HMHVV
From Sixth World Wiki
elzeld HMHVV (or Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus) is a retrovirus that achieves its full virulence and power only in a magic-rich environment—such as post-Awakening Earth. The virus itself has existed throughout history and even expressed in very rare instances during the relatively magic-poor Fifth World. When a metahuman’s immune system fails to stave off infection, the virus begins to systematically re-shape their auras and genetic code—transforming them into forms reminiscent of the night-stalking monsters of legend.
The presense of HMHVV in a subject’s body can be determined by the Harz-Greenbaum blood series or simply testing for the virus itself.
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[edit] HMHVV
Primary Strain
The “basic” form of the virus. It affects all forms of metahumanity, transforming the infected into various new paraspecies depending on their base stock. Despite these differences, all vampiric variants created by the base strain suffer from chronic essence loss. Current theories surmise that this condition is similar to the essence loss caused by the implantation of cyberware —in short, the discrepancy between the subject’s “natural” state and their current transformed state affects a being on some fundamental level that disrupts their body/spirit interaction. Though most admit this utterly fails to explain those infected by variant strains and who do not suffer from the condition.
- Elves and elven variants become Banshees.
- Dwarves and dwarven variants become Goblins.
- Humans, and in extremely rare cases, other metatypes, become Vampires.
- Orks and ork variants become Wendigos.
- Trolls and troll variants become Dzoo-noo-qua.
[edit] HMHVV-BL
The Bruckner-Langer Strain
A variant of the HMHVV retrovirus that was isolated in 2046. Though fatal to most metahuman subspecies, humans so infected express as Nosferatu vampires. In extremely rare instances, an elf may express as a Nosferatu, but in all known instances the subject has proven dependent on one particular and extremely-rare blood type found only in particular human and elf subtypes. The bloodtype itself also proves fatal in vitro to any infected dwarf, ork, or troll fetus.
[edit] HMHVV-II
The Jarka-Criscione Strain
Another, and poorly-understood, variant of the retrovirus. Unlike the other strains, the Jarka-Criscione strain doesn’t confer any vampiric abilities upon its victims and the most common vector of infection is from parent to offspring. One of the variants—the Loup-garou—is rendered sterile upon infection, but it has the ability to infect others with its strain of the virus through physical contact.
To date, three known paraspecies have been determined to suffer from HMHVV-II:
- Loup-garou—an infected baseline human
- Fomorians—an infected troll or troll variants
- Bandersnatch—an infected sasquatch
[edit] Krieger HMHVV
The Krieger Strain
A variant of HMHVV that creates ghouls. Much more virulant than most other strains of the virus, a Krieger infection can be passed on through contact with any bodily fluids from one already infected. Unlike the other strains, Kreiger HMHVV can result in partial infection and requires no essence exchange between the infected and the carrier for the disease to be passed on. At first, these unique traits of the disease led to the mistaken conclusion that the ghoul transformation was a form of Goblinization—though that has since been disproven. The Krieger strain has also been shown to possess geographically-localized variants that create distinct ghoul sub-species such as the long-limbed Sasabonsam of the African nation of Asamando.
