Vampires... Your definition?

[Kevonovitch]

i always perfered the anime Hellsing's vampires, and The Witcher's vampires.

hellsing's: pretty much the whole, sun=dead, garlic=omg i'm dying! steak in heart=oh shi-i'm a pile of ashes now, and humans=food dilly yo. but then they have alucard, kinda hinted at deamon-vampire cross (or some-sort of next lvl vampire/cross breed, from what the anime/manga/ova keeps hinting at) but i did enjoy the twist of diff abilites and the whole mix of organic and robotic vamp's. (how do you like your vampire? organic? non-organic? organic costs more hrm....lol jk XD)

the witcher's: mostly, just your steryo typical vampires you'd find in a video game: hides in caves, only comes out at night, feeds on people, oddly, always naked, go figure
but they also had a high vampire. the high vampire was immune to the sun, but not too much direct exposure, but say, a cloudy day=no problem. garlic/steaks=not a problem anymore, blood=alchohol, no longer needed food to sustain itself. can still die by cutting off the head ofcourse

both alucard from hellsing and the witchers high vampre were immune to silver but i didnt always understand how it effected things, so i'm fine w/ removing the silver element completely.

 

[Blind Sight]

Scary-ass sociopaths that view humans the same way we view cattle. I support both the blindly violent version of vampires, and the calm, seductive types that catch their prey with intelligence. They drink blood, and can be killed by cutting their head off. Everything else is up for debate with me, including the use of holy objects to hold them back. My favourite version of vampires has to be from Peter Watt's Blindsight novel, hence why I share the name and cover as my avatar.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Humanoid bloodsucking parasite that turns their human prey into more of their kind while consuming their blood.
It turns to ash when it comes in contact with strong UV light (like the amount that comes from the sun).

 

[Mr. Bojangles]

Darren Shan.

That is all.




Actually no, Hellsing too.

 

[Squeaky]

Animalistic intelligent leeches, like in Blade 2. In reality the first few would be like that due to evolution. Hopefully they dont become emo toffs that have bad english accents.

 

[kannibus]

At this point, I'd be willing to call anything that drinks blood and doesn't sparkle in daylight a vampire. Yeah I've had to lower my standards. A LOT. Thanks modern society.

 

[Doomsday11]

Super strong(Not as strong as a werewolf though)
Super fast(Faster than a human can blink)
Can regenerate(except from specific things such as silver)
Phsychic/magical abilities(Weaker than a demon)
Becomes stronger over time
Immortal
Can summon familiars

*Cannot walk in sunlight
*Cannot enter a building without permission
*Weakened by silver
*Needs blood to survive

 

[captaincabbage]

1. They suck blood.
2. They don't roll around in a big pile of glitter every night.
3. They are actually not shit.

 

[V8 Ninja]

As long as they NEED to suck/drink/intake human blood and that they burn/die in direct sunlight, I'm totally cool with any sort of vampire that a piece of media throws at me (emphasis on the "need" because otherwise the description would match that of a cannibalistic nerd).

 

[DoubleTime]

This was a large part of my senior thesis (yes my thesis for a whole year was vampires). ^_^

Really the only feature of a vampire that is truly universal is they drink blood/life force. 99% of the time they are also undead, but that was more of a post-Greek thing with the rise of Christianity. The Lamia and Empusae were the Greek equivalent, with creatures like the Strigoi making up the Eastern European idea.

Traits such as sun sensitivity, garlic sensitivity (which was fairly common, livestock were rubbed down with garlic for their protection), shape-shifting (some could become mist, sand, straw and even butterflies), and a whole host of other things were highly varied. Treatises written and then accidentally endorsed by the Catholic church solidified the myth for a while as the revenant, or returned in body, whose soul was damned to be stuck in their body after death, which has not decomposed. The black death (with it's many accidental burials) contributed to this and dhampir (or children of vampires) were used for their mild psychic and magical properties to locate vampires. Anyone could become a vampire and even things like being born with hair, teeth, moles, or being excomunicated, missing church, gambling, and the ever popular mauled-by-a-werewolf were causes. (seriously, these things were like supernatural cockroaches)

The Romantic Movement in Germany with authors like Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Bram Stoker to name a few was the driving force behind the changing of the vampire into a more, well, romantic image, and coincided with the romanticization and sexualization of death. At that point in history vampires became even more about sex and death and were promptly picked up as a fascinating literary exploration into two socially stigmatized but perfectly natural topics. The duality of the beast and gentleman/lady within the romanticized view allowed people to explore the nature of man as both hyper violent and civilized.

I could go on forever, but really if you're more interested in the subject some books like

The Vampire Lectures by Laurence A. Rickels
(a look at the sex and death aspect from a psychoanalytical perspective)

or

Vampires: Restless Creatures of the Night by Jean Marigny
(a concise history of various vampires and blood sacrifice and their impact which is really a great place to find topics you elaborate on with other books)

Plus any of the books about the historical Dracula by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond McNally are just AWESOME. They don't touch on the myth too often, but a few of them have some interesting tidbits about vampirism's connection with oral sex as posited by Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula.

 

[Aeriath]

SNIP

SNIP

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SNIP

He burned in the sequel.
Hopefully in mentioning that book, the voice in your head is saying very violent things.
Mwahahaha.

I haven't actually read the sequel yet and I'm not sure whether I'll actually get around to it. I'm just wondering, how does Dracula burn in the sequel? The first book didn't really set itself up for one, if you know what I mean.

[small]Sorry about the time before the reply, my internet has been having connectivity issues.[/small]

 

[Declaro]

My vision of vampires is more along the lines of Buffy-verse vampires, I guess, but I don't consider the whole 'souless demons' thing a requirement.
Vampires...
-Drink blood.
-Burn in sunlight.
-Are hurt by crosses and holy water, and can be killed by them but only if there's a huge amount of it.
-Are insta-killed by fire and a stake to the heart.
-Can only enter a house they've been invited into.
-Are able to seduce/hypnotize people. Actual attractiveness is irrelevant.

 

[Daverson]

My definition, I guess there's no real definition of what a vampire is, unless they suddenly pop out of nowhere tomorrow and "come clean" with everyone, but I doubt that's going to happen XD

The rules:
1. A vampire has the ability to live indefinitely, for most intents and purposes. It left to its own devices, it would eventually die, though not for such a mind boggling long amount of time that it's worth considering as a way to kill them.
2. A vampire naturally progresses towards an apparent age somewhere in the early 30s/late 20s, if it feeds on human blood at least once a week. Otherwise, it will age at an accelerated rate, and eventually die of organ failure.
3. A vampire burns in sunlight. It will live for approximately 10 seconds under directly sunlight, though on a cloudly day, or in a dark area (such as a heavy forest) it might last for a few hours.
4. The only way to become a vampire is to survive being directly fed on by a vampire.
5. The most effective means of killing a vampire is either to destroy the heart, sever the brain, or burn the body. Otherwise, any method suitable for killing a human should serve the purpose of disposing a vampire, it may be less effective however.

Vampire Society:
After changing, a new vampire will maintain it's previous personality and will either be inducted into it's new "family" or left to it's own devices. Usually the stress of becoming such a monstrosity is enough to drive people insane, creating so called "feral vampires", otherwise the vampire will become a loner.
The vampire "family" is a group of vampires, usually led by an elder, or group of elders. Heirachy in these "families" is usually determined by age, though other factors may be considered, such as the status of the individual prior to turning.
Feral vampires will usually become little more than pack hunters, they're generally looked down upon by their more "civilized" counterparts, and are often killed by them, as an act of mercy. (Though this also serves the purpose of ensure the feral does not spread vampirism too far, causing a shortage of food)

Recognizing vampires:
The outward appearance of a vampire is very similar to a human. There are of course a few differences that can easily be recognised:
1. Paler than usual skin.
2. No visible iris.
3. Elongated incisors.
It's also worth noting that vampire "families" will often have their own form of "uniform", in a similar way to street gangs.

Other notes:
Vampires can also become zombies (Voodoo zombies, or Ghouls). But not werewolves, that's just ridiculous.

A final point worth mentioning is the nephlim, which are commonly mistaken for vampires. This is a very bad mistake to make. Nephlim are an entirely different kettle of fish and pose a significantly higher threat than vampires. It is, however, not uncommon for nephlim to enter vampire "families" and seize control. Thankfully Nephlim are a human hybrid species (though, hybrid with what exactly, is not entirely clear, the Bible states they are Human/Angel hybrids, though, like all religious texts, may be subject to errors in translation) and cannot re-populate with the same ease as vampires.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

Undead abominations who drink the blood of the living and die when they are in sunlight.
Beyond that I really don't care.
If you want them to sparkle as they burn to death in the sunlight that's fine.
I don't know how I feel about synthetic/cloned blood though, feels kind of wrong.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

A vampire should drink blood to survive, burn in sunlight and be unable to enter the houses of others without permission. Why do so many pieces of vampire fiction forget about that last piece of lore?

So in other words.. Let The Right One In.

I am agreed!

Edit: Also.. (cue Movie Bob Ominous voice): THEY DO NOT SPARKLE. Sparkly things aren't scary, they are laughed at.. or burn your eyes out with the glare. Vampires are the embodiment of lust and terror. Sparkle DOES NOT fit with this.

 

[Miffmoff]

I think this illustrates my definition perfectly

 

[Nieroshai]

OK here's mine

By definition a vampire is an Undead that feeds on flesh, and more receently, blood. Some versions of the stories give vampires powers, so I'd say they have telepathy and telekinesis, and therefore must be intelligent. They live free in the night, but the sunlight paralyzes them, NOT BURNING THEM. They are afraid of water for some reason. They have superhuman strength. While intelligent, hunger makes them into savage animals. They often seek out family members and loved ones as their first victims. The only way to kill one varies among cultures, but the most typcal is severing the head and burying it away from the body. The stake in the heart is common too, but why would that work when cutting major veins has no effect?

That was the pre-pop culture vampire. Once again I reiterate: SUNLIGHT ONLY SLOWS THEM DOWN OR STUNS THEM AT BEST! IE daylight=no powers. Stoker introduced the vampire's weakness to sunlight, but that was a stun effect too, not burning and dying.

Incidentally I'm wrriting a story where the main character is a dhampir, and the vampires hold more true to the dark ages vampire archetype, with the older vampires having some of the ol' Bela Lugosi's Dracula flair to them.

 

[Nieroshai]

1. They suck blood.
2. They don't roll around in a big pile of glitter every night.
3. They are actually not shit.

Quoting this volunteer to make a threadwide statement.
1. Twilight isn't going to die unless we STOP FUCKING TALKING ABOUT IT!
2. About 50% of this thread is a Twilight-bashing thread. It's a tween romance written by a bored mormon housewife, WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH? And it's more mediochre than bad, except that the internet loves to turn anything that isnt perfect into "OMG THIS IS TEH WORST SUXORZ EVAR!!1!"

 

[KefkaCultist]

A vampire should drink blood to survive, burn in sunlight and be unable to enter the houses of others without permission. Why do so many pieces of vampire fiction forget about that last piece of lore?

Hehe I was beginning to think I was the only person that knew that one. I used vampires in a D&D campaign that I was DM for and the group didn't understand why I didn't attack until invited in.

Anyway, heres mine:
-burn into ashes in sunlight
-have the ability to charm
-must drink blood to live
-gain more power the longer they're vampires
-killed by wooden stake through the heart (decapitation helps too)
-pale skin
-not emo
-can turn into bat or fog
-and can't enter house w/out permission

also they sparkle. Just kidding