Vampires Aging?

[VaderSpike24]

Something that's bugged me for a while.
It was said that The Master is over 900 years old (give or take), and because of that he's "grown beyond the curse of human features" and retains his vampire visage forever.
Then we have Kakistos, a vampire "so old his hands and feet are cloven". He does not seem to be as old as The Master because he doesn't look as 'bat-like' as he does, and he may not have been able to assume a human visage (We don't know because he's in vamp face for the entire episode he was in). He may have been at a stage of age where he is stuck in vamp face, but he's not as demonic looking yet, so he must a be a hundred years or so younger than The Master.
However, The Master does not have cloven feet or hands, so was that just a continuity error on the writers, or is there some hidden aging cycle for vampires? Like:
1 Freshly sired: Looks human, hard to switch back and forth from human to vamp face.
2 -100 years (Harmony): Looks human, can switch faces when angry or hungry.
3 100-500 (Angel, Spike, etc.): Looks human, can switch faces at will.
4 500-800(?) (Kakistos): Stuck in vamp visage and gains cloves on hands and feet.
5 900+ (the Master): Stuck in vamp visage and looks more demonic; loses cloves.
What do you think?

 

[Robb Stark]

Ya, I'd always thought about that as well. I mean, they were pretty insistent over the course of S1 that The Master was THE oldest vampire on record. They don't really specify how old Kakistos (know I butchered the spelling there) is, but it's pretty tough to beat your hands and feet becoming cloven in the age department.

I don't think there's any real defined aging process for vampires. Maybe Kakistos had been through harder battles or situations than The Master (who was trapped beneath that church for something like 70 years or so), which would cause him to get beaten up faster? I don't really know.

When I think of the top, most ancient vampire though, the one who inspires that classic vamp, old-as-eternity feel, I think of The Master. I know he's the first villain we really get accustomed to and some of the ones from later seasons are deeper and all that, but I always loved The Master. He really feels like a classic bad guy.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I guess it's individual. Remember the Prince of lies from Angel season 5? The Master, Kakistos and The Prince look too different for anything else to make sense.

 

[david4wt]

I think that it depended on the vampire itself! Some turned into a devil with cloves kind of way, some turned in a bat/nosferatu way! And possibly other endless possibilities that I can't think about at the moment 🙂

 

[Valjavertjinn]

What if one grew an elephant trunk? That'd be awesome! 😀
Anyway, I always figured that they just changed with age individually. It depends on the vampire's personality and experiences and power.

 

[VisionGirl]

@VadarSpike, did you mis-type Harmony as 100 years old? And I love your user name. 🙂

 

[JCoatsworth]

I don't think you can say that a vampire gets claws at a certain age and loses them again after a few hundred years. There are probably different rules for every vampire and it depends on the external influences. One of the guys in School Hard claims he was at the crucifixion, which would make him about 2,000 years old, and he looks rather normal. But he's probably lying anyway.
In my opinion, the thing with the claws is most likely just some tale. "A vampire so old that his hands turned into claws" sounds pretty badass. Sure wouldn't wanna mess with a fella like that. I think it takes more than a few hundred years to get them claws.

@VadarSpike, did you mis-type Harmony as 100 years old? And I love your user name. 🙂

He typed "-100". That means the category includes vampires that are less than 100 years old.

 

[VaderSpike24]

Yes, I did mean 100 years or younger. Harmony is about 18 when she was sired, plus Seasons 4 and 5, up to Season 5 of Angel, would make her a 23 year-old vampire by the end of Angel.

 

[VisionGirl]

Yes, I did mean 100 years or younger. Harmony is about 18 when she was sired, plus Seasons 4 and 5, up to Season 5 of Angel, would make her a 23 year-old vampire by the end of Angel.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks!

 

[BuffyElevated]

Maybe it has something to do with their diet or something... The more human blood they drink, the more demonic they begin to look??

 

[whitewolf]

Dracula throws a wrench in the time line though, because Giles refers to him as Vlad the Impaler and according to Wikipedia he was born in 1431 so he was over 600 years old when he appears in Buffy. Then again he seems to have power beyond the normal vampires, after all stakes won't kill him so maybe he doesn't age in the same fashion as the others.

 

[eunsoma]

I've always assumed that there were different vampire demons which could inhabit humans to make them vampires. Maybe there are slight variations in species, depending on the hell dimension the demon comes from? This would explain why the Master and Kakistos look so different, despite both being so old.

Dracula throws a wrench in the time line though, because Giles refers to him as Vlad the Impaler and according to Wikipedia he was born in 1431 so he was over 600 years old when he appears in Buffy. Then again he seems to have power beyond the normal vampires, after all stakes won't kill him so maybe he doesn't age in the same fashion as the others.

I would assume that because Dracula had pretty advanced magic on his side, he would be an exception to the rule. He also couldn't be permanently killed, he didn't have to morph his face to feed and he could transform into animals or smoke. He seemed to be very vain, so I'm sure he would have been able to cast some sort of spell to make himself appear youthful forever.

 

[white avenger]

The only thing that we know about vampires in the Whedonverse that seems to be unique there is what Angel said about a vampire being what's left after someone dies and a demon moves into and reanimates the lifeless shell. Assume that "young" vampires (say, the first few centuries or so) haven't come into their full powers yet, so they would need to be able to retain their human visage in order to make hunting and feeding possible. (What sweet young thing is gonna follow a wrinkly faced, fanged monster into a dark alley for a little kissing and cuddling that becomes fatal?) Once they begin to mature, their true demonic powers allow them to draw victims into their clutches by mental power alone. At that point, the need to appear human becomes unnecessary. They can remain in game face all of the time. From that point on, the actual features of whatever demon is inhabiting a particular body begins to return to its true demonic form, which may include bat like features, cloven hooves, scales, wings, grossly bloated, obese features, or literally anything else imaginable. The fact that the vast majority of vampires never reach maturity stage is directly due to the hard, dedicated work of Slayers, hunters, and demon fighters throughout history, all around the world.