Compendium Creature Feature: Vampires

Compendium Creature Feature: Vampires

I think I was perhaps born loving, and being fascinated by vampires. My dad used to let me watch horror movies when I was far too young for them - usually when Mom was out because she really didn't want me watching them. I cut my teeth on Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Had vivid nightmares about Fright Night. I adored everything about Buffy. Especially Spike. Eleven-year-old me had a serious crush on his Billy Idol look. And the accent. (To be fair, I don't think that crush ever really went away. Forever salty about the way things ended for him in the series.)

When it comes to books, I still enjoy dissecting Dracula. I can't help but think that Stoker had a little giggle over readers who thought Dracula was the villain of that book. And my love for Anne Rice's vamps is well-documented. 

The problem, then, was taking a supernatural myth that I love and writing it in a way that I felt did the genre - and the creature - justice. All vampire fiction shares certain traits and themes, but I wanted to create something that was very much my own. The world is full of vampire stories, and it didn't need mine. It was more a case of me needing to tell these stories. And if I was going to write about vampires, I had to create my own vampire mythology. 

First Things First

I wanted there to be a reason for these characters existing. I love the vampire aesthetic, but I wanted a firmer foundation than the physical lushness of the genre. Most often, vampire stories are allegories for a Biblical kind of good and evil. Vampires are the undead; they are unnatural; they are evil. Touched by the devil. They seduce, they lure good people to wickedness, and are, by necessity, the villains of their own stories. Can a vampire be good? Can it be godly? Anne Rice takes us on a deeply detailed exploration of this question in her Vampire Chronicles. 

While I am an avid student of this approach, and have loved it dearly, I knew that I didn't want to go that route at all. It's been done quite enough, and by master wordsmiths more taleneted that I can ever hope to be. 

In my series, vampires are not the undead. They are not unnatural. They are, in fact, warmblooded, very much alive, and capable of reproducing, with one another, and sometimes with humans, as we'll see in the case of Vlad and Val's half-brother, Mircea. They do drink blood, and while human blood is a rare treat, they do not need to drain a victim in order to feast; they eat human food as well, and have to. And, most often, feed from wolf Familiars: a symbiotic relationship by design, that offers companionship, sustenance, and protection for the involved parties. 

Vampirism in SoR is, at its core, an extended metaphor for power. The question of good versus evil is examined through the ways in which those with power - physical, political, sexual, cultural - can choose to weild that power as a weapon or a tool. What would you do if you were immortal? If you were faster, stronger, and smarter than those around you? Would you go quietly about your life? (Nikita). Would you try to defend your homeland? (Vlad) Or would you use that power to get exactly what you wanted? (Rasputin, and Mehmet). 

I love that Rasputin is the first vampire the audience meets. At that point in White Wolf, we don't know anything about their powers, and Raputin fits a more classic vampire mold: wicked in a basic way; lusty, able to compel and manipulate, insatiable in all things. 

But as the series unfolds from there, we see that Rasputin was looked down upon by his own kind for these things. And the audience expectation starts to shift, and the trope as we know it begins to crumble. Rasputin eases us into the world of the paranormal by being a familiar kind of monster...but by the time we meet Romulus, the definition of vampire has been effectively altered. 

One aspect of vampire storytelling I wanted to keep, however, is the constant, sometimes subtle, sometimes in-your-face emphasis on the erotic. The erotic undertones of the giving and taking of blood are a staple in vampire fiction, and should remain one, I think. Likewise, many of the scenes between wolves and vampires are subtly, though very intentionally erotic in tone. The imagery, the word choice - rest assured, that's all very purposeful on my part. There are two scenes in Dragon Slayer in which we see wolves bound to their masters, and those are pretty overtly sexual in tone, even if not in practice. 

Particulars

The vampires in this universe are immortal. They drink blood and eat food, as stated before. The only surefire way to kill them is to remove and destroy the heart; otherwise, they can recover, eventually, from any sort of wound, if given enough time and blood. Usually, when they receive a wound that would be considered mortal for a human, they drop into a coma to recover; the only way to come out of this coma is to be awakened by a wolf, through his or her blood; a Latin incantation is usually said over the sleeping vampire, but the words are meaningless. It's the intent of the wolf, of his blood, that ensures the process is effective. 

There are two classifications of vampire: bred, and turned. Typically, bred vampires, especially those with two vampire parents, are stronger, and more likely to possess some sort of psychic ability. Some human/vampire hybrids require blood and are immortal, while others, as we'll see with Mircea Dracula, are more or less fully human. Special attributes, like Val's ability to dream-walk, can be passed down to children, or to turned humans. This is why Alexei, Nikita, and Lanny all have the ability to compel: this was passed to them through Rasputin's blood. 

In the world of this series, vampires are considered - though debatably depending on the individual - the strongest of the immortals. They have the ability to "bind" Familiars to themselves, these being wolves or mages. In the Roman tradition, a triumvirate of a vampire with both a bound wolf and mage is seen as a fairly unstoppable force. A vampire can bond more than one of each type of Familiar, and royalty often did so, an entire royal guard being composed of a pack of wolves. 

Of the vampires we've met so far, Vlad is physically the strongest, while his brother, a close second, is the most magically inclined, dream-walking in a way that most vampires can't. 

In regards to turned vampires, it's important to note that certain human traits are not "cured" by the turning. For instance, Nikita suffered anxiety and very low blood sugar as a human, and still does as a vampire. Though impossibly strong now, he'll still faint if he goes too long without eating and feeding, which he does too often, much to Sasha's annoyance. 

In DS, Jake Treadwell asks if vampires are like cats, and wolves like dogs, and in a very crude way, he's right. Vampires love their families and mates just as humans do, but they tend not to seek one another's company socially. Aloof, rather like tigers, they are prickly and territorial with one another. Males, especially, tend to be competitive. Their deepest affections they reserve for family, mates, and their wolves. Though they use and need mages, they don't normally share much of a closeness with them. 

Dragon Slayer gives us our purest, clearest look at vampirism yet. Vlad and Val are vampires who understand their own power, and their own kind, are royalty in more ways than one. And it expands the universe of the series in exciting new ways. 

Basically, it's a vampire world, and we're all just living in it.