Design Your Own Vampire

[white avenger]

I'm currently reading a book called "Seal Team 13," which is about a special unit of U S Navy Seals designated to handle threats from "beyond the veil," meaning vampires, zombies, and assorted other supernatural menaces, and one of the things that they say about a group of vampires/zombies (they haven't decided which they are yet) is that, due to generating no body heat, they would slow down and eventually become totally inactive in extreme cold weather. That got me to thinking about all of the different versions of vampires that we have seen in movies and TV or read about in books, none of whom seem to have the same weaknesses. Some can be killed by silver bullets (Blade) some can only be killed by beheading (Supernatural) some have to be immobilized by a silver stake and then incinerated (Moonlight). Some are completely destroyed almost immediately by sunlight, and others can stand brief exposure with no ill effects. Some can live on animal blood, some have to have human blood.

And, of course, we all know the various weaknesses of vampires in the Buffyverse.

So, here's the question. You're starting your own series of movies or books about vampire hunters, and you have to create your own unique version of a vampire (no cheating and saying, "Just like on Buffy," or "Just like in Blade." This has to be your own creation with its own set of powers and weaknesses. You can use elements from any of the previously mentioned characteristics, or something totally different, but you can't have yours be exactly like any of them.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Very, very interesting thread.

If I made a vampire movie, which I have thought a lot about, what would the vampires be like?
They'd be violent monsters, evil creatures, plain and simple. They would have fangs, but wouldn't change their face, like in Buffy. They wouldn't have a reflection and when exposed to direct sunlight, they'd go up in flames. No sparkling or stuff like that. They'd be gone in seconds.
Other weaknesses would be holy water (I'm an atheist, but who cares, it's a cool idea) and wood through the heart.
They would only drink human blood and - although this is not really the vampires, but the style in which I would make the movie - there would be lots of blood squirting out of their victims' throats and stuff. 🙄 I'd make the movie really dark and violent. I'd also leave out all these vampire-in-love-with-a-human plot lines.

I guess that's basically it. In case I have any more ideas, I'll post them.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

In the book I'm writing at present I have the vampires as good guys. They were only seen as the bad guys when controlled by the son of the devil.
Even when they were the bad guys they were never affected by any items of importance to the church. And they were never evil, as such, they didn't enjoy killing they just did it because they wanted to.
That stuff about the sunlight, holy water and the cross only came about because the book Dracula was written during a time when the church was important.

In the series Moonlight it didn't have to be a silver stake, wood would do.
I don't get how a vampire would slow down in the cold, they are predominantly cold creatures; cold to the touch. They don't generate body heat so wouldn't they always be cold. Also if they slow down in the colder climates it should follow that they get faster in hotter climates. And if that line of thinking follows as it is colder at night shouldn't they slow down at night?
If you are coming up with new things for vampires for vampires to react to you have to plan for all situations.
It's much easier to have a skin that sparkles in the sunlight.

 

[white avenger]

I don't get how a vampire would slow down in the cold, they are predominantly cold creatures; cold to the touch. They don't generate body heat so wouldn't they always be cold. Also if they slow down in the colder climates it should follow that they get faster in hotter climates. And if that line of thinking follows as it is colder at night shouldn't they slow down at night?

The bit about vampires slowing down or becoming inactive in extreme cold is from the book "Seal Team 13," and it applies to not just vampires, but zombies and any other form of "walking dead" creature. They generate no body heat, so, like reptiles, are constantly the same temperature as the surrounding atmosphere. The idea is that, like reptiles, they become inactive in extreme cold. I only mentioned it for the same reason that I mentioned silver bullets from "Blade," as differences in vampire vulnerabilities from one writer to the next. Incidentally, in "Seal Team 13," vampires aren't immortal, or, more accurately, the bodies that they inhabit aren't immortal. Once the body decomposes past the point of usefulness, the actual vampire simply transfers to another available dead body. If there are no new bodies available, then, supposedly, they go back to the hell that they came from (I think. I haven't finished the book yet)

And there was something in an episode of "Buffy," when the Initiative was tracking Spike after he escaped, where they said something about getting a reading of several warm bodies (humans) and one room temperature (vampire). Room temperature is cool to the touch because it is usually lower than your body temperature, but that doesn't really make it cold to the touch.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

About that vampires needing a new body thing, if they vampire could transfer to any body it would amp up the creep factor.
There was something similar to the initiatives body temp reading of vamps. In the series Dark Angel a similar visual reading showed the Mantacor specials as different from human.
Off Topic here.
I watched the film, 'I Am Number 4' yesterday, hearing the voice of the the leader of the baddies I recognised those same tones of the actor who was Joshua in Dark Angel.