Vampire Physiology

"There are as many types of vampire as there are disease; some are virulent and deadly, and some just make you walk funny and avoid fruit."

- Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

"Well, you can still be destroyed but... Forget the books and the movies. Garlic? It's worthless. A cross? Pfft! Shove it right up their ass! Hahahaha! A stake? Only if it catches you in the heart, and then it just paralyzes you. Runnin' water? Ah, that's no problem. I bathe... eh... occasionally. Now, a shotgun blast to the head? Oh, that's trouble, boy. Fire? That's real trouble. Sunlight? Well, you catch a sunrise and it's all over, kiddo. Get it?"

- Smilin' Jack, answering whether you, as a newly-embraced Kindred, will live forever, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

The ability to use the abilities of a Vampire. Variation of Undead Physiology. Opposite to Kresnik Physiology.

Also Called

 * Homines Nocturnae Physiology (Marvel Comics)
 * Homo Vampyrus Physiology (Humans Only)
 * Vampire Mimicry
 * Vampiric Mimicry/Physiology
 * Vampirism
 * Vampyre Physiology/Mimicry
 * Vrykolakas

Capabilities
User with this ability either is or can transform into a Vampire, a being who subsists by feeding on the life essence of living creatures (often in the form of blood), regardless of whether the vampire is undead or a living person/being. While all vampires need some form of life-essence, the quality and quantity vary greatly: from daily to rarely, from needing lethal amounts to barely notable, from sentient blood freshly drained to rare steak.

Physically vampires are similar to their non-vampiric species, but exact changes their state causes vary greatly: more common effects include pale/white skin, glowing eyes (possibly changing to golden or red), prominent canines or generally predatory appearance, but some have no visible changes at all, while others barely pass for a humanoid.

Mentally vampires vary from perfectly normal persons with unusual dietary requirements to predatory, calculating beings, to hunger-driven blood-junkies.

Generally vampires are physically imposing beings with excellent strength, speed, endurance and agility, excellent senses, extended living-span nearing ageless and high-level resistance to damage. Other abilities include ability to turn other beings into vampires (possibly involuntarily), mental abilities, transformation into animals or mist, etc. Note that vampires are able to learn Magic, so the variety of powers some have isn't so much result of them being vampires as their own studies.

Applications

 * Decelerated Aging or Semi-Immortality
 * Enhanced Condition or Supernatural Condition
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Agility
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Combat
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Durability
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Endurance
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Senses
 * Night Vision
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Speed
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Stamina
 * Enhanced/Supernatural Strength
 * Regenerative Healing Factor

Variations

 * Blood Consumption
 * Blood Empowerment
 * Blood Flow Vision
 * Contaminant Immunity
 * Conversion
 * Vampirization
 * Daytime Walking
 * Darkness Manipulation
 * Defunct Physiology
 * Disease Immunity
 * Emotion Consumption
 * Energy Absorption
 * Enhanced Intelligence
 * Enhanced Stealth
 * Flight
 * Disease Inducement
 * Haemopotent Replication
 * Illusion Manipulation
 * Immortality
 * Invulnerability
 * Life-Force Absorption
 * Magic
 * Dark Arts
 * Mind Control
 * Hypnosis
 * Natural Weaponry
 * Claw Retraction
 * Fang Retraction
 * Enhanced Bite
 * Prehensile Tongue
 * Psionic Manipulation
 * Psionic Energy Conversion
 * Scattering
 * Bat Swarming
 * Self-Sustenance
 * Shapeshifting
 * Air Mimicry
 * Animal Morphing
 * Bat Physiology
 * Human Disguise
 * Size Manipulation
 * Sleeplessness
 * Soullessness
 * Supernatural Beauty
 * Supernatural Survivability
 * Undead Pulse
 * Unnatural Presence
 * Wallcrawling
 * Wing Manifestation
 * Wing Blades

Types of Vampire
For a selection of Vampires, see here.
 * Emotional Vampirism
 * Jiang Shi Physiology
 * Manananggal Physiology
 * Mystic Vampire Physiology
 * Nelapsi Physiology
 * Neuronal Vampirism
 * Psi Vampirism
 * Shinso Physiology
 * Superior Vampire Physiology
 * Transcendent Vampire Physiology
 * True Vampire Physiology
 * Vaewolf Physiology
 * Vampire Lord Physiology
 * Vampiric Dragon Physiology
 * Zompire Physiology

Associations

 * Blood Manipulation
 * Curse Empowerment
 * Dhampir Physiology
 * Ghoul Physiology
 * Kresnik Physiology
 * Undead Physiology
 * Vampire Morphing

Limitations

 * Supernatural hunters are a match in hunting down vampires.
 * Acidic Blood/Poisonous Blood/Vampiric Toxicity
 * All vampires need some form of life-force, but exact amounts and quality varies, as well as the consequences of not feeding. Some may feel nothing more than normal hunger, others age or weaken rapidly and some enter a ravenous feral state that ends only after they have fed.
 * Vampires have traditionally several weaknesses, but how effective these are to an individual vampire varies greatly:
 * Direct sunlight may cause instant Disintegration, burn like fire or prevent the use of supernatural powers. Originally, vampires had to sleep in their coffin during the day, and sunlight wasn't fatal, they were merely dormant during the day making it "easy" to sneak up on them.
 * Ultraviolet light may be especially effective.
 * Wooden stake through the heart. In most modern depictions, this is fatal; in the original folklore, it merely stops the vampire from leaving their coffin. In most of the older stories, one had to use a hammer or a grave digger's shovel to drive the stake in, which meant that vampire stakings mainly happened during the day when the vampire was asleep. In some cases a special specimen of wood is needed for the stake to be effective, commonly Hawthorn, and occasionally it needs to be blessed or enchanted.
 * Some may die just by driving anything through the heart. This worked in the original folklore as they use to drive iron and steel through the heart.
 * May be unable to enter dwelling without invitation.
 * Decapitation - and as a bonus point, this one isn't exactly exclusive to vampires; it conveniently works on almost any supernatural creature, and humans too. Then again, so does a stake through the heart...
 * Running water acts like a barrier they can't cross, though this might be circumvented by making others transport them.
 * Crosses, but not necessarily other religious symbols. In modern renditions, this is usually subject to the power of belief of the wielder, the vampire, both, or neither.
 * Possibly against Holy Powers.
 * Certain plants or substances, garlic or silver being most common.
 * May be bound to their coffin, earth/soil of their grave, etc. How often they need to be in contact of these and the consequences vary widely.
 * If vampires and werewolves are natural enemies, one may be vulnerable to their bite/scratch.
 * Conversion Negation may revert vampires to their original forms.

Trivia

 * Debatably, as well as shocking and interesting at the same time, it is possible that human vampires can be a subspecies of humanity because they belong to the genus, homo, which translates to human.

Known Users
See Also: Vampire Tropes.

Video Games
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 * Rachel Alucard (Blazblue)
 * Vampire Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds)
 * Dracula (Castlevania series)
 * Alucard (Castlevania series)
 * Carmilla (Castlevania series)
 * Elizabeth Bartley (Castlevania: Bloodlines)
 * Orlox (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
 * Rosa (Castlevania 64/Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness)
 * Charlie Vincent (Castlevania 64/Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness)
 * Camilla Fernandez (Castlevania 64/Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness)
 * Walter Bernhard (Castlevania: Lament of Innocence)
 * Joachim Armster (Castlevania: Lament of Innocence)
 * Brauner (Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin)
 * Stella Lecarde (Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin)
 * Loretta Lecarde (Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin)
 * Demitri Maximoff (Darkstalkers)
 * Jericho Cross (Darkwatch)
 * Vampires/Vampire Lords (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
 * Babette
 * Lord Harkon
 * Serana
 * Vampires (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem)
 * The Family (Fallout 3)
 * Slayer (Guilty Gear)
 * Bloody Mary (InFamous 2: Festival of Blood)
 * Cole MacGrath (InFamous 2: Festival of Blood)
 * First Borns (InFamous 2: Festival of Blood)
 * Nightmare Batman (Infinite Crisis)
 * Mira Fallegeros (Killer Instinct)
 * Ancients (Legacy of Kain)
 * Kain (Legacy of Kain)
 * Vampires (Legacy of Kain)
 * Lucian (Lunar Knights)
 * Shademan (Mega Man)
 * Shademan.exe (Mega Man Battle Network)
 * Vamp (Metal Gear Solid)
 * Nitara (Mortal Kombat)
 * Clyde Donovan/Mosquito (South Park: The Fractured but Whole)
 * Patrick Redfield (One Piece: Unlimited World Red); via the Batto Batto no Mi, Model: Vampire
 * Oozes (Resident Evil: Revelations)
 * Bat Spin (Skylanders)
 * Night Shift (Skylanders)
 * Roller Brawl (Skylanders)
 * Wario (Super Mario)
 * Vampires (The Sims 2/3/4)
 * Elise (MadWorld)
 * Flandre Scarlet (Touhou Project)
 * Remilia Scarlet (Touhou Project)
 * Ultimo Excalibur (Ultimo X)
 * Carmilla (Valkyrie Crusade)
 * Lil' Vampire (Valkyrie Crusade)
 * Vampire (Valkyrie Crusade)
 * Cainite/Kindred (Vampire the Masquerade)
 * Kuei-jin (Vampire the Masquerade)
 * Vampires (Vampyr)
 * Jonathan E. Reid
 * Ekons
 * Vulkods
 * Skals
 * Nemrods
 * Darkfallen (Warcraft)
 * Lana'thel (Warcraft)
 * Inkyu Basu (Yandere Simulator)

Literature

 * Carmilla (Carmilla)
 * Vladimir Tod (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)
 * Vampires (Discworld)
 * Dracula (Dracula)
 * Fifi the Vampire Poodle (Goosebumps)
 * Chameleons (Shadow Falls/Shadow Falls: After Dark)
 * Vampires (Shadow Falls/Shadow Falls: After Dark)
 * Burnett James
 * Chan Hon
 * Chase Tallman
 * Chris Whitmore
 * Della Tsang
 * Ellie Mason
 * Feng Tsang
 * Simon Lewis (The Mortal Instruments)
 * Raphael Santiago (The Mortal Instruments)
 * Maureen Brown (The Mortal Instruments)
 * Camille Belcourt (The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices)
 * Lestat de Lioncourt (The Vampire Chronicles)
 * Akasha (The Vampire Chronicles)
 * Vampire Citizens (True Blood/The Sookie Stackhouse Novels)
 * Bill Compton (True Blood/The Sookie Stackhouse Novels)
 * Eric Northman (True Blood/The Sookie Stackhouse Novels)
 * Pam (True Blood/The Sookie Stackhouse Novels)
 * Vampires (Twilight Saga)
 * Higher Vampires (The Witcher)
 * Regis
 * Dettlaff
 * Orianna
 * Vampires (Vampirates)
 * Moroi (Vampire Academy)
 * Strigoi (Vampire Academy)}}

Live Television/Movies
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 * Vampires (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
 * Eva (Army of Darkness)
 * Vampires (Being Human)
 * Vampires (Blade Trilogy)
 * Vampires (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel)
 * Angel
 * Darla
 * Drusilla
 * Spike
 * Vampires (Charmed)
 * Vampires (Chica Vampiro)
 * Plasmavores (Doctor Who)
 * Saturnyns (Doctor Who)
 * Aukon (Doctor Who: State of Decay)
 * Camilla (Doctor Who: State of Decay)
 * Zargo (Doctor Who: State of Decay)
 * Vlad III Tepes (Dracula Untold)
 * Mateo Rodriguez (Imortal TV Series)
 * Vampires (Imortal TV Series)
 * Fangires (Kamen Rider Kiva)
 * Abby (Let Me In)
 * Houka Ozu (Mahou Sentai Magiranger); formerly
 * Phantom Spy Vancuria (Mahou Sentai Magiranger); can split apart into two lesser vampires Nai and Mea
 * Mr. Chaney (Masters of Horror)
 * Baboo (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
 * Erica (My Babysitter's a Vampire)
 * Jesse (My Babysitter's a Vampire)
 * Rory (My Babysitter's a Vampire)
 * Sarah (My Babysitter's a Vampire)
 * Count Orlok (Nosferatu)
 * Batlings (Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue)
 * Leelee Pimvare (Power Rangers Mystic Force)
 * Necrolai (Power Rangers Mystic Force)
 * Broodwing (Power Rangers S.P.D.)
 * Count Dracumite (Round the Twist)
 * Nikola Tesla (Sanctuary)
 * Serena (Summer in Transylvania)
 * Dr. Tempest (Summer in Transylvania)
 * Vampires (Supernatural)
 * Paulina (The Boy Who Cried Werewolf)
 * Vampires (The Dark Shadows)
 * Mina Harker (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
 * Vampires (The Vampire Diaries)
 * Vampires (True Blood)
 * Selene (Underworld)
 * Hybrids (Underworld)
 * Vampire Girl (Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl)
 * Vampires (Van Helsing)
 * Juliet Van Heusen (Wizards of Waverly Place)
 * Vampires (Young Dracula)

Other

 * Count Jackula (Channel Awesome)
 * Mavin of the Eventide (Channel Awesome)
 * Vampires (Grrl Power)
 * Vampires (Monster Girl Encyclopedia)}}