Tag Archives: askavampirologist

Hi, I’m asking you because I don’t know where else to turn (pun intended). I’ve been a fan of Rice’ books, and vampires in general, since my early teens (so around 15 years or so) and I have recently started to regain my interest. However I find myself in the same pickle I was in when I was a teen: There is no complete register over all the different kinds of vampire lore from all the different works of fiction, or at least I can’t seem to find one. Do you know if one exists? And if so, where?

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Hello! Ah yes, a very good question.

I’m not surprised that you’ve been into vampires in general for 15 yrs. Vampires are such good stuff and can be written/depicted/analyzed in so many different forms and variations. Limitless possibilities really, bc creative ppl can choose to stick to the more classic rules about them, and others throw them away, or explain work-arounds… limitless possibilities! JUST LOOK AT THESE SPECIMENS:

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Lestat is THE ONE THAT DIDN’T GET INTERVIEWED but let’s all acknowledge that IWTV was at least 65% about him… also bonus points to THE HALF-BREED ASSASSIN w/ a sword out, inching up on THE SPARKLY ONE…

[^tumblr source, artist unknown, tell me if you know who it is, I did a reverse image search and had no luck]

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[^tumblr source, vampire lineup by Jeff Victor, who clearly skipped IWTV. OH WELL HIS LOSS SO I ADDED A LESTAT CARICATURE BELOW, tumblr source, artist unknown]

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As for a complete register over all the different kinds of vampire lore from all the different works of fiction, I think that would be fairly difficult, unless it was online and consistently researched and updated by more than one mere mortal.

These lovely ppl are being tagged bc they may know of such a register: @askavampirologist​, @gothiccharmschool​, @annabellioncourt​, @forthegothicheroine​, @fyeahgothicromance​, @vampiressuck24​. Anyone else who might help out on this is cordially invited to answer, too!

Every vampire compilation I’ve ever seen in a library or bookstore has been a curated collection only showing specific examples of different vampires, presumably so that the author could move onto other books/projects!

My own blog is a curated collection. While I feature other vampires in my #vampire tag (from the Lost Boys, Only Lovers Left Alive, What We Do in the Shadows, etc.), I actually don’t love all vampires in fiction (*cough* Twilight *cough*) enough to make this blog the register that you’re looking for 😛

Hope that helps!

If a vampire can walk in the sunlight then do they sleep during the night, stay awake during the day, and do they sleep in a bed?

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That’s alot of Ask! It would depend on the type of vampire. I did some sunscreen discussion a little while ago. askavampirologist would be better for this question, too. 

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^So Claudia has a bed, and it is covered with dolls, but why even have a bed if you don’t plan to sleep in it at all? Oh wait bc sexytiems… not for Claudia tho, she has a bed to hold her doll collection and dead figure drawing models ffs… In the books they sleep in beds, now that there are really good blackout curtains available. 

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^In movie!IWTV, Claudia was able to be awake during the daylight, she just couldn’t let it touch her. I don’t think she (or the other Ricean vampires) would have wanted to try to adopt a day/night sleep schedule like a person… even if they physically could, vampires seem to be nocturnal animals and prefer it that way.

Choice is really irrelevant with Book!VC (Ricean) vampires bc they succumb to the Deathsleep; they are physically unable to stay awake during daylight hours. Even in a place like Alaska in which nighttime extends during the winter months, Ricean vampires are still susceptible to a reasonable deathsleep rhythm.

Vampires in other media, like Only Lovers Left Alive for example, do stay awake during the daylight hours if they feel like it, and they do sleep in beds. Are they trying to imitate mortals? Maybe!

Do certain weather conditions bother the VC vampires? Like very cold weather or very hot weather? Does it effect them like it would effect a human?

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Ooooh #Vampire physiology (sending the vampire bat signal out to fellow Ricean vampire authority vampchronfic and for the non-Ricean vampires, askavampirologist).

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[gif by gifsfortc]

In short, they can handle much colder temps than mortals can. Their default temperature is cold, and it seems like they prefer to be warm, since they’re only really hot right after a fresh feeding >;}  

Louis has mentioned in canon that he dislikes the cold but he insists on wearing threadbare sweaters, it seems to be a form of self-punishment (and murder-husband-punishment since he knows Lestat doesn’t approve of the constant 90’s grunge/Derelicte look).

It’s not discussed in canon in huge detail, and I’m sure it varies vampire-to-vampire, so I’ll just give you Louis and Lestat answers.

In IWTV Louis would wander around, “standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a baffled idiot at the zoo.” This was probably warm rain, being NOLA. He might have been so transfixed with his new senses that he didn’t mind what might be uncomfortable for us/other vampires. Lestat certainly didn’t approve bc like “i buy you such beautiful outfits and you put them on WIRE HANGERS *ahem* no, actually, you go ruining them in the RAAAAAINNN.” *sulk*

When Lestat flies, he doesn’t mention needing to get extra bundled-up to deal with the colder air  altho i like the idea of him looking for the BIGGEST WARMEST FUR-LINED PARKAS so that when he takes to the air w/ Louis, he can cocoon them together bc awwwww…-

They seemed to enjoy the humidity and heat of NOLA. I imagine that they’re like big cats or lizards, always looking for warm spots to lounge around in to deal with their default coldness. Lestat’s always been a big fan of lighting all the candles in a room for the light, which might also be for the warmth; even one candle adds a surprising amount of heat.

Of course Louis, the pyromaniac, is really in an OTP with Fire, that should tell you smtg about the kinda temperature he prefers! ❤

Probably a stupid question that I missed the answer to somewhere, but what exactly would happen if one of the vampires ate a whole plate of actual food? Is it just nasty or actually bad?srry for dumb Qs

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^So it’s not exactly like this for Ricean vampires, but it’s hilarious (but GROSS) so WATCH IT (if you can handle the gross). For these and the

Ricean vampires, eating people food is bad, but not lethal. 

Ricean vampires lose alot of digestive anatomy when they’re turned. So their bodies just can’t metabolize it. Cooking smells are repulsive to them, as Louis describes it in IWTV:

“The slightly nauseating smell of cooking meat… I caught the sweet smell of the spices and the fresh green of marjoram and bay; and then in a wave came the horrid smell of the cooking meat, the blood and flesh decaying in the boiling fluids.“

So if they were to try a bite of a plate of food, it might be like trying to force yourself to eat something inedible, like an old soapy sponge.

I would guess that eating a whole plateful would just make them throw it back up, no enjoyment in or out 😛

Not sure about other vampires, like The Vampire Diaries, Tru Blood, 30 Days of Night, Daybreakers, etc.

I seem to recall the Lost Boys eating Chinese food? I don’t remember. Try askavampirologist for non-Ricean vampires!

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magical-mystery-wall:

anfonymackie:

do vampires just use their teeth to make a puncture wound and then suck, or are their fangs like a straw

i havent slept in three days

i-want-my-iwtv these are the real questions

These ARE the real questions! I’d say puncture wound and then suck. I always pictured vampires as using the fangs to puncture, and then either taking fangs out to suck the wound, or pushing forward a little, fangs still in, to keep the prey locked in and the wound open. 

Hollow fangs makes sense with venomous snakes that need it for the delivery aspect >;} 

From the vampirebibliographica: 

I have asked this question before and people offered this as a solution – A vampire’s fangs could be hollow like the proboscis of a mosquito. Eeuw. Just eeuw. Although it does make sense, but if they are hollow, where do the hollows open up to? Into a gland? Then we’re back to changing the jaw structure of the vampire. And besides, vampires are always described as appreciating the taste of blood. If the blood is carried straight from a tube in the fangs to a gland in the palette and then into the system, when do they ever get an opportunity to savour the taste?

askavampirologist​ might have a different opinion than me on this. 

Do you believe in vampires?

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No.

This is probably a good question for askavampirologist. I think some people think they are vampires for religious/physical/other reasons… I think there are probably diseases that simulate vampiric symptoms (light sensitivity, etc.). 

It does somewhat comfort me in an odd way that if there WERE vampires, they wouldn’t truly be immortal, because the Earth is headed for the sun eventually, so unless they coordinate with NASA to ship themselves (and a starter pack of humans and animals to feed from) somewhere safer, they’ll end up as dead as us, too! 

So vampires breathe. But do they need to, or is it just habit?

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askavampirologist:

i-want-my-iwtv:

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That is a point of vampire physiological debate actually, whether they DO breathe or not. Lestat Says Yes, Therefore it is Truth! … except maybe not. Maybe he thinks he’s breathing because he has to, but he may be doing it out of habit.

I feel like they would need to breathe for the air to go through properly for speech. Otherwise, wouldn’t they sound more like the breathless screeching vampires in 30 Days of Night?

there was a fic in which the vampires considered what would happen if they were in a coffin on a ship and the ship sunk. Would they still be conscious, trapped in their coffin? Presumably they wouldn’t die by drowning… hmmm…?

However that’s just RICEAN vampires. If you wanna know in a more general way, go to askavampirologist ;]

Since I never receaved this ask I will just answer it anyway in short, just in case the anon got shy or something. 

I see no reason a vampire would need to breathe in the sense that we do, which is to intake and convert air into oxygen. That seems negligibly important to an undead physiology. (not to mention oxygen deteriorates our insides veeeeery slowly, aka oxidization, which is one of the possible reasons our bodies age, it would make sense for a non-aging body to not intake and distribute such a harmful gas.)

Anyway, I do think they would however, need to breathe for other reasons. You can’t talk without breathing, as our vocal chords require air to pass through them to cause vibrations.

This leads to other issues, like heartbeats and blood movement to keep the lungs lubricated to allow expansion. But that’s getting really complicated so I’ll leave it there.

I imagine yes, it’s mostly out of habit, and to allow them to speak.  

So vampires breathe. But do they need to, or is it just habit?

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That is a point of vampire physiological debate actually, whether they DO breathe or not. Lestat Says Yes, Therefore it is Truth! … except maybe not. Maybe he thinks he’s breathing because he has to, but he may be doing it out of habit.

I feel like they would need to breathe for the air to go through properly for speech. Otherwise, wouldn’t they sound more like the breathless screeching vampires in 30 Days of Night?

there was a fic in which the vampires considered what would happen if they were in a coffin on a ship and the ship sunk. Would they still be conscious, trapped in their coffin? Presumably they wouldn’t die by drowning… hmmm…?

However that’s just RICEAN vampires. If you wanna know in a more general way, go to askavampirologist ;]

“Hybrid” by A Boyd

Link

The Queen of Shadows has been silent for too long; her powers have regrown and her subjects move to shift the balance. Few stand against her, and those that do aren’t exactly hero material. An unlikely group of inhumans is brought together by circumstance and find themselves drawn into the war against the shadows while struggling to deal with their own problems. Between vampire politics, lost aliens, and the struggle to blend in with humanity, they have the odds stacked. The patchwork group may be the only hope left as the Shadow Queen nears her ultimate goal…godhood.

YOU GUYS. askavampirologist hath written a book. CHECK IT OUT.

“Hybrid” by A Boyd

Those sound like a lot of really positive changes. I can start sending you questions when I think of them–my main topic of contemplation is what would be the science behind burning in the sun? Prince Lestat missed a huge opportunity to answer a lot of questions and if you want me to, I can send you all of my questions regarding Anne Rice’s vampires and the traits of vampires in general. Sorry for not being more active!

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thinkingnonsensically:

askavampirologist-blog:

Well, I can not answer questions in the book about Anne Rice’s vampires, as that is copyrighted stuff right there, but you are more than welcome to ask me anything you want. Though I am not an expert in Anne Rice’s vampires. If you want to talk to an expert, I would turn you towards i-want-my-iwtv. 

And as for the science behind burning in the sun, well, the first vampire to actually be effected by the sunlight to the point of death was Count Orlok in Nosferatu. The reason he disappears in the sun was to avoid copyright infringement on the ending of Dracula. So historically speaking, there is no lore to suggest that vampires would actually burn in the sun. In Dracula his powers were weakened but he did not burn. I think the main idea that vampires hunted at night is because humans slept at night, which left hours of mystery around what happened in the dark. If someone died in the night, or got sick in the night, they had no clue what caused it. It was much easier to think a creature from beyond the grave did it because the darkness is scary and science was lacking. 

But if we want to say sure, vampires burn in the sun, we have to think “why?” The first reason might be the same reason I burn in the sun. They are pale. Pale people burn in the sun. Another reason could be because they are damned, and as such are not allowed to live in the illumination of God. God created light, after all. And if you think about it, Lucifer is known as the Morning Star, so it makes sense that vampires would have to live under the light of the stars. 

Hope that answers your question for now! I will go into further detail in the book. 

My idea was the vampires in AR’s books.

They say (or seriously imply) that vampire blood is flammable. Also in one of the books the vampires can absorb blood through the skin if they really really need it. That made me question the permeability of their skin—our skin is selectively permeable. Our body can more or less decide what to let in and out. What if their skin was less selective? Still hard to the touch of course but more open to diffusion by osmosis?

What if it had a susceptibility to certain radiation from the sun, which when it went through their skin, ignited their very-flammable blood?

This radiation can be IR, visible, or UV in nature, I haven’t been able to decide yet. UV light vibrates at the highest frequency of the three so it /seems/ more conducive but then UV light is blocked by glass and they could not be burned through a window. IR radiation is felt by humans as heat so that’s another likely candidate.

As you can tell, I like to steer away from religious reasoning. The science behind vampires and other creatures is my favorite thing. 🙂

Thanks though!

^This explanation is interesting.

  • Re: Ricean vampire skin being more/less permeable than ours, well, it is described as having a different texture and sheen so that would make sense.
  • Skin being permeable to absorb blood: blood is absorbed through the skin in movie!IWTV, during Louis’ transformation, and blood is absorbed through the skin in Merrick, during Louis’ other transformation (I think there was a line of dialogue, smtg like, “his whole body is drinking it!”)
  • BUT vampire skin is not permeable to dirt, they’re often described as not able to get all that dirty? Like the filth doesn’t really cling to them. The hardness probably contributes to that.
  • I don’t think window glass would be sufficient to block the destruction of sunlight on vampire flesh; Ricean vampires are always going on about the heavy curtains they use on the windows. It’s a combination of the UV rays and something else in sunlight that’s dangerous to them. Obviously they can be in a lighted room or stage just fine, so it’s not the visible light. Something else in the sunlight acts as a catalyst to burn the flammable flesh and blood.
  • The susceptibility to the radiation from the sun seems lessened by the strength/age of the vampire, Lestat has his little tanning sessions where he can handle a level of burn that others just can’t.

It seems, since Louis is described as tan in Prince Lestat, that Louis has been coerced into joining Lestat on these tanning excursions. So OOC.