Hello, guys! I’m planning a book series with vampires (and dhampirs) at the moment. (Don’t worry. It won’t be like Twilight. That’s my personal goal!) So, I’m looking for features of vampires. I know those typical ones like pale skin, can control elements (or animals), can fly, drinking blood, sleep in coffins, night owl, etc. But are there features, which aren’t so famous? Bye, dhampirefangs
In Dracula placing a branch of wild rose on his coffin can keep from escaping it. At least says the superstition, and superstition we must trust at the first.
Maybe do a little reading on Upir (Opir, Opur, Upyr, Upier, lots of different spellings across Eastern Europe) But skip the Hemlock Grove wiki or references of same. I liked that show, but the "upiri" they presented there are very much post-Twilight versions of vampires.
Don't forget hypnosis and thrall. Dracula hypnotized women and turned Renfield into a bug-eating, sycophantic slave. There's also shape shifting. Dracula, and this comes from much older myth, could turn into animals and mist. Here's a neat page you'll definitely want to check out on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vampire_traits_in_folklore_and_fiction#Supernatural_powers It lists attributes from world-wide folklore, classic literature and modern pop culture.
A common weakness that's mostly forgotten these days: a compulsion to count things. Seeds, holes in a colander, the old legends get a lot of mileage out this trait. Also, before the discovery of the New World and the blood drinking vampire bat, vampires tended to be more associated with other nocturnal animals. Wolves are pretty common, especially in Northern and Northeastern Europe, while owls got more focus around the Mediterranean.
Blood magic is another thing you can always include on your vampires; also vampires don't have their image on mirrors. They can't only transform into nocturnal animals (mainly bats, wolves and owls), but they also can turn into smoke I believe.
You won't find what you're looking for in modern fiction, or popular cinema for that matter, but I have a book that might lead you in the right direction. I don't have vampires in my WIP, but a few poor souls are called back from the grave and I wanted a primer on how it's been done in the past. The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature, by James B. Twitchell
As well as shapeshifting, invisibility is attributed to the Romain Strigoi- a major influence on the depiction of Dracula and vampires in fiction since. A number of old vampire stories depict vampires as much more witch like or even ghost like than most modern depictions. There aren't actually that many references to fangs or to super strength or speed. There are other ways to become a vampire in old legends other than by another vampire turning you, often these focus on the idea of being cursed for not following some folklore superstition or religious values.
Maybe this is slightly off-topic but in terms of killing vampires (if this is something that might ever happen in your project, I don't know how attached to them you are!) staking them through the heart might be a little short of doing the job right. I'm sure there's literary examples of this as well, but in terms of real-world "ah shit we're being attacked by vampires" stories, there was a case in England waaaaaay back (I'm thinking twelfth/thirteenth century but that could be way off) where a town was terrorised by two vampires. When the bones of these two geezers were dug up centuries later it was discovered that not only had they been staked through the heart (inside their coffins), their heads had been cut off and put between their knees. I think it's something like the stake kills them, but to stop them coming back you pop off the head as well. Not sure how useful this will be but have fun with it whatever you think! Piper
I couldn't find a clip that didn't go on for two and a half minutes longer than I needed it to, but my favorite lines in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) are Van Helsing's almost nonchalant exchange with Mina: "How did Lucy die? Was she in great pain?" "Yeah, she was in great pain! Then we cut off her head, and drove a stake through her heart, and burned it, and then she found peace."
Ok. You told about different kinds of vampires. I know Moroi and Strigoi from Vampire Academy. But there must be more than two kinds...
This isn't so esoteric as you may be looking for, but in addition to crucifixes and sunlight and stakes to the heart, vampires' weaknesses include roasted soy beans and flowing water.
... So I was just looking to see if the Underworld movies were the only established stories that let vampires see people's memories by drinking their blood (something I've worked into my own WIP), and it turns out there's an entire Wikipedia page "List of vampire traits in folklore and fiction"
I always wondered. Vampires are supposed to basically be "superman" types - abnormal strength, speed, senses etc and yet the weak human is going to walk right up to him or her and pound a stake into his/her chest? Exactly how was that supposed to work? Like, wouldn't the vampire have indestructible skin? A wooden stake wielded by a human? How?? I find role playing game source books good for ideas. Look at: Pathfinder: undead Player's Handbook published by Paizo or "dirty secrets of the Black Hand" a source book for VAMPIRE: the Masquerade published by White Wolf Game studio for example.
Originally, no. That's more of a Twilight era add-on. Even Anne Rice's vampires, sexy and OP as they were still had weaknesses.
It's old and cheesy, but vampires that turn into bats are always fun. I think there are certain regions where their vampire lore also involves them turning into black dogs or birds as well.
