One of my players decided to make a new character. When I got my sample of Those who walked amongst us he was intrigued to see there was a vampire-like nephelim that was playable. Since he is an active World of Darkness player he has a few opinions on how a vampire should do and what he can do. The description of them is very vague, implying that they are thought to be vampires but are necessarily not so.

The main question is: how does it reflect to Anima? Let's assume I am speaking about the Nephilim and not the pure form.

1. First and foremost: how does a Vetala find nourishment? A typical vampire bites a neck and sucks blood. The Vetala doesn't particularly state that they actually do this: only that they need blood. Can they use fangs?

2. In the act of feeding, what happens to the victim? Will it die? If not, will it remember the attack? Are the bite marks visible after the attack? In a civilized area this would cause mass hysteria and make the Vetala's work harder and almost unplayable. (This is assuming the Vetala nethelim has no magic training in order to use illusions and stuff).

3. Can drunk blood infect the Vetala if it contains disease?

4. Does any form of blood work? Can they consume blood from animals, too? Supernatural beings that bleeds green blood? Can a mere fish sate their thirst?

First and foremost, Vetala ARE NOT Vampires. They're just very Vampire-resembling beings, but they are LIVING BEING and not Undead. Being so, I don't think they have particularly developed fangs (after all, they have no natural weapon advantage), so i guess in order to drink the blood from others they have to open wounds and drink the blood coming out of it (well, you know…Erzbeth Bathory drank it like that, and unlike Vampires, she existed, actually, so I guess also Vetala can drink the same way). My guess is they can feed off most kinds of blood, but when drinking particularly "interesting" blood for a while, they can develop special and unique powers (something I tried to represent with my Ancient Vetala's Blood). They CAN atually get sick, although their nature makes them particularly resistant to diseases. And yes…most ridiculous of all…Vetala have no Night Vision…they are night hunters completely helpless in darkness. Pretty strange on my opinion, but after all they are few individuals nowadays and a reason for that must be found somewhere. I'd let a Vetala feed off fish blood and such…although my guess is some of the Vetala's powers based on diet (such as the high regeneration rate or the ability to enter the Blood Extasis) might not work or work much worse, if the Vetala has a constant diet based on animals (especially lowly evolved ones).

Overall not a very good race. Personally, I'd let my players use it WITHOUT the experience penalty which is definitely not needed for their balance.