Vampire Guidlines...?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurVampiresAreDifferent

There are no "rules" or "guidelines" for vampires. They're a fictional creature, and if someone isn't doing them exactly the way you think they should be done, they aren't "bad" or "wrong" for doing it that way. About the only common thread is that they're parasitic in some way -- they feed on blood usually, but sometimes souls, psychic energies, or whatnot. Everything else is up in the air.

I defy your rules and scoff at them.

Of course, this is the girl who is writing a vampire romance satire. Let me give a counter point to your rules, because all in good fun, there are no rules. Except no glittering. Glittering is just retarded. (Unless you have a vampire who happens to be obsessed with body glitter. Then it's okay.)

Dark & Sexual: *snirk* Bwahahaha! Sorry, just thought of some of my vamps. Meet James, a 116 year old hard core Irish catholic who is cheerful, has a rather sunny disposition, and is a virgin do to his religion. He is the MMC. And note, my MMC is not meant to be mocked, he is meant to be a strong respectable character. Although you may sincker at points. Note that he has LESS experience in relationships than my MFC does. I love flipping cliche's the bird. *ahem* sorry, got a little off topic there.

And the 'sexual and romantic' falling in love part... *sigh* Folklore is a work in process. A lot of the more modern interpretations, that involve rejecting the notion of soulless vampires in a lot of romantic literature, because they are not horror. They like the idea, but not only do religions change, but so do superstitions. Thus vampires are allowed to change as well. It's not like vampires actually exist and we have to be faithful to their culture. Note, however, that I and many other writers pay attention to the original myths and do incorporate a lot of the old standards. Heck, I am including a lot of folklore that most people glance over. *shrugs* Juts depends on what you are drawn to.

The sunlight thing. Came in with the knock-off movie Nosferatu. Not apart of original myths. So vampires that can go out in the sun? Fine by me. Because Dracula, and the original myths, do that stuff.

What about the myths from other area's? Some vampires apparently had the weakness that to keep the vampire from hunting that night, you scattered grain in their coffins. They would then, after waking, spend all night organizing the grain and stay busy until the sun rose, and then they would conk back out.

Weaknesses are relative. Allow freedom in choices. (However, I do not condone getting rid of all weaknesses, or changing all of them. Because if you take away too much they are no longer vamps. Most is fine though, as long as they are balanced.)

Aaaand in some folklore one bite does do it. Depends on your myth. I personally don't like that, as it is too easy then. But as long as a person explains it well, I am down with it.

Basically, as long as a person has well rounded creatures that have a fair bit in common with the original myths? Than I am cool with them being called vampires. Rules are for math and grammer.

Oh, and the whole super strength and speed thing. Came in with Anne Rice, LK Hamilton ripped her off practically verbatim, and everyone else started copying it. (Thank you, Vampire in Literature college class! Learning really is fun! Ooh, for fun compare Claudia with Raoko-Raek-Ah heck, the evil vamp child in guilty pleasures.) Original vamps were more magical in nature, like the Dracula. Now this has been mostly dropped. No bat-vamps for us anymore. *pouts*

So yeah, there are so many kinds of vamps (see he above poster, they made a really good point) it is just silly to apply strict rules. And yay TVtropes!

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Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original.

Vampires, well, as far as i'm concerned, the only definining characteristic is that they DRINK BLOOD. The blood of what? Who cares... how? Not important. I've researched vamps a lot, it's sorta an er... obsession on my part and through it all, only the blood drinking seems to be a common theme. Beyond that you really can do what you want, though i've always preferred my vamps to have less superman like powers. I find it hard to be that horrified by flying shapeshifters who don't like garlic lol.
But anyway, I did actually write a long list of traits to consider, lemme find it...
(And this is really LONG. It was written as an aide for some of the people I rp with, to help them build their mythology and give some inspiration... that and to prove that Dracula is just ONE type of vampire archetype)

Physical aspects:

What does your vampire look like?

- Eyes – Are their eyes unnatural? A strange colour? Do they change colour depending on whether they've fed? (Twilight) Do they have a certain vividness to them, a strange gleam? (See Anne Rice). Do their eyes change when they're about to attack? (See Game Face) or do they have normal human eyes? Can they see in the dark? Does this give them a light sensitivity? Do their eyes glow or have animalistic traits?

- Game face – When about to attack, do they physically change? Do their entire features twist and contort (Buffy) or do their eyes change at all? (Moonlight has eyes going pale blue, Being human had them going black).

- Fangs – Do they have fangs? (some vampires have a piercing tongue or sting instead) Are these fangs just elongated canines or lateral incisors? Are they hollow like a snake and secrete venom? Are they very sharp or just pointed enough to make biting a little bit easier? Do they grow back if lost? Do they retract? Alternately, do they have rows upon rows of sharp teeth (30 days of night) instead of just the usual fangs? How long are they? (Tru blood vampires have very long fangs). - I have a vampire race who don't have any fangs at all, they use knives to draw blood.

- Claws – Do they have claws at all? Are these more like animal claws or talons or simply long, very sharp nails?

- Pallor - Are they pale? Are they blue, green, yellow? or some other unnatural shade. Are they deathly looking? Is their skin supple and soft to the touch or hard and stony/marble-like? (Twilight, Anne Rice) Is it more like the skin of a corpse? Is there any reason for any of this?

- Can they shape change? Into what? (Bats, wolves and vermin are most common). If not into animals, can they become mist?

- Are they unnaturally beautiful? Do they just retain their normal human appearance? Are they hideous and deformed (Nosferatu). Does their appearance change depending on whether they've fed or not? (E.g: Do they retain their youth if fed but become hag-like without blood? Do they get a flush of life from feeding (warmer to touch, blushed skin etc). Do their eyes dull without blood? Do they become sluggish and sick looking?)

- Do they have any physical abnormalities? (One nostril, furry feet, a bare skull etc. One vampire legend even has a creature who's skin is blackened from the funeral pyre, another had metal teeth and hooked feet.)

- Do their hair and nails still grow? Or are they trapped how they looked when they were turned (Anne Rice's vampires revert to how they looked when the died upon waking every evening. One character cuts her hair off every night.)

- Are all of their kind only one gender? (Some vampires across the world are only male or only female)

- Can they move soundlessly?

Biology:

What makes your vampire a vampire

- Do they breathe?

- Do they have a heartbeat? If so, is it fast? Erratic? Slow?

- Are they actually dead? Did they rise from the grave? (Some legends mention corpses coming to life if a cat jumps over the grave or if moonlight crosses the body)

- Are they immortal or do they still age? If immortal, do they get bored of living and destroy themselves? Dig themselves in and sleep for a few centuries? (Lestat slept for several centuries and emerged in the 1980s. The vampires in the World Of Darkness often do this). Does the magic keeping them "alive" only last so many centuries?

- Are they cold to the touch? Room temperature? Hot?

- Can they reproduce? Does that ahem, area, work at all?

- Do they need to sleep? If so, how often and for how long? Is this a "sleep of the dead" (as in, they show no signs of life at all and are basically a corpse) or more like normal human sleep? Do they dream? Do they sleep in a coffin or have to keep native soil on them? (some stories have the vampire sleeping in several inches of blood (Carmilla))

- Can they sweat? If not, does this lead to problems dealing with temperature shifts? Do they sweat blood? Conversely, can they cry?

- Can they be active during the day? What happens if they go into sunlight? (Do they combust? Or do they just run the risk of dehydrating. If they sparkle, kill this character NOW) Does sunlight strip them of their powers (Dracula) or have no affect at all? Does it hurt their eyes? Does it burn? Do they tan?

- Healing. Can they heal unnaturally fast or do they have to feed to heal? Can they heal at all? Does it leave a scar? Can they regenerate lost limbs? Not heal from certain damage inflicted to certain areas (Heart, Brain etc) or by certain materials? (Wood, Silver, cold iron etc). Do they heal so quickly they run the risk of healing over bullets and such forth? (thus needing reopen the wound to dig them out) or does their body push out foreign objects as it heals? (Like Wolverine in the second Xmen movie lol)

- Are they unnaturally fast? Strong? How fast? How strong?

- Do they have extremely sensitive hearing? Eye sight? Smell? Can these cause complications? (Strong sense of smell may explain the repulsion to garlic for instance. Sensitive hearing leaves them vulnerable to being deafened by loud noises)

- Do they have magical mystical powers? (Hypnotism, mind control, control animals, shapeshifting, spider climbing, mind reading) Explain how these work. Do they need some sort of focus? (Some vampires had a magical hat, I'm not kidding! How about an amulet or ring of some sort?) - Do they have an unusual method of locomotion? (Hopping? Flying? There's some who split off their upper torso and others who fly around as a disembodied head. Some even have their feet on backwards)

- Can they eat normal food? What happens if they do?

- Can they get sick? If not, do they carry disease? Can they infect their victims with this illness?

- Do they bleed?

Manner of feeding:

The all important question of blood

- Do they feed on blood or life force? Do they also eat flesh?

- Do they need to drink blood to survive? Or are they simply addicted? (Being Human)

- Will animal blood suffice or does it need to be human blood?

- Can they drink packaged blood? Or does the anticoagulant make it unpalatable? Do they need to have fresh living blood?

- Do they have to drink the blood or can they inject it? Will a blood transfusion work just as well if not better than drinking?

- Do they bite? Where? (Neck, upper thigh, wrist? Chest?) If they don't bite, what do they use instead (Fingernails/claws? A knife? A straw)

- If they hunt, how do they do it? Do they have a specific sort of person (only women, only blonds etc etc) or animal they prefer?

- How often do they need to feed? (every night? Every fortnight? Once a month? )

- What happens if they don't feed?

Tell-tale signs:

How can others tell it's a vampire?

- Do they have a reflection? If so, is it normal or twisted? Blurred? Inhuman?

- Do they cast a shadow? Is it a normal shadow?

- Do they show up in photographs? If so, do they show up normally?

- How do animals react toward them? Hostile? Fearful? Submissive?

- Are they repelled by holy symbols? How about Garlic? What about Prayer?

- Can they cross running water?

- Can they enter a home uninvited? What happens if they try to do so? (In Let the Right One in, the vampire literally haemorrhages and bleeds from every orifice if they try it, in Buffy and Being Human, it's like there's an invisible force barring them.)

- Do they have a form of OCD? (Some oriental vampires had a compulsion to count grains of rice left scattered, this would distract them till morning stopping them from hunting that night)

- Do they sleep in a coffin? Or a grave? (see sleeping)

- Do they look dead? Unnaturally pale or gaunt? Corpse-like? (see Pallor)

- In Filipino legend, a specially prepared oil of coconut and various herbs would begin to boil if a vampire was nearby.

- Another sort of vampire caused blights, crops would fail and plants wither in their presence.

Weaknesses:

How do you kill it?

- What repels them? Holy water, religious symbols, garlic, wild rose, salt. Some are repelled by pregnant women (Dhampire: Stillborn) or old women (Fillipino myths).

- How are they destroyed? Wooden stake through heart? Decapitation? Burning? Burying at a crossroads? (Some vampires had to be captured into a jar while in mist form, another would burst into millions of insects upon being burned, all of which needed to be collected and destroyed or the creature would rise again). Some vampires even have an allergy to Salt water which leaves them unable to breath (Skulduggery Pleasant)

- Can they be resurrected? How?

- What happens when they're destroyed? Do they dust? Do they revert to the age they should have been had they been mortal? Do they rapidly decay? Do they just remain looking like a human corpse?

- Can only certain weapons or materials harm them? (Silver, cold iron, consecrated items, certain woods? Plants?)

- If they are repelled by holy symbols, is it the symbol itself or belief? Does the person wielding it have to believe (I.E A non Christian wielding a crucifix)

- Can they enter consecrated ground? (Anne Rice's vampires could enter churches, other stories have the vampire combusting upon entering such a place)

- Do they retain their humanity? Do they have a conscience? Or have they detached? Do they have two sides to themselves, is the vampire a separate personality (more like a possession or a demon) with their human side fighting against it (or not as the case may be).

- Do they feel pain?

- Can bullets hurt them? What about other normal weapons? Can they be suffocated or drown?

- Can vampirism be cured? If so, how? (In the Lost Boys, killing the head vampire would cure those who had not yet tasted human blood.)

Creation:

Where do vampires come from? How are they made?

- How is a vampire created? Are they embraced or cursed?

- Embraced – Does a vampires bite alone suffice to change someone? (Twilight had venom, some other stories it's biting but not killing the victim. Others it's the victim has to die and will rise again). If this is so, why aren't there more vampires around? How are numbers kept down? Alternately, do they need to be drained almost to death and then feed from the vampire? (Transfusion method, most popular in modern fiction. Anne Rice uses this)

- Curse – Some myths maintain that one who dies in sin will rise again as a vampire. Dying without being baptised is also cited as a cause (Though why aren't there more vamps in that case?)
A cat leaping over the corpse or the grave could create a vampire. Some even conducted rituals to cheat death, turning themselves willingly into blood sucking monsters. Yet more made a deal with the devil for their powers, others were possessed by an evil spirit.
Some legends say that those buried with untreated wounds would rise again. Women who die in childbirth may rise as an undead creature.

Born – Some myths have vampires being born. If a vampire looks at a pregnant woman, her unborn child may become a vampire. A child born with teeth may be a vampire. Children born with a caul over their heads (That is, the fetal membranes covering their face) were thought to be vampires, the only way to cure them was to burn the caul and feed the ashes to the infant. The seventh son of a seventh son, or even just the seventh child could potentially be a vampire (or a werewolf, or a healer depending on where you are in the world).

Society:

How do vampires function politically and socially

- Do these vampires have a social hierarchy? How is it sorted? (By age? By power? By merit or by eliminating your rivals? Are they ruled by committee or government or by a single individual? How are these leaders selected or are they self-appointed? How structured is their society?)

- Do they have laws? What are they? How are they enforced? Is it regional? International? Is each city independent or are their overall laws that all vampires across the globe adhere to? (I.E is there a masquerade law (Vampire: The Masquerade) preventing vampires from revealing their existence to the mortal world?)

- How is the creation of new vampires dealt with? Is it restricted or regulated? What are the punishments for creating a vampire without permission? What are the prerequisites for creating a new vampire (What sort of person do they select? Why?)

- Upon creating a vampire, does the sire remain with the new vampire and teach them or is it normal for them to be abandoned and left to fend for themselves?

- Is the relationship between sire and childe/fledgling close? Do they have any mystical connection to each other?

- Are your vampires solitary creatures or do they form groups/Covens? How do they get along with other vampires? How about other supernaturals? (Werewolves for instance)

- Are your vampires territorial or nomadic? What happens when another vampire strays into their territory?

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And i'm sure there's a lot more myths I left out. But hey, it's a start yes? A crazy mad obsessive start! MWAHAHAHAHA.

Anyway, it's entirely your call. If you want to go psudo scientific or metaphysical or a mishmash of the two, go for it. Vampires are whatever the hell you want them to be, provided of course, they still drink blood.

Vampires weren't originally supposed to be sexy. Dracula is NOT sexy. He is practically an animal, with nasty teeth and all. Also, the whole "having to drink the blood of a vampire to become a vampire" is a recent development. For most of the history of vampirism, all that was requried was for a vamp to bite you. And as mentionned before, vamps haven't always fed on blood, they haven't even always been human.
The only constant is that they are parasites preying on people. What you list as rules are only your preferences, what you expect when you read a vampire novel.

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My technique? When all else fails, toss in some gorillas.

Novel:
The Quicksilver Queen, Fantasy. One year in the plotting, one month in the making?

They are parasites preying on blood-filled creatures whether they be human or animal (technically) or something that may have the properties of blood (such as TruBlood).

They don't have to burn in the sunlight (Twilight dazzles, Vampire Diaries they have rings to protect them from burning). They don't always have the hindrance of walking in someone's house without being invited in.

It's all fiction. Nothing is real. It's what you make it...so feel free to use your own imagination and set your own guidelines as you feel for your story.

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You have to decide these things. Work out a premise for what vampires are. What really creates them? A curse? A virus passed on from other vampires through saliva or through a human drinking vampire blood? Each novel has a different set of vampire rules. Their reactions to crosses and religious symbols may only be psychological, a reaction to their own beliefs and a freakout over being rejected by their former religion. Or it may be supernatural.

I've written different vampires in different books. I have some very sensual, sexy viral ones that have a connection with shapeshifting, turn into either leopards or wolves and have most of Dracula's powers because they are a) much more psychic and b) much much much more psychosomatic, what they believe about vampires becomes physical fact in them. That's one of my vampire types, still one that I'm very fond of, the ones in Raven Dance are that breed.

In other, not yet published fantasy novels I have a completely different breed, the Demonbound. They are created by sorcery or cursing, a demon is bound to a human which embodies the demon and gives the combination powers. Very, very, very old Demonbound can wind up not only controlling the demon but eventually fusing with it to make it a part of themselves, accepting it not as a partner but part of self, the hybrid creature gains freedom of emotion and a wider range of action and ethics, is much more self directed than a demon and biggest advantage from the demon's point of view -- can no longer be bound by sorcerors and enslaved by humans and others using rituals and magic words. They can do what they want. The appeal for humans to become them is of course the immortality and the immense magical powers.

I had one breed of them that's entirely natural, they evolved from bats, they drink blood the way vampire bats do, are nocturnal with incredible night vision, big ears and sonar, hobbit sized, lightweight, goblinish in features with gigantic ears and shortlived with large families and early maturity -- live to maybe their thirties or forties unless they learn magic and extend their lives. They developed an intricate culture and have some fascinating ancestor worship traditions. Some of them turned up in "The Necromancer's Tale" one of my two 2004 nanowrimos, a girl-child of the brekkith became the Necromancer's apprentice and was a hoot as a side character. They often work as messengers and in armies are used for scouting and light aerial forces. They love cities with tall buildings where they can roost and will crowd in tenements without particularly thinking of it as crowding.

I've done psychic vampires that suck away life force, emotion and inner strength from the humans they latch onto, who can actually just be humans with a talent but may tend to affect a vampiric lifestyle with night-haunting, dressing in black and looking all romantic-gothy. Beware. Not all pale sexy night wanderers are just lonely and need some attention. That's the sort you really really don't want to get involved with.

On the docket for future novels, I have a type of vampire worked out for what happens if you bury someone American or Western style on a particular tropical island without sensibly doing what the natives do, cleaning the bones by insects and then doing rituals with them and at the end of the year, pound the bones to dust. The locals believe America is completely raddled with vampires because of the obscene things we do to dishonor our dead. Local conditions vary -- for their place they're so literally right as some American or European immigrants unpleasantly find out. These are closely related to tribal style angry ghosts who are both jealous of the living and determined to get back at anyone who ever did them harm.

So when I write vampires, I write the ones that fit the book. I've done them romantic, I've done them monstrous, I've done them philosophical and I've done them as an oppressed underclass that needs to keep a lot of livestock (species of blood doesn't really matter to the brekkith as long as it's a fairly large red-blooded creature) and wear Depends while feeding or some such thing because like actual vampire bats, they urinate while feeding in order to be capable of taking in enough liquid to nourish themselves.

Blow your own riff on the legend. Choose the limits and powers that fit your book and ignore the rest. Brekkith can be out by day, they just can't see very well and would benefit greatly from sunglasses. The same eye can't be optimized for day vision or night vision.

I thought the glittering Twilight vampires were an interesting variation. I love seeing someone come up with something new in vampires, something that makes sense in relation to the rest of the lore. The author researched some native American legends and fused them with very effective results. They're good novels.

I also like Clive Barker's one where a cancer outlived its victim and slunk off behind a movie screen living its archetypes and seducing new victims as Dracula or Marilyn Monroe...

Oh, and this year's characters are night hunting, graceful, sexy predators with fangs who charm humans on sight and get whatever they want. But those are the magecats, another archetype entirely. Couldn't resist the fanged cuteness though.

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Nanowrimo 2009 Supergoal: three 80k novels!
Magic in the Streets 82,964
Greenwood Road 84,709
Medicine Show 55,011 and Growing!

Join SFFmuse!

My one guideline for writing vampires: if you have to ask if you're doing it right, you're probably not.

I don't mean that if you don't know already you can't possibly find out by asking. I mean if you're relying on other people for the answer, what you end up with won't be what you want to write, and what matters most as far as I'm concerned is that the author should be in love with the creation (by which I mean the novel more than the vampire character).

My general rule for my own work is that if I'm not sure how I want to do something, it probably means I don't want to do it at all. I'm not sure I should generalize my own psychology to everyone else - but I certainly wouldn't say that anyone's doing it "wrong" because they don't follow a certain set of rules. Even vamps that glitter in the sun are acceptable as far as I'm concerned - provided that they're written well, and it's clear that that's what the author actually wants to write and not just something that's being done to make these vampires "different." I might not want to read about them, sure, but I'm not going to tell anyone not to write them.

For my own vampires: they feed on blood and psychic energy. They're unconscious when the sun is up, and will burn in sunlight, along with other traditional weaknesses like garlic. Being bitten isn't enough to turn someone into one, but being fed on to the point of near death probably is (I haven't entirely worked that out yet). They're stronger and faster than normal humans, but not ridiculously so - and they don't psychically control everyone they feed on; victims (and willing partners, sometimes) keep their own free will unless the vampire is extraordinarily psychically gifted (some humans can do the same thing, though, it's not a vamp power). I do have a romance between a hundred-odd year old vampire and a twenty-something human, but it has its share of problems and doesn't work out in the end because the simple truth is that the human's going to get old and die and the vampire won't.

It's probably worth pointing out that in the original novel, Dracula could go out in the sun just fine. He simply didn't have any power in the daylight. Yet most stories after that assume that sunlight physically hurts vampires.

There's a slightly earlier short story, "Carmilla", which features a vampire who not only has to sleep in a coffin, but a coffin filled with blood. I don't think I've ever seen this limitation in any story before or since.

Dracula is deeply connected to wolves, but many stories place werewolves and vampires in an antagonistic relationship.

Silver, holy water, crosses, an inability to enter churches, and an aversion to running water are also weaknesses attributed to British Isles fairies, as well.

Yes, vampires in Dracula are supposed to represent absolute corruption...you can't fall in love with Dracula, or at least not really. But other authors have used vampires in different ways. Vampires are often portrayed as the embodiment of the dangerous and the forbidden, which can be a very powerful attractant. Sometimes people use vampires as cursed humans, faced with a terrible choice between hurting others and continuing their own existence. Not every vampire story features a vampire you'd be crazy to fall in love with.

The idea of there being a definitive set of vampire rules doesn't really fit with the history of vampire literature, to be honest, and if there was just one 'correct' way to use vampires in your story, I think people would get bored of vampire novels really quickly. In my opinion, the reason vampires are so popular is because they have so many varied interpretations and portrayals, from absolute monster to tragic figure.

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2006: The Hollow Man (YA horror/fantasy)
2007: The Lost Formula of Cagliostro (Pulp fanfiction, Adventure/Mystery)
2009: Thief of Words (Academic fantasy heist novel!)

I just spent the last 3 hours figuring out who and what my vampires are and than writing up an answer. YOW! What a long post this one is!

Here is my answer:

There are different types of vampires in my way of thinking, but for the book I am currently working on there are just two types of vampires, which I refer to as: True Vampires and Common Vampires. As you will notice from my answers, my entire vampire system is based largely on Dracula the book and Bela Lugosi's representation of the Dracula movie. So basically if it isn't happening in either the book or Bela Lugosi's version of the book, than you can bet it isn't going to happen in my book either. my vampire's are pretty much straight up Classic Dracula Style Vampires. (My other types of vampires - the ones not in my NaNovel 09 - are quite different from the True Vampires and the Common Vampires I am focusing on today.)

My personal guidelines (for True Vampires and Common Vampires, as seen in my NaNovel 2009) are as follows:

Creation:

"True Vampires" are evil men who were too evil for Hell and are cursed to walk the Earth forever, neither dead no alive and are thus Undead. They are humans whose souls have been condemned. Some men who are really black hearted, like Count Dracula (who is the main vampire in my book btw) can use black magic (aka super evil deeds and calling on demons for help) to turn themselves into a vampire. "True Vampires" are extremely rare, as few people are wicked enough to become one. They are immortal and can not be killed or defeated in any way, shape, or form, they can only be temporarily stopped, imprisoned, or delayed, which only lasts until they escape and rise again.

"Common Vampires" are people who became vampires by being bitten by a "True Vampire". They do not turn with just one bite. It takes a series of bites over many days. With each bite they grow weaker and become paler and more mindless/hypnotized. These are more like zombies than vampires. They are mindless drones who do the bidding of the True Vampire that turned them. Because they are humans who bodies were possessed (as opposed to humans who's souls are condemned) and thus are not actually 100% dead, but rather in a sort of animated coma, they are not immortal, can be killed, thus saving their souls from being lost.

For most Common Vampires, a stake through the heart will release them from the True Vampire's spell. For those that have been under the True Vamps spell for a really long time, they may also require decapitation, because the True Vamp's hold on them is very strong.

An added Note: Only the True Vamp that turned them into a Common Vamp has the power to control them. In other words an alternate True Vamp could not come in and give the Common Vamp orders, because they are hypnotized and will only obey the True Vamp whom they refer to as "Master".

Physical Features:

What does your vampire look like?

"True Vampires" are usually men (as women rarely commit the horrendous acts of evil required to become a True Vamp). They look just as they did before they died, only their skin is much paler and their bodies are as cold as ice. However they dresses and acted when they were alive, is how they continue to dress and act as the Undead.

"Common Vampires" are not yet dead. They are zombie-like victims of a True Vamp's spell. Common Vampires tends to be woman, because True Vampires have a tendency to go after female humans more often than male humans. They look exactly as they did before being bitten, except that they have a pale bloodless look to them, dark circles around their eyes, they have blood shot, blank, empty staring eyes. They look dead. They walk around in a trance, and no longer act like themselves. They kind of just stand around waiting for the True Vamp to give them orders and tell them what to do.

Do they retain their humanity? Do they have a conscience? Or have they detached? Do they have two sides to themselves, is the vampire a separate personality (more like a possession or a demon) with their human side fighting against it (or not as the case may be).

However they acted, thought, felt, talked, etc before they were a vampire, they continue to act. Their personality remains the same. Keeping in mind that they were most likely a cruel, emotionless serial killer before they died (which would be the type of person who would be condemned to walk eternity as a True Vampire), that means they are likely to be a cruel, emotionless serial killer after they died as well. In other words the type of person who would get turned into a True Vampire would be some one like Jack the Ripper, Adolf Hitler, or of course Prince Vlad Dracule III (who is the real life prince whom became the fictional Count Dracula btw), so if a True Vampire showed up, you can bet his pretty darned evil or he would not have become a vampire to begin with.

Like wise it is possible for them to have a change of heart and repent and try to spend eternity making amends for their prior wrongful deeds. In such a case, where they truly had a 100% change of heart and repented, they could move on in life and work towards becoming a guardian angel and than spend eternity helping mortals.

Do your vampires have growing hair and fingernails? Do their hair and nails still grow? Or are they trapped how they looked when they were turned (Anne Rice's vampires revert to how they looked when the died upon waking every evening. One character cuts her hair off every night.)

Not sure about the True Vampires, seeing how they are dead and all. I'll have to think about that some more. They are sort of trapped in how they looked when they died. They age though - really fast if they go to long without blood. But once they's had blood they revert back to the way they looked at the time they died.

The Common Vampires do have growing hair and fingernails, because they are not actually dead.

- Eyes – Are their eyes unnatural? A strange colour? Do they change colour depending on whether they've fed? (Twilight) Do they have a certain vividness to them, a strange gleam? (See Anne Rice). Do their eyes change when they're about to attack? (See Game Face) or do they have normal human eyes? Can they see in the dark? Does this give them a light sensitivity? Do their eyes glow or have animalistic traits?

Their eyes are whatever color they had before the became a vampire.

A True Vampire's eyes look the same a when they were alive, except when they hypnotize their victims than their eyes have and "animal glow" to them (like when lights hit an animal's eyes at night.) Their eyes are described as "glowing like hot coals" or "burning like fire balls" when they feed on blood - they sort of go into a frenzy over blood, and that's when their eyes start glowing.

They can see in the dark, in fact they can see in the dark better than in the day (like a cat or an owl) which is part of the reason they come out at night rather than during the day.

A Common Vampire, which is not dead, just mesmerized, looks the same, except they have dark circles around their eyes, and they have blood shot, blank, empty staring eyes. Like a dead person, the color is gone from their eyes, due to the extremely dilated pupils. In other words, they look dead.

- Game face – When about to attack, do they physically change? Do their entire features twist and contort (Buffy) or do their eyes change at all? (Moonlight has eyes going pale blue, Being human had them going black).

See my answer above for info about their eyes.

I never liked how the Buffy vamps twisted all out of shape into grotesque monsters. My vamps don't do that - though the True Vamps could if they wanted too, seeing how they can shape-shift (usually into wolves, bats, etc.)

True Vamps tend to have a heightened sexual appeal just before attacking, (they seem sexier, irresistible, gorgeous, etc) thus attracting the opposite sex to them, making it easy for them to lure their victim to them with less resistance.

Common Vamps do not shape shift or change appearance, they remain in their zombie like state.

- Fangs – Do they have fangs? (some vampires have a piercing tongue or sting instead) Are these fangs just elongated canines or lateral incisors? Are they hollow like a snake and secrete venom? Are they very sharp or just pointed enough to make biting a little bit easier? Do they grow back if lost? Do they retract? Alternately, do they have rows upon rows of sharp teeth (30 days of night) instead of just the usual fangs? How long are they? (TruBlood vampires have very long fangs). - I have a vampire race who don't have any fangs at all, they use knives to draw blood.

Depends on the book. I tend to change this to match the particular vamp I'm writing about. In some stories they have long snake like fangs that drip venom - very Cobra/Rattlesnake/Pit Viper - very sharp and deadly. In other stories they have near normal teeth, with only slightly more pointed upper canines - just pointed enough to draw blood.

My most often used reoccurring vamp (the sparkling silver skinned drag queen, seen only in my banned M-Rated adult books, The Twighlight Manor Series; and these books were written in the 1970s through 1980's btw, nearly 30 years before Twilight's sparkling vampires, which has caused some of my fans to point to Twilight and scream plagiarism, seeing how she used so many things out of my books, including the title) is a salamander mermen and thus has row after row after row of sharp piranha like teeth.

- Claws – Do they have claws at all? Are these more like animal claws or talons or simply long, very sharp nails?

Claws are one of the first things people notice about my True Vampires. They are somewhat like eagle talons. Very sharp and made for tearing flesh.

In my adult books, the drag queen vamps keep them cut in a more human like manner, and also paint them.

The Common Vamps have normal nails.

- Pallor - Are they pale? Are they blue, green, yellow? or some other unnatural shade. Are they deathly looking? Is their skin supple and soft to the touch or hard and stony/marble-like? (Twilight, Anne Rice) Is it more like the skin of a corpse? Is there any reason for any of this?

They are very, very pale, nearly as white as snow. Some have a ashen grey tint, others are stark white. They look dead and bloodless. Their skin remains soft to the touch.

- Can they shape change? Into what? (Bats, wolves and vermin are most common). If not into animals, can they become mist?

Depends on the story. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Common Vamps do not shape shift or change appearance, they remain in their zombie like state.

- Are they unnaturally beautiful? Do they just retain their normal human appearance? Are they hideous and deformed (Nosferatu). Does their appearance change depending on whether they've fed or not? (E.g: Do they retain their youth if fed but become hag-like without blood? Do they get a flush of life from feeding (warmer to touch, blushed skin etc). Do their eyes dull without blood? Do they become sluggish and sick looking?)

True Vampires look as they did before they died, but they tend to have a heightened sexual appeal just before attacking, (they seem sexier, irresistible, gorgeous, etc) thus attracting the opposite sex to them, making it easy for them to lure their victim to them with less resistance.

If they go too long without blood, they start to age rapidly, losing their eternal youth. They require blood, not to stay alive, but rather to stay youthful and to prevent themselves from turning into a dried up skeletal corpse with dehydrated "beef-jerky" skin. Drinking blood keeps them soft and fleshy. Vampires that refuse to drink blood, turn into dried up prunes and gain a skeletal grim reaper look to them. Just after feeding on blood they gain a warmer, rosy glow, and a slightly bloated look. They tend to sleep just after feeding, and by the time they awake a few hours later the rosy glow and bloated look has gone away.

Common Vamps rarely attack, and do not shape shift or change appearance, they just remain in their zombie like state and await orders from their master. They only attack humans if commanded to by the master.

- Do they have any physical abnormalities? (One nostril, furry feet, a bare skull etc. One vampire legend even has a creature who's skin is blackened from the funeral pyre, another had metal teeth and hooked feet.)

Only if they already had physical abnormalities prior to becoming a vampire, do they have physical abnormalities afterwards. They can however be damaged in battle (lose an arm, get a gashed face, etc.) and thus gain physical abnormalities after becoming a vampire.

- Are all of their kind only one gender? (Some vampires across the world are only male or only female)

"True Vampires" are usually men (as women rarely commit the horrendous acts of evil required to become a True Vamp).

Common Vampires tends to be woman, because True Vampires have a tendency to go after female humans more often than male humans (unless of course they are gay). The choice of who to attack is a very sexual thing. True Vamps tend to use sexual attraction in order to get their victim close enough to them, in order the bite their neck.

In my children's books, this fact is never mentioned, however the "law" remains the same: True Vampires are nearly always male and Common Vampires are nearly always female.

- Can they move soundlessly?

True Vamps can, yep. They are know for "appearing out of no where", not because they magically appeared, but because no one heard them come into the room, thus it seems like they magically appeared from out of no where.

Common Vampires are not so stealthy. Being in a zombie like trance, they tend to be some what clumsy and may walk into things.

Biology:

What makes your vampire a vampire

Being a parasite, like a leach that needs a host, is the only real requirement to make a vampire a vampire.

True Vampires need blood from a host and are undead. This is what makes them a vampire.

Common Vampires, are not really vampires, they are just mistaken for vampires because they look like True Vampires and are in a trance by the True Vampire that controls them. Common Vampires are in fact Zombies, not vampires. They serve as hosts and slaves of the True Vampires. They are not dead. They do not drink blood unless commanded to by their True Vampire Master. They have no free will of their own.

As I said before, I have many types of vampires and not all of them feed on blood or are undead. The True Vampires and the Common Vampires are the only two being used in my NaNovel '09 so those are the only two I've been mentioning in my answers here.

In addition to those two types, however, I have also used others

My Twighlight Manor Electric Eel Sirens are mer-folk vampires (and are a type of Fae or Faerie). They are very much alive, can be killed, and may or may not feed on the blood of their victims. They are only seen in my M-rated stories, because they are highly sexual and prey on human victims for sex, rather than for blood. They feed on the life force of humans, leaving their victims near comatose after an attack (an attack being more or less rape.) They are somewhat akin to incubus and succubus.

My Twighlight Manor Phookas, likewise are alive and can be killed, but are incredibly strong and can snap a full grown man's bones with their bare hands, so killing one is not easy. These are the darkest of my vampires, very much an animalistic monster, and a type of Fae or Faerie, best described as being a sort of demon. These human looking creatures, act like frenzied sharks and will not only drink the blood of their victims, but will also tear them limb from limb and gorge themselves on human flesh. These shape shifters can look like anything or any one - they are commonly known to look like your lover/spouse, in order to trick you into bed with them, where they have violent sex with you (usually killing you by the time they are done), than eat you in a very black widow manner.

Yeah - my Twighlight Manor books are pretty dark, violent, sadistic, and full of sex crazed, blood sucking, flesh eating, drag queen, cannibal vampires. It pushes all the limits and is high on graphic sex and brutal violence. My Twighlight Manor vampires can't go any where's near a YA or children's book, so that's why I'm not focusing on them in this question and answer session here.

- Do they breathe?

True vampires = They must, though I never thought about it before.

Common Vampires = Of course they do. They are not dead.

- Do they have a heartbeat? If so, is it fast? Erratic? Slow?

True vampires = They must, though I never thought about it before.

Common Vampires = Of course they do. They are not dead. In their zombie like state, I would assume it to be very slow though.

- Are they actually dead? Did they rise from the grave? (Some legends mention corpses coming to life if a cat jumps over the grave or if moonlight crosses the body)

True vampires are actually dead, but have not left their body and have not passed of their either Heaven or Hell, because they were so wicked and did such evil acts while they were alive, that they are cursed to walk eternity as the undead - a fate worse than hell.

Common Vampires? They are not dead. They are hapless victims of True Vampires.

- Are they immortal or do they still age? If immortal, do they get bored of living and destroy themselves? Dig themselves in and sleep for a few centuries? (Lestat slept for several centuries and emerged in the 1980s. The vampires in the World Of Darkness often do this). Does the magic keeping them "alive" only last so many centuries?

True Vampires are immortal; doomed to walk the earth for ever and ever. They can never dead, because they are already dead. You can temporarily defeat them, but you can never kill them, because they are already dead. They keep coming back. They always come back.

There is no rest for the wicked. They retreat during the day, but may or may not sleep. Sleep for centuries is not a thing they could do even if they wanted to. They can become trapped in a coffin for centuries, but they do not spend that time asleep, rather they spend it howling with rage and frustration as they try to claw their way out of the coffin. Once trapped in their coffin the only way they can escape is if some one still alive releases them yy opening the coffin. Thus it is possible for centuries to pass before they "return from the grave".

Common Vampires, unless released from their True Vampire Master's trance, will die a week or so after becoming his prey. Sometimes they are turned into True Vampires by their Master, but this is a rare occurrence that only happens when the True Vamp decides he wants to keep the Common Vamp as his bride.

- Are they cold to the touch? Room temperature? Hot?

True Vampires are cold. Very cold. Think, like you just stuck your hand in a vat of liquid nitrogen or dry ice, when you shake hands with them. This cold is so penetrating, that you can feel cold ait wafting off of their body, before you even get really close to them.

Common Vampires, being humans in a trance, are still warm, though they may feel slightly colder than is normal due to their being nightly drained of more blood by the True Vamp that is controlling them. Eventually (after a couple of weeks) they will die from blood loss and the True Vampire will seek out a new victim/host.

The best sure way to tell a Common Vampire from a True Vampire is to shake hands with them. The Common Vampire will still feel somewhat warm, while the True Vampire will feel like you have a hand full of dry ice.

- Can they reproduce? Does that ahem, area, work at all?

In my adult stories, sex seems to be what drives a True Vampire to attack their victims. They have a strong sexual desire, but the desires can not be fulfilled (part of their punishment, is that they must spend eternity wanting things they can not have, sex being the top of the list of things they want and can never have.) This is why they lure their victims in, than suddenly go into a rage and drain them of their blood.

In my children's books this subject (sex/reproduction/etc.) is never mentioned, alluded to, or hinted at in any way or form.

- Do they need to sleep? If so, how often and for how long? Is this a "sleep of the dead" (as in, they show no signs of life at all and are basically a corpse) or more like normal human sleep? Do they dream? Do they sleep in a coffin or have to keep native soil on them? (some stories have the vampire sleeping in several inches of blood (Carmilla)

How they Sleep:

The True Vamps: They sleep during the day. They can sleep where ever they want. They don't have to sleep in their coffin, though some just seem to do so for some unknown reason. Most prefer to keep the coffin hidden away somewhere and avoid sleeping in it, in order to avoid becoming trapped in it, as trapping a vampire in it's coffin is the best way to imprison it for centuries. They must however have the dirt from their grave with them. Thus they may keep a box of dirt under their bed, or fill their coffin with dirt, etc.

It's not so much that they actually NEED the dirt, as it is, they are very, extremely OCD and are compelled to have the dirt with them, otherwise they simply toss and turn, unable to sleep because all they can think about is how they need their grave dirt their with them. It's a psychological thing sort of like the kid that can not sleep without a teddy bear and a night light.

There is no rest for the wicked. They retreat during the day, but may or may not sleep and their sleep is far from restful. Sleep for centuries is not a thing they could do even if they wanted to. They can become trapped in a coffin for centuries, but they do not spend that time asleep, rather they spend it howling with rage and frustration as they try to claw their way out of the coffin. Once trapped in their coffin the only way they can escape is if some one still alive releases them yy opening the coffin. Thus it is possible for centuries to pass before they "return from the grave".

The Common Vamps don't really sleep, they just sort of stand there waiting for the True Vamp to give them orders.

- Can they sweat? If not, does this lead to problems dealing with temperature shifts? Do they sweat blood? Conversely, can they cry?

True vampires = I never thought about it before. I don't think they can sweat or cry. I've never known any of mine to do either, so they must not be able to, though I do not have an explanation as to why this would be.

Common Vampires = Of course they do. They are not dead. They are not likely to cry though, due to their trance like state.

- Can they be active during the day? What happens if they go into sunlight? (Do they combust? Or do they just run the risk of dehydrating. If they sparkle, kill this character NOW) Does sunlight strip them of their powers (Dracula) or have no affect at all? Does it hurt their eyes? Does it burn? Do they tan?

Because of their super pale skin, they have no resistance to UV rays and thus get super wicked horrendously awful sunburns, wick, do not kill them, but will weaken them something fierce. They do however get a stronger resistance to sunlight the older they get, so Count Dracula can go out during the day, providing the UV factor isn't too high (ie - on cloudy, overcast, or foggy days), but their sensitivity to sunlight does weaken them so they don't do it if they don't have to.

This applies to both True and Common Vamps, due to their pale skin.

- Healing. Can they heal unnaturally fast or do they have to feed to heal? Can they heal at all? Does it leave a scar? Can they regenerate lost limbs? Not heal from certain damage inflicted to certain areas (Heart, Brain etc) or by certain materials? (Wood, Silver, cold iron etc). Do they heal so quickly they run the risk of healing over bullets and such forth? (thus needing reopen the wound to dig them out) or does their body push out foreign objects as it heals? (Like Wolverine in the second X-men movie lol)

True Vampires heal very fast, mostly while they are sleeping. They can be wounded, injured, and weakened, and will return to their coffin to sleep and re energize. A wound that would kill a live mortal, will only slow down and weaken the undead immortal True Vampire. A wound that in a mortal would take weeks to heal, would heal in a True Vampire in just one night (or two). It's not an instant heal, but pretty close to it.

Common Vampires, being humans in an animated coma, are weaker than normal and thus are easily wounded, easily put out of commission, and have a very slow ability to heal. They are thus easily defeated, easily killed, and their true purpose is to serve as a device to slow up any attack on the True Vampire and allow him extra time to escape.

- Are they unnaturally fast? Strong? How fast? How strong?

True Vampires: yes
Common Vampires: no.

True Vampires can move faster, or rather they seem to move faster because they are so silent when they move. I;m not sure if they are actually moving faster or if it's just and illusion caused by the fact that you never hear them coming.

They are very strong. A True Vampire can easily crush and man's neck or lift him up by gripping his throat, just using one hand.

Common Vampires are much slower than normal, due to their weakened state from loss of blood and due to their being in a trance. They are also far weaker than normal, for the same reasons.

Can they get sick? If not, do they carry disease? Can they infect their victims with this illness?

True vampires = They must, though I never thought about it before. But yes, I would assume they could get sick and/or carry illnesses and spread them to their victims. I've just never had occasion to use such events in any of my stories as yet.

Common Vampires = Of course they do. They are not dead.

- Do they bleed?

True vampires = I don't think they can bleed, seeing how they are dead and all. I've never known any of mine to bleed, so they must not be able to, though I do not have an explanation as to why this would be. It is one of the ways to tell a True Vampire from a Common Vampire.

Common Vampires = Of course they do. They are not dead. It is one of the ways to tell a True Vampire from a Common Vampire.

Tell-tale signs:

How can others tell it's a vampire?

Number one best way: shake their hand. They are colder than a deep freeze. You can probably tell before you shake their hand, as the room gets colder when they enter it, because their body is like it's giving off dry ice.

In Filipino legend, a specially prepared oil of coconut and various herbs would begin to boil if a vampire was nearby. Does this sort of thing ever happen?

Yak Butter turns rancid when True Vamps are around. This weird fact was created by me as a result of a NaNoWriMo DARE. :)

Another sort of vampire caused blights, crops would fail and plants wither in their presence. Does this sort of thing ever happen?

The trees and grass and plants around a True Vamp's house are always dead and brown and shriveled up. I believe this may be largely due to prolonged exposure to the cold air that the True Vampires give off.

Do they cast a shadow? Is it a normal shadow?

I have no idea. They so rarely go outside on sunny days that I never noticed.

Do they show up in photographs? If so, do they show up normally?

The do not photograph. The photos come out a blurred snow haze, and often cameras stop working after they touch them.

- How do animals react toward them? Hostile? Fearful? Submissive?

Depends on the animal and the vampire. Some react violently and try to attack the vampire. Some are terrified and flee at the presence of the vampire. Some are indifferent and don't notice the vampire. Some will follow, obey, and help the vampire. I have no idea what causes the difference, nor do I try to explain it.

Can they cross running water?

I see no reason why they can't. They often do. All my books are set in Southern Maine, where it is next to impossible to go any place without crossing running water of some sort.

Powers/Abilities:

- Do they have magical mystical powers? (Hypnotism, mind control, control animals, shapeshifting, spider climbing, mind reading) Explain how these work. Do they need some sort of focus? (Some vampires had a magical hat, I'm not kidding! How about an amulet or ring of some sort?) - Do they have an unusual method of locomotion? (Hopping? Flying? There's some who split off their upper torso and others who fly around as a disembodied head. Some even have their feet on backwards)

Common Vampires do not have any special powers or abilities. They are just zombie-drone minions of the True Vampires.

"Regular" True Vampires have the following abilities:

Movement Abilities:

-Inhuman Speed
-Unearthly Reflexes
-Vertical Ascension (climbs walls)
-Gliding (with help of cape)
-Bat Form
-Mist Form
-Flight
-Move Silently

Offensive Abilities

-Fangs
-Vampiric Claws
-Enhanced Senses
-Animalistic Frenzy
-Superhuman Strength
-Mind Control
-Wolf Form
-Horrific Transformation
-Glamor

Defensive Abilities

-Fast Healing
-Impervious to bullets
-Intimidation

"Super Powerful" True Vampires (such as Dracula) also have these additional "rare" abilities:

Rare Movement Abilities

-Clown Frenzy
-Astral Projection
-Dodge Daylight
-Spider Climb
-Cat's Grace
-Shadow Conceal

Rare Offensive Abilities

-Pyrokinesis
-Corrosion
-Control Mall Santas
-Ironic Annihilation
-Purge Blood
-Pestilence
-Mummification
-Blood Soaked Vengeance (Carrie)
-Hellfire
-Demonic Familiar
-Bloodletting
-Vampire Lord
-Summon Horseman
-Shadow Transformation
-Bone Spikes
-Demon Summoning
-Telepathy
-Drain Youth
-Raise Zombies
-Invisibility
-Shadow Manipulation
-Blood to Ashes
-Command a Wolf Pack
-Command Rat Swarm
-Cause Madness
-Intoxicating Bite

Rare Defensive Abilities

-Veil of Thorns
-Winged Guard
-Premonition
-Indestructible
-Iron Skin
-Create Illusion
-Immunity to Religious Icons
-Immaterial (can walk through solid walls)
-Resistance to Sunlight
-Immunity to Silver

(This list of abilities was copied from the Zanga Game Vampire Wars, btw) I liked it so I decided to use it for my own vamps.

A Common Vampire can not do any these things. Because they are a drone they have no special powers to speak of. It is one of the ways to tell a True Vampire from a Common Vampire.

Weaknesses/Disabilities: Are they repelled by holy symbols? How about Garlic? What about Prayer? How do you kill them? What repels them? Holy water, religious symbols, garlic, wild rose, salt. Some are repelled by pregnant women (Dhampire: Stillborn) or old women (Fillipino myths).

Can only certain weapons or materials harm them? (Silver, cold iron, consecrated items, certain woods? Plants?)

Any weapon can harm them, it's just that those made out of iron or blessed with Holy Water do more damage.

Holy waters: - Can burn skin and temporarily blind, but it depends upon the faith of the person throwing the water. Weak faith = weak effects. Strong faith = strong effects. In other words, in the hands of an atheist, the holy water would have no effect at all, while in the hands of the Pope it may just disable the vampire for years.

This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires.

Silver: Silver is for werewolves NOT vampires. What do you think Dracula's medallion (the one he always wears round his neck on a red ribbon) is made out of?

Iron: Gives of strong energies, which can completely over power a weaker vampire. Even Dracula is effected by it some, though not much. Note that Iron only works on True Vampires, not Common Vampires.

Iron horseshoes are hung over doors in barns to keep vampires from draining the cows and horses (real folklore, which I also use in my books).

Iron boot scrapers are left on door steps to keep vampires out, because if a vampire (who are all extremely OCD) sees a boot scrape he is compelled to clean his boots and touching the iron sends him packing. (another real folklore that I use in my books.)

Coffin nails are made out of iron (more real folklore) to keep a vampire from opening his coffin and coming out of it, thus trapping the vampire in the coffin until such time someone (most likly grave robbers) opens the coffin thus removing the iron nails from the lid.

Any sort of coffin nails iron or otherwise will keep a Common Vamp locked in, because of their weakened state.

Mirrors: Do they have a reflection? If so, is it normal or twisted? Blurred? Inhuman?:

It's not that vampires do not have a reflection. It's that they do not recognize their reflection. When they look in the mirror they expect to see themselves looking as they did when they were alive, and they are always shocked and horrified by their ghastly chalk appearance. Thus they refuse to have mirrors near them and will smash any mirror they see.

Vampires can be deflected from an attack, by showing them their reflection, which causes them to attack the mirror and than run away in horror. This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires, as Common Vampires in their zombie-like state do not see their reflection or anything else for that matter.

Sunlight: Because of their super pale skin, they have no resistance to UV rays and thus get super wicked horrendously awful sunburns, wick, do not kill them, but will weaken them something fierce. They do however get a stronger resistance to sunlight the older they get, so Count Dracula can go out during the day, providing the UV factor isn't too high (ie - on cloudy, overcast, or foggy days).

This applies to both True and Common Vamps, due to their pale skin.

Crosses: Same as Holy Water, but not limited to crosses - any religious icon from any faith will work. Weak faith = weak effects. Strong faith = strong effects. In other words, in the hands of an atheist, the cross would have no effect at all, while in the hands of the Pope it may just disable the vampire for years.

This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires.

Holy Land/Church: Can not enter if the congregation is holy and faithful. Same as Holy Water: Weak faith = weak effects. Strong faith = strong effects. In other words, if the congregation has a lot of hypocrites, sinners, and/or atheists in it, the church would have no effect at all and the vampire could walk right on in with no problems at all, while a congregation filled with super faithful orthodox devotees to their faith could keep a vampire at bay baring him from entering the church and if their faith was strong enough they may be able to weaken and thus disable the vampire for years.

This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires. A True Vamp may send a Common Vamp into the church in his place.

Also, even when entering a church full of unfaithful - the invitation to pass the doorway law still applies. See Doorways, below for more info on this.

Do they have extremely sensitive hearing? Eye sight? Smell? Can these cause complications? (Strong sense of smell may explain the repulsion to garlic for instance. Sensitive hearing leaves them vulnerable to being deafened by loud noises)

Yes. Yes. and Yes. True Vampires have extremely super sensitive hearing, eye sight, taste, and smell. Also their skin is pretty sensitive.

The end result of this is, they can't go outside on sunny days with out risk of severe sunburn and "snow blindness" (temporary blindness caused by bright light). When they do go outside during the day, they wear dark glasses and carry parasols (Chinese rice paper type) to shade their faces.

Their cloths have to be made of soft non-allergenic fabrics which is why much of their wardrobe is made of silk, silk velvet, satin silk, spun silk, ect. in order to avoid skin irritation.

They like quite neighborhoods away from traffic, children, barking dogs, gangs, etc, due to their overly sensitive hearing. As a result they will often live on the farthest outskirts of town, or in a big well sound proofed house/castle far into the woods or outside of town. When entering a vampire's house, he will always ask you to remove your shoes and wear soft slippers, so that the sound of your shoes does not give him a headache.

Due to their sensitive eyes, they will have only soft light bulbs in their house, if they even use light bulbs at all. They are more likely to use gas lights or kerosene lamps or candles which give off a soft glow. They may have no lights in their house at all, keeping in mind that they can see better in the dark than in the light and so really have no need for lights at all.

Their taste buds pick up even the faintest of tastes with an overwhelming power. When they do eat and drink normal foods, they will choose things with very bland flavors - white bread for example. They avoid all things with a strong taste: garlic, onions, chili peppers, etc.

Garlic: A big bad super wicked extremely powerful no-no for both True Vampires and Common Vampires. But there is nothing magical about it, it's an alergy thing. Due to their heightened senses, vampires (both True and Common) are wicked sensitive to strong smells and strong tastes. All strong smells and flavors cause problems for them, so if no garlic is handy, you can throw onions at them too. Garlic however is different. In addition to the strong smell and flavor, True Vampires are especially allergic to the acidic juices of garlic. Garlic burns the flesh of a normal human, causes watery eyes, and stings the tongue. So when used against the sensitivities of a vampire the effect it a hundred times worse than it is on a human. Garlic itches and burns the skin, causes swollen eyes and sinuses, temporarily blinding the vampire, and over all is pretty much effects them as if you had just taken a bath in poison ivy juice. A vampire's allergies to garlic can put them out of commission and into the sick bed for weeks. Garlic is the number one way to keep a vampire at bay. They simply can not tolerate the "allergy effects". You can disable and extremely weaken a vampire if you can trick them into eating garlic, and if you can get a string of garlic cloves around their neck.

Garlic: A big bad super wicked extremely powerful no-no for both True Vampires and Common Vampires. But there is nothing magical about it, it's an alergy thing. Due to their heightened senses, vampires (both True and Common) are wicked sensitive to strong smells. Garlic burns the flesh of a normal human, causes watery eyes, and stings the tongue. So when used against the sensitivities of a vampire the effect it a hundred times worse than it is on a human. Garlic is the number one way to keep a vampire at bay. They simply can not tolerate the "allergy effects". You can disable and extremely weaken a vampire if you can trick them into eating garlic, and if you can get a string of garlic cloves around their neck.

Doorways: Can they enter a home uninvited? What happens if they try to do so? (In Let the Right One in, the vampire literally haemorrhages and bleeds from every orifice if they try it, in Buffy and Being Human, it's like there's an invisible force barring them.) They can't cross if it's personal property unless they are invited in. If the head of the household invites them in, they are able to keep coming back. If any one other than the head of the household invites them in, they must be re invited after each visit, until the head of the household invites them, and than they can keep coming back without farther invitation. This applies only to True Vampires.

In most cases they can if it is public building. Say a grocery store or restaurant where "the public is welcomed" to just walk in. Welcome signs, Yes We Are Open Come In sings, ect, all act as an invitation, thus allowing the vampire to enter.

However, when there is a sign such as "By Appointment Only", they could not enter without an invitation.

There is no magic or special powers involved in any of this. It's an OCD thing and is purely psychological. The vampire simply truly believes he can not enter any place without an invitation and thus you could keep a vampire out of your house simply by hanging a sign on your door that says: "Sorry we are closed, come back later".

This also results in vampires only ever entering a public building during it's open hours. If the sign says open 9AM to 5PM, than the vampire could only enter between 9AM and 5PM, otherwise he would need some one to specifically invite him in between 6PM and 8AM.

Common Vampires, because they are humans in a trance are not effected by the invitation rule, and thus the True Vampire will often have a Common Vampire minion, which he can send into houses and do his bidding, without the need of gaining an invite into the house.

Wood: Is only a minor deterant. Only sacred woods, such as Hawthorn, Dogwood, RoseWood, etc, have any real effect. It's a combination of an allergy thing, and the faith of the believer thing. See Holy Water.

Mustard Seeds, Matchsticks, Sunflowers Seeds, etc: Do they have a form of OCD? (Some oriental vampires had a compulsion to count grains of rice left scattered, this would distract them till morning stopping them from hunting that night)

My Vampires are extremely OCD. It's on the the things you will see EVERY SINGLE ONE on my vampires with. It's like becoming a vampire does something to their mind and fills them to overflowing with all sorts of weird phobias that they have no control over.

Due to a True Vampires, extremely overblown OCD problems, you can easily escape an attack, by grabbing a handful of whatever small object is near by and tossing them into the air. When they scattered across the floor, the vampire will scramble to pick them all up and count every single one of them. Thus it is handy to keep a bag of mustard seeds, matchsticks, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pepper corns, marbles, gum balls, or and other small easily scattered object in your pocket.

This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires.

Knots and Shoelaces: Once again, due to a True Vampires, extremely overblown OCD problems, you can easily escape an attack, or otherwise slow down a vampire by hanging knotted ribbon or ropes in their path. A common real modern day myth/practice it to tie a pair of sneakers together and than throw them over the telephone wire in front of your house or place of business, to keep vampires out. (Ever wonder why you always see a pair of sneakers hanging from telephone wires in the city - well now you know.) If a vampire is chasing you and you have time, take off your shoes, tie them together and throw them over the nearest wire or tree branch.

The purpose of this action is similar to scattered small objects. A vampire, due to his OCD, is compelled to stop whatever he is doing and focus all of his attention on untieing the knots and than placing the ropes, ribbons, or shoes in order, all lined up in a neat row.

This only works with True Vampires, not Common Vampires.

What happens when they're destroyed? Do they turn to dust? Do they revert to the age they should have been had they been mortal? Do they rapidly decay? Do they just remain looking like a human corpse?

True Vampires can not be destroyed - they are immortal undeads, people whom have already died.

Common Vampires on the other hand: Because Common Vampires are not actually dead, they can be killed, however, they usually don't need to be killed to break the spell they are under. All you really need to do is undo the hypnotism that the True Vampire did to them, and than put them on bed rest and give them some blood transfusions. However, people are too stupid to ever think of doing this, and usually react by thinking the only way to protect themselves from the Common Vampire, is to stake it's heart, cut off it's head, and bury it's body face down in a coffin that has had the lid nailed on with iron nails.

The hypnotism will wear off on it's own if you can keep the victim away from the True Vampire that is controlling them. The best way to do this is to put the Common Vampire in a small cabin full of mirrors, with mustard seeds scattered on the roof of the cabin and the floors inside it, and have the Common Vampire wear a crown of garlic on their head and another around their neck. Than, never invite the vampire in, replace the mustard seeds every time he starts removing them, replace the mirrors as fast as he breaks them, and make sure she never removes the garlic cloves from around her neck. After a week or so of this the Vampire Master will give up and look for a new and less well protected victim and the spell will be broken, thus the Common Vampire will come out of their trance and return to their old normal human self again.

Can vampirism be cured? If so, how? (In the Lost Boys, killing the head vampire would cure those who had not yet tasted human blood.)

See my last answer.

- Do they feel pain?

Yes, but they are more resistant to it, thus can take quite a bit of pain before the pain becomes unbearable enough for them to back down.

Common Vampires, being entranced, feel nothing and will not stop coming at you until you kill them, which is not too hard to do.

- Can bullets hurt them? What about other normal weapons? Can they be suffocated or drown?

Anything can hurt True Vampires, it just takes a lot more of whatever it is, to do the kind of damage it would do with a human. But, being immortals, their wounds no matter how severe they are, will never kill them.

Blood/Manner of feeding; The all important question of blood:

- Do they feed on blood or life force? Do they also eat flesh?

In my children's books, the vampires are never actually seen to be drinking blood or attacking humans. It's hinted to, and every one knows that is what the vampire does when he goes out at night, but it's never an on screen action. My goal is a scary bedtime story for children, not terrorizing them into sleeping with every light in the house on.

A vampire gone on a frenzy, will eat the flesh as well as drink the blood. In my rather violent (and written for adults) Twighlight Manor series, feeding frenzies are common place, with the vamps going into rabid-like fits attacking their victim and tearing them to pieces, gorging themselves on the blood, drinking it straight from the heart itself after tearing open the chest and ripping out the rib cage, than relishing the heart, eyes, and brain far above all else.

In either case, blood is what keeps a vampire going. They won't die without the blood, but they will dry up like old brittle bones if they don't keep drinking it. They will also age and start falling apart (like the CryptKeeper) if they don't get enough blood. Blood keeps them young, soft, and youthful.

Common Vampires do not eat or drink unless told to by their "master" the True Vampire. Likewise they will only drink blood if told to do so by the True Vamp that controls them.

- Do they need to drink blood to survive? Or are they simply addicted? (Being Human)

See my last answer.

- What happens if they don't feed?

See my last answer.

- Will animal blood suffice or does it need to be human blood?

Blood is blood, they'll take whatever is handy at the moment. Human blood is preferred, but whatever is handy will do if no humans are around. Though, my vamps never go after animals in my children's books, because when I was about 12 I read a vampire book for kids, which had a vampire go after the MCs dog and turn the dog into a vampire, and I had nightmares for weeks after that. So I never write vampires going after animals in any of my children's stories, and rarely do I do so in my adult stories either.

- Can they drink packaged blood? Or does the anticoagulant make it unpalatable? Do they need to have fresh living blood?

Blood is blood, they'll take whatever is handy at the moment, but warm, fresh, pulsating blood from a still beating heart is strongly preferred. Cold, stale, unfresh, unpulsating, packaged blood is a last resort if nothing else is available.

- Do they have to drink the blood or can they inject it? Will a blood transfusion work just as well if not better than drinking?

Blood is food, injections will not work.

- Can they eat normal food? What happens if they do?

Though they don't need to and thus don't eat normally, they can eat in order to keep up appearances. For example if an unsuspecting human invited them over for a dinner party, they could ea whatever was served (providing such things as garlic and onions or any thing else they are allergic too, were not served).

True Vampires can eat and drink regular normal foods, but these do not seem to sustain them well. The nutrients are not absorbed the way they were when they were alive. As a result they drink blood to get the nutrients, because for some reason it's the only way they can. No idea why that is, I don't know much about medical/biology stuff so I didn't bother to work out all the details. I simply said it and thus that made it so and my readers will just have to take my word for it.

Common Vampires do not eat or drink unless told to by their "master" the True Vampire. Likewise they will only drink blood if told to do so by the True Vamp that controls them.

- Do they bite? Where? (Neck, upper thigh, wrist? Chest?) If they don't bite, what do they use instead (Fingernails/claws? A knife? A straw)

Neck. The True Vampires almost always, they go for the neck. No. Always. I don't think I've ever written a True Vampire that DIDN'T go straight or the neck.

I did once consider having a vampire that lost it's teeth, using a straw to drink the blood. I'm guessing the straw would have been sort of a thin metal pipe to stab them in the neck with first. I never wrote that one though, just considered using it for a really elderly vampire that had lost it's teeth.

Though in my Twighlight Manor series, feeding frenzies are common place, with the Phookan Vamps going into rabid-like fits attacking their victim's chest and tearing them to pieces, gorging themselves on the blood, drinking it straight from the still beating heart itself after tearing open the chest and ripping out the rib cage and lungs, etc.

How they Bite:

Exactly like Bela Lugosi did in Dracula: Mesmerize victim with flashy wow factor.

*Runs down stairs flapping huge satin cape while jumping from the stairs pretending to fly like superman.* (Or in my more adult books, they do a Tim Curry and flash their sequined underwear at you.) :)

Now that he's got your attention (and you are wondering what the hell a grown man is doing running around in sequined underwear and flapping his cape at you) - hypnotize them.

"Looook intwo mah eyezzzzzz. You a undah mah conwrol. Ah vant your blood."

While you stand there wondering what the heck this guy is saying, he takes the opportunity to grab your neck and bite. :)

I just love overblown over the top theatrical vampire stunts. :) I especially love it when they run by flapping their capes. I got a thing for guys in capes (and sequined underwear). :)

So the whole thing is basically "Look at the weird gorgeous guy in the cape running circles around me, I wonder what he's doing, I wish I could understand what he saying, oh wait, why his biting my neck? Help, he mesmerized me with his flashy cape so long that I didn't realize he was about to tear my throat out! AAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!. . . . yes . . . master . . . . anything you say . . . master.. . . I'm . . . coming . . . master."

I love Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Any vampire that doesn't act like Bela Lugosi isn't a real vampire in my book. Unless of course he's acting like Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furt, than it's okay to not act like Bela Lugosi's Dracula. ;)

If they hunt, how do they do it? Do they have a specific sort of person (only women, only blonds etc etc) or animal they prefer?

I explained this a ways back, but basically all True Vampires are males and all their "Common Vampire) victims are females (unless the True Vampire is gay).

- How often do they need to feed? (every night? Every fortnight? Once a month? )

Depends on the story and how the plot is going. Usually True Vamps need blood every night or at the very least every once every three days.

So, vampires drink blood, but where does it go?

Uhm . . . in their stomach??????????? Seems like the logical place for it to go.

Do they use the bathroom?

I would assume they must. It never occurred to me to think about it.

How much blood are they drinking, anyway?

Who the hell knows. As much as they vant.

Killing One:

You can't. I sort of already explained that back when I was talking about how they are created.

Society:

How do vampires function politically and socially

True Vampires are pretty much loners and keep to themselves. Because you got to be pretty darn wicked to become one, there actually are not too many True Vampires out there. You are not likely to meet more than one in your entire life time, and there would rarely be more than one in your local town.

Once in a while, a dictorial vampire will come a long and he'll pretend to be a mortal so as to work his way into politics and take control and use his power to kill lots of humans. (Adolf Hitler for example, in my books, would have been very likely a Vampire, which would explain how he had gained such power so fast.)

Do these vampires have a social hierarchy? How is it sorted? (By age? By power? By merit or by eliminating your rivals? Are they ruled by committee or government or by a single individual? How are these leaders selected or are they self-appointed? How structured is their society?)

Nope. They are loners. If you did find a few that banded together it would be sort of like a tribe or a gang. They would pick the strongest/wisest/whatever to be the leader, and they would create whatever survival of the fittest type laws they could think of to live by.

A note here, that when vampires start moving in packs, they are likely to be pretty dangerous and far more animal like in their attacks. They are more likely to go into frenzies, and they are more likely to act out of brute violence. They would be harder to reason with and harder to drive out of your town.

Vampires are pretty territorial though, so banding together into groups is highly unusual and would only happen in rare instances. If more than one vampire showed up in the same town, they would more likely fight like a pair of pit fighting roosters and whom ever was more powerful would take over the territory while the other would flee to a different town.

- Do they have laws? What are they? How are they enforced? Is it regional? International? Is each city independent or are their overall laws that all vampires across the globe adhere to? (I.E is there a masquerade law (Vampire: The Masquerade) preventing vampires from revealing their existence to the mortal world?)

See my last few answers.

How is the creation of new vampires dealt with? Is it restricted or regulated? What are the punishments for creating a vampire without permission? What are the prerequisites for creating a new vampire (What sort of person do they select? Why?)

This question does not apply to my vampires.

Upon creating a vampire, does the sire remain with the new vampire and teach them or is it normal for them to be abandoned and left to fend for themselves?

This question does not apply to my vampires.

Is the relationship between sire and childe/fledgling close? Do they have any mystical connection to each other?

This question does not apply to my vampires.

Are your vampires solitary creatures or do they form groups/Covens? How do they get along with other vampires? How about other supernaturals? (Werewolves for instance)

I just answered this a few questions back.

Are your vampires territorial or nomadic? What happens when another vampire strays into their territory?

I just answered this a few questions back.

One Final Added Note: In my adult books (which are very M rated adult books and no publisher will touch them so I have self-publish them) my True Vampires are the same as everything else on this list, except the have the added feature of looking, dressing, and acting uncannily like Tim Curry's Dr Frank-N-Furt (and the rest of the crew) from Rocky Horror Picture Show. (My second fave vampire movie, after Bela Lugosi's Dracula.) So in my children's books, my vampires stay more Dracula style, but in my adult books my vampires toss their cloths aside in a very Transylvania Transvestite Vampire gone Mad Scientist insane sort of way. :) I love Tim Curry's transvestite vampire almost as much as I love Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Heck, I love all drag queens and crazy cannibalistic, rock signing, mad scientist, vampire drag queens are even better. :)

Plus, I'm a huge Liberace` fan, and I've always thought of him as looking like a glittering vampire, so my adult book vamps got a touch of Liberace-ism in them too. :)

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Incubus: Fear the Night

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