[110]

The Counterbalance attended class with a mixture of awe and surprise at the variety of subjects discussed. One of the more surprising aspects was that most of the attendees were not in fact vampires but those with aspirations to become one. This, the group would find out was a service also offered at the school, though not something approved of by the teacher of this class. They made it clear that vampirism can come with many downsides, most of which are severely underestimated until lived through. 

After the class, the professor and professor's aid offered to lend themselves to Caie's curiosity. Awkwardly, Forte, Delvin, and Atigras were asked to leave the room while the assistant de-robed and lay on a table, nervously awaiting physical examination. The information learned left more curiosity than satisfaction, but for now, it was enough to get an idea of who the group would primarily be dealing with. The group reconvened after and a brief conversation was had before they went their separate ways.

Caie and kolvar had a private conversation in which Kolvar confided that he believed there was a real chance that people would be after his life should his name become known to the cavern elves and asked for her confidence and suggestion on how to proceed. A back and forth ensued with valid ideas from both parties being brought forth, but ultimately Caie's suggestion that perhaps he travels with the group using a guise may prove most effective. This would allow the group to protect him if needed, and keep him close. 

The summation of what was learned from the lecture, post-class questions, and the examination are listed in the following: 

• Vampires' eye color represents lineage.
• Red eyes - Adept at blood magic and physical combat; 
• Silver eyes - Adept at emotional/mental magic and diplomacy; 
• Blue Eyes - Adept at Divine/summoning magic and has superior regeneration;

Vampires in transition will have black eyes, slowly revealing their lieges eye color over multiple feedings. A new spawn is not considered a true vampire until their eyes adopt the proper color of their lineage. Children born to vampires will grow as humans do, with the virus in remission. Upon their first proper feeding, the virus activates converting them and freezing their age; Though they may grow older in years, physically they will no longer age past this moment. As such, it is generally a crime to allow anyone not considered an adult to undergo the conversion ritual, though these cases still exist, and anyone found guilty of forcefully converting a born vampire before the proper age is severely punishable. Conversely, this same standard is not held to mortals turned vampires, though there is a stigma against it in most regions. 

Turning a mortal into a fledgling vampire requires that a large portion of the mortal blood be drained before conferring the venom. Administering an abundance of venom to a healthy mortal will cause a rapid and uncontrolled spread of black blood generally resulting in a complete meltdown of bodily functions. Generally in this instance, severe convulsions will occur in under a minute, and profuse bleeding will occur due to the overabundance of black blood cells. 

When done properly, the venom will have a limited amount of red blood cells to inhabit and a foundation for vampirism will take root gradually over the course of two hours. The process can be very painful for most and only completes when two conditions are met. The first is the introduction of black blood from an established vampire, and the second is red blood to get the blood volume back to normal levels. As a result, blood bags or a suitable mortal will be kept near in such instances.

Traditional Vampire's ability to confer their 'gift' depends on the purity of their vampirism. Generally after ten generations, the ability to confer vampirism is reduced to as low as a 5% success rate, meanwhile, 3rd generation and higher have up to guaranteed success. Due to this disparity, a lower-gen vampire will generally use a small vile of their Sire's blood to help the success rate of the transformation.

Although this is the norm, there are rare species of vampires that can confer the 'gift' freely upon a single bite, however, such species are rare as they have been hunted to near extinction several times by both mortals and traditional vampires. Their kind has been the source of many mass outbreaks of vampirism. The main issue lies in that the bite of this type of vampire is also deadly to most traditional types of vampires. The believed cause is a conflicting behavior in the virus types causing a shutdown and death of traditional vampires.

Physically: 

• Veins are black/ blue 
• Muscles are very soft
• Blood color can vary from dark grey to black
• Fused but smaller upper ribs with no holes, seem to protect the heart better, but more vertebrae increase flexibility.
• Much more vascular overall, but veins are larger and seem to move in less volume. 
• Blood is more efficient due to the virus, carrying more energy. Red blood from humans is used as a fuel to replace the black blood cells which although efficient, die much quicker than red blood. Red blood cells cause black blood cells to replicate at a rate of 4-1. for a brief time. A very detailed study could show that Black blood cells lack the structure to form themselves and use the DNA structure of red blood cells as they absorb them as a template, before redesigning it. 
• Vampire thirst is fueled by a lack of black blood cells which causes a caustic substance to build in the vascular system, quite literally burning like acid at bad enough levels. This can cause severely starved vampires to seem feral as their senses are blinded by pain. In rare instances, it has been rumored that vampires can reach such a level of starvation that they die, or that they become permanently feral, but no official cases of either of these have been recorded.
• An excess of red blood causes an overabundance of black blood cells, this results in a euphoric feeling as all their senses are sharpened and dopamine is released unrestricted. This can quickly become irresistible for the weaker-willed being. More mature vampires tend to limit how much blood they consume to avoid blood addiction, but some do not adhere to this. 
• Rare examples show vampires who can drink all they like and keep their faculties. Elder vampires develop a more refined version of the virus which is less caustic and allows them to feed less often.