Vampire

So, you're a Nightwalker...I have heard of your kind before. Your regenerative abilities are amazing.
― Faust to Slayer^[src]

Vampires, also referred to as Nightless, are a mysterious race in Guilty Gear series. They are very similar to the mythical creatures, although seemingly without their traditional weaknesses. Thus far, only two vampires are known to exist: Slayer and Nagoriyuki.

Design[]

Nightless are physically indistinguishable from humans,^[4] simply having lengthened canines as their one unique trait. Otherwise, the two known vampires in the series have little in common, though in Nagoriyuki's case, he may display blood-red eyes and black sclera from time to time due to his so-called "blood rage".

Story[]

Little is known about the history of vampires, much less their origins. At some point in the past, the Nightless were "natural enemies of the human race"^[5] but despite their fighting capabilities being far beyond what a human can boast,^[6] they weren't numerous, which prevented them from ever declaring open war on humankind.^[7] Unable to procure human blood without raising supicion, their numbers dwindled^[8] until seemingly all but a few perished.^[5]

Two such survivors were Slayer, who used his work as an assassin to obtain a stable blood supply before finding his immortal human wife Sharon,^[9] and Nagoriyuki, who was sealed away during the Crusades, more than half a century before 2187, in a region that is nowadays known as L'oro Di Illyria.^[3]

Traits[]

Although they share some traits with the man-made Gears, Nightless are quite different from them.^[10] Vampires are a type of demi-human and as such they transcend genetics, physics, and even time itself. Possessing no IDs, their existence is a "bug" in the world's programming; they are the same existence across parallel worlds and, as dwellers of infinite timelines, need to downconvert to most beings' simple definition of Planck time in order to exist in "the real world".^[11]

Though little is known about their baseline abilities, Nightless are believed to have several of the usual defining traits of a traditional vampire.^[10] They possess immortality, a thirst for blood, and are physically superior to human beings,^[10] being famous for their amazing regenerative abilities.^[12] They are able to regenerate lost limbs and normally-fatal injuries almost instantaneously, and seem to possess blood manipulation abilities, with Slayer being able to control his own arm after being cut off.^[13] Regarding their need for blood, vampires cannot survive without a stable supply of human blood.^[7][8] Having a genetic structure entirely different from that of a human,^[14] it would appear that Nightless can turn them by drinking their blood.^{[note 1]}

As for the classical weaknesses of vampires (sunlight, silver, garlic, crosses, salt, etc.),^[10] it is unknown how they apply to Nightless as they are shown to withstand sunlight with no apparent issue. However, during Johnny's Treasure Hunt, Slayer's precious item is sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 200 (for comparison, the highest that humans use if SPF 100), hinting at how he may able to minimize any debilitating effects.

Trivia[]

• When defeated in combat, both Slayer and Nagoriyuki recline casually on the ground, almost as if bored, showing them to be in a power tier all their own above the rest of the cast.
• In one of Slayer's Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus paths, he claims that there is a world where beings such as himself were meant to live in, but once he leaves, he cannot return to Earth; his brethren have long departed to that place, with him being the last due to this attachment to the human world.^[15] It is unknown whether this is considered canonical information.

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