The Key To Vampire Existence
The Paragon are the only vampires capable of creating others, those known as the Descendants. It is believed that the Paragon were humans before they evolved thousands of years ago, and have been growing steadily more powerful ever since.
Vampire society is highly protective of these vampires. They will not speak of them to anyone not of the blood, doing so could bring down the wrath of the Magnate themselves. It's not uncommon for those who speak of them to hunters to mysteriously die, and the hunters with them.
As such, hunters know little of the Paragon and are careful what information they try to gather about their origins.
Immortal Souls
The Paragon cannot truly die. If the body their soul inhabits is killed, the Paragon will simply be reborn. Though they don't remember past lives, they return with all the powers and, instinctually, all the skills and abilities they learned from their previous lives. Death is only a pause in their evolution.
Reborn to human parents, they spend the first years of their lives growing normally with nothing to give them away. Around the time of puberty, a latent Paragon will wake and come into their power and their bloodlust.
Hidden In Plain Sight
One of the Paragon's key abilities is the ability to manipulate their physical age, allowing them to appear as old as they chose. Changing their bodies in this way takes a significant amount of power and depending on how drastic the change, can take days. This is just one of the ways they can blend into society without being noticed.
Paragon take genetic cues from the blood they drink, allowing them to grow taller and modify their skin tone or features over periods of time. This makes them highly selective of the people they drink from, and wary of drinking from animals.
Bloodlines
Most Paragon keep a close-knit clan, often structured by power and trust.
While the basic vampiric powers of speed, rapid healing, and strength pass down from a Paragon, more powerful abilities do not. Most of these must be taught, and while the Descendants of a specific Paragon will be more adept at learning, with enough dedication and a tutor, others may learn them as well. Clans are typically protective of their special abilities and will not teach them to others without good reason.
Much of what a Paragon is capable of cannot be taught to a Descendant; they are simply not strong enough. Of the abilities that can be taught, they must be careful. Teaching powerful abilities to a Descendant before they are ready, can kill them.
The Ancient
After a Paragon known as the Ancient died and failed to be reborn, her bloodline died out. This Paragon could begin to learn the powers of other clans simply by drinking their blood. The more of their blood she drank, the stronger she'd become with their abilities. Hers was the power of adaptation, far superior to any of the other Paragon.
Thought to be the first Paragon to evolve, the Ancient was second in power only to the god himself.