Background: A wood vampire is different to a regular vampire. While the two species are related, wood vampires are herbivores, gaining sustinence through sucking sap from trees.

The exact nature of the two species is also fundamentally different. While ordinary vampires are descended from the union of a deamon and an animal, wood vampires trace their lineage to a far stranger ancestor.

For when the deamon that spawend the vampires was killed, its body fell within a forest. Eventually drifting seeds landed upon it, and germinated within its body. They grew into something which was neither tree, nor daemon, but instead formed some combination of the two.

Unlike ordinary vampires, wood vampires thrive in the sunlight... their metabolisms increase, and they become more active, just as trees do, however, when the sun goes down, they become more sluggish, and often find a quiet place to rest, growing tendrils into the soil to draw nutrients from it.

Because they look so simmilar to ordinary vampires, they have been hunted almost to the brink of extinction by vampire hunters and the like (however, it ihas proven very difficult to actually wipe them out, due to the fact they are fairly easy to make... see "Making little wood vampires"). They very rarely attack humans, prefering to avoid contact where possible, and while it is true that they use their teeth to defend themselves, they do not actually drink blood at all. In fact, they can often be found tending to wounded animals they find in the forest.

Most wood vampires live solitary lives, though sometimes small gatherings have been known.



General wood vampire statistics:

+Age range:
No known upper age limit

+Size:
Usually the size of a large child (5ft), though they have been seen to be up to 7ft tall. It is speculated that in very remote forests, they may grow even larger (as the larger they get, the harder it is to find and kill them).

+Form:
Humanoid. The longer they go without feeding, the more treelike they become.

+Variations:
Several permutations are possible, as several different types of seed germinated within the daemon.

- Oak
- Elm
- Birtch
- Willow
- Tulip
- Nightshade
- Bluebell

Each strain is reflective of the plant that supplied its genetic and morphic resonance to its offspring. Various subspecies and crossbreeds are also possible (see "Making little wood vampires")

+Making little wood vampires:
When a wood vampire dies, it is possible for the seeds of any plants in the area to germinate within its corpse, much as the first generations of wood vampires did. The "blood" of a wood vampire can also cause the formation of a new wood vampire if it enters the circulatory network of a plant.

It is also possible for wood vampires to "breed", though this is rare, due to their relative few numbers and solitary natures. Because of their dual nature, as both part plant, and part daemon, the birth and reprodution processes can be very complicated.

Sometimes reproduction is accomplished through a method common to all humanoids, or it can be done in the same ways as in plants, with either wind or insect aided pollenation.

It can depend on the exact species of wood vampire involved, as well as individual differences, such as just how much they lean towards being a plant, and how much they lean towards being a daemon.

The infant can then grow within the mother and be born in the normal way or the infant can bud from the mother.

A fertilised seed, or collection of seeds can be created after reproduction, which can be planted and will grow into new wood vampires.

+Methods of survival:
Most wood vampires rely on stealth to keep out of danger, blending into the forest to hide from hunters.

Several species of wood vampires are poisonous, using venom to disuade attackers.

Wood vampires only fight as a last resourse, much prefering to lay about in the sun, dipping their toes in pools of cool water and such.

However, there are a few strains or individals more prone to violence, either because the plant the descend from was fairly vicious, or because they are more daemon than plant.

Over the years, several experiments have been conducted to breed "fighting wood vampires", as they are seen to be safer than regular vampires to their handlers.

It is unclear as to whether this is the case or not, as many of these experimenters were never heard from again...