Yes, another story about the Nazis. Except with a twist. I'm thinking of writing a story set in 1943 about a vampire who serves Adolf Hitler. This vampire and his wife (who are hundreds of years old) goes around assassinating Hitler's enemies when Himmler instructs them to go after someone. A high ranking official of the Allied forces. Soviet Army= General Martov. American Army= General Patton. British Army= General Montgomery. xyz Army= General {insert name}. *pick whatever you wish. * The assassination goes awry. The soldiers of that army spots them and when its clear the vampires are allied with the Nazis, they shoot, wounding the vampire's wife. In the chaos, the two are seperated and the vampire's wife ends up in custody. Any ideas of what this vampire should do? What his wife should do? How would the army in question treat the wife? Here's the thing. They're both working for the Nazis. How am I going to make them sympathetic? Likeable? Should I have the wife defect to the Allied forces? Ideas?
First, I think you should come up with a reason why they are serving Hitler because he really did not have a sound mind for military matters. One of the reasons why the Allies won was because Hitler remained in office until the end of WWII. He made numerous bad military decisions, such as choosing not to employ long range bombers, and going ahead with his attack against the Soviet Union during their winter. Basically, why would they lower themselves to help a lowly human? Second, does Hitler know these two servants are vampires? Do the Nazis? Do the US and British armies believe in vampires or have their own paranormal divisions to deal with supernatural creatures? Will they create these branches after capturing the vampiress? Third, are these typical vampires that must drink blood every night, spontaniously combust in sunlight, and etc? Or are vampires slightly different n your universe? I think you should flesh out your vampire characters a bit more before asking your original questions.
#1- Point...taken. :/ Yeah, I'll have to reexamine their cause. Have them serve another leader. Perhaps Stalin? #2- Well, I figured that these would be the last two survivng vampires alive, after the Crusaders killed off the other vampires... #3- They're slightly different in my universe. They do not drink blood and sun does not harm them. They ARE vulnerable to normal weapons, but their durability and stamina is as such that it'll take more than one hit to kill them. Hmmmm... *goes back to drawing board*
In one of the Nazi experiments, maybe they created the vampires. The vampires, out of some sense of loyalty or gratitude, feel it neccessary to serve Hitler. The wife could have been captured due to a reckless assignment, and because the male vampire then feels hatred towards Hitler, risks himself and his very existence to save his wife and help Hitlers opponents. Even though the vampires are Nazis, they still could have feelings. If you use my suggestion above, they aren't proponents of the Nazi ideology (I doubt Hitler would be in favor of vampire society), but instead of just servants of a master they believe is engaged in a deadly conflict. Over the course of the novel, they could come to realize this is not true. It could be that when the male vampire tries to help the Allies, they reject them (due to their equally abhorrent views towards "others"). The vampire would feel lost and rejected among human society. After that however, you would have to come up with a resolution to his problems and an ending.
That is plausible. The Nazis created the vampire and his wife and perhaps in the beginning, the vampire was brainwashed to serve Hitler. During the story, he slowly breaks free and must make his own decisions. Still, how powerful should I make him? I still want him to be vulnerable enough that we could potentially worry if he's got a face-full of tank fire coming his way.
As for how powerful I would go with stronger/faster/more agile then most. Everything about them is enhanced but not to the point where they are unstoppable short of a small army. Sorta think of the strongest/fastest people in the real world and sorta go from that example. If the vampires wounds heal faster then most then have it set as a drawback. While they are healing they are not nearly as fast or strong and need of more feeding then usual. (just noticed the no blood thing) So while the vampire is powerful he isn't invincible and when dealt a serious blow, they are even weaker. It gives such scenes where he is faced with lots of enemies some worry. Then what makes them Vampires to begin with? Now as far as the sun goes thats fine. You can remove that, though perhaps make them uncomfortable on sunny days, but removing the blood seems to go a bit to far? What do the Vampires feed on to make them Vampires? Currently it just sounds like they are Super Soldiers. Enhanced soldiers that are capable of some serious bad ass stuff. Do they feed on souls/life energy instead? It sounds like you have a great idea for a story I just think that maybe you need to think out a few more things.
Motivation: How about the Vampires---like Nazism! Maybe they feel like they're the real Uber Mensch (superior man) and see the upper upper level Nazis having a philosophy much like their own. Ironically, Nazis promoted a vegetarian diet because they thought slaughtering animals was cruel, but hey, don't include that bit. Unless you want to write a pro-Nazi novel the vampires either have to die or have a change of heart once captured by the allies. The dying would be easier to write but it would be a challenge. Side Note: There's some interesting books about Nazi interest in the occult that might be good research.
I don't think you should have nazis in your book. Basically it seems you're using 'nazis' not because you are interested in the era/history, they're just a convenient set of "bad people" that everyone recognises. That's not a criticism. There's a lot of historical groups of "bad people" you could base the same story around. The problem with nazis (apart from the fact they're nazis) is for every one person who reads your book with a WW2 knowledge that extends to "sieg heil" and goose stepping, there'll be two or three with a much better knowledge than you about the events, battles, personalities, people, politics, etc etc, and who won't be able to get past the inconsistencies in the story (apart from the vampire bit). That's not to mention the people who will throw the book down at the mere hint that you might make a nazi a sympathetic character. You either make the nazis one-dimensional "baddies" (see my point earlier) or you need to do a hell of a lot of research to back up your reason for making the nazi characters 'real people'. Allegro Van Kiddo has a good point, but to do that kind of story justice you'll at least need to read Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' if you don't want your book to end up in the bargain bin.
I think I have to agree with you, nzric. I don't have that much of an interest in WWII. I just picked Nazism since they're convient bad guys. I'll have to think of some other bad guy. Maybe a bad guy from the distant past? That way, I don't have to worry about having to justify why we should feel for two characters that are allying with Hitler. @ Unit7- You are very correct. =) Well, guess it's back to the drawing board!
That's a good idea. Bad guys from the past can be cool and fun, but Hitler isn't in that zone too much. The whole of WWII is way too complex and unless you go the ultra easy route and have them as targets. If Hitler is a main character, then yow! You're have to handle that with care.
I agree. Hmmm...Which villain from history shall I choose? *cracks open a history book* Come hither, villain!
How about a crazy Roman emperor like Caligula! He was a super freaky dude, as was the previous emperor Tiberius. He used to get suckling babies and....well take a wild guess. It was also said that he could poke his finger through a person's skull and used to enjoy doing it. It could be that Caligula took out Tiberius with the help of a vampire, or he and Tiberious were both killed by ones trying to protect Rome. Let the lurid fun begin.
I think I want to do Nero. Know how he got assassinated? Maybe at the end, instead of Nero's slave killing him, it's my vampire who was disgusted by his master's actions. Since I personally think Nero was a right a-hole, I can go to town with my vampire ending Nero's life.
Sure, that's a fun twist. From what I understand there was a lot of misery in Rome at the time. Just an idea, the Vampire might want stability where he lives so that his victims are relaxed rather than desperate savages. He decides to kill Nero was a way to return stability.
