| Dhampir | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Title | Daywalkers Fledglings Half-Bloods Monster Hunters |
| Gender | Male & Female |
| Race | Hybrids |
| Faction | Various |
| Health | Medium |
| Level | Low |
| Status | Active |
| Location | Earth |
"Dhampir. Most believe that your kind are merely legends. It's rare to see a live Dhampir. Part vampire, part human. Mostly they die at birth. Generally they are exterminated. Dhampirs are rarely a product of a happy union between a vampire and a human. They have the best of both worlds. They can withstand garlic, silver...even sunlight. And they've got all of the Vampire's strengths, and none of their weaknesses, except for the thirst."
A Dhampir, also called a Daywalker, is the child of a vampire father and a human mother. They are basically Human/Vampire Hybrids. Dhampir have the powers of a vampire, as their powers are similar to those of vampires, but without all of the usual weaknesses. Dhampirs are adept at detecting, hunting, and killing vampires.
In the Balkans it is believed that male vampires have a great desire for women, so a vampire will return to have intercourse with his wife or with a woman he was attracted to in life. Indeed, in one recorded case, a Serbian widow tried to blame her pregnancy on her late husband, who had supposedly become a vampire, and there were cases of Serbian men pretending to be vampires in order to reach the women they desired. In Bulgarian folklore, vampires were sometimes said to deflower virgins as well. A vampire may also move to a village where nobody knows him and marry and have children there. The sexual activity of the vampire seems to be a peculiarity of South Slavic vampire belief as opposed to other Slavs, although a similar motif also occurs in Belarusian legends.
Appearance
While they seem more or less human, many Dhampirs have pale skin and dark hair. At birth they resemble still borns, but they do have a very faint heart beat. Some even possess sharpened teeth or claws, reminders of their father's undead heritage. They feed the same way as humans do and have no problems being out in the sun. Their looks are human, too though they are described as being more attractive then humans. They are not quite as powerful as vampires, so they have to train very hard to increase their strength, speed and stamina.
Behavior
An amazing number of Dhampirs reject their vampiric heritage. Few, if any, can even stand the presence of a vampire. They are famed for their ability to not only hunt vampires- but also other mythical beings. Most are driven and stubborn, yet strangely charismatic.
Various means of killing or driving away vampires are recognized among peoples of the region, but the Dhampir is seen as the chief agent for dealing with vampires. Methods by which a Dhampir kills a vampire include shooting the vampire with a bullet, transfixing it with a hawthorn stake, and performing a ceremony that involves touching "crowns" of lead to the vampire's grave. If the Dhampir cannot destroy a vampire, he may command it to leave the area.
A Dhampir is always paid well for their services. The amount of money varies, but there is never bickering over the price. Standard pay for a Dhampir may also include a meal or a suit of clothing. Sometimes a Dhampir is paid in cattle. As late as 1959, professional Dhampirs were still in business in Kosova.
Habitat/Society
Dhampirs live generally undetected among human society, although they invariably grow up motherless, as their mother dies giving birth to them. They can belong to any class, and may be found working in any profession, although they invariably gravitate to occupations that minimize contact with others.
Once a Dhampir recognizes the supernatural abilities it possesses, many of them try to do good by hunting down and slaying vampires wherever they find them. This is particularly true of Dhampir who have had contact with their vampiric parents. However, other Dhampir find it just as easy to turn evil and adopt their father’s predatory ways in exchange for power.
Ecology
Dhampirs must feast on the blood of humans at least once a week or they become unable to use their powers. Many good Dhampirs thus are powerless, unless they force themselves to drink the blood of humans when a vampiric threat becomes evident in their region. Dhampirs can produce children, who may themselves become Dhampirs or who may be normal humans. (A 50% chance of either being the case.)
Powers & Abilities
Dhampirs inherit powers from Vampires such as superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, senses, stamina, endurance, healing factor, even immortality and hypnosis. They feed on human blood and possibly other vampires as well. It is also possible that, like with vampires, the Dhampirs' powers and abilities increase and improve with time, age, experience, and consumption of blood whether human, animal, or even vampire blood. However, they are not quite as powerful as the vampires, so they have to train very hard to increase their powers.
- Superhumanly Acute Senses: The Dhampirs' sense of sight and hearing are heightened to levels comparable to those possessed by true vampires. They are capable of seeing objects with perfect clarity at much greater distances than ordinary humans. They retain this same level of clarity even in near-total darkness. The Dhampirs' hearing is similarly enhanced, allowing them to detect sounds that an ordinary human can't hear and enabling them to hear sounds an ordinary human can hear but at greater distances. The Dhampirs' sense of smell is as acute as a wolf's or a dog’s, enabling them to track prey for miles by the scent of the victim’s blood alone. Dhampirs are also able to sense the presence of supernatural beings or forces whereas an ordinary human would be oblivious to them. They can also instinctively sense impending danger, usually posed by humans. They can also sense emanations of good or evil, instinctively avoiding the former while congregating to the latter. Overall, their keen senses give them several advantages when hunting or eluding enemies.
- Aura Perception: Their heightened vision allows them to see their prey by their blood auras.
- Enhanced Eidetic Memory: Dhampirs have perfect memory recall, are unable to forget, and develop mentally at a rate far faster than their chronological and biological age, speaking in complete sentences and walking just days after birth. Their minds are often called "vaults" in which they store all their information permanently, regardless of how far such memories recede into the past.
- Superhuman Strength: Dhampirs are supernaturally much stronger than humans. While they inherit their vampiric parent's strength, they are not as strong as a pure vampire. They always have the advantage of superior strength in direct combat with a human and can toss an average size, fully grown human across a room with great speed and force. Other examples of their strength ability include single-handedly lifting a grown men high off the ground by the throat and snapping their necks, tearing people apart, and ripping out internal organs such as hearts. This, in addition to granting them great endurance, allows them to be stronger than any human and possibly large animals. They are able to bench-press cars with ease and are capable of lifting about 1 ton.
- Superhuman Speed: Dhampirs are capable of running and moving at speeds greater than even the finest human athlete. They can also accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, faster than the human eye can see, but are not as fast as a pure vampire. When running across long distances, they appear as vibrating blurs of motion. Their reflexes are similarly heightened. They move so fast that everything else, when compared to them, appears to be moving in slow motion.
- Superhuman Agility: Dhampirs possess superhuman agility. Their agility, balance and coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. They can leap several feet into the air and are able to move, jump, climb, flip, and run at incredibly fast speeds without difficulty or exhaustion. They can perform above-human parkour feats and virtually always land on their feet.
- Superhuman Stamina: Dhampirs musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. They can exert themselves at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair them.
- Hypnosis: Due to their Vampire heritage, Dhampirs can control another person's mind by making eye contact. Because of their hybrid nature, Dhampirs are completely impervious to vampiric hypnosis.
- Eternal Life: Due to their Vampire heritage, Dhampirs do not age. However, when they are born, they age normally until they reach adulthood, at which point they cease to age and can potentially live forever. Once they stop aging, they then become immune to all conventional illness, disease, virus and infection, including a werewolf bite.
- Daytime Walking: Unlike Vampires, Dhampirs are capable of walking around in the day without the use of a day-walking ring.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Dhampirs, like true vampires, possesses an accelerated healing ability that allows them to heal mild to moderate injuries with much greater speed and efficiency than ordinary humans. Dhampirs are capable of healing from severe slashes and puncture wounds within a matter of hours. However, they are not able to regenerate missing limbs or organs. They can snap their finger bones back into place after being broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement after a few weeks whereas humans take months to years to recover from similar injuries.
- Fangs: Dhampirs can grow a pair of fangs from their mouths, which they use to feed. Their fangs will occasionally come out and extend when they feed, are aroused by the scent of blood, or feeling intensely threatened or angered, especially if they are new vampires who have yet to gain complete control over their bloodlust.
- Immunity To Vampire Vulnerabilities: True vampires have numerous and very particular supernatural vulnerabilities, most to almost all of which Dhampirs are totally immune to. For instance, Dhampirs are unaffected by direct exposure to sunlight whereas most vampires are either rendered comatose during the daylight hours or are quickly incinerated when exposed directly to sunlight. Vampires are also highly allergic to silver, supposedly because of the metal's mystical purity. As a result, silver blades or bullets are capable of killing vampires. If a vampire is not killed and merely injured, it will still take a vampire much longer to heal than if the injury had been inflicted by another material. Dhampirs are also immune to the effects of vervain (a.k.a. verbena) while, in contrast, vampires are rendered almost powerless when confronted by it. Dhampirs themselves could be injured by a silver or wooden weapon as much as an ordinary human would, but their healing powers would be able to heal from the injury as if it were an ordinary wound. Dhampirs are also immune to the effects of religious icons, such as crucifixes, while vampires are rendered almost powerless when confronted by them. Dhampirs may not have to feast on blood (though they only need to feed every once a week), and they can enter homes without permission.
- Sunlight Resistance: While not entirely immune, Dhampir can withstand the sun, albeit with great pain and, if they are exposed to it for too long, it could prove fatal. They can withstand the sun for at least 2 hours.
Weaknesses
As noted above, while Dhampirs are immune to many true vampires supernatural vulnerabilities, Dhampirs are not invulnerable, Their weaknesses include
- Magic: Witches are able to give supernatural aneurysms that cause the blood vessels of Dhampir to explode.
- Decapitation: The act of dismembering or removing the head of a Dhampir will result in death.
- Heart Extraction: The act of removing a Dhampir's heart will result in death.
- Sunlight Resistance: While not entirely immune, Dhampir can withstand the sun, albeit with great pain and, if they are exposed to it for too long, it could prove fatal. They can withstand the sun for at least 2 hours.
