Every take on vampires seems to accept many of the vampire traditions, but rejects one or two others. For instance, Whedonverse vampires don't seem bothered by garlic (unless I'm misremembering), Anne Rice vampires can see their own reflections, and I hear that Twilight vampires can walk around in daylight.
How would you show vampires if it were up to you? I've heard that in older vampire traditions, the substance of silver seemed to disagree with them. They could not see their own reflections because most mirrors back then were made with silver. I rather like the idea of using that. My vampires would have visible reflections most of the time since modern mirrors don't use silver, but you could determine if someone was a vampire if you kept a small silver-backed mirror with you.
The idea that silver bothers vampires was also used in the Ray Bradbury short story "The Man Upstairs" in which a boy kills a vampire by cutting the vamp open while he is sleeping and dumping a load of silver coins into his abdomen. Yeah, I like this silver-bothers-vamps idea.
I also like the idea of vampires bursting into flame in direct sunlight. My vampires would be able to walk around outside during the day, but only if it was cloudy or they stayed in the shade.
As for Dracula's abilities to turn into a bat, a wolf, or a mist that can enter a room through a keyhole, I like those but I would probably make them rare gifts; a few vampires would be able to do one or more of those things but most would not. Perhaps a few would have other magic talents as well, such as being able to fly or see the future.
I know this is not part of the tradition, but I've toyed with the idea that in addition to exchanging blood with a vampire, you can't completely be converted into a vampire until you kill someone. Was that done in The Lost Boys? It seems like it, but again I may be misremembering. Anyway, the idea is that most vampires would, of course, be evil, (after all, they committed murder to become what they are) but a few would be good ones got converted by getting vamped as they were either fighting in a war or taking revenge upon someone who truly deserved it. The good vamps would have those deaths on their consciences, making their characters hopefully more interesting.
I imagined at one point a foursome of good vampires, one who lives off animal blood from a local butcher, one who is a former detective who tracks down murderers and lives off their blood, one who lives off monthly donations from a very generous group of nonvamp friends who know about his condition and sympathize, and one who works at a blood bank and secretly takes blood from there. I would probably have to abandon the blood bank idea since I stole it from Tales From the Crypt.
How would you show vampires if it were up to you? I've heard that in older vampire traditions, the substance of silver seemed to disagree with them. They could not see their own reflections because most mirrors back then were made with silver. I rather like the idea of using that. My vampires would have visible reflections most of the time since modern mirrors don't use silver, but you could determine if someone was a vampire if you kept a small silver-backed mirror with you.
The idea that silver bothers vampires was also used in the Ray Bradbury short story "The Man Upstairs" in which a boy kills a vampire by cutting the vamp open while he is sleeping and dumping a load of silver coins into his abdomen. Yeah, I like this silver-bothers-vamps idea.
I also like the idea of vampires bursting into flame in direct sunlight. My vampires would be able to walk around outside during the day, but only if it was cloudy or they stayed in the shade.
As for Dracula's abilities to turn into a bat, a wolf, or a mist that can enter a room through a keyhole, I like those but I would probably make them rare gifts; a few vampires would be able to do one or more of those things but most would not. Perhaps a few would have other magic talents as well, such as being able to fly or see the future.
I know this is not part of the tradition, but I've toyed with the idea that in addition to exchanging blood with a vampire, you can't completely be converted into a vampire until you kill someone. Was that done in The Lost Boys? It seems like it, but again I may be misremembering. Anyway, the idea is that most vampires would, of course, be evil, (after all, they committed murder to become what they are) but a few would be good ones got converted by getting vamped as they were either fighting in a war or taking revenge upon someone who truly deserved it. The good vamps would have those deaths on their consciences, making their characters hopefully more interesting.
I imagined at one point a foursome of good vampires, one who lives off animal blood from a local butcher, one who is a former detective who tracks down murderers and lives off their blood, one who lives off monthly donations from a very generous group of nonvamp friends who know about his condition and sympathize, and one who works at a blood bank and secretly takes blood from there. I would probably have to abandon the blood bank idea since I stole it from Tales From the Crypt.
