"Blood to a vampire is like super fuel - and that's what gives the vampire that super power." - Scott Bowen, Author of the Vampire Survival Guide
Vampires, blood-draining demons who kill to live and live to kill;
Zombies, plague-infected ghouls with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Once a human
Vampire History
Almost every culture in history has had legends about vampires or vampire-like creatures, from the blood-drinking demons of Sumerian mythology, to the Chupacabra of modern Latin American folklore. The myth of similar creatures existed since the dawn of mankind, easily before the Egyptian civillizations. The most famous vampires, however, originate from Eastern European folklore in the early 1700s. It was believed that especially evil people, or those who had been cursed in some way, would return from the grave as vampires, preying on the living. Only certain methods were believed to be able to destroy a vampire, the most common being thrusting a wooden stake through the heart, and beheading the corpse. Technically, 'vampire' is defined as "any parasite that drains and feeds on the blood or life of the host".
However the characteristics and personalities of vampires have greatly changed overtime. Initially vampires were portrayed mainly as evil semi-demons. Overtime the aspects of their personality, philosophy and even emotion started to appear in popular media. Now a days a vampires are often portrayed more like "rational yet corrupt upper class" rather than "evil demons". In some modern media like the Vampire Chronicles, it is said that vampires even follow religions if they want to, which is a huge contrast with the early concepts of vampires which said they died if they came in contact with holy materials like crucifix or holy water.
Ever since the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker came out in 1897 (based in part on the real-life exploits of Vlad the Impaler), the world has been entranced by vampires in fiction. Vampires first made the leap on to film in 1922 with the release of Nosferatu, and such films as Dracula, The Lost Boys, and Underworld ensure they are here to stay.
Abilities
Vampires are a type of demonic undead creature that has superhuman traits and endurance. Their appearance is either humanlike, many times attractive, to being skinny, hunchback, discolored, pale, corpselike and with enlarged claws or teeth. These visible traits are also visible in depictions of demons in the western world. Some vampires can switch between humanlike and demonlike at will, normally by retracting their fangs and claws, allowing them to blend in with human society while hunting. But most vampires cannot change the fact that they have no shadows or reflections. Many vampires can shapeshift, normally into a bat or bat-like creature to give them flight. Vampires also can control many types of black magic depending on the story, though a common ability is hypnotizing people with their eyesight or levitation.
Blood is a defining trait of vampires. According to the show, a Vampire's heart pumps extremely fast, giving them superhuman attributes. Vampires feed on blood, though most can eat flesh and some can eat human food, almost all drink blood. Many Vampires are more addicted to blood than actually needing it (since they normally find a steady supply that will keep them healthy and fed), and so can willingly kill humans to get the blood.
They can run 6 times faster than an Olympic athlete and are 6 times stronger than most strongmen (meaning vampires are about 10 times stronger than a normal human). They have superhuman senses (like smell and hearing), intelligence, and work in packs, similar to apex predators of the natural world. Vampires can survive mutilations as long as they don't bleed out, don't have their heart damaged or removed, are not decapitated or do not have their brain damaged. Traditional stories have a wooden stake that is needed to kill the vampire's heart. The idea was to nail the vampire to the ground or coffin so even if he did survive he would not be able to move. Some vampires are powerful enough to regenerate from major wounds after battle. Their bites are similar in strength and sharpness to alligators and can unhinge like a snake, increasing the size of their bite. The mouth of a vampire has evolved from the traditional two fangs that simply cause the victim to bleed, to the modern vampire with all their teeth sharpened and able to bite through bone. Their claws are hard as steel, making them able to instantly kill a human with their strength.
They do feel fear, but due to their predatory lifestyle and mentality they are rarely scared. They do feel pain but their superhuman strength and powerful heart makes them resistant to it. Like zombies with the zombie virus, they can turn normal people into other vampires who they would mentally control as a 'head vampire'. However modern vampires can decide if someone they killed can turn into a vampire, normally with some kind of blood ritual. Sometimes the idea of turning other people into vampires is abandoned completely, expecially since the bodies would be so mutalated that even as a vampire they couldn't survive. Although violent towards humans, they are actually very social to other vampires and would help their friends in need like normal humans would. Sometimes the 'head vampire' is choosen by the clan instead of being the superior vampire and becomes the main strategist and leader for the vampires. But against other species and their enemies, vampires will show no mercy.
The only serious weakness other than their head and heart is that Vampires are weak towards sunlight. Most modern vampires can survive a few seconds of direct exposure but can easily die in less than half a minute (some depictions will have them turn to dust or have their skin burned black). 30 days of Night claims that it is ultraviolet radiation that kills the vampire so it is possible for artificial sunlight to kill them. Because of this weakness to sunlight, all vampires would sleep during the day, normally in an abandoned building or coffin. They can still operate normally during the daytime as long as they are shaded from the sun. Some modern vampires have avoided the sun by shading themselves with dark clothing, a large hat and an umbrella. If away from civilization, a vampire would normally survive in shady locations like shady forests or near caves where they would sleep from the sun. But as long as they are not exposed to the sun, Vampires should survive in most environments. It is possible for vampires to live off of animals in the wild just like a predator would. Some vampires like living in depressing, gothic or 'evil' locations like graveyards and avoid holy places like churches. In 30 Days of Night, the vampires live in Alaska because of the prolonged nights caused by its location near the north pole, allowing the vampire to be fully active for 30 days without worrying about the sunrise. Other traditional vampire weaknesses (most not seen in modern vampires anymore) include holy water, garlic, crucifix and traveling over running water.
Vampires normally can live forever if not murdered or affected by magic. Vampires have survived many plagues of the past, so it is believed that they are naturally resistant to disease, though there's a debate over if they would be affected by the abnormal zombie virus.
Weapons
| Short Range | Vampire Fangs |
| Medium Range | Vampire Claw |
| Type | Modern Vampire |
Symbol - Vampire Fangs (Iconic Weapon of Vampires)
Simulated Battle
3 Vampires
189 Zombies
The battle begins at night inside an abandoned warehouse, where 189 zombies are searching for a food source. Somewhere inside the warehouse, 3 vampires rise from their resting coffins ready to feast. The lead vampire communicates to his subordinates in hisses and growls, ordering them to split up.
In a hallway, the male subordinate vampire rakes his claws on a wall. He uses his heightened senses to sniff out his prey and dashes down a corridor, jumping up a railed stairway until he comes to a wooden door. He puts his ear up next to the door listening for any commotion. He is soon greeted by a zombie which smashes through the door. As the zombies begin to pour through the doorway, the vampire puts his claws to work, slashing and swiping 2 zombies who come through the door. He soon is overwhelmed and runs back to the corridor where the rest of the zombies have begun to come through the other exits, blocking all paths of escape. He goes to work again, using his claws to take down every zombie before being completely engulfed by the zombie horde. The zombies grab and begin to hold down the fatigued vampire as he calls for help. The female vampire and the lead vampire answer the male's cries, but are too late to help their brother, and look on in horror as the zombies hold him down and disembowel him.
2 Vampires
111 Zombies
The lead vampire hisses to the female and they take off down a hallway with a door. As the lead opens the door, they are greeted by another horde of zombies. He bites the first zombie in the doorway in the top of the skull and shuts the door, holding it down along with the female vampire. The both of them take off down the way they came as the horde smashes through the door and shambles on through. The vampire duo soon arrives back to where the first horde came in and both begin to take out zombies at a fast pace. Eventually, the female vampire is attacked from behind as a zombie bites through her neck, breaking her jugular vein. The vampiress throws the offending zombie at the wall and stomps another one dead before dying of blood loss herself.
1 Vampire
50 Zombies
The lead vampire continues to fight off the rest of the horde as fatigue begins to set in. As he slows down, he is swarmed from all sides by zombies that try to hold him down. The vampire throws them all off and rakes another across the face before it can get any closer. Out of breath, the lead vampire attempts to leave through an exit door, but retreats back inside as he sees the dawn breaking in front of him. Alone and outmanned, the vampire makes his last stand, clawing and kicking every zombie before throwing the last one against the wall, leaving a great blood stain. The vampire looks around at his fallen quarry and raises his hand, roaring in victory.
He soon notices, however, that the flesh on his hand is rapidly necrotizing. The vampire gasps and roars in horror as the rest of his flesh begins to rot and his eyes turn white, completing the zombification process.
To Be Continued
Trivia
- Even though there were no given edges in this episode, the Vampires' claws and fangs were shown to be superior to the Zombies' hands and teeth, technically giving the Vampires all of the ungiven edges. However it may have been dificult comparing the edges between a Zombie horde vs a single Vampire, especially since, as the battle shows, the hordes the Vampires fight have different amounts of Zombies attacking at the same time.
- Along with the Zombies, the Vampires were the first completely fictional warriors appearing on the show.
- The computer notes that the vampire runs at 100 feet per second (68 mph or 110 km/h), making it the fastest foot soldier. This is a contrast to the zombie, which is measured at 2 feet per second (1.4 mph, or 2.2 km/h) according to the computer, the slowest warrior.
- When it came to the teeth, instead of the traditional two nice parallel fangs, a mouth full of sharp meat-tearing teeth was used.
- In order to determine what would be the best ratio of zombies to vampires in the simulation, the DW crew outfitted champion speed board-breaker Leif Becker with a set of steel "vampire claw" gauntlets (made by Dave Baker) and had him stand in a circle on the floor to represent the range a zombie would have to reach before it could attack. Once the test started, 12 model zombies on ziplines were released to "attack" him, and Leif was able to use the claws to strike down 9 of them before one was able to enter the circle.
- Multiplying these numbers by 6 to match the superhuman speed of the vampire, Leif took down 54 out of 72 zombies. The DW crew took the average of these two numbers, determining that on average the zombies would need to outnumber the vampires 63-to-1 for the horde to be able to possibly kill them before the vampires' superior speed could take them out.
- Despite these add ups at ths atart of the simulation, with there being 189 Zombies, the Male subordinate reduced the number to 111 meaning the male subordinate took down a total of 78 zombies. Over the original 72 that the simulation recorded.