#DIY30, Day 6: Six Types of Vampires

The dread bacterium itself.

Haematophage (Vampiris parvissimis)

These microscopic vampires devour the red blood cells of their victim, inflicting upon them a crippling anemia that swiftly becomes fatal. The haematophagi multiply rapidly, turning the victim’s blood into a blackened, lifeless sludge. The plaque spreads from the infected or their corpse by means of liquid contact: phlegm, spittle, semen, vomit, and bile must not be touched, but it is tainted water that is the greatest danger. Blood-sucking insects – lice, ticks, mosquito, biting flies – may also transmit haematophagi, as will any scavenger beast picking at an untended corpse. The vampires shall kill those beasts and spread further.

It is imperative that any outbreak be curbed as quickly. Water must be boiled above a sacred flame. Meat must be abstained from. Animals that appear to be diseased, wild and domestic, must be killed and burned. Those infected by the plague are to be quarantined or shown mercy, their homes marked with a red chevron and their bodies burnt.

Mountain shucksters will often peddle vials of garlic water or packets of prayer-parchments as preventatives. These do nothing. Haematophagi are weak only to fire.

From Darkest Dungeon

Impaler (Vampiris doryphoros)

A species possessing of a rigid, extendable proboscis that may reach up to ten feet at its fullest extent. They are size of a child, crawling on all fours and bearing a gray carapace and beady blackened eyes. They will hunt in packs, chittering to each other in the darkness and separating a traveler from his companions. The lucky vampire will impale the unlucky soul, raise them high, and bleed them dry. The others of the pack will protect the eater as it fills its belly.

Impalers die best by crushing beneath a millstone, though a hammer will do.

by Nathan Anderson

Bloodbather (Vampiris bathori)

An amphibious species. They are completely hairless, with skin the color of a fresh scab. Their eyes are pure white and their fingers and toes are webbed. They prefer to lurk in fetid swamps patiently waiting for the will-o-wisps to lead a traveler astray. They are solitary creatures, gathering together only to mate.

They will not burn. Salted iron weapons are effective.

Orzhov concept art from Magic: the Gathering

Red Banker (Vampiris berebergi)

Blood for gold! Blood for gold! This is the cry of the banker as they walk among mortal men. The crowds part at the sight of their red-silk robes. Their mouths are those of lampreys, their ears like fans, their noses like upturned leaves, their rasping tongues hives of louses. They surround themselves with translators and incense bearers.

They cannot stand holy icons, and so make a point to buy out any churches they come across. Gods make for very good advertising mascots.

Also from Darkest Dungeon

Mimic (Vampiris mimicus)

They appear as men. Chalk-pale, dark-haired, tall and thin and bearing all the raiment of some distant aristocracy. In high society one might see them, their velvet capes perfectly clean, their fanged smiles friendly and innocent. They drink only the blood of chickens and pigeons.

This appearance is a sham. Those possessing of a third eye might make out the true form of the vampire, puppeting around its false body: a bloated, dark, moldering thing, three rows of serrated teeth, eight asymmetric eyes, pulsing rows of clicking, waving limbs.

They must be torn from their hiding place between the shadows of space before they are beheaded.

by Michael Jaecks

Sunbather (Vampiris solaris)

Their colonies are found out in the deserts. They stand in rows stretching out to the horizon, collecting sunlight on their wide, black wings. When night comes they go off to hunt, their bodies awash in a faint golden glow and their tongueless mouths moan songs of coronal radio into the darkness.

They have no special defenses or weaknesses. Stake through heart, decapitation, burn the body.