Vampyr (Vahm-pure)

The vampyr are split between two major physiologies: the colder region dwelling ones, and the equatorial ones.   The equatorial dwelling vampyr are bipedal humanoids, possessed of curved, hook-like feet and fleshy–but thinly furred–winged arms. Unlike harpies, whom they've been mistaken for before, the vampyr have their wings extending from the tips of their arms to the bottom of their ankles, giving them a glider-suit sort of look. Their wings can fold in close to their bodies, shrinking them down to their modestly small sizes for when they're not airborne. Their fur, what little they possess of it, mostly covers their wings and extremities, leaving them largely naked on the skin layer.   Overall, they're often shorter than most of the medium-sized humanoid races, a fact that serves their aerial tendencies well. They're moderately sexually dimorphic, with the males being larger and the females possessing enlarged breasts and wider hips.   They have two enlarged top canine fangs, porous and ideal for skin penetration and access to soft, succulent internals. There is a small vestigial tail that exits their tailbone, right above the buttocks. They also have an upturned, flat, and broad bat-like nose, and tall, furry and sharply triangular ears that extend above their head.   Their color range is veltrony colors, chiefly in the browns and blacks. Their skin color tends toward being brown, with some of the cooler climate facing races having peach or olive skin tones. Blonde and gold colorations can show up as well in these areas. Their eye colors are chiefly in the reds and greens, possessing gem or jewel like qualities that are considered captivating.

Blood Mana Sensitivity – Vampyr extract mana from blood, and some choice nutrients as well. Thus, their species has adapted to being very capable of sensing mana rich blood, making mages and natural magic users ideal prey for them.   Blood Mana Requirement – Although they consume mana on the regular from enriched foodstuffs, the particulars of blood make it a requirement in their diet. The consumption of 'flavored' mana from the blood stimulates their own bodies, allowing them to process and utilize the vast mana stored within them they otherwise would die without.   Light-Weight Body – As with nearly any other aerial monster species, the vampyr sacrifice body and bone density to help their flight. This results in them being–arguably–physically weaker in direct confrontations and with higher susceptibility toward bone fractures. However, their blood consumption can magically enrich them enough to artificially strengthen their durability, making them deceptively durable after a feeding.   Poor Eyesight – They have trouble seeing in clear definition at a distance.   Echolocation – Their poor eyesight is generally supplanted by their echolocation abilities, which are refined and accurate enough to easily see through the dense forests, jungles, and other hazardous environments they fly through.   Enhanced Smelling – Their sense of smell is geared for picking out disease or rotten foodstuffs to avoid bad eating.   Diurnal Sensitivity – While they're capable of working during the day time, the discomfort they get from sunlight is great enough they usually come out at night.   Heightened Immune System – A fact often unnoticed and underappreciated, the vampyr have a very strong immune system. This is to the degree that even inert diseases that might treat them like a plague carrier are often outright destroyed. As a whole, this means they do not spread plagues as much as other species believe they do.     They are a natural mixture of audiophiles and olfactophiles. Due to their poor visual acuity, it would not be until the invention of common place glassware to correct it that lets them see more meaningfully. Nonetheless, as an extension of that issue, they're naturally clingy/very close in personal space to get the 'best look' of someone.

Hybrids inherit their father's color tendencies and sometimes their size profile. Very little else is afforded, as there is not much space in the vampyr genealogy that can be safely altered.

Omnivore; vampyr consume blood as it functions as a sort of digestive catalyst. If they are unable to consume blood, their own natural mana accumulation grows greater than their bodies can handle. Hence, without blood to metabolize the mana into something usable, they will die. While blood has its own source of nutrients, it is the catalyst function that is vital to them.

The vampyr are enamored with the concept of love, being swept off their feet, and otherwise tended to by very capable mates. Harsh survival in their native homelands means comforts are difficult to come by, and so being provided any is endearing in the extreme. While the warrior lifestyle is romanticized somewhat, they're also socially dependent and do not like their partners being in active danger regularly. This has helped spur on a 'casual sex' culture for the warrior class, and 'getting hitched' is seen as taking on guard duty and not much else for the rest of one's life.

Despite everything one might be led to believe, vampyr are a relatively gentle species. They prefer a consistent source of mana-rich blood and fruits for their diet, and given their individual ineffectiveness in combat, dying is a very real problem. This in turn can make them quite skittish, as they'll avoid dangerous situations on the regular. As the vampyr cannot feed on each other (it creates a mana-deficient spiral that all of them would die from), they are still forced to confront danger.   This has forced many to adopt clever and inventive tactics, be it social or otherwise. Ambush, magical coercion, and other trickery to subvert the powerful are their normal choices to solve the problem. A clever culture arose around this hunting tactic, making vampyr groups surprisingly intricate and complex in mannerism. Their central ideologies revolve around blood and its various applications as a food source, the essence of life, and to an eroticizing component for intimacy.   Contrary to what one might expect from this sort of thinking, the vampyr exalt life and death in a holistic cycle. Interrupting or subverting this process is sacrilegious to them in the extreme, and one of the primary reasons they ever venture out to wage war. This has put them at greater odds with the undead than most others, a fact that has helped to lessen the stigma they have because of vampires. Nonetheless, most others regard their ideas of religions as heretical or unholy.   In spite of this, the vampyr are quite curious about the outside races and their ways. Where others have innovated technologically, they haven't, and finding new tools to make their lives easier is a strong driver for them. Adventuring, as a profession and lifestyle, is romanticized in the extreme, and those who return with goods are triumphant heroes to the tribe.   As an aside, they have somewhat 'regular' contact with their colder dwelling cousins. During the equator's winter seasons, some fringe vampyr tribes will venture out to long-held secretive meeting places, greeting their titanic brethren with gifts. Rather than a simple good will mission, a religious worship toward the larger vampyr gives them a sense of exaltation. Great feasts and sex orgies occur almost always, and those who successfully bear the larger vampyr offspring in the mid-summer are given high status in the tribe.

Vampyr are left with a rather unremarkable history as a species, as far as the global stage is concerned. While a number of their shamans and religious officials have been enlisted/abducted/bent to the service of especially powerful species for their healing arts, it is a transitionary note. By far and large, the vampyr are constantly at the throat of the Relentless in the lands of Etzli Cuauhtla.   Thus, to the many outside species, the highly militant and blood hungry societies of the vampyr are seen as quite dangerous–if not outright evil. Given they are also confused for the vampires (often, as a supposed 'source' of them), they find little help from the others in their unending plight. Nonetheless, the vampyr have endured, survived, and adapted despite all odds. They dream of an impossible world without the Relentless; their leaders envision a more pragmatic goal of moving to safer territories.   Their magical arts has made them desirable, in some ways, to the wider magical communities. While the concept of weaponized blood magic–such as blood spears, internal hemorrhaging, and so on–has been well established by vampires, medicine has not. Disease and healing arts are in many ways perhaps the most advanced in the world in their hands, giving them incredible value to magical institutions.   This has led to a series of brutal invasion campaigns of their homelands, in both to purge their ways as much as acquire them. Though they've weathered the attacks so far, the vampyr are starting to re-evaluate how they see the outside world. This is not helped by the incensed anger of their neighbors who, deliberately or not, end up becoming attacked in the process as well. It remains to be seen what will happen with these otherwise undeveloped regions.