Hybrid Vampires — Meet Izad Farahmand
There are two types of vampire families, the Apex and the Hybrid. Today we’re going to learn about the latter of the two, and what it means to be a Hybrid. We’ll delve into the Strains and look at an important Hybrid.
Hybrid Vampire Strains
- Savants. A Savant combines powerful psychic abilities and ingenious inventions to manipulate those around them. They are master illusionists, social experimenters, and empathy controllers.
- Radicals. Radicals use their hyper-intelligence to create tactical advantage in combat; able to see the battlefield like a thought-experiment. But don’t mistaken, a battlefield can be anything from blood caked allies to the marble halls of academia.
- Tyrants. Tyrants use their incredible physical prowess to intimidate, coerce, and control others. They are assassins, shaping the future with a well-placed knife in the back; they are generals, warrior poets and union bosses.
Hybrid vampire strains are almost a mix of the Apex Strains. However, unlike Apex vampires, Hybrids manifest their strain in an obvious mutation that is visible in their physical appearance.
A Savant, for example, may have an exposed brain that leaks from its skull or eyes that glow when their psychic powers activate.
A Radical may have plated skin or tendrils that protrude from its body.
A Tyrant might have smooth features that appear alien or translucent skin that reveals their veins.
These are only some examples of how this family of vampirism reveals itself, and certainly not the rule. Radicals with transparent skin, or Tyrants with tendrils are not uncommon. The cause for these strange physical manifestations is as of yet unknown, but doctors in the Futurists know it’s tied to the vampirism virus that afflicts their kind.
Hybrids are often considered monsters by both mortals and Apex vampires alike, and tend to remain hidden from the world. More bold hybrids rejoice in their newfound power and use their horrifying visage to their advantage, proudly displaying their mutations in order to strike fear or inspire awe in others.
Others use their new horrifying visage to prove that one’s outside is not the sum of their spirit. Many mortals and Apex are shocked when a Hybrid delivers an eloquent speech, or rushes to aid rather than harm them in dangerous scenarios. Apex, for their part, should be smarter, they know that Hybrids were once human like themselves.
Minerva, half the leadership of the Futurists is perhaps the most visible Hybrid among Chicago’s Vampires. Aries, her Hybrid counterpart in the Circle keeps hidden, but that’s his own choosing. You already know about them.
Meet Izad Farahmand
Family / Strain: Hybrid — Tyrant
Faction: Futurists
Visually: Izad was a slender man now made bulky by his armored mass. His skin and muscles have enhanced his frame and physical strength at the cost of manual dexterity.
Tale: A painter from the Middle East, Izad has lived in Chicago since falling in love with the lake during a trip to the city as a child. His boarding house burned with the city during the fire, and many of his works fed the blaze. Distraught, he attempted to save what he could, plunging into the burning building and emerging with an ash covered portrait of himself. However, the image on the portrait no longer represented the man holding it. Izad’s skin had become like bone plates, shielding him from the fire and falling debris. His hands had become 3 pointed pincers, not equipped to hold a paintbrush.
Izad hid for a long time, painting and repainting, re-learning how to use his new hands. Learning to make sense of this new world he had been thrust into. His works began to fetch large amounts in the art markets of Europe. The “humanity” in his work is often called out by critics as fantastic. He has used his fortune to set up a life in one of the new high rises downtown where his ash stained portrait watches the sun break over the lake every morning.
Izad is looking for inspiration, seeking truth in the base materials of the world. What the art critics don’t know is that the art itself is special. Not strictly because of what’s on the canvas, but the subtle impressions and lines of hte brush.
With a painting, and his vampiric powers, Izad imprints thoughts, emotions, desires into the art. That same psychic fingerprint smudges the minds of anyone that looks on his work. Izad hasn’t become aware of this power yet, but when he does, how will life imitate his work?
