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Vampires 101

Discussion in 'Original Fiction Discussion' started by Selethe, Jun 20, 2018.

  1. Selethe

    Selethe normalphobe

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    Vampires are depicted across fiction in all sorts of formats to point where the only commonality between them seems to be "thing which drinks blood". So which version do you like best? Are they susceptible to sunlight, can they transform into bats, do they have powers, are the newly turned automatically bonded with their sires, etc. Secondly, what sort of vampire do you want to see more of? What kind of vampire society worldbuilding interests you most?

    I enjoy a more... chaotic setting, where vampires aren't all born into families/covens, and where there isn't a stagnant immortal aristocracy. I also like when there's an element of danger in being "turned", such as only ~10% surviving a vampire's bite or something.

    Looking forward to hearing why my preferences are garbage :'>

    Discuss.
     
  2. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter

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    Lemme dig out my VtM books and I'll get back too you.

    Probably Lasombra class type is my favorite. In plain sight, able to infiltrate easily, organized and moderately relevant.

    Nosferatu type vamps are boring.

    So are Lestat type vamps because they're all gay apparently. And that just gets tiresome.
     
  3. Arthellion

    Arthellion Lord of the Banned ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I've always been a fan of the World of Darkness setting. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is easily one of my favorite RPGS of all time. Just a great setting all in all.

    Hellsing was also a fascinating look at the bloodsuckers.

    I suppose what I would like to see more of?


    More of these types of fics.

    https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6046451/1/Bitter-Escape

    Prolly best fic in the fandom despite the odd formatting at the beginning.
     
  4. Red Aviary

    Red Aviary Hogdorinclawpuff ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    If I had to depict vampires in an original fiction, I'd say that vampires ought to be corrupt, disgusting, parasitic creatures. At best you can have the Dracula type that pretends to have a veneer of civility, but it's a shallow and ugly disguise when you look closely enough, and they shouldn't be sympathetic.

    As far as examples I like, the Red and Black Courts are acceptable depictions, moreso the latter. I hate the White Court type. I've also come to dislike the uber-powerful Hellsing type -- I think it really defies the parasitic nature of the vampire. The sort of behavior those types exhibit I'd associate more with a kind of war demon or something.
     
  5. Sauce Bauss

    Sauce Bauss Second Year ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    That's dumb and bad.

    My vision of vampire aristocracy isn't stagnant so much as imitating the oligarchic aristocracy of the late Republic of Rome. Constantly vying families/covens with one or another in ascendance over the course of decades or centuries. Maybe X family/coven in France has been in ascent since the end of WW2, but they're at constant risk of being cast down.

    I prefer the more humanoid vampires because what makes them so interesting and dangerous in my view is that they're so close to human. They're like the fae, only instead of inscrutable they're actively malicious. The more inhuman you make them, the less compelling. That tends to make me dislike the more fantastic portrayals. Excessive shapeshifting, etc.

    I can never decide how I feel about the sunlight thing. Thematically, I don't think vampires should be out and about during the day but I'm not a fan of the instant conflagration when a god ray scatters off a tree.

    VtM:B has a lot of the elements I like, though it's not quite my ideal either.
     
  6. Agayek

    Agayek Dimensional Trunk DLP Supporter

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    Personally, I've never seen vampirism done quite right. There's always bits that just don't grok with what vampires are and represent, which is unfortunate, because the central premise is fascinating and extremely rich ground for fiction.

    The story of vampirism, at its most basic level, is the story of addiction, of endless need and reckless indulgence. A vampire, at the end of the day, is nothing more than a regular dude with an insatiable, maddening thirst that sets them apart from the rest of the society, but at the same time pulls them inexorably in. Sometimes they're sympathetic, sometimes they're monstrous, and sometimes the same person is both, at the same time.

    In any sort of setting I wrote, in terms of powers, they'd be largely just normal humans who simply don't die when they're killed (except in very specific ways), with unnatural charisma and stealth, but require an invitation to enter a home and can't cross running water. Sunlight wouldn't really harm them, but between the moment of true sunrise and true sunset, their supernatural elements would be suppressed; meaning a vampire is just as fragile as a human in sunlight and loses the alien glamour they possess at night.

    At the same time, though, the vampire has a literally infinite thirst. No matter how much they feed, they'll never feel even the slightest abatement of the thirst. And the more a vampire feeds, the more monstrous they become. Each victim they drain brings them closer and closer to their base, bestial nature, both physically and mentally, until they lose themselves entirely and become little more than mindless beasts, hulking and hideous and incapable of even thought, let alone speech.

    Vampire society would be rather hedonistic among the base rabble, with the nobility, the ones in charge, being the ones who master their thirst and have lived for centuries without devolving into the hot mess that is their lesser kin.
     
  7. Lungs

    Lungs KT Loser ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    i don't care as long as her bite allows her to control my body
     
  8. Genghiz Khan

    Genghiz Khan Headmaster

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    I don't even...

    I like the Red and Black courts myself. A bunch of vampires I'm meh about are those depicted in Anno Dracula, if anyone's read that book. Genevieve Dieudonne strikes me as too artificial a character. The active malice that Sauce speaks of is an essential part of vampirism: I think the Red and Black courts more than cover that part pretty well. In addition, in terms of fanfiction, I sort of like the vampires depicted in The Curse of the V'ardian, but not those depicted by Miranda Flairgold.
     
  9. Selethe

    Selethe normalphobe

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    but what if it's him
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Lungs

    Lungs KT Loser ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    if that thing is a vampire then i don't care i don't want to live on this green earth anymore
     
  11. ScottPress

    ScottPress The Horny Sovereign –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I don't want sci-fi vampires, where it's a mutation or whatever, super transmuting death-virus and vampirism can be dissected by a biologist and they're faster and stronger because of high muscle density.

    I also think there are usually too damn many vampires and such creatures in general. You can have 10 mln rats beneath NYC because a single person probably produces enough garbage to sustain a rat pack, but I can't see it with vampires. Generally, top predators are less numerous than what they prey upon.

    I'm not saying it has to be Dracula, the one and only singular unique beast, but definitely closer to that end of the scale than Underworld/Twilight/pick-a-YA/Blade movies style covens, with entire underground societies bursting with vampires.

    As was said upthread, a vampire should be thwarted by some magic-like things: a threshold they haven't been invited to cross, running water, holy ground. But it's like with a xenomorph. Sure, you can lock yourself away and survive--but unless you want to starve to death, at some point you have to come out. The most viable strategy against vampires should be "don't be around vampires", not a crossbow, a cross, a holy water grenade and waiting for dawn. If you want to kill one, it should be an affair involving a team of hardened adventuring veterans, not a teenager with a UV flashlight.
     
  12. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter

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    I mean there are a lot of ways vampires could be portrayed. Most commonly its like rats in a nest. They just eat and shit where they live with no regard for their own state.

    Then you got the elegant midnight aristocracy that runs the world from their dinner tables while sucking your daughters dry.

    Then you got your Stoker types where they're the only vamp around and they're in complete control of the village.

    Vampires haven't really changed too much. They're still mindless killing machines when their hunger gets too great. Their morals are eroded by their age and the things they've seen and done. They're strong, but that doesn't have to be a prerequisite. I think strength is really a new iteration of the more kill you in your sleep/sneak up on you in the night type vampires of old.
     
  13. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    I'm a fan of the darker versions, but I don't want there to be too much crossover with werewolf lore. Really don't like it when Vampires have transformation powers, whether it's a mist, bat, wolf or whatever, or an inner caged beast controlling your bloodlust.

    I don't like it when Vampires get instant KOed by sunlight, but rather prefer they just combust really quickly, so prologue exposure of even like a minute would be fatal, but it's just not instantly fatal. Southern Vampire Mysteries handled this well.

    I kind of like the idea of sires, but being bound to their will and dying when they die is a bit overkill. Having innate telepathy or whatnot with them is even worse.

    The idea of bloodlust is interesting, but I'm not a fan of arbitrary rules like the first feeding always being lethal. Feeding is a very important part of vampire lore, so I don't like to cheapen it. So I don't like it when you can survive on non-human blood, but I will say that WoD did handle that well.

    I think WoD has the best depiction overall. I see it as a balance, where you're trying to hold on to your humanity to not become a mindless husk.
     
  14. buzzer

    buzzer Slug Club Member DLP Supporter

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    I haven't read much vampire stuff, but the Darren Shan series which I read as a kid was very good and had an interesting take on vampires, bit I can't quite remember all of it. I think that vampires were much quicker and stronger than humans, sunlight only killed them after a few hours but was very painful during that time, their breath briefly knocked out humans and their spit had minor healing properties so that they could get rid of the evidence after feeding. Pretty sure there was a bit more but I can't remember it. There was also a lot of other supernatural shit flying around in the series too.
     
  15. Knyght

    Knyght Alchemist

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    IIRC. they didn't bite their victims but would scratch them with their incredibly sharp and hard nails.
     
  16. Shinysavage

    Shinysavage Madman With A Box ~ Prestige ~

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    Probably my favourite vampire book is Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett, in which a group of vampires train themselves to resist all the traditional weaknesses (sunlight, running water, religious symbols etc) and 'improve' the whole blood thing, organising blood-drinking rotas with the villagers, never killing...basically making themselves respectable and forward thinking.

    The villagers far preferred the vicious monster the new vampires replaced, because he played by the rules and could be reliably banished for a decade or so, so long as you kept a few religious icons to hand, or were quick drawing the curtains, and although he would feast on peoples blood, he respected the hunt rather than seeing them as walking blood banks, and they're delighted when he returns at the end of the book

    I have to say, I've tried to recall the Red Court in Dresden, and given that the war between the Reds and the wizards is such a prominent part of the lore for ten of the fifteen books of the series, I can't actually remember much about them as opposed to, say, the Denarians, or even the White Court.
     
  17. Agayek

    Agayek Dimensional Trunk DLP Supporter

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    The Red Court is "chupacabras that can disguise themselves as humans", essentially.
     
  18. Sey

    Sey Not Worth the Notice DLP Supporter

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    @Lungs what's better than a Vampire?

    A veelampire.
     
  19. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I second the Discworld depiction, though my favourite is in Fifth Elephant, as the vampire in that holds a real feeling of ominous threat. I think the Discworld vampires are quite true to the original Dracula type, which is my preference in general. They should be rare, aristocratic, cunning and dangerous, but their powers should not really be combat focused, but rather about trickery/stealth/seduction, and most effective on the unsuspecting. (That said, I do see them as having inhuman speed and strength if forced to fight).
     
  20. Immet

    Immet Seventh Year

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    World of Darkness vampires are right out because they have an inherently stupid depiction of vampirism.

    If you drink the blood of someone else, it should strengthen you, not them. The thing where if you feed from another vampire three times you become their servant is utterly ridiculous. The person feeding should have control over the person being eaten. WoD vampires are too linked to this backwards depiction of vampirism.

    It also makes a potential vampire society make more sense- the bottom rung are forced to give blood to those above them as tribute and it means the powerful at the top of the hierarchy can have the bullshit more concentrated blood and needing to feed off other vampires.



    The other thing I don't like about a lot of vampire types is that it's way too quick to become a vampire. Dracula is a classic because it taps into real horrors of people- if you have turning take place over the course of a month of nightly feedings, then you can have the horror story of someone you know being panicked and worried about something weird happening to them at night, then being in denial and refusing help, then desiring the vampiric visits, and finally becoming obsessed with it to the point of self-destruction, before falling into that same bloodlust and becoming a vampire themselves.

    Seeing someone else being turned should be like having a friend or family member be drawn into a pyramid scheme/alcoholism/gambling/etc, and trying to help but past a certain point it's really difficult and you have to get them away from the thing and protect them from it, with them fighting you to keep the bad habit.

    I'm pretty sure vampirism as social commentary on pyramid schemes has been done, but I can't remember specifically reading it.

    Similarly, if the POV is from a vampire's perspective, then there's that emotional reaction available of knowing that vampirism is bad, but slowly drawing other people into the same habits and seeing them change from hating it to desiring it to being addicted to it to it being their whole life, and actively being a bad person in turning someone rather than it being a romantic option to stop their persona ending.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2018