AN: This isn't the first story like this, so go to The New King of Darkness by Masseffect-TxS. It's a very good story, also the story I'd be accused of copying.
'The vampire is an interesting creature, the current vampire lines consists of pure blood royalty. Most believe that those of pure blood are stronger, that they are the pinnacle. This is only true of the first to fifth generations of vampire, above all none are stronger than the brood father, the first of a new line. How brood fathers and brood mothers come about still remains a mystery. The hierarchy of the current ruling line of vampire lords is simple. At the bottom are the thralls, human puppets whose purpose is only to serve their lords. Above thralls are the slave masters, cruel men and women twisted by vampiric power, flesh mirroring the twisted soul within. Above slave masters are lords and ladies, those of royal blood who serve as soldiers and are of noble blood, but not of the ruling house. Above these lords and ladies are the current royal lords and royal ladies, these are vampires of the current ruling house, they live lives of decadence and freedom. Above the royal lords and royal ladies are the dukes, men and woman of high standing, the house the come from is meaningless, as long as they contribute to the royal line they are made dukes. There are only ever seven dukes at a time, each named after a sin. Sitting at the very top of this long line is the Overseer, the current head of the ruling royal house, the word of the Overseer is law. It is currently unknown how the new ruling family is chosen after the death of an Overseer. This is all the known information on the vampire hierarchy.
On the subject of vampire physiology. The weaknesses of vampires are exaggerated, garlic merely annoys their strong sense of smell, sunlight is a mere annoyance, and salt does not purify. The weaknesses of vampires narrow down the stronger the vampire is. Holy crosses do deal significant damage to a vampire depending on strength, holy water burns their skin, and blessed items cause damage depending on the blessing, who performed the blessing, and how fervent the belief of the priest. From the legends of the brood fathers and mothers they have no weaknesses, the only known method of killing them has been unrelenting force, an onslaught that does not stop until the vampire expires. The last known battle against a brood father was documented to have lasted three whole days.
Vampire strengths are increased by how pure their blood is. The strengths of a brood lord are limitless, documented abilities seen in the last brood lord seen are as follows:
Shapeshifting
Regeneration, even from holy wounds
Summoning their familiars and their household brood
Using cursed weapons and magics
Intangibility
Teleportation
Blood manipulation, of self and surroundings
Impressive resistance to holy weapons and magics
These are just the strengths of one brood lord, from what I have gathered from ancient vampire tomes all brood lords have something unique added to these abilities. The last brood lord showed his unique ability to be summoning the souls of all the people consumed by him to fight in an unending army.
From this information it is clear that vampires are a thing to be feared and taken on by only the most professional and most trained hunters. The Arc family are the best example of this, children trained from young to fight vampires. My own family. We are a dying family, all that is left of us is my son Robert, his wife Samantha, his seven daughters, and the last remaining heir to our family Jaune. I have trained Jaune in our ways, given him my weapons and am now passing this book on to him. This compendium contains knowledge on all the monsters we faced as a family, my father was the man who faced the last brood lord.
Take this book Jaune, and face the monsters we have for so long as a proud Arc hunter.
Trevor Arc' -Last page of the Arc Bestiary
Jaune has traveled alone with naught but his grandfather weapons, his armour, and the Arc Bestiary. In his travels he has faced many monster, Chimera, Ghouls, Werewolves, Demons, and Vampires. The hardest battle Jaune ever fought was against a royal lady, a seductress who had mastered illusory magics. After that he learnt to always bless his weapons at every church in every town.
Jaune's family was murdered by a roving group of Ghouls four years ago.
'The Ghoul is a detestable creature, mindless, undead, and they congregate in packs. They are weaker than the vampire, being the reanimated corpse of a vampires thrall. They are unaffected by all damage, the only way to kill a ghoul is to behead it. All zombie culture spawns from ghouls.'-Ghoul entry in Arc Bestiary
The Arc family was unprepared to face ghouls, only Trevor and Jaune were able to fight. The rest of the Arc family being hunstmen. All but Jaune died in that attack.
AN: This is an introductory chapter, each time I introduce a new moster it shall be followed by its entry in the Arc Bestiary. I have made the Arc's the Belmont's from Castlevania, my plan for how this story progresses should be clear to those who have read the story I spoke of in the top AN.