Bram's Vampire Hunter Handbook

Chapter 7 - The Vampire Hunter Association

A brief overview

It might seem like it is superfluous to describe the Vampire Hunter Association, but even among its ranks, there are some misconceptions about its true competencies.

The Association is similar to the old professional guilds. Anybody wanting to be a vampire hunter can sign up to be trained and to join a team, being then able to hunt inside the law boundaries. Unlawful hunting can get people in serious trouble, especially because they might have to face the Vampire Society with no legal help, and no one wants that.

Vampire hunting used to be something done by noble families that, for some reason, had a feud against vampires. Whether they had to deal with constant outbreaks of mad vampires in their land, or a particularly evil vampire lord living nearby, only the top of society would partake in those hunts.

The main reason is that, without modern technology, it is an endeavour that requires expensive materials and plenty of spare time for training, both physical and magical. Time and money are not exactly something a peasant has in handfuls, even if they are often the more affected by vampires going bad.

Each family hoarded jealously their techniques and would have their own territory, where other hunters were not welcome. However, since only a few families would dedicate themselves to vampire hunting, but vampires were spread all over Europe, plenty of places were unguarded, and many charlatans would take advantage of people's desperation for a vampire hunter.

This kind of trick absolutely disgusted the actual vampire hunters, but it also slowly convinced them that they had to turn it into less of a family business and more into something more efficient.

Four of those families of noble origin formed an alliance to fight together in the 1860's (the actual date is disputed). The actual Association started to take form in the late 1880's and was only formally created in 1899, two months before the forging of the Amsterdam Treaties.

As a way to turn vampire hunting in less of a "rich boy sport" and more of an actual professional venture, the Association needed independent sponsors. It was then that the existence of vampires was disclosed to most European national governments. Or, should I say, the existence of mad vampires. It was agreed between the Association and the Vampire Society that no one would say a word about intelligent vampires. The goal was to keep those governments from weaponizing vampires.

This interaction between the Vampire Hunter Association and the governments is very delicate and will be subject of its own section in this chapter.

For now, since we are writing a brief history of the Association, I should mention that it grew and prospered in the last one hundred years. It is not perfect yet, but it has advanced step by step into becoming closer to law enforcement than 'exotic hunting club'.

Nowadays, the main competences of the Association are:

- Exterminating mad vampires;

- Investigating any signs of vampire misdeeds and pointing the culprit when applicable;

- Capturing any vampire lawbreakers and sending them to the Vampire Society for judgement;

- Representing the interest of the humans in the negotiations of changes in the Amsterdam Treaties;

- Declaring State of War if the Vampire Society does not upheld their part in the Treaties;

- Investigating and punishing any cases of unauthorized vampire hunting;