Vampire

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Vampire (吸血鬼, kyuuketsuki^?, blood-sucking demon) is the general term for those who suck the blood of humans; it includes the blood-sucking species that is Dead Apostles as well as those that aren't Dead Apostles. In the Tsukihime setting, a vampire sucks the blood of humans to maintain their own body. If the vampire gives the human his own blood in the process, the human will not completely die. A normal human will end up dying, but sometimes, there are those whose body has a high potential, and if his soul has a good capacity, he can remain in the present world.

Several years after the death of the body, the brain dissolves and the soul is freed from the cage of the body; and from a living dead (死者, shisha^?), it becomes a ghoul (食屍鬼, ghoul^? corpse-eating demon).

Ghouls sleep in their tomb to replenish their body, and slowly reconstruct their flesh by eating corpses. then, after a few more years, they can recover their brain and memory, and can be called "vampires".

Those who became vampires can move on their own free will, but they cannot escape the rule by which they have to supply blood to their vampire parent. After growing accustomed to living in darkness after some more decades, the vampire still follows his vampire parent but can give their own blood to a human and have their own followers.

To stop that eternal cycle, the Church has built the Burial Agency, to hunt heresy and destroy the Dead Apostles. The purpose of the Burial Agency is the extermination of all vampires as well as the sealing of the founding 27 Ancestors.

Source: Tsukihime Dokuhon PlusPeriod dictionary entry (p.178)

True Ancestor are also considered vampires.

This term is used more loosely with magi that obtained vampire-like properties through their magecraft, and it looks to be more of label of how much is such property considered dangerous to other people. Matou Zouken is not considered a vampire by Church even though he is possessing and eating the bodies of other people with his Crest Worms to sustain his life and is even called a vampire on one occasion, albeit as an insult, while Nrvnqsr Chaos is considered a Dead Apostle, despite the fact that he doesn't really drink blood but merely absorbs entire human (and animal) bodies as organic material. Difference is in scale: in normal circumstances, Zouken needs one body every few decades, while Nrvnqsr on one occasion devoured all residents of a hotel (over one hundred people) in mere minutes.

[edit] Types of vampires

• True Ancestors
• Demon Lords
• Dead Apostles
  • Vampire
  • Living Dead
  • Ghouls
  • The Dead

[edit] Blood-sucking species

Blood-sucking species (吸血種, kyuuketsushu^?) is the general term for those who suck the blood of others, including vampires. Originally, it was used indifferentially for vampires as well as other blood-sucking species, both having a similar meaning. However, creatures that suck blood can be found all over the world with subtle differences, so this term is preferred. In that regard, Akiha is from a blood-sucking species.

The difference is in how they are dealt with: the Church sees the vampires (that is, Dead Apostles and True Ancestors) as enemies and actively tries to exterminate them, but do not care about other blood-sucking creatures, likes the ones found in South America (Chupacabra) or China (Kyoushi).

[edit] Lunar Cycles

True Ancestors and Dead Apostles possess a form of limited immortality, called the Curse of Restoration. This ability operates under normal conditions and causes the vampire's body to regress through time to its original vampiric state whenever it receives an injury. However, this ability is also tied to the phases of the moon. As the moon waxes, the degree of injury that can be repaired, as well as the speed of the regression increases dramatically. For example, Roa would not have been able to survive Arcueid's Marble Phantasm, were it not for the full moon.

Source: Tsukihime Dokuhon PlusPeriod dictionary entry (p.178)