If Vampirism Was An Actual Condition...

Just for shits and giggles.

For the purpose of our discussion, let's assume...

the PROS of vampirism...
-you are physically faster, stronger, and more agile than before.
-you are somewhat more cunning and very skilled at persuading the weak minded
-you are quite good at sneaking about, particularly in very dark conditions
-your senses of smell, hearing, and vision are all drastically improved
-you can transform into a bat/mist
-the majority of wounds don't affect you
-no more getting sick or poisoned
-limited immortality (you will not die of old age or age at all, but you can still be killed)

the CONS of vampirism...
-I won't delve into the religious, so the jury's out on sacred ground and holy water
-you cannot cross running water
-you are repelled by garlic
-you must drink blood to feed; other forms of sustenance are not nutritionally beneficial
-ventures into the sunlight are excruciatingly painful
-you cannot enter residences withut permission (this is the reason I don't have a "WELCOME" doormat)
-fire is far more frightening than it was before, and heat repels you

I probably strayed a bit, we can adjust the definitions of vampirism as it goes on. Vampirism is transferred by a bite and can only take affect if the victim so chooses. Bearing in mind the aggressive nature of any hungry animal and the fact an undead cannibal likely has some major bacteria, the alternative to vampirism is probably DEATH.

We can institute the crosses/sacred ground weaknesses, but I didn't want a religious argument spinoff. Although it would let me bring up Father Callahan...

All that being said, would you take vampirism? Under what situations? What would you do if you became a vampire? Suicide? Try to live morally? Abandon morals? How would governments or people react to widespread, concrete evidence of vampirism? Do the benefits outweigh the weaknesses?

It's hard to say really, it's probably comparable to becoming schizophrenic in a way, you're going to be seen as different from others from the start. Problems like needing blood, which involves attacking people isn't exactly my cuppa.

In short, given the choice, I'd rather be a weakling, but be able to go on with normal life than sacrifice that for a handful of abilities and a load of hate.

Vampirism exists as a state of mind doesn't it? Like the need to drink blood? I don't think you'd get any of the cool super powers or anything, but I'm pretty sure it exists if just in the desire to drink blood form.

To hell with normal, life and daytime. I wanna be a Vampire. Even if it doesn't justify the reason to wear Leather everywhere and shades all the time, I am pretty sure few people would do something about it.

Pretty much everything on that list is a Pro anyways. Well, except the fear of fire. Being a Pyro that seems a bit of a downside.

Totally. Anything to become closer to the masterrace.

There are two types of vampires, people claim to be them, and you can see them in fiction.

The vampire you speak of is Sanguine vampires. Blood drinkers. To me, any form of water should hurt a vampire, some fiction does that instead of holy water. Makes sense. What is water? Water is a form of life, everything on Earth requires water in some form or fashion. Vampires are undead. Not alive any longer. They no longer require water. To me makes sense if they at LEAST have an aversion to water itself.

As the old folklore goes, there was only one way to kill a vampire, and it was not a stake, or sunlight. ((Hint hint, original folklore said vampires did not die in sunlight, and could freely walk in the daytime. They were just nocturnal so chose to come out at night and sleep during the day.))

You had to stake them in the heart. I presume this took away their immortality. Like, remove the stake, it could come back to life. A few fictions depict that. Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver, Batman vs Dracula. As examples.

Stake them, then, you remove their head, and in some cases, their limbs, and bury that in a coffin. Others removed the head like that, then burned the body.

Lets play with the idea of you stake a vampire in the heart, it removes its immortality as long as the stake is in. Remove it and they are back.

If they are no longer immortal, they are practically dead now. And dead bodies burn... You could burn their flesh away, and while staked, could not regenerate or escape. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Oh, I mentioned two types of vampires. Sanguine are these. The others? Psychic vampires, who feed on the prana, life force, of other beings. I do not think they have most of the weaknesses of other vampires. But that is more of a modern take on vampires really.

With Psychic vampires, can I just compare them to the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis?

I think I would take it, but I would try and work around it.

A job at the Red Cross could solve the blood issue. I know it's probably more metaphorical (ex. feeding off life, hence the aversion to water/sunlight) than biological, but if we were looking at biologically that could be a viable option.

Yeah that would make sense.

Heck, there are blood donors that let vampires drink their blood, and those are not the real ones, either crazies, roleplayers gone too far, or just want to live the lifestyle.

Join one of those groups. As a real vampire you would blend right in, and feed on those donors. To everyone else you are normal, no one would realize they are feeding a real vampire. If this were a biological thing, it could mean a lot of real vampires would be there with you.

Comes to this, would you be willing to drink someones blood forcefully? Not killing them just feeding?

Or would you take permission?

There speaks of your character.

Ah, a true dilemma.

That does raise moral issues, because it's a slippery slope from there to killing for survival. Not to mention that with immortality, I'm sure a certain disregard for life comes, or at least appreciation of the fear of death.

So to that....I don't honestly know. I'd like to think I wouldn't, but if we were all as idealist as we thought we were, the world would be quite different.

If push did come to shove, I would at least aim for a hospice. Not that that lessens the barbarism, haha.

The real key to vampirism would be having whatever that strange condition is where your organs are flipped on your body; the heart is on the right side. You could feign death with a stake to the heart quite easily, although a more professional vampire killer would follow through more thoroughly, that could give you the edge.

Well with immortality, you could get 'surgery' and have your organs moved. Not sure how easy it would be to move your heart to another side mind you, but it is something lol, and over the centuries you could be potentially alive, money is no object.

Depending on your willingness to look aside moral issues, you would make a FORTUNE as a PMC or even a regular soldier.

A regular soldier might be trickier, as someone's bound to notice that Private Jones has stayed Private Jones for sixty years now.

Lol exactly. Would be pretty weird when looking back they see you fought in the Civil War.

Which could make PMCs a more preferable choice. Something tells me Blackwat-oh, I'm sorry, "Xe" isn't exactly the tightest with its choosing of personnel.

While you'd still draw a bit of suspicion, I hear mercenaries make quite a nice paycheck, not to mention food/board is covered (food in the sense that there will be dead bodies, or at least wounded people, which thus means nearby blood transfusions).

Blood transfusion.. But, wouldn't blood type matter?

Depends I guess. Vampires feed on blood for nourishment. It may matter if it is a type of a virus or something, or if it is just your more normal vampirism, not sure if it even would matter.

Ah, I see. I never was sure of that.

Well it depends how the blood is being used.

See all the old folklore has vampire hearts not pumping. So what is the blood being used for?

Just depends how far you push the vampire thing.

That makes sense. This is all quite interesting.

Okay, so I have this new thing to fly by you guys with vampirism.

What if you had a kind of mutant or whatever, who could steal the stem cells within your blood?

Stem cells can differentiate between new cells. Like stem cells inside a splitting egg cell, any of those cells have the potential to grow an entire organism.

What if when a vampire, this type of vampire, I shall call a vampyre cause it is witty, and to differentiate between the others talked about here, fed on blood not as a food source, but to steal stem cells?

Maybe they even bite into your bones to your bone marrow, wanting the stem cells. I see vampyres as the kind of vampires that rip their victims apart, not just a small bite wound possibly.

With these stolen stem cells, say part of their genetic mutations is their body now incorporates them, and those stem cells differentiate and, in a sense, regenerate the vampyre. Entire organs could be regenerated. Perhaps they can store stem cells as well, so when they have massive injuries to internal organs, they could then, sub-consciously without a thought, regenerate organs and such. Brain damage? Regenerates. All it could take is a base part of the brain, like the brain stem, to be intact, and it could start the regeneration process of regrowing nerve tissue and brain tissue.

A stake to the heart though, would stop blood flow, no oxygen to the brain, thus, no brain activity. No brain activity, no regeneration. Bam, vampire powers, using closer to pure science.

However there are problems with this idea, stem cells in your blood will not regenerate organs, but only blood. This would mean they would feed on people and steal different stem cells for different parts of their bodies. Possibly attack women that are pregnant, and, perhaps, find a way to feed on her blood, that pulls a stem cell or two from her fetus. Could keep them both alive, and that one stem cell can regenerate a whole body, a whole organism. Cells can only split so many finite times though. So it would take a more constant rate of feeding to replenish the supply, and thus keep regenerating.

And, if you can regenerate any tissue, that also means you can ADD tissue. More muscle mass, more nerve clusters, more brain mass, etc. Senses could go up, strength, up, etc.

The other point here, is possibly an infinite number of cells turning over. Another words, constant regeneration, new cells taking place, etc, means, biological immortality possibly. Old cells would die away, and the new cells from stem cells would take their place.

I do not know, what do you guys think?