This isn't much a race as it is an optional path of evolution for those of a more vampiric nature. Humanoids and sentients of all sorts can partake in The Path, but what gifts they receive or what curses they incur are not yet charted in any known scripts.
The Path
There are many myths and explanations that detail the birth of Vampires as a species- some credit Demonic forces, others claim natural evolution. No matter the method, there has always been the First Vampire. Who were they? How did they reproduce? Where are they now? What is the next step?
The Path seeks to answer these questions in their totality through the communion of spiritual forces otherwise tuned out by the rest of Vampire society. It requires strict adherence to self-sacrificial practices and long stints of fasting or drug induced visions. In short, it is a trade. One must trade in something to acquire something different.
The Goddess Donne and Her Chyld
Donne is a vision only few have seen through the eons, opting to defer most attempts at contact to her slumbering Chyld. She exists not in the physical plane, but in higher dimensions where she ever so slightly tugs at vampiric minds that strike her fancy. Her spawn, The Chyld, exists in the physical realm and is credited to be the first natural-born Vampire- a feat achieved when the hermaphroditic entity of Donne self-seeded before her eventual Ascension. They act as a link between the ground and the sky, having been encased in the living soil of the planet for untold millennia.
Communion and Exchange
The Chyld has lived for millions of years below the surface, feasting only on the vague life-energies and emotional excesses of the planet at large. This skill of Psychic Feeding can also be learned by all Vampires, but it comes at a cost. Emotion is to be viewed as a third-party removed from interaction between sentients; whispering clouds of untapped energy in the air, the electric buzzing in the brains of tacticians and generals, the vibrations of the spoken word of merchants and entertainers. For a Vampire that clings to their humanity, it can be difficult to sever all attachments to wealth and status and relationships. Even practicing Donnesians clumsily stumble around the concept at times.
The goal is not power. The goal is guidance to Ascension. The less one has to rely on their physical form for continued consciousness, the closer they are to Donne in her glory.
The Donnesians
It is both a self-identifying creed and body-altering condition, which gives life to an entirely new race within the vampire species. Donnesians, by and large, see more through heat or sense vibration or perceive endless color more than they view the world with conventional sight. Most develop a psychokinetic prowess to accompany their vampiric longevity, be it telepathy, foresight, matter manipulation, energy manipulation, etc. The tattoos and markings are not as mandatory as they are encouraged; a Donnesian is proud to set themselves apart from other vampires or faiths. The uniform is black or neutral tones, but can be personalized to one's leisure. Should one have children, it is their obligation to raise those children as Donnesians. Should one have close ties, it is their obligation to raise those attachments to the status of Donnesians. As they are one cohesive clan, all teachers are as Brothers and Sisters and all initiates are as children to the teachers, blood relation notwithstanding. Remember: the goal is Ascension- not conversion, not inquisition, and not prostration.
