Vampire Hunter (Ree)

Ree's vampire hunters are partly inspired by [Arak Calandryll's vampire hunter class for AD&D]. Beyond that, Ree isn't sure herself.

Jaina Jade and Pasht are former members of this organisation. Most huntresses practice a unique religion based on the concept of taint. Huntresses speak the language(s), wear the dress, and generally practice the customs of the surrounding people (though it must be said that it is a rare huntress who wears a skirt willingly).

Hunters are grouped by cells, each constituting a loose family group. Each cell belongs to a House. Known Houses include Glass and Jade. Houses are not grouped together geographically; this is intended to ensure survival of the House even if neighboring cells are eradicated. There is at least one cell is virtually any region of the world. Non-hunter members are not always affilated with a House, but hunters always are.

Family is fluid among the hunters, the group most detached from normal human life. Hunters in training are shifted from group home to group home as their ability improves or wanes. This makes familial relationships odd -- the same woman may be referred to as Nan or aunt by the same girl at different points in her life.

Religion

Most hunters practice (or at least pay lip service to) a unique cult revolving around the concept of taint. They worship a distant Goddess -- not the same as the Goddess of Wicca -- and believe that only by good works may they be saved, namely dealing death to once-human monsters. Some non-hunter members follow as well, casting their lot in with a hunter or hunters (usually sharing a House or a romance) and relying on the hunter's salvation being enough to cover more than one person.

Membership

There are two ways cells gain new members: adopting children and recruiting women.

Children

When the cell leader is satisfied that a specific child has been chosen by their Goddess, the girl is adopted into the cell and raised within it. She will be renamed with her House name in place of her old surname (e.g, Jaina Jade) and sometimes with a new personal name, subject to the whim of the cell leader or aunt who cares for the children. Such adoptions are almost always huntresses, unless the child is unfit to hunt despite the Goddess's selection of her.

Adults

Women are rarely recruited outright. Most are offered safety within the cell's haven if a huntress encounters a victim in the course of a hunt. Some opt for a fresh start under a wholly new name, selecting an (often ridiculous) personal name and taking their House as surname; others serve the cell part-time and keep their original names and occupations. Members not named for their House will append it to their name when identifying themselves as such to known members of other cells or houses, e.g. "Emily Parker of House Glass". These women act as support staff to the huntresses: working security for cell safe havens, researching new methods and weapons to combat the monsters, or co-rearing young adoptees. They are never huntresses, though they may assist battles in non-combat roles, such as backing up daylight raids on vampire dens.

Everything below this point is subject to change

Despite being identified as vampire hunters, the organisation is far more diverse. Different branches are dedicated to killing various monsters, studying them and how mundane science may affect them, and protecting themselves from public knowledge.

Branch map (incomplete):

• Hunters
  • vampires (JJ was here)
  • zombies
  • werewolves
  • ghosts/demons (exorcism unit)
• R&D
  • branches parallel to hunting, plus:
  • intel
  • academic research
  • experimentation
  • Terran science
    • weapons
    • med tech
      • gene therapy
  • experimental magic (rarely pays off)
• Support staff
  • med tech (overlap w/ R&D)
  • haven guards
  • "mother hens" to raise adoptees
  • assorted external contacts
    • sympathetic law enforcement
    • mages