Vampaneze

In the Saga of Darren Shan the Vampaneze are sworn enemies to the vampires, cousins in fact. They were vampires who broke away from the clan and claimed themselves a new race (vampaneze) because of different beliefs, such as the vampaneze find it honorable to drain the blood of humans and kill them, vampires drink small amounts and let humans live. The vampaneze are the evil vampires if you will, though they only appear that way due to the misleading image of Murlough (a mad vampaneze) and the War of Scars. The vampaneze have purple skin and red hair, eyes, lips, and fingernails. This is a side effect due to drinking a lot of blood. The vampaneze are first mentioned in Tunnels of Blood and become a main part of the plot throughout the rest of the series.

Philosophy

The rational of the vampaneze about draining humans of necessary amounts of blood is that, like vampires, the blood holds the human's memories and some kind of "conscience." The vampaneze, therefore, are giving the humans immortality, keeping their "souls" within them forever.