Vampire Courts

There are three common vampire courts: White Court, Red Court, and Black Court. A fourth, the Jade Court, has been rumored but no information is known about them except that they are very secretive.

White Court

This Court is the most human-like group of vampires. They are similar to succubi and incubi, feeding off the emotions and life force of their prey. They are born to their vampiric state, rather that being created (as is the case with Black and Red Court). They are for all intents and purposes human until it manifests sometime around the age of their maturity. As with the Red Court, their first feeding (with its subsequent and almost inevitable kill) usually marks their full transformation. However, under specific circumstances, individuals descended from White Court vampires may curtail their transformation into vampires.

There are different Houses within the White Court, each comprising a close-knit family. There is much in-fighting between the Houses, but House Raith is considered to be the most powerful. The Houses are mainly distinguished by their choice of emotions to feed upon, but this has been represented as a strong preference rather than a restriction.

Those of House Raith are sexual predators, using their supernatural good looks and psychic aura to attract both men and women. During intercourse, or any direct physical contact where emotions like lust are heightened, they feed off their prey. Victims of the feedings of House Raith grow to enjoy the experience and become bonded to their predator like a drug addiction.

House Malvora’s members feed off fear. Most prefer very strong fear such as that of being in a potentially deadly situation, but some satisfy themselves with smaller scares like those created by horror and slasher movies.

The vampires of House Skavis feed off despair, preferring to drive a victim into the depths of depression and in many cases driving them to suicide.

The White Court is not endowed with as much physical strength as the Red or Black courts under normal circumstances; usually, their physical performance levels (standing jump heights, endurance and so on) are slightly better than those an ordinary human of equivalent size and health, but they can channel unused emotional energy as fuel for performance boosts of limited duration. On the other hand, they make up for it by having far fewer vulnerabilities. Sunlight and symbols of faith do not harm them at all (though some feel “uneasy” at the thought of entering a church, but this is possibly due more to their own guilt than any objective vulnerability, as they are, in fact, able to enter the church). Their power derives from an internal demonic essence they call the “Hunger” which acts like a battery. If they refrain from feeding for too long, the “Hunger” drives them into a frenzy where they must feed (almost always killing their victims), and can drive them permanently insane. When needed, they tap this store of energy to augment their strength, speed, resilience, and healing ability far beyond normal; while doing this, they radiate waves of cold (possibly an illusory reaction of normal humans to their energy sink), their skin whitens, and their eyes turn an unnatural silver. White Court vampire blood is pinkish instead of red.

Their largest weakness is true love: people who are, or have recently been, in real, affectionate and sacrificial love are highly resistant to White Court control, and can even physically burn and blister vampire skin. Also, White Court vampires are born, not turned like Red and Black Court vampires; if the offspring of a White Court falls in love with someone that feels the same way before feeding for the first time, the love can destroy the demonic side before it can manifest allowing the person to live a normal, mortal life.

Unlike the other courts, the White Court prefers to avoid direct confrontation. They are a court of schemers and prefer to stab each other in the back in exquisitely detailed plots to impress the others in the Court.

Red Court

The Red Court of Vampires are less human-like than the White Court. Instead they are slimy bat-like creatures hidden behind incredibly sensuous human costumes (made of an outer skin). They use these costumes to trick their prey into being more comfortable and to hide in plain sight. They are incredibly strong and fast, and can shake off any injury quickly. The Red Court is vulnerable to sunlight and by having their bellies cut open, which can spill the blood they have drunk and eventually kill them. Their saliva contains a potent magical narcotic which gives the prey a euphoric feeling and is highly addictive, allowing the Red Court to control their victims rather easily. The narcotic lowers the victim’s inhibitions while dulling the pain of the vampire’s bite. Addicted humans have been shown to go to great lengths to protect their vampiric masters, and willingly provide information from the mortal community as needed.

The Red Court is also capable of transforming ordinary humans into vampires in a two-step process: the human is first infected with the vampiric thirst for blood (gaining supernatural speed, strength and endurance in the process) and then completes the change into the demonic form upon killing a human victim in their first feeding. Infected humans with sufficient strength of will have been known to refrain from feeding for an indefinite length of time (magical bonds, regular exposure to sunlight, and avoiding physical intimacy all help), but no cure has yet been found for the “half-vampire” infected state. It is intimated that the Faerie Queens, or a being of similar power, could cure, or rather completely destroy, the vampiric infection with a magic known as an Unraveling. Their hunger for blood makes controlling their emotions very difficult, and when in a situation where emotions run high (such as during a fight or when engaged in physical intimacy), it is much easier for them to lose control.

The Red Court is highly organized in a feudalistic system with a King at the top, followed by Dukes and other ranks. Currently, the Red Court is waging a war against The White Council in an effort to destroy them.

Black Court

The Black Court comprises the most well-known kind of vampire, the reanimated bloodthirsty corpses popularized by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In fact the publication of that book at the behest of the White Court is believed to be the primary cause of the Court’s downfall, as Stoker supposedly published the book as a “how-to” manual to hunt the Black Court. Black Court vampires still inhabit the human bodies that they lived in before they were turned into vampires, with the only difference being their bodies rotting like zombies in the time that they have been undead. Black Court vampires possess all the classic strengths and weaknesses of Stoker’s Dracula: they can lift and throw cars with one hand and crash through concrete walls without harm; but must sleep in their native soil and fear garlic, objects of faith and sunlight (although in the novel and faithful adaptations Dracula was not destroyed by sunlight but only weakened). Some Black Court vampires, have demonstrated the ability to use magic in the same way wizards do. The Black Court is currently the smallest and (politically) weakest of the Courts, although those few who survived the purges caused by Stoker’s book are among the strongest and most cunning monsters in the world by virtue of sheer Darwinian necessity.

Jade Court

Little is known about the Jade Court, except that their realm of influence covers an unknown amount of Asia and the Far East and that they are very secretive.