Sivataur

The Sivataur bloodline is reknown for its tribal and predatory traditions. While almost all vampires are predators by nature, the Sivataurs are consistently some of the rare ones that hunt for sport. Beyond their pursuit of dangerous humanoids they like to hunt big game, a tradition that since the Era of the Purge has been in decline. Much to the dismay of others, without big game to hunt they are now left to hunt mostly people, seeking out the intelligent, the strong, and the dangerous.

Their tribal customs and styles mark them out easily, which makes it all the more terrifying how easily they can avoid detection for days at a time while never leaving their prey for more then a brief moment. Sivataur are one of the few bloodlines who are not reduced to ash in the sunlight, they have evolved so that they may track their prey during the day as not to let too much distance grow between them before the final strike.

Sivataur lifespans are frequently shorter then that of the average vampire, this is due to their tendency to always be found trying to fight down everything from dragonborn to battleships. The family itself has a gathering once every year to hold a grand feast to celebrate their individual victories. Other then that, they seldom see eachother outside of the small hunting packs they form.

Their fearsome reputation is not wasted, these night hunters are frequently employed as bounty hunters, assassins, mercenaries, and scouts for exploration. Their numbers are surprisingly high despite their frequent deaths, and the family is composed of several smaller clans of the same bloodline. These clans are the only connection they really have to each other until the gathering, and only the clan masters know how to contact the vampire lords in the family to assemble further members.

Sivataur have an open enrollment, they welcome anyone to their family that dares to attempt the ritual. Anyone seeking to become one of these predatory masters must prove their capabilities while still alive. Before drinkng of their blood, the individual must slay a fearsome foe or beast and bring proof back to whichever of the clans it wishes to be inducted by.

Afterward they are made to feast on an excessive amount of blood, given from a single Sivataur and a small amount from whatever prey was brought down in the previous stage of the ritual - they believe the power of the prey will live on in the new vampire. The amount that is given is also a symbol of strength, the more blood the Sivataur can give the greater its power is and this commands the respect of the blood-child they are creating. This also requires the new vampire to consume a great quantity to show their strength to ingest enough to make the transformation very painful. Afterwards the blood of their kill is preserved with special herbs so it will not clot or decay specifically so it wont lose its color. The new vampire is then tattooed with the blood of his kill as ink.

The Sivataur can trace their bloodline surprisingly far back. While tracking the legacy of a bloodline is often a source of great pride with elder vampire families, the Sivataur don't share such love of history. They instead believe in preserving only their greatest of legends, otherwise the vampires take more stock in tracing their individual lives and legacy. The gathering at the annual feast is the time that they share their stories and trophies, forging new friendships and alliances and transferring some around to other clans within the family.

If any should question the Sivataur's strength as vampires they need look no further then their relations with the Sangui De'Rex. The De'Rex family has kept the Sivataur at a healthy distance ever since their attempt to annihilate them in the Space Era. Of all the many vampires who dislike De'Rex none of them have ever come close to dealing a significant wound, but the Sivataurs have managed to defeat two dozen of the ruling vampires over the past three hundred years.

During the Era of Space the Sangui De'rex tried to drive the Sivataur into extinction by using their vast resources and power. This was sparked when Kurza "Blackfang" Sivataur, assassinated the ruling king of Sangui De'Rex - Victor Sangui De'Rex. Kurza demanded Victor surrender a blood stained blade to him so that he would have a trophy to take to the Sivataur feast, when Victor refused while lying broken on the ground Kurza simply killed him and took the trophy. Victor had been over four thousand years old, and laid low by the youngling Kurza who was only a little over seven hundred. De'rex saw this threat and acted immediately but were unable to truly drive the Sivataur back.

This was for two primary reasons, the first of which was that Sivataur had great numbers on their side and lived a lifetime of battle and hunting. They never bothered with politics as most vampires did, they hunted and anyone who had a problem could try and apprehend them. The second problem was that Sivataur lived for the battle, when De'Rex deployed agents to hunt them down the entirety of the Sivataur family accepted the challenge and started hunting those agents. As powerful as the De'Rex agents were, whole clans of Sivataur stalked them and brought them down one after another. Secondly, the Sivataur are not concerned with wealth and status. They had nothing to lose but the trophies around their necks, whereas De'Rex was not only losing face as they failed to put down the tribal hunters, but vast amounts of their wealth were spent or lost during the war against them. After inevitably failing to exterminate the Sivataur they called for a truce in the best deal they could get, by letting their agents live in terror of the Sivataur hunters for the next century until every last one was slain and only the De'Rex nobles remained.

Ironically, the Sivataur actually deeply respect and love the Sangui De'Rex family. The ancient vampires have been their patron ever since that war (more out of necessity to bolster their forces that were lost), and though the De'Rex are keen to the constant assassination attempts the Sivataur launch during their thirst for the hunt, they are the backbone of De'Rex's ground forces. The Sangui De'Rex armada has many vampires in its ranks but almost all of them are officers, whereas almost every Sivataur is a soldier.

Sivataur seek nothing more then the thrill of the hunt and the battle, it is simply a part of their innate blood lust. Throughout history they have fought in every war they could, fighting for whichever side was losing then switching over when their side turned the tide. Now in the Borderless Era that tradition has stopped, their patron has bought the most of their loyalty one can expect and so they fight for Sangui De'Rex and Shetou. Many people questioned the sudden turn to greed and theorize that within a few thousand years the Sivataur will be proper vampire aristocrats like their De'Rex cousins. The reality of it simply is that their prey was now no longer on a single planet, and space ships were expensive.