I’m doing this post now for various reasons.  One is that I’m tired of hunting for vampire pictures and sifting through pages upon pages of Twilight photos.  I’ve had it.  The other is that it shouldn’t take long because most of this was mentioned along with Clyde.

Refresher:  The vampires of Windemere fall into two categories.  The original vampires who lose their powers in sunlight, can use magic, and have the traditional abilities.  Note that they are not killed by sunlight, but it renders them powerless.  The other group are the new world vampires (I really need to rename them) that appeared after the Great Cataclysm.  These vampires each have a physical, a mental, and a magical ability that they keep in sunlight.  They are stronger, faster, and more durable than old world vampires, but they are also more interested in living within society.  They also have pulses and are technically alive even though they need blood to survive.  There’s a lot more to this that will be revealed in the ‘Realm of the Night’ series, which focuses on Clyde and the new world vampires’ rise to power.

My reason for this stemmed from the fact that Clyde was a daywalker in the games that I played him in.  As time went on, I thought it would be interesting to have him create other daywalkers and start a war between the two vampire types.  Reproduction of the vampires was difficult and I still don’t have it memorized.  I didn’t want these vampires to have the ability to reproduce like rabbits and conquer the world.  Clyde’s mentality that conquering the world would be idiotic helped this.  His mindset that the others adopted is that there’s no sense in decimating their food source.  The originals can reproduce by natural birth or fang, but those made by the fang can only reproduce through natural birth.  Those made from natural birth can reproduce both ways, but they cannot make a permanent vampire until the age of 18 (or was it 21?).  They can make temporary vampires to protect them and these ‘vampires’ are released or turned when the vampire ages.

One of the big things about the vampires of Windemere is that they aren’t hiding in the shadows or crypts.  After the centuries, these vampires actually live among those that they would eat.  They’ve learned to feed without killing and tend to have ‘followers’ who willingly supply them.  So, there are going to be a few scenes throughout Legends of Windemere where a background character flashes fangs or uses a strange power to get out of harm’s way.  It isn’t that the vampires are weak or scared . . . well, they’re scared of something, but it isn’t mortals.  This idea is still being fine-tuned, but there are positions among the vampires even though they live by mortal society rules.  They steal and do any crime that doesn’t take a life then they are jailed for a certain amount of time.  For situations like this, a vampire judge is requested and decides on the fate of the accused.

It’s when a vampire takes a human life beyond self-defense or accidental that they get into lethal trouble.  A certain character who will make an appearance in the series in one book where these vampires prominently featured and you’ll learn more about their society and mentality.  Basically, there is a vampire who can travel all over Windemere without a problem and is used as an enforcer to keep the others in line.  You screw up and are found guilty, you’re executed on the spot.  So, they have a very severe form of justice to keep their kind in.  The reason is because they know a war would go in their favor, but destroying all of the mortals would result in them starving to death.

A lot of this is still in the development stage because there are quirks I’m working on.  The vampire mythos has been rewritten, bastardized, and beaten into the ground over the years.  Normally, I’d be nervous about entering this genre, but I’ve been planning this series since 1999.  At least I left out the werewolves and I’ve opted to make my vampires brutal instead of soft and romantic.  I’m still nervous, but this series won’t be kicking off until Legends of Windemere (15 books) and it’s one-shot clean up book are done.  Maybe people will have moved on from the current vampire look by then.