The ranking system is of Vampiric origin, fittingly, with powers increasing, and being added upon as they gain experience enough to rise to the next stage of their development.

Basic Generalized Appearance: Vampires appear in shapes and sizes similar to humans, ranging roughly from 4 to 7 feet in height, the vast majority somewhere between 5 and 6 feet, with relative weights; there is virtually no such thing as an overweight vampire. Usually, they are slim, slender and elegantly muscled. Well built, to be sure, although it does not stand out in the least bit. Most appear graceful, something especially charming and charismatic characterizes them. All are in possession of skin the shade of death; imagine the main character from the movie Powder, and that is similar to a vampire's skintone. As a general rule, the eyes of a vampire are strange, eerily haunting, in a vast array of colors, and they can be normal, pupilless, or, using Tempest for an example, simply one color, no whites, as if they had been pupilless to begin with, and then the iris had spread to cover the entire eye. They have no set color or style of hair, it will vary from clan to clan and vamp to vamp. Last and certainly not least, the feature that defines a vampire= the fangs. All have them, elongated and sharpened canines, retractable and exposable at the will of the vampire, and most allow theirs to remain in partly bared position; a vampire with fully bared fangs will usually be either drinking, fighting, or very close to it; and all three instances are at the very least noticable, and a vampire does not usually wish to stand out. Reclusive, secretive, mysterious by nature, they much prefer to being hidden in the shadows than being the center of attention. Their attire is varied, depending much on the clan of vampire and the particular vampire's habits and persona. Though some things I can say for sure that you will never catch a vampire wearing are string bikinis, beavis and butthead t-shirts, polyester suits, and the like.

Childe: this is the lowest and weakest ranking of vampire, and all endowed with the most basic and elementary vampiric abilities. A childe is under the supervision of their Sire (meaning the one who turned them) The sire has the responsibility of teaching the underling the vampiric ways, and honing their newly acquired and unharnessed skills and abilities, which include unearthly speed and agility, and a heightening of all the senses. A childe is given his or her choice of weapon, there are various types but all are evil in both deed and appearance. A few examples are sword, scythe, polearm, battle ax, any anything else reasonable, most certainly no chainsaws, or uzis or assault rifles, or spiked baseball bats, or any of that crap. At this basic level, a vampire will have, unsurprisingly, basic knowledge of how to use their weapon of choice. A childe will not be able to learn any spells. They will weaken with prolonged exposure to sunlight as well, so for the most part, they remain indoors, and only venture out at night, and under the protection of their sire.

Progency: at the level of progency, a vampire gains inhuman strength and endurance. They may also begin to learn whichever of the simpler dark spells they please. Also, at this stage, a vampire will begin to harness their hypnotic powers, the combination of a deep look into their eyes, and smooth flowing words enough to cause a mesmerizing effect on whomever they so choose to. A good instance for using this skill would be using their powers of suggestion to lull an opponent into a slowed rate of attack for a round or two during a battle. The progency vampire is still under the watchful eye of their sire, though their skills learned by this point would allow them to stand alone in nearly all situations. The progency vampire will be faster still than a childe, and will have an uncanny agility. The knowledge of the proper use of their weapon will have increased as well. The progency vampire will have built up a reasonable immunity to sunlight, and must only seek to hide from it at those times of day when it shines brightest and harshest.

Sire: at this level of development, a vampire will have mastered the ability to fade in and out of the shadows from whence their race was born. Also, they will have nearly fully realized the potential of their ability to heal/regen from ordinary physical wounds. Do not misunderstand, they can still be wounded, though flesh wounds caused by unenchanted weapons will do very little to slow a vampire down. (of course, if all the particular vampire does is RP that they regen from the hack to wherever on their undead body that it may be, the moder will be labeled as such and will have an angry Tempest to deal with) At this stage, the vampire will be free to learn whichever of the dark spells they please, save for the most difficult. Their mastery of the vampiric powers of hypnotism will have increased to a level in which the sire may easily send their victim headlong into a trance, comparable to a moderate stun, and will effect the unfortunate receiver by their inability to do naught but breath for a good few minutes, considering a mortal opponent. If the sire attempts such on an immortal of similar skill level, the effects will be lessened. A vampire at the level of Sire is a formiddable foe indeed, and there is virtually no chance of a mortal walking away from a battle against one, except in the case in which the sire is greatly weakened, or wished merely to toy with their victim.

Elder: by the time a vampire has reached the level of Elder, they will have mastered the ability of flight, specifically, winglessly, and effortlessly, they may manoeuvre themselves through the air, simply by thinking it. Flight being the final vampiric ability that a member of the undead seeks to master. The Elder Vampire has reached their full potential, able to master any of the dark spells, in possession of perfect knowledge of the use of their weapon, and their speed, strength, and agility all beyond compare. The elder vampire will have lost basically all human feelings and capacities, being a level above the sire in evil, and worship of all that is ungodly and dark, with an uncanny loyalty to their race that overrides all else. True that all vampires despise all which is holy, but the Elder is unable to deny that hatred. The vampiric curse will have taken full control of their being. It takes truly a foolish being to pick a fight with an Elder vampire, either a foolish or suicidal one. It is very ill-advisable to do so.

Omnipotence: there can be only one vampire at this level at any given time, and truly it takes centuries to attain it. The omnioptent vampire will possess all vampiric qualities afore mentioned, and will have more than merely mastered them. He or she is ordained by the previously departed omnipotent one to the position, and there they will remain, until the event of their Final Death. His or her purpose is to eradicate all beings of light or goodness, and in this they are mercilessly dilligent, frenzied, and unrelenting. One will catch the omnipotent one rarely doing anything other than fighting with the highest ranked holy being they can lay their sights on, either fighting, or plotting, or the like. They do not, of course, forsake their responsibility to care for the entireity of their race. They are considered all his or her "children", and their well being is his or her motive for battling those accursed light beings so continually, dramatically, zealously. The omnipotent one is never at rest, and never shall be, until all threat to his or her kingdom has been dealt with in swift and deadly force.