Consanguine

The Consanguine, as many call themselves, are sentient with some faint similarities to their mortal selves, but as different from mortals as night from day. Neither mortal nor truly immortal, vampires exist in a supernatural state somewhere between life and death. Though a class unto themselves, Consanguine vampires have no guild. Instead, most vampires belong to one of several great Houses, originally comprised of the bloodline of one of the four original progeny embraced by Abhorash Nehekhara.

The Embrace is the process by which a new vampire is sired, or created. Whether viewed as a precious gift or a terrible curse, it is never given lightly; after all, one more predator means more competition for resources. During the Embrace, the body reworks itself, sloughing off the imperfections present in every mortal form and becoming more beautiful, with the grace of a predatory animal. The new suckling reawakens, but his heart does not beat nor do his lungs exchange air. He is now one of the living dead. He wakes suffering a ravenous hunger for blood, his first acquaintance with the monster that has been spawned within him.

Vampires are born of the skill Sanguis, which allows a skilled practitioner to channel the magical properties of Blood into animating corpses (including her own unliving body). Vampires' enhanced physical prowess is embodied in the skill Corpus, with which their bodies are imbued with supernatural efficacy through the use of Blood. The Mentis skill gives a vampire the power to influence the minds of mortals with his awesome and terrible undead presence.

In addition, through the blood rituals of the Bloodborn, there are three paths a vampire may choose to follow.