Editing Supernatural Law: Main Page (section)

====Vampires and Werewolves====

Though these beings are powerful, they are also cited as examples of what happens when one wants too much out of a pact. For while mages are still mostly human despite their otherworldly powers, and most definitely inhabitants of our world, vampires and werewolves are no longer quite human although they can pass as them. They also have difficulties surviving in our world, needing special diets to keep their otherworldly part of falling ill, and possessing strange vulnerabilities.

No one knows for sure what people entered into pacts that turned them into vampires and werewolves or when exactly this happened, but most theories suspect primitive tribes living in what is today Eastern Europe. Nor is it known what being or beings they made pacts with, although the answer is unlikely to be anything good. It stands to reason that the timeless Hosts would know, but both Angels and Devils steadfastly refuse to answer questions about the subject. It is possible that vampires and werewolves were created as proxies in some otherworldly conflict, for they seem to have an instinctive loathing of each other. While this does not make them automatically fight each other upon meeting, it does make coexistence strained and violence more likely to happen.

=====Vampires=====

[https://bit.ly/2KMjbdi '''Theme music'''] This is the theme music for the vampires.

Physically powerful and capable of enduring damage that would kill a human twice over, vampires can still die of injuries other than decapitation and a stake through the heart, although anyone who has faced one can understand where the rumors about their unkillability come from. Vampires also eat food just like anyone else, but they also need a daily diet of fresh blood to keep from wasting away. The blood needs to be from a human and freshly drawn from the veins. Animal blood is useless to a vampire and stored human blood rapidly loses the mystical qualities a vampire needs.

Vampires are also vulnerable to sunlight and certain symbols. Particularly holy symbols. And this does not in any fashion depend on the religious views of a vampire or the person brandishing the symbol. An atheist vampire would be repelled by a Buddhist waving a crucifix. In fact, the symbol does not need to be brandished by anyone. Stepping into a house of worship or a cemetery would be impossible for a vampire. At least a young one, for they build up resistance as they age. A young vampire would suffer burns at sunlight and recoil hissing from the sight of a cross, but an old vampire would merely suffer extreme discomfort at sunlight or within a church.

Vampires do not breed in normal fashion but they can create new vampires by draining a human of blood and then infusing the victim with some of the vampire's own blood - and a hefty amount of the mystical power that courses within a vampire's veins. The process is taxing, but even a single vampire can eventually repopulate their numbers. Despite this, they are rare creatures. Largely because their vulnerabilities make it difficult for vampires to hide if people become aware of them. Yet they cannot live far away from humans either because of their daily need for human blood. A single vampire needs a herd of several hundred humans to feed from without adversely affecting their health. For a long period of history this made vampires solitary creatures, because another vampire in the area meant competition for the blood source. So they lived far apart, either as warlords ruling over a territory and exerting a tribute in blood, or as champions of primitive tribes, protecting their people and being supported by them. The spread of civilization largely brought such arrangements to end. Either vampiric lords and protectors were no longer needed or wanted and they perished in uprisings, or they died defending their territories against more numerous and better armed opponents.

One might perhaps think that the era of large cities would have led to a population boom of vampires, but that was not the case. The large number of human residents can in theory support a large vampire population but it also brings a threat of discovery. A single vampire needs a herd of several hundred, and the members of their herd come in contact with countless people. The more vampires, the greater the risk. Younger vampires, with their more blatant weaknesses, are especially prone to attract notice, so in the era of cities, few were created. To add to the problems, the authorities are perfectly aware that vampires exist, even if they contribute to keeping it secret. So assuming that vampires are even allowed residency, in the cities they usually have to live under highly restrictive laws.

So it is actually rare to find vampires living in cities. Mostly they live as they always have, in small communities. Either they find a remote small town or village where they can build a personal relationship and deal with the human authorities, or they form their own communities, such as by setting up a cult compound.

=====Werewolves=====

[https://bit.ly/31j15a3 '''Theme music'''] This is the theme music for the werewolves.

Werewolves have an easier time passing off as human because although they are capable of turning into fearsome monsters, they look outwardly human. And their vulnerability to silver is not as blatant as the vampiric vulnerabilities. But they have their own dietary needs. Every week, a werewolf must eat copious amounts of raw, freshly killed meat. It does not have to be human flesh, animals work just fine as a food source, but the meat must be unprepared and from a fresh kill. Stored or cooked meat loses its usefulness.

Another problem for werewolves is that their change is in part instinctive. Although they can fight the instinct, they feel an urge to turn at stressful situations and when they are physically injured.

A third problem is that werewolves can only have children with other werewolves. They can actually turn a human into a werewolf by biting and then infusing the bitten victim with a large amount of their mystical energy reserve, but that does not result in a true werewolf, but instead a terror weapon or a disposable shock trooper. Infected werewolves have no conscious control over their transformation or what they do when transformed. They are driven only by rage and instinct. Only natural born werewolves have control over their change and actions.

Since werewolves do not need humans as a food source, can only breed among their own people, and usually face restrictive legislation at best when living among humans, they are an even rarer sight than vampires in human cities. Usually they live in remote rural areas, in their own insular communities. Werewolves are highly clannish, but different clans and families strive to maintain good relations and intermarry regularly. They have to, for werewolves face a constant threat of inbreeding. And inbred werewolves turn increasingly less human and more monstrous.

=====Vampires and Werewolves in Boston=====

Boston does not outright ban entry from vampires and werewolves, but it does legislate them heavily. Visiting ones need to apply for a visitor permit beforehand. Becoming a resident also needs a permit. Residents also need to check in with the police regularly. Although with well known long term residents this is largely a routine visit to the station every month or two. Creating new vampires or infected werewolves is outright forbidden as a form of murder.

Boston sees an occasional vampire visitor and has three long term residents.

Siobhan is the oldest vampire in Boston. She claims to have been around when the City was still just a frontier town, although back then she was running a traveling brothel in a wagon train. These days she gets by as a high class call girl and feeds on her customers, most of whom are rich visitors to the City. She regularly changes her surname. At the moment, she is going with Dunn. And has a habit of announcing her arrival for her check up visits to the station with a "Dun Dun Dunn!"

Siobhan is a somewhat short redhead. As tends to be with older vampires, her apparent physical age is difficult to pin down. She looks like she might be anything from mature twentysomething to well preserved fortysomething.

Alfred Bloom, the second eldest, arrived in the 1800s from Europe as an industrialist. He claims to be British, and certainly speaks with such an accent, but the truth is that Bloom's original name, history and country of origin are not known to anyone. He still runs his company, even if it is through a proxy acting as the real owner. The company is known for good pay and benefits to the workers, especially healthcare. The company has its own infirmary. There is just the additional condition that everyone has to donate blood regularly to keep the infirmary stocked with the correct blood types.

Joe is the youngest. He still gets a bit twitchy in presence of holy symbols. As he is fond of telling to anyone who listens, he is the sole survivor of the volunteer unit formed close to the end of World War II when Nazis got desperate and started turning the SS troops into vampires in droves, and the Allied command felt they needed their own bunch to counter that. The final battle was epic, Joe tells, bemoaning that he has been geased not to tell about it. And the post war treaties banned vampires and werewolves from military positions because no one wanted to see that shit again, and Joe was let go.

Joe still looks close to his original age of early thirties. As a veteran he has a small pension and government-arranged living quarters in the campus of a federal research facility where the staff sees to his dietary needs.

Joe is a bit of a problem case. He tends to miss his regular check ins and needs to be reminded, and on occasion he gets reported as missing by his minders. As a rule, he is found drunk somewhere, either hanging out with some winos telling war stories to them, or sitting in a bar telling the same stories to an empty chair. Joe is a peaceful person with a respect for authority though, so he is more of a nuisance than a serious problem.

Boston sees werewolf visitors more rarely. At least announced visitors. Unannounced visits can be a problem, because if a werewolf from the countryside visits the city, gets into trouble and flees back home, then no matter what he did, his clan will protect him. Although they may never allow him to leave home again.

The only residents are the Grunwalds. A family of four. A married couple with a teenage son and daughter. The registered visitors tend to be their visiting relatives. 

Herman Grunwald and his wife Isabella, parents of high school age Mona and Manfred, are cemetery groundskeepers. Like Herman's parents before them. The old couple is now retired and living in the countryside. In fact, for generations the Grunwalds have been groundskeepers for the cemeteries in Boston. All of the cemeteries.

The Boston region has some of America's oldest cemeteries, with a handful stretching back to the early 1600s and a goodly proportion launching well before the 1900s. The cemeteries also contain a huge number of notables: presidents, poets, war heroes, jurists, academics, athletes, musicians, Benjamin Franklin's parents.

And there is one big problem with the cemeteries. They attract ghouls. The ghouls are not native to our world, but something about especially the oldest cemeteries attracts them, and occasionally a pack slips through from the other side. Ghouls are usually not dangerous to living people unless starving or threatened, and prefer to avoid people. But the authorities are not happy about them taking up residence in the graveyards, so periodically they need to be eradicated. And for an ordinary groundskeeper this would be a highly difficult and dangerous job. Ghoul burrows are difficult to find, narrow and filled with traps, and ghouls can be deadly if they attack.

A werewolf, however, makes short work of a pack of ghouls and can literally sniff out their presence. So the Grunwalds make regular circuits of the cemeteries. Often at night when they can work unhindered. This is occasionally a rude surprise for young mages who decide to take advantage of the ambient energies within the old cemeteries for some ritual. The groundskeepers won't allow that either. The smart mages depart peacefully when caught. If they are not smart, the department may get a nightly call to come pick up some very frightened young mages for trespassing.

The Grunwalds rarely cause problems themselves. The family owns a number of artifacts. Collars that prevent transformation. They nicely prevent accidental werewolfing, but are somewhat conspicuous. Although this is not much of a problem for the present day family. They play the part of middle aged metalheads with their like-minded children, which is not far from the actual truth, and dress like a metal band, with lots of leather, chains and spiked studs. The collars do not stand out at all.

There are very likely unannounced vampires and werewolves in Boston. Recently, Charlestown Mob, a largely Irish organized crime group dating from the prohibition era, has been clashing with a group of Hispanic newcomers calling themselves Red 13. Judging by what has been arriving in the Morgue, Charlestown Mob is wielding at least one vampire, and Red 13 appears to include werewolves.