Vampires

Vampires (吸血鬼) are an immortal, ageless race that feeds on the blood of humans. All vampires were originally humans who were turned when ingesting vampire blood, although they like to pretend otherwise and look down on young vampires as "former humans".

Appearance
Vampires are human-like creatures with fangs, pointed ears, and red empty eyes; however, vampires have methods of changing their appearances. For instance, Saitō modified his body to appear with normal ears and wears colored contacts to mask his eye color. Their blood is dark and black though in the anime it's red.

They have no body heat, pulse, or bodily excretions since their metabolism has stopped, and never age.

Incomplete vampire
A human that ingests the blood of a vampire does not become a vampire, but rather an incomplete one. The only known incomplete vampire in the series is Mikaela Hyakuya.

Newly-turned vampires can survive off of the blood of the one who sired them, but this will only work for a limited period of time.

Like true vampires, incomplete vampires will grow fangs as well as in strength, have no heartbeat, and their ears become pointed; however, they are weaker than true vampires of equal rank, retain their human eye color, and continue aging until they drink human blood, which then turns them into full vampires.

Despite incomplete vampires not being true vampires, true vampires seem to have no aversion towards them, as Mika is seen alongside them several times, and they seem unperturbed by the prospect of an incomplete vampire working with them.

Nature
After a human ingests vampire blood, they lose their emotions until only the greatest components of their personalities remain in addition to their everlasting thirst for blood; they also have no sexual desire or any other desires, aside from the craving to drink blood. Due to their loss of emotions and desires, many vampires try to make themselves interested in something in order to stave off their eternal boredom, but vampires concerned with anything other than blood are considered to be eccentric. Krul Tepes and Ferid Bathory are considered to be eccentric, and Mikaela Hyakuya even more so. Crowley is under the impression that vampires cannot form new connections, despite himself entertaining the idea of having friends after eight hundred years.

"But he's a vampire. Vampires don't grow to like anybody. They can't."

- Crowley's thoughts when Yu says Mika will come to like Guren.

Although they have no need to sleep, they are capable of doing so and may partake to take a break from eternity. They typically sleep between early morning and noon. It is unknown who started this, but many vampires sleep in coffins since they are comfortable to vampires and help hide them from sunlight. Anyone who wants to take a bath can do so although it is not necessary since metabolizing has stopped.

Vampires typically band together out of their own self-interest and not out of affection or love for one another, and they have no qualms about killing their own allies once they lose their human feelings. They may choose to sire a human to keep as a companion to ward off the boredom of eternity; however, many show aversion to spreading their curse and may try to use another noble to turn the person they designate. Should they sire a vampire themselves, that vampire will always be much weaker than them in power.

As hemovores, they can only ingest blood and nothing else, and the better the blood tastes, the stronger the urge is to drink that person to death. Additionally, human blood tastes best when that person is at the throes of death. At first, they may originally feel guilty about killing humans and drinking their blood, but they gradually come to consider them nothing but food after decades of feeding on them and watching the humans foolishly wage war with one another and repeat the same mistakes redundantly. There is an order to not drink the blood between vampires who share it, as in between sire and sired vampires yet it seems immoral pleasure can be gained.

They can generally resist their thirst for blood for only three days at most before losing control, and consider biting and drinking a human dry to be the greatest pleasure. Vampires can also enjoy drinking vampire blood, but the details and limitations of this have yet to be revealed as the only example is Mika, who lived off of Krul Tepes's blood for four years before it is no longer effective at quenching his thirst.

A vampire who starves does not die but rather becomes a demon, death by suicide will have the same result. A vampire may also become a demon if their heart is removed from their body and can be prevented by returning the heart to the vampires' chest. Cutting off a vampire's head using normal weaponry will not kill a vampire, although it will render the vampire unable to use his or her body. When a vampire is killed, their bodies become ash as they disintegrate.

Vampires can retain complexes, such as feeling short statured, if it is a strong emotion left from being human. With humanity lost more and more the complex can be the basis of their identity.

Origin
Currently not much is known about the origin of vampires. What is revealed is that the angel Michaela fell to the earth demanding God to give them blood. It also unknown how the first progenitor came of existence as the bloodline of vampires were born due to his blood.

Vampires are determined by the quality of their blood and do not become stronger or weaker later. They can still learn combat based skills such as sword fighting.

Progenitors
Progenitors (太祖 人祖 始祖) are royalties among the vampires. All progenitors are nobles, and a human turned into a vampire by a progenitor becomes a noble. Nobles are far stronger than the average vampire and wield superior weapons. There are twenty ranks for progenitors. The progenitors with the lowest number have the highest rankings. By default, they are extremely powerful and higher ranks even more so. However, progenitors of the same rank are not necessarily equal in power. Sixth Progenitors and above have been sired by the First Progenitor and have the right to attend meetings of the Progenitor Council. It is likely that all vampire monarchs are progenitors of an esteemed lineage.

"Turn a human using the blood of a seventh progenitor, and you'll usually get a vampire that's powerful enough to be classed as a thirteenth or fourteenth. But when Ferid turned me, he didn't use his own blood. He had me drink a second progenitor's. That puts my real power at about the same level as his... seventh or eighth."

- Crowley revealing information on vampire powers and how they can be sired.

The rank of progenitor corresponds with the number of progenitors holding that rank. For example, there is one First Progenitor, two Second Progenitors, three Third Progenitors, and so on. In total there are 19 progenitors in the Progenitor Council (excluding the First Progenitor Sika Madu, Second Progenitor Saitō, and former Third Progenitors Noya Hienma and Ashera Tepes).

A vampire always holds a rank weaker than his or her sire. For instance, a vampire sired by a Seventh Progenitor would not be able to have a rank greater than a Thirteenth Progenitor or a vampire who is sired by the Second Progenitor would not be able to have a rank greater than a Seventh Progenitor.

Not shown

 * 17th Progenitor Zane Lindau
 * 5th Progenitor Caek Senorium

Common vampire
Common vampire (共通吸血鬼) tend to be weaker than the higher classes but remain stronger than humans. A common vampire with greater battle prowess has influence similar to a lower-ranked noble.

Laws

 * Vampires are forbidden from any meddling with the Seraph of the End. Violation will result in imprisonment for all eternity.
 * Prior to the Apocalypse, vampires were forbidden from meddling with human affairs. This law was overturned once the human population became threatened, and vampires rose up to save their food supply.
 * In Sanguinem, vampires are forbidden from drinking blood directly from a human. They may only drink blood directly while on the surface or on the battlefield. This is because more vampires tend to drink their prey dry than not. However, laws are determined by the vampire rulers of each city and may vary even within the same country.
 * Drinking blood from another vampire is taboo but grants immoral pleasure.
 * Only nobles are permitted to turn a human into a vampire.
 * According to Ferid, vampires are not allowed to use another vampire's blood to turn a human into a vampire. If they do so, both the sire and the young vampire will be subjected to imprisonment for all eternity.

Punishment

 * The most severe punishment for a vampire is imprisonment deep underground for all eternity. Since a vampire's brain will continue to regenerate, the prisoner will forever long for blood without any way to fulfill that desire and any ability to die.
 * Another severe punishment for a powerful vampire is torture by exposure. By exposing the vampire to direct sunlight without a UV-protective armband, the vampire will burst into flames and scream in agony continuously for the duration of their sentence.

Natural abilities
Vampires have impressive power and regenerative abilities; this increases with their lineage and age. They can easily reattach a limb. It is also possible to reattach a vampire's head, although the vampire in question will need someone to bring the two ends of the neck together. Nobles have the authority to turn a human into a vampire if they so choose. Vampires may increase their abilities by drinking human blood at any time.

Their senses are extremely powerful, and their eyesight allows them to distinguish a target several hundred meters away, even in pitch-black darkness. However, they no longer perceive anything as beautiful.

Weapons
In battle, they use their natural abilities as well as different types of weapons. First-class weapons pierce a vampire's hand and drink vampire blood in order to significantly increase their power. Their nature is unknown, but they have existed prior to the 1300s.

Second-class weapons are used by common vampires, and are not as powerful as first-class weapons.

The weapons enhance their own physical abilities as well.

Protective Gear
Vampires most commonly wear armbands on their left arms to protect themselves from UV light. They may also wear rings. This allows them to move under sunlight without harm, although they still dislike it. In the past with Crowley, Ferid becomes distressed and groggy during daytime when his ring malfunctions. In ancient Greece, Ashera Tepes wore a hooded cape to protect himself from sunlight due to the lack of rings and armbands which wasn't yet developed.

Technology
The vampires have advanced technology compared to the humans and comment when human technology becomes advanced. Ferid takes notice of it when he first comes across a Horseman of John in the 13th century. During the Progenitor Council meetings in Vampire Reign, the vampires talk to each other across the world through a video call.

Weaknesses

 * Pride: They have immense pride and typically underestimate their human opponents or may refuse to work together with vampires of rival factions.
 * Blood thirst: Krul Tepes has stated that Mika will become a senseless, raving demon if he does not drink blood, and Ferid Bathory tells him the same thing. Newly-turned vampires may be able to survive off of the blood of the one who sired them, but this will only work for a limited period of time.
 * Sunlight/UV exposure: Sunlight Exposure to UV light will create a toxin in their bodies, and vampires must wear protective gear to neutralize this effect. Otherwise, they will burst into flame. Even with the protective gear, they disdain the sunlight, but they can tolerate it, as shown with Krul Tepes.
 * Daytime: Without protective gear, vampires are too tired to function during the day time, as shown by Ferid Bathory during his time with Crowley in the 13th century.
 * Head destroyed: They can be killed if their heads are destroyed. One bullet will not do the job.
 * Cursed Gear/Enchanted Gear: Cursed gear and enchanted gear used by the Japanese Imperial Demon Army limit their healing capabilities in some injuries. However, any mortal injuries and wounds caused by cursed gear and enchanted gear causes the vampire to disintegrate leaving only torn parts of their clothes behind. However, any near death effects caused by cursed gear and enchanted gear can be prevented by curse detoxification.
 * Removing the heart: Removing their heart will weaken them and begin to turn them into a demon, unless the heart is returned.
 * Blood drainage from another vampire : Implied by Ferid, if he drank any more of Krul Tepes' blood, she might die. Though, it's currently unknown whether this is true or not that a vampire will die if a great deal of their blood was drained by another vampire.
 * Massive blood loss: If they are injured to the point that they lose a massive amount of blood, they eventually "die" and become a demon.

Reverting to human
It is currently unknown about how a vampire can turn back into a human, but it's stated to be an impossible objective. So far, two vampires, Mika and Crowley, were told about how to revert vampires back into humans.

Demon transformation
A vampire can transform into a demon by dying. This can seemingly be accomplished by either the vampire being starved of blood until they die and initiate their transformation, or injured to the point that they lose a massive amount of blood, and eventually die from starvation, too.

"By the way, Mika. You really should drink these humans' blood. When vampires are starved, we don't die. We go mad and turn into demons."

- Ferid speaking to Mika, who has sustained himself off vampire blood for a time.

Upon dying, the vampire will begin releasing a massive amount of energy and a "death wail" - a powerful shriek that only other vampires can hear, screamed at an incredibly high or unique frequency. This is shown by Mikaela Hyakuya's death, as his wail was powerful enough to be heard by Urd Geales, Lest Karr, Ky Luc, Crowley Eusford, Ferid Bathory, and Rigr Stafford. Demons can also possibly hear a death wail, as Noya Hienma, Guren Ichinose, and Mahiru-no-Yo heard it as well.

After the wail, the deceased vampire is to be immediately be reborn as a demon, with their overall power being dependent on how powerful they previously were as a vampire.

Trivia

 * They typically refer to the humans as "livestock" instead of calling them by their names.
 * Yūichirō Hyakuya reads a book in Sanguinem, which states vampires are 7 times as strong as humans. Considering a vampire's ranking, this can be a severe underestimation.
 * Krul, Chess, and Horn either have small horns or horn-like decorations on their heads.
 * Any vampire is capable of turning a human, but their laws only give permission to progenitors.
 * Sixth progenitors and above have all been turned into vampires by the First Progenitor.
 * Mahiru Hīragi, despite her young age when sired by Krul, was able to completely overwhelm the Guren squad.
 * Only sixth progenitors and above may attend a Progenitor Council meeting under normal conditions.
 * Abnormal conditions include when a lower-ranking vampire is reporting on the battlefield or a lower-ranking vampire is the vampire of highest authority in a region.