#vsmp worldbuilding

[audioeidolon]

ALRIGHT HERE my vampire biology/physiology headcanons, to go with this worldbuilding post here.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a biologist, or scientist, and have made only the most cursory research to see if something fits. In addition keep in mind that vampires are also MAGIC and I will be including that in my headcanons. For fucks sake they turn into tiny BATS, there's only so much logic you can apply to loss and gain of mass. Vampires to me are equal parts bug/bat/cat.

I withhold the right to change any of this in the future, and it is not a hard rule. I am so sorry in advance for the wall of text, I promise I tried to keep it as concise as possible.

Fact 1: Vampire noises

Bats in real life DO purr, but it's not very audible to humans. Vampires purr/chirp/hiss like MOST things in nature (spiders/bats/cats), which is vibrating something against something. It happens in their chest and completely bypasses the vocal cords. Half the time they are not conscious they are doing it.

Young vampire (stuck in a trap): >:( Humans: ... What's that noise? Young vampire: (still actively making distress noises, arms crossed) >:( "What noise?"

Vampire chirping doesn't have any more meaning besides call and response- it's meant both for a vampire saying, "I'm here!", and also say, "I hear you!". Also for sires to enforce curfew. This is the silliest most self indulgent thing I have vampires do, because I think it's very funny if they don't have any control over it when they're young.

Shelby: Scott I have the most fucked up hiccups you would not believe. Scott: :)

Fact 2: Blood drinking

Blood drinking can have a lot of different meanings between vampires, all depending on the context. Just like grooming or growling or yawning in animals can mean a bunch of different things depending on reason and context, or screaming can mean a bunch of different things with people.

A higher ranking vampire pinning another and drinking from them could show dominance, such as, "I'm bigger and stronger than you, I'm making you smell like me, and also getting a meal to boot. Eat shit idiot."

A higher ranking vampire letting/forcing a lower ranking or less powerful vampire to drink from themselves, could be indulgent and patronizing- as in, "You are not as good at hunting and providing as me, so I'll show you how much better at it I am. You're welcome. Eat shit idiot."

Two vampires who are very close to each other may share blood as equals, just like kissing, or hugging, or any shade between and beyond. Just a way to share intimacy!

A lower ranking vampire, or one trying to join a coven may try to gain favor by letting another feed of of them. "Look! I went hunting, and now you don't have to lift a finger, aren't I good at contributing? :) Please don't kill me." :)

And a sick/injured vampire might feed off another/get blood fed mouth to mouth if they aren't able to hunt/swallow themselves. (It's why covens even evolved in the first place!)

Fact 3: Senses

Literally what inspired all of my vampire headcanons/fics is cats smacking the shit out of each other. (My cats smacking the shit out of each other.) MOST of this does not happen consciously. Owen for instance doesn't know why he dislikes Scott acting like his "Sire" so much, but it's because he doesn't smell right. SCOTT on the other hand knows exactly what he's doing, and makes sure to let the coven wear his clothes and sleep in his crypt.

Forcible grooming/scenting is a way of establishing hierarchy, just like cats and other big predators. Also I think it's very fucking funny.

Vampires can also typically smell who's been fed off. This keeps them from A: Stealing another vampires meal on accident causing conflict B: Accidentally killing a meal that has been fed on recently.

Vampires have incredibly sensitive hearing, and have a very limited version of echolocation even in human form, once they reach a certain level of maturity.

All these excellent sense of course are sometimes as much a detriment as they are a boon.

(Abolish with a can of pennies and a grudge: )

Fact 4: Venom

Venom in vampire saliva keeps prey from bleeding out when applied correctly. It also has a narcotic effect, more effective the more mature the vampire is, and is pretty antimicrobial.

(Legs deeply considers having the town vampires spit in a bottle, before Cleo starts smacking him over the head.)

It also effects other vampires! A sire's venom is very good at subduing their fledglings, and an elder vampire might weaponize it on weaker/less mature vampires.

Fact 5: Touch

Vampires are VERY PHYSICAL. They touch WAY MORE with affection, and inflict FAR MORE VIOLENCE when irritated/showing aggression. They do not think this is odd, although it doesn't change blatant acts of abuse/violence from being so.

Fact 6: Hibernation

When very very injured, or under less than hospitable conditions/stress, a vampire can slow themselves down to basically an actual corpse. This has a pretty high mortality rate honestly, and is generally a Big Fucking Deal. You do not do it lightly.

Let's use Louis as an example.

In "Grim Purpose", Louis was very very horribly injured. He shut down to repair himself, and Owen (under a large amount of stress, and sensing some less than hospitable conditions) put himself into a hibernation with him.

There were differences between the two! (Just like Scott's forced/spelled hibernation was different from both of these!)

TW: Burn injuries/Insects: I think Vampires DO bury themselves when injured! It partly contributes to the myth of the living dead, and vampires living in graveyards. For Louis (and any other badly injured vampire), the dirt and microbial life and insects eat all of his dead and rotting skin, so the small amount of energy he had could go towards healing the live parts. The lack of oxygen also helps them heal. (This is where they are more insect-like to me, shutting down in inhospitable conditions.) Vampires do not get traditionally infected, and most things would not bother eating "live" vampire flesh/muscle/etc.

Owen was in more of a guarded hibernation. Vampires (again, an evolutionary trait) are able to hibernate together, protecting the more vulnerable. It's why Owen was vaguely awake and conscious, enough so to wake up when the beacons went up and Oakhurst was disturbed.

Pyro might have done the same for Scott once upon a time, or a sire might expect it of his fledglings. I imagine Scott having reluctantly done it once upon a time, for his fucked up freak of a sire who I have yet to name.

Perhaps Avid is still vampire enough for something similar to happen to him!

It's also why Scott sarcastically talks about Owen's 200 year hibernation not really being him getting older, and more like a fitful nap in "brooding wings"- because it is a sort of stasis.

Fact 7: Vampiric Abilities

Most vampire lineages have their own trademark specialty, or ability. For Goldsmith's it's hypnosis. For Louis' father, it was wings and unnatural strength and ferocity.

For Cleo's mother, it was something different, I haven't decided yet. Maybe something more magical, or an affinity for deadly venom.

This can be handed down from sire to fledgling, or from vampire to biological (human or vampire) child, to be revealed after they're turned. (Or perhaps in their descendants, far down the line. Cough cough Abolish cough cough.) This doesn't mean you can just funnel all vampiric abilities into one line, as tempting as that might be. (Many vampires have tried. Vampire have nothing but time and boredom to alleviate.)

Eventually one or two traits will dominate, and continue down the line, barring mutation. it's actually a good way for lineages to disappear.

(Pyro and Shelby's hypnotic Goldsmith abilities are reflected in different ways, since they are not fully mature yet. I will save that for spoiler reasons.)

Let's use Louis as another example.

Fact 8: Louis

As I mentioned in the previous post, vampires ARE able to have children very very rarely. These children are born human for all intents and purposes, and if they are never changed simply hand down a bit of a genetic time bomb to their descendants.

Abolish is an example of this. It's what resulted in him being a half vampire in canon after being "cured"- his genetics were already primed for vampirism.

(He also has his own lineage ability- I wonder if anyone can guess what it is...)

Normal human children cannot be turned, as their body rejects the change without a physical/hormonal maturity, and they will simply die. But children born of two vampires are able to safely make the change.

This does not mean it is proper, it was VERY very unorthodox for Louis' mother to do this, since it affects their development, and takes far longer to reach biological maturity. (But she had her reasons.)

Louis inherited the Goldsmith charm and propensity for leading, although he did not get the full hypnotic ability. He inherited his fathers wings, although he did not get quite the same ferocious strength.

Owen took far more after Louis' father. If he got anything from the Goldsmith's it's his dramatics- but he was honestly probably like that before coming a vampire.

This is all stemming from Owen's commissioned art in his videos, where Owen and Louis canonically have wings by the way, and is part of what kicked off most of my fics. Legs in canon would also have had wings, and probably none of the Goldsmith charm/ability. In fact, after getting turned he might have been stronger than Owen.

Okay I think that's it for now. Christ. Send tweet.

[yoiurboi]

Sat down to write headcanon vampire lore for my VSMP aus. It is currently four and a half pages long and not even half way done. If only I could channel this energy into literally anything else.

here's a deeply out of context snippets lol

[audioeidolon]

Decided to pin down my headcanons for the various powerscaling between the vampires. Elder vampires are obviously going to be a cut above, and the reason they're considered responsible for the coven.

"Vampiric ability" refers to whatever specialty they have, and how capable they are with it. IE hypnotism, pyrokinesis, flying, invisibility etc.

"Magical ability" will be coming into play in my fic relatively soon! there IS after all magic and enchanting canonically in the series, as well as minecraft itself.

For fun, here's Abolish, Legundo, and Avid's hypothetical vampire stats!

All last names used with permission from @yoiurboi's au! They JUST started their new Starter Swap blog, EVERYONE GO CHECK IT OUT I am so excited!!

EDIT: For Abolish's stats, there is an in universe reason they are so busted!

[audioeidolon]

I need to know more about your worldbuilding for Vampire Hierarchy. Thats like my favourite part of your writing is seeing all the freakish Vampire Hierarchy woven into it!!!

Maybe this is a good chance to write it all down in one spot, rather than referencing it in authors notes and comment replies lol.

(I have added #vsmp worldbuilding to some of my posts for people to find if they're interested in that, and will try to use it going forward.

WARNING huge lore dump under the cut. This is all my initial thoughts on how Vampire Hierarchy works, and what I've been working with so far. It will be subject to change if it serves the story better. I don't know if at some point in my fics Louis will explain this to Legundo, or Scott to Pyro, or maybe even Abolish would explain this to someone! Either way they would not explain it like THIS so I don't think this is spoilers to answer.

My main jumping off points are the fact that Owen mentions Louis descending from a long line of Goldsmiths in canon, Cleo's mother and her rules, and Scott's whole... situation. As well as the push and pull Owen and Scott have in canon vis a vis "Scott is not my sire," and Scott's combination disregard and trust of Owen. There's a lot I chose to read into with that lmao.

Fact 1: There is one Sire for every coven. It is both an ancestry, and a position. For example, although Shelby was turned by Pyro in canon, Scott would be considered her 'Sire', because he is Pyro's Sire, and he defers to Scott.

Fact 2: There is still an intimate (either positive, or negative, or any color in between) relationship between someone who is turned, and the person who turns them. They are their sire, lowercase 's'. But the leadership and deference goes to the Sire, until they either die, or are defeated/killed/succeeded after death, by another member of the coven. Or even an interloper if they get the drop on them! (If you come for Scott Goldsmith, you better not fucking miss.)

Fact 3: This is simplifying it immensely, and is not a hard RULE. There are so many nuances and variations of relationship in the coven, and everyone does it differently. Cleo's mother was different from Scott Goldsmith, who was different from HIS Sire (absolute evil freak), who is different from LOUIS. Just look at the fucking train wreck that was canon Owen and Legs once Owen turned him.

Fact 4: You can think of this evolutionary as a survival tactic. If there's rogue vampires, they bring attention to a coven, and make it dangerous to settle in any one place. They do not ration their feeding, and do not consider the weaker vampires of an existing coven who need care, such as fledglings, or injured members. It's the responsibility of the Sire to ensure they are all fed, safe, and protected politically from other covens. It isn't JUST a ruling position, it's a huge responsibility, and only the most capable will take it up.

There will never be a vampire just vibing in a coven territory. They will either be dead, or folded into the coven. (I'll address this in a moment.) A vampire Sire has both a political and instinctual need to murder any vampire not in their coven, who is existing in their territory.

Fact 5: Let's use the Goldsmiths as an example.

Long long ago in ancient Rome, there was a vampire that was very charming. He was turned when he was in his thirties, and had a wife and many children. In spite of whoever sired him, he mutated, and a new vampire lineage was born. This happens on very rare occasion. Perhaps his sire had an affinity for echolocation, or singing, or some sound based trait. Perhaps he had venom that could put people to sleep, and this mutated into the hypnotism the Goldsmiths became so proficient in.

Who knows.

Anyone this ancient roman turned had the same traits, as did his biological children when he turned them. They eventually formed a new coven.

His children had children prior to turning, and so on and so forth, to continue the line. Occasional (every thousand years or so, a very rare occurence) vampiric offspring ensured the bloodline did not get diluted. Louis is an example of a child born of two already turned vampires. Often times lineages die out before they get off the ground, but the Goldsmiths prospered because of their subtlety. It is VERY hard to keep bloodlines like this, which is why long vampire lineages are so rare. There's maybe 50 worldwide, which is not a very large number at all if you consider the population of say, China, or India. (Minecraft China... Minecraft India.... anyway.)

The new sire is chosen from the purest bloodline of the direct sire lineage. It's all very vomit inducing- Scott is probably the third or fourth Goldsmith sire leading the coven. Someone took over after him, and that was probably Louis' mothers parent/sire.

Fact 6: As you can imagine, this makes vampires a fucking nightmare at parties.

Fact 7: Vampires can join the coven either through marriage (often arranged), or through sharing intimacy/approval of some sort with the Sire. Whether it's just trading scents for a while, feeding blood off of each other, or whatever, it takes the Sire's approval for someone to be welcomed. It's a purely inhuman process. There are many ways it can happen, each individual to the situation, but you know if it's happened, as a vampires scent will change. (Vampires are very scent based. Like cats.)

Fact 8: Let's use Owen for an example. Owen as a person, says "Fuck Scott Goldsmith and the gilded carriage he rode in on." VAMPIRE Owen however, sees Scott performing well enough as a sire. He has fledglings, already three generations removed from himself. Bro is speed running forming a coven. They are also locked in together, unnaturally so. Owen does not have the option to retreat from this forming covens territory, even if he wanted to. Owen has three choices in his vampire brain that he does not consciously know are happening, but stress him out regardless:

-Let Scott Goldsmith fold him into the coven. Puke, no thank you.

-Kill Scott Goldsmith. Tempting, but Owen might not be able to take him.

-Escape Oakhurst before either things happen.

Meanwhile, Scott sees Owen (a strange vampire, not of his lineage (or at least, so far removed that it does not make a difference, since Louis was effectively starting his own coven with Owen)) and he has three choices in front of him.

-Let Owen do his own thing. An unacceptable option. That's how covens are destroyed. When they are not united. Scott would be a bad Sire if he did this, by any metric. (Even canon Cleo's! And Abolish's!)

-Kill Owen. Also unacceptable. He kind of likes Owen, and Owen is astonishingly capable besides. Any coven would KILL to have someone like Owen. Fresh blood and all that.

-Fold Owen into the coven forcibly, until his instincts subside and he accepts Scott as his Sire. Acceptable, and not the first time Scott has done so.

In spite of Owen thinking "Fuck Scott Goldsmith and the gilded carriage he rode in on," if Scott puts Owen down enough, and makes it clear that (a certain level of) obedience is the only option, Owen will eventually submit. A HUMAN perspective of the situation would be thinking what the fuck man. Girl GET OUT OF THERE. But to Owen it feels natural, and he hardly notices after a while. Pyro even gets his own taste in my headcanon, because he WOULD test the limits eventually. (Scott works so hard... fledglings these days need such a firm hand...)

Which isn't to say Owen doesn't have bitterness and emotions about it, it's not mind control. He just suddenly gets sick of fighting Scott tooth an nail...he'll fight him on this tomorrow, for now maybe he'll just do what he's told... bide his time... and then before you know it fifty years have passed and bro's being arrange married to a fucking duchess or something.

Meanwhile Louis just had to frown and say pretty please and Owen would rip his own heart out and serve it to him on a platter. Cringe.

Fact 9: In "a duty to others" Cleo begins taking a psuedo Sire role in town, for lack of direction, and organization. She's naturally inclined to it (I think her mother was preparing her for such eventually), and Oakhurst is SUCH an outlier of a situation that a lot of social cues get mixed up and fucked up anyway. Think of how animal behavior gets messed up when they're in a zoo.

Christ. End tweet. Send.

[audioeidolon]

I’m curious, what are your thoughts on Abolish & Morcant? The glimpses we get of their relationship in canon seem fine enough, but obviously there’s also the child-soldier-shaped elephant in the room.

I have a lot of thoughts about Morcant and Abolish! I'm trying to decide how much to say that won't be spoilers. I'll lay out some facts that I'm pretty positive I'm going to be using, and won't be too spoilery.

Morcant is a vampire. A very old vampire. One old enough to have known Abolish's family through the generations, as well as been around 200 years ago, if not further.

Morcant cares about Abolish very much, and does think of himself as Abolish's father in every sense of the word. But as most of my vampire characters that have lived a long time, it is hard for something so old to love in a human way.

Abolish has a very unattached relationship with his body, personhood, and abilities. He thinks of himself as a tool and a weapon, and Morcant treats him as such because he doesn't know how else to relate to him. They are both happy with this arrangement, although most of the human servants who helped raise Abolish are not. (I reference this in 'a duty to others' a little bit. Abolish doesn't see anything wrong with Legundo effectively being sexually assaulted by Pyro, because it's just physical touch, and Legundo already agreed to being fed on. What's the problem? He draws the line at what he thinks the line should be, which is much further than most would.)

Abolish is never necessarily trying to prove himself to Morcant, because they are very confident in their relationship, and Abolish is also very confident and objective in his abilities.

Morcant did not take Abolish in out of just the kindness of his heart.

Human servants when Abolish is ten: Sir, you do have to feed him more than once a day. Vegetables as well. Morcant: He doesn't like vegetables?? Servants: Yes well, that doesn't much matter sir, he still needs to eat them. He also needs to sleep eight hours a day. Morcant: THAT LONG? When does he grow out of that?? Servants:... Never, sir. (Older Abolish: Bet.)

We will be learning a lot more about Abolish and his thoughts in the next chapter.

Addition: Morcant and Abolish's relationship is purely platonic. I feel like I should specify, with all the context I have just laid out. I do leave a lot of my vampiric relationships very nebulous and undefined because I think that's interesting, but in this case Morcant does think of Abolish purely paternally, through a filter lens of centuries of vamprisim. As in he treats Abolish the best he could as a child growing up, but the only context Morcant has is raising fledglings, which is quite different.

Human servants: Sir, he needs a light in his room. There are no windows, either. Morcant: He doesn't like the dark?? I put a bunch of pillows in there. He even has some of my blankets that smell like me. :( Servants: ... he's scared of the dark, sir. Morcant: He's never said? Why would he be scared of the dark? Servants: ....

Morcant does not currently have a coven.

[audioeidolon]

i had a question about duty to others, or like. a thing that i noted.

how you described abolish's lantern made me think of like. if you've ever seen the netflix castlevania series, trevor's morningstar-chain whip-thing. except with a lantern on the end. and i don't know if that's what you meant but it's suchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh a cool and awesome visual that i think he has one of those now. forget give abolish a gun give abolish whatever the fuck this is

Morcant: So did you learn anything fun in Oakhurst, son? Abolish:

I AM glad people like that headcanon and I can't wait to expand on it- every time I think I'm boring you guys with my headcanons you prove me wrong lmao. I can't wait to get to the actual conflict in Grim Purpose- I am stuck in dialogue and sad wet cat hell at the moment. I LOVE writing action.

Abolish seems like the kind of guy to get good at every weapon he uses, otherwise it's not worth using it at all. I am flavoring my Abolish a BIT with some of my own bloodline headcanons and family magic as well! Martyn's lantern-flail looks VERY different from Abolish's, and for very good reason.

Maybe he had used a whip or silver chain before, but hadn't thought the trouble worth it. After all using a mid to long range weapon like the lantern-chain in the fields and forest of Oakhurst is much easier to use than say in a city, or the close confines of an alley, and since arrows are at a premium it seems doubly valuable.

I also headcanon that if any of the humans had made it out of Oakhurst, they would have kept their tome abilities. I have some vague headcanons for the reason and purpose behind the tome abilities and barrier in Oakhurst, that I will avoid saying for now, in case I get around to explaining it in Grim Purpose!

[audioeidolon]

Do Vampires inherent last names from their Covens? Like, for example, is Goldsmith a Vampire Coven or is it Scott's last name? Does that mean that Pyro isn't "Jack Von Pyrosythe" but instead, "Jack" Pyro Goldsmith??

Sorry to ask so many questions, Vampire Lore is just interesting to me-

Please don't apologize for asking questions! The worst I will do is not have an idea of how to respond and panic lmao. I love getting asks!

Any vampire in the clan can use the name with Sire approval, but depending on the coven and the Sire, that can be hard to get. Mostly it would be, "Jack von Pyroscythe, of the Goldsmith coven." If he was favored, he'd be "Jack Goldsmith". (He would probably still be Pyro to his friends I'd assume, or maybe he would change his entire name to "Pyro Goldsmith." Interesting to think about!)

If you're at a vampire function one week, and the next week you introduce yourself with your Sire's last name, everyone KNOWS your ass is in good with the big boss. You are in the elite, you have Made It™. It's not uncommon for vampires to throw a party just to swan around and reintroduce themselves very casually and smugly to all their social circle.

Some smaller covens might not care as much and they all use the last name, some are bigger and the Sire is a bastard and never gives out his last name. It all depends! Again, vampires have nothing but time and boredom to alleviate, they love over-complicating things when they can.

I imagine Cleo uses her mothers last name, which probably stuck in a lot of vampires craws in her coven. But in my headcanon Cleo's mother was grooming her for position, since she never had daughters before turning, and all her vampire fledglings Suck™. This may or may not have contributed to the whole coven falling apart, but I am uncertain how much of Cleo's lore I want to keep in my canon! Thralls for sure will not be kept, because the concept is a huge no-go for me.

[audioeidolon]

This may be an odd question, but could I ask why what you mean by intelligence when illustrating the vampire’s skills? (Mostly I’m curious on why Owen’s intelligence is so low on the skill shape or if that’s just in comparison to the others?)

First of all, disclaimer that I probably spent about 10-15 minutes considering each chart. That isn't to say they're not THOUGHT OVER because they're headcanons I've turned over quite a bit, but the charts were made on a bit of a whim lol.

Let's compare two charts!

By 'Intelligence' I generally mean academic acumen, or potential. Obviously disclaimer this is all headcanons.

Owen did not have a lot of access to books as a child or adult, although I DO have Louis reference his "poets heart" and how much Louis loves Owen's way of speaking. He's very eloquent despite having minimal if ANY schooling, and he's very cunning. (Canon event: How quickly he switched out the letter, gift, and food in the message left for Shelby for a stake and a threat, and the fact that it WORKED.)

It's not that he's STUPID, it's that Pyro is very very smart. The only other 'Intelligence' stats that compete with Pyro's are Scott and Louis, who are both very very old vampires with noble access to books and schooling, and Legundo, who is a whole ass medical Doctor and has degrees beyond that as well.

I actually had Cleo and Abolish as high as Pyro, but in retrospect I might drop them down one each. Cleo I justified as having been groomed by her mother for a Sire position and thus had a lot of schooling to prepare her, and Abolish did a lot of studying and training in the organization. I think cc!Abolish even said on stream that it was one of his hobbies! He also had that nobles education.

But Pyro in my headcanon used school as something he was good at to escape from his parents disappointment. At first his academic success was enough for his parents to be pleased, but eventually when he didn't start focusing on other more important things (marriage, the business, etc) the school became an escape.

He speaks multiple languages, including rudimentary Galactic and Latin, has at least a minor degree or class in most subjects. Math, science, etc. Honestly in retrospect I should have put him higher! I think the reason I didn't, is because he was so young. (Early to mid twenties I believe.) Give him time to get to Scott or Louis' age, and he'll probably surpass them.

Here's Shelby's and Legundo's charts for another example! Shelby's naturally smart, and reads a lot, but she's from a small village, and I don't expect she's been to any schooling past the standard. And then there's Legs.

i hope that answers the question!