text; un: sekiken

[bloodspring]

Hello. My name is Louis, and it’s been about a month since my arrival.

This is something I’ve been curious about since arriving, so I’d like to gauge the current community:

Are you, do you know, or have you ever known a vampire?

If so, I’d like to learn as much as possible about the vampires from your worlds. While one might have in mind a vampire they would call “stereotypical,” that is undeniably a relative label, and it interests me just how widely the differences can range under what may very well now be called an umbrella term.

For example: My race goes by the name “revenants.” For all intents and purposes, I would still classify us as vampires, as we are immortals sustained by drinking blood—but perhaps you might think other criteria more appropriate for determining whether or not one falls into the vampire category? I welcome any challenges or elaboration.

Some further questions for consideration:

• Do your vampires have fangs? Powers, abilities?
• What kind of blood do they drink? How often? How do they feed?
• What does a vampire’s immortality look like to you?
• Are vampires well-embedded in your world’s history, or are they more recent?
• What relationships do you or they have with non-vampires?
• How have other vampires adapted since coming to this world? Are there any particular hindrances you or they encounter?

These are just a few to prompt discussion, but don’t feel limited to these questions only. This is meant to serve as a collaborative gathering of information.

As all of this may be a sensitive or even unpleasant topic for some, I want to offer full transparency from my side of things, and welcome anonymous responses should anyone wish to protect their identity. Please share as much or as little as you’d like, and feel free to ask if there’s anything you’d want to know of me, as well.

Thank you for reading.

Comments

[bloodspring]

Revenants are a bit different from the fictional vampires we'd grown up reading about or seeing in movies. In those, people were often "turned" after being fed from, though details varied from one portrayal to another.

One could say our race was biologically engineered, through the implantation of what was called the BOR (biological organ regenerative) parasite. In most cases, this was surgically implanted in the recently deceased, and the parasite made its home in the heart. How long it took to revive someone could vary from the same day as the procedure to even years after; there was no telling.

The resurrection also had a chance of failure, depending on the host's compatibility with the parasite. If the host could not withstand the parasite's control, the body would mutate monstrously, transforming into an unthinking beast we called the Lost. There was no returning from this, and person they were before would be gone forever.

Should the host retain autonomy however, they would wake as a revenant with advanced strength, durability, and regeneration, as well as the dependency on blood. Failure to sate the bloodthirst results in becoming Lost as well.

[miraclewhip]

So you were actually, fully dead before you were changed. Interesting. In my experience once someone's dead it's too late to turn them. Turning results in death and resurrection, but it has to be done to someone living.

Are you still the same person as a Revenant as you were before, assuming that the resurrection succeeds and you take sufficient blood? That is to say, do you retain your memories and personality? That's something that can vary when someone is turned, largely depending on the intentions of the person who turned them.

[bloodspring]

When a Revenant is turned, there's a chance that they may lose some of their memories in the process, but it is rarely a significant amount. But for the most part, people remember their human lives, and carry who they were then into their new lives as best as possible. Of course... having those memories is no guarantee they won't change nonetheless.

There's also a self-preservation phenomenon called "dispersal" that occurs whenever the parasites senses the body is in critical danger, and it could be called a false death for us. The body dissolves into a mist and restructures itself in a safer area, and each time this happens, some memories will also slip away. Again, this is usually something minor enough to go unnoticed... but the more reckless someone is, the higher the chance that they might lose all memories of themselves entirely. It all adds up in the end. Revenants who have retained almost all of their memories are unique and few, because of this.

I'm intrigued how one's intentions might affect someone's turning, though. Is that to say someone turned can not only lose all their memories, but even have their personalities distorted? It's hard to think of it in any other context than a malicious one... though I'm led to wonder if the person responsible might ever consider it a mercy.