I prefer the sorcerous vampires (vampirism is mostly a western form of chaos IMO), and I don't particularly like the Cults of Terror style Cult of Vivamort.
IMO the 'Cult of Vivamort' is largely a big vampire con scheme. Its an organisation of sorcerous vampires that mimics the outward trappings of a theist cult in order to get a good supply of servants and such, utilising the forms of a central genertelan theist cult when in those areas. Whether Vivamort is an 'anti-saint' being who is venerated or simply a name that they give to the node of power of undeath from which they draw their abilities (anthropomorphised to maintain the theist facade) I don't know.
However, they should get to keep their 'rune magic' stealing abilities. Thus, vampires in Western lands generally get to have lots of sorcerous abilities. Vampires in theist lands generally have some theist magic (probably getting to steal 'feats' that they use with some vampiric magic ability), and may or may not get to also have sorcerous spells, depending on whether they were taught it by other vampires. And vampires in animist lands generally get not much at all - vampirism is mostly a civilised vice. I suppose its possible vampires could steal talents, but I am sure they can't do much with most spirits. The idea that much vampiric magic is stolen is a good one, but I think they should have a common set of learned abilities as well.
I think that most vampiric lineages, somewhere along the line, can be traced to a sorcerer who used a create vampire ritual.
FWIW I think the rune spell type magic in COT didn't work terribly well, and was a clumsy result of adapting what few magic rules we had (lets see, it was all based on POW sacrifice, but for being that didn't have POW - ick), and the RQ3 sorcery based version worked much better, apart from the fatal flaw of being based on RQ3 sorcery.
I don't think Delecti is a vampire per se, but his magic is basically the same in nature, plus several extra twists. He is still life in death, and still steals from others.
Cheers David
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