise, or their Vampire patron has singled them out, and may be transformed into a new Vampire if deemed worthy.  And so have the Vampire propagated and festered in the shadows of countless worlds.

===A History Written in Blood===

When the galaxy was shrouded in the darkness of the [[Age of Strife|Old Night]] the first Vampires crept from the darkness.  As with many things the difference between history and myth is greatly muddled in the Vampire’s origins.  However, in the legends held upon rotting scrolls and crumbling dataslates there is one myth more common than any other.

Long ago a cabal of humans known as the Immortal Ones sought a means of eternal life.  In their quest they committed untold atrocities, descending further into desperation and madness, yet the secrets of eternity eluded them.  Until one day, upon a rotting world beneath a sunless sky, they found a nightmarish xeno-monster of immense power.  This creature, who referred to herself as the Dark Mother, was an undead horror, her alien “biology” unliving yet undying.  She had been alone for millennia, her people exterminated by the Lightbearers, cursing her with eternal isolation.

And so the two evils struck an unholy pact: in exchange for Dark Mother’s undying blood, the so-called Ichor, the Immortal Ones agreed they would become her children and slaves forever more, and together they would come to rule the stars.  Through arcane science and bloody sacrifice the secrets of deathlessness were unlocked from the Ichor of the Dark Mother, and the they willingly took the curse into their flesh and souls.  The Immortal Ones became the first Vampires, and with their Dark Mother carved an empire from the anarchy of the Age of Strife.  Within their Realm of Night they enslaved humans to feast upon like cattle while driving them to construct unholy monuments to their insidious glory.  In time they learned how to pass the Ichor onto new host through the freshly dead, and so propagated the first Bloodlines of the Vampire.  For millennia the Vampires and the Dark Mother gorged themselves upon the blood of Man, their dark domain ruling many stars and sowing untold misery for Mankind.

But at last did salvation break over these benighted worlds, for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] at the head of his [[Great Crusade]] saw this wretched domain and deemed it beyond redemption.  The war between the Emperor and the Dark Mother was apocalyptic, but ultimately the Emperor proved mightier, casting down this evil domain and putting it all to the torch.  Yet some Vampires escaped the righteous onslaught and fled into the void, hiding among the shadows of many worlds.  Slowly, silently, they wormed their way into the new Imperium that mankind had built, becoming a dark cancer in its very heart.

===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.

===Unholy Metamorphosis===

Vampire hierarchy is based on the "Purity of Ichor", in other words how much they have metamorphosed from mere reanimated corpses into true xeno-monsters, as the greater the transformation the greater the Vampire's raw power and potential.  As a Vampire transforms they pass through several stages of unlife, a slow process achieved over the course of long decades.  An ambitious or crazed Vampire might seek a more rapid road to evolution, but such dark paths of wanton blood glutting and cannibalism more often than not results in failure as they spirals into insanity and loses themselves to their bestial nature.

*'''Thinblood''' is the fist stage of Vampirism, when the blood has only recently been infected with the Ichor.  The fledgling Vampire is little more than a reanimated corpse, physically much the same as before their death, and while they may still have some remnants of their humanity they are already irredeemable.  Vicious and enslaved to a hunger they cannot control, only time will tell if they survive the trials of unlife to evolve into true monsters.

*'''Halfblood''' is the second stage of Vampirism, when the blood has been completely replaced by the Ichor.  At this point the process has begun remaking the Vampire's undead flesh, granting them increased stamina, strength, and speed while slowly twisting them in body and soul.  Some internal organs have begun to meld or rearrange while others wither away, and it is at this stage where most vampiric mutations begin to appear.  A Halfblood Vampire may attempt to create Progeny but it is unlikely to succeed.

*'''Pureblood''' is the third stage of Vampirism, when the entire being has been saturated with the Ichor.  To survive to this stage the Vampire must be as cunning as they are strong-willed, a consummate predator and ruthless survivor.  Their internal physiology has completely mutated even if they still appear human, and their unliving bodies have been empowered beyond human norms, able to rip a man apart and shrug off wounds that would fell mortal creatures.  At this stage most Pureblood Vampires have also begun developing polymorphic abilities and psychic powers.  A Pureblood Vampire can reliable enact Ascension to create Progeny, although it remains a difficult and dangerous feat.

Legends say there are stages of Vampirism beyond even the Pureblood, nightmarish abominations of unspeakable evil.  It is said these elder-things are shapeshifters able to regenerate even from a pool of blood.  That they possess otherworldly strength capable of tearing apart plasteel, and that they can move quicker than the eye can follow.  That these profane creatures have great psychic power, able to whisper through the dark etheric echoes of the Ichor, manipulating their kind through planet-wide schemes from forgotten tombs.  But surely such primeval horrors are naught but legend....

===Broods and Bloodlines===

While some Vampires are solitary predators most tend to cultivate Broods as a means of having loyal retainers and disposable pawns.  These Broods are centered around a Progenitor and their Progeny, but also include other horrors to enact their dark schemes.  With very little effort most Vampires can raise Ghouls: reanimated semi-sentient necrophages that are feral and ravenous but instinctively loyal to their masters.  Vampires will additionally enslave mortals into their service via their strange powers and addictive blood, Thralls to act as agents in human society and daytime guardians of their crypts.  There are other Vampiric creatures, horrors spawned through dreadful powers and alchemical Blood-Pits, but such things appear only in the most advanced stages of a Vampiric infestation and rarely among individual Broods.

Pureblood Vampires hold tyrannical authority over their Broods, enforced by their superhuman willpower and control over the Ichor, while younger and weaker Halfbloods and Thinbloods are subservient to them... for a time.  A competent Pureblood can rule their Brood unchallenged for decades or even centuries, while an incompetent Pureblood that does not control their underlings is doomed to be devoured by the hungry fangs of a usurper.  A wise Vampire recognizes when an underling has grown strong enough and knows it is time to send their Progeny elsewhere to start plans and Broods of their own, propagating their vile race.

If a Brood grows in numbers and influence it will begin to branch off into smaller Broods which in turn create Broods of their own, and so begets a Bloodline.  Bloodlines can be as few as a couple generations of Broods to hundreds of infestations over entire worlds, but all share a common ancestor.  Vampires from the same Bloodline might have radically different traits and mutations, perhaps even open hostilities between Broods, but they can all be united by the Ichor and the will of their elders.

===Vampires of Necromunda===

Even deep within Segmentum Solar have vampiric infestations arisen, festering in ancient crypts and layered behind conspiracies.  In particular the world of [[Necromunda]] with its sunless skies, warrened hives, debauched aristocracy, and teeming underworld proved an ideal breeding ground for the vile undead.  The Necromundan Bloodline of Vampires, known in legend as the Voasin, came to the planet countless millennia ago and infested all levels of society.  Through their mortal pawns the Voasin ravenously consumed territory and resources in a bid to gain control of the planet.  However, in 008M39 [[Inquisition|Inquisitorial]] agents discovered their true nature, and so together with vengeful Houses and a detachment of [[Imperial Fists]] they set about the systematic purging the Voasin wherever they were found.

Though their cleansing was through, almost destroying the Voasin utterly, a single Pureblood managed to flee into the shadowy depths of the underhive.  There, hidden in the lawless depths, this Vampire found new and fertile darkness in which to propagate and thrive.  Through the countless centuries its Broods have spawned Broods and so on over and over, but unlike the former incarnation of the Voasin Bloodline this Vampire, simply called “the Red Ancestor” by modern Necromundan Vampires, seems uninterested in unifying its descendants.  Instead, the many Broods act largely independent of each other: a few have crept back into the upper hive manipulating the humans through webs of lies and treachery, while most have festered in the underhive ruling their territory as a tyrannical fiefdom.  Still others seemed to have completely devolved, revealing only in their monstrous nature in the darkest recesses of the hive.

As it is with most Imperial worlds the existence of Vampires is now considered a myth on Necromunda: the populace is kept ignorant and even many within the Houses now believe them to be only folk-lore.  However, House Helmawr knows the truth, and [[Palanite Enforcers|Enforcers]] are dispatched to mercilessly exterminate Vampires whenever found, if only to keep the Inquisition out of Necromundan affairs.  If ever a Brood grows too bold for the Imperial House to handle it is only a matter of time until the Inquisition and [[Deathwatch]] descends upon them with fire and fury.  Thus, the only surviving Broods upon Necromunda, at least those that survive for long, are those that have kept themselves well-hidden, ever keeping their nature from being exposed to the light.

The Obenous Clan is perhaps the most prolific gathering of Voasin Broods.  They say their Ichor is thicker than any other, claiming to be founded by the first generation of Progeny spawned by the Red Ancestor.  With tendrils wrapped infecting every House and Guild in Hive City, with mortal thralls and Vampiric agents in all levels of society, they have considerable hidden power and influence.  Their ambition is nothing short of infecting the Noble Houses of the Spire and finishing what their Voasin ancestors began, but until then they skulk in the shadows.  They send their fledglings into the underhive to form new Broods and collect territory, resources, and human cattle in a horrid parody of Clan Houses and their gangs.  However, the Obenous are at risk in recent decades, as the agents of [[House Delaque]] have come dangerously close to uncovering their secrets on multiple occasions, while [[House Escher|Escher]] alchymyst fleshteks somehow have managed to get samples of their Ichor.

However not all Vampires are interested in political power.  The Coven Occulta, a large and secretive Brood festering deep in the underhive, is instead obsessed with the hoarding of esoteric knowledge.  Lairing in a forgotten alchemical laboratory they seek knowledge as a means of power, and powerful they have become.  While their Ichor curses them with the appearance of an emaciated walking corpse with a hideous bat-like visage, it also grants them remarkable psychic powers beyond most Vampires.  This power and knowledge, combined with the horrors they spawn from their Blood-Pits, leads many to believe they are working to bring about some kind of master plan known only as the Umbral Eternity.  Thus far they seem to be missing some key component, forcing the Coven Occulta to act bolder than ever by spawning new Broods to send out into the darkness to recover their unknown prize.  However, this behavior has not gone unnoticed, and the local [[House Cawdor|Cawdor]] have been whipped up into a frenzy over rumors of blood-sucking mutants.  To make matters worse, the Coven Occulta have discovered a different [[Genestealer|xeno-contamination]] infecting the human herds and have sent word to their allied Broods; a shadow war between alien powers to claim the flesh and souls of Necromunda's people seems inevitable.

Other Vampires are not so subtle, such as the Stygian Broods of Hive Mortis.  Ever since the disastrous plague that brought the entire hive to its knees the Stygians have exploded in number, revealing in the darkened corridors and feasting upon the accumulated dead.  They keep up no pretense of being human, devolving into raging humanoids that embrace their vampiric mutations.  The Enforcers and militias suppress these "mutants" to the Mortis underhive, but they have an unlikely ally in this struggle: [[House Goliath]] gladly hunts the Stygians as good sport.  However, as many have learned too late, despite their appearance the Stygians are not mere beasts and are more than capable of planning and tactics.  Indeed, some in the hive whisper that this will be their final doom: either an unending horde of "mutants" from below or, if not stopped, cleansing fire from above.