Eternal War

The Time Lord-Vampire War was a protracted and extremely bloody conflict fought early in the history of the Time Lords, against the Great Vampires.

History

The war has taken on the status of a legend throughout most of the universe, with few exact details known. For example, the origins of the Great Vampires are unknown, as is the precise reason for the conflict between them and Gallifrey.

The fact that both sides in the war were races of near-immortals with unusual regenerative powers and a tendency to display psychic ability may be significant. Then again, it may not.

Rassilon's leadership had revolutionised Time Lord society and it is possible he launched the war on purely moral grounds. Whatever the cause, the ferocity and resilience of the Vampires made defeating them very difficult, even for the Time Lords. Conventional weapons were virtually useless and at this point the Time Lords do not appear to have had access to some of the more spectacular armament they later developed.

The weapon which won the war was the bowship, which was designed to exploit the one weakness of the Great Vampires - their vulnerability to being impaled through the heart. Nevertheless hunting down the entire species was a protracted business and the leader of the Great Vampires was never found. (Much later it was discovered he had escaped into E-space.)

The war had caused such widespread loss of life that the Time Lords rejected the use of violence as a result. They did not adopt their non-interference policy for some time after this, though. (DW: State of Decay)

The Time Lords did not become total pacifists, retaining armed security forces on their own planet. They appear to have merely renounced offensive wars, as they later fought against the Enemy and the Daleks. On both occasions they lost and were apparently utterly obliterated. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell, DW: Dalek (TV story))