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Description

While it is widely believed that the true vampires went extinct at the end of 19th century, a different species had continued to carry on the mantle of the "vampire" all the way till the present day. For more than two centuries, it was largely restricted to the wilderness of Eastern Europe, roaming away from civilization and kept in check by authorities – but in the aftermath of the 2019th Bioweapon Outbreak , leading to the complete or near-complete collapse of most European states, their population had rapidly exploded!

As of now, in 2110s, these beings are commonly found across the entire Europe, northern Africa and western Asia – and so every self-respecting citizen, not just a professional vampire hunter, should be familiar with their traits and behaviors.

* * *

Fly vampires – or "mock-vampires", as they are sometimes called – are not related to the true vampires, aside from both being Hyperborean creations. In fact, they are much more closely related to another such creation, the fly-men – an extinct breed of insect-human hybrids, with two likely coming from the same branch of genetic engineering program. But while flymen, at least morphologically, took after houseflies, this species was likely inspired by another dipteran family, specifically mosquitoes.

Unlike true vampires, fly vampires are not parasitic, and do not rely on humans for either survival or reproduction.

In fact, most of the time, they are relatively harmless – preferring to avoid direct contact and hide in the woods, where they would scavenge miscellaneous sources of food. Their diet may vary from region to region, but largely consist of small animals, carrion, mushrooms and berries. They would typically flee from humans if they are noticed, and getting attacked by them would require you to purposefully charge into one. However, during the breeding seasons, typically lasting from July to September in moderate climate, fly vampires – or more specifically, female fly vampires – became hungry for blood, which they require to properly gestate their eggs.

While the blood have to belong to a mammal, is doesn’t need to be human. In fact, humans make a remarkably poor source of blood for them, as they need somewhere between 10 to 15 liters of it for a single brood, and a human only have 5 at most. Something like a cow would make a much more sensible prey for them – and for the vast majority of cases, this is exactly how it goes! They may hunt larger beasts in the wilderness, or sneak into farms and kill livestock – but generally, they won’t hunt people. Generally…

But if they come across a human, and for one reason or another end up perceiving them as a threat, they may attack in self-defense. And if a person ends up killed, or even injured in the process, they naturally would be inclined to consume certain amount of the blood spilled. And this is where the danger lies!

For the reason likely intentional by design, fly vampires adore the taste of human blood – and even a single instance of its consumption may be enough to make a creature addicted to it, and purposefully seek humans as its prime target from that point onward.

Hunting-wise, fly vampires favor ambush tactics. They are the excellent climbers and are able to move with little to no sound. If the environment allows for that, they prefer to take a high ground and attack from above. Their method of attacking usually involves pinning target to the ground with all four arms and delivering a single bite to the neck. Their saliva contains both anticoagulants and neurotoxins, and they are capable of sucking a human dry in less than 10 minutes. While not inherently lethal in principle, the bite itself is highly dangerous, as the creature’s teeth would almost always pierce the carotid artery, causing profuse bleeding. Thus, even if feeding is interrupted, the target is still highly likely to perish due to the blood loss and diaphragm paralysis. With urgent medical intervention, these effects can be managed – but you are very unlikely to find the necessary equipment in the creature’s range of habitat, so for all practical purposes, treat the bite as a one hit kill!

A fly vampire that is not addicted to human blood won’t attack immediately upon coming in a close contact with a person. Instead, it would start with intimidation – spreading it wings, producing crackling noises by rapidly beating them, and hissing from its maw. Only if the person approaches further, or does something that it sees as a threat (such as trying to use a weapon), it would attack. The vampire that is addicted, however, won’t bother with all of this and attack as soon and it has a chance!

* * *

Lastly, additional attention should be given to the life cycle of these creatures.

After mating during the breeding season, a female would lay a clutch of 5-9 eggs (depending on the amount of blood it consumed) roughly 10 cm long somewhere near the body of fresh water – a river or a large enough freshwater lake. They would also cover them with dry grass, soil or other materials for protection and insulation – but otherwise, no parental care had been observed.

After 2-3 months of incubation, the eggs would hatch into larvae, which would use their single pairs of limbs to crawl into the water.

Their next 10 to 15 years of life (depending on food availability) would be spent in water, where they would feed mainly on algae, fish and aquatic invertebrates. Mainly active in warmer season, they would enter the state of dormancy during winters. Despite their aquatic nature, they do breath air, and so have to regularly resurface, even though their ability to hold their breath is remarkably impressive – hours when active, or even days when dormant. Occasionally, they can be seen crawled on the shores, rocks or driftwood to warm up. When on land, their breathing produces sounds similar to humming melody, whisper or faint laughter.

While young larvae are perfectly harmless, the larger ones are prone to attack larger animals (as well of people) if they notice them coming close to the water. The method they usually use is to grab their prey, forcefully drag it underwater and wait until it suffocates, before proceeding to slowly devour it bit by bit. Larvae that had tasted fresh human meat appear to automatically develop fondness for human blood in adulthood.

Due to their deceptively humanoid appearance, fly vampire larvae – particularly the larger ones – are often referred to as "freshwater mermaids" (or "rusalkas"), even though they have no relation to the actual mermaids . It is unknown if this similarity is purely accidental, or a deliberate choice of the part of Hyperboreans.

One it reaches sufficient size, a larva would change into its mobile pupa stage. In this state, it’s unable to feed, and spends most of the time on the bottom, moving only to breath or to escape danger. After speeding 4 months in this stage, it would undergo its last molt, shed the pupal shell and crawl onto the land and a full-grown imago.

Description

While it is widely believed that the true vampires went extinct at the end of 19th century, a different species had continued to carry on the mantle of the "vampire" all the way till the present day. For more than two centuries, it was largely restricted to the wilderness of Eastern Europe, roaming away from civilization and kept in check by authorities – but in the aftermath of the 2019th Bioweapon Outbreak , leading to the complete or near-complete collapse of most European states, their population had rapidly exploded!

As of now, in 2110s, these beings are commonly found across the entire Europe, northern Africa and western Asia – and so every self-respecting citizen, not just a professional vampire hunter, should be familiar with their traits and behaviors.

* * *

Fly vampires – or "mock-vampires", as they are sometimes called – are not related to the true vampires, aside from both being Hyperborean creations. In fact, they are much more closely related to another such creation, the fly-men – an extinct breed of insect-human hybrids, with two likely coming from the same branch of genetic engineering program. But while flymen, at least morphologically, took after houseflies, this species was likely inspired by another dipteran family, specifically mosquitoes.

Unlike true vampires, fly vampires are not parasitic, and do not rely on humans for either survival or reproduction.

In fact, most of the time, they are relatively harmless – preferring to avoid direct contact and hide in the woods, where they would scavenge miscellaneous sources of food. Their diet may vary from region to region, but largely consist of small animals, carrion, mushrooms and berries. They would typically flee from humans if they are noticed, and getting attacked by them would require you to purposefully charge into one. However, during the breeding seasons, typically lasting from July to September in moderate climate, fly vampires – or more specifically, female fly vampires – became hungry for blood, which they require to properly gestate their eggs.

While the blood have to belong to a mammal, is doesn’t need to be human. In fact, humans make a remarkably poor source of blood for them, as they need somewhere between 10 to 15 liters of it for a single brood, and a human only have 5 at most. Something like a cow would make a much more sensible prey for them – and for the vast majority of cases, this is exactly how it goes! They may hunt larger beasts in the wilderness, or sneak into farms and kill livestock – but generally, they won’t hunt people. Generally…

But if they come across a human, and for one reason or another end up perceiving them as a threat, they may attack in self-defense. And if a person ends up killed, or even injured in the process, they naturally would be inclined to consume certain amount of the blood spilled. And this is where the danger lies!

For the reason likely intentional by design, fly vampires adore the taste of human blood – and even a single instance of its consumption may be enough to make a creature addicted to it, and purposefully seek humans as its prime target from that point onward.

Hunting-wise, fly vampires favor ambush tactics. They are the excellent climbers and are able to move with little to no sound. If the environment allows for that, they prefer to take a high ground and attack from above. Their method of attacking usually involves pinning target to the ground with all four arms and delivering a single bite to the neck. Their saliva contains both anticoagulants and neurotoxins, and they are capable of sucking a human dry in less than 10 minutes. While not inherently lethal in principle, the bite itself is highly dangerous, as the creature’s teeth would almost always pierce the carotid artery, causing profuse bleeding. Thus, even if feeding is interrupted, the target is still highly likely to perish due to the blood loss and diaphragm paralysis. With urgent medical intervention, these effects can be managed – but you are very unlikely to find the necessary equipment in the creature’s range of habitat, so for all practical purposes, treat the bite as a one hit kill!

A fly vampire that is not addicted to human blood won’t attack immediately upon coming in a close contact with a person. Instead, it would start with intimidation – spreading it wings, producing crackling noises by rapidly beating them, and hissing from its maw. Only if the person approaches further, or does something that it sees as a threat (such as trying to use a weapon), it would attack. The vampire that is addicted, however, won’t bother with all of this and attack as soon and it has a chance!

* * *

Lastly, additional attention should be given to the life cycle of these creatures.

After mating during the breeding season, a female would lay a clutch of 5-9 eggs (depending on the amount of blood it consumed) roughly 10 cm long somewhere near the body of fresh water – a river or a large enough freshwater lake. They would also cover them with dry grass, soil or other materials for protection and insulation – but otherwise, no parental care had been observed.

After 2-3 months of incubation, the eggs would hatch into larvae, which would use their single pairs of limbs to crawl into the water.

Their next 10 to 15 years of life (depending on food availability) would be spent in water, where they would feed mainly on algae, fish and aquatic invertebrates. Mainly active in warmer season, they would enter the state of dormancy during winters. Despite their aquatic nature, they do breath air, and so have to regularly resurface, even though their ability to hold their breath is remarkably impressive – hours when active, or even days when dormant. Occasionally, they can be seen crawled on the shores, rocks or driftwood to warm up. When on land, their breathing produces sounds similar to humming melody, whisper or faint laughter.

While young larvae are perfectly harmless, the larger ones are prone to attack larger animals (as well of people) if they notice them coming close to the water. The method they usually use is to grab their prey, forcefully drag it underwater and wait until it suffocates, before proceeding to slowly devour it bit by bit. Larvae that had tasted fresh human meat appear to automatically develop fondness for human blood in adulthood.

Due to their deceptively humanoid appearance, fly vampire larvae – particularly the larger ones – are often referred to as "freshwater mermaids" (or "rusalkas"), even though they have no relation to the actual mermaids . It is unknown if this similarity is purely accidental, or a deliberate choice of the part of Hyperboreans.

One it reaches sufficient size, a larva would change into its mobile pupa stage. In this state, it’s unable to feed, and spends most of the time on the bottom, moving only to breath or to escape danger. After speeding 4 months in this stage, it would undergo its last molt, shed the pupal shell and crawl onto the land and a full-grown imago.