Erika NightwingOur blonde, bloodsucking protagonist.
Speices: Vampire-the bloodlust, nocturnal tendencies and immortality are kind of a giveaway.
Type: Lilim. While this has not been confirmed, Erika's inhuman unmasked face and some unusual traits make it very possible she's a member of this most ancient family of sumerian vampires.
Level: Probably Master. Despite most old vampires denying the existence of female masters, Erika has displayed far too many abilities not associated with lesser vampires to be considered 'just another whore'.
Appearance: At seven feet nothing, Erika can stare down many men and the vast majority of women. Her vampire physiology allowing her to shift her appearance within some limits, she usually assumes the physique of a slightly plump, round-faced woman of great but not unearthly beauty at her early twenties; her preferred mask in the world of mortals. Blood-red lips colored by a flow of stolen blood just under the skin, almond-shaped blue eyes framed by arched eyebrows, a greek nose and a mane of silver hair-usually dyed blonde-are her best features. When the mask drops though, the eyes turn into pools of darkness framed by protruding cheekbones and brow, the mouth widening into a gaping hole where jagged fangs like those of a shark await, the once round face twisting into the terrible visage of a demon. The once-plump body now becomes an angular form of stretched skin, muscles and bones with taloned, skeletal hands ending in scythelike claws even as the stolen blood flows deeper, leaving a surface of snow-white skin with the texture of parchment and a network of blackened veins underneath.
Personality: Asocial to a fault-sometimes to the point of scaring away potential friends-Erika leads as solitary a life as possible in a city of seven million. Hoping to remain in the sidelines of vampiric society, she only has two known friends-one of which is mortal-and actively seeks to avoid any meeting with supernaturals. When faced with the inevitability of adressing others, she is invariably irritating, passive-aggressive and less than serious, making fun of everyone and everything. At other times, she tries to appear as a clueless little girl-which she manages quite effectively despite her size. Underneath her-as she calls it-bimbo exterior, she is direct, quick to anger, violent and bloodthirsty, cynical and sometimes cruel. She will maim or kill any opposing supernatural rather than just fend them off, often initiating conflicts herself, and might harm offending individuals at little provocation as long as she can get away with it. She steals for a living and uses compulsion to persuade others, believing the end justifies the means. That however does not mean she's immoral. Her own moral code is built upon the worth of the individual rather than the laws of society. Those that prove worthy of her attention or gain her trust, she treats with the respect, caring and friendship they are due. Those that become her enemies she deals with without mercy. All the rest she perceives as worthless and treats them with indifference, exploiting them for her own gain if the opportunity arises. Naturally, she disregards authority and barely tolerates structured society, mainly for the advantages it offers.
Powers: As a vampire, she shares the dark gifts of all the children of the night; eternal youth, minor disguise ability, immunity to disease and poison, immunity to death from harm in critical organs or blood loss, no need to breathe eat and drink normal food or sleep and immunity to physical exhaustion.
The level of enhancement to her physical attributes is uncommonly large for her age-she roughly matches a millenium-old master vampire; She has a level of superhuman strength sufficient to rip a security door off its hinges one-handed, bench-press trucks and break heavy steel chains. The increase in physical resilience is comparable to that of her strength-her flesh can become as hard as stone and equally difficult to pierce or deform and her bones won't break after 1000 ft falls or collisions with a Mack truck going 90. She can move six times faster than a human and has close to zero reaction time. Last but not least, she can regenerate most wounds in under a minute.
Her supernatural abilities include; A vampiric compulsion applied through gaze or voice that can dominate, manipulate, mindwipe, read or destroy lesser minds. The ability to manipulate her momentum via levitation to the point of ignoring recoil from powerful blows, lifting very heavy objects beyond her center of balance, walking on vertical walls and ceilings or even flying up to half again as fast as she can run. The ability to discorporate into mist and take others along. Supernaturally enhanced senses that give her hearing better than that of a bat-or any other animal, heat vision and a sixth sense that warns of imminent danger, unseen observers and the presence of magic.
In addition to her vampire powers, she has an untrained talent in sorcery. The only method so far with which she uses that talent are Words of Power-simple but very powerful one-word spells.
Weaknesses: Despite her strengths, Erika is still prone to vampire weaknesses and needs. Being a master limits those weaknesses but does not negate them entirely. Just like the famous Dracula, Erika can walk during the day. However, during daylight hours her vampiric powers-including her strength, speed and resilience-are reduced by about half. Her talent with sorcery is unaffected. Contact with silver is painful and diminishes her supernatural vampiric abilities though not her physical strength. Thresholds of private homes and personal domains may prevent her from entering unless she receives invitation. Living wood-pieces that have been cut in the last 24 hours-can be as painful as silver and a stake of living wood through the heart can paralyse her. Unique to the Lilim, she is not harmed by objects or actions of faith, holy ground or holy water, mirrors or garlic but she can be warded against with sea salt. Although she is not nearly as easy to harm with fire as a human being, she may need up to an hour to regenerate burns instead of less than a minute.
The source of vampire weaknesses is the same as for vampire strengths; they gain power from death, corruption and darkness. Living wood represents life-and is thus harmful to them. Fire and either salt or faith (depending on the vampire) represent purity and cleansing and thus oppose their corruption. Dayling and silver oppose darkness and are elements of protection and thus diminish their powers-if they are masters-or even slay them outright.
Erika, like all vampires, can regain strength through the drinking of human blood-a metaphysical representation of life fueling death. She could also recover by sleeping under the earth, especially at the soil of her homeland, a symbolic representation of darkness. As she has no memory of her homeland and in the city of San Francisco pavement prevents free access to the ground, she has eschewed that method of recovery so far. Some vampires can also draw strength by corrupting humans-seducing them, persuading them to follow destructive paths or to abandon their morals, a representation of corruption. Not wanting contact with mortals (or anyone for that matter), Erika has never tried this method. As a result of limiting herself to the drinking of blood alone and due to having been starved for a long time in the past, Erika is compelled to drink much more than most ordinary vampires. She either has to drain two humans a day to the point of death or spread the blood drain over a larger group if she wants them to survive.
