D is a dhampir, the half-breed child of a vampire father and human mother (actually genetically engineered by the ruler and first of vampires called Sacred Ancestor using his own DNA and that of humans in an experiment to create a vampire without vampires' typical weaknesses like the sun and having to drink blood), the ideal vampire hunter. He is renowned for his consummate skill and unearthly grace but feared and despised for his mixed lineage: born of both races but belonging to neither. 