Hey! World Building Wed ask! In your Now and Then, what're the three types of vampires you got going on? How do they differ?
I MADE A MISTAKE omfg i was like “i’ll remember this on wednesday, i don’t need to answer it right away”
spoiler alert: i did NOT remember.
Anyway! Vampires! Here we go! A story for you! Keep in mind that I made this up when I was like twelve and haven’t had time to do an in-depth overhaul of it since, lol.
The three types of vampires all began in the same place, as a group of humans that migrated out of Africa back when the human race was still in its infancy. Like penguins and seals, they found their home way down in the eternal frost of Antarctica.
Out on the ice, firewood was a myth, and the animals that lived there had to be caught, torn open, and eaten, bloody and raw, before they froze to the ice. So the teeth of these humans grew incredibly sharp, and their stomachs strong and efficient. To protect against the bitter cold, layers and layers of fur had to be worn, blocking out the little sunlight they had. Their skin turned white and their hair went black. They lived like wild animals, eating entrails like it was nothing.
That was how the first type of Vampire became common. After enough evolution to render them a nearly different species from humans, they traveled north again. They encountered less-dressed peoples and saw no difference between them and the naked, uncivilized creatures that they ate out on the tundra. These vampires fed on humans as they would on any other animal. The further north they got, the more populated they found the human cities to be, and by the time they reached Celtic land they would only suck the nutritious blood out of a body before they left it for the birds and went looking for new prey. These are the vampires you undoubtedly know.
At the same time, humans started to invade the territory of the vampires still down at the bottom of the world. They brought their domesticated animals and their lumber to build houses, and during the night the vampires would creep out like specters and feed on anything left outside. The only things that could be made out in the darkness were their bloodless white faces, which is why some places still have legends of carnivorous monsters who prowl the night with the cold skin of death.
These ones are also fairly common, but there are less common vampires, ones that are so twisted that the natives dared not invoke their name.
Before the humans got smart and began protecting their settlements with rows of wooden stakes set into the ground, some of the vampires retreated even further south, to places that no human will ever go. The farther they went, the weirder things got. These guys got mean–they had so little to hunt that they quickly became the most exact killing machines on the face of the planet. But because they were once human, and humans epitomize vanity, they refused to let go of their beautiful human faces. So what were the lone vamps to do?
The answer: evolve into shape-shifting monstrosities. With the help of some Fae magic, they began to change. They walked and interacted like humans, but the instant they needed claws, they transformed into a beast with claws. When they needed wings? They got those, too. Horns sprouted on their heads, and talons on their feet; scales, fangs, and even gills sprang into existence. They were so deadly in their beastly form that a full-grown polar bear wouldn’t have time to bare its teeth at them before its heart stopped beating.
Ashieba vampires became the scourge of the earth. They were the worst monsters to ever walk the planet, because they pretended to be human when they weren’t. They wore beautiful faces… but they cared for nothing, not humans not other vampires not animals, absolutely nothing.
And that’s the tale of the vampires.
