It is told that the powers of each new generation are weaker than the ones of the preceding, the mightiest vampires therefore are also always the oldest. Each vampire can give the Bloodkiss to many mortal beings, but often give it only to a few. In fact the older vampires are often those giving the Bloodkiss to more victims, while most of the younger vampires only seldom (are allowed to) give a Bloodkiss in their long, all eternity lasting existence. As those infected by the younger, less powerful vampires will be even more unpredictable and often even more ghoulish than their direct ancestor, and would increase a possible 'food' shortage as well as the threat of detection. As they look for companions in their long, lonely life, they select carefully and take only the mightiest, most intelligent and most beautiful of the living. This is tragic, because the soul of the victim is forever lost in darkness.

The fear of the vampire was for the common population of the Old World always also the fear about salvation and damnation. Not only body and life as such were endangered through a vampire, but its unfortunate victims had no possibility to escape the Realm of Khâine in death. So most common people believe it not unreasonable that the repeated bite of a vampire immediately causes an infection, so that the victim henceforth had to live on as a bloodsucking creature… But there are many more diverse and often weird folk tales believed in rural and sometimes even urban surroundings. A person who was born with a so-called "Glückshaube" (under this are to be understood remainders the amniotic sac, which enclose the baby), emerged according to rural superstition at the fortieth day after his death as a vampire from the grave. Each seventh child, which equals the sex of its older siblings, was born with a tail and was damned to become a vampire. Of equal fate were babies, which were carried unbaptized to the grave. After seven years these children returned to unlife as bloodsucking Undead. It was believed that babies born with teeth would use these teeth one day as a vampire. Pregnant women refusing to eat salt stood in the suspicion to bear a vampire. Already the look of a vampire in the eyes of a six month pregnant woman could lead to the baby becoming a vampire. Only the quick commitment of a priest could prevent this. However not only small children and unborn were endangered, also misers, profiteers, suicides, adulterers and other sinners, who had died without the confession or stood under the spell of the excommunication, returned after common conviction as vampires. A corpse could rise as a vampire from the grave, if at the funeral a boy jumped over the grave or a bird flew over it. Unquestionable was this however the case, if a cat ran over the dead body or the shadow of a person touched the face of the corpse.

The vampire is feared not only because of its sharp teeth and its unquenchable thirst for blood. There are also those unfortunate forces with which it stands in the league making it so dangerous. After the superstition it is namely an envoy of darkness, a scourge for the mankind and a despiser of Sigmarite virtues. For example it is said that the vampire masters the art of transformation. The Undead can transform itself into a wolf, a cat or a hare at will as its purposes benefits. The most dangerous of his abilities however is to transform itself into the form of white mist, since it can move through the most narrow crannies in doors and walls, to gain access to every arbitrary dwelling. Even though it is indeed quite possible for some vampires to have mastered the art of transformation into other living beings, it is surely only possible for a few and probably only for the most powerful. The vampire can summon and command additionally certain animals to use them for his sinister plans, so e.g. whole packs of wolves, rat and grasshopper swarms. The vampire commands in limited amount also the weather, so that it can summon winds and storms. In the darkness the Undead sees with his red-hot eyes like a person in the daylight, for it is a creature of the night, and therefore his power is greatest between dusk and dawn.

With all his powers and allies it appears the vampire is an invincible monster to be. But his union with darkness which grants it these abilities is at the same time also his weakest spot.
The vampire shrinks back namely from the icons of the churches fearfully. Holy water and relics rout the vampire into flight. It can not enter sacred ground like a church or a cemetery (unless it is buried there) unless however it has been profaned.

Popular means to defend against a vampire are weirdroot, witchbane, fire and grain. Weirdroot can be used on multiple ways. With the pressed out juice the whole body can be rubbed, particularly the throat, so that the vampire cannot approach its victim to closely. A bunch of witchbane around the throat and in the entire house make the vampire afraid to penetrate into it. Fire drives the vampire off, because it fears the flames which can bring final death. It is said that a handful of grains, thrown in front of the vampire damns it to gather a grain after the other. If it is busy with it long enough and the sun rises meanwhile it loses its power and is a by far more harmless adversary. The vampire cannot escape from its grave, if with pitch the raven crucifix sacred to Morr is drawn onto the coffin lid or a rose was put on it. Besides roses it detests aspen-leaves and branches of hawthorn-shrubs. Occasionally it should suffice also to continually pour water over the coffin of the vampire to lock it inside.
If the vampire can be cornered with witchbane, fires or holy relics, still the difficult task of his destruction awaits. A silver blade piercing the vampires heart finishes him as well as a bolt or bullet from that same metal, which is shot with a crossbow or pistol into the monster's chest. In fact the vampire should never again thereafter come into contact with the light of the lesser moon Morrslieb, particularly during full moon. Otherwise all the dangerous trouble was futile and the vampire rises from its grave again.

If a vampire is discovered in its hiding-place and is in a cataleptic state the most effective means to destroy it finally is the staking. A robust staff from maple-, hawthorn- or poplar-wood or iron is necessary, which must be driven with a single strike into the heart of the Undead. If one requires more than a single blow the vampire is not destroyed for sure. According to a Sylvanian legend a vampire even had once pulled the stake from his chest after a wayward strike and had beaten the bloodhounds of his surprised oppressors.
A further method is to behead the vampire with a single blow of a grave-digger's spade. To be on the sure side weirdroot should be pushed thereafter into its pharynx and its body burnt to ash.

By Claas Cassens