The basic premise reminds me of the movie Daybreakers. It's a sort of SF thing where society is entirely vampiric and humans are kept only as a sort of cattle. Spoiler However, they're becoming extinct and without blood vampires go into a nasty revenant state if deprived of blood for too long, so there are vampire scientists working on creating an artificial substitute.
Okay, I'm gonna own up to it: Twilight was a guilty pleasure for me. One of my girlfriends got into it and got me started. We were in our 40s, Twi-Mom age but neither of us have kids. Both going through stressful times and it was just fun to read the books, see the movies, and gab about them. Anyhow, though there were obvious flaws in the writing, there were some things that I found intriguing. One was how, in the 4th and final book Breaking Dawn, as the Cullen family gears up for a showdown with the Volturi, they call in vampire friends to ally with them. The other vampires have an array of different, fascinating superpowers, no two alike. The enemy Volturi vampires likewise have some uniquely gifted members. It makes for an interesting plot for that battle - if Cullen friend A can do this thing, but Volturi vampire can do B, then counter that with another Cullen friend who can do C - and it is fun to read, at least I found it so. Therefore, I say go for it with your unique vampires - you may decide to include some humans, or not - most likely your vampires will have some connection with humanness if only as their ancestry from which they evolved in a different direction. It's kind of like science fiction aliens - probably difficult to write an all-alien, no-human science fiction story, but not impossible. Perhaps the aliens stand in for different human qualities or something. Just keep playing with your idea and your worldbuilding and see what happens.
I just realized, if you substitute eating flesh for drinking blood it's the story of a world gone almost fully vegan, where some people still like to have a hamburger now and then or a steak. Hah! Vampires and steaks.. Anyway, I don't really have a point, just thought I'd share that for contemplation, it might spark some ideas.
I read all the why or why not, and the what-ifs for the setup, but it all pointed out one question. If humans don't exist (any more?) and they feed on alternate sources, nearly at leisure, then what brought them to that point? It could be interbreeding like Neanderthals, or evolution, or any that the limits of imagination conceive. A pivotal conception (or viral mutation), perhaps creating a hierarchy that could be threatened? I liked where Ultraviolet tried to go with this even though it turned cliche. You have lots to explore! Vampires aren't dead yet, pun intended.
Someone mentioned Anita Blake - her books quickly turned into soft porn. Sex became the primary motivation for her characters, IMO. CHarlaine Harris wrote the Southern Vampire series which was the inspiration for True Blood. She also writes, or wrote, the Aurora Teagarden series of mysteries which was also turned into a tv series on Hallmark Mystery channel. Quite a change in concepts. Lol
https://www.themonstersknow.com/vampiric-mist-tactics/#more-2518 The above concept could be tweaked. What if the vampire had some strong will power and had some control over this mist?
Hmm, this thread gives me an idea for a story where a contagious virus, spread by lip-to-lip contact turns people vegan, and infects people with a periodic overwhelming desire to infect others. The vegans can be recognised by their pale, unhealthy complexions, and an aversion to sunlight. They can be held at bay by hamburgers, and can only defeating by driving a steak into their mouths (see what I did there?). Too weird?
Yeah, classic horror vampires were unholy creatures similar to demons, so stuff like holy water and sunlight made sense, as they were mostly based off of ancient legends and folklore. On the other hand, you can't make them too overpower either. One of the things that ticked me off about Twilight was how OP vampires were. They're strong, fast and have diamond hard skin on top of personalized powers. I mean come on, give us a fighting chance here.
They're a bit similar to trolls, come to think of it. I wonder if there's any connection there, if you go far enough back in the folklore. I'm sure mice say the same thing about cats. Anyway, "overpowered" is a relative term. It only matters when it prevents the protagonists from struggling with their conflicts, because they are too powerful to be challenged. My default attitude tends to be that if the protagonists seem overpowered, one should consider if perhaps the antagonists are underpowered. But anyway, it's a matter of context. In the case of Twilight, "humans having a fighting chance" wasn't really the point: The vampires were basically sorta angsty superheroes, and they were only ever supposed to fight other vampires or the werewolves, who were in fact able to threaten them. Regular humans were never meant to be the heroes. So, you know, it makes sense Bella was so into the idea of becoming a vampire. There really weren't any huge downsides. I think there is even a scene where she clarifies that she doesn't just want to do it for Edward's sake: She wanted to be a vampire because vampire are totally awesome. And while on the subject, though I did find Twilight to be thoroughly flawed, I actually think Meyer's take on vampires was pretty creative. It had this basic concept - that their biology was frozen or crystallized - which explained a lot of their features: Lacking vital signs, being cold to the touch and difficult to injure, and the sparkling thing which, while a bit silly, did serve as a reasonable alternative explanation to why they avoided sunlight. I thought it was a nice touch that (in the movies at least) they cracked rather than wound normally. It's surprisingly well thought out. Again, I didn't like Twilight, exactly. But credit where credit is due: Meyer's vampires were, if nothing else, pretty original.
I don't think so. If you think of it as being "original" rather than "peculiar" you may find the confidence to keep building on what you've already created and written. Creativity is often taking an existing idea and adapting it to the needs of the story you want to tell (though trying to avoid out-right plagiarism obviously). By making vampires essentially a self-sustaining civilisation without the necessity of human hosts on which to "feed", it may take the idea of vampires in a new direction and create more potential for story-telling and developing them as characters. It's not something I would have thought of, not being in to vampires, but I might still want to sit in the back of the class and watch the lectures to see what the universe is like, as long as I don't get a nosebleed and invite the other students rapt attention and hungry stares.
I agree, why make the cast vampires if their natural inclinations are not part of their culture? As a fan of vampires, I appreciate their immortality and other characteristics but enjoy a story that challenges their survival. Romance is a concept that would interest me but only in a limited plot driven capacity that challenges them in some way. They are immortal or long lived, but their person of attraction is not. Play ON their limitations, don’t dilute them.
Check out Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International" series. I think you'll enjoy it. The vamps are pretty powerful but the humans are pretty smart....and well armed so it's a pretty balanced battle for the most part. I like one of the scenes in the books where the character is talking about driving around with a LAW (light anti tank weapon) in his trunk and getting shit from the cops for it - "You drive around with a LAW in your trunk?!" "No, I drive around with THREE LAWs in my trunk. Seriously, do you realize how powerful this thing is???" Don't know if he was referring to a vampire in that specific situation but he definitely wanted superior firepower on his side.
speaking as a moderator you heard wrong - he is absolutely allowed to post his plot idea for feedback What you were told was not to post work for feedback on somebody else's workshop thread.
There are a lot of comments in this thread, I have read some of them but not all. Mostly I just wanted to answer your question with another question: If the story is too weird, does that matter? Speaking of someone who is quite weird myself, I think we should celebrate weird. Too weird means we are working on defining a new standard--and that is amazing! You do you! You got this!!
