Vampires, ghouls, lich, zombies, wraiths, revenants, and ghosts are all classified as “undead.”

Only vampires are called the Sentient Undead. In this world, only vampires have bodily autonomy separate from their creator–unlike those resurrected through magical means by mortal practitioners, vampires are considered a different species once the human in question has died and been reborn as a vampire. Vampires have their own culture, history, and traditions, though they tend to follow along cultural lines of the country and regions in which they reside or the ethnicity of the vampire pre-turning.

Vampires, next to certain types of fae and a small handful other supernatural creatures, are the longest-lived species on the planet. Though not immortal, as they can be slain, vampires will continue to exist in a suspended state, their aging stopped forever at the moment they were turned. Scars and major injuries that were healed prior to turning tend to remain in place after a vampire Turns, though any physical impediments are lessened or improved upon. A mortal blind since birth due to a genetic anomaly will still be blind after turning, though the vampiric magics will adapt to make the remaining senses exceedingly strong. Limbs lost prior to turning will not regrow, though a vampire’s ability to adapt and compensate is much better than a human, so these handicaps are more easily lived with by a vampire than a mortal. Tattoos will survive the transition, though vampires can not be tattooed after turning, as the tattoo will heal itself, expelling the ink.

Vampires are vulnerable to certain types of spelled silver weapons, sunlight, and can be killed by beheading and/or the removal/destruction of their hearts. Vampires are animated by a primordial and mysterious type of death magic, and the exact mechanics of a vampire’s existence are unknown. The death magic inside all vampires is susceptible to manipulation by necromancers, making them natural antagonists.

Vampires rely on their ability to charm, a form of physical, emotional and mental manipulation to beguile prey and defend themselves, and they are extremely fast, strong, and the older vampires develop unique abilities that are rarely discussed.

Vampires, once turned, can love in non-romantic ways and form relationships as they could while mortal. The one restriction is that they can only ever fall in love once. Romantic, true love, once and forever, creating a spiritual and magical bond with another person, even more rarely two people in a rare triad. This is how vampires mate–once and forever. Many different vampire cultures have different names for the bond and their mates, though the bond example shown in The Necromancer’s Dance is called Leannán. In Irish Gaelic, this translates loosely to soul mate or lover. 

If a Leannán bond is left incomplete or destroyed by death or choice, then the vampire (or vampires if two of them bond) become Croíbhriste—the brokenhearted. They are broken, and turn feral and dangerous, often descending into madness. It happens as often as a bond is successful, and is stressful on a vampire’s bloodclan until the final cords are in place binding the pair. 

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by SJ Himes

**Warning: Contains spoilers for The Necromancer’s Dance (book #1 of the Beacon Hill Sorcerer)

Definitions and Characters

Necromancer: a sorcerer-ranked magical practitioner with an affinity for death. Can heal mortal injuries, commune with the dead, summon and control spirits, and is the natural nemesis of the sentient undead–vampires. All death magic, natural and spiritual, is under the control of a necromancer and comes easiest out of all the different types of magic accessible to a sorcerer. Necromancers can steal and overcome other sorcerers’ spells that utilize death magic if the original caster is not also a necromancer. Death magic affinity is extremely rare, and necromancers are often victims of religious prejudice due to fear and superstition. Necromancers have historically been priests, clerics, and battlemages.

Note: Necromancers are capable of resurrecting the dead.

Sorcerer: Highest rank of human practitioners of magic. Capable of “tapping the veil”, ie accessing a limitless dimension of magical energy that exists parallel and adjacent to this dimension. The veil can only be breached by magic users with sufficient personal strength. A natural ability for all sorcerers that still requires training, and the more personal stamina, talent, and skill a sorcerer has, the longer they can access the veil. Extremely dangerous for an untrained practitioner to access the veil, and sorcerers have died before or killed others accidentally with veil-drawn power when their personal store of energy becomes exhausted or they lost focus due to mental fatigue. Only the best sorcerers can recharge themselves as they tap the veil while also utilizing it.

Note: Sorcerers are at the top of the magical practitioners’ hierarchy, though this is a cultural distinction and has little legal weight behind it.

Sorcerer-ranked practitioner, affinity for death. Only necromancer in the entire Eastern Continental USA. Resides in Boston, Massachusetts in historic Beacon Hill neighborhood. Oldest son and one of only two surviving members of the ancient and prestigious Salvatore clan. Historically, they were teachers of high sorcery, and the Salvatores have a long history of necromancy, and fire and earth magics. Famous for being one of the warring families in the Blood Wars, a feuding war between several magical families in the Northeast that resulted in the death of the Salvatore Clan and the imprisonment of the perpetrators of the massacre.

Survived the final battle by destroying an army of vampires with a single spell, and gained infamy throughout the supernatural community. His little brother Isaac survived the onslaught due to Angel’s quick thinking and his brother’s intent to die and take as many vampires out with him as he could. Angel lived, and as they were the only surviving members fo their clan, Angel, twenty years old at the time, raised the thirteen-year-old Isaac.

Angel is twenty-nine years old in both Book #1 and Book #2 of Beacon Hill Sorcerer. He is involved romantically with Simeon, a four-hundred-year-old vampire Elder of Boston’s only Bloodclan.

Angel has a familiar, a young dragon named Eroch, the only one of his kind to be seen in this dimension in hundreds of years.

Angel is snarky, loyal, blunt, intelligent, and protective. He carries guilt and pain over what he had to do to survive when he was younger, and that bleeds over into almost every aspect of his life. Angel is a teacher, a specialist tutor in high sorcery, and he works with his business partner and best friend, Dame Milly Fontaine, a sorceress with a mysterious past and a penchant for swearing when mad.

Click here to get The Necromancer’s Dance from Amazon

Part II of The World of The Beacon Hill Sorcerer coming soon!

All the above is original concepts created by SJ Himes for the Beacon Hill Sorcerer series. Artwork property of their respective creators.

Copyright © 2016 by SJ Himes