# Vampires and You



## Queshire (Jul 10, 2013)

So, I think its safe to say that vampire in fiction nowadays have a certain.... *ahem* reputation, but I don't think we should write off vampires out of hand just because of that. SO! Partially out of curiousity and partially out of the fact that I'm considering having a vampire as one of my major characters I'd like to hear your guy's take on vampires, not just how you do vampires in your story, but how you would do vampires even if you don't use vampires in your story and have no plans to.

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Now, since I asked, I suppose the polite thing to do would be to give my version first;

1) Vampirism is basically a magical disease. Just like there are different strains of the flue, there's different strains of vampirism which may or may not have the same rules as other strains.
2) Vampires draw out some form of energy, convert it to their own use, and then use it to power their abilities. How this energy is drawn and what this energy is varies from strain to strain, but life energy drawn through blood is the most concentrated and thus the most common method.
3) The sunlight weakness is common among the strains who can not control their draw abilities. They constantly draw from the ambient energy around them, but the sun is too much, it's like trying to drink the ocean.
4) Holy symbols are similar in that most major gods are so powerful that their instinctual draw of energy from the holy symbols are like trying to drink the ocean, regular old faith without a god behind it is similar, but that's from the mental power of the faith, not the power of the god. This second case is harder to achieve and generally weaker, but it's possible to cut off a god's influence while the mental depth of non-god powered true faith can't.
5) Garlic and other types of purification work differently. Unlike with eating regular food and digesting it, vampirism essentially corrupts and steals the energy drawn. Purification can remove this corruption and cause them to lose control of their energy.
6) Staking, beheading, etc and so on. Well, that type of stuff kills just about everybody now doesn't it? Admittedly for some strains of vampirism doing such might disrupt a vital nexus of the drawn in power.
7) Vampire abilities all use the drawn in power, but just like electricity can power a bunch of different devices the specific abilities depends on the strain of vampirism. It can also be used for conventional spells.

"While they are often called predators, it would be better to call them parasites. Their entire body is designed for stealing of energy and using their ill gotten energy to power their supernatural abilities. If, somehow, you can cut them off from their hoard of stolen energy then they tend to be weaker than even a baseline human. This is a result of their body's specialization for stealing energy coming at the cost of being able to effectively generate energy of their own. You could call Vampirism to be a pure embodiment of Greed. Not only does it steal energy, but the viral nature of the condition means that it even steals normal people to propagate itself."

The strain of vampirism I'm pondering on for one of my main characters could be considered an Ant Lion type, though someone who has come against one might consider calling it a Blackhole type of vampirism.

1) Sunlight does not kill them, but it makes them extremely lethargic and limits their power.
2) They have fangs and can drain blood. The concentrated life energy in the blood allows for quick healing of wounds and give them a burst in energy to use during the day.
3) Most of the time though, they just passively absorb ambient energy from their surroundings. For the average member of this strain this just result in a spooky chill around them, shadows spookily wrapping around them, and a spooky sense of spookiness from sensitive people who might literally feel all the ambient energy draining into them like a black hole.
4) When they actively draw in energy the effect is greatly enhanced. Depending on how they do it they can act like a literal black hole, drawing matter, or even draw in the very life force of those around them with little more than thinking about it. Of course, the type of stuff is top tier.
5) When it comes to using all the power they draw in, they kind of get shafted. A good chunk of the energy goes to actually powering the black hole effect, and another chunk goes to power standard vampire physiology, aka immortality, lack of aging, not needing to eat, sleep, or breathe (though while they don't need to do that it is rather uncomfortable not to) and increasing their physical attributes to the point where they never need to work out, and indeed working out has little effect, but still within human limits, and the final chunk is just stored and stored and stored, seemingly without being used.
6) Holy symbols give them a headache.
7) They seem to be utterly immune to purification. It's theorized that their core of energy has something to do with this.
8) Manner of spreading this strain is unknown and less than twelve of this strain have been recorded in history.


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## Ireth (Jul 10, 2013)

I've already made a thread about my version of vampires. Rather than copy out everything I've already written, I'll just link you: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/brainstorming-planning/2839-ireths-take-vampires.html


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## shangrila (Jul 10, 2013)

Basically, my "vampires" are reptilian werewolves. They're predatory in human form and change into leathery skinned, reptile-esque creatures whenever (I guess, I haven't figured that part out yet). Blood drinking is more a pass time than an actual sustenance.

I like that you don't have the strain spreading by bite. There's an actual mathematic essay that shows vampires turning people by bites is impossible so, yeah, realism always gets extra points with me.


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## Obsidian (Jul 10, 2013)

Well vampires or blood consuming type of creatures exist in many cultures folklore around the world. So if I was writing a vampire story it would be my own take on one of them. I would probably do the obayifo which goes by a few different names by different West African ethnic groups and the folktales vary a bit but it can change into a ball of light basically.


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## Ireth (Jul 10, 2013)

shangrila said:


> I like that you don't have the strain spreading by bite. There's an actual mathematic essay that shows vampires turning people by bites is impossible so, yeah, realism always gets extra points with me.



Care to link that essay here? Sounds like an interesting read.


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## crash (Jul 10, 2013)

My basic vampire rules are:
1) You become a vampire when most of your blood is drained by a vampire until you are close to death, then the vampire will bring feed you some of their blood just as night is falling, thus becoming a vampire.
2) Vampires must drink blood in order to stay as a vampire. Almost all animal blood is acceptable, but human blood is preferred. A vampire who does not drink enough blood will become a ghoul; a mindless, mummy like creature who only thirsts for blood. If a vampire where to drink the blood of a fellow vampire, then they will suffer a blood craze sort of like rabies. In that case, they must be destroyed for everyone's safety.
3) At night, vampires possess ineradicable strength, speed and agility and can heal instantaneously. But this is only at night. During the day, vampires are as strong and fast as an average human. Vampires also age slower due to their healing abilities.
4) Vampires are territorial and solitary. You will never find more than one vampire per neighbourhood. However, it is equally rare for vampires to actually fight over territorial rights and there's no real set "rules" for how vampires interact with each other. While vampire society can be rather classicist due to accumulated wealth and background (many vampires are of aristocratic origins), there is, again, no set "rule" for interaction. 
5) Vampires can be killed during the day. The surest way of killing a vampire is cutting off its head and burning the head and body in separate pyres. Vampires have an aversion to hawthorn, garlic and wild roses, which gives them something like really bad allergic reaction and can kill very young vampires if not quickly treated. Many vampires display an aversion and negative reaction to holy symbols, objects and grounds, but many believe that this is purely superstition, as atheist vampires have no such reaction to anything considered holy.


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## Sheilawisz (Jul 10, 2013)

You have a very original and personal version of vampires, Queshire!!

I agree that we should not forsake the concept of vampires, but instead, give it a personal twist. It's fun to imagine our own original versions of the classic vampire creatures whether we have them in our stories or not, and a long time ago I created mine following Ireth's take on vampires:

The Sheilawisz version of Vampires.

My vampires are basically animated skeletons, something truly supernatural and awful. I have not used this style of vampires in any story so far, even though something very similar was featured in my _Joan of England_ trilogy.

I believe that a vampire should be something that you _do not_ want to be...


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## mbartelsm (Jul 10, 2013)

Vampires in my settings can be defined as: beings that depend on the vitality of others to survive due to a lack in producing enough themselves.

This means that any creature that needs to draw vital energy from others in order to survive their daily life can be considered a vampire, this includes a vast number of creatures, but the ones closer to the "classical vampire" are mortals who have been resurrected through magic.

Mortals die when their vitality runs out, vitality is normally generated by the body and it's internal organs by processing food water and air, when these organs start to fail due to a wound, disease or simply old age then the body becomes incapable of producing more vitality than is spent. The body, without vitality, becomes incapable of keeping it's soul attached and lets it go, essentially dying. When someone is resurrected, a part of the mage's vitality is transferred to the dead body in order to bind the soul for a while, if the resurrected mortal wants to stay alive, then it must keep drawing vitality from others, becoming a vampire.

I must clarify that is near impossible to resurrect mortals with large wounds, since the amount of vitality that "leaks" is too great to refill. The same goes to keeping resurrected mortals alive after they suffer a major wound.

Examples of other vampiric creatures are golems, since golems are artificial souls bound to an artificial body, they too need to "plug in" to a vitality source in order to keep on living, the major difference being that golems are usually designed to consume little vitality in order to work, making them more cost effective.


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## Alexandra (Jul 10, 2013)

There are no vampires in the Western Isles; vamps are purely mythological and WI parents frequently frighten young, misbehaving children with tales of the bloodsuckers (leeches who walk), or entertain older kids with similar stories. The attitude in the Easterlies is, "Could be, but I never seen one." Folks from the Land of Light laugh at vampire myths.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jul 13, 2013)

Oh, we had a delightful time debating vampires a few months back... http://mythicscribes.com/forums/world-building/6866-tried-vampires-being-goody-two-shoes.html

We write dark urban fantasy, so our vampires tend to loosely follow the contemporary model.  They tend to be attractive, in part to lure in potential prey (the vampirism changes their appearances slightly) and in part because the change from mortal to vampire is dangerous and the young and healthy are most likely to survive.  Some basic differences are that our vampires are not undead - to say they are mutated immortals is a gross oversimplification of their origins, but that's a serviceable enough explanation for a short format.  They can eat normally and have mostly normal body functions, though slightly slower and cooler.  They are possessed of great speed and strength and are extremely difficult to kill - the only sure methods are destruction of the heart or removal of the head.  Complete incineration will also work.  As a result vampires still practice the art of swordplay, though they are developing a healthy respect for high-caliber bullets.

They do need mortal blood to survive (they cannot survive on the blood of animals) but they rarely kill - not only does that sort of thing put them at risk of revealing themselves to mortals, but there are 2 gallons of blood in an adult body and a human-size stomach can only hold so much.  Our vampires, when feeding carefully, leave few signs behind on their victims.  Their bites are virtually painless and very erotic.  Their saliva is an anti-coagulant, while their tongues secrete a powerful healing agent.  Therefore, a victim being bitten is so aroused they do not notice they are being fed on, and when the vampire tongues the wound closed all that is left behind is a hickey.

Our vampires are organized into Courts, ruled by Kings.  A King is a powerful vampire of either gender who rules a group of vampires large enough to wield political power.  Technically, a court (note the lack of capitalization) is just a group of 3 or more vampires.  The largest Court in the world is Rome, which is also home of the oldest sitting King, Marcus of Rome, who is roughly 2300 years old.  (You history buffs may notice that he is too old to be Roman, and yet he claims to be - this is a weird Marcus thing.)  Vampire Courts always exists within urban areas - they need the population density to both hide themselves in plain sight and to serve as potential reserve food sources, though most vampires only feed on those mortals directly attached to the Courts themselves, usually shape shifting therian.  It's safer.  Vampires trace relations of loyalty along family lines.  Therefore, a vampire's creator is their father or mother.  Other vampires created by their father or mother are their siblings.  The siblings of the creator are referred to as aunt or uncle.  Go back a few generations and the originating vampire is referred to as you line's Progenitor, a title of great respect.  A vampire owes filial respect and devotion along all these relations, but none can take precedent over their allegiance to their King.  

Some of our vampires are capable of breeding.  Like I said, they are not undead, just changed and immortal.  It is possible, though rare, for a male vampire to impregnate a mortal female.  These dhampyr are considered tragic creatures, however.  While stronger and faster than a human, they cannot hope to compete with a full vampire and must always seek the protection of others in the often violently political world of the Courts.  If their vampire father is not strong, they basically become anyone's meat.  They must feed on mortal blood to survive, but they have the lifespan of their mortal mother.  It is not possible to change these children into full vampires - the attempts have always resulted in death.  The immortal fathers are doomed to watch their children age and die before their eyes, helpless to stop it.  Vampires women are another matter.  The majority of them are rendered sterile by the change, which for many women who became vampires in the time before reliable birth control and safe child bearing conditions was a liberating relief.  For others it was a crushing disappointment.  But, a very few, very rare and powerful female vampires are capable of bearing children.  These are called Queens, and of the tens of thousands of vampires in the world they number less than 3 dozen.  Every few centuries they will go into heat, drawing the most powerful vampire males to them, usually Kings who rule their own cities but some vampires can surprise.  Queens always bear sons, Princes, who if they survive their vulnerable youths will grow into the most powerful of vampires - making them targets for mature Kings who have no wish to see themselves overthrown one day.  The oldest Prince, who has survived to become a sitting King, is Asad of Damascus at roughly 2200 years old.

The oldest living known vampire, and the most feared, is Himiko, older sister of Marcus.  She is 2500 years old and rules an independent Court - but holds no territory by her choice.  She is highly unpredictable and dangerous.  There may be vampires still living who are older, but if there are they have not chosen to reveal themselves... yet.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 13, 2013)

shangrila said:


> Basically, my "vampires" are reptilian werewolves. They're predatory in human form and change into leathery skinned, reptile-esque creatures whenever (I guess, I haven't figured that part out yet). Blood drinking is more a pass time than an actual sustenance.
> 
> I like that you don't have the strain spreading by bite. There's an actual mathematic essay that shows vampires turning people by bites is impossible so, yeah, realism always gets extra points with me.



I'm not sure if this is what you were referring to, but I found this: io9.com/5241252/physicists-prove-that-vampires-could-not-exist

In which case, it's a simple, vampire population increasing exponentially issue, and not a biting issue. I'd say most vampire lore nowadays at least requires a transfusion of blood from the vampire, which would prevent any exponential population issues. 

Anyway, I have vampires in WotA as well. I'm not sure if I've written about them in-depth on here before, so I'll give the run-down now. 

Powerful magickers have access to blood magick, which is a form of defiling magick, in which they draw upon energy from the blood of nearby creatures. The more powerful the creature, the more powerful the blood magick spell becomes. The magick is physically and mentally addictive and corruptive. Although blood magick does not change alignment necessarily, many argue that it is inherently evil and those magickers that frequently use it have a tendency of looking upon others as prey and not as people/living beings. 

Those magickers that regularly use blood magick eventually come to the point where they identify themselves as a blood mage. Blood magi tend to forego their native magicks and rely on blood magick, even when their native magicks may be more useful. Their capacity for blood (that is, how much energy they can steal from it) increases, and with this capacity, their heart begins to increase in size as well. Blood magi tend to start using blood magick to heal themselves, which accelerates their physical corruption. Blood teleportation also accelerates this. Eventually, the flesh, organs and bones of their body is replaced with solid blood and their heart swells to fill their chest cavity. At this point, they are universally believed to be a vampire. 

_Note: Some cultures, particularly dwarves and the dwarven lunebanes (which are a monster hunter cult) consider any use of blood magick to be damning and do not distinguish between a blood mage and a vampire._

The blood shell around a vampire's heart is merely an extension of its dark will and is susceptible to running water and will evaporate in direct sunlight (unless the vampire is very powerful and has a very thick blood shell, in which case it has some time it can exist in sunlight and running water). Extreme damage to a vampire's blood shell will slow it as it usually must repair itself before continuing. The most damage that can be done to its body is beheading, but again, the vampire heart is only weakened by this, not destroyed. Vampires tend to develop an intense dislike of rain, even though it does no lasting harm to them.

The blood shell is superhumanly quick and agile, and strong enough to bend bars of steel. The vampire heart can re-manifest the shell in different shapes such as the classic wolves and bats, although as the vampire heart swells, the shells must be commensurately larger as well. Although blood magi rarely use their natural magicks, experienced vampires do not discard any tool and bring their full abilities to bear on any problem. Additionally, vampires develop powerful psionic abilities over the years of their undeath and are easily able to dominate creatures mentally. 

Since the vampire's shell is mutable and changeable and is truly an illusion as much as it is tangible, the more powerful a vampire is the more light will pass through their bodies. From a distance, vampires may not even be noticed, and powerful vampires may sit in a room with you without you ever being aware of their presence. This is why vampires often appear hazy or indistinct in mirrors and other reflective surfaces and why they do not possess a remarkable shadow, although vampires seem to be able to control this feature of their blood shell with experience. 

Vampires avoid pure fires and fire will consume a blood shell (but not the heart) as readily as dry timber. Unless the fire is maintained or the ashes are spread, the blood shell will eventually reconstitute itself without effort from the vampire heart. Vampires are susceptible to weapons of pure metal such as silver and mithril and the vampire finds wounds to the shell from these weapons harder to heal and regenerate. 

Vampires have a natural aversion to plants, which are the only form of life that blood magick does not affect and frequently lack impurities to corrupt. A piece of wood inserted into a vampire's heart will neutralize and paralyze the vampire and any of its magickal abilities in effect. If the blood shell is weak, such as from a new vampire, the blood shell will be destroyed when the heart is paralyzed. Because of this, and because of vampires' almost cowardly natures, vampires overcompensate for all their weaknesses, avoiding any location or prey that smells strongly of plants or using their powers to overcome anything that may be a threat to them. 

The Fasara um Lithia (the Brotherhood of Elven Magick) hunts down vampires as perversions of elven magick with unrelenting persistence and will even join forces with dwarven lunebanes to pursue vampires. (Elven magick works by forging a "gate" or link within one's self and then connecting to the leylines of Lysia that are spread across the planet Ao. Defiling magick forges the same sort of connection as a gate, but directly to the planet or creatures and saps energy instead of drawing on energy).

Blood magi that do not have enough willpower may regress to vampire spawn, a mindless feral creature resembling the creature in life, and this is also the fate of victims of vampires that are not destroyed outright. Occasionally, a vampire spawn may regain some semblance of itself and progress to the rank of vampire, but especially for spawn that were not magickers in life, they are almost always a lesser creature that is unwelcome amongst other vampires. Vampires that progress too quickly and become full vampires with no semblance of their original bodies may lose themselves and become blood oozes, a mindless, formless creature that suffer a maddening hunger for the life-force of others. Extremely rarely, a blood ooze may progress to become a vampire spawn.

Finally, one of the biggest weaknesses vampires have is their attachment to their former bodies. Ancient vampires recognize their hearts as both the source of all their power and their greatest weakness, and these creatures raise huge draconic-shaped bodies formed of blood to house their heart at its core. With the more powerful and gigantic body, the former vampire's heart swells to even more massive proportions and their capacity for blood increases to absurd levels. Every blood dragon in existence is a scar on the planet and preys on living creatures for hundreds of miles around its lair. Those vampires seeking to become blood dragons too soon lose control of the magick and fall to blood oozes instead.


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## Svrtnsse (Jul 14, 2013)

I've got a fairly long-ish article about vampires on my wiki: Vampires - Odd Lands Wiki
I'll sum up the main points here.

1. Everything that's alive has a soul (more or less). The soul is what enables a being to manipulate the aether (wield magic).
2. A vampire is an aether based parasite that lodges itself on the connection between a beings physical body and its soul.
3. The vampire parasite controls the physical body of its host through magical means and it uses the being's soul to channel the aether needed to wield that magic. In this way the vampire erodes and consumes the soul of the host.
4. Once the soul of a host has been fully consumed a new soul is needed. The vampire achieves this by transferring to a new body (I remember writing that they could also steal the entire soul from another being but I don't seem to find that part now).
5. When a vampire takes over a host the host's physical body dies. In order to keep the body from rotting and falling apart blood is needed. This blood is taken from other beings of the same kind and is then used to magically reinforce the host body.
6. The longer a vampire stays with a host the more sensitive the host body becomes to light, both direct and indirect. Even light other than that from the sun will eventually become harmful to the body.
7. New vampires are created by a vampire parasite splitting into two identical copies of itself (just the parasite, not the physical body). Both copies of the vampire will have the exact same memories as the original vampire up until the time it split. 
8. Vampires can trace their memories back until the first ever vampire.
9. As the vampire uses the souls of others to channel the aether the "normal" limits on how much aether can be channeled by a being don't fully apply to them, making vampires potentially very powerful magic wielders.


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## shangrila (Jul 15, 2013)

The one I read was slightly different to the one Zero Angel found. Sorry I can't link it, I read it years ago, but the basic idea behind it was that if a vampire needed to drink blood, say, once a month, and each bite would turn the victim into another vampire, then over several centuries they would have amassed a population larger than the current human population.


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2013)

shangrila said:


> The one I read was slightly different to the one Zero Angel found. Sorry I can't link it, I read it years ago, but the basic idea behind it was that if a vampire needed to drink blood, say, once a month, and each bite would turn the victim into another vampire, then over several centuries they would have amassed a population larger than the current human population.



That's why many of my vampires are careful not to turn every human they kill, especially in the City. They keep humans penned up as a food source, and when each one is drained dry, they use the meat to feed the other living captives. Gross, yes, but pragmatic. XD Waste not, want not.


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## wordwalker (Jul 15, 2013)

shangrila said:


> The one I read was slightly different to the one Zero Angel found. Sorry I can't link it, I read it years ago, but the basic idea behind it was that if a vampire needed to drink blood, say, once a month, and each bite would turn the victim into another vampire, then over several centuries they would have amassed a population larger than the current human population.



That idea's barely been used for decades now. Instead it's usually said that the vampire has to give you some of his blood too (the original _Dracula_ did it to Mina, though it wasn't clear it was necessary), or make some other effort, or else that vampires make a point of killing most victims on the spot. The notion that any bite is contagious was certainly part of the older myths, that had a lot to do with inexorable death and disease, but not these days-- I give Stephen King a lot of the credit for showing everyone with _Salem's Lot_ how that would mean "there goes the neighborhood."

Edit: I also remember a D&D article that said a vampire would end up turning the whole town, and then they'd all starve. The more dangerous plague would be werewolves, that turned people but could also live off animals; its conclusions were either that werewolves were careful who they bit, or else had to come from a very recent curse that was Spreading Rapidly.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 15, 2013)

wordwalker said:


> That idea's barely been used for decades now. Instead it's usually said that the vampire has to give you some of his blood too (the original _Dracula_ did it to Mina, though it wasn't clear it was necessary), or make some other effort, or else that vampires make a point of killing most victims on the spot. The notion that any bite is contagious was certainly part of the older myths, that had a lot to do with inexorable death and disease, but not these days-- I give Stephen King a lot of the credit for showing everyone with _Salem's Lot_ how that would mean "there goes the neighborhood."
> 
> Edit: I also remember a D&D article that said a vampire would end up turning the whole town, and then they'd all starve. The more dangerous plague would be werewolves, that turned people but could also live off animals; its conclusions were either that werewolves were careful who they bit, or else had to come from a very recent curse that was Spreading Rapidly.



Most werewolves don't *HAVE* to bite anybody, do they? 

Would it be derailing to see how people do werewolves differently or new thread?


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## A. E. Lowan (Jul 15, 2013)

Zero Angel said:


> Most werewolves don't *HAVE* to bite anybody, do they?
> 
> Would it be derailing to see how people do werewolves differently or new thread?



Personally, I think going off on tangents in the natural course of conversation can be fun!

It depends on your treatment of werewolves.  Some writers say even a small scratch can be infectious.  With our therian (shape-shifters) the "infection" is in the body fluids, mostly concentrated in the saliva, and a large enough amount had to enter the victim's bloodstream to cause the change.  So basically, a huge, traumatic wound is required, or some pretty serious violence in the very least.  Even still, it's easier to make a therian than it is to make a vampire.  In our world, you don't make vampires by accident.


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## Queshire (Jul 15, 2013)

As the original poster of this thread, I'm cool if we move on to werewolves.

Hmmm.... I have a lot of ideas for werewolves in my setting. I'm not sure which one to go with. Let's see, I think I'll go with the first werewolf virus being created as a weapon by the sorcerer-kings of old. Kidnap one of a rival's villagers, infect them, let them "escape" you and head back home, about a month or so later they turn into a berserk, unstoppable killing machine, spreading chaos and destruction. Now that strain of werewolf is pretty much extinct, at least among the core worlds. A vaccine saw to that. Most modern day weres are descended from that strain, either the descendents of people who one way or another managed to resist the strain, had a bad reaction to the vaccine, or were infected by a different strain of virus based off the original one for some reason or another. The exact details of these derivative weres vary, but seeing how turning into a berserk, unstoppable killing machine once a month tends to reduce the chances of reproduction, evolution tends to favor the strains that can be controlled one way or another.

Mind you, Weres are just one subset of shifters. There are other shifters out there who aren't weres, and even shifters that LOOK like weres but aren't.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 15, 2013)

My lycanthropes were created as a side effect from the comet the dragons summoned to wipe out the dinosaurs. The core of the comet stayed in orbit and united with the protomoon to create the moon as we know it, and what hit the planet was mostly drawn down into the core to lock it away, but fragments of the comet and its dust were flung across the planet (not to mention all over the moon). The comet was a very specific type of magick born from the hatred and jealousy of the dragons in order to annihilate the dinosaurs, but it had strange side effects on the other natural creatures of the planet. The not-so-primitive ancestors of dwarves found themselves joining to nearby animals and losing themselves into the hybrid form of their transformation. 

Eventually, the comet's magicks were somewhat subdued and these first lycanthropes were able to regain control of their forms, but whenever the comet's magicks are empowered by the light of the sun and reflected to the planet below, they lose themselves to either their hybrid form or full animal form. Those that have enough comet within them and have learned to control themselves are usually able to change at will into either a hybrid or animal form, but most find that they MUST change during a full moon. Although less comet within their bodies makes the call to change and their powers as a lycanthrope weaker, it also makes them have less control over themselves. 

The bits of comet within each lycanthrope became one with the DNA of the beast and the disease can be passed through transfer of DNA, the more comet-laced DNA infecting the victim, the more likely they are to turn to a lycanthrope. Typically, the disease is lessened when transferred through small infections (such as a bite, sexual transmission, or even something as large as a blood transfusion) since the comet is more spread out, but this can be countered by eating a compatible lycanthrope (such as the one that infected you). When lycanthropes ingest compatible lycanthropes, their bodies digest most of the matter normally, but they absorb the DNA and their disease progresses further. 

The animal half of the lycanthrope is similarly passed through DNA, and there are still lycanthropes alive today (65 million years later) that turn into bestial dinosaurs in the light of a full moon. Sometimes the animal half is not passed on and the half-lycanthrope merely becomes a powerful feral version of themselves when the comet-DNA is activated. Other times when lycanthropes mate the child will be a lycanthrope of a new animal (usually one that is prevalent in their environment). Finally, if a non-compatible lycanthrope's DNA is consumed, this can sometimes cause mutation and one common mutation is an altered animal form. 

Many of the original lycanthropes fled the planet to live on the moon, where their powers were greatly increased, and some still live today. 

When primitive man began to try to escape elven rule, they were constantly looking for an advantage. One of their more cruel methods was to capture lycanthropes and cultivate/distill the lycanthrope DNA so that they could create lycanthropes of their choosing and pure of any weak animals. Wolves, which they had just began to domesticate, were a common choice to create these new lycanthropes. Thousands of primitive man and eventually homo sapiens became werewolves, which at the time were considered the defenders of their race and greatly honored. 

When all magick was sealed from the planet after the fall of Atlantis, the werewolves of man and the other lycanthropes, although diminished and no longer able to change at will, became some of the more powerful creatures of the planet. Many became corrupt and eventually lycanthropy began to be despised amongst humes (it was always considered a curse amongst the dwarves and elves).


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## Svrtnsse (Jul 16, 2013)

The werewolves in my setting are fairly standard and don't deviate in any significant way from traditional werewolves. The full article is available at Theriantropes - Odd Lands Wiki but I'll sum up the main points here.

Lycanthropy is a form of Theriantropy (I looked that up somewhere) and it's a blood borne disease that only affects humans (elves are immune to everything, dwarves aren't mammals and anfylk were created immune to the disease).
A person infected with lycanthropy has the ability to turn into an animal at will. The type of animal is dependent on the strain of the disease but is always a carnivorous mammal.
The diseases forcibly changes the carrier into their animal aspect once a month. Usually when the moon is full or new. 
Theriantropes are vulnerable to silver.
Theriantropes have strongly improved physical resilience.
As a theriantrop ages their appearance will start to show some attributes of their animal aspect: increased body hair/fur, eye shape and color, claws/nails, teeth.

What should also be pointed out is that theriantropy is a well known and accepted part of reality in my setting. Most nations in the civilized parts of the world make allowances for it in healthcare and similar things. If you're a theriantrope you may have the right to have time off from work the day after your forcible change - things like that.

The same applies to vampires as mentioned above, they too are known to exist. However, vampires are hunted down and killed as soon as they're detected. They're soul-eating monsters while theriantropes are regular people who just happen to turn into animals now and then.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 16, 2013)

Svrtnsse said:


> The werewolves in my setting are fairly standard and don't deviate in any significant way from traditional werewolves. The full article is available at Theriantropes - Odd Lands Wiki but I'll sum up the main points here.
> 
> Lycanthropy is a form of Theriantropy (I looked that up somewhere)



NICE! I feel really stupid for not realizing lycanthropy referred only to werewolves -_- I'm usually sharp enough to catch things like that!


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## A. E. Lowan (Jul 17, 2013)

Svrtnsse said:


> Lycanthropy is a form of Theriantropy (I looked that up somewhere) and it's a blood borne disease that only affects humans (elves are immune to everything, dwarves aren't mammals and anfylk were created immune to the disease).



Yay!  Someone else who calls their weres therianthropes!  My therian and I are very happy.


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## Ireth (Jul 17, 2013)

Zero Angel said:


> NICE! I feel really stupid for not realizing lycanthropy referred only to werewolves -_- I'm usually sharp enough to catch things like that!



Yup, lycanthrope comes from the Greek words for "wolf" and "man"; lykos = wolf, and anthropos = human. It really annoyed me in one of my old RP sites when three different strains of therianthropy were all referred to as lycanthropy even though only one of them involved lupine transformation; the other two were bears and leopards. I make a point of referring to my werebear as an arctanthrope. ^^


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## Zero Angel (Jul 17, 2013)

Ireth said:


> Yup, lycanthrope comes from the Greek words for "wolf" and "man"; lykos = wolf, and anthropos = human. It really annoyed me in one of my old RP sites when three different strains of therianthropy were all referred to as lycanthropy even though only one of them involved lupine transformation; the other two were bears and leopards. I make a point of referring to my werebear as an arctanthrope. ^^



I blame D&D for imprinting me at a young age.


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## Queshire (Jul 17, 2013)

there's something I've wanted to do with werewolves for awhile now, but I haven't found a place to do it. Essentially, werewolves aren't really wolf-like. They're predatory, completely and undeniably predatory, like a Sasquatch with a mouth full of huge knife-like fangs. They're only called werewolves because, well, to ye olde medieval peasants, wolves were THE alpha predators around. There aren't words to describe them properly so they use the closest thing they have, wolves. Similarly, in other cultures, with other alpha predators the animal compared to would be different. Maybe bears, or lions, or jaguars, but that's just different ways to describe the same creature.


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## wordwalker (Jul 17, 2013)

The other trick to naming creatures like this is not to shorten it to "weres"-- "were-wolf" is "(hu)man-wolf," so we're all Weres.

(I think... )

If I have to categorize, I'll say werebeasts, werecreatures, or invent a word. Or stick to werewolves anyway, because they have all the fun.


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## Queshire (Jul 17, 2013)

I have to disagree with not shorting it to were. Sure, it's not scientific, but most people in the world aren't scientists and it conveys the information it needs to convey without extra work. With calling them therianthrope you'll have to explain what a therianthrope is as not everyone as would know what it means. Admittedly that's no problem if they're a big part of your story, but if they aren't then were can convey all the information you need in four short letters. Mostly it's just a matter of preference I suppose.


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## Trick (Jul 17, 2013)

shangrila said:


> The one I read was slightly different to the one Zero Angel found. Sorry I can't link it, I read it years ago, but the basic idea behind it was that if a vampire needed to drink blood, say, once a month, and each bite would turn the victim into another vampire, then over several centuries they would have amassed a population larger than the current human population.



Isn't this what that Daybreakers movie was about? Never saw it, just heard something similar to this.


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## Steerpike (Jul 17, 2013)

The roots of the word "lycanthropy" suggest that it refers only to werewolves. The term is used in psychiatry, however, and in that context it refers to delusions of shape-shifting into any animal, as I understand it. Also, in popular culture the word is often used in the same way (D&D, for example), to refer to transformation into any animal. Not that the latter makes it a correct usage, but it seems to be the one that is imprinted into the minds of most.


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## Svrtnsse (Jul 17, 2013)

Queshire said:


> I have to disagree with not shorting it to were. Sure, it's not scientific, but most people in the world aren't scientists and it conveys the information it needs to convey without extra work. With calling them therianthrope you'll have to explain what a therianthrope is as not everyone as would know what it means. Admittedly that's no problem if they're a big part of your story, but if they aren't then were can convey all the information you need in four short letters. Mostly it's just a matter of preference I suppose.



I believe this is significant, not just when it comes to werewolves and theriantropes, but with a lot of things. We who write about these things tend to do a bit of research about what we're writing. This occasionally leads us to digging up facts and information that while not incorrect aren't part of what the average person would refer to as "common knowledge".
Sure, theriantropy is the correct scientific term, but most people I interact with on a daily basis wouldn't have a clue what it means unless I explained it to them. I'm using it in my setting as it's scientifically correct and I want to try and give my setting an aura of modern scientific correctness, even though it's a fantasy setting.

If I wanted a smooth story where the details were less important than the fact that a person just turned into an enormous, raging tiger on the subway during rush hour I wouldn't use terms I don't think people are familiar with.


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## Zero Angel (Jul 17, 2013)

Trick said:


> Isn't this what that Daybreakers movie was about? Never saw it, just heard something similar to this.



Yes, pretty much.


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## Addison (Jul 19, 2013)

Not to disrespect a fellow writer but my vampires will not be "Orlando Bloom hot".  I would follow the classic vampire but have them believably adapt to the era/ modern time of the story. In my opinion, a vampire has the following powers and weaknesses: strength, flight, hypnosis, shape shifting, speed, weakness to holy water, no reflection, must drink so much blood within a certain time to stay alive. But vampires, like all humans, are vulnerable to things like acne, anorexia, obesity, cavities, poor eye sight. Just because they have eternal youth does not mean they have eternal life.


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## Ireth (Jul 19, 2013)

Addison said:


> But vampires, like all humans, are vulnerable to things like acne, anorexia, obesity, cavities, poor eye sight. Just because they have eternal youth does not mean they have eternal life.



Well, that depends, IMO, on if said previous-human suffered from such things at the point of being turned. A book called _Bloodsucking Fiends_ (can't recall the author offhand, alas) did this quite well. None of this stupid ableist bullsh*t a certain YA vampire series tried to pull off with its cast full of Sues.



Spoiler: Breaking Dawn



I mean, really -- if you get pregnant and turn into a vampire within moments of your baby being born, as well as suffering horrific injuries during the birthing process (broken SPINE, anyone?), then you should live out your eternal vampire existence in a wheelchair, with a saggy baby belly that's been ripped open to get your impossible halfbreed spawn out of you.



/end rant


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## A. E. Lowan (Jul 19, 2013)

Ireth said:


> Well, that depends, IMO, on if said previous-human suffered from such things at the point of being turned. A book called _Bloodsucking Fiends_ (can't recall the author offhand, alas) did this quite well. None of this stupid ableist bullsh*t a certain YA vampire series tried to pull off with its cast full of Sues.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That just made me giggle and destroyed my entire need to rant.  /bow


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## crash (Jul 20, 2013)

I'm trying to avoid the impossibly beautiful vampires as much as possible. Yes, most of my vampires look young and fit and several are very good looking, but just as many have behaviours that make them seem odd. My main vampire is in an odd position where she's almost a century old (yes, she's young by vampire standards), looks to be in her mid thirties, but is physically in her mid twenties. Most of this is explained as being due to all the hardship of her life (born during the early days of the Soviet Union, sniper during WWII, sent to a Gulag after the war, lived on the run for almost forty years and has only been able to settle down during the past ten years at best) as to way she looks older than she physically is.


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