The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

There was a thread in the forums entitled: What do the book writers say. It featured a website that had listed the chief myths and characterisitics of vampires in different novels, movies, etc. comparing them all.



It was an interesting idea, and I'd love to see it expanded with other books some day. It would be a cool feature of the VR Database for example. Cancer's got enough on his plate, though.



What I decided to do in the meantime was fill out the list with answers from my novel, LILITH'S LOVE.

Myth
Vampires are inherently evil	No
Vampires are a kind of undead	Yes
Vampires are 'normal' humans, just altered	No
Vampires are a different species (subspecies) than humans	No
Vampirism can be cured	No
Identifying features
Vampire skin is unnaturally pale and cold to the touch	Yes
The pallor and coldness decreases after feeding	Yes
Vampires are hideously deformed	No
Vampires tend to have long and pointed fingernails	No
Vampires have claws/talons	No
Vampires gain monstrous aspects when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. glowing eyes or deformed features)	Yes
Vampires change appearance when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. flushed or less dead-looking)	Yes
A vampire's heart beats.	n/a
A vampire's heart only beats if the vampire wills it to	n/a
Vampires need to breathe	No
Vampires, in fact, don't breathe, unless they consciously intend to	Yes
You become a vampire by ...
... being killed by one (normally via blood loss) (with no further action necessary)	No
... drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood (without dying first)	No
... suffering fatal blood loss and drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood	Yes
... dying after being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	Yes
... dying after repeatedly being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	Yes
... participating in some sort of ritual	n/a
... committing suicide, dying unbaptized/apostate, not being buried in consecrated ground, etc	No
... being the victim of an explicit curse	Yes
... being born that way	Yes
... getting infected by some kind of 'virus'	No
The subject must be willing for the transformation to be effective.	No
The new vampire appears dead for some time (often 3 days) before rising	No
A newly made vampire will wake ravenous and will tend to attack anyone within range (unless fed as part of the process)	Yes
Killing/Hurting Vampires
A stake through the heart causes permanent death	No
A stake must be made of special wood to be effective (e.g. ash or rowan or whitethorn)	No
A stake must be made of special wood to be effective (e.g. from the true cross)	No
A stake through the heart causes paralysis only	Yes
A stake must be made of wood to be effective.	No
Sunlight causes nearly instant combustion and is nearly always fatal	No
Sunlight causes severe burns and discomfort and is fatal after extended exposure	No
Sunlight inflicts no or mild (sunburn) damage	Yes
Sunlight must be direct to be effective	Yes
Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight	n/a
Sunblock provides some protection from sunlight	Yes
Sunblock provides total protection from sunlight	Yes
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from fire	Yes
If invulnerable to normal attack, fire is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	n/a
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from silver	n/a
If invulnerable to normal attack, silver is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	n/a
Vampires suffer more than usual damage from wood	No
If invulnerable to normal attack, wood is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	No
Beheading causes permanent death	Yes
It takes special effort to make a vampire stay dead (e.g. cutting off the head, sewing the mouth shut around a clove of garlic and burying the body at a crossroads)	No
Dead vampires disperse to dust regardless of age	No
Dead vampires decompose/disintegrate as a function of age	No
Vampires become more resistant to these methods as a function of age	Presumed
Animals
Vampires can be sustained by animal blood	Yes
Vampires can be sustained indefinitely by animal blood (without suffering deleterious side effects)	Usually
Animals can become vampires	n/a
Animals can gain vampiric traits or be otherwise affected by drinking vampire blood.	n/a
Vampires have control over animals	n/a
Vampires have control only over specific animals	n/a
Vampires can summon certain animals	n/a
Animals can sense vampires and feel threatened by them	n/a
When you are bitten by a vampire (and live) ...
... they gain some power over you	n/a
... you acquire some vampiric traits	n/a
When you drink from a vampire (without being dead first) ...
... they gain some power over you	n/a
... you acquire some vampiric traits	Yes
Fangs
Vampires have fangs	Yes
Fangs are retractable	Yes
Fangs are hollow (sucking)	No
Fangs are hollow (injecting)	No
Invitations
Vampires require an invitation to enter a private dwelling (of the living)	Presumed
That invitation can be simply retracted	No
That invitation can be retracted, but requires special procedures (e.g. specific wording or a spell)	No
Crosses ...
... repel vampires	Rarely
... require the belief of the wielder to repel vampires	Yes
... are more effective in the hands of believers	Yes
... require the belief of the vampire to repel vampires	No
... if effective, burns vampiric flesh on contact	Presumed
... if effective, burns everything on contact	No
... may be replaced with other religious symbols according to the belief system of the wielder and/or vampire	Yes
... are ineffective	No
... only have a psychosomatic effect (that is, they only work if the vampire believes that they should work)	Presumed
Holy Water
... is ineffective	n/a
... if effective, burns (like acid) and can cause severe damage in quantity	n/a
... can reverse or halt effects of vampiric attack	n/a
Eucharistic wafers can be substituted for/function similarly to holy water	n/a
Mirrors
Vampires have no reflection in mirrors or water	n/a
Vampires leave no image on photographs or on film	n/a
Vampires are repulsed by mirrors	n/a
Daytime
Vampires are completely nonfunctional (e.g asleep or corpselike) during the day	Some
If at all awake, vampires are sluggish during the day	No
Vampires can function normally during the day, provided they avoid the sun	Some
Vampires can function normally during the day (without exception)	Some
Vampires can function normally during the day, but without their vampiric abilities	No
Only the oldest/most powerful vampires can function during the day	No
Supernatural Abilities
Damage resistance, high strength and fast healing	Yes
Truly supernatural strength (like throwing cars)	Yes
Superhuman perception (e.g. sight, hearing, mystical)	Yes
Hypnotic mind control	Yes
The mind control requires eye contact	Yes
Shapeshifting (often a wolf or bat)	n/a
Mist or intangible form	Yes
Ability to move through solid/airtight objects	Probably not
Superhuman speed	Yes
Flight/Levitation	Yes
Inhuman stealth (Sometimes to the point of invisibility)	Yes
Control over weather	No
Saliva has healing properties (usually used to close bite marks)	No
Miscellaneous Supernatural Restrictions
Vampires are repelled by garlic	No
Vampires no longer need 'regular' food	Yes
Vampires are not physiologically able to eat solid food.	No
Vampires can no longer eat or drink at all (other than blood)	No
Vampires can eat or drink, but get nothing out of it	Yes
Vampires can become intoxicated by directly ingesting drugs or alcohol	Yes
Vampires can become intoxicated by drugs or alcohol secondhand (e.g. by drinking from an intoxicated victim)	Yes
Vampires must sleep with a sample of their home soil	Some
Vampires cannot cross running water	Some
Vampires cannot cross a line of salt	n/a
Vampires are compelled to stop and count numerous objects (often grain) thrown into their path	No
Hierarchy/Society
Vampires are societally compelled to obey their sire/creator	Yes
Vampires are mystically compelled to obey their sire/creator	Some
Beyond the 'generic', vampires tend to have the same supernatural traits/abilities as their sire/creator	Some
Older vampires will, on occasion, weed out the population of younger vampires	n/a
Vampires are loners that cannot abide to share territory	No
Relationship with Other Supernaturals (especially Shapeshifters)
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural allies	n/a
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural enemies	n/a
Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) could care less about each other	n/a
Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is extra yummy	n/a
Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is indigestible	n/a
Vampires can be infected with lycanthropy (become werewolves, etc.)	n/a
Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires	n/a
Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires (but lose all of their were abilities)	n/a
Age and Power Level
Old vampires tend to be stronger than newer ones	Yes
Old vampires tend to be stronger but generally just because the strong ones are better at not getting killed	Yes
Vampires get stronger as they age	Yes
A vampire's strength varies according to the strength of their 'sire'	Yes
A vampire can become stronger by drinking from another vampire	Yes
Something about the person as a pre-vampire mortal has an effect on the powers/power level of the vampire	Yes
Vampires appear the age at which they became a vampire	Yes
Vampires age (physically)	n/a
Miscellaneous
When a vampire feeds, it is fatal (to the donor)	No
Being fed on is pleasurable for the human victim	Yes
Blood must be 'fresh' (from a living person, not stored or refrigerated)	No
Vampires must drink blood frequently (at least once every day)	No
Vampires feed on something other than blood (life essence, emotions, etc)	n/a
The blood of other vampires is more sustaining or more powerful than that from a mortal	Yes
A vampire is 'frozen' at the moment of conversion. That is, hair and nails can be neither shortened nor lengthened, tattoos don't stick, etc.	No
A vampire is immune to mortal diseases	No
A vampire can no longer contract mortal diseases, but can still be a carrier	Yes
Vampires are still sexually functional	Yes
Only women vampires are still sexually functional	No
Vampires can bear children	Yes
Vampires can father children	n/a
A child of a vampire and a mortal results in a 'Dhampir', with some vampiric abilities and fewer of the weaknesses	n/a
Vampires actively conceal their existence from mortal society	Yes