Blood curse

"'Divine? Your imprisonment has damaged your mind, Janos. The curse of vampirism is no mark of divinity.' - Kain" Vampirism is an ability that was first introduce as the Blood Curse cast on the Ancients by the Hylden.

History
The Ancients were said to worship a God whose primary function was to recycle souls, and it was every Ancients' honour to be spun in this Wheel of Fate. However, the opposing faction of the Hylden rejected their God, and ignited a war between the two species. The Hylden ultimately lost this war, but did not end their campaign quietly. They cursed the Ancients with a predatory blood-thirst and, worse still, immortality. This inability to die naturally drove many of the Ancients to despair as the act itself cut them off from their God, unable to reuse their souls. Many ancients committed suicide in order to restore the cycle, but the curse also granted sterility. The race would die out of extinction with no way to continue on, and the numbers were declining rapidly with the mass suicides.

The Ancients, now described simply as Vampires, would pass their Dark Gift onto humans, turning them to Vampires in an attempt to prolong the lifespan of their race, and deemed it a necessary evil when the Pillars of Nosgoth were erected to bind the Hylden to the demon dimension as only Vampire Guardians could adequately serve the pillars and their governing forces.

Humans inevitably rejected the curse, fighting off their Vampire oppressors and claiming the Pillars as their own. Unable to properly tend to them, the Pillars' power slowly dwindled and the Binding weakened, allowing Hylden to slowly infiltrate back into Nosgoth. As history became forgotten, the human's eventually simply lost sight of the point of their work, unaware of the evil the Pillars were holding back.

Characteristics
Vampirism causes the subject to become immortal. They can still be killed, but they will not age like a mortal or die of natural causes. They need not eat, sleep or drink, though their natural human needs are replaced almost solely by a blood-lust which they were required to do in order to maintain their strength(though blood was required for a vampire to be able to do anything, it was also used to heal wounds). Vampires are also sterile, though there are ways that one can create a vampire from another creature.

Vampires tend to become more powerful as they age. Typically, they evolve from fledglings to adults, receiving new abilities and usually become tougher, able to withstand more punishment before succumbing to death, or needing to consume blood.

To Kill a Vampire
The only ways to kill a vampire were to immerse the vampires flesh in a body of water, which causes it to burn with the intensity of an incredibly strong acid and vampire fledgelings, if exposed to direct sunlight, would have their skin catch fire and burn them to death (being set on fire directly also worked). Otherwise, a vampire would have to be impaled through a vital organ or have their head or heart removed in order to kill them, any other damage they took would be healed almost instantly as their flesh would simply knit itself back together (an ability sustained by adequate blood supplies).

After death, a vampires soul is drawn into the Spectral Realm where, after some time, it may adapt and become a Vampire Wraith. It would contend for souls with other native species of the realm such as the Sluagh. Vampire Wraiths are very agile and quite powerful compared to most other Spectral species.

If the means through which a vampire is killed is reversed, a Vampire Wraith may be able to re-enter their body, with the added ability to cast a constricting band around their enemies and draw upon their energies from afar. For example, if a vampire was killed through impaling, the vampire could be revived by simply removing the implement with which they were impaled, allowing the skin to heal and reanimating the body. Death through immolation, beheading and other more permanent means that natural vampirism cannot adapt to were irreversible.

Reproduction
As above, vampires are sterile, though a few methods were discovered to create vampires from other (not necessarily) living beings, although many of these methods have not been entirely explored or explicitly elaborated upon in the series. It is known that one can use necromantic magic which is the only way for a human to create a vampire, as was the case when the Necromancer Mortanius turned Kain. It is also known that Kain found a way to divide up his soul and join it with that of a corpse, then place the fused soul back into the cadaver. Using this method, he created a small cadre of vampires who shared some of his powers. This could be done with any sized fraction of the soul, though the more was used, generally, the more powerful the vampire was when they returned to life.

After the onset of their sterility, the Ancients method of creating vampires was never revealed, though it could be used to create thousands of vampire fledgelings without any cost to the sire's soul.

Dark Gifts
Vampires can learn 'Dark Gifts' which mimic and in some cases exceed Sorcery and Glyph Magic. Vampires can develop multiple dark gifts on their own and/or they can consume and emulate the dark gifts of other vampires (a living vampire like Kain must kill & drink the blood of an expired vampire in order to recieve the vampires' dark gift.)

Kain's first generation of descendants inherited most of their dark gifts from Kain. He would go into periods of evolution, after which he would emerge with a new Dark Gift. Since Kain's progeny were made using a portion of his soul each, they would later inherit his evolutions via the same method. The vampires sired by Kain's 'sons' inherited most of the vampiric gifts from their patriarch but overall do not develop their own dark gifts. Unfortunately, when the corruption of Kain's soul, caused by Nupraptor started taking effect, the Dark Gifts his lieutenants recieved (who inherited the corruption themselves) began to devolve. These 'Gifts' were in turn passed on to their respective armies in a similar manner to their masters. For example, Melchiah]'s inability to sustain his physical skin was past to his children who became very zombie-like. Though it can also work to an advantage, such as [[Rahab's ability to swim being passed to his offspring who thereafter dominated the waters of Nosgoth.

Vampirism
Vampirism is recognised in the following individuals:
 * Kain - (The Heart of Darkness)
 * Raziel - (Soul replacement)
 * Fleading Razielim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Razielim - (Soul replacement)
 * Melchiah - (Soul replacement)
 * Fleading Melchiahim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Melchiahim - (Soul replacement)
 * Zephon - (Soul replacement)
 * Fleading Zephonim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Zephonim - (Soul replacement)
 * Rahab - (Soul Replacement)
 * Fleading Rahabim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Rahabim - (Soul replacement)
 * Dumah - (Soul Replacement)
 * Fleading Dumahim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Dumahim - (Soul replacement)
 * Turel - (Soul Replacement)
 * Morlock- (soul displacement)
 * Fleading Turelim - (Soul replacement)
 * Adult Turelim - (Soul replacement)
 * Janos Audron - (Cursed)
 * Ancient Winged Vampire - (Cursed)
 * Cabal Vampire - (The 'ancient method')
 * Vorador - (The 'ancient method')
 * Umah - (???)
 * The Beast - (???)
 * Vorador's brides - (Derived from Vorador)