vampire story [communal writing project]

[kopout]

I'm basically taking the concept of community world building and applying it to writing. the idea is to brainstorm ideas and maby even writ a little based on a central idea, in this case, vampires that work on the fowling principles

you have to invite them into a house
they "look like orlock" (the trope)
I'm not suer if the should need blood or human blood we should vote on it.

[Renegade Paladin]

Shouldn't this go in Arts and Crafts like all the other writing projects?

[kopout]

Ohhhh. Yeah, I can see that.

So if some one could move this I would be kinda grateful.

[Linkavitch]

Whatever you do, don't, I repeat DON'T let anyone make them sparkle. Or exist among humans without killing at least once a week.

[Narmoth]

Blood:
Due to the problem of human blood being relatively easy obtainable in our world, I would suggest a little reality alteration, where blood donors are much more scarce than in real life. Thus blood is a precious commodity, that is transported (potentially under heavy guard) from the donor straight to the surgeons table. Stealing it would then be just as immoral as gutting someone for blood on the street.

Transmition of vampirism:
I'm against the idea of people becoming vampires simply by being bitten. I'd suggest that only people completely drained could become vampires. Maybe even by getting some blood from the vampire as well.

[H. Zee]

Blood:
Due to the problem of human blood being relatively easy obtainable in our world, I would suggest a little reality alteration, where blood donors are much more scarce than in real life. Thus blood is a precious commodity, that is transported (potentially under heavy guard) from the donor straight to the surgeons table. Stealing it would then be just as immoral as gutting someone for blood on the street.


Or vampires get sustenance only from drinking the blood of other vampires. Now that's certainly making sure that Our Vampires Are Different. Under this system, the only reason vampires would turn a human into a vampire would be to subsequently drink their blood.

[bluewind95]

I dunno about the "looks like Orlock" part. I looked at the picture and all and he looked too monstrous to really be scary. I propose something a bit more on the uncanny valley side.

Perhaps vampires look like humans, except with bluish/greyish faces. Like a corpse. Perhaps their eyes are not quite so transparent but rather glazed over. And their movements would be a bit stiff. Or something like that.

And if realism doesn't matter so much, perhaps vampires don't just stop aging, but perhaps "revert" to a sort of child-like look. Not quite a child, not quite a teenager. Something in-between, hard to tell exactly which, really. The most dangerous vampires would be those that look like children.

As for the feeding on blood part and killing once a week, that does leave the problem of there being too many deaths, even if it's just a few vampires. I propose that the vampires find most of their sustenance in draining the emotions from humans, reducing them in an attack to a paralyzed, temporarily catatonic wreck. The human would barely remember what happened due to how savage the mental attack is, just that it was something indescribable and horrible. The vampires, then, would not have to kill so many people but would be dangerous enough that way. Not to mention since the victims that can still talk can't really remember what happened, vampires would be nicely safe from being known en-masse. The feeding would also have to be something that the vampire does pretty much by instinct, so that being around a vampire (but not very close) would have a person feel uneasy. You know, like walking "alone" in the night and feeling some vague sense of dread if a vampire is more or less close, but the vicious mental attack is only if the vampire actually gets within grabbing range. The blood could be required only to "grow" with no need for actually killing the human (and sure, why not, the occasional beast. It's still blood and does help to keep the killing down to acceptable levels so as not to make humans realistically go extinct.) Blood would be for the "rejuvenation" process, for when a vampire has been wounded (they cannot heal wounds on their own so well, since they're well, not alive) or when they want to "grow" as a vampire (turning into a younger-looking creature with more power). Blood also happens to be delicious to them, so it's a treat they get. Victims are not so difficult to get since the vampire would only need to get close so as to start the normal feeding process and once the human is reduced to a catatonic wreck, they can drain them happily.

To turn a human into a vampire, they would have to perform some ritual on the corpse, as well as feeding them vampire blood from a powerful vampire (weaker vampires may not be able to turn the new vampire, and the corpse would fall back into death). This would be performed by several vampires generally, unless the vampire is very old, in which case, he/she can perform the rituals on their own. The ritual would first have the body only barely reanimated, like a zombie, at which point it is fed vampire blood to complete the transformation. If the transformation fails, the body cannot be reused for this purpose. New vampires generally look much like their living body, except, well, dead. They would "rejuvenate" in the course of their vampiric life.

As for sunlight, it's not so much deadly to vampires on its own as it is an absolute and painful overload of their senses, not too unlike their own attacks on humans (except that they're not rendered catatonic). It will also burn them, albeit more or less slowly. A bright light, as from a flashlight won't have the same effect that sunlight would, but it would be painful enough for them to at least be slowed down. In the case of REALLY bright lights or perhaps fire (as in a candle, match or something) or sunlight, the burns and such can only be really healed by drinking blood. Which also might leave a corpse for turning into a vampire. It can even be used as a sort of revenge by an angry vampire that was attacked by a human.

Well, maybe all these ideas are the result of lack of sleep, but there it is. :smalltongue:

[Egiam]

On the blood donor dillema, simple. They need fresh blood.

[Collin152]

Well, I'm loathe to aid another vampire story while working on my own, but here are my thoughts:
I prefer it when vampire weaknesses are psychological; the sun doesn't burn them, but they will not, will not go out in it. To the point that beign forced into it will drive them into a mad frenzy to try and escape it, and being trapped in it might drive them mad. Crosses, Garlic, Counting, inability to enter people's homes uninvited, all due to some kind of mental compulsion, and nothing external. Their dependance on blood, likewise, could be entirely psychosomatic. Why, they might not even be undead, but at that point they're just crazy murderers.
But the point that I emphasize is that a vampiric mindset is very inhuman, and part of this should be reflected as what would be deemed madness by human standards.

[Narmoth]

On the blood donor dillema, simple. They need fresh blood.

Yeah, we all need that. Donated blood is kept fresh for all purposes of human metabolism, so I think a vampire would be able to drink the stuff people get injected in their body to transport oxygen and nutrition with

[Berserk Monk]

Give the vampires chainsaws, battle axes, and/or guitars (and not stupid grandpa's guitars either).