Markian

This is an article regarding the Markian Vampire, a breed so named after Vellen Markus, who lived 530 years ago. Stories about how this Belycian general fed on dead soldiers fallen in battle still circulate around militant troop campfires to this day.

NOTE: The Markians generous enough to provide the data compiled in this article prefer to go anonymously.

The Body
A Markian's body is typically bigger and stronger than any human's. Its skin, bones, and most organs function in the same way, making it hard to distinguish between the two on the surface. The main difference is unseen, in the blood stream. A Markian's life and strength is the aggressive, miraculous nature of its blood.* It has healing properties and can strengthen, even change a body so that the organs work to fuel the blood and keep it pumping

Strengths
Markian flesh is extremely durable, able to heal relatively quickly, and limbs can even fuse back together, given enough time. A Markian can even function without his head, though not very well, obviously. The blood keeps everything working at full capacity, even under lethal conditions, such as lungs being full of water, or otherwise cut off from air; the body's intense, inhuman immune system pulls through so long as the Markian has blood.

Weaknesses
Every positive has its negative. Certain products have proven to be toxic to V-blood. Garlic causes nausea and light-headed sensations. Silver impairs the healing process. Markians are also susceptible to heat; burned wounds take longer to heal and immolated limbs are irrecoverable. Because of its heat, sunlight can be acutely uncomfortable for Markians, but not lethal unless it's their birth month - the month they were Changed. Lastly, a Markian's most serious weakness is the heart; staked or otherwise damaged beyond function, the heart can't send V-blood where it needs to go and the body then shuts down and dies.

Additional Enhancement
Markians have excellent hearing, smelling and sight. They can be more agile and faster than humans as well, depending on how much they train. The most well-known enhancement is a Markian's extra sharp canine teeth, or fangs. These predatory skills and traits make the Markian one of the most skilled and deadly hunters known to man.

· Markian Vampire blood, colloquially shortened to V-blood, is widely known as a valuable yet dangerous substance; it has a price in some island markets, a ban in others.

Feeding
Fresh blood is the ONLY SOURCE of sustenance for Markian vampires. V-blood becomes weak and sick if it is not somehow refreshed. Markians can digest other food, lose or gain weight, but it is not a vital process.

Markians need blood as frequently as humans need water. The fresher the blood the better. Frozen stores sustain little nutrients, and blood from a dead thing is spoiled. Having a good feeding routine means having a live source of blood on hand and bleeding it on a moderate basis. There are many approaches to this, some more socially acceptable than others. Data shows that most types of feeding can be grouped into three general categories.

Scavenging
A common routine among newly born, lone Markians, scavenging is the unhealthy habit of feeding off spilled and stored blood. Scavengers, mostly found in big cities, tend to lurk around slaughter houses. They never kill for food, resorting to bribery or stealing instead. A scavenger is easy to spot by his malnourished look and curiously black-tinged lips, a sign of ill-slaked thirst. Scavenger growth in heavily populated centers like Audum is considered by many humans to be a problem and plague on society.

Breeding
Peaceful, isolated communities of Markian vampires have been known to breed and raise livestock for food. This cultivates a simple way of life that rejects the advancing industry and city growth now currently spreading throughout Icarus. A breeder will never be found in a big city. These Markian communities generally dislike being associated with vampires, or even being labeled as vampiric, since the term implies being a parasite to society, a nature they strictly deny. Some think of themselves as still being human only "with special, dietary needs."

Hunting
The oldest, most controversial type of feeding is reserved for the "traditionalist" Markian vampires. These vampires are usually hundreds of years old and speak languages exclusively known in the family and community. They form packs and live and hunt in the wild. A lone hunter is very rare and an easy target for a mob hunt. To many hunters, there is no difference between humans and other animals, other than that they make for interesting and unpredictable sport. In older times, packs of Markians had the power and size to terrorize entire islands. However industry has pushed them back and diminished the threat to mostly rural regions.

There is always the exceptional and innovative feeder. Records show that some Markians have managed to mingle with human society and even climb to the top of social ladders, using a human identity and an elevated social status to cover up their inhuman needs. "Minglers" as they are called, are too far and few between to constitute as a group, but their presence is known and sometimes more feared than the more obvious presence of either scavengers or hunters.

Shedding
A common misunderstanding of a Markian's immortality is that the vampire simply doesn't age. This is not true. A Markian actually ages much faster than a human. Its life cycle lasts exactly one year. And then it restarts.

Once a year, on the month of his birth, a Markian undergoes serious deterioration, becoming more susceptible to his established weaknesses. The deterioration climaxes on the day of that particular Markian's Change (or last Shed, exactly one year ago), and there proceeds a twenty-four-hour long shedding stage. Dead skin, scars and excess waste is completely stripped and ejected, and there emerges a new body, fresh and typically hungry.

The shedding is a functional part of the body and there is no way to prevent it or even mitigate its negative effects. It always happens once a year, and it will always be disadvantageous to their health in the pre-shedding stage. However, a newly shed Markian does typically get a boost of health, strength and blood lust.

Changing
Markians can have children, but the child will be human. V-blood has no genetics and cannot be passed down genetically.

For a human to become a Markian vampire, he has to have V-blood somehow get into the bloodstream and basically take over. It's all about a successful transfusion. The change can happen either gradually or very rapidly, it depends on the circumstances and the type of person being changed.

Stages
There is no known cure for fully-fledged Markian vampirism. It is possible, but uncommon, to recover from the first stage by eradicating the V-blood. If just a small dose of V-blood is taken, there's only fifty-fifty chance it will even launch the transformation, which is what makes it a desirable but high-risk healing potion of sorts.
 * 1) Extreme blood loss, often through vomiting and urinating. To speed up this stage, more V-blood needs to be transfused. To slow down and possibly defunct the stage altogether, the V-blood would need to be flushed out, ASAP.
 * 2) Healing properties develop. At this point there is no going back. Some muscle pain and other weird feelings happen as the V-blood is aggressively taking over the body and changing the environment.
 * 3) Physical deterioration and sickness as the body prepares for the final stage. Symptoms include skin flaking, teeth and hair falling out and loss of feeling in the extremities.
 * 4) The first shed, twenty-four hours long and extremely painful, because in a Markian's initial Change, he grows his fangs out.

Markians and Holy Energies
It is not known exactly why a blessed object will effectively fend off a Markian vampire. Some say it doesn't work, others have proved it does. The effectiveness appears to rely on the wielder being of a sworn faith.

The common theory is that vampires carry an energy and aura that is in direct clash with holy auras and energies. For what is not commonly realized, is that BOTH hosts of the opposing energies actually suffer a negative effects; deterioration, fatigue, nausea and disorientation. These symptoms can be particularly lethal for a Markian during its birth month.

This is all the information that has been disclosed on Markian vampires in Icarus. More could be coming in the future, depending on the generosity of our anonymous sources.