While most of the made vampires are nomadic, not often staying in any one territory for more than a few years, born vampires have very strong territorial urges and blunted empathy, guilt, and other emotions, which make relations with other vampires difficult at best. In order to avoid conflict amongst themselves, the vampire families established a council to provide law and order for their kind, as well as settle disputes civilly, without need for bloodshed.

This council, for born vampires and consisting entirely of born vampires, was dubbed the Order of the Red Serpent by the early Church, and from early times has been the target of numerous unsuccessful hunts. The name was taken up by the vampires, and the name has enjoyed more success among the vampires than in the Church, where it has fallen into obscurity. Many of the older members of the council have ruby pins, rings, or other jewelry in the shape of serpents.

Membership in the council is established by a vampire's birth into one of the twenty-one original vampire families. For most families, the father would hand down his membership to his oldest son, in the event of his death. For some vampire familes, whose original vampire ancestor was female, that membership is instead handed down to the oldest daughter. Two families still possess their original vampire ancestors, and those ancestors still man the council. Sixteen of the other seats still remain active. The other seats belong to vampire families whose members have all been lost or are missing.

The Order of the Red Serpent passes laws to regulate vampire society as well as settles disputes between rival families and even disputes among made vampires. These laws are enforced by a police force consisting of lesser members of the major vampire families. Membership in the force is a status symbol as well as a matter of pride, and the council usually has plenty of vampires to enforce its wishes. This police force also deals with security threats from normal humans, such as someone trying to go public with proof of their existence, and even the ocassional hunter.

The Core Laws of the Order of the Red Serpent:

1. Respect the territory of thy equals and thy betters.
2. Thou shalt take care to keep thy blood away from mortals.
3. Thou shalt not create more than one vampire from a mortal every ten years.
4. Thou shalt never allow thy nature to become knowledge of a mortal.
5. Mortal hunters are to be killed, lest thou art to be counted among them.
6. Thou shalt never raise arms towards thy ally.
7. Thou shalt never leave evidence of thy feeding.

Other laws are added and dropped as needed, but the core laws have remained the same since the council first convened.

The Order of the Red Serpent has had its headquarters in Venice since 1347, and the council has maintained a strong presence in the city. The two oldest members of the council maintain their households in Venice. Other members of the council have their main residences scattered around Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Vampires are descended from a loose society of witches, sorcerers, and conjurers in 11th century Europe. Information and rituals were shared amongst the group, and after one such ritual was circulated, members began to notice a strange affliction that slowly started to make their lives miserable. After several months, desperate for a cure, they met in Venice to attempt to cure the affliction. They all participated in a particularly difficult demonic summoning. While the demon could not undo the curse that had been placed upon them, it could ease the symptoms, allowing them to sate their hunger and thirst with the blood of humans, and giving them the strength and lasting health to enact the revenge that they wanted for their predicament, in exchange for their souls, and the souls of all of the children they might have. They agreed, and the first vampires were created.

A vampire's curse can be transmitted two ways, by birth and by blood. All of a vampire's children will be vampires themselves, regardless of the status of their second parent. It takes only one drop of of a vampire's blood entering the body in order for a normal human body to begin the transition to vampire.

Physically, there is little difference between the two types of vampires.

1. Physical Strength: Both are strong enough to bend a metal pipe or jump to the top of a two story building.
2. Speed: Vampires have reflexes twice as fast as humans, and are able to move at speeds up to seventy miles an hour.
3. Longevity: Most born vampires stop aging between the ages of 20-30, as the body completes the gradual change to vampire.
4. Healing: A vampire's body heals injury twice as fast as a human. Save fire, the sun, and decapitation, most injuries will not kill a vampire, though they can and do slow them down or even put them into a torpor-like state. When in a torpor, the vampire's metabolism slows down, preserving the blood in the body to be used for healing and sating hunger. Still, most of the time, a vampire will wake up from a torpor ravenous.
5. Most possess a natural aptitude for magic, though knowledge of magic is not innate and must be taught. Personal belief can affect this, with those who do not believe in magic showing little to no sensitivity.
6. Most vampires possess hunting and killing instincts to aid in getting the blood they need.
7. Senses: Eyesight, especially night sight, is considerably increased. Hearing is sensitive enough to hear their prey's heartbeat in a quiet room. Sense of smell is slightly more sensitive, to the degree of an exceptional human.

The weaknesses each type of vampire possesses vary based on how they were made. Vampires by birth show different weaknesses than those made by blood.

1. Vampires typically do not begin to change until they reach puberty. They do not reach their full strength and resilience until their mid-to-late 20s. Before the change, they are subject to all the same injuries, diseases, and aging as normal humanity.
2. Vampires by birth usually have red eyes, and even as children are often photosensitive.
3. As children, vampires tend to sunburn easily. Once they've gone through the change, vampires by birth are the group most affected by the sun. They cannot stand even indirect sunlight or they will burst into flame.
4. The perpetual hunger and thirst that afflicts most vampires does not usually affect a vampire's children until they begin puberty, but can under rare circumstances manifest in younger children. Younger children affected by this hunger are unable to eat or drink normally, and are required to drink blood, as their elders do. Vampires by birth are usually more affected by this hunger and thirst than those made by blood. While a vampire made by blood can be sated, a born vampire very often is not. Control is learned early in life, as vampire children are attracted to blood at an early age, before the hunger and thirst take hold.
5. Born vampires are born with the same instincts their elders use for hunting. They also usually are born less able to empathize with others and with a strong possessive instinct. All born vampires are extremely territorial, and it is not uncommon to find families returning year after year to the same ancestral home.
6. Born vampires have a hard time conceiving, as the body usually rejects the fertilized egg, and it typically takes many years before a child comes to term successfully.

In contrast, vampires made with blood show other traits.

1. They are frozen at the age in which they were given blood, regardless of age. The change, for this group, takes typically two years, in which the fledgling vampire will be more ravenous than at any other point later in life.
2. Their eyes usually do not change color, and remain the same color they were in life. They are usually not as photosensitive as born vampires.
3. Once fully changed, they are not as sensitive to sunlight as born vampires. They can stand indirect sunlight for minutes at a time with blisters and peeling to show for it.
4. Though they feel the same hunger and thirst as born vampires, it is not quite as overwhelming, and can be sated by feeding regularly. Control is not quite as important to learn, for this group, and many do not show the same restraint as born vampires when in the presence of blood.
5. Though they acquire the same hunting and killing instincts as born vampires, they are still subject to the same emotions they had as humans. While born vampires rarely feel love, empathy, or guilt, made vampires often do.
6. Most made vampires do not feel the same territorial instincts as born vampires, and they often wander.
7. Fertility is reduced dramatically in made vampires, and it is not uncommon for women turned into vampires to be unable to conceive at all.

Both groups are subject to some of the same weaknesses.

1. Food: Holds no nutritional value for vampires who have completed the change. It tastes disgusting to them, and most find even the smell nausiating.
2. Water: Pure water is a poison when ingested, accidentally or otherwise. Depending on degree of ingestion, symptoms range from vomiting, dizziness, weakness, to torpor or death.
3. Hunger: Vampires are perpetually hungry and thirsty and must drink human blood to satisfy those cravings. Born vampires typically require more blood than made vampires.
4. Sunlight: No vampire can stand in direct sunlight and live. Direct sunlight ignites vampiric flesh upon contact. Indirect sunlight causes severe burns on made vampires, and it can ignite born vampires.
5. Fire: Both types of vampire are equally combustible, and avoid fire. Their flesh burns readily and is difficult to put out, once it's alight.
6. Wooden stakes: A wooden stake through the heart will disrupt the demonic pact, taking the vampire's strength and health. It will make it impossible for a vampire to feed while leaving the hunger and thirst. While it will not kill a vampire, the vampire will very quickly waste away into a living mummy, remaining unable to move and feed until the stake is removed.
7. Decapitation: A vampire will die when its head is removed.
8. Crosses: A blessed cross will burn a vampire's skin. Most crosses and crucifixes will make as vampire feel weak and sickened.
9. Mirrors: A vampire's reflection doesn't show in a mirror.

Adrien Donatien Jacques de Moulins was born to Vicomte Auguste Benoît de Moulins and Anne-Marie Victoire de Moulins on December 21, 1537. He was the fourth of five children born to the Vicomte before his wife's battle and eventual death of cancer in 1547. Jean-Paul was the oldest of the de Moulins children and inherited his father's hungers at a young age. André was the second oldest, and while he didn't show signs of vampirism until puberty as was normal, he was a bully to his younger siblings. Élise was Adrien's older sister. Of all the de Moulins children, she was the best at hiding what she was, and was the most social of them. Adrien himself was a sickly child, and often spent more time in the library than the fields, nursing one illness or another. His younger sister, Colette, was born frail and succumbed to childhood illness at the age of five, long before the curse in her blood could protect her from such diseases.

The Vicomte was a strict parent, especially once his human wife died. The children, even Élise, had a tutor, Monsieur Laurent, who taught them to read and write and also taught them some of the more advanced subjects. The children were bright, though prone to terrorizing their tutor. Behind their father's back, they terrorized most of the human servants, especially Jean-Paul, who from the age of eight suffered the same hunger and thirst that his father did. Once they were older, their father took more interest in them, especially once they started showing more signs of vampirism. He taught them about magic, the occult, and their history. He also taught them about their nature and how to hunt, once they were far enough along in their change that they needed to learn.

They lived in Moulins until 1567, when the unrest caused by the Wars of Religion spread to Moulins. The de Moulins family were called witches and sorcerers at the best of times, and a Huguenot mob surrounded the castle, demanding the head of the Vicomte. He was decapitated in battle with a soldier who went rogue to help the mob. Jean-Paul and André were held in the castle dungeon until the mob finally decided to burn the two de Moulins captives. Élise was married to a duke abroad and was safely out of harm's way. Adrien alone managed to escape, and enacted a spell to protect the castle and its grounds from fire before he left to live with his sister and her family in Scotland until the furor died down around Moulins.

He returned to Moulins in 1589, pretending to be a son of Élise, and managed to hold onto the de Moulins estate for another 34 years, until the summer of 1623 when suspicion again began to rise regarding the de Moulins estate and its inhabitant. This time, he moved first to England, then took a ship from England to the Massachusetts colonies in 1652. He returned to Moulins from Andover in 1692, during the witch trials, which had again begun to compromise his safety. He lived quietly in Moulins until 1751 when he moved to a house in Paris. There he stayed until 1787, until growing resentment of the upper class and the king prompted a move first back to Moulins, then across the Atlantic to America in 1789 to escape the French Revolution.

Adrien discovered business while he was in America, and used family money to found a successful retail company, Moulins and Trapp, which specialized in European fashion. He was involved in the company with his partner, William Trapp, until the latter's death in 1817. The company was sold and Adrien moved farther north, into Maine, where he lived quietly until 1836, when he again returned to Moulins. He spent the next 90 years traveling between America, Europe, and Moulins, never spending more than five years in any one place. In the 1920s he moved to New York, where he met with figures in organized crime at the time. In 1931, he was suspected in two suspicious deaths at his New York apartment, and he moved back to Moulins to avoid prosecution.

Adrien dropped off the radar for most of the 20th century, presumably remaining in quiet solitude at the Chateau de Moulins until May of 1993, when he abruptly packed most of the remaining possessions in the Chateau de Moulins and moved to a mansion in Tampa, Florida. He was married in 1998, and his wife, Stephanie, gave birth to a his son, Nicolae in 1999. Stephanie later died due to anemia and heart problems, just after the birth of Adrien's daughter, Marie, in 2006. Both children currently attend a private Catholic school in Tampa. Adrien owns a security consulting firm in Tampa, Florida, specializing in corporate and cyber security. The Chateau de Moulins is still in the hands of the de Moulins family, but as it is in ruins now, it is no longer inhabited.

I have a bio and stuff coming soon.

In the meantime, this journal is for the original character Adrien de Moulins. For those familiar with his other incarnations, including adriengriffon, this is a complete reboot of the character. Details of his background and his current situation will be different. His way of talking, even his mind will be different. This is the product of several years of hiatus from writing him, coming up with character details that make more sense, and ironing out issues that he had when he was roleplayed at tenebrae_nostro.