Background and Plot Information for Apocalypse: The Deeper Magics
Contents
Background Story Information (Vampires and their History in Prague; their relationship with the Old Ones)
Background Information on Our Heroes and Heroines
Current Plot Summary
Background Story Information:
Giles: This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their... their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures...
BUFFY: And vampires.
XANDER: Okay, this is where I have a problem. See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a *talk* with vampires in it.
WILLOW: Isn't that what we saw last night?
BUFFY: No. No, th-those weren't vampires, those were just guys in thundering need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies. A-and that guy turning to dust? Just a trick of light. That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part.
WILLOW: Oh, I, I need to sit down.
BUFFY: You are sitting down.
WILLOW: Oh. Good for me.
XANDER: So vampires are demons?
GILES: The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding... Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return.
VAMPIRES: Their Origins, Their History, Their Purpose?
Vampires are mythical or folkloric creatures said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy), often having unnatural powers, heightened bodily functions and/or the ability to transform. Usually a recently deceased person is made a vampire by being fed vampire blood (in some cases, the person must first be killed by a vampire by draining the body completely of human blood). Some cultures have myths of non-human vampires, such as demons or animals like bats, dogs, and spiders. Vampires are often described as having a wide variety of additional powers and character traits, extremely variable in different traditions...
Vampirism is the practice of drinking blood. In folklore and popular culture the term generally refers to a belief that one can gain supernatural powers by drinking human blood.
Folk beliefs in vampires
It seems that until the 19th century, vampires in Europe were thought to be hideous monsters rather than the debonair vampire made popular by later fictional treatments. They were usually believed to rise from the bodies of suicide victims, criminals, or evil sorcerers, though in some cases an initial vampire thus "born of sin" could pass on his vampirism onto his innocent victims. In other cases, however, a victim of an untimely or cruel death was susceptible of becoming a vampire. Most of the European vampire myths have Slavic and/or Romanian origins.
ANGEL: Vampires don’t sleep in coffins. It’s a misconception made popular by hack writers and ignorant media. In fact, you know, we can and do move around during the day, as long as we avoid direct sunlight. Got it?
~~~
ADAM: I've been thinking. About vampires.
Boone: (threateningly) This is my place.
ADAM: (unintimidated) You're place, yes. The sewers. You hide from them. Crawl about in their filth. Scavenging like rats. What do you fear?
Boone: Kill this guy already.
ADAM: You fear the cross. The sun. Fire. And, oh, yes . . .I believe decapitation is a problem as well.
Boone: You can have the place. I mean, we don't have to stay here anymore.
ADAM: You fear death. Being immortal, you fear it more than those to whom it comes naturally. Vampires are a paradox.
Boone: (nervously) Okay. We're a paradox. That's cool.
ADAM: Demon in a human body. You walk in both worlds and belong to neither. I can relate. Come. We have a lot to talk about.
Untold eons ago, long before Mankind's first step upon the Earth, the world was ruled by Daemons. Offspring of the First Evil, these Old Ones ruled the Earth, unchallenged, for epochs-worth of undocumented history. So mighty were the Old Ones that before Mankind could be brought to the world, a way had to be cleared for their existance. A power or powers - unnamed but commonly alluded to as 'God' or 'gods' in later theisms - Banished the Old Ones from the planet, and bound them in several Hell Dimensions by means of a sealed mystical portal known as The Hellmouth.
But the Old Ones did not go quietly. Before they were banished, a large number of the ancient prehistoric Daemons went into the earth and entered a long age of sleep, while yet others mated with the human usurpers and produced the many and varied races of Lesser Daemons that we see today.
And then, of course, there were also Vampires.
GILES: The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding... Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return.
There were two attempts at creating Vampires, each successful in their own ways. The First Attempt was an act on command of the First Evil itself, mixing the blood of a Daemon with Neanderthal pre-human. The resulting race of Vampires was known as the Turok-Han or 'UberVamps.' Powerful physically beyond even most modern Demons, the Turok-Han greatly resembled Demons, and were hardly 'Vampires' as we know them at all. Yet their strength and immortality came at the cost all reasoning facilities, so while the Turok-Han made a great undead army, they were useless unless directed.
The second attempt at creating Vampires resulted in the race we now know today by that name. Though not as physically powerful as the UberVamps at the time of their inception, Vampires created from siring Homo Sapiens produced a cunning, sinister race of immortal fiends who could walk among man and generate the kind of terror that only someone who wears the face of a friend and kills by night can generate. These solitary monsters have survived through the ages largely due to their cunning and intelligence, and it is due to their influence largely that humans fear the night as they do.
But despite the demonic nature of the Vampire, the Demons that remained to walk the Earth in the wake of the Old Ones' departure looked down upon Vampires. They saw in their human facades and their human cunning nothing more than a filthy mortal upstart playing at being a Demon. For centuries, Vampires were sneered at by their Demon masters and allies... until the eldest of the Vampires began to grow up.
It was a strange thing, what happenned to a Vampire as he or she aged. Unheard of by the immortal demons, and very likely unforseen by the Old Ones themselves: as a Vampire aged, though his human facade remained largely unchanged and unaged, the demon within would continue to mature, and to mature, and to mature. At around 100 years of unlife, latent abilities would begin to emerge and to manifest themselves - a heightened strength, greater resilliancy, a certain mystical aura - and suddenly, the half-breed bloodsuckers were becoming true monsters. With power and strength beyond Demons, the older Vampires became something new and truly fearsome.
Consider many of the Vampires we have seen thus far in Buffyverse Lore - The Master, a 600 year old Vampire with the ability to paralyze and command his enemies, Lothos, the millennia old Vampire King, Kakistos, the Vampire who came from Ancient Greece.... even Angel and Spike and Drusilla!