The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Over a bottle of wine (ok several), a friend and I got into a lengthy discussion on the ever-changing concept of the vampire. As one of the most popular and enduring horror creatures, the vampire has so many inceptions it’s hard to even catalog them all. My question to us then is deceptively simple. What is a vampire?

In order to answer this question, I’ve tried to organize the most common ‘type’ of vampire. I know I’ve missed some, so please feel free to keep adding!

The oldest concept of the vampire, or vampyr, comes from the Romany people in the form of ancient folk legends and myths. The Rom have a centuries old belief in a creature known in the West as a revenant. This reanimated corpse survives off the blood of the living. It’s a mindless, savage near-animal that was once a living being. Stories of the vampyr can be found in any collection of Romany or Eastern European folk tales. The film Nosferatu is a modern adaptation of this monster vampire.

As colonization reached a fever-pitch in Europe during the 1800s, a fascination with native cultures developed. The tales of these ‘primitive’ people blended with the gothic movement in Western literature that developed as a subset of the Romantic Period. The folk tales of Eastern Europe became a backdrop for writers to explore the decadence of the aristocracy. John Polidori’s The Vampyre is a classic example. Using the vampire myth, his work serves as a warning to unsuspecting young ladies whoe might be seduced by the wiles and charms of mysterious counts or lords. As the 1800s wore on, the allure of the East turned to mistrust and fear. Like Polidori, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is of noble descent, but he has characteristics of the more monstrous revenant of the old folk legends. The vampire brings an infection from the dark East to pollute the blood of the West and serves as a metaphor for the dangers of mingling with ‘outsiders.’

Modern writers have continued in this gothic tradition with the vampire as the dark outcast from society. Novels such as Verland: The Transformation posit the vampire as the eternal outsider. He/ she is alluring and the darkness is seductive, but the vampire and humans realize the two must remain separate. Ann Rice explored this idea in her first novel Interview with a Vampire, but moved in different directions in her later work.

Works such as Lestat, Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite, and Twilight position the vampire as rock star, bad boy, and/ or boyfriend and have added new elements to the creature’s characteristics. They now sparkle, breed, and sell millions of records!!

Film and television has given us the bad boys of True Blood and synthetic blood in Vampire Diaries. We have the struggle for redemption by helping humanity in Moonlight and Forever Knight. 30 Days of Night returns to the revenant concept as does King’s ‘Salem’s Lot.

So who or what is this elusive, mysterious, alluring killer?

Seems that this is the ongoing question here at VR and none have been able to come to any kind of conclusion.

most alluring killer? the food. LOOOL

well the alluring killer can take many forms and whoever may be or whatever it is can devastate our existence into nothing. there is lust, sexual killers are anywhere today. or maybe we are allured by someone, one night stand and there it is. we thought of it just one in a lifetime adventure but that person, becomes, possessive person, stalker, it can also kills. Psycho. there are many forms of it. can be greediness. when we are greedy for money or power and instead of gaining it or we end up with ZERO in our hands, and in prison or in misery or worst, feeling guilty for those people around us ended up dead cause of our selfishness, or we are the one that are on mortuary, food and drink, drugs, and too much of higher ecstasy that we want to feel to be secure, or accepted. Love, and too much vanity. I don't know. as i said all these things and can be people can be alluring killer. my Alluring killer is a perfect exciting stranger.

There is likely no answer to this one!! Just something that needs pondered now and again for intellectual stimulation...

Well for me what makes sense is I see a Vampire as it was first described in myth, not as hollywood has perverted it.

Though Holywoods version is more appeasing to the eye

Babylonia - Ekimmu, Lilitu, Utukku

Here is one of many links.

enchanteddoorway.tripod.com/vamp/babylonia.html

well now ecovampira just because the debate is ongoing does not make it pointless, the debate on "is there an afterlife" is probably one of the most asked questions in all of human history yet just because no one definite answer has ever been reached does not stop us from asking. it is because they are difficult questions that we feel compelled to answer differently for each of us. everyone has their own opinion, some believe that there are no vampires whilst others claim that while they do not claim to be the same as the movie monsters that vampires do infact exist and so we continue the quest for the answer that may never come to us but that by no means makes that asking of the question itself pointless.

Your list is about Vampire, and Vampire to survive need Blood. Many of them, get their blood supply through a Blood Bank or a donor. But, there are those who prefer to hunt for their survival. Those are the alluring killer. Humans tend to forget about the unknown, until the unknown knock at their door, and then, is too late to reac, even, to pray before their neck is pierce and blood start coming out.

When you look in the mirror you will find the answer to your query. Each of us has the potential of becoming this killer we all speak of, yet we are in denial of this nature. Nonetheless, as stories of old divulge, the killing continues regardless of our beliefs of this nature.

See this web site: http://crime.about.com/od/serial/ig/serialkillerphotos/chase_r.htm

There are differences in all of these things but some don't draw a difference. Most don't call some of the things listed as vampires. At least they weren't at the time. They were thought of as demons in many cases or gods or goddesses that were cast aside by a new rising religious movement. The blood got into some of it because of the burial procedures but in other places outside of Victorian era writings and superstitious peasant groups it is often lifeforce energy or listed as the soul. One should not stereotype the vampire as being a blood drinker. This is what has happened over the years and has influenced many people and their thinking. Most of those in myth are neither alluring or anything close to romantic.

A new breed maybe or just on that has not been touch by 100's year civilazation.

My father told me something once when I was young,and it has proven itself over and over throughout the years.

He told me that there are few things on this planet that one should be more wary of,and that is another human being.

I understood his point and later,learned that he was so very right.

Oceanne my father also told me that no matter how much information someone tells you, it is only that persons truth and no one else’s...then he said something about me being gullible and naïve lol, which would change as I too grew and matured..*coughs*

Right Theban? lol

Seriously though,I dont know of another creature,other than a Wolverine who can as maliscious as humans .
We can be elusive,mysterious and very much allusive killers.

Oceanne, yes you do. Many choose not to do so, we seek balance.

We live among you instead. hoping you do not tip the scales, for then, it is OUR turn. Hugz.

That is a pretty elusive mysterious post Fallen.~smiles~

Care to clarify that a bit?

I doubt we'll ever know. Like the creation of the planets, or the ways of "Jesus", no one will ever know. Only speculations can be made, and even at that, most don't have any evidence behind them.

Why do vampires drink blood…It’s all about the iron cage…why do vampires need more heme/iron than other people…the explanation is simple:

True vampires are Hu.mans who are being walked into/possessed/sharing a corporeal body with a demon/spirit/dimensional energy/energy alien who has a faster molecular spin than the spirit/soul that would normally animate a corporeal 3d body. I have seen this done with and without the consent of the human.

The more quickly the sub atomic molecules bounce off of each other the ‘hotter’ the energy. Everyone knows that you need oxygen to light a fire and without any oxygen you cannot get anything to even spark.

Now add to that the fact that it is the heme which transports oxygen in the blood and provides the energy necessary for the body to function properly nd for someone to feel good and have energy … therefore if there is an insufficient amount of oxygen the individual becomes anemic.

Now consider how much extra iron an individual would need to maintain both energies in a corporeal body designed to house only one soul with a minimal requirement for iron …


Iron, usually originates in the food supply as "heme," a cage of iron that transports oxygen in blood and comes mainly from meats.

EAsSofia - whilst I am not qualified to say you are either right or wrong, your explanation was an interesting one. So many people make claims about being vampires, yet cannot support their claims with anything that makes a kind of sense, and your explanation did :)

I absolutely agree with you on that Sulks.Thank you Sofia,your explaination IS really interesting and gives everyone something new to think about and look into even if some might not agree.

Another version is a Brian Lumley version. Another deminsion Where the Wampyri, reign supreme. The Wampyri came to be infected by a Vampire Leech from the swamps that soround the land on Starside. They all fight for supramacy. Each know their standing. Ruthless killers. They feed off of humans, and take them as slaves. Thralls, to do their bidding. Also, their was a wolf that got infected by a Vampire Leech, He then bit his owner who was human and he became the first Werewolf. There's so many versions of the Vampire. One story at a time, but What is Time to a Vampire. Endless....

Why must people keep changing the definition of what a Vampire is? Can't they just leave it alone and give new things new names? I mean, psi vamp? What is that? Either it's blood or it isn't a vampire.

Within some superstition it is blood but not all vampires are alike. Fiction and superstition has influenced the viewpoints of most. The vampire digests the blood supposedly. We never hear of excretement of it so in some miraculous way it reenters where the blood used to flow, that has either been drained from them or it is putrefied because blood dies as well. In some superstitions iron kills vampires. If something is dead, how would it digest or make anything capable of doing so? Why don't they just bathe in it and absorb it through the pores? Most of the traditions are stories told by Gypsies.

You don't get explanations because they vary by culture and belief system. It is scientifically at this time without an answer. Allopathic medicine does not validate the idea of vampires. I personally don't believe in demons but that answer resembles some brought up by Winged Wolf which have not been accepted by many.

There is nothing wrong with the term psi vamp if some wish to use it. The stories about vampires vary with some supposedly drinking blood, some projecting themselves from the grave and not actually rising and walking around in any real physical body. Some collected energy (lifeforce) and others the soul. No one knows quite frankly but we do know the superstitions concerning the dying process and sometimes women having miscarriages or hemorrages. A vampire was usually suspect by superstition or else.

A revenant is not much more than a zombie that craves something whether it be blood, lifeforce or the soul. It has no personality and most assuredly is not alluring. It is only in works of fiction you find them being that way or in cases where someone is trying to discredit someone else and get them killed or executed. Others are fairies of various types and then others are called demons. All of which is based in superstition. Even the idea of fangs is modern for the most part and incorporated when werewolf legends got into the mix of the vampire. One belief is that if you kill a werewolf it can become a powerful vampire.

People use names for things so they can have something for description but the psychic leech has been known for a long time. Vampire was substituted because it is the same thing and people feel better with that term. People are too preoccupied with the idea of blood in the same way that people used to be preoccupied with the Earth being flat.

Belief that you are this elusive, mysterious, alluring killer is all that you need to carry out the acts that define you as such. The act defines the nature of your actions.