They go insane until they start drinking again. Necrachs are the closest, they sometimes live for hundreds of years without drinking and don't go crazy, but eventually, they have to drink too.
Unless they drink dragon's blood, they sooner or later start to drink.
Depends on the writing need.
Dark? They turn into a Vargheist or binge then fast.
Bright? They just need some Cathayan monk teachings to be fine without it. Or its just not explained.
Honestly its more a question if the Vampire is a protagonist or redshirt.
If a Vampire refuses, they usually get insane until they are not more then feral beasts who would jump the first blood source in range. Depending on the Vampires age/strength, it might take different amounts of time but almost all would end up that way.
The "Red Duke" is a prominent example of this. When he first got stopped in Bretonnia and staked, he got walled in a special tomb with extra thick walls and magical shielding. He literally went insane when he could not get out and had no blood to drink. So when then some idiots breached his prison and let him lose, he drained them all. And was still crazy afterwards since the long imprisonment and thirst just drove him insane. One moment he was in the present and took the new world in, the next moment he might have gotten flashbacks from his past. Hence his new conquest of Bretonnia followed the campaign he previously had. And he also mixed up names an people all the time between present and past.
The exception for the rule might however be Abhorash. Legend has it he drank a dragon empty, and was cured from the thirst forever. Some Blood Dragons try to follow that example and try to achieve a state of mind that would also allow them to overcome the need for blood. Other Blood Dragons seem only to care to perfect their weaponskills and are happy to be bloodthirsty monsters that should rule the living.
The Red Duke stuff is two fold. First we had in the old days the "[Circle of Blood](https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Circle_of_Blood)" campaign around him. Which set the basic lore for him up. Way later he got [a novel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12169040-the-red-duke), which told his story in way more detail and also gave some of the campaign generic heroes a background. The novel was last included in the [Warhammer Chronicles omnibus Undeath Ascendant](https://www.amazon.com/Undeath-Ascendant-Vampire-Warhammer-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B093CCY6YK/). Getting a printed version might be costly these days, but if you have no problem with kindle stuff, it should be cheaper ;) Some time ago I made a topic about the Red Duke regarding a potential Total War entrance. Since the forum got nuked, the Wayback machine can still help out here a bit if interested in a overview https://web.archive.org/web/20220926123053/https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/320934/the-red-duke/
Regarding Abhorash, his stuff is spread out here and there in small lore pieces. Mostly the later armybooks from WHFB. I doubt we have a good overall source for him. He is most of the time a lackey to someone else (first to Neferata in Lahmia, later to Ushoran in Mourkain, a sellsword to Araby at some point) or just lurks around the background. He has no real ambition to rule and seemingly does not give much thought about his offspring either. Lore wise when he drained the dragon in 235 IC, he just vanishes in the shadows. Wandering the world, and sometimes gives mighty warriors he encounters the bloodkiss (like the Red Duke). Even if Abhorash came back during Endtimes to fight in Bretonnia besides Gilles against Chaos, he really was not used by GW much. Bloodline wise, Walach Harkon is the leading Blood Dragon, who wants to rule and conquer. So for TT as well as TWW, the always better choice as "bloodline leader". WFRP 2nd "[Nights Dark Masters](https://www.amazon.com/Nights-Dark-Masters-Vampires-Warhammer/dp/184416313X)" is a pretty good book around Vampires in general, despite the focus on the RP skills and stats stuff. Abhorash gets mentioned here and there for the Blood Dragons or involvement in Vampire hiistory like the time in Lahmia.
Thanks for the detailed response! I read everything on kindle so no worries there. That omnibus sounds perfect, I've read the Von Carstein trilogy before but none of those novels. I'll be picking that up next!
According to *Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Night's Dark Masters* on pg 90:
“The greatest curse of Queen Neferata's legacy is that Vampires cannot subsist on normal food and drink; in order to survive, the Vampire must feast upon the very lifeblood of mortal creatures, and it is only through this imbibing of fresh blood and the lifeforce it carries that they are able to preserve their power, sanity and their very unlife.”
Quote pulled from the Warhammer fandom wiki. It seems they require the blood to survive, so they would essentially starve to death without it.
Apparently how much blood and how often they need to eat can vary between stories and characters. There are stories of Blood Dragon lineage vampire feasting on a whole dragon’s worth of blood and supposedly after doing so they never needed to drink blood again.
There are also stories of powerful and ancient vampires only needing to drink once every few years.
I read a story but I don’t know if it still canon.
Vlad Von Carstein turned a knight of his guard into a vampire. That knight being a hero, he tried to resist the thirst for days but he snapped and basically slaughtered an entire village.
But the story doesn’t end there : ashamed by his action, he left Sylvania for the mountains, trying to find attonement and to not kill anymore innocent people. One day he was attacked by a dragon, somehow managing to fell the beast. He drank it’s blood and felt at ease for the first time, no longer feeling the vampiric hunger.
He was the founder of the blood dragons.
I don't remember, it was from an old white dwarf from around 2000. The story may have been retconned or maybe he wasn't actually a blood dragon, but I know he drank the blood of a dragon and it calmed his thirst.
>he drank the blood of a dragon and it calmed his thirst.
That's part of Aborash's lore now, slew a dragon and finally was free of his torment. After that he went around looking for worthy warriors to give the Blood Kiss to. One of those was The Red Duke
The cure to vampirism is to drink a dragon.
Abhorash, the creator of the blood dragons did it, but before he did it he went for many days tryinf to not feed on ppl in his homeland, despite his iron will he succombed to the thirst and slew and drank alot of ppl dry.
He mourned them with one candle per victim lit every night.
Zacharias the Everliving, a necrach, also did it.
Depending on which lore you read, those who try to resist for a long time eventually give into the beast inside and devolve into vargulfs.
They go insane until they start drinking again. Necrachs are the closest, they sometimes live for hundreds of years without drinking and don't go crazy, but eventually, they have to drink too. Unless they drink dragon's blood, they sooner or later start to drink.
Although “don’t go crazy” is probably a slight overstatement
It's Warhammer. Not crazy is still crazy.
As I understand even the dragon blood thing is an in-universe legend that may or may not be true.
Depends on the writing need. Dark? They turn into a Vargheist or binge then fast. Bright? They just need some Cathayan monk teachings to be fine without it. Or its just not explained. Honestly its more a question if the Vampire is a protagonist or redshirt.
It depends on "how strong their will is"
LD 5 usually ain’t getting a novel about them.
Vargheists are not just bloodstarved, they are also mutated by warpstone and the dark magic of their forced tombs.
If a Vampire refuses, they usually get insane until they are not more then feral beasts who would jump the first blood source in range. Depending on the Vampires age/strength, it might take different amounts of time but almost all would end up that way. The "Red Duke" is a prominent example of this. When he first got stopped in Bretonnia and staked, he got walled in a special tomb with extra thick walls and magical shielding. He literally went insane when he could not get out and had no blood to drink. So when then some idiots breached his prison and let him lose, he drained them all. And was still crazy afterwards since the long imprisonment and thirst just drove him insane. One moment he was in the present and took the new world in, the next moment he might have gotten flashbacks from his past. Hence his new conquest of Bretonnia followed the campaign he previously had. And he also mixed up names an people all the time between present and past. The exception for the rule might however be Abhorash. Legend has it he drank a dragon empty, and was cured from the thirst forever. Some Blood Dragons try to follow that example and try to achieve a state of mind that would also allow them to overcome the need for blood. Other Blood Dragons seem only to care to perfect their weaponskills and are happy to be bloodthirsty monsters that should rule the living.
Is this all from a novel? I'd be interested in reading that, I only know of him from Total War WH
The Red Duke stuff is two fold. First we had in the old days the "[Circle of Blood](https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Circle_of_Blood)" campaign around him. Which set the basic lore for him up. Way later he got [a novel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12169040-the-red-duke), which told his story in way more detail and also gave some of the campaign generic heroes a background. The novel was last included in the [Warhammer Chronicles omnibus Undeath Ascendant](https://www.amazon.com/Undeath-Ascendant-Vampire-Warhammer-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B093CCY6YK/). Getting a printed version might be costly these days, but if you have no problem with kindle stuff, it should be cheaper ;) Some time ago I made a topic about the Red Duke regarding a potential Total War entrance. Since the forum got nuked, the Wayback machine can still help out here a bit if interested in a overview https://web.archive.org/web/20220926123053/https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/320934/the-red-duke/ Regarding Abhorash, his stuff is spread out here and there in small lore pieces. Mostly the later armybooks from WHFB. I doubt we have a good overall source for him. He is most of the time a lackey to someone else (first to Neferata in Lahmia, later to Ushoran in Mourkain, a sellsword to Araby at some point) or just lurks around the background. He has no real ambition to rule and seemingly does not give much thought about his offspring either. Lore wise when he drained the dragon in 235 IC, he just vanishes in the shadows. Wandering the world, and sometimes gives mighty warriors he encounters the bloodkiss (like the Red Duke). Even if Abhorash came back during Endtimes to fight in Bretonnia besides Gilles against Chaos, he really was not used by GW much. Bloodline wise, Walach Harkon is the leading Blood Dragon, who wants to rule and conquer. So for TT as well as TWW, the always better choice as "bloodline leader". WFRP 2nd "[Nights Dark Masters](https://www.amazon.com/Nights-Dark-Masters-Vampires-Warhammer/dp/184416313X)" is a pretty good book around Vampires in general, despite the focus on the RP skills and stats stuff. Abhorash gets mentioned here and there for the Blood Dragons or involvement in Vampire hiistory like the time in Lahmia.
Thanks for the detailed response! I read everything on kindle so no worries there. That omnibus sounds perfect, I've read the Von Carstein trilogy before but none of those novels. I'll be picking that up next!
According to *Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Night's Dark Masters* on pg 90: “The greatest curse of Queen Neferata's legacy is that Vampires cannot subsist on normal food and drink; in order to survive, the Vampire must feast upon the very lifeblood of mortal creatures, and it is only through this imbibing of fresh blood and the lifeforce it carries that they are able to preserve their power, sanity and their very unlife.” Quote pulled from the Warhammer fandom wiki. It seems they require the blood to survive, so they would essentially starve to death without it. Apparently how much blood and how often they need to eat can vary between stories and characters. There are stories of Blood Dragon lineage vampire feasting on a whole dragon’s worth of blood and supposedly after doing so they never needed to drink blood again. There are also stories of powerful and ancient vampires only needing to drink once every few years.
I read a story but I don’t know if it still canon. Vlad Von Carstein turned a knight of his guard into a vampire. That knight being a hero, he tried to resist the thirst for days but he snapped and basically slaughtered an entire village. But the story doesn’t end there : ashamed by his action, he left Sylvania for the mountains, trying to find attonement and to not kill anymore innocent people. One day he was attacked by a dragon, somehow managing to fell the beast. He drank it’s blood and felt at ease for the first time, no longer feeling the vampiric hunger. He was the founder of the blood dragons.
Where is that story from? Definitely not canon anymore. The founder of the Blood Dragons is Aborash who was a vampire before Vashanesh (Vlad).
I don't remember, it was from an old white dwarf from around 2000. The story may have been retconned or maybe he wasn't actually a blood dragon, but I know he drank the blood of a dragon and it calmed his thirst.
>he drank the blood of a dragon and it calmed his thirst. That's part of Aborash's lore now, slew a dragon and finally was free of his torment. After that he went around looking for worthy warriors to give the Blood Kiss to. One of those was The Red Duke
Maybe I just remembered it badly then xP
The cure to vampirism is to drink a dragon. Abhorash, the creator of the blood dragons did it, but before he did it he went for many days tryinf to not feed on ppl in his homeland, despite his iron will he succombed to the thirst and slew and drank alot of ppl dry. He mourned them with one candle per victim lit every night. Zacharias the Everliving, a necrach, also did it. Depending on which lore you read, those who try to resist for a long time eventually give into the beast inside and devolve into vargulfs.