The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

What's a Krusnik?
A genetically altered human infected with an alien "bacillus", which was discovered on Mars by a colonizing expedition in 2080. The 'bacillus' is actually an intelligent nanomachine billions of years old, with the ability to alter its host on the atomic level. It would take over the host completely if not controlled by the host's will, which is why Abel releases it only by conscious voice command and only to a specific degree. At 40% release, his appeareance is altered and he gains much augmented power, but his own mind and personality are still in control. At 80% release, his power is exponentially raised and he generates huge amounts of electromagnetic energy, but he is barely himself; the electronic quality of his voice at these times reflects the closeless of the nanomachine to full control. He doesn't like to have people who know him as Father Abel see him this way. Abel has never permitted 100% release of the Krusnik in himself
The Krusnik is the more powerful of the two "bacilli" that were discovered by the Martian colonists: the lesser form, called Kudlak, caused the creation of the Methuselah. (This is why the Methuselah are just "vampires" while the Krusnik are "super vampires"). There's reason to believe that the intelligent Krusnik created the lesser Kudlak as a food source for itself, which is why Krusnik-Abel sometimes refers to a lesser Methuselah as food. The Krusnik bacillus cannot apparently be used to escalate the powers of a Kudlak--it has only been proven to work on someone who was already genetically augmented.
The name Krusnik (also spelled Crusnik, Kresnik) is of old Slavic mythological origin, and refers to a shamanistic vampire-fighter which uses magical powers to battle the evil creature of death and pestilence, Kudlak. The root of the name is "krat", meaning cross, signifying that the Krusnik is an agent of light aided by the forces of good. Whether or not the mythological Krusnik is itself a vampire is hard to determine from our limited sources; it is sometimes compared to a dhampir, the half-human child of a vampire, which typically has some superhuman abilities inherited from its vampire side and frequently dedicates itself to vampire-hunting.
It's certainly an ingenious name for a vampire-related creature which was created as a protector and literally serves the Cross.