Stakes, Fire, and Sun, Oh My! (aka: How to kill a vampire?)

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by ciavyn, Aug 25, 2008.

  1. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Decapitation is underutilized. But I refuse to use cliche to describe the other methods. Words and phrases are cliche, not plot elements.

    The word cliche is a cliche.
     
  2. CDRW

    CDRW Contributor Contributor

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    Three cheers for truth!
     
  3. Kratos

    Kratos New Member

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    How about shutting their body completely down, through freezing or something like that?
     
  4. ciavyn

    ciavyn New Member

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    Actually, that is one of the options, but to really kill them, I think I've decided to go with vampire bone. I liked the earlier idea of the body deteriorating from the inside out, and that fits in with another story concerning my vampire superheroes.

    However, a good chop to the head will put them out of commission indefinitely if the body and head are not rejoined.

    Great ideas, though, and gave me lots to think about!!
     
  5. Scattercat

    Scattercat Active Member

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    Well, traditionally one of the protections against vampires was spilling some type of seed on the ground. Mustard seeds were popular, being so tiny. Anyway, the vampire would be compelled to pick up and count every single seed before passing on, and doing so would take him all night, thus preventing him from breaking in and eating someone.

    A friend of mine (and I am sad that I cannot claim this idea as my own) once did up a roleplaying game scenario which centered around the secret MIB-style activities of the Library of Congress, which was largely staffed by vampires who had been lured in and then, compelled by their obsessive-compulsive natures, had to remain until they had sorted and cataloged every book in the building. (Periodically, certain sections would be carefully dis-organized, so as to prevent the vampires from ever escaping and wreaking havoc.)

    Anyway, if you're going with "super" humans, you might consider taking a page from Orson Scott Card and giving them some abnormal mental traits to go with their enhancements. OCD is what sprang to mind, what with the vampire symbolism, but several options present themselves, and it'd be a good way to provide a "weakness" which didn't impair their physical prowess, and was only useful if you had some very specialized knowledge. (More so, if each metahuman has his/her own mental quirk...)
     
  6. onionmon

    onionmon New Member

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    For a comedy, kill the vamp with the best cliche or comeback. Like Curse of Monkey Isle where Guybrush Threepwood fights LeChuck with a "sword fight" where all insults must rhyme ----

    "You're as repulsive as a monkey in a negligee."
    "I look that much like your financee?"

    Shpow.

    Another interesting way to "kill" or more like delay a vamp would be to tell him that killing me would not allow the vamp to do something or learn something. Attack the vamp psychologically until at the end he collapses under mental stresses.
     
  7. Islander

    Islander Contributor Contributor

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    Make the vampire-like beings addicted to crack.
     
  8. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Plumber's crack?

    Ew.
     
  9. guiltyvictim

    guiltyvictim New Member

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    My first question would be - why do you want to find a way to kill your Superhero?

    The purpose of "weakness" for ALL protagonists in ALL stories, is to give their journeys dramatic tension. Without weaknesses, a character does not have an obstacle, and without obstacles there's no journey, without journey there is no drama.

    From that starting point, you need to understand that weaknesses doesn't have to be unique. Cryptanite type vunerabilities in Superheroes are necessary because the characters are supernatural in nature - they'd be gods without any weakness.

    Look at Spiderman as a superhero - he doesn't have a particular physical "vunerability", he's simply not invincible but supped up. His real problems, like a lot of heroes in stories, are from his love ones.

    Villians don't always tackle superheroes by their physical weaknesses - not every "obstacle" Superman comes across involve cryptonite - two natural disasters at the same time will put Superman into a tie spot - who does he choose to save?

    If you want a really reason great example of how to bring down a hero you cannot hurt - watch The Dark Knight and see the battle between Joker and Batman. It really explores an entirely different kind of battle between a villian and a hero from a not strictly physical approach.
     
  10. AnonyMouse

    AnonyMouse Contributor Contributor

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    ^ I was thinking along the same lines.

    Writing an invincible character is very difficult to do and keep the story interesting; you're going to have to exercise your brain a lot to come up with ways to challenge him. There are vampires in my current story, but they're far from invincible. Superhuman strength and speed, (mine can even go out in daylinght, :eek:) but shoot them enough and they WILL die. My main protagonist is immortal, but dies multiple times. He knows what it's like to feel pain, what it's like to die, and basically becomes a hero because he knows he's going to be around for an eternity and doesn't want to watch the world crumble around him. Weaknesses define the character.
     
  11. ciavyn

    ciavyn New Member

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    guiltyvictim and anonymouse - thank you for your perspectives. I think that is kind of where I'm at. I've toyed around with different concepts of weapons against them, and in the end - I think there are thing worse than the threat of death physically. I will be pondering these responses over the next few days.
     
  12. Mikee

    Mikee New Member

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    He he.

    This is totally from the project I'm working on. My first ambitious novel called Pandora, about of course, vampires.

    Their weaknesses are this:

    The vampire's blood is a mutated form of human blood. It is much stronger as it needs no nutrients to retain, other than human blood cells. Within it's list of traits, it of course, runs the rest of the body. Pumping like super blood through the being's muscles, sending them into convulsions which allow the vampire to obtain super human strength, speed, agility, and dexterity. However; this blood is extremely vulnerable to UV rays. Meaning that the longer the vampire is in sunlight, the weaker the cells become, eventually killing them off one by one til the vampire dies, and dries up nearly instantly. According to Pandora lore, vampirism is a curse given by the queen of the underworld, but since it's set in modern day civilizations, they've studied it within the vampire community.

    Other ways to end the vampire's life is to stop the dispersion of blood cells throughout the body, stopping it's muscles and eventually killing it. This means stopping the heart or enough physical bleed damage to lose enough blood stop it from pumping. Stakes through the heart will of course suffice.
    The vampire's skin is also affected by the blood, creating a thick leather or even in some rare cases, concrete like shell around the blood protecting it from harm and of course leaks, making the stake through the heart routine much more difficult for the every day human to accomplish.

    However, one must realize that the heart is run by the blood, and it is not a necessity as long as the mutated blood is still being created and distributed through the head and other major muscles of the body. A vampire can be hooked to a sort of IV to stay alive until an artificial pump can be installed (or something of the sort, of course.)

    Decapitation: Vampires are smart, cunning, and stealthy predators, able to manipulate their prey into surrender using mind games, and in rare instances, dominating their will to do their own bidding. It's all done by the overpowered brain waves ran solely by the corrupted blood within their bodies. If you stop bloodflow to the brain, then just like any other species, the brain stops working. And when the brain stops working, so does the rest of the body, since it is no longer driven by nerves and thoughts.

    Many other ways, such as extreme heat from burning or boiling, or extreme cold (in most cases would have to be far below -200' due to the resistance to cold the blood has) can freeze the mutated blood, stopping the muscles and the vampire as a while.
     
  13. Shadow Reeves

    Shadow Reeves Active Member

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    how about....the vampire hoards are the spawn or the curst of some evil dude, or a dude they dug up on a palentological expedition (the mummy) or maybe just the emo kids! but they are unkillable untill they are so totally dismembered that they cant run after you, but roll around looking for their legs to put back on. all the while the evil guy is converting more people with an enchanted goldfish or something, which you have to kill or set free, or slap everyone with to convert them back. but to do so you need to get the goldfish...hense the quest

    if you want them totally invincibe (im my oppinion) they must have a single, or network of power thingies that make them so. and a bunch of people who want to destroy the network of power thingies like a diamond ring on the finger of queen, and a gumboot on a 7 year old girl in australia. the evil guy is a very clever man. so the hero people have to go around finding and lopping these objects off their hosts to render them inactive, and the vampires in that area die or de-vamparise.

    hope this gives you food for thought.
    ShadowReeves

    EDIT: dad suggested a wooden stake with an optical fibre down the middle with the other end is aimed at the sun, or some light souce thingie in their backpack
     
  14. Little Miss Edi

    Little Miss Edi New Member

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    Maybe it's just me (don't know if anyone else knows) but I thought silver bullets were for werewolves not vampires. I like the bone idea, that sounds different to what I've heard thus far. Plus it'd probably be quite hard to get hold of, which means everyone and his dog couldn't harm your vampires.

    The other thing, about the freezing, I think that's a really cool idea but I was wondering - as vampires are dead, thus not functioning as a human would, (plus they're really cold anyway) would it do a great deal to them? If they're frozen, unlike us it won't stop their heart or put them in shock or suspend their system because it's already stopped - so wouldn't they just break straight out and sink the old fangs in?

    Personally I'd be tempted to set em on fire (if you decide stakes and sunlight aren't quite right) but then again, I'd have to find something else other then flame throwers cause I'm not a huge fan of those. :D Really like the fibre otpics idea... that was cool
     
  15. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    I am trying to figure out in what way are they immortal. Are they immortal like the theos, which are Olympians, the Greek gods? Greek gods although they can live forever, can be killed. They are hard to kill though. I think they have only been killing by other Olympians or half breeds.

    Immortal has to do with your life span, and not with destructibility. Wolverine is almost indestructible, so is Superman, but we have no idea how long they can live.

    I imagine you are referring to both how long they live, and how indestructible they are.

    I guess it depends on how indestructible you want them to be. That is where your answer is.

    Can their skin be penetrated? Do they have anything inside that they need to survive, like a heart, lungs, and such? Do they need anything in order to remain alive, such as blood, food, or air? If they have any needs, then that is their weakness.

    If they need their heart in order to remain alive, and that heart can be destroyed or removed, then they can die that way. If they need to breath, you can drown them, or cut off their supply of air somehow. If they need blood, you can starve them. Can their form withstand any amount of hot or cold? Could they sit in the middle of the sun with out dying? Could they be frozen in space and survive? How much pressure can their form take? Could they survive being put in a trash compactor? If they could, what in the heck makes their form so durable? How can a biological form scientifically be strong enough to withstand so much pressure? Even the strong biological nano construction has a pressure limit.

    Nanobots

    Now there is an idea. They thought they were invisible until nano-tech was invented. Some nano-tech engineers came up with nano-weapons that can dispatch them. I don't know any scientific form that nano-bots could not destroy. if it has a form, that form is held together by EM. Nanoscopic robots could take apart the form, atom by atom. If there are enough nano-bots this could happen in seconds. To the naked eye it would appear like they vanished.
     
  16. ciavyn

    ciavyn New Member

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    Generally superheros don't have a great scientific explanation - take spiderman, superman, the hulk....any of them make no sense scientifically. It just fun to believe something like that could exist.

    Right now, I'm basing it on regeneration - that anything destroyed or removed could be regenerated. Which limits any real damage to the brain, but you would have to be strong enough and get close enough to really do damage.
     
  17. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    Ah, I thought you said in another post you didn't want to resort to magic and such. Anything made of atoms is held together by electromagnetism. With enough heat even the strongest electromagnetic bond will be broke, and the form will be lost. So unless they have some sort of magical ability to contradict this scientific observation, then they should be able to die by extreme heat.

    And of course nanobots, but perhaps nanobots do not yet exist, as they do not yet exist in our world, but soon they will, well most likely.

    I like the idea of regeneration. That is like Wolverine. Wolverine could not survive extreme heats like the sun, or a supernova. But I understand you are not going for sci-fi.
     
  18. ciavyn

    ciavyn New Member

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    Some of that is actually less sci-fi than you think. :) I like wolverine, too, and I'm working with an evolutionary biologist (I just like saying it - it makes me sound smart, eh?;)) to keep it as logical as I can. He suggested that regeneration makes the most sense of any of my ideas.

    I guess it is going to be a bit mystical using their bones to kill them - it makes no sense. But I also am doing some research into the hardest metal that was discovered recently. Again, you'd have to be strong enough to wield it and actually do damage to the vampires. If you chopped off their heads, the absence of the brain would kill them, since the brain is the store of all of our genetic material. Some good thoughts, though, Architectus. You had me thinking - a rare feat! :D
     
  19. CommonGoods

    CommonGoods New Member

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    Woohoo, killing things you can't kill! One of my favorite topics :cool:

    The first thing you need to remember is that when you write a story, you are the one who decides how things tick. Wether or not it makes sense is not based on the idea, but on how its brought to the reader.

    I won't go into the conventional methods of killing stuff, as that is pretty much a dead horse by now, instead, lets try some things I didn't hear yet;

    The blood of another creature - In Blood+, a manga serie, the proteganists blood is the only thing that can kill the evil creatures, who are in turn created out of the blood of the main villain. In return, the proteganist can only be killed by the blood of the main villain...

    One thing to rule them all... - Bit like the one above, only more general; there is one artifact/person/weapon/family/ring that can kill the villain.

    For the greater good! - Sacrifise is always popular; how about it takes life in order to kill one of your vampires. This also helps keep the suspense up; will a character willingly end his life in order to kill a vampire?

    My story will have an unkillable faction as well (the Undying) whose lifes can only be ended by people with a certain trade (more info to appear soon). But some of them become so tired withliving forever that they seek out people with this trait so they can be killed.

    Who wants to live forever?

    (PS: I hear a lot of people wanting to blast vampires with silver bullets... aren't those ment for the wherewolves?)
     
  20. Asuran

    Asuran New Member

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    If you want it to have a slightly scientific base you could make them like Wolverine: nearly impossible to kill because of their nearly instantanious regeneration. However, perhaps, to give them a weakness, have an over-sufficience of vitamin D shut off the gene temporarily. So basically, put them in the sunlight for to long and they lose regeneration abilities, making easy to kill.
     
  21. Shadow Reeves

    Shadow Reeves Active Member

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    how about somehting like blade, where he injects them with an anticoagulant then they explode. or something that makes them just mortal enough to kill them. say...i donno, the aids virus. which destroys the regenerative powers.
    you could freeze them with some liquid nitrogen then let them starve as well

    maybe if you are having this much trouble killing them then you need to tone them down a little?

    architectus:
    i was under the impression that atoms used static electric and polar bonding to stick together, not electromagnetic which are waves of energy...the electromagnetic spectrum and such.
     
  22. ciavyn

    ciavyn New Member

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    Asuran - thanks for that idea - I like it.
     
  23. Scattercat

    Scattercat Active Member

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    Just to nitpick, but the brain isn't the repository of genetic information. That's in our DNA, which is in literally every cell of our bodies.

    The brain does, however, manage the automatic systems, such as breathing, keeping the heart pumping, and to some extent healing (though as I understand it there are also a lot of localized systems that handle that as well.) That's actually an interesting thought. I'm going to have to go read a medical textbook and find out more about the healing process. How much of it is local and how much controlled by the ol' brainstem, I wonder?
     
  24. Shadow Reeves

    Shadow Reeves Active Member

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    not quite, the red blood cells have no nucleus and therefore no DNA, they do not require genetic information as there is no reason to...and it takes up space for the oxygen they transport.
    this wouldnt be an issue if the topic wasnt blood sucking vampires:p
     
  25. Scattercat

    Scattercat Active Member

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    I am reminded of Francis Galton's experiments to see if inheritable traits could be passed along through blood transfusions.
     

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