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Reflecting on the past when vampires first began making an appearance or were acknowledged to have existed, what do you feel were the biggest fears of mortal man? Putting yourself in their place, can you express in your own words what you think they may have felt, how strong the fear was, and their thoughts about this new and dangerous creature?

Do you feel these fears were well founded and/or do you feel that the occurances sourounding the vampire tales could have been explained differently, and how so?

I see two real foundations for this.

The first is the accumulation of human fear of the dark, of the beasts that live in it unseen and the pressures of immorality society, coming together to create an anthropomorphic identity, much as Death is pictured as the Grim Reaper.

The other, is that terrible men did exist and over generations, the legends of each have become rolled up into one singular archetype, often savage and brutal, but at times, displaying an aberrant sense of honour and grace.

I know that one thing would be the fact that something they had no control or knowledge of and how to destroy it, would be one of the biggest fear factors. I mean some new mysterious Creature/man/vampire is taking your women and family for whatever reason they may see fit and your totally unaware of how to handle it.

It had to ba a fear and feeling of helplessness I am sure, and they had to rely on others whom said they could kill or rid them of this menace... yet many could not.

Well, I think the biggest fear towards vampires by the mortal man would be the feeding habits of the vampire.

It's like many predator-prey relationships. They prey is naturally afraid of the predator and what it could do to it.

My opinion the existence of this sudden beast it being of the unknown like death would have scared ost of them speechless.

i think the reason why man feared such thing like vampires and such is that they did not understand what all was happening in there world. such things like thunder was thought to have been god or the gods being angered.

In all honesty i think they feared the unknown. that is the true basis for all things that we fear then and now.

As humans we tend to fear that of which we don't understand/ can't comprehend.
I think, like MBK said, it's a fear of their feeding habits.
Of course people are going to be afraid of something that can kill them fairly easily.

Very good point so far and all with merit.
how about this idear
I think the fear developed with the intervention of the nephilm and it is there DNA in us manifesting this way?

Can you imagine the sadness of a lost one, laying there motionless in a shallow grave; you drop flowers on there chest and kneel beside them looking at this strange disease that caused open sores on their neck; there once bright eyes sunken and cold, and the paleness of there once rosy skin. Then covering them and saying one last goodbye to them before returning to your home.
Then as the night falls everything changes, another has been stricken by this odd disease, and they too pass on. It is then while their grave is dug its realized your loved ones grave has been disturbed and their body is gone. Oh the terror you feel when you realize you have buried them alive. The new victim is returned to town in hopes they too will awaken from this slumber, and the search for your loved one begins.
Nightfall comes and the entire village is gathered near the victim praying and hoping. Its then that it happens, the body begins to groan and move. Sitting up and staring at everyone with its hollow cold eyes. Then suddenly lunging at one of the gathered tearing into their throat. Blood begins to pour as the victim screams for help being drug to the ground.
Can you imagine the terror, realizing this poor soul has awoken a creature intent on devouring blood, and your love, your lost love done is apparently under the same spell. Rising at night to drink the blood of those who rest, and how can it be stopped? The once loved one is stabbed and beaten but will not release its grip from the victim until they are limp and dead. Then it rushes into the darkness hissing at those who watched, frozen in fear, unable to pursue or even understand what they just witnessed.

I would probably never want to go out at night again. The fear would be in the vampires strength and ability to kill you effortlessly. Not knowing if the death would be painful or slow. Worried I would lose my loved ones.

I guess it would have to do with ther fear of not knowing how dangerous or what vampires were capable of the fear that vampires need to feed on blood is scary enough

When something out side the current explainable spectrum fits a arch type from lore, on is likely to adopt that lore as the plausibly cause of unexplainable events. "The goats are dying from sickness, It must be the Chumbra Chabra.."

People's usual reaction is to harm something that seems harmful to them. So i can see many reactions to this type of question. Either a person is going to be scared to death, or they will react by trying to harm it , or find some way to control it because they do not understand it.

the fear of being killed by a monster perhaps, innate in humans, and enhanced by the Hollywood "machine".

I think the most fear about vampires was that --- you didn't die and go to heaven but you died and lost your soul and became one .

the vampires of myth and legend were seen as earthbound creatures enslaved by their desires - their lust for blood. fear of the vampire is very much like the modern fears people have of drug addicts or homosexuals - they basically fear being "turned" by something that they find disgusting, yet at te same time aluring. it is attractive but it will change who and what you are, so they fear being drawn into it.

In those days peoples lives were dominated by religion.

I would think the fear would also include meeting up with one who God and the Devil had turned their backs on.

I think humans fear anything they can not understand or control. We fear sharks in the open water but not in a tank at sea worlds. We fear animal that aren't caged and feed. It is human nature to fear those that can cause us harm with out your ability to stop them.

I don't think it is right to fear something just cause it could kill. We all can kill doesn't mean we are going too. I am odd I don't fear death so I don't fear my death so I don't much. I only fear the death of those I love. So it depends on who is at risk if the fear is warnented.

I also feel that they had the fear of not dying yet, living on and becoming a Vampire, darkening their Souls... that to me would be their biggest fear, I mean religion and all that was so instilled into them that would be my fear if I was them.

Well, I think the biggest fear towards vampires by the mortal man would be the feeding habits of the vampire.

It's like many predator-prey relationships. They prey is naturally afraid of the predator and what it could do to it.

Many ancient warriors acted in ways to instill fear in their enemies; they took on the characteristics that would cause the greatest fear, drink blood of their enemies, dress in animal skins (Bear, Wolf, Lion, ect...), fight with ferocity of the animal skins they donned. All of these efforts were to protect their land, family, and friends from invaders.

Mankind in those times fear alot of the unknown vampyres/vampires witches and demons of sorts and ect... Its hard to jump into ones body and explain what they was or felt when in the presences of one of these creatures. The many faces of fear tells the story many suffer death of their own demise b/c the stress level was to high for them to surivie or live there the terror. Some are just to imagineable to think of. Many believed that god and the angels over would protect them and signs of the cross and that of holy water was enough to keep them safe. which is seen in many mythical fictional storys.

I think that the biggest fear is the feeding thing too. I think that if they are fed on then they would turn. Also, they might fear that they are going to take to much and leave them to die.

Hey lavisbre what is nephilm?????

I personally would worry about what their underlying plans are for me. that is, if i was not for feeding or turning, what good am i to them?

Humens fear what they can't see and what they do not believe in, A vampire would be more afraid of a human then the human of a vampire , I think it could be the way vampires look and maybe their feeding habbit
But theydont all have bad feeding habbits

by farthe greatest ear is of being turned into one of them. the movie "invasion of the body snatchers" was a subtext for fear of comunism, but it goes for anything that threatens to rob you of your self identity and become "one of them".

I would say on one hand, it is myths and stories handed down and misinformation on some people's part.Folks tend to fear what they don't understand or what they are taught.

I think Nephilim is a kind of angelic breed that , according to the bible came down to earth from the heavens and saw the women as beautiful and took them back up with them. In a sense, that sounds pretty alien to me.

vampires were unsure of human man, they didn't know what kind of threat they posed to vampire kind.

people like to spook each other and the spooky tales evolve as they are told to more advanced people. If I told you that you might wake up in your casket, after being "dead". you would laugh at me now a days, yet if i mentioned that back when enbalming was a new practice and some bodies where set into urgent graves without embalming. You would fear waking in your coffin, and possibly extend that fer to any lore that suggested that a creature could make that scenario more likely.

i believe (which this has probably been said but) i believe that back when the thought of vampirism was just starting to emerge people feared this because the very thought went against all of their beliefs, and also the thought of an immortal man being able to do so many of the things that vampires are said to do is just scary.

An early account of vampire lore involved a man of the Bohemian village of Blow (Blau) in the 14th century. As a vampire, this man visited several of his former neighbors, and those whom he visited died within 8 days. The remaining villagers finally dug up his body and drove a stake though it. The vampire laughed at their gesture and thanked them for giving him a stick to fend off dogs. He then continued terrorizing the villagers until they finally burned his body.

http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articleview.asp?Post=18

This thread hasn't seemed to draw much input and as expected while talking to a Dominar prior to posting it, most would probaly suggest, "people fear what they don't understand", would be the majority of the posts. Otherwise, after reading down through the thread, most of the posts are based on people already knowing quite a bit about vampires and the original post was aimed at when vampires first emerged and little or nothing was know about them and the fear associated with that. I don't see this thread going anywhere, therefore, I'm closing it!