Vampire

Vampires are immortal creatures that drink blood to survive. They are a supernatural predatory species whose origins date back at least over five hundred years. The vampires of Moonlight come from a unique and independent mythology that differs greatly from literary vampires like those of Bram Stoker.

Origin
The origin of the vampire race is unknown. Vampires have been found in myths throughout ancient history, implying that they have existed for over three thousand years. Humans did know of vampires' existence at some point and tried to hunt them out of fear, as the 400 year old Josef recalled once that he was chased by an angry mob carrying torches.

21st Century
In modern times, virtually all humans regard vampires as creatures of myth and folklore. They are regarded as nonexistent. This is beneficial to vampires, allowing them to live within human society unnoticed.

Physical Appearance
When calm and collected, the vampire looks like a normal human, if somewhat more pale than most, but when a vampire becomes or is about to feed, their appearance undergoes changes. When vampires assume their 'vamp face' they hiss like snakes or growl like lions.
 * Eyes - They gain dark circles around their eyes and their irises become a milky white color.
 * Fangs - Their upper canines elongate and sharpen into fangs.
 * Skin - Their skin instantly loses most if not all color and becomes very pale.

Nutrition

 * Drinking Blood - They need to drink blood to stay alive but it doesn't need to be fresh as they can steal older blood from blood banks or morgues. It doesn't even have to be human blood, as one of them refered to a cat as optional payment.


 * Blood Injections - Vampires can be nourished by injecting themselves with blood in lieu of drinking it.

Powers & Abilities
Vampires are physically superior to humans.
 * Immortality - Vampires are functionally immortal; once turned, vampires cease aging, and they can potentially live forever. However, they can be killed through certain means. Vampires are immune to the effects of all known Earthly diseases and infections and can't be killed by conventional human means. The oldest vampire shown was said to be at least 500 years old, yet still retained the physical youth they possessed when they were turned.
 * Superhuman Senses - Their senses are heightened; as two vampires are shown to have a conversation in a decibel too low for humans to hear. They can see through darkness, which makes them effective predators. Vampires, especially when hungry, can literally see the veins and arteries of humans within their skin as well as the blood flowing through them. Their sense of hearing allows them to hear low sounds from long distances away or to pick up a single conversation from within a large crowd. Mick describes vampire senses as being "heightened to eleven" (out of 10) compared to those of humans. Vampires also seem to have a heightened perception of reality; when she was high on vampire blood, Beth Turner stated that she could feel the air flowing against her skin like "individual molecules" and that she could "feel" the lives of people in their homes around her.
 * Psychic Visions - Mick states that vampires can glimpse the future and the past to a limited degree. He calls it smelling the past & glimpsing the future.
 * Superhuman Strength - Vampires possess superior strength compared to that of a normal adult human and can manhandle them with little effort; including restraining or lifting them off the ground by the throat with one hand and throwing them across short distances with great force. Their enhanced strength makes them deadly to humans; able to easily snap their necks with only one hand. Older vampires appear and claim to be stronger than younger ones, this implies that vampires become stronger as they get older. However, it is worth noting that the 85 year old Mick was able to physically overpower a 500-year-old vampire, albeit with much effort.
 * Superhuman Speed - Vampires are incredibly quick, agile and dexterous, well beyond any human, allowing them to run and move with inhuman quickness. Vampires are able to move so fast that they can seemingly appear and disappear from an area in an instant. In combat they are able fight with great speed, allowing them to quickly overpower their opponent. In the Pilot episode, Mick was shown to move fast enough to quickly catch a car that was going between 40 to 60mph, even though the car had a significant head start.
 * Superhuman Agility - Vampires are incredibly agile and dexterous, allowing them to move with great speed and flexibility. Vampires are able to run, jump and move with great velocity, they are able to jump to higher and further than humans, and can land from tremendous heights with finesse. Vampires can perform acrobatic and parkour feats with eas, aepearing to be able to defy gravity to a degree to achieve this ability.
 * Superhuman Durability - Whilst not immune to pain, vampires cannot be killed or permanently impaired by most conventional weapons or sources of injury such as gunshots and knives, unless said weapons cause decapitation. They are unaffected by broken bones, though a broken neck does briefly incapacitates them. In the pilot, Mick got hit by Beth with a vase in the head and showed no pain. He got up after a car crash and got stabbed with no obvious signs of pain.
 * Healing Factor - Vampire are exempt from disease and heal from any non-fatal wounds in an accelerated time frame. Superficial wounds such as those from bullets and even wooden stakes heal in moments without causing the vampire much discomfort, while more severe wounds can cause pain and take time and blood to heal. They can heal broken bones, even big ones, in a short time. The healing process as well as its potency is increased when they drink blood. In the pilot, Mick gets hit by a car crash & stabbed with his injuries healing in seconds. Older vampires like Lance who is 200+ years old has been shown to be immune to the effects of fire. Where usually the body part that is on fire turns to dust but when Lance has got on fire it was only burnt and in a few seconds healed without a mark.
 * Enhanced Mental Capacity - Vampires can process information much quicker and more efficiently than humans can. Mick was able to watch a dozen camera view screens at once at very high playing rate and easily found the recording he was looking for.

Weaknesses
Despite their physical superiority and immortality, vampires do have weaknesses.
 * Wooden Stakes - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight are not killed by a wooden stake in the heart, but rather are merely paralyzed.
 * Silver - Silver acts as a poison to them. However, this only accounts if it actually gets into their system; touching solid silver does them no harm. Exposure to silver emulsion weakens them, and, in large amounts, can be used to paralize them.
 * Fire - Fire will kill them, reducing them to ash even through brief exposure. Older vampires are resistant to fire; only harming them as it does human skin, from which they can quickly heal.
 * Sunlight - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight suffer no immediate negative effects from exposure to direct sunlight. For vampires who have recently fed, the sun serves only as a mild irritant to them which they can counteract by wearing sunglasses and staying in the shade. Although it can cause loss of strength and dehydration if exposed for long periods of time, especially if the vampire has not fed in a while. Apparantly, their sensitivity decreases with age, as Mick, an 85 years old vampire, has shown noticable irritation while being exposed to direct sunlight even partially, whilst Josef, a 400 years old vampire, has shown little to no irritation even while standing in direct sunlight.
 * Blood Deprivation - If vampires are deprived of blood for prolonged periods of time, they will show symptoms of dehydration, with their sclera becoming yellow. This also has psychological affects, eventually causing them to lose control of themselves and reducing them to hungry animals who can't control their hunger.
 * Broken Neck - While breaking a vampire's neck will not kill them, it still hurts them and will incapacitate them for a short time, until it heals.
 * Headshot - While shooting them in the head does not kill them, they are incapacitated for a few minutes until they heal.
 * Decapitation - Decapitation slays vampires as it does humans.
 * The Cure - A plant that grows in France can temporarily make vampires human again, robbing them of their powers.
 * Animals - Most animals, even domesticated ones, are naturally afraid of vampires; apparently, they can sense their predatory nature.

Creation
Vampires are created by turning humans.
 * Siring - To become a vampire, a person is either fed with vampire blood when close to death or to be brought close to death with vampire blood in his or her system. The injuries sustained must not be too severe for the transformation to accure; while the higher limit was never defined, the body must be intact enough so the person could function once they reawaken. Notably, the person doesn't actually die during the siring, only appears to be dead. After brought to this state, the person falls unconscious while they undergo the mutation and after a while (between several minutes to several hours) the person reawakens as a vampire.
 * Coma - Siring does not always work. Sometimes, though extremely rarely, the human will fall into a coma, stop aging, and never wake up. It was described as though the person "got lost somewhere in-between".
 * Hunger - All newborn vampires awaken with a deep craving for fresh human blood.
 * Intoxication - Newborn vampires are often overwhelmed by their new strength, speed, and blood hunger. It is very much like drug addiction. This euphoria fades with time as the vampire adjusts to his or her new condition.
 * Vampire Law - By 'Vampire Law' the sire then must stay with the new vampire until he or she has completed the transformation and knows to keep their secret. If a vampire commits treason, by either trying to reveal the vampire secret or abandoning their offspring, this is punishable by death: while a lesser punishment is possible, in cases of extreme circumstances, this rarely happens, because the Vampire Law is extremely strict.

Physiology
Humans undergo radical biological/physiological changes during their transformation to vampire.
 * Body Temperature - Vampires are often told to lack body heat, however this is inaccurate; their body temperature is indeed significently lower than that of humans, however they are not icy cold, and they can come into contact with humans without raising any suspision. Vampires are also tolerant of extremely low temperatures; in fact, they are affected beneficially by cold temperatures and environments; it relaxes them and simply 'feels good'. This is why they sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice. They cannot suffer brain freeze, frostbite, or hypothermia. According to Mick, drinking fresh blood warms them to an extent.
 * Genetics - Vampirism affects a person's genetics. A person's DNA is fundamentally altered after the transformation. This alteration makes genetic testing between vampires and their human relatives impossible unless the vampire has a piece of his or her own human DNA from before their transformation, such as a lock of hair. Vampires are also sterile and cannot procreate through sexual intercourse.
 * Digestive System - Vampire cannot taste or digest ordinary food, nor can produce waste. They can only taste and digest blood.
 * Biology - The biological functions of vampires are radically different than those of humans. While vampires are still living creatures and as such have a beating heart, they do not age and retain the appearance and bodily condition that they had when they where sired (unless they were sick as humans (i.e having cancer or radiation poisoning), in which case they are cured and revitalized upon being sired). Despite this, their hair and nails still grow as they did when they were human. Their hair does not change color with time unless dyed.

Vampire Society
Vampires, as a species, live in secrecy within human society. They seem to have their own government, as there are laws that all vampires are expected to obey under penalty of death. Very few humans in the modern day know vampires exist.

Vampire Myths
Moonlight vampires differ from literary vampires in many ways.
 * They are not truly undead, even though some of them refer to themselves as such. Instead, they simply have radically different biology than humans.
 * They are not killed by sunlight, but they are weakened by it.
 * A stake through their heart will not kill them, but will paralyze them.
 * They cast shadows and have reflections.
 * They are unaffected by garlic, holy water, or crucifixes.
 * They cannot shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or vapor.
 * They do not require an invitation to enter a residence.
 * They cannot control the weather.
 * They sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice, not coffins. This is because low temperatures relax them.
 * They do not require their native soil to sleep in.