Post by Chelliet on Sept 14, 2006 10:31:37 GMT -5
Carpathians
Carpathians are an old race, the last of the immortals from whence vampires originate. There are few left, and they are scattered across the worlds in small bands of no more than a few dozen at most. The last of the original family lives in the mountains of Carpathia, the origins of Carpathians themselves. In the days when humans were ignorant and flexible to change and the unknown, Carpathians co-existed with them, each giving their own unique skills and talents to the synergy. The Carpathians protected the humans, promoting peace within their villages. The humans protected the Carpathians during the day when the immortals were asleep and at their most vulnerable. Priests were typically appointed as Watchers, Guardians, members of a secret society self-appointed to keep a record, a history of the Carpathians through the ages. They were viewed as heretics, betrayers of religion, consorters with the Devil. For even though Carpathians were not evil, not the undead, they were viewed as such and feared for their powers. And so they were hunted.
Like the traditionally known vampires, Carpathians are sensitive to sunlight. Their skin is hypersensitive to the UV rays and will burn quiet easily if exposed, resulting in death should the exposure be prolonged past a few minutes. The older the Carpathian, the more the sun can be withstood, though the end result will be the same if shelter is not found. In addition to this sensitivity, the sun is their weakest time of day. Every Carpathian is reduced to having no more strength than a child, able barely to stand under their own power when the sun is at its peak. Thus the necessity for the immortals to ‘go to ground.’ Quite literally they rest several dozen feet below the surface of the earth, either by physically moving the dirt with no more than a mere thought, or changing to mist and simply floating down to their desired depth.
The earth is not only their beds and havens from the damaging sun, but it offers them healing as well. Rich earth mixed with Carpathian saliva is a most potent poultice for any wound that could be sustained by the immortals. If the wound is dire or fatal, the Carpathian will go to ground, sleeping the true sleep of the Carpathians until the wounds have healed. True sleep for Carpathians is a cleansing, regenerating activity. All body functions cease such as breathing or heartbeat and the body will appear as dead. After only a few minutes skin will be cold to the touch, the blood having ceased its flow within hibernating veins. Their mind shuts down and everything but the most primitive of senses, the need for survival, is laid dormant. It would take nothing short of violation of their haven or severe threat to themselves or a loved one to bring them unwillingly from this sleep. The ancient ones, members of the old family, can retain some degree of consciousness while in sleep, enough to be aware of the surrounding environment while they lay cold and still beneath the earth. Mikhail, the leader of the Carpathians, is one of them. As is Gregori, The Dark One, the legendary healer. In many ways Gregori is even more powerful than Mikhail. He is certainly more feared even though he has been saving Carpathian lives for centuries.
After two hundred years, after they have grown to maturity, the male Carpathians, if they have not found their true lifemate, begin to lose the ability to feel emotion or see in color. Their existence becomes cold, dead, and utterly lonely. Only a lifemate can bring emotions and color back into a male's life. Carpathian women are the light to the male's darkness. Their other half. For each Carpathian born there is only one destined lifemate. Many have had to come to that final decision whether to walk into the sun and die peacefully, or turn. Become vampire. Become evil. It is an alluring choice for only during the kill can the males feel any sort of emotion, and it is joy. The most tempting of all is to kill while feeding and to do such a thing initiates the change from Carpathian to Vampire. The adrenaline in the blood, the fear of their captive, the thrill of killing is oftentimes irresistible to a male who has forgotten what it was to feel joy, love, happiness. All color has been leeched from his world and so he grasps at whatever he can. Gregori has killed. And killed while feeding. Yet he remains as Carpathian, a mystery to those who know of it. He is spoken of only in whispers among the younger Carpathians and looked upon with fear for if he were to turn, there would be no one to stop him. Not even Mikhail, great as the bonds of friendship between the two men are, as great as his own powers were, had the power to end Gregori’s life. The Dark One was simply too powerful.
There are far more vampires than Carpathians it seems. Many of the more powerful Carpathian males are tasked to hunt, to stalk the ones who have turned and kill them. It is the responsibility of the Hunters to kill any vampire they meet. For not only are vampires a danger to the humans, but a danger to Carpathians as well. It is the lack of a true lifemate that drives a male to turn and so the vampires are constantly searching for any Carpathian female. It does not matter if they were truly two halves of the same whole, the female would die through the vampire’s “attentions.” And females are far more precious than anything else the Carpathians hold dear. There are fewer and fewer every year. The birthing of Carpathian children is hard and it is rare they survive the first year of life, so sensitive are they to the levels of blood they can consume, needing both the nourishment of blood and special herbs known only to grow in the Carpathian Mountains. The gestation period is a full 11 months, the extra time not for a slow development, but simply the complexity of the Carpathian’s brain and body. It is a rare occurrence for any Carpathian child to gain his or her full powers before their fledglingship begins, 200 years from their birth, though the teaching of shapeshifting and the more complicated mental powers are started long before that. Outwardly, Carpathian’s never age past about 30, or the age a human is if converted. Conversion is possible, but not very successful. The Carpathian males have tried. With the lack of females, they had looked to the humans, hoping that by some grace their race would survive through them. Every conversion thus far had failed and resulted either in death or insanity to the poor woman.
To be in the presence of a Carpathian is to be in the presence of power, and it is felt. When a powerful Carpathian is angered, the very earth and sky reflects that fury, lightning spearing down, earthquakes rumbling, storms forming instantly where before there had been no clouds. They are not only aware of their own bodies and mental abilities, but in complete control of them. As easily as you or I speak to each other, so too can Carpathians….within the confines of their minds, so much more complex and powerful than a human’s. Some call it telepathy. Carpathians call it knowledge of the mind and the pathways it can take as well as the power it wields. Through mental links they can “see” those who carry such links with them, the subject and environment projected into their mind. They can control memories, change them, erase them, create them from nothing, implant them into weaker minds. Just as easily they can manipulate thoughts, feelings, emotion, demand obedience when none would be given freely, command whatever they wish of their subject. With a thought they can cause physical pain, stop the breath in a person’s body, keep the heart from beating. End life in a second. But with pain comes pleasure. And this they can evoke as well. When a Carpathian is born, they are born with the knowledge of the collective path that all Carpathians share. It is a well traveled mental link and it is impossible for a Carpathian to mistake another Carpathian but for a very few exceptions.
The mastery of the mind is only rivaled by their strength and speed. And the control they use to ruthlessly keep them all in check. Preternatural speed is theirs and they can span miles in a single minute should they choose. In combat they seem as shadows, there yet slipping away just before they are seen, already gone by the time their presence is even detected. With their speed comes a strength born of ancient and powerful blood, superhuman and tireless but for the rule of the sun. The form of human is not always the best and so the Carpathian can take the shape of any animal they choose. Their favorite shapes tended to be the predators of the forest; the hawk, wolf, panther, and raven. Other forms can be taken of course with study and practice although the hawk and wolf are the easiest to shift to for Carpathians. Mist is another form they can take when they wish, the primary purpose to slip undetected through even crowded streets and to descend to their earthly bower to renew themselves in the true sleep of the Carpathians.
They are unlike the vampires in a very important way. They are not the undead. They are very much alive and suffer the rigors of fatigue, weakness, and draining of energy when expended. They can be hurt and hurt badly, though even fatal wounds can be repaired with time, earth, and blood. The only way to kill a Carpathian is to sever the head, remove the heart from their chest, and burn everything. And so it is the same with vampires, though the blood of the evil ones is tainted, acidic, and vile, injuring to touch or taste. The change from Carpathian to vampire is not only mental. There are physical changes as well from this decision, so linked is the Carpathian mind to its body. Vampires can create the illusion of normalcy, the blush of health, handsome features, even a false kindness and caring. In reality they have become the undead and their true appearance reflects it. Pale, sickly skin stretched taut over the bold, faintly exotic features of their former race, eyes bloodshot and dead, teeth wickedly sharp, stained with blood, and always bared. Nails were jagged talons, weapons used when desperate. They retained their mental and physical abilities as they had had as Carpathian, but the growth of those powers change. It becomes twisted and grotesque, the signature of a vampire’s power bringing faint nausea and a chill to any Carpathian close enough to register it and untrained in the Hunt. The tainted power could be felt by humans as well, but it would form as a sense of dread and fear should they continue in the direction they were going. Vampires hide themselves, knowing they would be hunted by their Carpathian brethren, fearful of death, guarding their holes and caves with the strongest of safeguards, both mental and physical. The longer a vampire lives, the stronger he becomes, but his appearance and physical abilities deteriorate, reflecting the evil of his soul.
Lifemates
The bond between lifemates is a complex, and intimate one. Once a male finds his lifemate, he speaks the ancient words and the two are linked, bonded, both physically and mentally. Emotions are felt tenfold, the passion created between the pair bordering on violent so intense is it. And it is needed as well. The two cannot go long without the intimate act of their love, though such a word is pale in comparison to the actuality of it.
Physical distance is hard for either to take as it creates a mental anxiety that only grows with increased absence, eventually manifesting in physical pain. They cannot stay apart for long or risk the shattering of their minds, insanity taking root. It is a physical pain for both and should one die, the other would soon follow or live their life locked within the fragmented, chaotic paths of their own insane prison. It is preferable to meet the sun and die rather than attempt to live without a lifemate once one is found. If the female dies first, the male will typically turn, become vampire in his anguish and sorrow. There has never been an account of a female turning, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
Blood
The blood of Carpathians is strong and healing when given freely. The older the Carpathian, the stronger the blood. To give blood creates a link between giver and taker, a way for the giver to find the taker over nearly any distance, to recognize their presence long before he or she could draw close. It is this reason that the blood of Hunters, even if freely offered, is rarely taken by the males, for they know that if they were to turn, they could be tracked effortlessly, found without effort by the Hunter.
Carpathian blood can convert a human, given special circumstances of the particular human to be converted. It takes three blood exchanges to complete the conversion. The Carpathian must take the blood of the human, draining him or her to the point of near death, and then give of their own blood, replenishing what they have taken. Unless the human has a certain degree of bourne psychic ability, she will die or go insane upon the third exchange, either way resulting in death for to leave a deranged vampiress alive is pure folly. The conversion of a male human has never been attempted. It has simply never been necessary.
With the exception of healing, the exchange of blood between Carpathians is something reserved for lifemates, the most intimate and passionate of caresses. And as such, should a female drink from a male, or vice versa, the blood exchanged would cause lust to flare for both, sharp and hot. The longer they drink, the harder it becomes to deny their passion. Blood exchanged between same genders has no such effect and so typically the males heal the males, and the females offer for females.
Carpathians are an old race, the last of the immortals from whence vampires originate. There are few left, and they are scattered across the worlds in small bands of no more than a few dozen at most. The last of the original family lives in the mountains of Carpathia, the origins of Carpathians themselves. In the days when humans were ignorant and flexible to change and the unknown, Carpathians co-existed with them, each giving their own unique skills and talents to the synergy. The Carpathians protected the humans, promoting peace within their villages. The humans protected the Carpathians during the day when the immortals were asleep and at their most vulnerable. Priests were typically appointed as Watchers, Guardians, members of a secret society self-appointed to keep a record, a history of the Carpathians through the ages. They were viewed as heretics, betrayers of religion, consorters with the Devil. For even though Carpathians were not evil, not the undead, they were viewed as such and feared for their powers. And so they were hunted.
Like the traditionally known vampires, Carpathians are sensitive to sunlight. Their skin is hypersensitive to the UV rays and will burn quiet easily if exposed, resulting in death should the exposure be prolonged past a few minutes. The older the Carpathian, the more the sun can be withstood, though the end result will be the same if shelter is not found. In addition to this sensitivity, the sun is their weakest time of day. Every Carpathian is reduced to having no more strength than a child, able barely to stand under their own power when the sun is at its peak. Thus the necessity for the immortals to ‘go to ground.’ Quite literally they rest several dozen feet below the surface of the earth, either by physically moving the dirt with no more than a mere thought, or changing to mist and simply floating down to their desired depth.
The earth is not only their beds and havens from the damaging sun, but it offers them healing as well. Rich earth mixed with Carpathian saliva is a most potent poultice for any wound that could be sustained by the immortals. If the wound is dire or fatal, the Carpathian will go to ground, sleeping the true sleep of the Carpathians until the wounds have healed. True sleep for Carpathians is a cleansing, regenerating activity. All body functions cease such as breathing or heartbeat and the body will appear as dead. After only a few minutes skin will be cold to the touch, the blood having ceased its flow within hibernating veins. Their mind shuts down and everything but the most primitive of senses, the need for survival, is laid dormant. It would take nothing short of violation of their haven or severe threat to themselves or a loved one to bring them unwillingly from this sleep. The ancient ones, members of the old family, can retain some degree of consciousness while in sleep, enough to be aware of the surrounding environment while they lay cold and still beneath the earth. Mikhail, the leader of the Carpathians, is one of them. As is Gregori, The Dark One, the legendary healer. In many ways Gregori is even more powerful than Mikhail. He is certainly more feared even though he has been saving Carpathian lives for centuries.
After two hundred years, after they have grown to maturity, the male Carpathians, if they have not found their true lifemate, begin to lose the ability to feel emotion or see in color. Their existence becomes cold, dead, and utterly lonely. Only a lifemate can bring emotions and color back into a male's life. Carpathian women are the light to the male's darkness. Their other half. For each Carpathian born there is only one destined lifemate. Many have had to come to that final decision whether to walk into the sun and die peacefully, or turn. Become vampire. Become evil. It is an alluring choice for only during the kill can the males feel any sort of emotion, and it is joy. The most tempting of all is to kill while feeding and to do such a thing initiates the change from Carpathian to Vampire. The adrenaline in the blood, the fear of their captive, the thrill of killing is oftentimes irresistible to a male who has forgotten what it was to feel joy, love, happiness. All color has been leeched from his world and so he grasps at whatever he can. Gregori has killed. And killed while feeding. Yet he remains as Carpathian, a mystery to those who know of it. He is spoken of only in whispers among the younger Carpathians and looked upon with fear for if he were to turn, there would be no one to stop him. Not even Mikhail, great as the bonds of friendship between the two men are, as great as his own powers were, had the power to end Gregori’s life. The Dark One was simply too powerful.
There are far more vampires than Carpathians it seems. Many of the more powerful Carpathian males are tasked to hunt, to stalk the ones who have turned and kill them. It is the responsibility of the Hunters to kill any vampire they meet. For not only are vampires a danger to the humans, but a danger to Carpathians as well. It is the lack of a true lifemate that drives a male to turn and so the vampires are constantly searching for any Carpathian female. It does not matter if they were truly two halves of the same whole, the female would die through the vampire’s “attentions.” And females are far more precious than anything else the Carpathians hold dear. There are fewer and fewer every year. The birthing of Carpathian children is hard and it is rare they survive the first year of life, so sensitive are they to the levels of blood they can consume, needing both the nourishment of blood and special herbs known only to grow in the Carpathian Mountains. The gestation period is a full 11 months, the extra time not for a slow development, but simply the complexity of the Carpathian’s brain and body. It is a rare occurrence for any Carpathian child to gain his or her full powers before their fledglingship begins, 200 years from their birth, though the teaching of shapeshifting and the more complicated mental powers are started long before that. Outwardly, Carpathian’s never age past about 30, or the age a human is if converted. Conversion is possible, but not very successful. The Carpathian males have tried. With the lack of females, they had looked to the humans, hoping that by some grace their race would survive through them. Every conversion thus far had failed and resulted either in death or insanity to the poor woman.
To be in the presence of a Carpathian is to be in the presence of power, and it is felt. When a powerful Carpathian is angered, the very earth and sky reflects that fury, lightning spearing down, earthquakes rumbling, storms forming instantly where before there had been no clouds. They are not only aware of their own bodies and mental abilities, but in complete control of them. As easily as you or I speak to each other, so too can Carpathians….within the confines of their minds, so much more complex and powerful than a human’s. Some call it telepathy. Carpathians call it knowledge of the mind and the pathways it can take as well as the power it wields. Through mental links they can “see” those who carry such links with them, the subject and environment projected into their mind. They can control memories, change them, erase them, create them from nothing, implant them into weaker minds. Just as easily they can manipulate thoughts, feelings, emotion, demand obedience when none would be given freely, command whatever they wish of their subject. With a thought they can cause physical pain, stop the breath in a person’s body, keep the heart from beating. End life in a second. But with pain comes pleasure. And this they can evoke as well. When a Carpathian is born, they are born with the knowledge of the collective path that all Carpathians share. It is a well traveled mental link and it is impossible for a Carpathian to mistake another Carpathian but for a very few exceptions.
The mastery of the mind is only rivaled by their strength and speed. And the control they use to ruthlessly keep them all in check. Preternatural speed is theirs and they can span miles in a single minute should they choose. In combat they seem as shadows, there yet slipping away just before they are seen, already gone by the time their presence is even detected. With their speed comes a strength born of ancient and powerful blood, superhuman and tireless but for the rule of the sun. The form of human is not always the best and so the Carpathian can take the shape of any animal they choose. Their favorite shapes tended to be the predators of the forest; the hawk, wolf, panther, and raven. Other forms can be taken of course with study and practice although the hawk and wolf are the easiest to shift to for Carpathians. Mist is another form they can take when they wish, the primary purpose to slip undetected through even crowded streets and to descend to their earthly bower to renew themselves in the true sleep of the Carpathians.
They are unlike the vampires in a very important way. They are not the undead. They are very much alive and suffer the rigors of fatigue, weakness, and draining of energy when expended. They can be hurt and hurt badly, though even fatal wounds can be repaired with time, earth, and blood. The only way to kill a Carpathian is to sever the head, remove the heart from their chest, and burn everything. And so it is the same with vampires, though the blood of the evil ones is tainted, acidic, and vile, injuring to touch or taste. The change from Carpathian to vampire is not only mental. There are physical changes as well from this decision, so linked is the Carpathian mind to its body. Vampires can create the illusion of normalcy, the blush of health, handsome features, even a false kindness and caring. In reality they have become the undead and their true appearance reflects it. Pale, sickly skin stretched taut over the bold, faintly exotic features of their former race, eyes bloodshot and dead, teeth wickedly sharp, stained with blood, and always bared. Nails were jagged talons, weapons used when desperate. They retained their mental and physical abilities as they had had as Carpathian, but the growth of those powers change. It becomes twisted and grotesque, the signature of a vampire’s power bringing faint nausea and a chill to any Carpathian close enough to register it and untrained in the Hunt. The tainted power could be felt by humans as well, but it would form as a sense of dread and fear should they continue in the direction they were going. Vampires hide themselves, knowing they would be hunted by their Carpathian brethren, fearful of death, guarding their holes and caves with the strongest of safeguards, both mental and physical. The longer a vampire lives, the stronger he becomes, but his appearance and physical abilities deteriorate, reflecting the evil of his soul.
Lifemates
The bond between lifemates is a complex, and intimate one. Once a male finds his lifemate, he speaks the ancient words and the two are linked, bonded, both physically and mentally. Emotions are felt tenfold, the passion created between the pair bordering on violent so intense is it. And it is needed as well. The two cannot go long without the intimate act of their love, though such a word is pale in comparison to the actuality of it.
Physical distance is hard for either to take as it creates a mental anxiety that only grows with increased absence, eventually manifesting in physical pain. They cannot stay apart for long or risk the shattering of their minds, insanity taking root. It is a physical pain for both and should one die, the other would soon follow or live their life locked within the fragmented, chaotic paths of their own insane prison. It is preferable to meet the sun and die rather than attempt to live without a lifemate once one is found. If the female dies first, the male will typically turn, become vampire in his anguish and sorrow. There has never been an account of a female turning, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
Blood
The blood of Carpathians is strong and healing when given freely. The older the Carpathian, the stronger the blood. To give blood creates a link between giver and taker, a way for the giver to find the taker over nearly any distance, to recognize their presence long before he or she could draw close. It is this reason that the blood of Hunters, even if freely offered, is rarely taken by the males, for they know that if they were to turn, they could be tracked effortlessly, found without effort by the Hunter.
Carpathian blood can convert a human, given special circumstances of the particular human to be converted. It takes three blood exchanges to complete the conversion. The Carpathian must take the blood of the human, draining him or her to the point of near death, and then give of their own blood, replenishing what they have taken. Unless the human has a certain degree of bourne psychic ability, she will die or go insane upon the third exchange, either way resulting in death for to leave a deranged vampiress alive is pure folly. The conversion of a male human has never been attempted. It has simply never been necessary.
With the exception of healing, the exchange of blood between Carpathians is something reserved for lifemates, the most intimate and passionate of caresses. And as such, should a female drink from a male, or vice versa, the blood exchanged would cause lust to flare for both, sharp and hot. The longer they drink, the harder it becomes to deny their passion. Blood exchanged between same genders has no such effect and so typically the males heal the males, and the females offer for females.