Queshire
Auror
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.