Why do Vampires Turn to Dust? http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966 sbhsdgd96 It seems that in a lot of TV shows and movies, vampires turn to dust when they die. What is the reasoning behind that? I'm debating whether mine should or not, but want a valid reason for them to. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:21:00 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120829 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120829 Tex2S Don't know what might be an official reason for it, but I am put in mind of the old "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," which is partly used to summarize how we eventually will return to dust when we die. (That is a true thing: except for some exceptional conditions, like mummification and the frozen bodies in cold climates which never get a chance to rot, even bones will break down over time.) I would imagine that the vampire might go straight from vampire to dust, with no decay in between, to show that really he has been dead for a very long time already. That and also, any supernatural effect like that (dissolving, turning to dust, turning to stone, etc.) does emphasize that this creature is not an ordinary part of nature, and does not obey the same natural rules we do. Kinda ups the ol' creep-factor. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:27:24 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120862 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120862 larelmian Stoker did it that way. (Rather anticlimactic really.) I always assumed it was because they'd been dead for so long that the body would have already rotted and crumbled away to nothing, so once whatever vampire power held it together was gone, poof! No more body. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:28:57 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120871 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120871 Honeybadger12345 Simple. When they did it in Buffy, they didn't want to spend twenty minutes burying the body. They just went along with the "eventually turn to dust when you die" think like the above posters said. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:35:17 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120892 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120892 Itzika I thought they made it up for Buffy so it wouldn't look like she was killing humans. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:55:57 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120986 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1120986 Honeybadger12345 Nah, they dealt with that problem by giving them the bumpy, vampire faces. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:03:22 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121282 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121282 Notkieran For my story, vampires don't always turn to dust. A vampire is already dead, and is actually moving around because of a self-sustaining necromantic spell that feeds off the life force of its victims. The spell maintains the illusion of the body, but the "real" body is rotting away on the inside. Only when the body is reduced to dust is the vampire "powerful" enough to shapeshift or turn to mist. And when the vampire dies, the real body is revealed. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:25:54 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121369 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121369 J.Kievsky In old original Buffy movie they didn't turn to dust, they just fell over. Pretty funny really, since you expect the dramatic crumbling into dust, and then there was just a corpse lying on the ground with a stake in their chest. Anyway, I always figured it was something like what the others have said, that the body they have is some kind of vampire magic--it can't be a legit corporeal body to live forever, right?--and the stake in the heart dispels that force, reducing the body to its natural state and thereby killing the vampire. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:15:30 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121528 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121528 DarkPassenger I like what the others have said about the body basically already being "dead" so that when they are staked, there is no longer any supernatural element to hold the body together. For my current story, vampires don't turn to dust that quickly. When they are staked, they decay like a normal human would but at an accelerated rate. I thought this could be for one of two reasons -- 1) what everyone already mentioned which I reiterated above, or 2) because everything else pertaining to the vampire is heightened -- speed, strength, appetite, sense of smell, etc... so even in death, their rate of decay is quicker than a human's. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:49:21 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121892 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1121892 Honeybadger12345 Ha, this is almost exactly what mine is like. Mine appear like any other fresh corpse, but then quickly decay into how their body should like as of they had been actually dead the entire time they were a vampire. If you were so old to the point that you would've been dust by now, they you decompose into death within a few days. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:57:41 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122342 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122342 lasalle202 actually, on the commentary track they talk about how it is primarily to make them "not human" and turn it into "cartoon violence" where there will be less potential for Buffy to come across as a mass murderer. AND because because of the new computer graphics they could do it and it looked cool. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:18:12 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122363 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122363 lasalle202 Ashes to ashes and dust to dust and all that. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:18:46 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122365 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122365 Lizardhound I had this line in my head for a looong time: "When the people of this world die, they turn to ash. Nobody knows why it is so..." But that world was mainly fire. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:15:49 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122474 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122474 Honeybadger12345 I think both the vampire face and the dusting added to the "Buffy no kill humans," but I did know that one of the factors was so the bodies didn't have to be buried. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:28:27 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122653 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122653 Nike Lennard They do because we want them to. It's just a cool side effect. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:23:05 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1123884 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1123884 Dragonchilde Moving to Horror & Supernatural Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:31:54 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1127078 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1127078 awesomeo As mentioned earlier, the main reason you see this in movies and TV is so that the characters are not tripping over the corpses. It's less romantic when the hero is standing atop a pile of bodies (unless you are Conan of course). It also makes hunting easier. If slain vamps revert back to human bodies, then every vampire hunter looks like a mass murderer/serial killer with a vampire fetish. As a side effect, it upholds the masquerade since there are no bodies with fangs and claws for scientists to dissect. It could be deliberate. There was a scifi series a while back (can't recall the name) where aliens didn't have ships but transferred their consciousness into synthetic bodies here on earth. When they died, the bodies disentegrated (built into their genetic code) so as not to leave evidence for earthly authorities to study or something. I bought that. The show still sucked but that bit was kind of neat. In video games you see this because of memory/processing issues. Bodies fade so that the computer does not have to keep track of where every corpse was (or where every bullet went, so on and so on...). All this said, the whole exploding dust thing really only makes any sense in a supernatural setting. If vamps are possessed by demons or animated by magic, then sure I'll buy that they explode or crumble into dust when slain. Not at all believable if vampires are the result of a virus or some other pseudo-scientific approach. I only bought the previous alien example because it was specifically stated the bodies were designed to do this. Of course I think "scientific" vamps are stupid anyway, so I'm a little biased there. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:28:51 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1129499 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1129499 awesomeo Though the dust thing could be beneficial. Maybe some cops see the hunter staking a vamp and are about to kill/arrest him for first-degree murder. Then the body goes up. Hunter: "Told you. Vampire." Cop 1: [lowers gun] "Damn." Cop 2: [cuffing hunter] "Well you're still under arrest. Can't be sure you didn't provoke that vampire...And you can't carry a functioning crossbow around. It's not hunting season..." Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:33:40 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1129507 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1129507 vampyre_smiles [quote=awesomeo] Hunter: "Told you. Vampire." Cop 1: [lowers gun] "Damn." Cop 2: [cuffing hunter] "Well you're still under arrest. Can't be sure you didn't provoke that vampire...And you can't carry a functioning crossbow around. It's not hunting season..." [/quote] XD Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:37:46 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1131019 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1131019 Vespero. I believe Dracula states that when a vampire is destroyed, all the decay that should have happened to the body catches up to it. Older vampires crumble to dust, while younger ones simply become dead bodies. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:49:17 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1133914 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1133914 jessica_marie I agree with most of the comments above, re: the why. Chiming in here with an alternative school of thought. In Being Human UK, Vampires only turn to dust if they're staked. If they die by other methods (explosion, fire that leaves behind bones, beheading, etc) they leave behind a corpse that may betray the vampire's nature to post-(re)mortem examination. For example, in the show, several vampires were killed in an explosion and the fire that ensued, however none showed smoke in the lungs. If a vampire body was dropped in the river, water wouldn't have been aspirated either. Anyway, staking is the only true death for a vampire in that universe, as the dust is final and irreversible. Once staked, a vampire will bleed as if mortally wounded: this includes severe hemorrhaging, and internal blood being expelled from the mouth. However, like human heart injuries, death can be instantaneous or it can take a few minutes. Death from most stabbing injuries can be delayed by not removing the impaling instrument. EMTs are trained to stabilize the protruding object and leave it to be surgically removed at the hospital, as this protects the damaged organ and actually prevents a great deal of blood loss and tissue damage. Being Human utilized this: if the staking caused instant death, the vampire turned to dust; if the staking caused a mortal injury, the vampire could recover if they consumed human blood. If not, once they 'perished' --no matter how long it took-- they would turn to dust. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:09:47 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1143142 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1143142 JenWales I think that started with Buffy, it's an example of writers etc not being original enough. I'm reading a book like that now, a whole fantasy world which is original then other things like that are not, i hate that. Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:34:49 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1202556 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1202556 Vacillator I never liked the old "age catching up with him" plot device, where an ancient character who loses whatever supernatural protection they had against aging crumbles into dust because "Whoops, I'm suddenly four hundred years old". It's not just vampires - Heroes did it as well, off the top of my head, and probably countless others. It doesn't realy make sense when you think about it from a rational point of view. As far as I'm concerned, if you're preserved at age 20 for a thousand years, then you lose your protection against aging or decaying or whatever, what you have at that point is a 20 year old body which will then degenerate normally. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:18:16 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1223801 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1223801 darlingNib Vespero is correct. I know because I just finished reading Stoker's Dracula. It is not something that started with Buffy. Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:09:20 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1244105 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1244105 Earthsick Oh my, to your last point: I once had a concept in a story that some, um, 'magic people' (lolwhat) could manage to 'live outside time', also meaning, that they don't age anymore. If they'd manage to get 'normal' again, I guess they would just continue to age normally, since it's not like the time they were immortal could catch up to them. Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:28:12 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1312697 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1312697 TGWild I think there's room to invent more stuff here. So I'm just going to blatantly make something up now. Vampires use a variety of unnatural functions in order to sustain their bodies. As we know, 've do not drink... vine', nor vater, vhiskey, or any kind of liquid other than blood - and all told, the quantity of water in blood is relatively low. In some mythologies, they can't cross rivers, either. Obviously, vampires are hydrophobic, meaning vampire bodies are pretty much permanently dehydrated. Wood, of course, is designed to suck water out of the ground in order to sustain the tree. Due to vampires being fundamentally unnatural and hydrophobic, and wood being fundamentally natural and hydrophilic, stabbing a vampire with wood causes the surrounding water to be immediately drawn into the wood. Stabbing them in the heart links the wooden stake directly to their entire cardiovascular system, sucking all the water out of their entire body at once, reducing them to nothing but a withered husk that quickly disintegrates. There. It's canon now - everyone use this! Tue, 01 May 2012 14:20:17 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1334087 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1334087 rbingham2000 The vampire crumbling to dust thing was mainly a Hollywood invention, intended to let characters dispose of a vampire bloodlessly after staking them through the heart, which in a lot of old movies happened when the vampire was sleeping and involved using a hammer to drive the thing in Mon, 14 May 2012 21:34:58 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1369645 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1369645 Esby Wow, they must really reek. That's a great idea though. Wed, 16 May 2012 12:11:23 -0500 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1373680 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/horror-supernatural/threads/49966?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1373680