Brightest blessings and warmest welcomes to all who come bearing there knowledge and presence. This forum is for discussion on vampires, witch craft, Gothics, Pagans, myths, werewolves, et cetra. Feel free to post what you wish, I greet open minds with open arms. Please, try to avoid being abusive to others though, and to keep it clean.
Amalia
by Maeve (no login)
hello Amalia,
I am glad to hear from you.
A few months ago I went to Italy, in search for some answers.
I have stayed a month in Rome with an old friend.
After that I've went to sicily to visit the Necropolis of Pantalica and the Valley of the Temples.
I have been searching for answers but I came back with more new questions than questions answered.
Rome was overwhelming, so much to gaze at. so much to discover.
I am sure that my curiousity got noticed.
But still no one to provide me some answers.
There were manuscripts of people like me, desperatly searching.
But I didn't got much but eyes staring at me in the street,
silent footsteps when I walked home. threats almost.
I wasn't welcome.
I'm not feeling good lately, my questions seem to be consuming me.
I can't sleep, can't eat.
And there's nothing but silence.
Please, Forgive me for being so incredibly complaining.
I sure hope you're feeling better than back in august.
Love, Maeve
p.s. You were right, curiousity almost killed the cat.
Posted on Nov 4, 2008, 1:55 PM from IP address 84.85.133.190
Je rappele,
Je rappele le soleil immense
Mais je me rappele l'epaisse rayons aussi
Vous chassaient pour sa rayons
Devant, j'aime le soleil avec cette l'epaisse rayons
Mais maintenant, je le hais..
Le soleil ne rechauffe plus moi
Je suis desole, je suis desole ne pas
C'est le risque d'amitie
Je ne manquer pas le soleil
Je manquer toi
With all my heart,
~Amalia~
Posted on Aug 27, 2008, 9:33 PM from IP address 83.85.192.222
Could it be that I have forgotten>
Forgotten to open my heart?
But when I hear the music,
the thoughts still rapture me
my head, my heart, my soul
acking, but why?
the horrid feeling..
sweet anticapation?
Somehow buried, somewhere deep..
I still want to know it all
I still remember the paino in the pantry..
the drops of dew on the petals of the rose..
the colds nights of wisconsin..
the poetry, the writers block, the angels..
the sweet angel, Micheal shall call him here..
It is not that I have forgotten,
It is not that the thoughts stopped,
The sublte difference is, the most important difference of all..
The thoughts have stopped consuming me..
~Amalia~
Posted on Aug 25, 2008, 9:01 PM from IP address 83.85.192.222
I believe that it now is my turn to apologize, seeing as I haven't been on the forum for a few good months.
My life has been hectic lately. Yes, you can most certainly say that my world has been upside down.
I read in your last post that you have been to Italy for some time.. I trust you enjoyed it there?
Where in Italy have you been? And more importantly, have you found what you were looking for? That is, if you were searching..
I must apologize, I am in a poetic mood and it comes to my attention that my train of thoughts makes jibberish out of my writing..
So I will leave it like this for now and I look forward on hearing from you.
Love, Amalia.
Just one other thing, you asked me how I think about vampires. If I believe that they are real. I believe, no I know, that they are. Ask me of no proof, for I simply have none. But I just know.
Posted on Aug 25, 2008, 8:27 PM from IP address 83.85.192.222
I do not judge you as crazy for if i did i would also have to judge myself as such. They say i almost died of aids. One day i started bleeding out of every hole in my body and was hospitalized for a long time. They dont know why it happened. I had no immune system yet never caught anything. They dont know why. I havent been sick since. I look the same as i did ten years ago. I am nearly 40. I look 25. I am very thin but never seem to gain or lose much weight. Bright light hurts my eyes. I seem to be much faster, stronger, and healthier than is normal. I rarely have any headaches or stomach problems. I can apparently eat rotten foods with no illness. I make believe i take the medication they give me. I know how you feel. It can be very frightening. I wake up day after day wondering what is happening to me and i avoid sex. Dont want to give anyone else this. Whatever it is. All i can tell you is go to a doctor. Find out. Best of wishes to you.
Posted on Mar 17, 2008, 2:52 AM from IP address 195.189.142.233
first of all, thank you for answering my questions.
I'm sorry for the late response, I've been to Italy for a few months and didn't took my laptop with me. When I was in an Internet café I realised
that I didn't know the name of the site anymore.
Very stupid. Indeed.
You asked me if I enjoyed living in Den-Bosch. In fact I do
It's a relatively old city so there are a lot of old buildings and streets wich makes it a very
kind of.. what's the word? Cosy I guess.
I don't think mortals are less dangerous than Immortals.
I agree with you on that part.
But after reading all this stuff of people claiming to be vampires or something in that direction on this website I thought; ''well that might just be someone who I can take seriously''
After reading my message to you a couple times now. I realised it was very naive to say you we're immediately less dangerous than I expected you to be. So a ten paged explanation won't be necessary to make me see that.
I know vampirerave.com I've visited a couple times there's some very interesting information on it though in the member articles I find it very hard to understand everything because my english isn't at that sort of level yet.
I just can't seem to figure out why someone you had such a friendship with. Would dissappear just like that. there must have been a good reason. at least that seems logical to me.
for almost two years now I've become obsessed with everything called vampire or psy-vampire.
It started two years ago. when I noticed everytime I'd been with my boyfriend I was exhausted and He would seem like on top of his energy. I started looking for answers and so stumbled into the hole mess of information about psy-vampirism.
What I would like to ask you for now is; What do you think is the truth conscerning vampires? you said you have been obsessed with it for quite some time now. Do you think it's real? and if you do, why do you think so?
Again, thank you for answering my previous questions.
Please, If you have more poetry I'd like to read it.
Maeve.
Posted on Mar 15, 2008, 10:04 AM from IP address 84.85.133.190
forgive me if my words seem harsh, yet they aren't meant to be.. I only like to reflect one's problems back like a mirror.. sometimes painful but almost everytime true.. you must forgive me if my words have hurt you.. I mean no harm.. and please do correct me if I'm wrong, we are all here to learn..
Posted on Feb 19, 2008, 10:02 PM from IP address 81.68.114.240
Well this is my first time on this site. I have been up for 2 solid days now and have barely moved from my pc in my quest to finally find answers and information. Am i a vampire? Am i just a random dodgy wierdo? Possibly... For about a month and a half now i have only become tired during early morning, i cannot sleep at night even though i have tried sleeping pills, i have lost my tan to a point of looking scary and more often than not food makes me nausious but i stomach it anyway. I practically smoke myself into a coma now and still i feel restless for something else. I am not starving or fainting and i seem to not get cold or hot, so i am assuming that i am not sick. This all started a month earlier when i was awakened by the feeling of something trying to pull me out of bed and the next morning my nose was bleeding profusely. As a last resort i am researching vampirism and the possibility of it. Could i possibly be one? Am i just psycho? Any ideas? Comments or any input is welcome. Just looking for answers...
Posted on Feb 18, 2008, 4:22 AM from IP address 196.207.40.213
we are what we want to believe we are.. do not underestimate the power of the delusional mind over the body.. good luck on your search for answers.. look for them in the most unexpected yet obvious places.. listen to both your heart and ratio to find the perfect balance..
Posted on Feb 19, 2008, 9:55 PM from IP address 81.68.114.240
Help me, join my clan, and become my kin. Together, my children, we can destroy the Werewolf pests.
When you click the link, register. When it asks who created you, put TruePraetorian. Then, go to search and search for my name. When you come across me, click my clan tag, and then click send an application. I will admit you into my clan ONLY if you are my child.
We shall slaughter the beasts on Server 6, so if you are mislead by the website remember to register in world 6!!
Posted on Feb 12, 2008, 11:59 PM from IP address 69.209.147.47
being as young as I am
maybe I'm just at the point
to where people don't understand
and this is my reality..
I guess i just need like
minded people to talk to......
Posted on Feb 4, 2008, 3:20 PM from IP address 216.227.248.201
A vampire is a human infected with one of five strains of a mutagenic retrovirus named Hematic anthropophagia. Due to a psychosomatic imperative, vampires feed on the blood of uninfected humans. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and adverse reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism, Hematic anthropophagia, is not related to any known genus of virus or viroid. Due to its unique structure and protein-base, it is believed that Hematic anthropophagia is of extraterrestrial origin - brought to Earth by either a comet or meteor.
It is a very old and well evolved symbiotic retrovirus which benefits its host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
The complexity of the virus is staggering. Hematic anthropophagia in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viruses cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viruses which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. Hematic anthropophagia works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems.
Though technically a retrovirus, the degree to which it rewrites its host's genetic code puts it in a league all its own. Most viruses are highly specific in what type of tissue they target. Hematic anthropophagia, however, is capable of infecting virtually every cell in the human body.
Biology
The transition from human to vampire takes place over a period of 24 to 48 hours during which an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic and even mental transformations.
Along with the vastly increased lifespan, genetic changes also endow vampires with another profound capability, that of cellular de-differentiation. In layman's terms, their stem cells are capable of accessing the genetic blueprint to a greater extent than normal human adult stem cells so as to regress to the earlier stem cell stage, and then regrow into various types of cells needed to perfectly recreate missing tissue. As a result cuts, burns and abrasions heal spontaneously without scars, severed limbs can be reattached, etc. In fact their bodies spontaneously heal almost any injury that does not dismember or disintegrate them (i.e., a chainsaw or a consuming fire).
All vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than normal humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently than normal humans. The abnormal strength and stamina that vampire display is a result of a higher production level of the contractile proteins of muscles, actin and myosin. The fact that their muscles heal at an accelerated rate and therefore are able to operate more strenuously also adds to a vampire's physical strength. Due to the greater pain threshold, considerable strength, enhanced immune system and extraordinary regenerative capabilities, vampires are exceptionally difficult to kill. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. Because of the perfect cellular replication and no added damage to DNA, vampire cells are incapable of becoming cancerous.
The genetic transformation process also causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
The introduction of the Hematic anthropophagia virus in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and the production of certain neurotransmitters is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amygdala and the visual cortex. There is also personality changes because of the specific neurochemical changes that each strain of Hematic anthropophagia causes. The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Nightvision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum is increased, which enables high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick, which gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters involved in memory and cognition. Neurotransmitter potency is also responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell in vampires.
A bizarre side effect of Hematic anthropophagia's modifications to the brain and sensory system causes vampires to be attracted the odor of the blood from their own species, i.e. human blood. This in turn, gives them an instinctive hunger for the blood of humans. Although the root of this hunger is purely psychological, due to an increased connection between the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) and the autonomic nervous system, the psychosomatic effects of not fulfilling the blood hunger will be excruciately painful and eventually lethal. By chance, Hematic anthropophagia causes metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that vampires require far less nutrients than uninfected humans. As a result, even the minimal amount of iron, carbohydrates, fats, glucose, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins contained within human blood is actually enough to adequately meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. So a vampire can even survive solely on a diet of human blood. Because of alterations to the digestive system caused by Hematic anthropophagia, a vampire will become incapable of properly digesting solid food after a few weeks on a blood diet. The alterations to the digestive system also includes anticoagulants that happen to stop blood from curdling in the stomach, thereby preventing any emetic effects of ingesting blood.
One of the Hematic anthropophagia virus's most dramatic effects is on the biochemical makeup of a vampire. Certain new enzymes are produced that protect DNA from damage, however these enzymes possess chemical properties that are extremely unfortunate for vampires. A cumulative amount of ultraviolet radiation exposure causes a chemical reaction within the enzymes that has a deleterious effect on musculature and central nervous system. As a result, when in direct exposure to sunlight for more than a few minutes, a vampire will become progressively weaker. While a several minutes of exposure does not significantly weaken a vampire, a few hours of continuous exposure will eventually render a vampire paralyzed. Which will lead to death by asphyxiation.
Another profound effect of the Hematic anthropophagia plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to molecules and DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. The changes also effect the genes responsible for the metabolic processes involved in aging, by completely suppressing their function. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue almost indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to the cessation of aging at the point of infection.
Strains/Tribes
Vampires are divided into five distinct tribes, which are based on the five strains of Hematic anthropophagia. The specific differences in the strains are the specific pheromonal signals they cause a vampire to emit and the specific neurochemical balances they induce, which cause specific personality types for each strain. The Nosferatu Strain causes physical differences as well.
In every region, each tribe is lead by a Consul. The Consuls meet to advise the Prefect, to consult, and to present grievances. They often have their own agendas and seek to promote their own tribes.
The Sauria are outspoken, turbulent, and defiant, and in human terms, often criminal. The least civilized of the tribes, they are also the most recent to come into being. Sauria are perhaps most descriptively thought of as mobsters. Many refuse to abide by both human and vampire laws, and they are the most likely of all the tribes to be led by ambition and greed for money and power. They see what they want and take it by force. The Sauria are the seedy underbelly of vampire society. They are the Mafia of the vampire world.
The Venators are individualists who sneer at the contraints of society. They are ferocious fighters, proud, hot-headed, and street smart. They tend to drift city to city much more than the other tribes. An ancient hatred between the Venators and the Sauria keep the rivalries churning up dissent. The Venators are loyal and trustworthy. They make excellent bodyguards because of their incorruptibility -- they can't be bought. Unfortunately they have deep difficulties with authority. They have a strong tendency toward rebellion, and struggle to follow even their own leaders.
The Umbra tend to live below ground. They collect knowledge as well as secrets that can add to their power. They embody the features that humans imagine as vampire. The Umbra are the most subtle and cunning of the tribes. While other vampires retain their human countenance, Umbra are distorted by the Change. Grotesque, they are often scorned by other vampires, and certainly unable to move freely among humans. Often derisively called "Sewer Rats," they have mastered skulking and eavesdropping. They can blend into shadows. Yet, they are level-headed and practical. Since they appear the least human, and have to remove themselves from human society to protect themselves, they are the best advisers to the Prefect, being objective and dispassionate in their political judgements. They are also natural enforcers, able to remove emotions from their decision-making. The Umbra are neutral in many vampire conflicts.
The Lumen are elegant, flamboyant, creative, and most of all -- passionate. They savor their immortaility, yet are most connected to the mortal world. They use their vampiric powers to increase art and protect artistic geniuses. They are closely connected to the realms where creativity comes from -- as well as other, darker impulses. For these reasons they are subject to madness. Vincent Van Gogh, for instance, was Changed by a Lumen tribe member when he decided he couldn't live among human beings anymore. Of all vampires, they are the most likely to fall in love with humans. Lumen vampires have worked themselves into positions of influence in the world of popular culture. In the past, they have also used their creative bent and influence to promulgate a false mythology of vampires -- the same mythology we know from the Bram Stoker novel, for example -- so that actual vampires will appear normal and human when compared to the fictional.
The Argentum are the rich, powerful and elite of vampire society and they share a love of high society with the Lumen, not for its pleasures, however, but for the sheer challenge of running things. They are industrialists, leaders, aristocrats. They have a Blue-Blood bearing and are often found in positions of power, where they can shape destiny. They are educated and trained by elite human institutions, which is why the Argentum are the most human in their attitudes and behavior. In fact, they are the "Brahmin" caste of vampire society. They strive to keep control over the Vampire Nation. It is for these and other reasons that Prefects tend to be Argentum.
Umbra Strain
The strain of Hematic anthropophagia that causes transformation into Umbra has two differences to the others. It has a less effective camouflage against the immune system and is itself a more aggressive strain. This means that all through the transition period from human to vampire, the individual's body is ravaged by the war between the virus and the immune system. As a result, those who become an Umbra vampire are scarred by the ordeal their anatomy has gone through.
The Umbra have a bald head which is usually criss-crossed by a network of livid veins and there is a subtle extension of the brow ridges. They also have no eyebrows. Their ears have a pronounced point and the hands too show the signs of the Umbra with sharply pointed and discolored nails.
Pheromones
All vampires emit pheromones that are specific for each strain of Hematic anthropophagia. Because vampires have an enhanced sense of smell, they detect these pheromonal signals instantly and therefore will know a vampire's tribe instantly. The pheromones cause certain reactions within the brains of vampires. Contact with the pheromones from someone of the same strain will cause a vampire to feel an instinctive sense of comraderie with that other vampire.
Due to a biochemical quirk, the pheromones of the Venator strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Sauria tribe and the pheromones of the Sauria strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Venator tribe. The quirk causes the pheromones to simultaneously stimulate the region of the brain involved in aggression response and recognition of people, thereby making Venators and Sauria feel an inherent hostility to each other. As a result of this, an ancient enmity simmers at all times between the two tribes. Because Venators and Sauria can detect each other instantly, they will automatically dislike each other upon meeting.
The Commandment
For countless centuries, vampires prospered and pursued their own schemes and desires. They were invincible, standing above humans in their understanding and awareness of the true nature of the world. They lived openly and arrogantly among mortals, relying on their power and human superstition to preserve them. Then came the Inquisition.
With the Inquisition, vampires faced an enemy that studied both superstitious belief and scientific observation to identify vampires, the demons of the dark. With maddening thoroughness, the Inquisition devised methods to rid the world of these creatures, along with witches, warlocks, heretics, the feeble, and the politically inconvenient. As for vampires, the Inquisitors were diligent in their efforts to trace bloodlines and purge the creatures by the flame. Those vampires who survived swiftly learned secrecy and stealth. They learned to band together in loose networks. Vulnerable for the first time, the five tribes united. They called themselves the Vampire Nation, and this collective group existed first and foremost to enforce its first law, a law most sacred -- The Commandment.
This law demands that the knowledge of vampires be kept from humans. To make the law effective, vampires set about to erase evidence of their kind, instilling doubt that they had ever existed, finally leaving behind only a myth of such creatures. It was safe to hide behind the myth. Through adherence to this law, vampires were able to hide in plain sight within human society.
The Commandment ensures the continuance of vampires through secrecy, and any vampire who breaks the Commandment, who reveals the existence of vampires -- that vampire is outcast, even hunted down.
Prefect
The Prefect is the vampire who has the power to hold domain over a city, set its laws, enforce them, and maintain peace. He or she is the judge who settles disputes among vampire; he or she grants permission for another vampire to Change a human. A Prefect also influences human matters and uses this influence to guarantee that the Prefect position is not lost. But most of all, the Prefect is concerned with the Commandment and preservation of vampire law.
The Change
In human myth, the dead who succumb to the treacherous bite of a vampire rise from the grave to become yet another predatory creature of the night. On the contrary, the act of transforming a human into a vampire requires conscious effort. In order for a victim to become a vampire, their immune response would first have to be severely weakened and then they would have to be exposed to a large dose of Hematic anthropophagia through injection or consumption of the vampire's fluids (usually blood). During the Change, a vampire drains a person's blood to the point when the immune response is lethally depleted and then replaces it with a small amount of vampire blood. After being embraced, the new vampire will take on the characteristics -- psychological and physical in the case of the Umbra -- of the tribe that Changed them.
Before a human can be embraced, the vampire who wishes to "initiate" that human must get permission from the Prefect. Changing a human without permission -- which endangers the Commandment and can be very cruel to the human -- is a serious offense, the Prefect has the right to destroy both the errant vampire and the erstwhile human.
The reasons a vampire Changes someone vary. Some do so out of spite or vengeance, forcibly Changing the human, stealing the mortal innocence. Some Change out of love or desire, even lust. And others seek reprieve from their loneliness, wanting to share their long existence with a creature dark and beautiful, like themselves.
Society
There are vampires in every walk of life. Vampire pass legally as human with the help of fellow vampires working inside various agencies responsible for the creation and authentication of documents -- birth, death and marriage records, etc. However, even these ties sometimes don't suffice -- for instance, when a vampire has lived too long in a community for his lack of aging to escape notice. In these cases vampires may migrate to new cities to establish new identities. Vampires don't recognize human boundaries of state, religion, or culture. They have their tribes and that's all they have.
Although a Prefect is typically an Argentum, leaders of all the tribes covet the position, and conspire constantly to seize it. The peace between the tribes is always tenuous, and it is only through the skill and strength of the Prefect that peace is kept. This peace is all-important, because without it the Commandment is doomed.
Killing a vampire is of course forbidden, but punishment is more variable, since vampires are often ordered killed by the Prefect in order to protect the Commandment. When such sanctioned execution is ordained, it is called a "Purge", and can only be decreed by the Prefect, typically after a "Quorum" is held among the leaders of all the tribes.
History
Since the dawn of time, vampires evolved alongside humans. Wherever there were humans and hominid creatures, vampires preyed upon and fed off them. In ancient times, vampires were savage, merciless killers who hunted humans at night. Among their unspeakable atrocities was the practice of stealing babies and draining their blood.
The first strain of Hematic anthropophagia to evolve was the Umbra. Eventually the virus mutated into new strains, starting with the Venators, who were quickly followed by the Argentum, then the Lumen strain came, and finally the Sauria were the last tribe to evolve. Because they are averse to each other on a pheromonal level, the Sauria and the Venator tribe quickly became mortal enemies. The Umbra came to rule the other strains/tribes, who feared them for their power. At some point the Lumen created music.
Around the year 500 B.C., the Umbra took sides in a Vampire War for the last time. They decided to stay neutral for their own survival. Around 500 A.D. regional populations of vampires began being ruled by Prefects. This system survives to the present day; there is a Prefect in every city, and he is the leader of all local vampires.
In 996 A.D. the Umbra allowed the Argentum to live above ground and to become bankers and politicians so that they could gain power.
In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Humans captured and tortured the vampires because they were thought to be evil. Vampires were hunted down and burned alive by those who feared them and called them monsters. As a result of this persecution, the clans joined together to create the "Commandment," a set of laws punishable by death that were intended to keep vampires from being seen as anything other than human, and the Umbra were able to live peacefully out of sight of humans below ground. A central tenet of the Commandment was that vampires must follow the Laws of Man. This rule began as a practical way of preventing vampires from being imprisoned or otherwise subjected to scrutiny, but over time, it has taken on a more purely moral agenda.
Although each tribe went through various names throughout the centuries, in the early 17th century the modern names of the tribes were settled on.
Over the last few hundred years, vampires (primarily the Lumen) propagated myths about vampires, which include the notions that they sleep in coffins or dirt, are burned by sunlight, have fangs or barbed tongues, are invisible in mirrors, that they can be warded off with silver bullets, garlic strings or crosses, bats flying around, and so on. This was part of the Commandment, and it kept humans occupied looking for those signs as vampires walked among them posing as normal humans. The Lumen even hired storytellers to spread these falsehoods.
Posted on Dec 31, 2007, 8:43 AM from IP address 69.143.28.142
A vampire is a human infected with one of five strains of a mutagenic retrovirus named Hematic anthropophagia. Due to a psychosomatic imperative, vampires feed on the blood of uninfected humans. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and adverse reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism, Hematic anthropophagia, is not related to any known genus of virus or viroid. Due to its unique structure and protein-base, it is believed that Hematic anthropophagia is of extraterrestrial origin - brought to Earth by either a comet or meteor.
It is a very old and well evolved symbiotic retrovirus which benefits its host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
The complexity of the virus is staggering. Hematic anthropophagia in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viruses cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viruses which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. Hematic anthropophagia works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems.
Though technically a retrovirus, the degree to which it rewrites its host's genetic code puts it in a league all its own. Most viruses are highly specific in what type of tissue they target. Hematic anthropophagia, however, is capable of infecting virtually every cell in the human body.
Biology
The transition from human to vampire takes place over a period of 24 to 48 hours during which an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic and even mental transformations.
Along with the vastly increased lifespan, genetic changes also endow vampires with another profound capability, that of cellular de-differentiation. In layman's terms, their stem cells are capable of accessing the genetic blueprint to a greater extent than normal human adult stem cells so as to regress to the earlier stem cell stage, and then regrow into various types of cells needed to perfectly recreate missing tissue. As a result cuts, burns and abrasions heal spontaneously without scars, severed limbs can be reattached, etc. In fact their bodies spontaneously heal almost any injury that does not dismember or disintegrate them (i.e., a chainsaw or a consuming fire).
All vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than normal humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently than normal humans. The abnormal strength and stamina that vampire display is a result of a higher production level of the contractile proteins of muscles, actin and myosin. The fact that their muscles heal at an accelerated rate and therefore are able to operate more strenuously also adds to a vampire's physical strength. Due to the greater pain threshold, considerable strength, enhanced immune system and extraordinary regenerative capabilities, vampires are exceptionally difficult to kill. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. Because of the perfect cellular replication and no added damage to DNA, vampire cells are incapable of becoming cancerous.
The genetic transformation process also causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
The introduction of the Hematic anthropophagia virus in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and the production of certain neurotransmitters is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amygdala and the visual cortex. There is also personality changes because of the specific neurochemical changes that each strain of Hematic anthropophagia causes. The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Nightvision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum is increased, which enables high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick, which gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters involved in memory and cognition. Neurotransmitter potency is also responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell in vampires.
A bizarre side effect of Hematic anthropophagia's modifications to the brain and sensory system causes vampires to be attracted the odor of the blood from their own species, i.e. human blood. This in turn, gives them an instinctive hunger for the blood of humans. Although the root of this hunger is purely psychological, due to an increased connection between the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) and the autonomic nervous system, the psychosomatic effects of not fulfilling the blood hunger will be excruciately painful and eventually lethal. By happenstance, Hematic anthropophagia causes metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that vampires require far less nutrients than uninfected humans. As a result, even the minimal amount of iron, carbohydrates, fats, glucose, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins contained within human blood is actually enough to adequately meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. So a vampire can even survive solely on a diet of human blood. Because of alterations to the digestive system caused by Hematic anthropophagia, a vampire will become incapable of properly digesting solid food after a few weeks on a blood diet. The alterations to the digestive system also includes anticoagulants that coincidentally stop blood from curdling in the stomach, thereby preventing any emetic effects of ingesting blood.
One of the Hematic anthropophagia virus's most dramatic effects is on the biochemical makeup of a vampire. Certain new enzymes are produced that protect DNA from damage, however these enzymes possess chemical properties that are extremely unfortunate for vampires. A cumulative amount of ultraviolet radiation exposure causes a chemical reaction within the enzymes that has a deleterious effect on musculature and central nervous system. As a result, when in direct exposure to sunlight for more than a few minutes, a vampire will become progressively weaker. While a several minutes of exposure does not significantly weaken a vampire, a few hours of continuous exposure will eventually render a vampire paralyzed. Which will lead to death by asphyxiation.
Another profound effect of the Hematic anthropophagia plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to molecules and DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. The changes also effect the genes responsible for the metabolic processes involved in aging, by completely suppressing their function. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue almost indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to the cessation of aging at the point of infection.
Strains/Tribes
Vampires are divided into five distinct tribes, which are based on the five strains of Hematic anthropophagia. The specific differences in the strains are the specific pheromonal signals they cause a vampire to emit and the specific neurochemical balances they induce, which cause specific personality types for each strain. The Umbra Strain causes physical differences as well.
In every region, each tribe is lead by a Consul. The Consuls meet to advise the Prefect, to consult, and to present grievances. They often have their own agendas and seek to promote their own tribes.
The Serpens are outspoken, turbulent, and defiant, and in human terms, often criminal. The least civilized of the tribes, they are also the most recent to come into being. Serpens are perhaps most descriptively thought of as mobsters. Many refuse to abide by both human and vampire laws, and they are the most likely of all the tribes to be led by ambition and greed for money and power. They see what they want and take it by force. The Serpens are the seedy underbelly of vampire society. They are the Mafia of the vampire world.
The Gladius are individualists who sneer at the contraints of society. They are ferocious fighters, proud, hot-headed, and street smart. They tend to drift city to city much more than the other tribes. An ancient hatred between the Gladius and the Serpens keep the rivalries churning up dissent. The Gladius are loyal and trustworthy. They make excellent bodyguards because of their incorruptibility -- they can't be bought. Unfortunately they have deep difficulties with authority. They have a strong tendency toward rebellion, and struggle to follow even their own leaders.
The Umbra tend to live below ground. They collect knowledge as well as secrets that can add to their power. They embody the features that humans imagine as vampire. The Umbra are the most subtle and cunning of the tribes. While other vampires retain their human countenance, Umbra are distorted by the Change. Grotesque, they are often scorned by other vampires, and certainly unable to move freely among humans. Often derisively called "Sewer Rats," they have mastered skulking and eavesdropping. They can blend into shadows. Yet, they are level-headed and practical. Since they appear the least human, and have to remove themselves from human society to protect themselves, they are the best advisers to the Prefect, being objective and dispassionate in their political judgements. They are also natural enforcers, able to remove emotions from their decision-making. The Umbra are neutral in many vampire conflicts.
The Lumen are elegant, flamboyant, creative, and most of all -- passionate. They savor their immortaility, yet are most connected to the mortal world. They use their vampiric powers to increase art and protect artistic geniuses. They are closely connected to the realms where creativity comes from -- as well as other, darker impulses. For these reasons they are subject to madness. Vincent Van Gogh, for instance, was Changed by a Lumen tribe member when he decided he couldn't live among human beings anymore. Of all vampires, they are the most likely to fall in love with humans. Lumen vampires have worked themselves into positions of influence in the world of popular culture. In the past, they have also used their creative bent and influence to promulgate a false mythology of vampires -- the same mythology we know from the Bram Stoker novel, for example -- so that actual vampires will appear normal and human when compared to the fictional.
The Argentum are the rich, powerful and elite of vampire society and they share a love of high society with the Lumen, not for its pleasures, however, but for the sheer challenge of running things. They are industrialists, leaders, aristocrats. They have a Blue-Blood bearing and are often found in positions of power, where they can shape destiny. They are educated and trained by elite human institutions, which is why the Argentum are the most human in their attitudes and behavior. In fact, they are the "Brahmin" caste of vampire society. They strive to keep control over the Vampire Nation. It is for these and other reasons that Prefects tend to be Argentum.
Umbra Strain
The strain of Hematic anthropophagia that causes transformation into Umbra has two differences to the others. It has a less effective camouflage against the immune system and is itself a more aggressive strain. This means that all through the transition period from human to vampire, the individual's body is ravaged by the war between the virus and the immune system. As a result, those who become an Umbra vampire are scarred by the ordeal their anatomy has gone through.
The Umbra have a bald head which is usually criss-crossed by a network of livid veins and there is a subtle extension of the brow ridges. They also have no eyebrows. Their ears have a pronounced point and the hands too show the signs of the Umbra with sharply pointed and discolored nails.
Pheromones
All vampires emit pheromones that are specific for each strain of Hematic anthropophagia. Because vampires have an enhanced sense of smell, they detect these pheromonal signals instantly and therefore will know a vampire's tribe instantly. The pheromones cause certain reactions within the brains of vampires. Contact with the pheromones from someone of the same strain will cause a vampire to feel an instinctive sense of comraderie with that other vampire.
Due to a biochemical quirk, the pheromones of the Gladius strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Serpens tribe and the pheromones of the Serpens strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Gladius tribe. The quirk causes the pheromones to simultaneously stimulate the region of the brain involved in aggression response and recognition of people, thereby making Gladius and Serpens feel an inherent hostility to each other. As a result of this, an ancient enmity simmers at all times between the two tribes. Because Gladius and Serpens can detect each other instantly, they will automatically dislike each other upon meeting.
The Commandment
For countless centuries, vampires prospered and pursued their own schemes and desires. They were invincible, standing above humans in their understanding and awareness of the true nature of the world. They lived openly and arrogantly among mortals, relying on their power and human superstition to preserve them. Then came the Inquisition.
With the Inquisition, vampires faced an enemy that studied both superstitious belief and scientific observation to identify vampires, the demons of the dark. With maddening thoroughness, the Inquisition devised methods to rid the world of these creatures, along with witches, warlocks, heretics, the feeble, and the politically inconvenient. As for vampires, the Inquisitors were diligent in their efforts to trace bloodlines and purge the creatures by the flame. Those vampires who survived swiftly learned secrecy and stealth. They learned to band together in loose networks. Vulnerable for the first time, the five tribes united. They called themselves the Vampire Nation, and this collective group existed first and foremost to enforce its first law, a law most sacred -- The Commandment.
This law demands that the knowledge of vampires be kept from humans. To make the law effective, vampires set about to erase evidence of their kind, instilling doubt that they had ever existed, finally leaving behind only a myth of such creatures. It was safe to hide behind the myth. Through adherence to this law, vampires were able to hide in plain sight within human society.
The Commandment ensures the continuance of vampires through secrecy, and any vampire who breaks the Commandment, who reveals the existence of vampires -- that vampire is outcast, even hunted down.
Prefect
The Prefect is the vampire who has the power to hold domain over a city, set its laws, enforce them, and maintain peace. He or she is the judge who settles disputes among vampire; he or she grants permission for another vampire to Change a human. A Prefect also influences human matters and uses this influence to guarantee that the Prefect position is not lost. But most of all, the Prefect is concerned with the Commandment and preservation of vampire law.
The Change
In human myth, the dead who succumb to the treacherous bite of a vampire rise from the grave to become yet another predatory creature of the night. On the contrary, the act of transforming a human into a vampire requires conscious effort. In order for a victim to become a vampire, their immune response would first have to be severely weakened and then they would have to be exposed to a large dose of Hematic anthropophagia through injection or consumption of the vampire's fluids (usually blood). During the Change, a vampire drains a person's blood to the point when the immune response is lethally depleted and then replaces it with a small amount of vampire blood. After being embraced, the new vampire will take on the characteristics -- psychological and physical in the case of the Umbra -- of the tribe that Changed them.
Before a human can be embraced, the vampire who wishes to "initiate" that human must get permission from the Prefect. Changing a human without permission -- which endangers the Commandment and can be very cruel to the human -- is a serious offense, the Prefect has the right to destroy both the errant vampire and the erstwhile human.
The reasons a vampire Changes someone vary. Some do so out of spite or vengeance, forcibly Changing the human, stealing the mortal innocence. Some Change out of love or desire, even lust. And others seek reprieve from their loneliness, wanting to share their long existence with a creature dark and beautiful, like themselves.
Society
There are vampires in every walk of life. Vampire pass legally as human with the help of fellow vampires working inside various agencies responsible for the creation and authentication of documents -- birth, death and marriage records, etc. However, even these ties sometimes don't suffice -- for instance, when a vampire has lived too long in a community for his lack of aging to escape notice. In these cases vampires may migrate to new cities to establish new identities. Vampires don't recognize human boundaries of state, religion, or culture. They have their tribes and that's all they have.
Although a Prefect is typically an Argentum, leaders of all the tribes covet the position, and conspire constantly to seize it. The peace between the tribes is always tenuous, and it is only through the skill and strength of the Prefect that peace is kept. This peace is all-important, because without it the Commandment is doomed.
Killing a vampire is of course forbidden, but punishment is more variable, since vampires are often ordered killed by the Prefect in order to protect the Commandment. When such sanctioned execution is ordained, it is called a "Purge", and can only be decreed by the Prefect, typically after a "Quorum" is held among the leaders of all the tribes.
History
Since the dawn of time, vampires evolved alongside humans. Wherever there were humans and hominid creatures, vampires preyed upon and fed off them. In ancient times, vampires were savage, merciless killers who hunted humans at night. Among their unspeakable atrocities was the practice of stealing babies and draining their blood.
The first strain of Hematic anthropophagia to evolve was the Umbra. Eventually the virus mutated into new strains, starting with the Gladius, who were quickly followed by the Argentum, then the Lumen strain came, and finally the Serpens were the last tribe to evolve. Because they are averse to each other on a pheromonal level, the Serpens and the Gladius tribe quickly became mortal enemies. The Umbra came to rule the other strains/tribes, who feared them for their power. At some point the Lumen created music.
Around the year 500 B.C., the Umbra took sides in a Vampire War for the last time. They decided to stay neutral for their own survival. Around 500 A.D. regional populations of vampires began being ruled by Prefects. This system survives to the present day; there is a Prefect in every city, and he is the leader of all local vampires.
In 996 A.D. the Umbra allowed the Argentum to live above ground and to become bankers and politicians so that they could gain power.
In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Humans captured and tortured the vampires because they were thought to be evil. Vampires were hunted down and burned alive by those who feared them and called them monsters. As a result of this persecution, the clans joined together to create the "Commandment," a set of laws punishable by death that were intended to keep vampires from being seen as anything other than human, and the Umbra were able to live peacefully out of sight of humans below ground. A central tenet of the Commandment was that vampires must follow the Laws of Man. This rule began as a practical way of preventing vampires from being imprisoned or otherwise subjected to scrutiny, but over time, it has taken on a more purely moral agenda.
Although each tribe went through various names throughout the centuries, in the early 17th century the modern names of the tribes were settled on.
Over the last few hundred years, vampires (primarily the Lumen) propagated myths about vampires, which include the notions that they sleep in coffins or dirt, are burned by sunlight, have fangs or barbed tongues, are invisible in mirrors, that they can be warded off with silver bullets, garlic strings or crosses, bats flying around, and so on. This was part of the Commandment, and it kept humans occupied looking for those signs as vampires walked among them posing as normal humans. The Lumen even hired storytellers to spread these falsehoods.
Posted on Jan 2, 2008, 5:36 AM from IP address 69.143.28.142
I must inform that this person's information is complete B.S. there is no such virus as "Hematic anthropophagia" the only truth in that phrase is "Hematic" and its a term relating to a medication for certian blood problems. The rest s/he probably made up. Some REAL "vampiric" condition are porphyria and rabies. Porphyria is a sevre skin condition where when a patient with this disease is exposed to sunlight they are sevrely burned. A person with rabies, in the first stage, try to avoid sunlight and walk around at night. As the condition continues untreated, if the subject is exposed to sunlight or mirrors, they react with animal-like behavior and bite people. Rabies is extremely contagious so the bitten person starts to have the same symtoms.
Posted on Feb 28, 2008, 10:32 PM from IP address 76.215.108.222
Vampirism (also known as "Hematic anthropophagia") is condition brought on by a mutagenic virus called the "Human Vampiric Virus." The infected and mutated anthropophagous human are known as "vampires." Due to an altered immune system, vampires frequently practice hematophagy on uninfected humans. They mainly bite a victim's neck, extracting the blood from the carotid artery. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and lethal reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism is a very old and well evolved symbiotic virus which benefits it's host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction. Due to its unique structure and protein-base, it is believed that HVV is of extraterrestrial origin - brought to Earth by either a comet or meteor.
The Human Vampiric Virus in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viri cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viri which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. HVV works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This has two effects. Firstly, it means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems. Secondly it means that the individual stays mostly human in appearance, the new DNA only serving to enhance the existing structure rather than change it completely.
Biology
During the transition from human to vampire an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic transformations. A person who comes out of a vampiric coma fully transformed will have undergone a number of major physiological changes affecting the various systems of the body. The central nervous system is where some of the most dramatic changes take place.
One of HVV's most dramatic effects is on the immune system. The virus causes increased activity from white cells, increasing their 'kill' sensitivity. Negative effects from the restructuring of the immune system include the occasional misidentification of the host's own cells. This especially occurs when skin cells contain melanin levels beyond a host's natural level as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light. The slight modification of cell chemistry is enough for the newly hyper-active immune system to kill them. Sufficient exposure to sunlight will cause destruction of the host's skin by their own immune system. As the skin dies it will first blister then flake and blacken, and finally sloughs off, resulting in massive blood loss, blood poisoning by non-sterile contact and, rapidly, death.
An effect of the HVV plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to molecules and DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. The changes also effect the genes responsible for the metabolic processes involved in aging, by completely suppressing their function. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue almost indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to increased resistance to disease, efficient healing and the cessation of aging at the point of the vampiric coma.
The Human Vampiric Virus accelerates the immune system to the point of destroying almost all foreign proteins. This makes it impossible for a vampire to consume plants or animal flesh and derive an amount of nutrition adequate for survival. The vampire's immune system would identify the proteins as harmful invaders and destroy the majority of the proteins before they could be utilized, and little nutrition would be gained. Thus, vampires can only derive adequate nutrition from humans.
Naturally vampires are obligate cannibals, eating human flesh rather than simply drinking the blood. However an uexplained side effect of the modifications to the brain and sensory system causes vampires to be attracted the odor of the blood from their own species, i.e. human blood This gives them an instinctive hunger for the blood of humans. In addition, vampirism causes metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that human blood alone contains enough iron, carbohydrates, fats, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins to easily meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. So even though the blood hunger is more psychological than physical, a vampire can still survive solely on a diet of human blood.
A blood-diet also serves as a deliberate conservation strategy. Drinking the blood leaves an anemic victim that can recover over time and serve as a future food source, while eating the flesh basically relegates the victim to single serving status.
Alterations to the digestive system includes anticoagulants that happen to stop blood from curdling in the stomach, thereby preventing any emetic effects of ingesting blood.
Anatomy
One of the effects of the Human Vampiric Virus is to induce several traits of genetic atavism (the reemergence of ancestral traits). There is of course, the slightly elongated upper canine teeth. Although they are not as quite pronounced as popular mythology claims. And like the ancient hominids, vampire have denser muscle tissue than humans, which gives them increased strength and stamina.
Vampires can be killed in all the same ways that a human can with the exception of disease and some poisons. The misconception that vampires can not be killed by conventional means stems from their greater pain threshold, their considerable strength and the fact that their blood clots much faster and wounds knit at an accelerated rate. A bullet in the chest (missing the heart) will often kill a human just from the shock and blood loss, whereas a vampire would be able to keep going whilst the wound is sealed with a clot to prevent bleeding to death.
Vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than most humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently too. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. There has never been a reported case of a vampire having cancer.
The high fever during infection and the genetic transformation process during the vampiric coma causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
One of the atavistic effects on vampires takes place within the brain. The R-complex of a vampire's brain (the most primitive region of the human brain containing the most bestial drives) takes over the telencephalon, better known as the cerebrum. In turn, the cerebrum of a vampire governs behavior. Although all cognitive functions remain intact, all of this leaves a vampire with very aggressive and somewhat animalistic behavior.
The introduction of HVV plasmid in to the host makeup produces a number of beneficial effects in the brain.
Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and certain neurotransmitter production is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amyglada and the visual cortex (the areas around the brain stem and outer-back of the brain). The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Night vision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum increases by ten percent. This enables high speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick. This gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters responsible for memory and cognition. A similar process is responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell. They also have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans. In fact, vampires usually smell or hear a person coming long before they see one.
Transmission
Although the tiny dose of virus present in the saliva that passes during a feeding is usually insufficient to infect a healthy human, if enough blood is withdrawn to severely weaken a victim's immune system, they will be infected with the Human Vampiric Virus. If a victim's immune system is weakened by numerous feedings by a vampire, they will eventually be infected as well. Six or seven feedings within a thirty day period is usually enough. If the victim's blood loss is not severe enough to discernably compromise the immune response (which is usually the case), the virus is easily dealt with by the immune system and eradicated.
Within hours of being bitten to the point of being infected, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours.
Within 24 hours of being bitten, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampires sleep in coffins. Only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset.
A bite victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation.
Posted on Dec 21, 2007, 11:22 PM from IP address 69.143.28.142
The Dark Gods of the Earth Will Come, Our Enemies Shall Perish in Rivers of Blood
by
(no login)
Many HERE have been seeking, you will no longer. You have found what you are looking for, the desire in your darkest dreams, the undead lord who stalks the night, the stealer of souls and prowler of darkness, the lord of all Vampyre........................................................
Prince Meroveus.
My ancient kin were once Princes, Dukes and Lords, we still carry our old titles but now in secret. For no-one must know what we really are.
Let nobody discover the fearful truth, that I am Prince Meroveus and a VAMPIRE. For countless ages, the vampire kind have lived their lives shrouded in darkness and revealing themselves to none outside their clans.
Their bloodlines have been continued for centuries and their Princes have continued as ruling elites or perished in the mists of time. But our bloodlines still live on and have thousands of centuries more to exist.
Whilst your frail bones and trickle of blood will be dust in all but a few decades, such is the briefness of human existence. But my bloodline will never cease to exist, nor my name ever be forgotten, nor my bones turn to dust, nor my blood soak into the verdant earth (man's ultimate destiny).
For though we may have been born of mortal men and were once considered their kind, we were changed and made new. Our blood was altered forever, our bodies became divine, compared with yours that of gods..................
Our DNA was taken over and our frail mortal shells were discarded, we became the VAMPYRE, the gods of darkness. My bloodline is one of the purest vampiric strains, it has very few to rival it. Distilled from the noblest and most sacred aristocrats of vampiredom, with their deepest bite which burned my veins like fire when it first entered my bloodstream, I was transformed from a weak and human mortal into VAMPYRE, a dark god.
Kneel and worship at my altar, O children of the Devil!
I am Prince Merovius of the VAMPYRE, a sacred lord and aristocratic vessel for the dark forces of Hell. My identity will always be secret and my victims will always be unknown. Do not try to tempt me by offering your blood or your soul, or your unholy allegiance to me. For my church is not yours and my master is invincible. By serving the dark lord of the universe, I have been granted power and status, I am the grandest of Princes and the most ancient of Dukes, I have 33 titles of sovereignty and can claim 13 others by descent. I am the Prince of Princes, the Master of Minions.
My wisdom and knowledge is limitless, and my power terrifying.
I am a REAL VAMPYRE, the elusive creature that you have all been searching for and begging to make contact with. But a Prince does not be swayed by the whining of his subjects, you shall never know me.
I am gone like the moonlight that is cast into darkness, a brief flicker of hope that is vanished as soon as it arrived. Farewell minions of Molech, your only reward can be DEATH.
Posted on Nov 5, 2007, 8:21 PM from IP address 86.160.21.220
Dear Sir/Madam,
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All the best,
Tennis Bum / TB
Posted on Sep 20, 2007, 7:45 AM from IP address 219.73.65.238
Hi, I'm Rikea and I'm relitivaly new to this site but I have been doing some research into vampires for a while and there seems to be alot the coencides in terms of facts and details about what vampires are about and I would like to ask to whoever reads this be it mortal or vampire alike, if you have any information to offer me so I can cross examine it. I've read a number of peoples theorys on this site and many others. The ones that particularly interest me is the ones that involve science as well as supernatural as much as I am a fan and have looked into all kinds of supernatural from ghosts to demons and vampires, I do have a broad mind to other possibilities. Now after all my time researching I can spot a fake and do know what to look for so if anyone who reads this thinks they can try and pull something I assure you I won't buy it, so please give me real answers if you wish to reply. I actually investigate all kinds of supernatural things so if you wanna throw in anything else feel free, always up for it.
Reguards, Rikea.
Posted on Sep 13, 2007, 1:19 PM from IP address 220.245.178.132
"Misted windows
Hide your empty eyes
Every moment, every whisper
Separates you from me
I've been screaming
Won't you let me in?
Let me see a trace
Of the places hidden
Under your skin
Answer me,
Till the day that you do
I'll be one step behind you
Answer me,
Till the day that you do
I'll be waiting here for you (2x)
Needles sting me
When you look away
And your silence
Sounds like deafening screams to me
I've been waiting
Won't you open your heart?
And let me in
Please let me in
Free your mind from doubt
All you have, is now
Free you mind from shame
It will only bring you pain"
You must forgive me, as this words are not my own althought they perfectly decribe my point of view.
If you'd like to know, this song is by Delain and it is called Frozen.
If you were to read this, know that I'm still here, waiting for you.
With all my heart,
Amalia.
Posted on Aug 22, 2007, 10:39 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
Cold is the wait
Been silent for so long
I'm starting to believe
You have lost your voice
Almost cruel is the winter
You have brought upon me
The wind tugs at me
Leading me anywhere but nowhere
What I am to do with all this silence?
Leave me freezing in the snow
I will still be here
When the seasons will change once again
When spring will be a liberating friend
Untill then, winter will be my only companion
In this deafing silence
With all my heart,
Amalia Riddle.
Posted on Jul 14, 2007, 9:16 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
Forgive me but I haven’t been online for a long time, which explains why I am responding this late.
As to answers your questions;
Yes, I indeed know of Den Bosch. I have never been there though. Do you enjoy living there?
You seem to think that mortals are less dangerous than immortals, I wonder what makes you think that. But on a more shallow level I can understand that relief may have washed over you when you found that I am (just) a mortal.
But never the less I disagree with your statement unto a certain point. Mortals in essence can be very dangerous, serial killers a small example. I won’t go to deep into this for now, because knowing myself it will most likely lead to a passionate ten paged explanation on why and how mortals can be indeed just as ‘dangerous’ (as you put it) than immortals. Don’t get me wrong, I am not stating that mortals are as an fact more dangerous than immortals.
If you want to discuss this statement with me, feel free to. I enjoy to exchange thoughts and opinions with one and another.
Why I am on this forum.. Where to begin..
A few years ago, sometimes it feels like centuries, I stumbled across a website calles vampirerave.com, and even though I was young, I had already taken up an obbessive interest in vampires. On this site it had a link to this forum. That how I winded up at this forum. During my first month or so I met Selene. She was the only one who took my somewhat ridiculous questions about vampyrism seriously, or at least serious enough to answer me. I was young, slightly obsessed and hungry for knowlegde and enlightment.
One thing led to another you could say and we left messages for each other on a regular base. But then, out of nowhere, I lost contact with her, about two and half years ago. I couldn’t get hold of her, and I still can’t. So the reason why I still post her messages here is because I hope that she will read them, after all this is where our twisted friendship began, and to make clear to her that I haven’t forgotten about her at all.
That about covers it.
Well, I have answered all your questions (for now). Do feel free to ask me anything you like, you can ask me anything you like but do understand that I cannot promise you that I will answer each and every single one of them. Just know that I take no offense in curiosity. And your english, it’s not half as bad as you think it is. No need to worry there.
I am sure that I will hear from you again, sooner or later. Untill then.
~Amalia~
Posted on Aug 22, 2007, 10:32 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
Forgive me, but I didn't get the time line right. It has been three and a half years that I have last spoken with Selene, not two and a half years. I hope this won't confuse you too much.
~Amalia~
Posted on Aug 22, 2007, 10:42 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
More than 3 years have past since I last heard from you.
That is a long time, my friend. But I am still here, still standing.
If you broke our contact with the intention for me to forget about you, then you have failed miserably. I do not intent to ever forget about you. I don't think I could, even if I wanted to. A part of me still hopes that we will meet someday, although I fear that that hope may be false.
All I desire from you now is nothing at all. I'm passed expecting things from you. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to hear from you, because I would really love that!
For 3 years I have been wondering why you left, now it doesn't seem to matter anymore.
I just want you to know that I am still here, waiting for you with open arms and with an open mind.
Your faithfull mortal,
Amalia.
Posted on Jun 1, 2007, 1:47 PM from IP address 81.68.114.71
The Kindred are humans infected with one of five strains of a mutagenic retrovirus called the Kindred Virus. Although they call themselves Kindred, they are better known as "vampires." Due to an anemia caused by genetic damage from the virus, vampires feed on the blood of uninfected humans. Vampires are known to mainly bite a victim's neck, extracting the blood from the carotid artery. They use the term Kindred and Kine to refer to all of humanity. The Kindred are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and lethal reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The Kindred Virus is not related to any known genus of virus or viroid. Its origin remains a mystery. It is a very old and well evolved symbiotic retrovirus which benefits its host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
The complexity of the virus is staggering. The Kindred Virus in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viruses cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viruses which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. The Kindred Virus works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems.
Though technically a retrovirus, the degree to which it rewrites its host's genetic code puts it in a league all its own. Most viruses are highly specific in what type of tissue they target. The Kindred Virus, however, is capable of infecting virtually every cell in the human body. It is even able to modify its host's chromosomes on an epigenetic level.
Biology
The transition from human to vampire takes place over a period of 24 to 48 hours during which an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic and even mental transformations.
During the change from a human to a vampire, functional changes to certain genes terminates all production of red blood cells. However, physical modifications enable Kindred to receive blood transfusions by merely ingesting blood. A modified immune system allows them to accept any blood type.
Along with the plasmids, a memory RNA is transcribed by the Kindred Virus. The memory RNA causes the formation of a specific engram within the area of the brain responsible for the sensation of hunger. As a result of the engram, vampires instinctively have a hunger for human blood instead of food.
Due to a functionally restructured stomach, vampires absorb the blood directly into the bloodstream with absorption in the inner tissues of the body via the restructured stomach lining instead of actually going thought the process of digestion that would brake the blood cells down. Kindred must periodically drink small amounts of human blood to replace functioning cells. Animal blood is of no use because it would be rejected by the immune system and therefore its red blood cells would be destroyed. The modifications to the stomach also include enzymes that stop blood from curdling. This prevents any possible vomiting from ingesting blood, which is what happens when normal humans drink a large amount of blood.
Because of the altered stomach, Kindred are incapable of eating food, vomiting it up within seconds. Fortunately for them, the Kindred Virus causes the efficiency of all metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that vampires require far less nutrients than uninfected humans. As a result of this, even the minimal amount of iron, carbohydrates, fats, glucose, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins contained within human blood is actually enough to easily meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. Modifications to both the circulatory system and metabolism allows the body of a vampire to use these substances without them being digested. Therefore, vampires are able to survive solely on a diet of human blood.
One of virus's most dramatic effects is on the biochemical makeup of a vampire. Certain new enzymes are produced that protect DNA from damage, however these enzymes possess chemical properties that are extremely unfortunate for vampires. A sufficient amount of ultraviolet radiation causes a chemical reaction within the enzymes that makes them ignite and burn the vampire's cells into ashes. Direct exposure to sunlight for more than a few moments will cause a chain reaction that will incinerate a vampire. However, this biochemical process is inhibited by a certain volume of blood in a vampire's system. Therefore, Kindred can move about in daylight for several hours if they have recently fed.
Another profound effect of the Kindred Virus plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that is extremely efficient in protecting the cells from ionization damage to DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue almost indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively giving them a vastly increased longevity; they are able to live for hundreds of years, and in rare cases, thousands.
Along with the blood drinking instinct, the introduction of the Kindred Virus in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and the production of certain neurotransmitters is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amygdala and the visual cortex (the areas around the brain stem and outer-back of the brain). The amygdala is the most primitive part of the brain, linked mainly with the powerful fight-or-flight reflex. A vampire will suffer increased aggression and reactions, particularly to physically threatening situations. Arousal of a combative nature will have a greater effect.
Each strain of the Kindred Virus also causes consistent and specific changes to the balance of behavior-related hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain. Because of the altered brain chemistry, a vampire's collection of emotional, thought and behavioral patterns are archetypical for their viral strain.
The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Nightvision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum increases by ten percent. This enables high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick, which gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Kindred also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters involved in memory and cognition. Neurotransmitter potency is also responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell in vampires. They also have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans.
Along with the vastly increased lifespan, genetic changes also endow vampires with another profound capability, that of cellular de-differentiation. In layman's terms, their stem cells are capable of accessing the genetic blueprint to a greater extent than normal human adult stem cells so as to regress to the earlier stem cell stage, and then regrow into various types of cells needed to perfectly recreate missing tissue. As a result cuts, burns and abrasions heal spontaneously without scars, severed limbs can be reattached, etc. In fact their bodies spontaneously heal almost any injury that does not dismember or disintegrate them (i.e., a chainsaw or a consuming fire).
All vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than normal humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently than normal humans. The abnormal strength and stamina that vampire display is a result of elevated levels of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in their cell. ATP is the chemical battery that powers the cell. The fact that their muscles heal at an accelerated rate and therefore are able to operate more strenuously also adds to a vampire's physical strength. Due to the greater pain threshold, considerable strength, enhanced immune system and extraordinary regenerative capabilities, Kindred are exceptionally difficult to kill.
Kindred are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. Because of the perfect cellular replication and no added damage to DNA, vampire cells are incapable of becoming cancerous.
During the vampiric transformation, the upper canine teeth experience growth. Additional enamel is also deposited on the crown of those teeth, slightly elongating and sharpening their tips into subtle fangs. Although they are not as quite pronounced as popular mythology claims.
The genetic transformation process also causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, Kindred are universally sterile.
Strains/Clans
The Kindred are divided into five distinct clans, which are based on the five strains of the Kindred Virus. The specific differences in the strains are the specific pheromonal signals they cause a vampire to emit and the specific neurochemical balances they induce, which cause specific personality types for each strain. The Nosferatu Strain causes physical differences as well.
In every region, each clan is lead by a Primogen. The Primogens meet to advise the Prince, to consult, and to present grievances. They often have their own agendas and seek to promote their own clans.
The Brujah are outspoken, turbulent, and defiant, and in human terms, often criminal. The least civilized of the clans, they are also the most recent to come into being. Brujah are perhaps most descriptively thought of as mobsters. Many refuse to abide by both human and Kindred laws, and they are the most likely of all the clans to be led by ambition and greed for money and power. They see what they want and take it by force. The Brujah are the seedy underbelly of Kindred society. They are the Mafia of the Kindred world.
The Gangrels are individualists who sneer at the contraints of society. They are ferocious fighters, proud, hot-headed, and street smart. They tend to drift city to city much more than the other clans. An ancient hatred between the Gangrels and the Brujah keep the rivalries churning up dissent. The Gangrels are loyal and trustworthy. They make excellent bodyguards because of their incorruptibility -- they can't be bought. Unfortunately they have deep difficulties with authority. They have a strong tendency toward rebellion, and struggle to follow even their own leaders.
The Nosferatu tend to live below ground. They collect knowledge as well as secrets that can add to their power. They embody the features that humans imagine as vampire. The Nosferatu are the most subtle and cunning of the clans. While other Kindred retain their human countenance, Nosferatu are distorted by the Embrace. Grotesque, they are often scorned by other Kindred, and certainly unable to move freely among humans. Often called "Sewer Rats," they have mastered skulking and eavesdropping. They can blend into shadows. Yet, they are level-headed and practical. Since they appear the least human, and have to remove themselves from human society to protect themselves, they are the best advisers to the Prince, being objective and dispassionate in their political judgements. They are also natural enforcers, able to remove emotions from their decision-making. The Nosferatu are neutral in many Kindred conflicts.
The Toreador are elegant, flamboyant, creative, and most of all -- passionate. They savor their immortaility, yet are most connected to the mortal world. They use their vampiric powers to increase art and protect artistic geniuses. They are closely connected to the realms where creativity comes from -- as well as other, darker impulses. For these reasons they are subject to madness. Vincent Van Gogh, for instance, was embraced by the Kindred when he decided he couldn't live among human beings anymore. Of all the Kindred, they are the most likely to fall in love with humans. Toreador Kindred have worked themselves into positions of influence in the world of popular culture. In the past, they have also used their creative bent and influence to promulgate a false mythology of "vampires" -- the same mythology we know from the Bram Stoker novel, for example -- so that actual vampires will appear normal and human when compared to the fictional.
The Ventrue are the rich, powerful and elite of vampire society and they share a love of high society with the Toreador, not for its pleasures, however, but for the sheer challenge of running things. They are industrialists, leaders, aristocrats. They have a Blue-Blood bearing and are often found in positions of power, where they can shape destiny. They are educated and trained by elite human institutions, which is why the Ventrue are the most human in their attitudes and behavior. In fact, they are the "Brahmin" caste of Kindred society. They strive to keep control over the Camarilla. It is for these and other reasons that Princes tend to be Ventrue.
Nosferatu Strain
The strain of the Kindred Virus that causes transformation into Nosferatu has two differences to the others. It has a less effective camouflage against the immune system and is itself a more aggressive strain. This means that all through the transition period from human to vampire, the individual's body is ravaged by the war between the virus and the immune system. As a result, those who become Nosferatu Kindred are scarred by the ordeal their anatomy has gone through with a consistent set of deformities.
Nosferatu uniformly have a bald head which is usually criss-crossed by a network of livid veins and there is a subtle extension of the brow ridges. They also have no eyebrows. Their ears have a pronounced point and the hands too show the signs of the Nosferatu with sharply pointed and discolored nails.
Pheromones
All vampires emit pheromones that are specific for each strain of the Kindred Virus. Because Kindred have an enhanced sense of smell, they detect these pheromonal signals instantly and therefore will know a vampire's clan instantly. The pheromones cause certain reactions within the brains of Kindred. Contact with the pheromones from someone of the same strain will cause a vampire to feel an instinctive sense of comraderie with that other vampire.
Due to a biochemical quirk, the pheromones of the Gangrel strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Brujah clan and the pheromones of the Brujah strain causes a negative reaction within members of the Gangrel clan. The quirk causes the pheromones to simultaneously stimulate the region of the brain involved in aggression response and recognition of people, thereby making Gangrel and Brujah feel an inherent hostility towards each other. As a result of this, an ancient enmity simmers at all times between the Brujah and the Gangrels. Because Gangrels and Brujah can detect each other instantly, they will automatically dislike each other upon meeting.
The Masquerade
For countless centuries, Kindred prospered and pursued their own schemes and desires. They were invincible, standing above humans in their understanding and awareness of the true nature of the world. They lived openly and arrogantly among mortals, relying on their power and human superstition to preserve them. Then came the Inquisition.
With the Inquisition, Kindred faced an enemy that studied both superstitious belief and scientific observation to identify Kindred, the demons of the dark. With maddening thoroughness, the Inquisition devised methods to rid the world of these creatures, along with witches, warlocks, heretics, the feeble, and the politically inconvenient. As for Kindred, the Inquisitors were diligent in their efforts to trace bloodlines and purge the creatures by the flame. Those Kindred who survived swiftly learned secrecy and stealth. They learned to band together in loose networks. Vulnerable for the first time, the five clans united. They called themselves the Camarilla, and this collective group existed first and foremost to enforce its first law, a law most sacred -- The Masquerade.
This law demands that the knowledge of Kindred be kept from humans. To make the law effective, Kindred set about to erase evidence of their kind, instilling doubt that they had ever existed, finally leaving behind only a myth of such creatures. It was safe to hide behind the myth. Through adherence to this law, Kindred were able to hide in plain sight within human society.
The Masquerade ensures the continuance of Kindred through secrecy, and any Kindred who breaks the Masquerade, who reveals the existence of Kindred -- that Kindred is outcast, even hunted down.
Principality
The Prince is the Kindred who has the power to hold domain over a city, set its laws, enforce them, and maintain peace. He is the judge who settles disputes among Kindred; he grants permission for another Kindred to embrace a human. A Prince also influences human matters and uses this influence to guarantee that the Princehood is not lost. But most of all, the Prince is concerned with the Masquerade and preservation of Kindred law.
The Embrace
In human myth, the dead who succumb to the treacherous bite of a vampire rise from the grave to become yet another predatory creature of the night. On the contrary, the act of transforming a human into a vampire requires conscious effort. In order for a victim to become a vampire, their immune response would first have to be severely weakened and then they would have to be exposed to a large dose of the Kindred Virus through injection or consumption of the vampire's fluids (usually blood). During the Embrace, a vampire drains a person's blood to the point when the immune response is lethally depleted and then replaces it with a small amount of Kindred blood. After being embraced, the new Kindred will take on the psychological characteristics (and physical in the case of the Nosferatu) of the clan that embraced them.
Before a human can be embraced, the Kindred who wishes to "Sire" that human must get permission from the Prince. Embracing a human without permission -- which endangers the Masquerade and can be very cruel to the human -- is a serious offense, the Prince has the right to destroy both the errant vampire and the erstwhile human.
The reasons a Kindred embraces vary. Some do so out of spite or vengeance, forcibly embracing the human, stealing the mortal innocence. Some embrace out of love or desire, even lust. And others seek reprieve from their loneliness, wanting to share their long existence with a creature dark and beautiful, like themselves.
Society
There are Kindred in every walk of life. Kindred pass legally as human with the help of fellow vampires working inside various agencies responsible for the creation and authentication of documents -- birth, death and marriage records, etc. However, even these ties sometimes don't suffice -- for instance, when a Kindred has lived too long in a community for his lack of aging to escape notice. In these cases vampires may migrate to new cities to establish new identities. The Kindred don't recognize human boundaries of state, religion, or culture. They have their clans and that's all they have.
Although a Prince is typically a Ventrue, leaders of all the clans covet the position, and conspire constantly to seize it. The peace between the clans is always tenuous, and it is only through the skill and strength of the Prince that peace is kept. This peace is all-important, because without it the Masquerade is doomed.
Killing a vampire is of course forbidden, but punishment is more variable, since Kindred are often ordered killed by the Prince in order to protect the Masquerade. When such sanctioned "Final Death" is ordained, it is called a "Blood Hunt", and can only be decreed by the Prince, typically after a "Conclave" is held among the leaders of all the clans.
History
Since the dawn of time, the Kindred evolved alongside humans. Wherever there were humans and hominid creatures, the Kindred preyed upon and fed off them. In ancient times, the Kindred were savage, merciless killers who hunted humans at night. Among their unspeakable atrocities was the practice of stealing babies and draining their blood.
The first strain of the Kindred Virus to evolve was the Nosferatu. Eventually the virus mutated into new strains, starting with the Gangrels, who were quickly followed by the Ventrue, then the Toreador strain came, and finally the Brujah were the last clan to evolve. Because they are averse to each other on a pheromonal level, the Brujah and the Gangrel quickly became mortal enemies. The Nosferatu came to rule the other strains/clans, who feared them for their power. At some point the Toreador created music.
Around the year 3000 B.C., the Nosferatu took sides in a Kindred war for the last time. They decided to stay neutral for their own survival. Around 1000 B.C. regional populations of Kindred began being ruled by Princes. This system survives to the present day; there is a Prince in every city, and he is the leader of all local Kindred.
In 996 A.D. the Nosferatu allowed the Ventrue to live above ground and to become bankers and politicians so that they could gain power.
In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Humans captured and tortured the Kindred because they were thought to be evil. Kindred were hunted down and burned alive by those who feared them and called them monsters. As a result of this persecution, the clans joined together to create the "Masquerade," a set of laws punishable by death that were intended to keep the Kindred from being seen as anything other than human, and the Nosferatu were able to live peacefully out of sight of humans below ground. A central tenet of the Masquerade was that Kindred must follow the Laws of Man. This rule began as a practical way of preventing Kindred from being imprisoned or otherwise subjected to scrutiny, but over time, it has taken on a more purely moral agenda.
Although each clan went through various names throughout the centuries, in the early 19th century the modern names of the clans were settled on.
Over the last few hundred years, the Kindred (primarily the Toreador) propagated myths about vampires, which include the notions that they sleep in coffins or dirt, come from Transylvania, have two big fangs or barbed tongues, are invisible in mirrors, that they can be warded off with silver bullets, garlic strings or crosses, bats flying around, and so on. This was part of the Masquerade, and it kept humans occupied looking for those signs as Kindred walked among them posing as normal humans. The Toreador even hired storytellers to spread these falsehoods.
Posted on May 31, 2007, 9:01 PM from IP address 69.143.28.142
I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of writing. You write so beautifully and very compellingly. You forgot to mention that there are also other, more secret races of vampire. I am descended from some of the most aristocratic and princely of the families. But our ancient Princes were divested of their power and principalities centuries ago. With the result that although we hold Princely title and rank, we are in reality little more than landed gentry and titled aristocrats. Our money and our lands have vanished also, all that remains of our glorious and majestic past are our titles and our bloodlines.
I am of a dying breed of vampire, stripped of our wealth and power we are alone in this world, yet forced to endure human contact to survive. If you saw us in the street we would appear normal and human to you, our lives would seem ordinary too. We can be found in the plainest and most nondescript of jobs and seem human for all our frailties and weaknesses. If you were to see us as the magnificent and noble beings we really are, you would be astounded at our presence......................................
Unlike other breeds of vampire, we do not necessarily dress in black or dye our hair dark, or wear pale make-up or adorn our bodies with rings and necklaces and other types of jewellery. Like the true aristocrats that we are, we know that we have nothing to prove to mortals and we do not wish to be discovered as vampires or thought of as 'grand'. We dress simply and plainly (unless a special occasion warrants otherwise) and wear little or no jewellery. We do not wish to draw attention to ourselves by our appearance or behaviour. At work and around our mortal contacts, we are never grand or bossy, nor do we use our titles or expect special treatment because of our rank. We behave modestly and normally-you would never guess our dark secrets..............................................................
There are so many things to know about our clan and none of it will be divulged by any one of us (secrecy is our survival) but I am impressed by your cataloguing of the various vampire bloodlines, but several more elude you yet. Some of us are so unknown, that even I could not detect or identify them. This is because their bloodlines are so refined and subtle that the genetic markers that would normally be present in their pheromones are virtually undetectable to most breeds of vampire. Your research is very commendable and you have explained your article lucidly, so compliments, Sir!
I must go now, but be assured that I hold you in great respect always.
Your noble kinsman,
Prince Meroveus.
Posted on Nov 5, 2007, 6:33 PM from IP address 86.160.21.220
Vampires (Homo sapiens homovorus) are an extinct anthropophagous subspecies of Homo sapiens. Since their extinction, they have been embedded in the mythology and folklore of various cultures. In folklore, they acquired numerous supernatural characteristics, the most common is that they were re-animated corpses of human beings. In modern times, vampires are the frequent subject of cinema and fiction. Their taxonomic name, Homo sapiens homovorus, is Latin for "human eating wise-man."
Overview
The difference in external diagnostic features between humans and vampires were actually pretty subtle, both because vampires never lasted long enough to diverge greatly from the human baseline, and also because natural selection is going to promote superficial similarity. However, while virtually identical to modern humans in terms of gross physical morphology, vampires were radically divergent from humans on the biochemical, neurological, and soft-tissue levels. This limited significant physical changes to soft tissue and microstructures that do not fossilize. This is one of the reasons why it's so difficult to identify these creatures in the fossil record-the other reason being that they sat at the very apex of the food pyramid, which means that they were quite rare even at peak numbers.
Appearance
More gracile than Homo sapiens sapiens, gross physical divergence from baseline humans included a slight but distinct extension of the mandible, and of course of the slight elongation of the canine teeth, the classic "fangs" of the predatory grip-and-tear feeding mode (although they weren't quite as pronounced as popular mythology has claimed). Vampires also tended to be taller and longer-limbed than humans. All of this was in service of an increasingly predatory lifestyle.
Vampire skin possessed a ghastly white pallor. This discoloration however, was not the result of anemia; in fact their blood volume was actually seven percent higher than humans. Instead their blood volume was redistributed away from the peripheral tissues and sequestered deep in the core.
Soft-tissue
They had capillary beds formed in the body core. All humans have these, the digestive system is highly vascularized to facilitate nutrient transport from the intestine into the bloodstream, but the capillary meshes in a vampire's core were far more extensive than anything seen in humans.
Tissue levels of adenosine triphosphate were elevated; ATP is the chemical battery that powers the cell, and this explains the abnormal strength and stamina that vampires displayed.
The gastrointestinal tract was foreshortened and secreted a distinct range of enzymes more suited to a carnivorous diet. Since cannibalism carries with it a high risk of prionic infection, the vampire immune system displayed great resistance to prion diseases, as well as to a variety of helminth and anasakid parasites.
Nervous system
The central nervous system is where the difference between vampires and humans really showed up. The corpus callosum was twenty percent larger in vampires than in humans. This enabled high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Interneuron/glial density, cortical folding and lamination were far above those in a human, particularly in the visual cortex. Their motor neuron nerve axons were almost twice as thick as conventional humans. This gave vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. A vampire could literally snatch a speck out of your eye before you had time to blink.
A vampires's amygdala and visual cortex--essentially, the pattern-matching wetware at the back of the head-were seven and thirteen percent larger than what is found in humans, respectively. Synaptic interconnections between the anterior cingulate cortex and the rest of the brain were much lower than normal, almost as if the core of the brain were being isolated from the neocortex.
They also possessed some very unusual wiring in the retina. Human eyes contain whole arrays of specialized receptor cells; some fire only when they see light and shadow in conjunction, some fire only when they see horizontal lines-horizons and so on. In a vampire's case, the receptors that responded to horizontal lines were crosswired with those that responded to vertical ones. When both sets of receptors fired simultaneously in a very specific way-that is, when intersecting right angles occupied more than thirty degrees of visual arc-positive feedback generated a neuroelectrical overload in the visual cortex. This what caused the famous adverse reaction to crosses, which consisted of violent convulsions which strongly resembled grand mal seizures. The reaction is commonly called the "crucifix glitch" by scientists.
Within the vampire eye there was an increased reflectivity of the retina, reminiscent of the tapetum lucidum found in the eyes of cats and other nocturnal predators. Vampires also had quadrochromatic vision; while we humans have only three types of cones in our eye vampires had four, the fourth being tuned to near-infrared.
Blood diet
The reason vampires did not resorted to non-human prey and evolved such radical adaptations to accommodate human meat into their diet is because they received something from humans that they couldn't from other species. What they received that is so essential to their diet is PCDH-Y, a protein responsible for certain aspects of central nervous system development. Vampires possessed a genetic defect that resulted in the inability to synthesize the protein. Since this protein occurs only in other hominids, human prey was an essential component of the vampire diet.
Technically vampires were closer to what might be called obligate cannibals, eating human flesh rather than simply drinking the blood. However, given that the only thing they really needed from humans was a certain type of protein, it's theoreticaly possible that a blood diet could meet that need, although they had to drink a large amount of blood. Perhaps this was a deliberate conservation strategy; drinking the blood leaves you with an anemic victim that can recover over time and serve as a future food source, while eating the flesh basically relegates your victim to single-serving status; and vampires could feed on other species to meet most of their dietary needs. They were much more intelligent than humans, intelligent enough to figure out the virtues of resource conservation.
Because of modifications to the digestive system, PCDH-Y was obviously not broken down in the stomach as with other proteins, but instead was absorbed with its full effects into the central nervous system. Those modifications probably also included anticoagulants that stopped blood from curdling in the stomach, thereby preventing any emetic effects of ingesting blood.
The vampire mind
Since vampire grey matter was "underconnected" compared to human norms due to a relative lack of interstitial white matter; this forced isolated cortical modules to become self-contained and hypereffective, leading to pattern-matching and analytical skills far in excess of the human norm. Vampires were omnisavants; their groove extended to pretty much every logical and pattern-matching dimension known to man, and more besides. They could do something that's neurologically impossible for humans, they could hold ''simultaneous multiple worldviews''. This allowed them to instantly grasp and see things humans have to work out step-by-step. Vampires were insanely smart by human standards. They had to be smarter than people, because they hunted people for a living. Lions are smarter than gazelles for pretty much the same reason.
By the same token, something else vampires had to be is clinically sociopathic. Among our own kind, a lack of conscience, of empathy for one's fellow human beings, is considered a pathology. Among vampires, though, sociopathy is an essential survival trait. If you felt empathy for your prey, you'd starve to death. Natural selection would have weeded "moral" vampires out of the gene pool relatively fast. On the biological level, the sociopathy was caused by the poor connection of the anterior cingulate cortex, it being the site of moral reasoning.
The undead state
A major prey-related problem that vampires faced was the predator-prey ratio. In most every case where one species eats another, the prey species is at least an order of magnitude more numerous than the predator, and breeds faster. The reasons for this are obvious: the transfer of food energy between trophic levels is very inefficient. Cows have to eat ten kilograms of grass to make one kilogram of cow; it takes ten kilograms of cow to make one kilogram of human; and of course, it takes ten kilograms of human to make one kilogram of vampire. So at any given level, the level below you must out-produces you by at least ten to one, or you'll exterminate your own food supply.
Since the metabolic and reproductive rates of vampires were pretty much the same as humans, what they did was cut back on their activity levels. The bodies of vampires contained high concentrations of Leuenkephalin, an opioid peptide found in animals like bears and squirrels, and is involved in hibernation. Vampires conserved energy-and their food supply-by extended periods of hibernation. Suspended animation is not uncommon even among higher animals like birds and mammals.
Vampires were able to shut themselves down for decades, dessicating down to this biologically dormant condition and entering what's commonly known as an "undead state." This worked in three ways: firstly, it drastically reduced their energetic needs, redressing the original imbalance between prey production and predator consumption. Secondly, it gave the prey population time to recover in the event that it had been severely hammered by predation, and let the vampires wait out food shortages. And thirdly, it's possible that these extended leaves-of-absence might have given humans time forget that they were prey. By the Pleistocene era, humans were intelligent enough to pass information from generation to generation, but were also intelligent enough for skepticism. Stories of "nightstalking demons" were likely taken as mere tales of fantasy by senile elders. Primitive cultures were likely to get careless after a few decades with no vampires on the horizon.
At any rate, scientists believe that this is where the blood-pooling strategy started; part of being "undead" involved sequestering blood around the vital organs and letting the peripheral tissues starve, much the way seals and whales triage their oxygen supply when cut off from the air. This likely proved so effective that over time, it became a normal state of affairs even among active vampires; the ghastly white pallor of vampires was actually a strategy for increasing their gas mileage. When lactate levels in the surface tissues got too high--or when vampires were feeding-blood was redirected to the skin and the complexion flushed.
Reproduction
As the classic mythology would have it, vampires reproduced by turning their victims into other vampires. Revisionists and horror writers have played around with the idea of vampirism as a kind of viral infection, an STD transmitted from saliva to blood. Biologically, of course, there are some problems with this idea: if you create another vampire every time you feed, it won't be long before all your prey have been turned into vampires, all of which will get very hungry very fast. However, the idea isn't as absurd as it may seem on the surface.
Lateral gene transmission is not unheard of in nature; certain microbes are known to act as carriers for the DNA of other species, transmitting them from one host to another; and in any event, it appears that predator and prey share many of the same genes anyway; perhaps the only thing that needs to be transmitted is some kind of catalyst to activate them. More conventionally, vampires and humans never achieved complete reproductive isolation in any event; there's no reason why interbreeding couldn't produce vampire offspring, especially if the critical vampire genes were heterozygously dominant.
Many scientists have theorized that the genes responsible for vampirism are widely spread amongst the human population, simply dormant in most people. They lie within "junk DNA", which are ancient genetic material that haven't expressed themselves in thousands of years. These scientists believe that in certain cases, some of these genes do express spontaneously; that psychopathy, autism and certain types of schizophrenia arise partly from the partial expression of these genes in a broken and rudimentary form. That sociopaths and savants show us one or two bits of the vampire subspecies.
Origin
Judging by nuclear introns and mitochondrial satellites, scientists believe that vampires split off the human lineage something less than 90 thousand years ago, and persisted (albeit in small numbers) into the beginning of historical times. Their genesis has been traced to a paracentric inversion mutation on the Xq21.3 block on the X-chromosome, resulting in functional changes to genes that code for protocadherins. PCDH-Y is a protocadherin, and as mentioned they play a critical role in brain and central nervous system development. They occur in the headwaters of CNS development, as it were, and a relatively small change far upstream can lead to a whole variety of interrelated cascade effects.
A headwater mutation had such a huge impact on so many aspects of CNS development that suddenly there was far more variation for natural selection to work on, and so vampires arose relatively quickly.
Despite common misconception, natural selection does not optimize anything. It's actually something along the lines of 'survival of the least inadequate'. It doesn't matter if a given adaptation is the best possible solution. All that matters is rather it works better than the competition. Overall vampires did work better than the competition. But that doesn't mean they didn't have a few design flaws. The biggest were the broken pathway which forced them to eat other hominids and the defect referred to as the so-called crucifix glitch. It is this glitch that doomed them from the moment humans developed Euclidean architecture. Vampires would have been barred from approaching any human dwellings that featured quartered windows, supporting crossbeams, and so on. And this weakness was likely discovered by the people of early civilization rather soon. The cross is not an exclusively Christian icon: it has been used as a religious symbol back into prehistoric times, and vampires were apparently the reason.
The crucifix glitch, such a lethal trait remained in the vampire population and was not weeded out by natural selection very soon because the trait wasn't lethal at first. An aversion to crosses is not a disadvantage in a world where crosses don't exist and there aren't many right angles in nature. Neutrally selective traits can become fixed in small populations through a simple process called "genetic drift". In this case the trait wasn't even neutral: the same crosswiring responsible for the crucifix glitch was also involved in vampiric pattern-matching skills, and that was a trait that natural selection would have actively promoted - right up until the point that their human prey discovered geometry and Euclidean architecture.
The crucifix glitch spelled the end of the vampire lineage. Suddenly denied access to its prey-the entire subspecies went extinct shortly after the dawn of recorded history. Although they obviously persisted long enough to embed themselves in our cultural mythology.
Myths
The crucifix glitch is likely the source of the myth that vampires can't enter someone's house uninvited. It would be more accurate to say that vampires couldn't come into a house unless they kept their eyes closed; and since that would have made them extremely vulnerable to attack, they usually could only enter a house when the house's inhabitants didn't wish them ill.
Vampires had very sensitive night vision and their pupils didn't react as quickly as humans to changes in light intensity; they could be easily snowblinded. Although it couldn't cause them to burst into flame when struck by the sun's rays, but it might explain a general aversion to bright light. A crowd of peasants with torches likely presented a real problem to the subspecies.
It's possible that vampires themselves spread the myth of garlic repelling them, to engender a false sense of security among their prey. It's also possible that the whole story is pure fiction.
A lot of other myths-that vampires can fly, or shapeshift, or that they don't reflect in mirrors-are likely to be mostly fiction as well. But it's worth remembering that these creatures were both faster and more intelligent than humans, and their superlative pattern-matching skills would have given them a real advantage in "blending in" via crypsis; it's quite likely that one might seem to disappear simply by fading into shadow, or adopting a posture that broke up its outline against the background. Combine such a vanishing act with, for example, the flushing of some startled animal caught in its path, and a primitive human might think that some kind of shapeshift had occurred.
Posted on May 20, 2007, 7:29 AM from IP address 69.143.28.142
I have just finished reading some posts. The words in them bother me. I shall leave the authors of those posts anymonous.
It seems that we have forgotten to respect each others opinion and beliefs. I for one solemly believe that the lack of mutual respect is the cause of a lot of misunderstandings. It saddens me even more to see that every one states that his of hers opinion of belief is the only good one. The narrowmindness which radiates of it suficates me.
To each his own, wether that may be vampyrism or christian or wicca. Please, I beg of you; do not judge. Just because you do not agree or because you do not understand does not make it wrong. Leave each other be in peace. There is no need nor use in throwing mud.
Love,
Amalia Riddle.
Posted on Apr 22, 2007, 7:05 PM from IP address 81.68.114.71
Okay, so I've been interested in vampires since the beginning (like about age five) I was so crazy about them....I had two sharp incisor teeth, so when I'd be playing make believe I insisted on being a vampire. I also swore I liked blood, and whenever I got cut, I'd suck it up. I'd always held a sort of morbid fascination with blood. I'd get cut on my finger, and I'd watch it pour down my hand, down my wrist, stain the sink. Blood to me has always been life fluid, and of course as a woman my own moon blood is very special to me.
But I never paid any attention to these fantasies. Last year I started dressing in all black, and tried coming out mainly at night. My family strongly disencouraged my morbid interests....despite all these desires of mine, I have never really taken them seriously. And now I see online talk of real vampirism? I guess I am curious if you are for real or not. I've read posts of talk of being over 400 years old!!! And drinking real blood...what about disease and stuff? I mean, have you any proof of what you are????
Posted on Mar 29, 2007, 1:23 AM from IP address 65.81.27.19
How often today do we see, in movies and tv especially, the superficial and materialistic threads of our modern life permeating the interpretations and executions of the vampire? I am quite frankly sick of it. For years I have gone to these films with great hopes and left angry, finding myself looking not thru a window into vampire mythology, but rather some bizzaro world where supermodels and action heroes pretend to be vampires to the calibur of say, a college goth costume party with a large budget.
As a result, I have begun a 3-step project. The first step is called 'Waking' and it is a delectably dark and demonic tale. I have found a new interpretation of the vampire that does NOT abandon its roots in horror, philosophy and psyhology. As opposed to filling pages with gratuitous sexual innuendos, or cliche elements which are repeatedly raped by mainstream culture, I have created an incredibly new, and surreal tale which will surely leave you anxiously awaiting the in-progress sequal.
So, please check out:
www.myspace.com/wakingvampires
and get back to me. LLORDLLAMA@aol.com
I look foward to discussing the vampire's return to the dark
Posted on Mar 17, 2007, 3:41 PM from IP address 205.188.117.72
The hourglass is nearly empty. The culmination of End Times is upon us and the Great Tribulation is just around the corner. There are a total of TWO things that you need in order to obtain Eternal Life and Man-Made Religion is not one of them. (1) A Good Heart Condition. (2) An Acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior.
We urge those who wish to obtain Eternal Life in Christ's Kingdom to read the following very important message: http://www.lightoflifeministry.com
We don’t aim to twist arms or convince anyone of anything they aren’t ready or willing to believe as their hearts will ultimately dictate what they perceive to be truth. However, it is also our responsibility to warn those who do not accept this Truth, will face Judgment at Armageddon. For this reason we pray that the eyes and hearts of all who read our message are opened to the Truth whether that is now, or in the near future when our words come to pass.
The Kingdom Message of Salvation is the Truth and validity of the Bible as a whole. As ministers with the Light of Life Ministry, we are doing as we are commanded within the Scriptures. Because we have been enlightened to the Truth, we have a heavy responsibility to pursue our Ministries. 1 Corinthians 9:16 warns of the necessity and woe to those that do not declare the Good News.
"For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!"
This is because once we have acquired Wisdom about the Truth, it is our duty to spread the message as far as we can over all of creation. If we fail to warn others, the Creator holds us accountable. To walk away is to be overshadowed with Negative Energy. Ezekiel 3:17-18 gives insight on this.
"Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. If I say to the wicked person: You will surely die, but you do not warn him—you don't speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.”
OUR MESSAGE OF TRUTH
The main theme of our Message of Truth is that those who wish to have eternal life must declare Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior. This must be done in order to be one with His coming Kingdom.
We realize that many will challenge our faith and the faith of others who also declare Jesus to be Lord. They will say that we must meet certain requirements of water baptism, a belief in the Trinity and other man-made religious ideals. If those people are of some positive energy, they will see the Light. If not, they will remain opposed to what is ministered to them. That is their Free Will choice. Even if they claim to be foot-step followers of Christ, they will be deemed not worthy of Salvation unless they exhibit the Holy Spirit from within them. If they believe falsehoods about Christ, cling to their man-made religious belief systems and exhibit no signs of positive energy, they will be marked accordingly by the Cherubic Order of Angels. All people are judged by what is really in their hearts.
As part of our Ministry to those that oppose the Truth, we point out that a humble heart is the only thing that saves anyone. Without it, you are endowed with negative energy. What your heart is filled with is what springs forth with abundance from the mouth. Luke 6:45 is clear on this point:
“A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.”
Proverbs 4:23 is clear on the need to safeguard your heart against the wickedness of negative energy being stored there:
“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”
By knowing and understanding the Truth of the Word, you treasure up within your hearts that of positive energy. That's what guides you (the Holy Spirit - Positive energy) so that you do not sin knowingly against Christ or his Father.
“I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.” Psalms 119:11.
The problem with sin is that it cultivates negative energy. From the mind where it begins or originates, it creeps down into your heart. Then you're in trouble. That's why it's not a sin to think a bad thought, if you dismiss it. You did not act on it. Therefore, it is not a sin. But if you dwell on the wrong thought, it will creep on down into your heart and become a part of you. So, above all else, safeguard your hearts.
WHAT ABOUT WATER BAPTISM?
It is not necessary to be baptized in water to be saved. Jesus Christ was the forerunner. In Christ's Ministry, baptism in water was used to anoint him by his Father. It was continued by his disciples, because he had not yet ascended to Heaven, and had not yet received the Kingdom Authority that would later be bestowed upon him by his Father Yahweh. Once that had been fully accomplished, the Light of Truth became the baptism via the Light of Christ. The Savior's instructions given at Matthew 28:19-20, you see the baptism it speaks of is a baptism of Holy Spirit.
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
This takes place when one truly comes to understand the Father of Jesus Christ and accept Him as Truth. Water is no longer necessary to be sanctified. The purpose of baptism before Christ was to symbolize the shedding of one's former ways of sinful conduct. That was sanctification. Now, the baptism of sanctification is done as mentioned above. The Holy Ghost transformation is performed through the Light of Christ.
WILL YOU BE DAMMED IF NOT BAPTISED IN WATER?
Children pass over without water baptism. Some die at birth or are aborted. The children have special status with the Creator. They are not damned and neither are adults that are not water baptized. What would happen if you were shipwrecked for the remainder of you life? How could God justify not giving you a chance to learn His Sovereign Will at transition? The only requirement for Christ’s salvation is that of a humble heart. Once you are with Christ, he knows your humble heart will accept him. When you passed through his Light, you were then baptized as a Holy Ghost. The water baptism would be nil in Christ's eyes. It is the HEART that Saves. Nothing else can get you into the Kingdom unless your heart is of Positive energy. Yahweh Himself reveals this at Jeremiah 17:10.
“I, the LORD, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.”
If the heart were not the thing of importance, He would not search it. It is not the outward appearance that Saves, but what is hidden deep within the heart.
ALL POSITIVE ENERGY PEOPLE ARE ACCEPTABLE
People of all nationalities, regardless of race, color or religion are open to the Salvation of Christ.
“Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people.” Revelation 14:6.
“Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who inhabit the world, both low and high, rich and poor together.” Psalms 49:1-2.
“Then Peter began to speak: "In truth, I understand that God doesn't show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.” Acts 10:34-35.
REMEMBER - IT'S A FREE WILL CHOICE
Everyone has Free Will Choice in the decision and are able to choose one way or the other. That's why we will not try to force the Truth on to anyone.
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20
“But if it doesn't please you to worship the LORD, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
“If you carefully obey My commands I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and worship Him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in season, the early and late rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil. I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you. He will close the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the LORD is giving you.” Deuteronomy 11:13-17
“This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.” 1 John 2:3
SALVATION - KINGDOM MESSAGE COMPLETED
Now, either you will accept or reject the Truth we have ministered to you. Since everyone should come to understand that actions result in consequences, we deliver the following warning. If you decide to refuse the truth, then you will know what is ahead--even if you reject that also, at this time. Later on, you will see our words come to life. If you accept the Truth now but are later tempted to cultivate a negative energy within your heart, then the warning we share might help to prevent that from happening.
YAHWEH'S BITTER-SWEET WARNING TO ALL PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life. He that disobeys the Son will not see life. The Wrath of God remains upon him.
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36
Once you have been given the Message of Truth, if you do not obey it you are exercising your Free Will choice. However, it will result in eternal death at the Judgment. Just as Satan and his angels cannot have free reign in creation - neither will it be permitted of those that exercise that choice. Your fate is upon your own head.
“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of everyone's blood, for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole plan of God.” Acts 20:26-27
The above scripture reveals we will be clean from the blood of those who make the wrong choice. If you are so cultivated with negative energy that you hear and know that what we speak is Truth and you continue to sin willfully by rejecting that Truth, then you will lose the Sacrificial Hope of Salvation. Time will eventually run out. Armageddon is the final Judgment Chapter.
“For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” Hebrews 10:26
"to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of our God's vengeance..." Isaiah 61:2
"The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth because the LORD brings a case against the nations. He enters into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, He hands them over to the sword [This is] the LORD's declaration." Jeremiah 25:31
"I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak." Matthew 12:36
"When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." Ezekiel 33:8
WHO WE MINISTER TO AND SANCTIFICATON OF THE CREATOR'S NAME
This GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth and bear witness to all the nations. The nations will be made to know Yahweh. His Name must be sanctified before the nations.
“I will honor the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am Yahweh"—the declaration of the Lord GOD —"when I demonstrate My holiness through you in their sight.” Ezekiel 36:23
“So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” Ezekiel 39:7
ARE THERE ANY FREE RIDES TO ETERNAL BLISS?
Anyone that believes they can get a free ride through eternity without going through Christ, please read:
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
Once you have received the Truth, you are under obligation by the Creator.
“Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7
Your Sisters in Christ,
The Ministers of the Light of Life Ministry
Posted on Feb 20, 2007, 4:16 PM from IP address 69.250.101.31
Hay, im human, compleatly and utterly, i am alternative in the music respect and as you have probabl gatherd im dyislexic so i apologise for the spelling.
Ok, im worried, there seam to be a few people hear who actuly think they are a REAL VAMPIRE, this is desturbing, i hope im reading things wrong but i dont think i am.
Firstly, if vampires are real they would be 1. a mutation of human DNA 2. The next step in evolution or 3. A speise that have evolveld along side evolution. None of this hocus poces crap, To the people that think they have been alive since 165.... when ever, there is a real world out side and as big or sceary as it may seam living in fantasy will only stunt your chanses at dealing with it, yes, fantasy is good but not to the extreams that people seem to be taking it and i quote......
"hey,
my name is celeone.....can you please try to help me?
I'm verry confused because a friend of mine (she is a vampire) almost bit me. But she didn't do it on purpose! We were at a party. There she almost bit me...I've got some questions.
After she almost bit me, she went outside to drink blood from other people. When she got back I asked why she did that. She said: I've tasted you and now i want more, (the vampire side of me), but i don't want to hurt you."
and..........
"I am one off te older vampires. i was'e born in 1678 ,and yes we live foreffer. ther'e one way we can be killed,i really want to make you one , just name the party or the place. i hoop you come in soon. gr lestat"
oh, and ....
"If you think it's great to be a vampire, let me tell you, it isn't. Do you think it's nice to live forever? no way! The world around you is changing, and you can't change! You'll be the prisoner of your own body. You will never see the sun anymore, you will never be able to really love someone, you can't have sex anymore, there's almost no chance you will meet someone else just like you, and seriously, you are dead. Not undead. You will never ever live again"
If i have this wrong and this is all play then im sorry for making a tit of my self, but if im not, well grow up people, you dont have magic powers, you are not a tourcherd soul, your human, as dull and as mundane as it my seem, you are, get on with the real world, it aint that bad, life is what you make it, and if you mke it fake, well then you life is fake.
I realy hope iv made a mistake and read posts wrong.
Lota love... Me
Posted on Feb 12, 2007, 11:28 AM from IP address 83.100.153.10
Actually it is amusing reading how some on the internet have a fascination with such things as vampires. Of course we all enjoy fantasy, and we all enjoy pretending were something we could never become. But as I said it's all fantasy, and the irony of anyone thinking that they are "immortal" or "drink blood" to make themselves feel cooler or they are something no one else could be is hilarious. Most like the fantasy of becoming a vampire because they are truly powerless in Real life, and feel that pretending to be a vampire only makes them stronger with "Vampire Powers" or the sexual energy that emerges from a vampire is most likely due to the fact that they have no sexuality in their lives nor relationships. In fact they are all probably most likely some skinny gothic/punk looking person behind a computer that live on the computer and wish nothing else then to be something they cannot be. hehe most likely very unattractive teenagers who are teased at school or feel they have nothing. Its kind of sad because everyone and anyone should always be happy with themselves and what they were made into. Unfortunately the media has created a picture of the most idealist that everyone should be and that is a lie. Media has made it seem that being a vampire is the most spectacular thing that could ever happen to anyone should they come into contact with a "vampire" But everyone will always want to be a "Witch", "vampire" or haha dare I say a "werewolf" The idea of things roaming in the night and hunting blood is pure idiotic. Please come on and search for a life, and not one that was made for holloween.
Posted on Sep 10, 2007, 10:43 PM from IP address 24.6.71.220
I've been interested for vampirism as long as I can remember and I also know for sure I want to be one. there's one problem.. I live in the Netherlands I can't find any vampire in this country...
does anyone has a solution for my problem?
all the best,
Maeve
(Heleen_tje@live.nl)
Posted on Jan 24, 2007, 4:12 PM from IP address 84.85.133.190
so now I've found out that there are some vampires in my country hmm I'm wondering if there will be any opportunity for me to meet anyone of you. I'm still waiting for a chance to learn more real information instead of vage suspisions (please forgive me for my bad english)
Maeve (seeker)
Posted on Jan 25, 2007, 3:16 PM from IP address 84.85.133.190
They say that time heals all hurt
Memories will fade due to the hand of time
But I, I am frozen in a moment
A moment I hold close to my heart
Time cannot touch me there
In this world where everyone forgets
Friendship is overrated, never enough
I will never say Goodbye
Cannot bear to let the memory go
Wild wicked life
Untamed wisedom
Trying to flow trough you
So far, never near
Or so it would seem
I am blind
Afraid that I will never see
Tell me, why not me?
Left with just a feeling
A memory, A moment
Forgive me
I cannot say I am sorry
Do not lie to me
Do not leave me
With just my memory..
Posted on Jan 9, 2007, 2:14 PM from IP address 81.68.114.71
I've read your messages on this forum
and I've also read that you live in a city very close to where I live.
I am very curious and it's weard to know that after all these things I've read about Vampyrism there's someone like you living not even an hour away from me.I love your poems by the way.
all the best,
Maeve
Posted on Jan 25, 2007, 2:57 PM from IP address 84.85.133.190
So I have caught your eye, didn't I?
Thank you for your kind words, I love getting feedback every once in a while.
So you believe that you live close to me, mind me asking where you live then?
You also said that you are very curious, forgive me but it made me laugh. Everyone, and I mean absolutly everyone, is curious. Mind you that curiousity killed the cat.
Kind regards,
Amalia Riddle.
Posted on Feb 2, 2007, 6:42 PM from IP address 81.68.114.71
You asked me where I live.. actually I live in a village near Den-bosch
I'm sure that you know den-bosch don't you?
Haha I've also read that you are a mortal.
So that means you're less dangerous than I expected you to be.
If you don't mind I'd like to know why you are on this forum?
I mean you post letters to someone very close to you every once and a while.
But why here?
I understand if you don't want to tell me.. It's just the curiousity I guess..
Please forgive me for my bad english.
all the best,
Maeve.
Posted on Jun 20, 2007, 2:12 PM from IP address 84.85.133.190
I wish you the best of luck with that.
Although I think that freezing your body in isn't the hardest part, it's rather defreezing. Or isn't that what you had in mind? If not, the how is it different from being buried?
Posted on Aug 22, 2007, 10:55 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
Although it is long past new years eve of 2006, I couldn't help responding. The jewish graveyard.. What an interesting choice of location..
And? Did anyone show up at all?
Posted on Aug 22, 2007, 10:53 PM from IP address 195.241.9.251
I found this interesting role playing game for Vampires and Werewolves and thought some here might be interested. Click here if you want to check it out. If no one is interested, I'm sorry for the intrusion!
Posted on Nov 8, 2006, 7:00 PM from IP address 74.128.54.88
Unfortunately, there are no willing donors. Instead, I have taken to playing an online RPG, Monsters game. A war rages between vampires and werevolves, and we intend to win, damn everything.
Now, I don't intend to spam this forum incessantly. The link below lets you donate your virtual blood to me, and also join our ranks and start playing this fun (and morbid) game.
The link contains no viruses, spyware, obscene content etc.
A vampire is a mutated human infected with a mutagenic retrovirus named Hematic anthropophagia. Due to an anemia caused by genetic damage from the virus, vampires must feed on the blood of uninfected humans. They are known to mainly bite a victim's neck, extracting the blood from the carotid artery. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and lethal reaction to sunlight.
In 1616, Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli published his Treatise on Vampires, in which he speculated that vampirism was caused by a microscopic pathogen. He was burned at the stake for heresy. Fortunately, science plowed ahead, undeterred. The information included in this article is the result of the work of countless dedicated men and women.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism, Hematic anthropophagia, is a very old and well evolved symbiotic retrovirus which benefits it's host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
Hematic anthropophagia in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viri cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viri which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. The Hematic anthropophagia virus works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This has two effects. Firstly, it means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems. Secondly it means that the individual stays human in appearance, the new DNA only serving to enhance the existing structure rather than change it completely.
Biology
During the transition from human to vampire an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic transformations. A person who comes out of a vampiric coma fully transformed will have undergone a number of major physiological changes affecting the various systems of the body. The information included below is only an overview; for a more detailed account, try two classic texts: Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Vampire and Vesalius' Five Books on the Structure of the Vampire Body.
Vampire have increased strength, speed and stamina as the result of an increased level of natural hormones similar to anabolic steroids, as well as altered epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine levels. They can be killed in all the same ways that a human can with the exception of disease and some poisons. The misconception that vampires can not be killed by conventional means stems from their greater pain threshold, their considerable strength and the fact that their blood clots much faster and wounds knit at an accelerated rate. A bullet in the chest (missing the heart) will often kill a human just from the shock and blood loss, whereas a vampire would be able to keep going whilst the wound is sealed with a clot to prevent bleeding to death.
Vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than most humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently too. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. There has never been a reported case of a vampire having cancer.
The high fever during infection and the genetic transformation process during the vampiric coma causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
During the change from a human to a vampire, functional changes to certain genes terminates all production of red blood cells. Fortunately for vampires, physical modifications enable them to receive blood transfusions by merely ingesting blood. A modified immune system allows them to accept any blood type.
Along with the plasmids, a memory RNA is transcribed by Hematic anthropophagia that causes the formation of a specific engram within the area of the brain responsible for the sensation of hunger. As a result of the engram, vampires instintively have a hunger for human blood instead of food.
Due to a functionally restructured stomach, vampires absorb the blood directly into the bloodstream with a form of absorption in the inner tissues of the body via the restructured stomach lining instead of actually going thought the process of digestion that would brake the blood down. Vampires must periodically drink small amounts of human blood to replace functioning cells. Animal blood is of no use because it would be rejected by the immune system and therefore its red blood cells would be destroyed. The modifications to the stomach also include anticoagulants that stop blood from curdling, thereby preventing any emetic effects from ingesting blood.
Because of the altered stomach vampires are incapable of eating food, vomiting it up almost instantly. Fortunately for vampires, Hematic anthropophagia causes the efficiency of all metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that vampires require far less nutrients than uninfected humans. As a result of this, even the minimal amount of iron, carbohydrates, fats, glucose, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins contained within human blood is actually enough to easily meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. A modified circulatory system and metabolism allows the body of a vampire to use these substances without them going through the process of digestion. Therefore, vampires are able to survive solely on a diet of human blood.
Along with the blood drinking instinct, the introduction of Hematic anthropophagia DNA in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and the production of certain neurotransmitters is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amygdala and the visual cortex (the areas around the brain stem and outer-back of the brain). The amygdala is the most primitive part of the brain, linked mainly with the powerful fight-or-flight reflex. A vampire will suffer increased aggression and reactions, particularly to physically threatening situations. Arousal of a combative nature will have a greater effect. There is also personality changes and mood swings since overriding the more powerful instincts become harder.
The size of the corpus callosum increases by ten percent. This enables high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick, which gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters involved in memory and cognition. Another neurotransmitter, dopamine induces feelings of well-being. In vampires, it is released during feeding and has a narcotic-like effect. Neural pathways activated in vampires during feeding are much like those found in addicts when using drugs.
Synaptic interconnections between the anterior cingulate gyrus and the rest of the brain become much lower than normal, partially isolating the core of the brain from the neocortex. Since the anterior cingulate gyrus's ventral area is related to emotional cognition, vampires have a highly diminished conscience, capacity for moral comprehension and empathy for their fellow beings; they are all clinically sociopathic.
Powerful sense organs give vampires an advantage both in hunting and eluding capture. In vampires, Tapetum lucidum enhances night-vision by increasing the reflectivity of the retina; vampires also have quadrochromatic vision; while humans have only three types of cones in our eye vampires have four, the fourth being tuned to near-infrared. While these modifications give vampires excellent nightvision, it renders them effectively blind in daylight. Sunlight will cause neural pathways to fire randomly in the vampire brain, causing an extreme epileptic seizure.
Both the senses of smell and hearing are extremely acute, as vampires have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans. In fact, vampires usually smell or hear a person coming long before they see one.
Transmission
Although the tiny dose of virus present in the saliva that passes during a feeding is usually insufficient to infect a healthy human, if enough blood is withdrawn to severely weaken a victim's immune system, they will be infected with Hematic anthropophagia. If a victim's immune system is weakened by numerous feedings by a vampire, they will eventually be infected as well. Five or six feedings within a thirty day period is usually enough. If the victim's blood loss is not severe enough to discernibly compromise the immune response (which is usually the case), the virus is easily dealt with by the immune system and eradicated.
Within hours of being bitten to the point of being infected, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours.
Within 24 hours of being infected, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampires sleep in coffins. Only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset.
A bite victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation.
Longevity
While no vampire on record has ever died of natural causes, vampires do undergo an aging process, just not in the same way as humans. Vampires do not age on a molecular/genetic level, but their life of hunting and eluding capture creates tremendous wear and tear in the form of injuries to bones and tissue.
Because they presented such a danger to society, most vampires were destroyed long before the outer limits of their life span were determined. Ancient history offers some clues, however. In Ancient China, there was said to be one vampire in the emperor's court through the entire (eastern) Zhou Dynasty, which would put his age at 550. More accurate modern records have certified vampires of over 200 years old.
Vampiric longevity is the result of an ability to ward off both the DNA damage that occurs during cell division in normal humans and ionization damage to DNA. Specifically, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes known as telomeres get chewed up over time in humans, but not in vampires. The Hematic anthropophagia plasmids switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that rejuvenates telomeres) and boosts its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to the cessation of aging at the point of the vampiric coma.
Demographics and Life Expectancy
The vast majority (about 80 percent) of vampires are males who were between the ages of 18 and 35 upon transformation. Another 10 percent are females between the ages of 15 and 35 upon transformation. The remaining 10 percent are males and females slightly outside the 15 to 35 age range upon transformation. The racial and ethnic makeup of a pack will generally mirror that of the local populace.
Despite the fact that they do not age on a cellular level, vampire mortality rates have always been high. In 1850, a newly transformed vampire could expect to live 10 years on average. By 1950, that number had dropped to 5 years. Today that number is only 2 years. The leading causes of death have also changed with the times. In the Middle Ages, vampiricide, or murder by other vampires, was the leading cause of death. By 1930, vampire hunters had become the number one killer.
Sociology
Vampire behavior resembles our own in more ways than we might imagine. By conducting extensive interviews with vampires, along with observing their behavior in the wild, scientists have been able to arrive to a reasonable understanding of their world.
The first few days after coming out of a vampiric coma are especially difficult for a vampire. A newly transformed vampire awakens disoriented, its judgment clouded by competing impulses and memories of its previous life. But all those are drowned out by a fierce, intense desire for blood. This urge for blood eventually snaps a vampire into focus, and it sets about finding a way to fill that urge.
Though lone vampires are not uncommon, most vampires find it advantageous to either join an existing hunting pack or create one of their own. Each path has its own advantages. Joining an existing pack offers security, access to blood and protection from other packs. However, new members are low in the pecking order and are often forced to put themselves in dangerous positions, such as on advance scouting missions. In addition, new members of a pack are the last to feed, if they get to feed at all. Vampires possessing natural leadership skills may find it better to hunt on their own and eventually bring some of their victims into the fold.
With vampires unable to reproduce, the hunting pack is the family unit of their life. In a successful pack, each vampire has its role, and there is little dissension. A typical pack is made up of four vampires, with one Alpha Vampire and three underlings. Four seems to be the ideal number for a hunting pack: any more than that, not everyone always gets a chance to feed; any less and the hunting becomes appreciably riskier. Of course, in the distant past, when vampire control was in a more primitive state, large vampire armies rose up and spread by overwhelming entire towns.
Vampires are capable of developing loyalties and behaving selflessly in the name of the pack. However, the pack is the only area of their lives in which they are not mercenary.
Vampires packs are meritocracies, not democracies. There are no elections, no "show of hands" in a vampire pack. The most capable hunter and leader runs the show, and the others follow. The Alpha Vampire coordinates hunting strategy, gives assignments and makes all final decisions. There are perks to the job. During hunting, the Alpha generally hangs back in a less risky position. Yet when a victim is seized, the Alpha drinks first. But the job has its perils too. For one, the Alpha has the difficult task of choosing replacements for fallen pack mates. In this, it must walk a fine line. While the Alpha must be stronger than its fellow pack-mates, it cannot afford to carry weak, ineffectual hunters in the pack. But stronger pack mates can rise up and become a threat to its position.
Like virtually all mammals, vampires assert their dominance through display behavior and fighting. Vampires hiss, bare their teeth and showcase their prodigious leaping ability to try and intimidate rivals. Physical size and power are important but by no means the only determinant of Alpha status. In fact, intellectual capacity is more important than physical prowess in determining success and longevity as a vampire.
While Alpha Vampires would seem to be in an enviable position, they actually have a higher mortality rate than non-Alphas. Each new challenge to an Alpha Vampire from within the pack takes its toll. Injuries pile up, including many of the permanently disabling variety. Vampires can lose an eye, have flesh torn off and break bones. Older vampires are far from the dashing, handsome types so often seen in movies. An older vampire is likely to be heavily scarred, with parts of its face missing. The ultimate fate of the Alpha Vampire is a grim one: cast out of the safety of the pack, no longer able to fight, the once powerful vampire is reduced to a solitary existence. Eventually, the Alpha succumbs to malnourishment or the weapons of vampire hunters.
When a recently transformed vampire joins a pack, it is usually taken under the wing of an elder, who helps the fledgling learn how to hunt. While some packs have no patience with slow learners, most fledglings are given a little bit of time to get up to speed. However, an unusually quick-learner is perceived as a threat and may be destroyed by the Alpha. Fledglings with ambition learn to keep a low profile and hide their agenda until the time is right.
Vampires will utilize all at their disposal to hunt while avoiding detection. They will have female pack members pose as prostitutes to lure male victims. They will haunt the shadows around nightclubs, sporting and concert venues and all-night diners. Prostitutes and homeless always make up a disproportionate number of victims.
A given swath of real estate can only support so many vampires. While an urban area may offer more hunting opportunities for vampires, it also increases their chances of running afoul of another pack. The country is safer, but hunting opportunities may be few and far between. Therefore, vampire packs must be ruthless in defending their territory. Battles between vampire packs are almost unimaginably vicious. It is not enough to merely win the confrontation. To have a future, a vampire pack must show their rivals how ruthless they are.
Vampire treatment of victims can range from indifferent to barbaric. If a pack finds a suitable new member, it will keep that person in their midst until transformation is complete. Once a pack size is set, vampires will usually tear their victims apart after feeding. Some consider this behavior as proof that vampires are cruel, but in fact it is more a question of pragmatism than cruelty. Left intact, today's bite victim could become tomorrow's rival. More sophisticated packs hide the corpses of their victims so as to avoid alerting authorities to their presence.
Vampire dwellings of the modern era are the very definition of crude and utilitarian. Since vampires spend most of their waking hours out hunting, there is little need for creature comforts at home. A vampire's priorities are avoiding detection and getting out of the sun, and their abodes reflect the transient nature of their lives. If a vampire pack has found a particularly safe, secluded hiding spot, the vampires may make perfunctory efforts to dress it up with furniture and knick knacks. Music is one of their preferred indulgences, one they had to curtail in the face of nosy vampire hunters. Knowing that their lair may be discovered at any time, vampires travel light. In the country, they live in caves, abandoned mines and barns. In the city, they inhabit abandoned buildings and subway stations, or they tunnel under piers along the waterfront.
It wasn't always this way. In the Middle Ages, when vampire packs roamed the countryside without fear of extermination, they enjoyed occupying lavish digs. Once set up in these palaces, Alpha Vampires would conspicuously display symbols of their success with all the windy self-importance of today's ruling classes.
A vampire is generally uninterested in personal hygiene. They dislike washing and will wear the same clothes as long as possible. However, because their hunting missions may require them to hide in plain sight, vampires have no choice but to wash themselves and put on new clothes (usually stolen from stores or taken off of victims) from time to time.
Vampire Myths
Most vampire myths come to us from the Dark Ages, when science was in its infancy and people looked to religion or superstition to explain the world around them. While many vampire myths have their basis in Christian orthodoxy, others represent imaginative interpretations of actual vampire behavior.
The myth that vampires sleep in coffins arose from gravediggers and others who observed vampires emerging from coffins and crypts. If a vampire did spend the night in a coffin, it probably had nothing to do with sleeping preference. In the old days, many victims of vampire bites were interred while still in a vampiric coma. The truth is, vampires will sleep wherever they feel safe.
The myth that garlic repels vampires is most likely based on observation since vampires have sensitive noses and can momentarily be driven off by pungent odors. However, this method of deterrence is unreliable and certainly won't work on an experienced vampire.
The extreme reaction of vampires to sunlight is most likely the source of the myth that vampires burst into flames upon exposure to sunlight. Due to modifications to the eye, sunlight renders vampires blind. It also causes an extreme epileptic reaction. Although it couldn't cause them to burst into flame when struck by the sun's rays, it does explain a general aversion to bright light. A crowd of peasants with torches could present a real problem to a vampire.
Many vampire myths are rooted in religious beliefs. Vampires of course reflect in mirrors, crosses have no effect on them and holy water, or any water for that matter, has little effect on vampires (although they can be drowned). It's possible that vampires themselves spread these myths to engender a false sense of security among their prey. A lot of other myths were propagated by literally fiction such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, as well as modern cinema and pop culture. Such modern myths include that vampires can fly, shapeshift, and have fangs.
Posted on Aug 15, 2006, 8:34 PM from IP address 138.88.231.21
Since their first appearance in recorded history, vampires have made a profound impact on our world. From religion to warfare, politics to art, it is difficult to find an aspect of society that hasn't been influenced by victims of Hematic anthropophagia. Our dealings with them has always been a reflection of where we are as a people.
Longinus: Vampire Emperor
During the early days of the Roman Empire, vampires were hunted and destroyed by an elite squad of the Legion. The Roman ability to control vampires was widely respected and made it easier for them to colonize farflung nations. Captured vampires were brought to the the Coliseum in Rome, where they fought lions, tigers and Christians in nighttime battles.
A frequent spectator at these contests was the young Emperor Longinus, who began his reign in AD 68 at the age of 17. Longinus' favorite was Brittanicus, who was captured in England in AD 65 and had developed a formidable record as a vampire-gladiator. Against the advice of his Praetorian bodyguards, Longinus had Brittanicus installed in a lavish suite inside the palace. One night, Longinus paid his guest a visit and the inevitable happened: Longinus was bitten and became Rome's first vampire emperor.
The vampire emperor's short reign over Rome was disastrous. The Praetorian Guards who had defended Longinus were expelled from the Palace, and vampires became protected throughout the Empire. Longinus and Brittanicus led other vampires on nightly hunting parties through the streets of Rome. Vampirism, which had previously been contained within Rome, exploded.
Facing a dire future, the expelled Praetorian Guards took it upon themselves to save the Empire. On a warm summer morning in AD 69, about a dozen Praetorians burst into the palace. The vampires, drowsy and bloated from the previous night's feast, were easy pickings and the Praetorians methodically dispatched them, saving Longinus for last. He was decapitated, and his head was stuck on a pole outside the city gates as a warning to any vampires who might want to venture into Rome.
Rome is Saved
The decline of the Roman Empire left Europe in a turbulent state. In an absence of any central authority, the countryside was overrun by a series of vampire armies, each more terrifying than the last. The armies, generally consisting of between 50 and 100 vampires, would swoop into towns on horseback in the dead of night, howling with bloodlust. The only saving grace for the people of Europe was the limited range of these armies, as it was difficult for them to stray far from their daylight havens. But in the 9th Century, a charismatic leader named Quadilla united a number of vampire armies into a mobile, fearsome fighting force that had many in Europe believing the end of the world was nigh.
Quadilla grew up riding horses and tending goats and sheep on a farm near the Po River in northern Italy. His bucolic upbringing came to an abrupt end at age 16, when a corrupt local priest confiscated his family's property. The evicted family had the distinct misfortune of settling in a gypsy camp shortly before it was set upon by a small vampire army. Quadilla's parents were killed; he was bitten, then taken away to join the army.
Quadilla quickly distinguished himself as a great horseman and fearless warrior whose ambitions outpaced the limited scope of his precursors. Quadilla envisioned himself as the leader of a vampire empire stretching from Gibraltar to the Danube. With his great skills as an orator, Quadilla was able to convince local vampire armies to join his cause. After winning important victories against the Lombards, the army began a slow, inexorable march down the Italian peninsula toward Quadilla's ultimate goal: the papal leadership in Rome.
Quadilla's offensive was greatly aided by the Italian topography. Each night, he would raid a village for blood, then take shelter in the numerous caves of the Apennine Mountains. Remindful of the corrupt priest who took his boyhood home, Quadilla saved special cruelty for houses of worship. He plundered monasteries and left the heads of priests impaled on stakes outside the churches. These horrific displays convinced many that Quadilla was the Devil himself, and that the advances of his army represented the end of the world prophesied in the bible.
In December of 772, Quadilla's army took Siena, leaving it only 150 miles from Rome. As the Italian capital swelled with refugees, the stories of Quadilla took on an outsized, mythological scale. Eyewitnesses told of a ten-foot-tall, fire-breathing man with horns, cloven hoofs and a tail. While none of these stories were true, they surely unnerved Pope Hadrian II. The Pope, facing desertions in his own army, sent envoys to the Frankish Kingdom of the north to ask the young king Charlemagne for help.
Though Charlemagne had come to power only two years earlier, at age 29, the six-foot-six-inch King of the Franks already had ambitions to match his towering frame. He wanted nothing less than to rule Europe, and he knew that having the imprimatur of the Pope would help him greatly in his quest. He told the papal envoys that he would take his men into Italy as soon as the snows melted.
In the spring of 773, Charlemagne led his army across the Alps into Italy. He followed the coast south and made camp along the Tiber River north of Rome, not far from the site of Quadilla's most recent assault. Charlemagne had planned to use the camp as a base from which to conduct sorties into the mountains, but Quadilla had different ideas. That night, the vampire army attacked the camp and inflicted heavy losses on Charlemagne's army before retreating back to their caves.
As the day dawned, Charlemagne surveyed the wreckage of his camp and realized he could not fight the vampires by conventional means. After breaking his army up into smaller groups and setting them in defensive positions in the hills, he sent his most experienced vampire hunters into the mountains to conduct reconnaissance. That night, the men located the vampire cave network, and as soon as the sun came up, Charlemagne led his army there. Rather than send his men stumbling blindly into the dark caves, Charlemagne had them heap timber onto modified horse carts, light the pile on fire and roll the carts into the caves. The plan worked beautifully: vampires were smoked out into the light and beheaded by the hundreds.
Working from cave to cave, it took four days for Charlemagne's army to kill the last of the vampires. Quadilla himself fought gallantly; though effectively rendered blind by the bright sun, he killed over 20 soldiers before Charlemagne dispatched him with a blow from his sword.
On Christmas Day, 773, a grateful Pope crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in the city he had saved. During Charlemagne's 47-year reign, Europe enjoyed a relative respite from vampire armies. The fire carts Charlemagne had improvised lasted even longer; they were employed against vampires well into the Eighteenth Century.
In 1974, a team of Italian archaeologists discovered a huge cache of artifacts in caves near the Tiber. Among the finds were armor and weapons bearing the broken cross symbol peculiar to Quadilla's army. A museum was built nearby to house the relics and honor the men who saved the seat of Christianity from a grisly fate.
Simonetta and Giuliano
Simonetta Vespucci was said to be the most beautiful woman in all of Renaissance Florence. Born in 1453, the niece of explorer Amerigo Vespucci seemed to cast a spell on the leading men of Florentine society. After meeting her, the great painter Botticelli painted no one else for the rest of his life (she served as a model for all of his Madonnas and Venuses). Brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici of the Florentine ruling family fell in love with her and tried to outdo each other in displays of affection. The more practical Lorenzo, occupied with affairs of state, eventually lost Simonetta to his more romantic brother. In celebration, Giuliano held a jousting tournament and dedicated it to his 23-year-old fiance.
Shortly thereafter, Simonetta became sick with consumption (tuberculosis) and the prognosis was grim. A distraught Giuliano, unwilling to lose his beloved, decided that keeping Simonetta alive as a vampire was better than letting her die. He summoned Dominic Salcedo, the city's foremost vampire hunter, and gave him a top secret mission: capture a vampire and bring it back to the palace. Salcedo, unwilling to disobey one of the city's most powerful men, complied and, the following night, an unfortunate vampire was brought to the room in the palace where Simonetta lay dying. The vampire bit her and was then destroyed. Within two days, Simonetta herself had turned.
Giuliano was pleased to discover that Simonetta recognized him and remembered their life together. Like many a hopeless romantic, Giuliano mistakenly decided that the love Simonetta had for him would trump any bloodlust she felt. And so when she beckoned him with kind words, he eagerly went to her, and was bitten. That night, Lorenzo de Medici discovered his brother in the throes of transformation, with telltale wounds on his neck. For a second time, Dominic Salcedo was summoned. Salcedo and his team searched the enormous palace for Simonetta, eventually finding her in the bell tower. Cornered, Simonetta jumped to her death on the plaza below, the same plaza where, only weeks earlier, hundreds had jousted in her honor. Per his request, Giuliano was buried at her feet.
A heartbroken Botticelli made one more painting of the ill-fated couple, using their death masks for models. In the picture, Giuliano faces the pale, shadowy Simonetta before an open window, a well-known symbol of death. The dove perched on the dead branch in the lower left of the painting is rich with symbolism. Doves mate for life and, according to Renaissance lore, will perch only on dead branches after their mates have died.
The Trial of Fatinelli
During the Middle Ages, the scientific study of vampirism was tangled up in religious notions of good versus evil. Vampires were the Devil's foot soldiers, and victims of vampirism were thought to have had some sort of moral failing which left them vulnerable to attack. The large number of prostitute-victims was held up as proof of this. The church, at perhaps the zenith of its power, had a vested interest in keeping this notion afloat, as nervous worshipers tended to spend more time in church and give more money. But the dawn of the Renaissance gave rise to a number of visionary scientists who, at their own peril, began to question previous assumptions about vampirism. And one of them, an Italian named Ludovico Fatinelli, paid for it with his life.
Fatinelli was a native of Florence whose father was employed in the relatively new profession of making eyeglasses. The young Fatinelli took an interest in his father's trade and made his own magnifying glasses to study the world around him. As his lenses got more sophisticated, he was able to discern a world previously unknown to science. His notes from a look at a sample of water from the Arno River capture the excitement of discovery: "I then saw, with great wonder, that in the water were very many little animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The animalcules were in great number, and oft times spun around like a tail." Fatinelli had taken the first recorded look at bacteria.
The young Florentine went on to study medicine at the University of Padua, where one of his teachers was the great scientist and philosopher Galileo Gallilei. While there, Fatinelli, through the use of increasingly more sophisticated microscopes, discovered that "animalcules" also appeared to live in human tissue. From these observations, the young scientist developed the radical theory that it was these microscopic entities, not moral failures, that were the real source of vampirism. Experiments on animals seemed to bolster his hypothesis, and he set to work on a treatise that would summarize his findings and, he hoped, establish his reputation as a great scientist.
In Januay, 1616, Fatinelli published his findings under the title, Treatise on Vampires. Alas, his timing couldn't have been worse. Pope Paul V, worried about the rise of Protestantism, had been taking a hard line against any new interpretation of church dogma and decided to make Fatinelli an example. The young man was brought up for the Inquisition, and when he refused to recant the conclusions in his treatise, he was charged with heresy and brought to trial. Though a simple recantation probably could have gotten him off the hook, Fatinelli stood behind his findings. Judgment was swift: the verdict was guilty, the sentence, death.
On April 23, 1616, a huge crowd gathered in Florence's Piazza Signoria to witness the execution. Fatinelli was tied to a pole atop a pile of logs, which were then set ablaze. The fire ate through the rope securing Fatinelli to the pole, and his left arm flew up in the air. A shriek went through the crowd; many fainted, thinking that the Devil was passing a curse from Fatinelli's body onto them. But the man on the pyre was only flesh and blood. Once the spectacle was over, one of the most important scientists of the time was ignominiously heaved into a pauper's grave, where the church hoped he would be forgotten forever.
It was not to be. Though Fatinelli was gone, his research lived on. For years after his death, illicit copies of his banned treatise made their way through Europe's scientific communities and helped pave the way for important work by scientists like the Englishman Edward Jenner, who created the first vaccine in 1795. Fatinelli had indeed been far ahead of his time: too far ahead, for the church's comfort.
The Ship of the Dead
The voyage of the British merchant ship Cormorant from Portsmouth, England, to the Caribbean island of Nevis had special meaning for Andrew Oglethorpe. After ten years as a sailor, Oglethorpe had decided to call it quits and live out his days as a fisherman in the British West Indies. And so, on June 15, 1607, the night before his last voyage, Oglethorpe set up shop in a Portsmouth pub and drank to his good fortune.
It wasn't to last. As Oglethorpe staggered toward the docks an hour or so before dawn, a prostitute called to him from the shadows. Inebriated, and facing three months at sea with no female companionship, Oglethorpe eagerly followed her into a dark alley, ignoring the old seafarer's maxim: harlot for hire, might be vampire. No sooner had they found a private spot than the prostitute sunk her fangs into him, and Andrew Oglethorpe's dream of a life of tropical ease was over before it started.
Like many victims of vampirism, Oglethorpe chose to deny what had happened. He boarded the Cormorant and assumed his duties as the ship left port under the direction of Captain Horatio Wheeler. By nightfall, Oglethorpe was in sick bay with a fever and chills. As Oglethorpe's wounds were not easily visible, the ship surgeon probably confused his symptoms with one of the more common ailments of the day. Eventually, Oglethorpe slipped into a vampiric coma; he was being prepared for burial at sea when he came back to life.
The fate of the crew would have been left to the imagination had Captain Wheeler not been an assiduous journal-keeper. Entries in his log became increasingly ominous as the journey progressed.
August 24th: "For the past three days, we have been sailing through a storm, which has prevented us from continuing a sweep of the ship designed to root out any remaining vampires. Thus far, we have captured and thrown overboard three crew members who were showing signs of the dread disease."
September 14th: "The vampires have barricaded themselves in the hold and, despite my entreaties, none of my crew dares go down there to dispatch them. Our nerves are frayed, as none of us have slept for two weeks. Last night, a man leaped off the boat rather than face another night of this torment."
September 16th: "They are at my door now. There is no hope. I can only pray that God dash this accursed ship against the rocks, lest it deliver its hellish cargo upon some innocent shores."
The captain's wishes would not be met. On the night of September 20th, Cormorant cruised into the harbor of the small Caribbean island of Nevis with Captain Wheeler, now a vampire, at the helm. Native islanders paddled out on canoes to greet the ship, unaware of the awful surprise waiting on board.
From this one ship, the vampire virus would spread rapidly across the Caribbean and the New World. The disaster prompted an overhaul of shipping procedures. Henceforth, all sailors were given thorough physical examinations before boarding.
Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bucket of Blood
"The black ship appeared so suddenly beside us, it was as if the fog itself had given it form. Within moments, our deck was swarming with men of the most ghastly countenance. All were gifted swordsmen, impervious to our bullets. In the midst of this maelstrom came the largest man I have ever laid eyes on. I personally saw him cut down three men with one swing of his sword, then reach down, rip the heart from one man's chest and tear his fangs into it with a zeal I can only describe as religious."
So wrote Jacob Hensleigh, a sailor discovered by the British Navy clinging to a piece of driftwood in the Mediterranean Sea. As the only survivor of one of the last attacks by the legendary vampire-pirate Redbeard, Hensleigh was indeed a lucky man: between the years 1795 and 1797, Redbeard and his crew killed an estimated 500 sailors and paralyzed shipping on the Mediterranean.
Redbeard was born James Wyatt around 1767 in London, England. As a boy, he would spend hours hanging around the docks of east London and dreaming of the day when he would first set sail. That day came for him at age 15, when he joined the crew of a merchant vessel. Always a quick study, Wyatt rose swiftly through the ranks, and by age 25 he was the captain of his own ship, a beat-up sloop he sardonically called the Carcass. When England declared war on France in 1793, Wyatt had the Carcass retooled for battle and offered his services as a privateer for the Royal Navy. His job was to board and plunder any ships carrying supplies between France and her ally, Spain. The barrel-chested, six-foot-five-inch Wyatt proved to be a natural leader and his crew became such efficient plunderers that Napoleon himself put a bounty on their head. But Wyatt's days of service to the English crown came to an end in the summer of 1795, when he was bitten by a vampire outside a waterfront pub in Gibraltar. Wyatt quickly spread the virus to his crew and soon the Carcass was sailing under the direction of about 50 bloodthirsty vampires.
Although the transition from sailor to vampire-pirate presented real difficulties for most, James Wyatt was different. Besides possessing an unusually sharp learning curve, Wyatt knew the Mediterranean coast like an old friend. By the fall of 1795, he had set himself up in a ruined castle set in the shoulders of a protected harbor along the Algerian coast in north Africa. It was there that he adopted the name Redbeard and set about building an empire of piracy and vampirism.
Each night, the Carcass would set sail from the castle flying a blood-red Jolly Roger from its mast. Exploiting their night vision, Redbeard and his crew would identify a ship, slip up alongside it and board while most of the sailors were still sleeping. The crew of a single ship could supply enough blood to feed Redbeard's vampires for a month. Those unfortunate crew members who weren't bitten right away would be taken back to the castle and imprisoned in the dungeon to await a grisly fate.
More than his skills as a sailor, it was Redbeard's appreciation for politics that explained his relative longevity. In return for their protection, Redbeard paid off local Algerian caliphs with the booty from the ships he raided. He gradually expanded his force, adding only the strongest, most capable sailors. Within a year, Redbeard's pirate empire had grown to include about 250 vampire-sailors and a fleet of five ships. Throughout 1796, his raids grew more and more devastating, and all of Europe started feeling the effects. Shortages in food were reported as cargo failed to meet its destination, or else arrived late because so many crews refused to sail at night.
In early 1797, Redbeard and his men scored their biggest coup yet when they took control of a 74-gun frigate belonging to the British Navy. The firepower of the captured frigate made Redbeard even more dangerous, and King George III of England was forced to take action. He decided to send a fleet of warships to the Mediterranean under the direction of the young commodore Horatio Nelson with instructions to bring back the head of Redbeard.
In early June, a dozen warships under the command of Nelson sailed around the head of the Iberian peninsula and into the Mediterranean. For six weeks, the fleet searched in vain for Redbeard along the north African coast. Finally, on July 12, they plucked the terrified Jacob Hensleigh from the waters and knew they were close. A day later, the fleet boarded a ship and found it littered with bloodless, dismembered body parts. The next night, the fleet came across Redbeard's army in the midst of an attack on a fishing boat. They surrounded the vampire ships and a brutal battle ensued, during which Nelson took a bullet to the arm. The English lost three ships and scores of men in the battle, but they fought on, knowing that time was on their side. With dawn starting to lighten the eastern horizon, Redbeard was forced to pull back and make for safe harbor. The English fleet followed him all the way to the castle and began several hours of relentless bombardment. That afternoon, 500 troops went ashore to finish the job. Redbeard and a few of his closest associates retreated to the dungeon, where, despite being vastly outnumbered, they put up a ferocious fight. In all, it took three days to secure the castle. The troops then freed several dozen prisoners and burned the vampire compound to the ground.
When Nelson's men returned with Redbeard's head, Nelson had them hang it from the bowsprit at the front of the ship for the journey back to England. As they triumphantly made their way up the Thames to London, huge crowds gathered along the riverbanks to watch. Nelson presented Redbeard's head to King George III, who had it placed on a stake on London Bridge, not far from where a boy named James Wyatt had first gazed east and dreamed of a life at sea.
Haussman's Children
The first half of the Nineteenth Century saw a population explosion in European cities. The rural poor and dispossessed flooded urban centers looking for work, and in the process created overcrowded slums rife with disease, crime...and vampirism. All across Europe, vampires found good hunting and ample hiding places in medieval-era neighborhoods, with their tumbledown dwellings, narrow streets and alleyways. Every major European city had a concentration of vampires: the East End of London, Lisbon's Alfama, Warsaw's Old Town. In Paris, so many vampires haunted the neighborhood north of the Louvre that it became known as the Vampire Quarter.
European leaders tried a variety of measures to try and control vampire numbers, including hiring more vampire-fighters and instituting strict curfews. But the number of attacks continued to climb. In 1850, Baron Georges Haussman, Paris' top city planner, offered a radical suggestion: instead of trying to kill the vampires, why not eliminate their habitat? Haussman envisioned a radical reconstruction of Paris, with broad boulevards, spacious squares and a modern sewer system (it was still common belief that poor sanitation contributed to vampirism).
Haussman's plan won approval from French Emperor (and Napoleon grandson) Louis Napoleon and, in 1853, work crews began tearing down the Vampire Quarter, building by building. As crowds of onlookers watched, vampires scurried from collapsing buildings, shrieking and shielding their eyes from the sun, only to be methodically destroyed by special legions of the French Army. In one church, more than 50 vampires were flushed from the crypt. While some French, like writer Emile Zola, protested the widespread destruction of architectural treasures and the lack of interim housing for the homeless, the project did seem to be succeeding in slowing the rate of vampire attacks.
Within 20 years, Haussman had transformed the the old rabbit warrens of the Vampire Quarter into posh neighborhoods with grand boulevards radiating from large squares like the Place de l'Opera. Haussman was celebrated as a genius and European cities raced to follow his lead. From Lisbon to Prague, broad boulevards and wide squares become de rigeur.
However, the canonization of Haussman proved to be premature. After dropping for a short time, vampire attacks in Paris rose to their highest levels ever. To make matters worse, the attacks were no longer confined to Paris' slums. Vampires attacked the well-heeled of the Tuileries, they preyed on students across the river in the Latin Quarter. The great irony of Haussman's work was that, while he had driven vampires from their old haunts, in building Paris' extensive sewer system he had provided them with the perfect place to hide.
For the next 50 years, these vampires, known in Paris as "Haussman's Children," made their home in the sewers, emerging at night for hunting. For a short time, the French stationed troops there, but had to pull out due to high rates of desertion. During World War II, French resistance fighters hiding from the Nazis in the sewers encountered vampires in 19th-Century dress. The development of the vampire vaccine, along with more sophisticated vampire-fighting technology, eradicated vampires in Europe by the mid-1960s. However, in 1971, a rash of vampire attacks along the river Seine paralyzed Paris. French authorities tracked a lone vampire into the sewers. The vampire was cornered near the Place des Vosges, and perhaps the last of "Haussman's children" was destroyed.
Fort Blood
For about 200 years, the huge swath of land in the western half of Canada was controlled by the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company. The powerful Company was able to keep any vampire outbreaks in check with their own security force. But when the Canadian Confederation Act of 1867 brought the western lands under Canada's control, the Hudson's Bay Company pulled out, leaving the region in a state of disorder. A motley crew of outlaws began moving into the region, and in those days, whenever outlaws congregated, vampirism was sure to follow.
The opportunistic outlaws were mostly Americans who saw money to be made setting up illegal whiskey-trading camps in the region. These scofflaws would trade whiskey with Indians in return for buffalo furs and horses, and the success of their operations sometimes enabled their crude encampments to grow into rowdy towns rife with gunfights and prostitution. Vampirism inevitably took hold, driving out the transients and leaving the Indians to deal with the problem.
There was one whiskey-trading camp that eclipsed all others in debauchery and lawlessness. The camp, which would come to be known as Fort Blood, was the provenance of the Gallatin Gang, a group of low-lifes who had escaped from a Montana prison before making their way to the Great White North and establishing a successful whiskey business. Even by the standards of whiskey camps, Fort Blood was a den of iniquity. With all the prostitutes and transients, it was inevitable that a vampire plague arrived, and when it did, the Gallatin Gang hit upon a novel solution to the problem. Rather than leave town, the Gang struck up an agreement with the vampires in which they would lure Indians to the camp with the promise of whiskey, and then set the vampires on them. In return for providing blood for the vampires, the Fort Blood outlaws were able to keep and sell whatever buffalo hides and horses they took from the Indians. By the early 1870s, Fort Blood had grown into a formidable problem, paralyzing regional trade and settlement and poisoning sensitive relations between the local Indian tribes and the new Canadian government. Now that Canada was responsible for this land, it was clear that Fort Blood had to go.
In 1873, a freshly-minted force of 250 Canadian Mounted Police, or Mounties, traveled west with orders to destroy Fort Blood. But the Gallatin Gang received word of the impending attack and was ready when the Mounties arrived. The Gang repulsed the attack and then, as night fell, unleashed the vampires. All 250 Mounties were killed. The defeat was a stinging rebuke to the newly formed government, and proof that Canada needed a specialized force to fight vampirism in the west.
In 1874, a bill was passed creating the the North-West Mounted Police, Special Division, or the "Specials," for short. 400 men were recruited and trained in vampire combat, and in July of 1874, they left their compound at Fort Manitoba for the long trek west. With 300 horses, 73 wagons and 142 heads of cattle in tow, the Specials followed the Boundary Trail west and made camp at a bend in the Milk River not far from Fort Blood.
Rather than conduct a frontal assault on the fort, the Specials took a more stealthy approach. A small battalion slipped into the fort posing as Indians and, once inside, killed the Gallatin Gang. They then let the rest of the Specials in to finish off the sleeping vampires. By the next morning, Fort Blood was nothing more than a smoldering pile of ash.
For the next several years, the Specials marched from outpost to outpost, slaying vampires and restoring order to the region. Trade and settlement gradually returned to normal, and relations with the Indians improved. However, the frontier nature of the west ensured that the Specials remained busy, especially during the periods from 1882 to 1885, when the railroad was under construction, and 1896 to 1899, during the Klondike Gold Rush. The Specials were often pulled away to fight wars on foreign soil, but they still managed to keep a lid on any vampire outbreaks in their homeland. In 1973, the Specials celebrated their centennial with a ceremony during which they received medals from Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly thereafter, they were disbanded.
The Vampire Rights Movement
In the summer of 1891, young painter Lucien Steketee arrived in Paris from a small village in Brittany to find a city energized by bold artists breaking free of the confines of Impressionism. Even in a place crowded with painters, the young Breton quickly stood out. Tall and handsome, student of Monet's, friend to Pissaro and Cezanne, he cut a dashing figure in the City of Light.
Like fellow painter Toulouse-Lautrec, Steketee's preferred subject was the nightlife around his atelier in Montmartre. He painted prostitutes, dancing girls, beggars...and vampires. While other artists had painted vampires from memory, Steketee was the first to have them sit for portraits. Despite the danger, Steketee painted over a dozen vampire portraits, and with each one his sense of ease grew. In July of 1892, a vampire suggested to him that Paris' underground catacombs, with their stacks of skulls and bones, would be a more atmospheric backdrop for the portrait; Steketee foolishly followed him there and was set upon by a hunting pack.
Two days later, a local vampire patrol discovered Steketee about to sink his teeth into a young woman. He fled to the nearby Moulin Rouge nightclub and barricaded himself on the third floor. A mob formed outside and began chanting for the vampire's head. In desperation, Steketee stepped out onto the balcony and made an impassioned plea for his life. So persuasive was he that the mob spared him and allowed the gendarmes to take him away to jail.
Steketee had found his calling. Writing feverishly in his dim prison cell, he advanced the radical notion that vampires should be treated like the sick people they were, and hospitalized rather than destroyed. Steketee's broadsides were distributed by his artist friends and created a sensation in Paris. Key to his growing support was his claim that he could live without blood. "Controlling bloodlust," he wrote, "is a matter of discipline and faith." He held himself up as proof, and the public bought it.
With public sentiment on his side, Steketee was released into the care of Madame Mauriello, a wealthy widower and devoted follower. She set him up in her Tuileries mansion, where he continued his crusade, speaking to huge crowds and winning support from politicians and religious leaders.
But away from the spotlight, Steketee was hunting, with the help of Madame Mauriello. Each night, she would prowl the streets of Paris looking for young women to lure back to her mansion under the auspices of posing for a famous artist. Once there, the women would be plied with wine until Steketee emerged, fangs flashing. He kept the "newly converted" in his service as a sort of harem.
The arrangement was shortlived. Early on the morning of December 12th, 1892, a terrified girl arrived in the police station claiming that she had narrowly escaped the clutches of a vampire. Police officers followed her back to the Mauriello mansion and discovered the pack. Word spread, and for the second time in his life, Lucien Steketee found himself hiding out from an angry mob. But this time, there was no escape: the mob burned the mansion to the ground, with Steketee, Mme. Mauriello and the young vampires inside.
Steketee's body was never found, leading to speculation that he had escaped; a suspicion strengthened during World War II, when several members of the French Resistance reported seeing a man resembling Steketee prowling the sewers. To this day, he is said to emerge from underground on the anniversary of his death to claim a victim. Which is why, before nightfall on December 12th, suspicious Parisians hang garlic and crosses over their doorways.
The Infamous Nephilis
Without question, the most infamous individual vampire in the last four centuries is Nephilis, an Alpha vampire who eluded vampire hunters for well over 300 years.
Nephilis was born in present-day Germany in 1688 and grew up in a world of privilege as Wolrad, Count of Ottweiler. At 6'6" tall, he was a commanding presence and a noted patron of the arts. He also was a notorious womanizer whose exploits earned him the ire of many a cuckolded husband. Fortunately for him, he was an outstanding swordsman and never lost a duel. Wolrad's libidinous pursuits finally landed him in real trouble in 1715, when he was turned by a vampiric prostitute.
The former Wolrad embraced the life of a vampire and changed his name to Nephilis, a nod to the race of beasts in the Bible known as the Nephilim. As was customary among vampires at the time, Nephilis "hid in plain sight." He moved easily through the upper crust of society and eventually married a Hapsburg princess named Elzbieta. He turned her on their wedding night and they lived together for more than 150 years.
Despite Nephilis' stature in society, his activities inevitably drew unwelcome attention and he had to move his base frequently; he lived, for a time, in Amsterdam, London and Madrid. Nephilis' life in Europe came to an end when the King of Spain put a bounty on his head. He made his way to America in the hold of a clipper ship and resumed his pattern of finding wealthy patrons to harbor him until the scrutiny of law enforcement forced him to move on. In the 20th century, he increasingly associated himself with bars, speakeasies and nightclubs, where his nocturnal lifestyle wouldn't stand out and where he could easily lure fresh blood. Since he had always been astute at moving around his vast fortune to avoid seizure, he never had trouble buying property or bribing the right people.
Nephilis saw himself as the Vampire Messiah that Quadilla had written of in the Middle Ages. He spoke 12 languages fluently, was a virtuoso on the piano and was able to attract followers and benefactors with his easy charm. Like a vampiric Forrest Gump, he was allegedly present at many historical events, including the sacking of the Bastille in Paris (1789), the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna (1824), and the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Law enforcement hounded Nephilis relentlessly through the 1950s and 1960s. Their closest call came almost by accident in 1971, when a team of FBI agents stumbled upon his base during a rescue operation at a New York City nightclub. However, Nephilis killed an agent and escaped by leaping atop a moving subway train. After he fled, agents were shocked to discover a labyrinthine complex under the nightclub, including a chapel decorated with human skulls, a pit for live captives and a laboratory where the legendary vampire appeared to be trying to develop a daywalking serum. Since then, there have been no sightings of him.
The Vampires of Studio 54
New York in the summer of 1977 was a city on edge. The Son of Sam killer was gunning people down in their cars, and a blackout on July 13th had paralyzed the city and sent looters running amok in the streets. Amid this atmosphere of fear and paranoia arose reports that a pack of vampires were preying on the young and the hip at Studio 54, the city's most popular discotheque. The rumor was that "54" owner Steve Rubell kept the vampires in a basement crypt and allowed them access to the clubgoers in exchange for a promise of immortality for himself. Though a couple of young men had disappeared after a night at Studio 54, most people discounted the rumors as the stuff of urban legend, and the disco remained popular.
One Studio 54 regular was not so quick to dismiss the story: Geraldo Rivera, a brash young reporter for ABC-TV. Rivera was looking to make a name for himself and thought that breaking the vampire story would be a sure way to put him on the map. His sources for the story were a group of disgruntled former Studio 54 employees. All claimed they were fired by Rubell when they refused to keep quiet about the vampires. One Sunday afternoon, former 54 bartender Francisco Birney snuck Rivera through a back entrance into the Studio 54 basement and showed him a mysterious locked vault where he claimed that the vampires slept during the day.
Rivera pitched the story to his superiors at ABC; they were wary and suggested he find an expert who could give the story credibility. Damien Gould fit the bill. Gould was a respected, thirty-year vampire hunting vet who had fallen on hard times and needed the cash promised by Rivera and ABC.
Rivera talked his bosses into making the crypt-opening a one-hour live special. The show was hyped as the first assault on vampires ever carried on live television, although the location of the assault was kept undisclosed so as not to tip off Rubell and Studio 54 management. The cryptic marketing campaign intrigued the nation, and on the night of September 4, 1977, approximately 40 million Americans sat down in front of their TV sets to watch host David Hartman introduce the special with the words "we're about to do something that has never been done before."
After a taped introduction featuring interviews from the former Studio 54 employees, the show went to a live shot of Rivera in a van parked behind the disco. The cameras followed him, Gould and Francisco Birney into the basement, where Birney unlocked the vault. Inside the dark, cramped space lay two dusty coffins. The television audience held its collective breath as Rivera pried open one of the coffins and the camera captured the image of a what appeared to be a male vampire at rest. Suddenly, the vampire's eyes snapped open and, as the camera rolled, he leaped out of the coffin and attacked Rivera. A melee ensued. When the dust settled, Rivera had a broken nose and Damien Gould had his burly arms wrapped around the alleged vampire: former 54 doorman Robert Mendez, complete with plastic fangs. Rivera promised "to get to the bottom of this" as the live shot cut back to the studio and a flummoxed David Hartman.
In all, five former Studio 54 employees were involved in the hoax. They admitted that they had hatched the scheme in the hopes of bringing bad publicity to Rubell and Studio 54. It was only after they got Rivera involved did they begin to see an opportunity to get what 54 patron Andy Warhol might have called "their 15 minutes of fame."
Studio 54 was eventually brought down, but it was the tax man, not vampires, who did the job. As for Rivera, although his reputation took a hit and he became something of a laughingstock, he survived the embarrassment and continued his career in television. Damien Gould was not so lucky: humiliated, he sank into a pit of drinking and despair and died in a rooming house far from the bright lights of Studio 54.
Posted on Aug 18, 2006, 6:44 AM from IP address 138.88.231.21
A vampire is an anthropophagous human infected with the mutagenic virus, Hematic anthropophagia. Due to an altered immune system, vampires frequently practice hematophagy on uninfected humans. They mainly bite a victim's neck, extracting the blood from the carotid artery. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and lethal reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism, Hematic anthropophagia, is a very old and well evolved symbiotic virus which benefits it's host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
Hematic anthropophagia in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viri cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viri which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. The Hematic anthropophagia virus works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This has two effects. Firstly, it means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems. Secondly it means that the individual stays mostly human in appearance, the new DNA only serving to enhance the existing structure rather than change it completely.
Biology
During the transition from human to vampire an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic transformations. A person who comes out of a vampiric coma fully transformed will have undergone a number of major physiological changes affecting the various systems of the body. The central nervous system is where some of the most dramatic changes take place.
One of Hematic anthropophagia's most dramatic effects is on the immune system. The virus causes increased activity from white cells, increasing their 'kill' sensitivity. Negative effects from the restructuring of the immune system include the occasional misidentification of the host's own cells. This especially occurs when skin cells contain melanin levels beyond a host's natural level as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light. The slight modification of cell chemistry is enough for the newly hyper-active immune system to kill them. Sufficient exposure to sunlight will cause destruction of the host's skin by their own immune system. As the skin dies it will first blister then flake and blacken, and finally sloughs off, resulting in massive blood loss, blood poisoning by non-sterile contact and, rapidly, death.
One of the most profound effects of the Hematic anthropophagia plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to molecules and DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. The changes also effect the genes responsible for the metabolic processes involved in aging, by completely suppressing their function. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue almost indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to increased resistance to disease, efficient healing and the cessation of aging at the point of the vampiric coma.
Hematic anthropophagia accelerates the immune system to the point of destroying almost all foreign proteins. This makes it impossible for a vampire to consume plants or animal flesh and derive an amount of nutrition adequate for survival. The vampire's immune system would identify the proteins as harmful invaders and destroy the majority of the proteins before they could be utilized, and little nutrition would be gained. Thus, vampires can only derive adequate nutrition from humans.
Naturally vampires are obligate cannibals, eating human flesh rather than simply drinking the blood. However Hematic anthropophagia causes metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that human blood alone contains enough iron, carbohydrates, fats, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins to easily meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. Therefore, a vampire can survive solely on a diet of human blood. A blood-diet serves as a deliberate conservation strategy. Drinking the blood leaves an anemic victim that can recover over time and serve as a future food source, while eating the flesh basically relegates the victim to single serving status.
Modifications to the digestive system includes anticoagulants that stop blood from curdling in the stomach, thereby preventing any emetic effects of ingesting blood.
The Brain
The introduction of Hematic anthropophagia DNA in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and certain neurotransmitter production is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amyglada and the visual cortex (the areas around the brain stem and outer-back of the brain). The amyglada is the most primitive part of the brain, linked mainly with the powerful fight-or-flight reflex. A vampire will suffer increased aggression and reactions, particularly to physically threatening situations. Arousal of a combative nature will have a greater effect. There is also personality changes and mood swings since overriding the more powerful instincts become harder.
The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Night vision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum increases by ten percent. This enables high speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick. This gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters responsible for memory and cognition. A similar process is responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell. They also have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans. In fact, vampires usually smell or hear a person coming long before they see one.
Synaptic interconnections between the anterior cingulate gyrus and the rest of the brain become much lower than normal, partially isolating the core of the brain from the neocortex. Since the anterior cingulate gyrus's ventral area is related to emotional cognition, vampires have a highly diminished conscience and empathy for their fellow beings; they are all clinically sociopathic.
Anatomy
Vampire have increased strength, speed and stamina as the result of an increased level of natural hormones similar to anabolic steroids, as well as altered epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine levels.
During the vampiric coma, the upper canine teeth experience growth. Additional enamel is also deposited on the crown of those teeth, slightly elongated them into the classic fangs. Although they are not as quite pronounced as popular mythology claims. However, many vampires will file the canines to make them sharper for easier feeding.
Vampires can be killed in all the same ways that a human can with the exception of disease and some poisons. The misconception that vampires can not be killed by conventional means stems from their greater pain threshold, their considerable strength and the fact that their blood clots much faster and wounds knit at an accelerated rate. A bullet in the chest (missing the heart) will often kill a human just from the shock and blood loss, whereas a vampire would be able to keep going whilst the wound is sealed with a clot to prevent bleeding to death.
Vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than most humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently too. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. There has never been a reported case of a vampire having cancer.
The high fever during infection and the genetic transformation process during the vampiric coma causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
Transmission
Although the tiny dose of virus present in the saliva that passes during a feeding is usually insufficient to infect a healthy human, if enough blood is withdrawn to severely weaken a victim's immune system, they will be infected with Hematic anthropophagia. If a victim's immune system is weakened by numerous feedings by a vampire, they will eventually be infected as well. Six or seven feedings within a thirty day period is usually enough. If the victim's blood loss is not severe enough to discernably compromise the immune response (which is usually the case), the virus is easily dealt with by the immune system and eradicated.
Within hours of being bitten to the point of being infected, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours.
Within 24 hours of being bitten, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampires sleep in coffins. Only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset.
A bite victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation.
Demographics
The vast majority (about 80 percent) of vampires are males who were between the ages of 18 and 35 upon transformation. Another 10 percent are females between the ages of 15 and 35 upon transformation. The remaining 10 percent are males and females slightly outside the 15 to 35 age range upon transformation. The racial and ethnic makeup of a pack will generally mirror that of the local populace. Alpha Vampires are usually, but not always, male.
Despite the fact that they do not age on a cellular level, vampire mortality rates have always been high. In 1800, a newly transformed vampire could expect to live 10 years on average. By 1900, that number had dropped to 5 years. In 1960, that number was only 2 years. The leading causes of death have also changed with the times. In the Middle Ages, vampiricide, or murder by other vampires, was the leading cause of death. By 1930, vampire hunters had become the number one killer.
Vampire myths
Most vampire myths come to us from the Dark Ages, when science was in its infancy and people looked to religion or superstition to explain the world around them. While many vampire myths have their basis in Christian orthodoxy, others represent imaginative interpretations of actual vampire behavior.
The myth that vampires sleep in coffins probably arose from gravediggers and others who observed vampires emerging from coffins and crypts. If a vampire did spend the night in a coffin, it probably had nothing to do with sleeping preference. In the old days, many victims of vampire bites were interred while still in a vampiric coma. The truth is, vampires will sleep wherever they feel safe.
Many vampire myths are rooted in religious beliefs. Crosses have no effect on vampires and holy water, or any water for that matter, has little effect on vampires (although vampires can be drowned).
It's possible that vampires themselves spread these myths to engender a false sense of security among their prey.
A lot of other myths-that vampires can fly, or shapeshift, or that they don't reflect in mirrors-are pure fiction as well. But it's worth remembering that these creatures were both faster and more intelligent than humans, and their superlative pattern-matching skills would have given them a real advantage in "blending in" via crypsis; it's quite likely that one might seem to disappear simply by fading into shadow, or adopting a posture that broke up its outline against the background. Combine such a vanishing act with, for example, the flushing of some startled animal caught in its path, and a primitive human might think that some kind of shape-shift had occurred. In addition since, vampires do possess extraordinary leaping ability (vampires have been observed leaping over fences 20 feet high), it is possible this lead to the myth that vampire can fly.
Posted on Aug 7, 2006, 4:25 AM from IP address 138.88.231.21
A vampire is an anthropophagous human infected with a mutagenic retrovirus named Hematic anthropophagia. Due to an altered immune system, vampires frequently practice hematophagy on uninfected humans. They are known to mainly bite a victim's neck, extracting the blood from the carotid artery. Vampires are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity, and lethal reaction to sunlight.
Pathology
The virus for vampirism, Hematic anthropophagia, is a very old and well evolved symbiotic retrovirus which benefits it's host in many ways rather than killing it. Newer virus like the Ebola virus show their lack of adaptation in the fact that they destroy their hosts thereby running the risk of destroying themselves. A successful virus seeks symbiosis with it's host, not destruction.
Hematic anthropophagia in many ways resembles a very primitive virus called a prion. Most viri cause disease by infiltrating the host's systems then attacking specific cells and replacing the DNA of the cell with a copy of their own thus creating more viri which then attack more cells and so on. The body of the host then recognizes these infected cells as foreign matter and the immune system works to eradicate them. The Hematic anthropophagia virus works in much the same way except that the virus attacks nearly all of the hosts systems and works to adapt rather than change the DNA within the cells, adding extra 'mini-chromosomes' called plasmids to the human DNA rather than replacing it completely. This has two effects. Firstly, it means that the host's immune system is partly fooled into believing that the adapted cells are still normal and are less aggressive in their removal of them, giving the virus more time to spread through out the body's systems. Secondly it means that the individual stays mostly human in appearance, the new DNA only serving to enhance the existing structure rather than change it completely.
Biology
During the transition from human to vampire an individual undergoes neurophysical, anatomical and genetic transformations. A person who comes out of a vampiric coma fully transformed will have undergone a number of major physiological changes affecting the various systems of the body.
One of Hematic anthropophagia's most dramatic effects is on the immune system. The virus causes increased activity from white cells, increasing their 'kill' sensitivity. Negative effects from the restructuring of the immune system include the occasional misidentification of the host's own cells. This especially occurs when skin cells contain melanin levels beyond a host's natural level as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light. The slight modification of cell chemistry is enough for the newly hyper-active immune system to kill them. Sufficient exposure to sunlight will cause destruction of the host's skin by their own immune system. As the skin dies it will first blister then flake and blacken, and finally sloughs off, resulting in massive blood loss, blood poisoning by non-sterile contact and, rapidly, death.
Hematic anthropophagia also accelerates the immune system to the point of destroying almost all foreign proteins. This makes it impossible for a vampire to consume plant or animal matter and derive an amount of nutrition adequate for survival. The vampire's immune system would identify the proteins as harmful invaders and destroy the majority of the proteins before they could be utilized, and little nutrition would be gained. Thus, vampires can only derive adequate nutrition from humans.
Naturally vampires are obligate cannibals, eating human flesh rather than simply drinking the blood. However Hematic anthropophagia causes metabolic functions to be altered and enhanced to such an astonishing degree that human blood alone contains enough iron, carbohydrates, fats, amino acids/proteins, and vitamins to easily meet the nutritional needs of a vampire. Therefore, a vampire can survive solely on a diet of human blood. A blood-diet serves as a deliberate conservation strategy. Drinking the blood leaves an anemic victim that can recover over time and serve as a future food source, while eating the flesh basically relegates the victim to single serving status. Any emetic effects of ingesting blood are prevented due to modifications to the digestive system that includes anticoagulants that stop blood from curdling in the stomach.
Another profound effect of the Hematic anthropophagia plasmids is to switch on the gene which controls the production of telomerase (an enzyme that prevents chromosome degeneration) and to boost its effectiveness with a version of its own in the packet of genetic material that fuses with the host's chromosomes. Genetic alterations also result in a biochemistry that completely protects the cells from ionization damage to DNA caused mainly by natural oxidation, primarily free radicals. The changes also effect the genes responsible for the metabolic processes involved in aging, by completely suppressing their function. So as a vampire lives, cell division can continue indefinitely allowing cell damage to be repaired effectively leading to increased resistance to disease, efficient healing and the cessation of aging at the point of the vampiric coma.
The Brain
The introduction of Hematic anthropophagia DNA in to the host makeup produces a number of other effects in the brain. Blood flow to various areas of the brain is increased and the production of certain neurotransmitters is stimulated. The areas most affected are the amyglada and the visual cortex (the areas around the brain stem and outer-back of the brain). The amyglada is the most primitive part of the brain, linked mainly with the powerful fight-or-flight reflex. A vampire will suffer increased aggression and reactions, particularly to physically threatening situations. Arousal of a combative nature will have a greater effect. There is also personality changes and mood swings since overriding the more powerful instincts become harder.
The changes to the visual cortex cause vision to become more acute. Processing of images proceeds faster. Night vision is enhanced within certain parameters. The eyes themselves undergo no change, but a large part of human low light sight deficiency is due to the time it takes the brain to process darkened images. The information collected by the eyes is unchanged, but it is processed better.
The size of the corpus callosum increases by ten percent. This enables high-speed broadband communication between hemispheres. Their motor neuron nerve axons become almost twice as thick, which gives vampires faster signal transmission and faster reflexes than humans. Vampires also have enhanced intelligence because of an increased the potency of neurotransmitters involved in memory and cognition. Another neurotransmitter, dopamine induces feelings of well-being. In vampires, it is released during feeding and has a narcotic-like effect. Neural pathways activated in vampires during feeding are much like those found in addicts when using drugs.
Neurotransmitter potency is also responsible for enhanced senses of hearing and smell in vampires. They also have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans. In fact, vampires usually smell or hear a person coming long before they see one.
Synaptic interconnections between the anterior cingulate gyrus and the rest of the brain become much lower than normal, partially isolating the core of the brain from the neocortex. Since the anterior cingulate gyrus's ventral area is related to emotional cognition, vampires have a diminished capacity for moral comprehension and empathy for their fellow beings; they are all clinically sociopathic.
Anatomy
Vampire have increased strength, speed and stamina as the result of an increased level of natural hormones similar to anabolic steroids, as well as altered epinephrine (adrenalin) and norepinephrine levels. They can be killed in all the same ways that an uninfected human can with the exception of disease and some poisons. The misconception that vampires can not be killed by conventional means stems from their greater pain threshold, their considerable strength and the fact that their blood clots much faster and wounds knit at an accelerated rate. A bullet in the chest (missing the heart) will often kill a human just from the shock and blood loss, whereas a vampire would be able to keep going whilst the wound is sealed with a clot to prevent bleeding to death.
Vampires enjoy a more efficient metabolism than most humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently too. Vampires are the very model of good health. They have low cholesterol and blood pressure and no heart disease. There has never been a reported case of a vampire having cancer.
During the vampiric coma, the upper canine teeth experience growth. Additional enamel is also deposited on the crown of those teeth, slightly elongating and sharpening their tips into the classic fangs. Although they are not as quite pronounced as popular mythology claims.
The high fever during infection and the genetic transformation process during the vampiric coma causes the gonads of vampires to be rendered nonfunctional. As a result, vampires are universally sterile.
Viral transmission
Although the tiny dose of virus present in the saliva that passes during a feeding is usually insufficient to infect a healthy human, if enough blood is withdrawn to severely weaken a victim's immune system, they will be infected with Hematic anthropophagia. A victim will also eventually be infected and turned if their immune system is weakened by numerous feedings by a vampire. Five or six feedings within a fifteen day period is usually enough. If the victim's blood loss is not severe enough to discernibly compromise the immune response (which is usually the case), the virus is easily dealt with by the immune system and eradicated.
Within hours of being bitten to the point of being infected, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours.
Within 24 hours of being bitten, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampires sleep in coffins. Only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset.
A bite victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation.
Demographics and life expectancy
The vast majority (about 80 percent) of vampires are males who were between the ages of 18 and 35 upon transformation. Another 10 percent are females between the ages of 15 and 35 upon transformation. The remaining 10 percent are males and females slightly outside the 15 to 35 age range upon transformation. The racial and ethnic makeup of a pack will generally mirror that of the local populace.
Despite the fact that they do not age on a cellular level, vampire mortality rates have always been high. In 1850, a newly transformed vampire could expect to live 10 years on average. By 1950, that number had dropped to 5 years. Today that number is only 2 years. The leading causes of death have also changed with the times. In the Middle Ages, vampiricide, or murder by other vampires, was the leading cause of death. By 1930, vampire hunters had become the number one killer.
Vampire myths
Most vampire myths come to us from the Dark Ages, when science was in its infancy and people looked to religion or superstition to explain the world around them. While many vampire myths have their basis in Christian orthodoxy, others represent imaginative interpretations of actual vampire behavior.
The myth that vampires sleep in coffins arose from gravediggers and others who observed vampires emerging from coffins and crypts. If a vampire did spend the night in a coffin, it probably had nothing to do with sleeping preference. In the old days, many victims of vampire bites were interred while still in a vampiric coma. The truth is, vampires will sleep wherever they feel safe.
The myth that garlic repels vampires is most likely based on observation since vampires have sensitive noses and can momentarily be driven off by pungent odors. However, this method of deterrence is unreliable and certainly won't work on an experienced vampire.
Many vampire myths are rooted in religious beliefs. Crosses have no effect on vampires and holy water, or any water for that matter, has little effect on vampires (although vampires can be drowned).
It's possible that vampires themselves spread these myths to engender a false sense of security among their prey.
A lot of other myths-that vampires can fly, or shape-shift, or that they don't reflect in mirrors-are pure fiction as well. But it's worth remembering that these creatures were both faster and more intelligent than humans, and their superlative pattern-matching skills would have given them a real advantage in "blending in" via crypsis; it's quite likely that one might seem to disappear simply by fading into shadow, or adopting a posture that broke up its outline against the background. Combine such a vanishing act with, for example, the flushing of some startled animal caught in its path, and a primitive human might think that some kind of shape-shift had occurred. In addition since, vampires do possess extraordinary leaping ability (vampires have been observed leaping over fences 20 feet high), it is possible this lead to the myth that vampires can fly.
Posted on Aug 7, 2006, 9:51 PM from IP address 138.88.231.21
First of all I want to say you did a great job on research about the neurophysiological appearances. But there are some corrections to be made:
1. Maybe it's just wrong spelling, but it Amygdala. It's located between the ventricles and the prefrontal lobe and it's mostly used for recognition between a hostile event and pain perception. The Fight-or-Flight you are talking about, is actually an interaction between the amygdala, the pitual gland and the limbic system. Recognize, judge and act. One function of the body can't be labeled to only one part of the brain.
2. The 10% increase of the corpus collasum is impossible. If the corpus collasum would expand, means that the gyrus cingularis would be stretched, the ventricles shortened and most of the brain being bulged into a smaller packet. Which would mean that the reaction times wouldn't increase. What you maybe mean is that the anterograde communication between the hemispheres improves with 10% by making more synaptical contacts with more axons.
3. Anterior cingulate gyrus? Sorry, but I think you mean lateral or medial cingulate gyrus. The cingulate gyrus is a cross-section, not a trangessional.
4. A vampire doesn't extract blood from carotid artery. It extracts it from the jugalaris artery. Which contradicts many things what you said, for the jugalaris is for blood flow back to the lungs (so it contains no oxygen and most of it's nutritions are already extracted in the body).
Misanthropical Greetings,
Graven
Posted on Oct 9, 2006, 11:41 PM from IP address 134.184.124.138
Well,
One of my favorite movies, Bloodrayne, is finally out on DVD!
Similar to the popular video game, the film is based on a sexy, supernatural huntress named BloodRayne (Loken), who is an unholy breed of human and vampire. She is an explosive force with gymnastic dexterity and has an intense lust for blood and action. Trained by a secret agency called the Brimstone Society which hunts down and eliminates supernatural threats around the globe, BloodRayne is confronted by the deadliest of all creatures, the powerful and evil Kagan, King of the Vampires (Kingsley). Davis portrays Sebastian and Madsen is Vladimir, two of the greatest vampire hunters. Rodriguez plays Katarin, who runs the local Brimstone Society chapter.
Did ya'll like it too? I thinking the fight scenes are a little bit too slow.
But the movie is overall kick-ass!
Thoughts and opinions?
Posted on Jun 8, 2006, 8:18 PM from IP address 63.203.121.193
I shall most likely never know if this will ever be read by you, my dear Selene. yet I shall take my chances.
I don't really know why I'm doing this, I guess I just couldn't resist the urge. This is my way of letting you know that I haven't forgotten you and since I lost your adress, this will have to do.
There are so many things I'd like to ask you, yet only time can tell if I will ever get that chance.
Where ever you are, know that I'm still thinking of you and take care
I wish you best of luck.
Yours Faithfully,
Amalia Riddle.
Posted on Apr 12, 2006, 9:03 PM from IP address 82.171.205.185
I know it seems as a desperate act, I must admit, it is.
I don't know why but I miss you and I long to talk to you again.
Know that I wrote you 4 letters since April this year, letters I intend to give or send to you. Wether this shall happen or not, is up to you.
It is all up to you, my dear friend.
Yours Always,
Amalia.
Posted on Jul 31, 2006, 3:00 PM from IP address 81.68.114.71
After I read some messaged I got inspired and wrote a little poem, so here goes nothing I guess.
Right and wrong
Cruelty can be called a lady
Cunning like the night
Shameless like a whore
She knows what she has got
And she knows how to use it
Being part of a superior race
Never has done the lower class any good
We need embodiment to survive
Your embodiment to be precise
Stop crying at their side
It only will make us despise you more
How weak, how unworthy
Foolish creatures that are too scared to live this life to its maximum
Live life or drop dead, as wise man used to say
Do not worry, I will help you on your way
Everything with a beginning has an end
And your purpose in this life is nothing more than to die
Your beliefs makes me sick to my stomach
Your god has done nothing for you
Still you pray day after day
Your god has only brought you misery
Still you thank him day after day
I shall not bow at his throne
I was released once
Yet I never was in the state you are now
I never believed
Only in myself
A man can change his stars
I know that my words are wasted to your deaf ears
So do as you please
Live your empty life
And I shall await you by the end of it…..
~Amalia
Hope you enjoyed the show..
Posted on Jan 29, 2006, 7:56 PM from IP address 82.171.205.185
boared,
I am sitting at my pc (again_) nobody 's here .
it's a long,long time being a vampire and iv'e got many freinds bud no one will'e share my life with me, so do you want to share it with me just say where.
gr lestat...
ps,al my vampire freinds life retreded,they don't live in they open like i do.
Posted on Oct 24, 2005, 1:15 PM from IP address 84.81.97.1
it gets this way some times... not many people return to this site. but there are the few that keep the it somewhat alive. i shall check this forum regularly so feel free to post. that goes for anyone.
Posted on Oct 30, 2005, 3:17 AM from IP address 60.226.219.65
if you are so bored,
most vamps have msn and stuff these days
you can add me to your messenger if you like,
then maybe you wont be bored anymore;)
that goes for everyone who wants to contact me
Posted on Jan 10, 2006, 3:41 PM from IP address 84.105.37.128
I want to share with you, monsieur lestat (may i call you monsieur lestat? You don't mind, do you).sometimes i feel bored too, it's common feeling. i don't care and i don't mind if you are a vampire, hmmm, actually i like call your kind the immortal. And if you want to share please email me d_eeva@yahoo.co.id or d_eeva@blog.com. Or if you want please call, this is the number of my self-phone 6281575193779.
Posted on Jan 11, 2006, 6:51 AM from IP address 80.247.150.18
I'm sorry to hear you're bored, although you're not the first and most certainly aren't the last. Sweet sweet boredom have driven decent man insane.. That is if they aren't already.. Okay how about some small talk to kill more our precious time?
Hope to hear from you soon,
~Amalia.
Posted on Jan 29, 2006, 7:02 PM from IP address 82.171.205.185
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