World Building Unique vampire folklore

[Perpetual Zen]

I guess this is world building. I'm working on creating a type of vampire based on eastern north american folk lore roleplay. But I am wondering, how do you personally portray vampires in your story?

Just super open concept conversation be kind everyone has different views. What are vampires to you

 

[nerdy tangents]

I’m not sure I understand the question?

Are you wanting thoughts on different folklore surrounding vampires or vampires as a specific literary device?

Or do you mean specifically how should roleplays integrate vampires as an available character choice?

 

[Perpetual Zen]

all of it

 

[nerdy tangents]

Alright fair warning I am a massive folklore nerd so I am pretty much always on the side of “give me more lore always”.

However in my experiences this is a very niche opinion that does not translate to a wider audience. So I will break up my comments into “Nerdy’s Opinions” and “Roleplay Tips”.

roleplay tips
So in roleplays I feel like your best bet is to ground vampires in your particular setting.

If it’s a romantic story then focus on the literary elements of vampires, as “dark lovers”. Explore how vampire relationship dynamics work (with themselves and other races). Their feeding should be inconvienent but not particularly difficult or dangerous.

If it’s more of a slice of life story or horror themed. Than focus on vampires as apex predators. How do their various traits help them hunt? How do they view humans, as prey or mates?

If it’s more of a fantasy narrative than diversity their species. Don’t just stick to Hollywood vampires, look at various origins and incorporate them into your story. Work out how different subspecies of vampires would work with each other.

nerdy opinions
Now personally I like the idea of vampires as altered humans or witches. I love to ground them in the everyday magic of being a different species walking around the earth. So like I do extensive work into figuring out their diet, their sleeping habits, how they would interact with their non vampire kin or friends.

I have a whole school which is just teenage vampires dicking around as perpetual students. I love to do a playful mix of modernity and traditionalism with these kids. Sense kids by their nature are always looking forward but how does that change if your a kid forever?

As for different folklore I love it, vampires and mermaids are found across the globe so I love to see how different cultures interprate the same theme in radically different ways. Personal favorites are Scottish / Irish vampires (cuz I’m a sucker for women being complex and both prey and predator)

 

[Perpetual Zen]

Opening this discussion up further. Anyone else have some interesting folk lore they would like to share? Anything you grow up with? Just really loving looking into the history of folk lore lately super inspiring!

 

[Daisie]

Honestly I grew up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so whenever I think of vampires, I just think of that. Vampires being "sired" when a human drinks their blood, killed with decapitation or wooden stakes, all that jazz.

I think my favourite aspect of their existence is the concept of their souls. A vampire is classed in the series as a type of demon, meaning once they're converted, they lack a soul. This makes them clinically unable to distinguish between right and wrong, which I love.

It stokes a lot of philosophical questions about if vampires can truly be "evil" if they don't have the capacity to understand it.

 

[Perpetual Zen]

I never got into buffy
I do find the common topic of vampires being soul sucking monsters with no souls themselves. Really symbolic to a power dynamic. Mostly economical
I find it interesting how vampires vary in different culture but all have that soul sucking nature to them, this is true.
I think it also has to do with exploring evil without the consequences of moral guilt. Justifying slavery and other abominable things

 

[nerdy tangents]

If you are wanting some unique vampire folklore specifically here are a few links to check out ::

Irish Vampire (female) - Dearg Due (Female Vampire): Irishman's 2024 Tale

Scottish Vampire - Baobhan sith - Wikipedia

Mexican Vampire - Tlahuelpuchi - Wikipedia

The Monster Blog of Monsters ::
(This is an HP blog but they go pretty in-depth in their invented lines and also incorporate pre-existing folklore into the series framework)