Vicverse Werewolf and Vampire lore
It is a mistake to equate vampirism or lycanthropy as a disease. While they are infectious conditions that only species of humans suffer from with physical and mental effects on the victim, they are purely magical in origin. There is no virus for becoming a monster.
Werewolves are simple; the vast majority of werewolf turnings are accidental. It is estimated that roughly 75% of werewolf bites, if they aren't fatal, fail to cause the victim to become a werewolf themselves. There is no recorded instance of a werewolf bearing werewolf children, as the condition is not genetic. Studies show that chances of infection go up the longer a wound is left uncleaned, and when administered by an actively transformed monster.
The origins of Werewolves, like all magically derived creatures, is debated- but the most common myth is that a group of starving travelers were trapped in winter and a few were struck by magic, given an ability to survive without entirely losing their humanity; it became a game of survival of the fittest for large predators, but they also had the gift to pass this ability to survive on to others.
Signs of lycanthropy begin appearing within two weeks of the cursed bite; first with restlessness and nightmares about the incoming beast. Wounds heal with unusual speed, and the body temperature rises to a feverish standard of 101-103 Fahrenheit. Many werewolves exhibit a black patch of pigment forming on their tongue. Sensitivity to scent and silver arises close to the first full moon, and many werewolves boast an incredible sense of smell.
Absentmindedness, appetite for meat, and aggressiveness or irritability rises significantly during the week before the full moon. As the body naturalizes, werewolves tend to exhibit a lack of urgency about their situation, despite a significant spike in anxiety and a sense of wrongness or doom being reported beforehand. This continues to be a problem for the werewolf afterwards, a cycle of memory slippage as the moon grows fuller. It often takes strict regimens of reminders and practice to get a werewolf consistently somewhere safe like a wolf run before the full moon.
The person is themself is present in the werewolf, but hardly sapient or recognizable. Werewolves that have transformed are lanky, fast, and largely hairless aside from a fine layer of fuzz and their naturally occurring hair. They have long muzzles crowded with teeth, sharp claws, and silvery or gold-colored eyes. Their appearance to canines is largely in the face and short tail, but they are hardly wolfish.
Werewolves cannot be trained or reasoned with, though they may "mellow" with time and therapy. They tend to be driven by instinct and emotion; a desperately hungry animal with thumbs, the intelligence to open doors, and possibly a bone to pick. Whether a person wishes ill on others or anyone in particular, often rage and fear slide to the front of the mind and werewolves have been known to track down, stalk, or outright attack sources of stress or frustration in their lives. They have also been known to attack both humans and animals indiscriminately, whatever is properly "prey" sized for a very large carnivore.
In their human forms, werewolves have notably sharper teeth and pointed ears than the average human, lapine, or giant, as well as golden colored eyes. They develop an intolerance for high-tannin foods like chocolate, and can experience stomach upset from foods like alliums, avocado, or grapes and raisins, though these are rarely deadly intolerances.
Werewolves often form social groups with one another, both because of frequent social ostracization and instinct. Werewolf groups tend to get along well and you can find therapy groups, sports teams, or occasional polycules of all-werewolf members. Werewolf social standing has grown as their state has become known to be a manageable condition, and werewolf hunting is only reserved for those who are an active and regular danger to themselves and others.
Vampires are a much harder monster to deal with than the dangerous but often sympathetic werewolf. While werewolves are often "accidents" of carelessness or instinct, vampires are almost exclusively intentional. It is much debated whether or not they even originate as people struck by magic or victims of a powerful ancient curse, considering their undead and holy susceptible state. If it is such a curse, the theory is that they are the result of someone seeking eternal life. This has worked somewhat, in that they are difficult to kill without significant blows to the head or heart and can recover quickly, as long as being functionally ageless- impervious to aging and disease.
Vampires are often much more subtle or uncanny than werewolves; pointed ears and fangs and a pale complexion with dark circles under the eyes, a point-tipped tongue, as well as sharper and stronger fingernails are the only visible tells. Vampires are cool to the touch due to their undead nature, with no detectable heartbeat. They are often unnaturally still when at rest or unnaturally reactive and aware to fast movements that set off their natural hunting instincts. They have little to no tolerance for solid foods without risking severe gastrointestinal distress, and can only properly digest human blood, as animal blood or substitutes leave a nutritional deficit. Some large cities have established blood banks providing nutritionally enhanced, fortified thickened blood to vampires to help quell their appetites, but this does not satisfy the hunting instinct and energy they often need to express. Many vampires have taken up physically strenuous or focus-based hobbies to help quell this part of themselves.
Many people have expressed a sense of unease in the presence of a vampire, though the feeling is hard to place.
Vampires are harmed directly by the scent or touch of garlic, holy symbols of the god of the protection, sunlight, and pure silver. They also do not create reflections in silver or any body of water.
Despite numerous weaknesses, vampires should not be underestimated. They express multiple supernatural abilities including unnatural strength- a fit and well-fed vampire could easily lift four hundred pounds and even move cars with some effort. They can climb vertical surfaces or ceilings, hover for short periods or move silently, move remarkably quickly, and can change their forms- to a bat for flight and travel or, in desperate situations such as starvation or when dealt a mortal wound, a monstrous form between man and bat. This form can manifest fully or partially but will not recede until they feel safe again or are dead.
Worse than their physical prowess is the vampire's mental and blood-based features. Vampires can compel humans caught off guard or unprotected for short periods, often using this ability to dismiss witnesses or draw in prey. If a person consumes the blood of a vampire, they can be compelled for much longer periods and much more directly, making the person a "thrall". Historically, thralls have been compelled as livestock or servants- there are records of strong thralls, people fed only blood for a period of days, operating as if on a script for the vampire to speak directly through. Some people become thralls willingly, on the promise that their servitude will be repaid with vampirism. As observed by many monster hunters, this is an often empty promise to gain a loyal helper and willing meal until the vampire, quote, "gets tired of drinking their own backwash" and abandons or kills the thrall.
Vampire blood appears to have an addictive quality, and thralls are observed to be loyal and physically dependent to their vampire beyond mental compulsion. It is a difficult state to recover from, often leaving the thrall ill, demanding, and experiencing withdrawals after being removed from their supply.
Vampire blood is also their way of procreating, being entirely sterile post-death. Mingling blood with a vampire, mixing it into a wound, directly transmits the curse. This is a violent and messy change, starting within moments of vampire blood entering the system. Over the course of several hours- up to 24- the new vampire will have their incisors and canine teeth pushed out by new fangs and expel all food from their stomach. The experience is a painful and exhausting one as the heart often stutters, stopping and starting for up to three hours before stopping for good. New vampires often struggle with violent impulses and a need to feed soon after the change is complete, needing nutrients for a still-changing body. In the rare case a thralled human is turned, the thrall ends when the change is complete but they can be directed to stay outwardly more calm during the process.
Vampires and their sires very often develop a compulsive liking for each other or a desire to get along, theorized to be a defense mechanism to stop them from immediately competing with each other for resources. Many vampires live solitary lives, but they will often meet or see other vampires to bond socially- showing their closeness by kissing with mouthfuls of blood is a commonly observed bonding act even among platonic friends. They will also occasionally form "covens" of unrelated vampires who live, work, and hunt together. This is more commonly seen in sireless, orphaned vampires.
Due to a lack of self control and a tendency to go "feral" around food in their early afterlife, a vast majority of vampires are killed or die before they reach a year old. Fewer make it beyond seven, due to their constant threat to human populations and tendency to drift from place to place to avoid hunters and other attention. Those who have lived significant afterlives credit human companions, older vampires as guides, and therapeutic practice being around humans and staying connected to their original lives- like acclimating dogs to chickens so they don't slaughter the bunch. That or they form cults of personality, with several willing thralls at any given time.
Vampires are not inherently evil or malicious, but they are inherently dangerous due to their eating habits and instincts, making young or openly murderous vampires still a common and easily justifiable target for many monster hunters. Monster hunters, notably, also have a remarkably short lifespan based on their career choice.
