Vampire

The Vampire is one of the Undead, a supernatural being that is technically dead but maintains animation and a semblance of life by feeding on the blood of the living.

 Species: Undead (Corporeal, Restless)

 Other Names:  Vampyre, the Undead, living dead, nightstalker, cadaver sanguisugus (a Latin term, literally meaning “bloodsucking corpse”), strix, strigon, langsuir, vanpir, veshchij, vieszcy, begierig, unbegier, upierzyca, uperice, vukodlak, volkolak, strigoi, murony, vlkodlak, opojca, polunochnik, jedogonja, bajang, brahmaparush, gaki, gjakpire, sarcomenos, nosferatu, vrykolakas, upierczi, upor, vampir, varcolac, wampyr, volkodlak, brukulaco, aswang, vetala, mullo, pishaca, piijawica, dearg-dul, erestun, eretik, penanggalan, kathakano, drakul, jiangshi, nelapsi, kosci, kudlak, lampir, murony, nachtzehrer, ogoljen, pontianak, lugat, sampiro, vampiro, upier, upir, moroi, tenatz, akhkharu, krvoijac, montetzdam.

The legend of the Vampire is universal, and each culture has its own name for the creature. The modern term "vampire" actually arises from the Slavonic Magyar vampir, which literally means “blood monster”. In Romania, it is known as nosferatu, which comes from the Greek nosophoros, meaning “plague-carrier.” The word itself didn't enter the English language until the mid-1730s (1732 or 1734).

 Habitat:  While the Vampire can be found almost anywhere, it seems to prefer places that have some connection with death. The Vampire can be found in graveyards, mausoleums, ancient crypts or tombs, catacombs, ancient ruined castles, dark forests, morgues, charnel houses, hospitals (in some cases), subterranean tunnels, mist-ridden moors, abandoned mines, sewer complexes, old mansions, decrepit houses, dark swamps, abandoned warehouses, deserted funeral homes, bayous, and other such places.

 Diet:  The Vampire needs to feed on fresh human blood for survival. This unnatural hunger drives the creature's existence, and the Vampire constantly craves blood. It is thought by most that the blood invigorates the Vampire's body, maintaining the undead state of the corpse and preventing any further decay. When it feeds, the Vampire not only takes the victim's blood, but also infects the victim with the supernatural taint of vampirism. Therefore, while prolonging the creature's own soulless existence, it damns the unfortunate individual to become a Vampire after death, no matter how he or she dies. Thus, the Vampire propagates its own kind.

When the Vampire feeds, it usually bites its victim on the neck, breast, inner thigh, or wrist. Through these wounds, the Vampire drains the victim of their flowing blood. The Vampire prefers to feed on victims of the opposite sex, although it is not unknown for some Vampires to feed upon the same sex. The Vampire doesn’t require much blood for survival, needing about one-half to a full quart every night. Older Vampires can resist the bloodlust for several weeks, but the creature grows progressively weaker the longer he goes without feeding, eventually reverting to its true age (which proves to be fatal). The Vampire can sate its hunger on the blood of animals if necessary, although this is usually something done only in desperation.

Folklorists, occultists, and vampirologists have debated exactly why the Vampire needs blood for a very long time. In ancient times, people recognized that blood is the source of life. To take another’s blood was to absorb the other individual’s strength and vitality, even to the point of killing the other. Early on, women recognized the innate connection between menstruation and the act of giving birth, as blood is symbolically and physically shed during both acts. People believed that, by drinking the blood of one’s fallen enemies, an individual would absorb his enemy’s strength and become exponentially more powerful. Blood is viewed by pagan religions as the sustenance of their gods, maintaining their power and immortality through the sacrifice of humans and animals. But, blood is sacred to God, and in the Old Testament, God emphasizes that drinking the blood of another is a mortal sin and is strictly forbidden. He specifically states this as follows:
 * “And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people.” -Leviticus 7: 26-27 (New International Version)

It could therefore be argued that the Vampire is a man (the Vampire tends to be predominantly male), cut off from both God and his own people because of his craving for human blood. The Vampire is a horrifying and reviled creature, cursed by God to arise from the grave as one of the undead and to feed on the blood of the living for eternity. As stated earlier, the blood is the life. God spoke to Moses on this matter, again explicitly emphasizing the importance and the sacred nature of the crimson fluid. God thus states:
 * “Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood — I will set my face against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any alien living among you eat blood.” -Leviticus 17: 10-12 (New International Version)

Basically, God says that “thou shalt not drink the blood of another, lest thou be damned for eternity.” Think of it as the eleventh commandment. Christians believe that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross saved them from sin and eternal damnation in Hell. Before He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot (whom some believe may have been the first true Vampire), Jesus said at the Last Supper: “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He offered it to His disciples, saying “''Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'' (Matthew 26: 26-28).” The Vampire, being a creature born of Satan’s power, drank blood in blasphemous defiance of God’s command, defiling the sacred and stealing what belongs to God alone.

 Features:  The Vampire tends to resemble the person it was in life. However, the Vampire of legend is a walking corpse. Its body might be bloated, the skin stretched tightly across the creature’s body. The Vampire’s fingernails and toenails have grown since the creature’s burial, now sharpened talons. The skin tends to have a pale pallor to it, while being somewhat decayed. Since the Vampire tends to feed on its own flesh while struggling to leave the grave (known as manducation), there are often chunks of flesh missing from the limbs. The creature has sharp, extended canine teeth (the fangs), which allow for easy feeding. The Vampire’s breath reeks of decay and coagulated blood (although getting close enough to confirm this is next to impossible). The Vampire tends to be dressed in its burial shroud or whatever clothing the body happened to be wearing at the time of burial, and the creature itself reeks of death and grave dirt. The Vampire’s eyes are fiery red, and the creature’s ears are grotesquely stretched and pointed. The Vampire of ancient times is a horrifying monster, a far cry from the modern interpretation of the Vampire.

The Vampire of modern times is a very different creature, in both looks and character. Some Vampires have no distinguishing characteristics in this day and age, as the creature has retractable fangs that only show when the Vampire is feeding or angry, and the characteristic blood-red eyes only become apparent under these conditions as well.

Since Bela Lugosi appeared on the silver screen in Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula (Universal Studios), the Vampire stereotype had been fully established. The Vampire appears in formal evening attire: a white shirt, a red bowtie, a black jacket, black trousers, formal shoes, a prominent widow’s peak or slicked-back hairstyle, needle-sharp fangs, blood-red eyes, long fingernails (always cut to a sharp point), and finally a black opera cape, lined with scarlet and sporting a high collar. In the movies, these stereotypical characteristics instantly identify a given individual as one of the Undead.

In most cases, as mentioned previously, the Vampire bears a striking resemblance to the individual it was in life. The creature tends to be gaunt and wiry in build, belying the Vampire’s supernatural power. The Vampire has pale skin, and is very attractive to the opposite sex, which helps the Vampire to attract its victims. It tends to have long, needle-sharp fangs and fine nails (usually pointed and very sharp indeed). It should be noted that, in Bulgaria, the Vampire was believed to have only one nostril (probably not true). In Poland, the Vampire has a sharp, needlelike point on the tip of its tongue, much like a bee’s sting. It is through this appendage that the Vampire is believed to pierce the skin and drain its victim’s blood. However, the creature usually appears human under normal circumstances, unless in a state of bloodlust or angered in some way. At this point, the Vampire’s fangs (which are retractable) and the creature’s fiery red eyes become apparent and a feral, predatory visage can be seen. Female Vampires tend to have long, luxurious red hair, along with supple, firm breasts, a leanly muscular physique, and are generally sexually attractive to potential victims.

 Behavior:  The Vampire tends to be somewhat unpredictable in its behavioral patterns. The Vampire tends to be nocturnal, but it is a misconception that the creature can only arise from the grave at dusk and cannot abide by the light of the day. In fact, the Vampire could often rise whenever it pleased to hunt and feed, usually between the hours of noon and midnight (according to Slavic folklore, anyway). The Vampire only prefers the darkness because it can move about freely and unseen.

The Vampire is a highly intelligent creature, with the predatory cunning of an animal. However, most newly-risen Vampires are little more than cunning, mindless predators. The revenant’s every move and thought is driven by one instinct: hunger. As mentioned earlier, the Vampire’s need for blood is all-consuming. It will do everything within its power to gain a potential victim, so that it may feed. Like mentioned previously, the Vampire prefers to bite its victim on the neck, breasts, or wrist, although it will occasionally go for the inner thigh or the area of the chest directly over the heart (although some sources say that the Vampire sucked the victim’s skin and drained blood through the pores). It usually preys on victims of the opposite sex, although Vampires who chose an “alternative lifestyle” while still living may make exceptions. When the Vampire first rises from the grave, its first victims will be its family and loved ones. At times, when human prey is scarce or unavailable, the revenant will prey upon wild animals and livestock, although the Vampire tends to find such prey to be bland and unsatisfying. This is only something that the Vampire will do in desperation or is trying to avoid feeding on humans as much as possible.

In some cases, when a corpse reanimates, the Vampire is too weak to rise (as it has to smash through its coffin and claw through six feet of dirt). In order to gain the necessary power, the revenant engages in manducation, which literally means “eating.” This involves the Vampire chewing on its burial shroud and feeding on its own flesh (which has to be very painful). Once it has fed enough, it can arise from the grave and seek out its first victim, increasing in strength every time the creature feeds.

Hunting is a relatively straightforward task for the Vampire. Usually, since the creature prefers to hunt at night, it will wander through a nearby village or along the roads, seeking a potential victim. The Vampire then enters through an open window or under the door (usually in the form of a mist). It will then proceed to approach the sleeping victim and, once there, the Vampire leans over and sinks its fangs into the victim’s neck, right above the jugular vein. The victim usually moans aloud, but does not awaken. The Vampire then proceeds to drain off a portion of its prey’s blood, usually no more than a quart. However, this amount of blood loss isn’t enough to kill the victim. The victim then wakes up the next morning, feeling weak and utterly exhausted. The Vampire then proceeds to return over the course of several nights, continually draining the individual’s blood until death occurs from blood loss and sickness. If lucky, the victim is only dead. However, if this is not the case, the victim will rise from the grave three days later as one of the undead.

The Vampire is a vicious and deadly foe in a fight. The revenant’s combination of strength, speed, and agility, as well as its razor-sharp claws and fangs, makes the Vampire truly a force to be reckoned with. However, the creature must rest within its grave during the day, as this isn’t the Vampire’s natural time (sunlight does little actual harm, if any, to most Vampires). This leaves the revenant highly vulnerable to attack from Vampire Hunters. However, if the would-be hunter isn’t careful, the Vampire may rise and the hunter will become the revenant’s meal.

The Vampire is an intelligent, cunning creature, often more than capable of outwitting humans. The longer the Vampire lives, the more its intellect increases. Thus, Vampires that have lived for centuries on end are extremely dangerous foes. The revenant has razor-sharp instincts and is unnaturally perceptive, making the creature all the more formidable. Remember this: the Vampire has centuries of experience built up, and has had more experience in dealing with would-be killers than most Demon Hunters are inclined to think or admit to.

Although the Vampire is impotent and incapable of sexual activity for the most part, some exceptions are known to exist. According to Slavic folk beliefs, the Vampire is known to rise from the grave, return home to its widow and demand its favorite meal. Afterwards, the Vampire would demand intercourse (forcibly, if necessary). This was particularly common in the Slavic regions of Eastern Europe, especially in Romania. Since the Vampire’s sperm was considered to still be potent, this kind of encounter could easily result in an unwanted pregnancy. The resulting child is known as a dhampir, a half-human, half-vampire hybrid. The child has all of the Vampire’s strengths, but none of its weaknesses (although the child may not see it that way). The dhampir possesses the strength, speed, agility, reflexes, endurance, and the acute senses of the Vampire. However, the dhampir is both blessed and cursed. The child is able to perceive the Vampire in its incorporeal form, but like his vampiric father, he is cursed with an insatiable hunger for human blood. Usually, the dhampir hunts down and destroys his father, for both revenge and common cause. Some traditions say that the dhampir has a weak skeleton that actually becomes gelatinous as the dhampir ages. By the age of thirty or forty, the will die. Therefore, the dhampir’s life will be short and filled with discomfort and pain. Thus, it is every dhampir's goal to kill its Vampire progenitor before he dies.

Sometimes as Gypsy folklore dictates, the Vampire’s sexual drive was enough to cause the creature to return from the dead. The Vampire could also return if it had been in love with a woman, but the couple had never actually experienced sexual ecstasy together. She would be invited to return to the Vampire’s grave, where the creature would make her one of the Undead and, as a result, they could share their love forever.

The Vampire may cause death and despair through other means than its bite alone. According to some legends, the Vampire would call out its chosen victim’s name, several times if necessary. If that individual answers the call, they are doomed to die. Another legend says will climb up to a church’s bell tower and ring the bell. Anyone who heard or gave heed to the bell’s ominous ringing was condemned to die by the fangs of the Vampire. The creature can kill by causing disease to sweep through a given area, or it can spread misery by raping virginal young girls. Sometimes, the Vampire will cause poltergeist effects, like throwing objects, making loud banging noises, and opening or closing doors invisibly and repeatedly. It may attempt to suffocate humans with its vile stench. The Vampire is capable of causing crop blights or drought, draining the crops of life and causing a famine among the humans as a result. The Vampire would attack livestock, depriving the people of food.

The Vampire’s habits and behavioral patterns are, at best, chaotic and malevolent. The Vampire is an extremely difficult adversary to contend with, so absolute caution is advised when dealing with the Vampire. One can never tell what may come to pass in a life-or-death struggle with the Undead.

 Abilities:  The Vampire possesses an array of supernatural powers at its disposal. This makes the creature extremely difficult to contend with in a fight. Although the abilities attributed to the Vampire differ somewhat from culture to culture, the creature’s other powers remain the same. However, many of the abilities that the Vampire is commonly though to possess are based in fiction, not folklore.

Physical Abilities

The Vampire possesses supernatural strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and endurance. The Vampire’s strength is said to be far greater than any mortal’s, as the Vampire is no longer restrained by mortal limitations and is empowered by a combination of the spirit and the flesh, the only limitation being that the Vampire requires blood to fuel its energy reserves. The creature’s strength gives it an advantage during the hunt, as it can overpower almost any human without much effort at all.

The Vampire is extremely quick, moving faster than the human eye can possibly see. The creature’s sheer speed, combined with its unnatural stealth, makes it impossible for the Vampire’s prey to detect or escape from the Vampire until it is too late. The Vampire possesses supernatural agility as well. The creature can leap to great heights and is nimble enough to scale sheer surfaces with amazing speed, much like a spider. The Vampire is able to avoid gunfire easily, and reacts with unnatural quickness to any threat, due to the creature’s superhuman reflexes. The Vampire is able to move at great speed for long periods, and it is nearly impossible to tire the Vampire, due to its preternatural degree of endurance.

Once again, the Vampire’s formidable abilities are limited by one thing: blood. If the Vampire goes without feeding or is prevented from doing so for an extended period of time, the creature steadily begins to weaken and show its true age. This can prove to be fatal to the Vampire, if the cunning Vampire Hunter doesn’t dispatch the revenant beforehand.

Senses

The Vampire’s senses of sight, smell, hearing, and touch are of supernatural keeness, comparable on many levels to a wolf’s. The Vampire can see with perfect clarity in the darkness of the night, to the point of being able to detect the bodily heat emanations from its victims. The creature’s hearing is comparable to a bat or an owl, possessing a level of sensitivity on par with the bat’s own echo-sensitivity.

The Vampire’s sense of smell is as acute as that of a wolf or a dog’s, enabling the creature to track its prey for miles by the scent of the victim’s blood alone, a sensation that the Vampire relishes. The Vampire is also able to tell individual people apart by the scent of their blood coursing through their veins or bodily odors. The Vampire’s sense of touch is amazingly acute, as the creature can feel the heartbeat of a potential victim through thick walls, or it can detect the vibrations of a vampire hunter’s footsteps and the direction of the footsteps, enabling the Vampire to either escape or prepare an ambush for the would-be hunter.

In addition to its five senses, the Vampire possesses a preternatural sixth sense. The Vampire can instinctively sense impending danger, usually posed by humans. The revenant can sense emanations of good or evil, instinctively avoiding the former while congregating in the latter. Overall, the Vampire’s keen senses give the creature several advantages when hunting or eluding its enemies.

Resistance to Injury

The Vampire is incapable of being harmed or slain by most forms of conventional injury, including firearms or blades. Furthermore, the Vampire cannot feel the pain that would result from such attacks. Gunfire has no effect on the revenant whatsoever, serving only to slow the creature down. Likewise, blades don’t affect the Vampire at all, unless the blade pierces the heart or removes the head.

The Vampire has supernatural regenerative capabilities, which allows the creature to recover from injuries that would permanently incapacitate or even kill a human. However, the Vampire cannot regenerate severed limbs, although the creature could possibly reattach a severed limb by pressing the limb against the stump. Poison, suffocation, extreme cold, aging, drowning, or disease cannot kill the Vampire, as the creature is already dead. The only substances that can kill or cause the Vampire pain are silver or blessed steel (both of which will be discussed later).

Shapeshifting

According to legends from around the world, the Vampire is a shapeshifter, capable of assuming a multitude of different forms. However, the Vampire is restricted primarily to animal forms, most notably a bat, a wolf, a rat, or a mist. The Vampire is able to assume these forms at will. In some cases (usually fictional cases), the Vampire is able to take the form of a monstrous man-beast form of the bat or the wolf.

By no means is the Vampire limited to assuming the forms of the aforementioned animals. In folklore, it is practically unheard of for a Vampire to change into a bat. However, according to folklore, the Vampire is able to assume the form of a fox, a moth, an owl, a spider, a locust, a cat, a dog, a frog, a snake, a fly, a flea, a mouse, or a raven (as well as other species of bird).

Shapeshifting gives the Vampire an array of advantages. Although not prominent in European folklore, the form of a bat enables the creature to fly over considerable distances. The bat also has keen hearing and the ability to use echolocation to maneuver through the night. The wolf is a ferocious predator, possessing savage strength, great speed, a degree of animalistic cunning, and keen senses, as well as deadly claws and teeth. The rat is small enough to penetrate most openings with ease, as well as having sharp teeth that enable the rodent to gnaw through nearly any material and having a keen sense of smell as well. The other forms mentioned previously offer many of the same advantages, as well as some unique ones of their own. Basically, the Vampire can utilize any abilities that an animal may have when it assumes that particular animal’s form.

In addition, the Vampire is able to dissolve into the form of a vaporous mist at will. While the creature’s ability to become a mist is rarely mentioned in folklore, it is feared greatly by the people of Hungary, some other parts of mainland Europe, and the Orient. While the creature’s ability to travel for any considerable distance is limited in this form, it is able to move in complete silence, to leave its grave (through finger-sized holes in the earth), to slip through the slightest openings with ease, and to escape from vampire hunters in pursuit of the creature. The Vampire is also unable to be physically harmed in this form, as projectiles just pass right through the vapor.

In other legends, it is said that the Vampire can become a ball of luminescent light, known as a will-o’-the-wisp. Perhaps coincidentally, these dancing lights are thought to be the ghostly remains of the dead in folklore throughout Europe.

Ghost Form

In folklore, it is sometimes thought that the Vampire appears as a ghost to its victims, materializing only to attack and feed. In such cases, the Vampire’s spirit would arise from the grave, leaving the creature’s physical body safely behind in the grave. While in spectral form, the weapons of mortal men could not harm the Vampire, but this did leave the body vulnerable to an attack from vampire hunters.

Domination

Through the use of hypnosis, the Vampire is able to dominate the mind and will of a human. The creature can convince a potential victim to allow the revenant to enter the individual’s home or leave a house unseen, command one that has been bitten by the creature in any way the Vampire wishes, and to force the chosen victim to accept the Vampire’s dark embrace without a struggle. The Vampire’s bite seems to have an anesthetic effect on the victim, giving the creature the time it needs to feed. Afterwards, the Vampire may use this ability to make the victim forget about the attack.

To dominate a human, the Vampire need only make eye contact with its victim for a few seconds. However, the stronger the human’s will, the longer hypnosis takes. If necessary, the Vampire can completely crush the human mind or destroy the individual’s sanity, leaving little more than a drooling lunatic. In the same manner, the Vampire can create a human slave. This slave is totally obedient to his master’s will, to the point of being willing to sacrifice everything for his master’s safety, including his life. Such individuals inevitably lose their minds, due to the Vampire’s power over them.

However, the Vampire’s ability to dominate a human is largely an invention of Bram Stoker’s, and the term domination comes from the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In folklore, the Vampire attacked its victims while they slept. Some were even unconsciously aware of the Vampire’s attack, claiming that they felt a heavy weight sitting on their chests, or even being awakened to find the creature hovering over them, readying itself to feed.

Animal Control

According to legend, the Vampire is able to command many of the very animals it is able to transform itself into. This includes the bat, the wolf, the rat, locusts, the owl, the fox, the snake, and the moth. These creatures of the night come at the Vampire’s beck and call. They will obey each and every single command, even if it means death. This ability is present in folklore, but isn’t commonly mentioned.

One possible explanation is that, since mankind sees the Vampire as a savage beast, these animals see the Vampire as a kindred spirit of sorts, finding themselves somehow compelled to obey the Vampire’s commands.

Command of the Weather

According to Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the Vampire is able to control the weather, within limits. The creature could direct the fog, summon a powerful storm, control the direction and the force of the wind, or even call down bolts of lightning to strike its enemies.\

However, folklore makes no mention of the Vampire possessing such power. One tradition, as told by Dimitrij Zelenin, says that the earth itself rebelled against “unclean” bodies being buried within its soil, and retaliated by causing severe weather, like bringing about cold and frost during the spring months. Other than this, this is an invention of Bram Stoker.

Disease

As the Vampire is essentially a rotting corpse, the revenant is capable of spreading a deadly plague through either its bite or its mere presence. In Romania, as mentioned earlier, the Vampire is known as nosferatu, which literally means “plague-carrier.” When the Vampire has destroyed a village, the contagious disease that inevitably follows kills off the survivors with a horrible wasting disease. Over the next few days, the victim would progressively become weaker and weaker, until death occurred. Worse, those who died of the plague could become Vampires themselves. Those that did arise from the grave would continue to infect the countryside with the Vampire’s evil, spreading death and pestilence wherever they went.

During the Middle Ages, the Black Death struck Europe. The people who didn’t die of the bubonic plague blamed the Black Death on the Vampire, even though infected rats that had been bitten by disease-infected fleas had caused the disease. In fact, it could be argued that the fleas and the rats (both of which the Vampire may command) were sent by the Vampire to wreak havoc on human society. It is said that those who died of the Plague were cursed to rise from the grave as the Undead. Overall, the Black Death killed an estimated thirty to sixty percent of Europe’s population, and went on to spread into other parts of the world. Unlike the humans, however, the Vampire itself is immune to disease.

Immortality

The most coveted trait of all is the Vampire’s immortality. Conceivably, assuming the Vampire feeds on a regular basis and evades vampire hunters, the Vampire could live forever. However, no Vampire in folklore ever exists long enough to actually determine how long the creature could exist. Thus, immortality is more of a trait of the fictional Vampire than a historical fact.

In regards to the Vampire’s actual lifespan (so to speak), it is often assumed by people that, barring destruction, the Vampire is immortal. However, this notion is only partially supported by folklore. Muslim Gypsies though that the Vampire’s unliving existence only lasted for several months, while other Gypsies believed that a reanimated corpse could only exist for forty days, which was seen as a mockery of the forty days that Jesus Christ spent in the desert, resisting temptation from Satan.

In the Slavic countries of Albania and Serbia, it is said that if the Vampire can escape destruction for thirty years and feed on human blood discreetly, the Vampire will eventually become human again, wandering about the world with a new identity.

As far as the Vampire of fiction goes, time equals power to the Vampire. The Vampire grows in strength for every year of its existence, gaining greater intelligence, greater cunning, an exponential increase in its various supernatural abilities, resistance to its weaknesses (sunlight, holy icons, etc.), and a decreasing need for blood. While this may be somewhat true in ancient folk beliefs, as mentioned previously, this is only partially supported by folklore.

Other Abilities

In addition to those mentioned above, the Vampire has some other, lesser-known powers at its disposal. One of these abilities is the Vampire’s alleged ability to scale sheer surfaces, vertically or horizontally, much like a spider. This ability would allow the revenant to access places that would be otherwise impossible for a human to reach. However, this ability may have its roots in fiction, perhaps due to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It likely came from the observation that the common vampire bat (desmodus rotundus) is highly agile compared to most other species of bats, able to cling to and scale sheer surfaces like mentioned above. However, the Vampire predated the discovery of the vampire bat, and hence this ability’s origins lay in fictional accounts.

Other abilities, more rooted in folklore than anything else, that the Vampire possesses includes causing crop blights (destroying food sources), causing a drought, causing impotence in men, or even stealing vital organs (like the heart or the liver).

Weaknesses:

-garlic

-daylight

-buckthorn (according to Slavic folklore)

- the intercession of the gods

- fire

-silver

- A pike in the heart of a vampire

Slaying the Vampire:

Detection:

Becoming a Vampire:

History:

References

Maberry, Jonathan. The Vampire Slayer's Field Guide to the Undead. Canada: Strider Nolan Publishing, Inc. Copyright ©2003 by Jonathan Maberry. Maberry, Jonathan. Vampire Universe. New York: Kensington Publishing Corp. Copyright ©2006 by Jonathan Maberry.

External Links

http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Vampire