There are real hunters as well as real vampires. These hunters are both male and female; gender does not matter. Actual hunters have only one thing in mind: to really harm the vampire, sometimes to even kill their prey. There are three main classes of hunters: the Religious Hunter, the Sports Hunter, and the Revenge Hunter.

He or she, just like a hunter of small or large animals, hunts for sport. The thrill of the chase; the thrill of the win; and the thrill of the kill. Because the sport hunter loves the hunt as much as the conquest, this hunter will often warn his prey, the vampire, of his intentions to harm or kill it. In that way he knows the vampire will be alert to the threat and offer him a better and more interesting hunt. He knows the vampire to be as dangerous a prey as any large or small animal and he knows the vampire will do all that is necessary to defend itself and protect its friends and family.

So, mostly the hunter will warn the vampire either be declaring who he is and challenging the vampire, or by stalking it first, doing small things like harassing it and stalking it to let it know he is there. In some rare occasions, a sport hunter will just attack the vampire with no warning but mostly not.

The sport hunter hunts for sport, to be matched and to have the thrill of a dangerous situation. If he really feels superior to his prey, he will let them know who he is and what he intends. If not, the hunter then stalks and tries to use psychology to unnerve his prey. The religious hunter is often more silent in his intent for he believes the vampire to possess supernatural powers and gives no warning most of the time.

This is a person who hunts to revenge someone he knows; it could be either a vampire or a human.

Example 1: A hunter killed a vampire and a friend of the vampire went after this hunter.

Example 2: The vampire killed a hunter and that hunter's friend went forth to hunt his friend's killer.

Anyone who hunts to even a score, is a revenge hunter.

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There is also a third kind of hunter, but we cannot actually say this is a true hunter. This is the vampire itself. Hunting other vampires, usually for criminal reasons. This hunter is the vampire 'policeman.' It is his job to track down, bring to justice or destroy the criminal vampire, the rogue vampire who breaks the laws of his vampire order or community. These vampire hunters deal only with other vampires. Their laws are very harsh for those who break the rules.

Inheritors can usually pick up on a hunter; most Classicals and other race designations, unless the individual is very psychic, cannot do so. Hunters are usually good computer hackers or detectives and can successfully trick certain agencies or organizations into giving out an address or phone number. Most hunters mean to do harm, or really kill, that which they hunt. Caution should be taken for every threat. However, many are just playing, role playing or pretending. So you need not totally panic at every threat.

*The idea for the class on Real Hunters was suggested by Jimmy Isthman who was a class member of the 1998 spring semester in Vampiric Studies. We thank him for providing the idea for this class.*

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The next class in the series is The Real Predator.
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Real Predators

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