Character Theory What are YOUR vampires like?

[Idea]

Vampires are one of the most commonly used monsters/species out there, both in roleplay and in fiction in general. However, from their origins as relatively extravagant living corpses to today, they've been through all kinds of different versions, with once again RPs being no exception to the rule: In different RPs, vampires have different forms, powers, natures.... But I imagine each one of us has a certain idea of "vampire" we most often go to should we decide to RP such a species.

As such, as the title implies, what is your kind of vampire? What kind of body, powers, society and other aspects do they have? What inspired you to envision vampires with those traits?

For me personally, three big things inspired my current notion of vampires. The innitial conception I had of them is a little blurry, though I believe it innitially came from me piecing together bits of info I heard about vampires here and there. Pale, drinking blood, turn people they bite into vampires, turn to dust in the sunlight... In my head there was always this dichotomy of a vicious predatory creature and a very gentlemanly being who happened to be after all your life juice.

The second big inspiration was "The league of extraordinary gentleman" movie. While I had certainly envisioned vampires before, I had always pictured them more as a collection of traits than a singular, rounded entity. The more action-oriented version of Mina came to give me a new perspective on what vampires could be as well as in thinking of them as pretty interesting characters rather than just a species of monsters (or twillight fanfics).

The third inspiration was anime, and to be honest it was a pretty big one. Up until this point vampires were tall slender figures in my head, creepy monsters by all account feriously devouring blood. Anime, in typical anime fashion, looks at this and says "what if we made it into a cute anime girl?". And it did. It turned upside down my whole conception of the potential of vampires. It expanded my horizons on how I could interpret certain vampire traits and their origins, gave me a different insight into their potential life in society, as well as different kinds of vampiric personalities and people.

My current version of vampires, while naturally somewhat adapatable for the given RP, tends to have a few common traits:

*They need blood to survive, this serving as their primary if not only source of nutrition
*They suck blood from their fangs which have valves in them that use vaccum pressure to suck out the blood
*They have increased physical abilities and powerful regeneration
*Little to no aging
*There are vampires born out of other vampires, as well as turned vampires. Often the distinctions are that born vampires are more powerful, but they age slowly while turned vampires don't age period.
*Vampires are extremely sensitive. They are averse to garlic because their sense of smell is so intense that it becomes physically impossible for them to tolerate the smell of garlic.
*Silver is a major weakness for them, being able to strip them of their superhuman abilities. Sunlight turns whatever part of them is exposed to it into dust.


So that was my ramble, what about yours? Looking forward to hearing them

 

[scorpiodragon]

• They can walk in sunlight though it burns them after a few hours and can make them weak and virtually powerless, meaning they won’t die but they will be like a mortal
• A tall race, taller than their dhamphir children
• Need blood to survive
• shape shifting (wolf, rat, bat or bat swarm, fog)-taken from Dracula
• Fangs that can extend to their bottom lips like a viper’s
• Can eat food though food does not provide nourishment for them
• Have reflections
• Animal blood makes vampires and dhamphirs weaker
• Hatred of werewolves and they loath their vaewolf children and those who breed with their mortal enemies
• Mature quickly mentally wise though not as fast as elves
• Do not need to sleep in dirt from their homeland or in coffins
• Eyes of vampires and dhamphirs are sensitive to light, especially the noonday sun
• Can turn into Nosferatu if they suffer from blood withdrawal of which there is no coming back
• Though taller than humans, they are shorter than elves (think Tolkien's Elves)
• Have their own hierarchy with fledglings (turned vampires) being the weakest and poorest
• They can have children, 1-3 and their pregnancies are 7 months long but they need a lot of blood to survive. If the child thinks it is in danger, it will tear itself out of the mother, leading to blood loss and potential death for the mother if she doesn’t get immediate medical attention.
• Vampires have what are called pre-milks, tiny fangs and teeth in their mouths when forming that fall out a week after birth. Around six months, their milk teeth come in and then their adult teeth begin coming in at eight years. At adolescence they get their fangs in. However, if their fangs are taken out, they do not grow back, leaving to a vampire who cannot hunt and has to depend on other vampires to survive.
• They can cross running water but it makes them sick if they travel across anything bigger than a pond without issues as water can potentially burn them.
• They freeze around 26-50 years for vampires of born. Their lifespan is as follows: 0-3 years:: infant, 4-15 years:: child, 16-25 years:: adolescent, 26-50 years:: young adult *, 51+ years:: adult onward-* average time of the "freeze"
  Vampires are immortal, and freeze when bitten at whatever age they were changed at. Bred Vampires, however, age much like humans until their freeze.
• Can not enter holy areas/religious buildings
• Garlic can impair their senses due to their sense of smell being twenty times that of a blood hound
• Can see in low light and total darkness or they have infrared perception but not both
• They can cloak themselves
• They can scale walls like a spider and can control their falling
• They have enhanced superhuman senses, supernatural endurance, supernatural regenerative healing factor, supernatural stamina, and superhuman durability
• They have eidetic memory
• They have hypnosis and mind control abilities
• Older vampires can fly, younger vampires can levitate
• Light skinned vampires are pale or become pale if turned. Dark skinned vampires either are or turn ashen gray when born/turned
• They have super agility, accelerated super speed, and flexibility
• They have the power of dream manipulation
• They have super strength
• They have a power called aura which dhamphir also possess
• They have Atmokinesis (weather manipulation)
• They can use magic
• They have telekinesis and telepathy
• They have limited animal control over wolves, bats and rats
• Juniper, silver, Wild rose can poison or burn them
• Fire, decapitation, werewolf blood or a werewolf bite, heart Extraction, electricity can all kill a vampire
• Blood intoxication and blood withdrawal as well as crosses can harm them
• They can turn people into vampires or dhamphirs but dhamphirs are often born and tend to be those who have half their blood remaining in them/didn’t get drained all the way
• They are good at finding directions and don’t get lost as well as being like cats with being naturally stealthy and landing on their feet
• There are several pureblood families though I am still working on that blog post and not on my computer.

Much of this lore comes from my imagination from various sources but a lot of inspiration comes from bram stoker and his novel Dracula.

 

[rae2nerdy]

So if you want to see some vampires on lore that isn’t specific to Europe here is a good post ;

Spoiler: Vampire

My own current version is the Nightmare Vampire Inspired by the Alps, Moroi & Mare.

It’s not specifically a blood drinker but it is an animated corpse and drains the life force of its victims in a similar manner to blood vampires.

Spoiler: Nightmare Vampire (HP)

MAERI, BEING (VAMPIRE)
The Maeri (pronounced like Mary) are thought to originate as the result of a Maer (pronounced like a female horse) accidentally killing their prey. In an effort to revive the corpse the Maer share a portion of their power and thus trigger a vampiric transformation. This transformation happens mostly in those with magical blood, although there are rumors of Muggles who also rose as Maeri as well.

The Maeri share many of the same abilities as their Maer mothers. They feast primarily on physical energy, although they will drink blood on occasion. They have the ability to trap their victims in dreams or drain sexual energy during intercourse. They also have the ability to go intangible, although they cannot keep this form for long periods of time.

Unlike the Maer, who are all female, the Maeri can be any gender. They also do not all have the ability to shape-shift or walk into dreams. Those that do have the abilities are thought to have been Animagus or Legilimens in life (or had the potential to become them).

Now new Maeri can be created one of two ways. Either they are created by the Maer accidentally killing their prey OR by the Maeri themselves turning another individual. This usually involves draining that person fully of their life energy and then sharing the Maeri's own vampire energy.

The Maeri largely have their own weaknesses. The crowing of a rooster makes them slightly uneasy but causes them no real harm. Dreamcatchers and a strong Occlumency shields will prevent them from draining energy from a victim. They are immune to muggle/magical illnesses but will sicken quickly if they do not drain enough physical energy to survive.

They retain their ability to use magic although they might need to purchase new wands after they're turned. They are also as susceptible to magical attack as any living witch/wizard (although certain curses might not work properly.)

Lastly much like their Maer mothers the Maeri tend to hunt at night. However neither being is particularly bothered by sunlight. It is simply easier for them to hunt at night when more people are sleeping.

 

[kibou]

I came up with my own vampire-variant for an rp a long time ago, and I'm still pretty fond of them and would like to use them again in the future.

Essentially, I started with the basis of them not being supernatural creatures, but rather a naturally-occurring species related to humans. They look fairly human, are capable of speaking the same languages, etc, however their biology has some key differences that give them their classic vampire traits. As such, one cannot be "turned."

+ They're naturally nocturnal, and have very pale skin as a result of not getting as much sunlight. Like humans who work the night shift, they can adjust their sleep schedule to be awake in the day but they might be groggy.
+ This makes them sunburn very easily, so they gotta slather on the sunscreen, wear long-sleeved clothes, etc.
+ Because they're nocturnal, they have good night vision, but often wear sunglasses during the day and are sensitive to bright light.
+ Their sense of smell is also much better than humans.
+ The way their digestive system works they get most of their nutrition from human blood. Animal blood can be substituted but doesn't provide for as balanced a diet, and solid/human food can be eaten but it can provide little real value and is hard on their stomachs and can make them feel sick- basically the equivalent of someone trying to live off of doritos and junk food.
+ They have non-retractable fangs where their canines would be.
+ When they go too long without eating, their survival instincts kick in and they go into something between rage and desperation where they're not quite themselves. They might end up killing innocent people or like, someone's dog to eat.
+ Personalities vary from individual to individual but their psychology is different from humans as well- they're prone to being moodier and more solitary, usually only bonding with a small group, and instead of anxiety and depression the most common mental health problems tend to be issues with anger, and empathy. They're less of a social species than humans are.
+ In fight vs flight situations they're more likely to react with fight.
+ If they live long enough to die of old age they will live longer than humans, and mature more slowly as well.
+ Vampires used to be a nomadic species, travelling in small groups and not staying in one place too long, and there's some "traditionalists" in modern day who still do so and hunt humans. Obviously, this is not accepted by humans, and such groups are usually arrested/killed.
+ Vampires have a much smaller population than humans- maybe about a handful of vamps for every 6,000 humans. They tend to either be from a rich family or poor with not much in the way of a vampire middle class, and without regular access to enough blood it's extremely unlikely a vampire will be able to succeed in a human-dominated society.
+ Apart from the well-off families, vampires tend to live separate from humans and there's a lot of tension and some fear between the species.
+Depending on the rp, having vampires be basically myths/urban legends to regular people could also work. Rich families might file down their fangs to blend in with humans, and regular vamps might have moved to far off/secluded areas or even moved underground.

 

[Windsock]

Wyndsawk vampires:

They succ life juice.
their fangs make them talk funny.
they have fangs.
They're pretty strongk.
mildly magic.
successive generation of vampires get weaker.
younger vampires can eat older vampires to get stronger, or maybe take much more blood then they actually need for a long period of time.
old vampires might be able to mind control weaker vampires they make.

 

[Corrosion]

• Immortal, but all of them look like teenagers
• Paler than Irish girls
• Fangs and shit
• Eyes are red. Like the kind of red when you smoke dank weed
• Super emo
• Instead of immediately dying when exposed to sunlight, they instead get cancer and die slowly
• Sparkly at night
• Can't eat garlic bread which is why they're emo all the time
• Vampire powers based on blood magic
• Always look like late teens/young adults for some reason
• They're like strong or something
• Phobia of crosses and Jesus
• Which is also why they suck at math because they all fear the + symbol
• They all have Vitamin D deficiency cos they don't have sunlight
• So edgy that they break mirrors when looking at them and then cut themselves with the shards
• Vegan vampires drink ketchup
• Can turn into bats, but the bats they turn into are normal bats with no special abilities
• Listen to Evanescence, Linkin Park, and other emo bands
• Wear black and are goth

 

[Shotagonist]

>Burn up in Sunlight. I consider this a very important weakness as it is a big motivator and is a very good limiter in comparison to what they can do.

>Vampires can petrify themselves to avoid burning up in sunlight, but they need blood to reawaken, so if they do this alone, they may be frozen in place for centuries.

>Nearly unkillable due to being undead. While dismembering them can hamper their abilities, only sunlight can kill them for good.

>While they can look incredibly young and handsome, this is due to supernatural ability to change appearance. Since Vampires are generally vain, they want to look as handsome as they can if just to satisfy their ego.

>They don't need blood for sustenance, or anything really (they are undead), they do this for their own enjoyment. Drinking blood activates some of their human functions again and it is more like a drug to them than food.

>The original vampires were incredibly twisted blood cultists using magic to turn undead, and they can choose who to turn into a vampire with a similar blood ritual. Naturally, this requires slaughtering humans by the dozens so generally only extremely twisted and power-hungry choose vampirism.

>Most drained of their blood from a vampire blood simply die, but they can be raised as undead thralls. Such vampire spawn has no free will and is merely a puppet for the amusement or service of the vampire. They're basically zombies, but may retain a few personality quirks from the person they were raised from.

>Magic animates them and they generally develop powerful skills based on their personality. All of them are twisted, but certain prefer psychological tricks and mental manipulation, where others like to rip people to shreds with their bare hands.

>Due to their monstrous nature (and the trait to burn up in sunlight), only very few survive for long. Those that are cunning enough to avoid the sun and also being hunted down can grow incredibly powerful. Vampires that lived for centuries in particular are very detached from humanity though which generally doesn't help their personality

In short, my vampires are true monstrosities and not so much misunderstood smexy outsiders.

 

[Cicatrix]

Well, most of my vampires were hugely influenced by the comic American Vampire because, at the time of creating them, I was super into that comic. Subsequent vampire characters I've made have pretty much followed in their footsteps.

Basically there's a lot of different types/species or whatever of vampire, and so they have different weaknesses, limitations, appearances, abilities and so on, depending on the origins of their bloodline. Which makes things really fun and varied when you want to implement something pretty out there.

They tend to have a more human-like form and a more monstrous one when shit gets real and they have to throw down, or when they get injured, when they're feeding... Stuff like that. Which makes their human (primary) form more of a way to fit in easier among mortals, but their monsterous forms to be more like their 'true selves'. Its also possible for this primary form to take the place of an animal, especially if the vampire has an ability tied to shape-shifting.

Weakness and sensitivity to sun is very, very common, and drinking blood or feasting on another type of life force is pretty much necessary for survival. Wood or metal based weaknesses are common, and other folkloric weaknesses or quirks vary between bloodlines. The more ancient the bloodline is, the less human-like their primary form is. Humans can be turned through a couple of different methods involving vampire blood, but it is usually frowned upon. They don't age from when they were turned, and have quick regenerative properties in general. Aaand lots of other minor details.

So yeah. I keep things pretty broad.

 

[Nue]

Can't take full credit for this because it was inspired by a tumblr post I saw that I now can't track down, but -
I really like the idea of vampires (or undead characters in general) that, instead of looking like reanimated corpses, they actually look.. too alive, in an uncanny sort of way. Flushed, poreless skin, wide glassy eyes, teeth that are just too white, their resting face is this wide, incredibly posed looking smile, that kind of thing. If you saw them in a photo or for half a second, you'd probably not notice anything was wrong, but seeing them in motion you realize something is off? Think a wax figure, but instead of staying stationary it's moving around.

As for the cool stuff, i.e powers and stuff. I don't have any concrete ideas of what the rules of my vampires would be like because I haven't really done anything with vampire characters, but here's stuff that sounds appealing to me -

1. They feed off of other's life forces to prolong their own lives. This doesn't have to specifically be blood, but it's the most common, and easiest way to get it.

2. They don't really 'die', but the longer they go without feeding off of someone's life force, the more their form deteriorates into something more horrifying. The more starved they are, the harder it is to blend in, aaand the harder it is to keep any semblance of rational thought - it'll eventually cross a point where feeding is their only thought and it is nooot pretty. It also means that the only way you could really, fully get rid of one, would be to make sure it starved until it basically can't function any more. I figur

3. Taking someone's blood is way more of an ordeal from the victim than it would be irl. Because they're not just taking blood, they're essentially stealing away their life. So I imagine this has side effects of leaving the victim heavily weak and fatigued, maybe even shaves a few years off of their lifespan. Also, due to point number 5, many don't survive the initial attack anyway, because it's a rather violent affair.

4. I imagine that they have incredibly heightened senses, and human life can be very overstimulating, which is where some of the vampire stereotypes come from. So they're not actually allergic to sunlight, but it's still way too bright for most of them to deal with. Garlic can't kill them, but any food that isn't bland as hell or uhh.. blood, is too much for them.

5. They don't have fangs. Purely because I feel like if they have fangs they can just daintly suck blood outta people, and I think it would be 100x more unnerving to see them just take actual chunks out of people with their teeth..

 

[Idea]

So many different kinds! As expected of vampires. Interesting to see all the different takes

 

[Abendrot]

• Vampires are the result of dark magic experiments done in the pursuit of immortality, and it worked, sort of...
• Manifests as a virus and is transmitted through contaminated blood, much like how Hepatitis C is spread.
• Behaviors can range anywhere between "classy noblemen" vampires to "ultraviolent hobo" vampires.
• Biologically immortal, but can still be slain (the oldest vamps are just over three hundred years old).
• They have extreme regenerative abilities and resilience to injury and infection thanks to rapid cellular regeneration.
• They also (for the most part) don't feel physical pain. The only way to hurt or kill them is to cut them with silver (a magically inert metal), or expose them to fire or sunlight.
• Have really good low-light vision, but are vulnerable to bright lights.
• Heightened strength, speed, vision and hearing
• Don't need to feed often, but when they do, their meals have to be large and superlative in nutrition.
• To that end, these aren't the kinds of vampires that will bite and go, so to speak. They'll almost always seek to kill their quarry. Gruesomely.
• On average, one vampire is going to kill around a dozen people a year for their own sustenance.

 

[modern-problems]

Oh boy, do I ever love vampires. Here we go,

So my vampires are pretty stereotypical I think. I try to think a lot more into the societal life of a vampire, It's mostly inspired by vampire drama or manga, and how their physical attributes came about.

So here we go.

Spoiler: Biological

• Vampires are not dead, they are infected with what is essentially a super virus. This super virus causes the heart to stop for up to 15 minutes, the proteins react with the leftover anti-bodies produced in the body trying to fight the disease creating a chemical which is only observed within vampires. The heart reactivates, the blood starts pumping again, the body begins to metabolize the hemoglobin to power the cells in the body. The cells rapidly reproduce and mutate. Muscle fibres become stronger, the bones denser, the front teeth elongate, after four days, the body begins to need to consume more blood to stop the body from shutting down.
• During these mutations, the stomach becomes unable to process nutrition from anything other than blood. The tastebuds remain similar, and blood does not have a particular flavour which can be described in normal means. There is a difference between good and bad and the taste as to do more with nutritional value.
• There are two types of vampires,
  • Purebloods: Those born infected with the virus, stemming from the lines of original carries and the bloodlines of those whose bodies originally mutated to have the virus and be able to infect others. They are physically stronger, quicker, and often have abilities such as being able to manifest ice by lowering the temperature of the particles of water in the air and gathering them or being able to pick up the electromagnetic waves from a person's thoughts and read them. Their fangs have hollow channels which lead to venom sacks, which is how the virus spreads
  • Changed: These are vampires which are born from being infected via a pureblood's venom being injected into the body. The illness with both end and bring them back within a week. The changing process is extremely painful and often drives the vampire mad, their bodies need more blood then purebloods. Their fangs do not have venom channels nor do they have venom sacks. They do not develop abilities.
• All vampire's senses are extremely heightened, they have extremely good night vision, hearing and smell. Loud noises can often startle them and strong smells make it almost suffocating.
• Their skin blisters and burns on contact with the sun.
  • in modern settings vampires have a type of shot that can be used as basically sunblock from the inside.
• Silver hurts them because it heats on contact with the chemical inside their cells.
• They are attractive as a hunting mechanism. Attractive people are easier to trust due to lookism.

Spoiler: Social Structure

• Vampiric society has three cardinal rules:
  • Do not expose your nest.
  • Do not kill recklessly.
  • Do not draw needless attention.
• Vampiric society has many other minor rules with varying degrees of importance. Relating mostly to the leadership of the purebloods within each nest of vampires.
• Vampires live in nests, communities together, and are extremely social and bonding creatures with each other.
• The worst punishment for a vampire, other then starvation, is isolation.
• Purebloods are given their higher abilities and status level often interbreed to keep their bloodlines pure, much like royalty use too.
• Purebloods are essentially the nobility and royalty of each nest, and each nest's pureblood fall on an overall power system in the entire vampiric community.

Yeah, that about sums up my vampires. UwU

 

[Bealocwealm]

I've never been big on vampires. But my favourite vampires are Dragonlands vampires. They're Pretty Different from most, but share some key similarities:

- They need to drink blood to survive.
- They can't go out in the sun. *At all*. Being exposed to the sun is instant death, due to the mythology of their lore. It's not about its light or heat, it's because the sun is the Eye of the Dragon, and when the Dragon sees them, it destroys them as they are abominations to it.
- They can Turn others into vampires (though this is definitely a whole Process and not spread through drinking their blood.)


Everything about Dragonlands vampires makes it challenging to play them. Their weaknesses and powers are such that for one to survive to be very old, they almost have to abandon their morals to do so. Moreover Dragonlangs vampires have a hole in their soul, or Lacuna, which give them serious character flaws or compulsions. The Lacuna presents another challenge that makes it hard to play an ethical vampire. It's still possible to, but their lore and functionality help explain why vampires are typically evil, and make being a vampire who isn't evil a real struggle rather than "uh, why doesn't every vampire do this? it's actually easier to just drink animal blood, why are they going out of their way to be evil?"

... And it makes it so chars who view vampires as evil aren't being racist and unreasonable, and allows Good Vamps to actually be interesting again because they're no longer a default.

I'm not sure if I can link to the page on them, but they're really interesting.