Vampires with special abilities

[Vel]

As much as i dislike Stephanie Meyer for changing the way people view vampires and how much of a guilty pleasure Twilight is, i love the concept of a vampire gaining a gift or special ability based on how/if they died or certain experiences in their human years (please correct me if i'm wrong about her coming up with the concept!!). So i decided to include that in my story. Please feel free to judge my characters special abilities so far any opinion is fine with me

Character 1: this character has the ability to infect anyone with a plague like disease. She can control the symptoms, stop them, or make them more lethal. She got this ability after dying from the Great Northern War plague.

Character 2: For this character im giving him a weirder gift. This gift came from his mental health in his human years. When he was a human he had schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. He experienced the common symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, intense emotions and more. Because of this he has the ability to influence what a human or animal feels, sees, or hears. But, i also want to create another gift for him. let me explain this one, this ability comes specifically from his auditory hallucinations. The voices he heard as a human have become unknown entities as a vampire and can aid him by providing extra strength, a boost in his communication skills and intelligence, and can be away from him and watch/hear things and he will be able to see and hear what they do. This gift may be a bit overpowered but i think that will make his character development more interesting. I dont want to give him both gifts because i feel thats too overpowered but either seems cool.

as i said, whats yalls opinions on these abilities? i'd like to hear what other people think!

 

[Queshire]

Well, standard warnings about writing about characters with mental health issues apply.

My vampires don't get abilities from how they die, but can develop further abilities based off of the concept of consuming. The most powerful vampire in my setting is a master of ice magic as a result of consuming heat. She's also capable of consuming not only someone's appearance and memories, but their destiny as well. With that she can transform into them well enough to fool the gods.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

As someone who's multi-diagnosis mentally ill, I think your concept is interesting. Let's see how it plays out on the page. Ideas are awesome, but your characters and plot - mostly your characters - will dictate much of how things play out. Let them do it.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

You could play with the angle that vampires are being created by someone trying to gain followers with specific powers. Two different factions could be gathering vampires with abilities for a certain goal or to fight against each other.

 

[FifthView]

RE: Character 1.

Is that an actual plague or only a "plague like" disease? I ask this because plagues are contagious by definition, and this will make a large difference in how your character uses her ability and the consequences of use. Either way, she may control the symptoms in the person she first infects—but what happens if that person passes it on to another person? And that person spreads it to another, and so on? This could open up some interesting character dynamics since, 1) she might find herself forced to hunt down carriers before things get out of hand, and 2) other vampires might hate her because she could potentially wipe out huge chunks of their, er, food base.

If, on the other hand, the disease is not a plague—it is not contagious—then I'm not 100% sure what is meant by "plague like."

Side note: Are some people naturally immune to whatever she does? If her ability sprang from suffering from an actual plague from the past, then perhaps survivors of that plague and/or their descendants might have immunity.

RE: Character 2.

For some reason, the description of him reminds me of the Marvel character Legion—at least, from the television show.

The first power is a fairly common type of psychic ability that crops up in various places. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's ripe for exploiting in your story and could lead to interesting things.

The second power intrigues me more. There could always be the question of whether these beings are truly separate from him or merely manifestations of various parts or personalities of his. I suspect this second power might make for more interesting reading than the first. At least for me personally. But it's how you use them that matters, so I'd say go for whatever you most want and don't be afraid to go down that alley.

 

[Vel]

As someone who's multi-diagnosis mentally ill, I think your concept is interesting. Let's see how it plays out on the page. Ideas are awesome, but your characters and plot - mostly your characters - will dictate much of how things play out. Let them do it.

thank you, i'm also mentally ill and have experience with other people like me. these characters are based off the "scary" and lesser known symptoms i've experienced so i'm very excited to see where i can take them.

 

[Vel]

You could play with the angle that vampires are being created by someone trying to gain followers with specific powers. Two different factions could be gathering vampires with abilities for a certain goal or to fight against each other.

that's a very interesting idea, i might be able to fit a concept like that into the story. thank you!

 

[Vel]

RE: Character 1.

Is that an actual plague or only a "plague like" disease? I ask this because plagues are contagious by definition, and this will make a large difference in how your character uses her ability and the consequences of use. Either way, she may control the symptoms in the person she first infects—but what happens if that person passes it on to another person? And that person spreads it to another, and so on? This could open up some interesting character dynamics since, 1) she might find herself forced to hunt down carriers before things get out of hand, and 2) other vampires might hate her because she could potentially wipe out huge chunks of their, er, food base.

If, on the other hand, the disease is not a plague—it is not contagious—then I'm not 100% sure what is meant by "plague like."

Side note: Are some people naturally immune to whatever she does? If her ability sprang from suffering from an actual plague from the past, then perhaps survivors of that plague and/or their descendants might have immunity.

RE: Character 2.

For some reason, the description of him reminds me of the Marvel character Legion—at least, from the television show.

The first power is a fairly common type of psychic ability that crops up in various places. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's ripe for exploiting in your story and could lead to interesting things.

The second power intrigues me more. There could always be the question of whether these beings are truly separate from him or merely manifestations of various parts or personalities of his. I suspect this second power might make for more interesting reading than the first. At least for me personally. But it's how you use them that matters, so I'd say go for whatever you most want and don't be afraid to go down that alley.

For character 1, you have a very good point. i might have to rethink certain aspects of her ability. Her cause of death was from the Great Northern War plague outbreak, so yes it is a plague. She can control what symptoms someone has so not everyone will have the actual plague. Her victims can simply have a runny nose, or an ugly boil on their arm. But then again this takes place in the late 1800s. Not having control over who catches what from her victims can be a good thing. It could limit how she uses her abilities and why she needs to stay hidden. As you said, It opens up a variety of possibilities as to antagonists she comes across. As for immunity, there are certain types of species in the story that take on a human form that can get sick, but will not be effected by it. Kind of like being immune to pain. They just kind of get sick but cant die or become physically weak. This will play an important role on her attempts to stay hidden.

For character 2 i'm glad we both agree on the second power. Both character 1 and 2 can be dangerous. Character 2 tends to lack a sense of responsibility with his power. This will draw some attention to him and also effect his "attempts" to stay hidden.
Sorry that there isn't much about character 2 right now! He's more complex and still needs some work done!

 

[MiaC]

I do like the first gift for the first character and the first gift for the second character but the third gift does seem a bit over the top and I don't know if it matches well with his mental illness. But let me make sure I'm understand correctly. So, because he had visual and audio hallucinations as a human, now as vampire, he has the ability to see and hear what others are doing when they aren't around him? That's what I took from what you said. But I maybe wrong. I think it's a bit far fetched but then again, that's just my opinion. But the gift is interesting in general but I don't think it correlates with the mental illness well.

 

[ShadeZ]

As much as i dislike Stephanie Meyer for changing the way people view vampires and how much of a guilty pleasure Twilight is, i love the concept of a vampire gaining a gift or special ability based on how/if they died or certain experiences in their human years (please correct me if i'm wrong about her coming up with the concept!!). So i decided to include that in my story. Please feel free to judge my characters special abilities so far any opinion is fine with me

Character 1: this character has the ability to infect anyone with a plague like disease. She can control the symptoms, stop them, or make them more lethal. She got this ability after dying from the Great Northern War plague.

Character 2: For this character im giving him a weirder gift. This gift came from his mental health in his human years. When he was a human he had schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. He experienced the common symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, intense emotions and more. Because of this he has the ability to influence what a human or animal feels, sees, or hears. But, i also want to create another gift for him. let me explain this one, this ability comes specifically from his auditory hallucinations. The voices he heard as a human have become unknown entities as a vampire and can aid him by providing extra strength, a boost in his communication skills and intelligence, and can be away from him and watch/hear things and he will be able to see and hear what they do. This gift may be a bit overpowered but i think that will make his character development more interesting. I dont want to give him both gifts because i feel thats too overpowered but either seems cool.

as i said, whats yalls opinions on these abilities? i'd like to hear what other people think!

In my books vampires are a species of fae. The strongest one of them has the ability to hear all things said under cover of darkness. I added his "filters" because this is too much on a mortal (in the sense of can be killed). So instead he can hear if specific words or concepts are brought up in conversations. Add to this the fact he has shadow teleport, wings, and the ability to polymorph into most animal or human forms and you have a powerful being. Further, if he is slain, he reincarnated. Because of this case, the character comes off as a villain or crazy often as he can hear the ones who came before him (6 he is the 7th incarnation). The biggest problem I've had with this character Talyis is that you have to limit his powers at risk of over powering. You have to have very re-established weaknesses (in Talyis case iron (most devastating), hawthorn wood (used to capture him), and light).