I certainly appreciate the interest! Apologies for not shooting a reply back sooner Corneredbliss but I can't seem to figure out how to make my subs notify me when there's a new post.

That said I'd be happy to field any questions the pair of you might have while I watch this particular backburner--in the meantime enjoy a little more information!

[hider=More in-depth Clan fluff]When the world was old and words were young the first true men wrought their mighty magics and walked this earth like thunder, leaving nothing of themselves but echoes. Their deeds resonate even now, reaching out from an age immemorial; you count yourself among their outermost limen, the newest link in an everlasting chain.

A vampire. 

In the superstition starved cityscapes of 2070 that means much less than you might imagine. Of the five families three remain; The mighty Draug, the sly Alp and the sinister Vetala; it is merely a question of to whom you belong.  
 
The Draug take their namesake from a mighty warlord and in their early years spread north across the young globe. It is from them legends of trolls, giants and ogres came to be, but the Old Norse knew them best, and so the name Draugr survived. These vampires sought to shed the curse with their skin, but in doing so only served to lay their true natures bare, serpents in the soul. 
[list][*]It is not quick or clean but after the painful process of their transformation is complete Draug are able to unleash the full bestial might at their disposal. Standing at the stilted height of at least two men tall these slender, serpentine mockeries of their former selves are well equipped to savage any and all within reach. 
[*]Holding dominion over serpents Draug can call upon this kinship to coerce (but not command) such creatures. As this demands mutual respect many will elect to train a single snake as their familiar. 
[*]Able to harvest memories from overturned earth Draug can sift the soil for visions of recent events.  
 [/list]
Alps instead sought to become other men, delving into dreams and wearing false faces, but the curse followed them. They took the name of no-one important and scattered themselves to all corners of the earth. From them tales of changelings and doppelganger, incubi and fey sprung up. 
[list][*]An Alp lies with the very fiber of its being, luring light and shadow to false figures. 'They' do not change at all, but rather our perceptions of them. Alps can be anyone to anyone and in any given instant neither need coincide. 
[*]Alps hold sway over insects and as such are able to clumsily command the mindless vermin. A swarm of flies may be incapable of carrying out complex instruction but will serve as a ready deterrent nonetheless. 
[*]Alps can swallow the stare of other creatures with prolonged eye contact, gleaning their hidden desires. 
 [/list]
As befits the Vetala they sought a more spiritual solution and took the name of a respected guru as their own. Breaking their ties to the material world they planned to pass into the hereafter but their spirits had already withered and could not take flight. Like a foul wind they blew across what would later become India and southeast Asia and spread fear of ghosts and demonic possession. 
[list][*]The furthest from life among vampires Vetala are functionally impervious to non-magical harm, yet their condition demands they cage themselves within a corpse to interact with the world around them. Unable to sustain these surrogate bodies for long before they rot away vampires such as these find little respite from the numbing cold that pervades the 'near-after'. 
[*]Vetala hold sway over carrion birds, a vast network of condors, vultures and crows pressed into service as messengers and spies. 
[*]Themselves mere echoes Vetala are especially adept at plucking whispers from the wind, though it requires their full attention to do so. 
 [/list]
Dhampir, or the Sixth-House are fledgling vampires not yet come into their own, born by the union of a vampire and mortal mother. Many will misdiagnose their malign condition until it either fully manifests or they become a target of supernatural forces.[/hider]

[hider=Vulnerabilities]
As a vampire your biggest weakness is being convinced of your own destruction, as such some deaths are so symbolic that only the most ancient and terrible of creatures can survive them.

[list]
[*][b][u]The destruction of the head:[/u][/b] Housing the brain and bridging the gap between the waking and wider worlds decapitation anulls the marriage of mind and body and renders both inert.
[*][b][u]The destruction of the heart:[/u][/b] As retribution for their treachery vampires were ripped from the cycle of death and rebirth and bestowed slow beating hearts; each offering only a sluggish reminder that their owner once lived. Without that mournful pang's arrival a vampire will wilt away as the weight of his years press down on him.
[*][b][u]Sunlight:[/u][/b] The cycle of night and day embodies the chain of life, death and rebirth and as such those afflicted with the vampire's curse can not withstand the light they long for. Sunlight is their annihilation, boiling away even their tattered souls.
[*][b][u]Burning:[/u][/b] As a reminder of their own damnation fire is no friend to the vampire. While not particularly any deadlier to them than to most anyone else it will pursue them and once engulfed in flame they cannot be extinguished.
[*][b][u]Faith and Iconography:[/u][/b] Belief is the most fearsome force in all creation, after all gravity is no more than the notion that our feet should touch the ground. As such the faithful--no matter what that faith may be--are especially dangerous you and your ilk; be thankful they are a dying breed. Directly observing blessed items causes your eyes to bleed so long as their wielder's faith in such things endures.
[/list][/hider]

I'm on the fence thematically about making water burn vamps (The essential element of life) leaning more heavily on having it be estranged to them and as weightless as the air around it. I'll be playing with that idea a little more.

As a heads up Dhampir can die in pretty much any manner that would claim the life of a living person--still in the transition from mortal to immortal--with the upside that fire, faith and the sun are far less dangerous to them.

The magic system I'm working on revolves around tattoos.