Vampires

[edit] Vampires

Vampires are considered mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to what can only be called mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures. Early folkloric belief in vampires has been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.

Sanguine Vampires are those who need to drink blood in order to live normal healthy lives. Often characterized by everyday society to be extremely pale individuals with black hair, and elongated upper canine teeth, and of the Gothic culture. Some Vampires actually will adopt this image, in order to hide in the open, so to speak. Fooling people into believing they're just your everyday Vampire wanna-be, or goth. While others will carry on with what seems to be normal clothing styles and family lives. Remember we can be lawyers, doctors, nurses, veternarians, etc. and often are.

- Most sanguinarian vampires start out practicing autovampirism. It is most commonly believed that this practice is not helpful to a vampire.

- Clinical Vampirism or Renfield's Syndrome, is a mental disorder where the person has an obsession to drink blood. The craving for blood comes from the idea that it contains mythical or magical powers. The blood is often worshipped and/or consumed.

Psychic vampirism is defined by the "Need" to obtain pranic other energies in order sustain or replace lost energies. Vampires either lacks the capacity to create or store their own energy or does not create enough of the energy needed to function properly.

- Psychic Vampires/Pranic Vampires: These are mentioned above.
- Tantric Vampires/Eros Vampires/Sexual Vampires: Feed from Sexual energies released/produced during sexual encounters.
- Empathic Vampires: Feeds from the emotions of others. Sometimes gets combined with the Psychic/Pranic group.
- Elemental Vampires: Feed from the energies produced by the elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Electricty, and Plant life.