Sanguine vampiris

Nikola Tesla, a former descendant of vampires

Vampires (scientific name Sanguine vampiris, known to the ancient Sumerians and Praxians as Akhkharu) were a powerful species who in ancient times enslaved humanity. Eventually the humans rose up against their oppressors and hunted them to extinction.

History

Thousands of years ago, the technologically sophisticated Akhkharu fought a war against the Praxians, a culture of highly intelligent humans, for control of the surface. Though the Praxians massed an army of human and abnormal allies, the Akhkharu were eventually victorious and forced them into Hollow Earth. The Akhkharu fought a war of attrition against Praxis for centuries, but were never able to successfully infiltrate the city or Hollow Earth in general. Thus, the vampires were forced to be content with ruling the surface, while Praxis guarded down below.

The vampires then used their advanced knowledge and technology to enslave humanity becoming the pharaohs and kings of civilizations such as the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman empires. Under their rule the world entered into a golden age; science, technology, arts and architecture made enormous strides because of the vampires' influence. While humans were discovering what fire was, vampires were building an empire.

The vampires had a monarchy government, when the current king would die his son/daughter would rule. However, vampires are immortal so they took turns ruling. One member of the royal family would be in charge of the kingdom for a few centuries, then he'd bring the next family member in the cycle out of stasis and he'd go into stasis, then she'd rule the kingdom for a few centuries until it was time for the next ruler in the cycle to be awaken.

Eventually humanity, primarily the Catholic Church, rose up against the vampires and overthrew them. Using an unknown method, they were able to render vampire blood fallow, preventing the perpetuation of the species. With the vampires removed from power human society entered the period known as the Dark Ages as technology and culture regressed to a more primitive state.

The remaining vampires founded the city of Bhalasaam deep in the Himalayas as a last refugees of their civilization. Eventually, around the turn of the last century, Bhalasaam came under attack by an alliance of French, Spanish and Russian forces. After four days of constant bombardment, the city was left in ruins and the vampire species was supposedly extinct.

The vampires were apparently capable of breeding with humans, as a small percentage of the population possessed recessive vampire genes. In the late 1800s, a group of researchers at Oxford University known as the Five acquired a sample of pure vampire blood, untainted by the earlier contamination. One of the Five, Nikola Tesla, possessed recessive vampire genes, which the blood activated, turning him into a vampire. While Nikola considers himself a vampire, other vampires such as Afina consider him to be a half-breed, referring to him as a 'Half-breed mongrel'. None of the other members of the Five had the genes; thus their gifts largely appeared unrelated to the natural abilities of a vampire.

The vampires nearly returned a hundred and fifty years later, when Helen Magnus, another member of the Five, accidentally released Afina, a vampire queen put in stasis shortly after the defeat of the Praxians. Afina attempted to awaken her court and usher in a new vampiric age (kianaru: the time of returning), but Magnus and Tesla were able to stop her. Although Tesla is theoretically the world's last vampire, there is no way to know how many may still be in stasis below the earth.

Powers and Abilities

Vampires possessed many abilities which made them superior to humans. The Akhkharu enjoyed greatly enhanced strength, speed, reflexes and senses. In addition they were immortal and are highly resistant to injury, they also possess an accelerated healing factor allowing them to recover from wounds that would be normally fatal to humans. They have the ability to understand another person's identity and native language by tasting their blood. They don't seem to grow stronger, faster and more powerful as time passes.

Vampires, as stated by Nikola Tesla, are immune to radiation poisoning and it's very likely, although neither confirmed nor stated in the series, that they are immune to any disease at all, due to their healing factor.

Vampires are recognizable by their solid black eyes, sharp teeth and retractable claws at the tip of each finger. Vampires feed on human blood, although Helen Magnus was able to create a serum which suppressed this need.

Contrary to many human myths, vampires are not affected by sunlight, crucifixes, or garlic and can not transform into bats. These myths were perpetuated by the vampires themselves, with the intention of feeding misinformation to any would-be rebels or vampire slayers.