Vampire

Evil Slavic and Eastern European mythic creature believed to be dead, yet animated and capable of making others into vampires.

  - The Encyclopedia of World Mythology ed. Arthur Cotterell

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What is a Vampire? by [Lexi. Short and Sweet!]
ECM Vampire Text First place winner

Note: The ECM Vampire Contest Sessions have been created to try to improve and extend the information here.

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     Vampires are well known throughout our world and the fantasy and horror genres as evil bloodsuckers, murderers and seductive undead humans, changed into this unliving form.

     A vampire is created after a person is bitten by a vampire and their blood is drained. Other myths surrounding the changing from human to vampire include such details as drinking the blood of a vampire, or being born to a vampiric mother. In the fantasy genre, a vampire can be a member of any race. There are vampire humans, elves, gnomes - you name it.


What is Vampirism?

     Vampires are usually pale in appearance, as they cannot survive in sunlight (when they are exposed to sunlight, they will catch flame until they die or reach shadows within a short time). Vampires have fangs for their incisors, which give them their blood-sucking ability. The sucking of blood is a vampire's way of feeding, and usually has some restoring ability on them as well. Vampires always hunger for blood, but do not have to drink it. They can choose to suppress this hunger, or to drink blood from mice, cattle, or pets. Suppressing it for long periods of time requires a great deal of willpower however. Some vampires have been noted as having the ability to change into a bat or other similar creature of the night, and some can even take on a fog-like form.


Vampires - Fiction or Reality?
Vlad Tepes vs Dracula, the truth about a myth


Vampire Stories and Writings:
Way of the Vampire (Revised) by [Lizisthebest]
Curse of Life by [Lexi. Short and Sweet!]

     Vampires have been said to have hypnotic abilities, which they mostly use to seduce victims - often of the gender they prefer. A vampire is difficult to kill or destroy in most stories, and are thought to be slain by piercing its heart (often with a wooden stake), or ripping out the heart. Garlic and crucifixes are sometimes said to have an averse effect on vampires. Holy water is thought to best affect vampires, as they are undead and considered a blight against the living.


Vampires in Movies


Vampire Related Creatures

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  Vampire Artwork and Media:

Vampiress by [Jewl]. Acrylics on Canvas. Second place in the ECM Vampire Art contest.

Vampire Kisses by [Zardra] Third place in the ECM Vampire Art contest.

[Rasperel] - Second place in ECM Vampire Photo contest. See more Vampire photos.

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Back to the Creature_List / The Creature List
See also:
Vampire photo story
Vampire Poetry
For winning vampire poems, see: Vampire Artwork and Media
Vampire_Desc as Vampire Fantasy Race
Undead Races and Undead Clan