Vampire

Vampire - "Once it was discovered that within every person is something called "Vigor", the essence of life as it came to be known as. Science, as crude as it was, slowly expanded around this new matter. Individuals doing rogue experiments, losing everything or becoming rich, some would be known forever in fame or infamy, others forgotten the next day.

For awhile it was thought that vigor is not interchangeable between people. Slowly, a few researchers came to realize that with just a few tweaks, this was not the case. And as they worked with the matter and subjected themselves to it, they came to realize this new substance was delightfully uplifting.

Paranoia about the harvesting of vigor began to spread: you'd die if you donated your vigor, you would become terribly ill, it is against the gods will to give your vigor away, if you volunteer you'll never come back. Whatever the reason, the donations began to dry up, and those working with vigor were no longer using the substance just for research. The paranoia ratcheted up a few notches more when stories of people with giant syringes and terrible masks began to make the rounds in the town squares.

Vigor research was outlawed in many areas. But it seemed after the outlawing of it, reports of these masked men only increased. The bodies, if any ever were found, void of any vigor, cold and gray.