“ | Vampires. Immortal, blood-sucking monsters. Vampires are real. They have existed in every city and every state...in the world for centuries. These creatures are of the darkest parts of hell. They have the power and ability to control your mind, seduce your spirit, adapt to sunlight, and render themselves invisible. They are deadly and they must be destroyed. Most vampire lore is crap. A cross won't repel them. Sunlight, however, will kill them and so will a stake to the heart. But what's the worst about them is the bloodlust, which is another part that's true -- they need fresh human blood to survive. They were once people, so you won't know it's a vampire until it's too late. | „ |
— Nigel, about vampires in Unnatural Pilot |
Vampires (also called The Clod Ones), as well as Blood-Suckers, Nosferatou (scientific name), or Vamps for short, are an undead, post-human, immortal supernatural species/race of immortal, undead, blood-sucking/drinking, bloodthirsty, predatory creatures/beings that were once humans until they were bitten and infected with Vampire venom. They are also basically supernaturally, magically reanimated, shape-shifting creatures/beings/corpses who are inhabited by the spirits of the deceased reanimated and sustained by Satanic forces, who closely resemble a living person which are cursed with a constant craving to kill and drink the blood of humans, and that drink/feed on the blood of the living or the undead to survive and maintain their vitality and powers by biting their necks with long pointed canine teeth; animals, even vampires, and especially humans. They can also transform humans into more of their kind.
In order for them to survive they thrive on a living creature's blood, whether it’s human or animal blood. After becoming Vampires, an individual's natural abilities are greatly enhanced and are also bestowed powers beyond the natural which grow stronger with time, which makes it difficult for a human to defeat a vampire. Vampires feed and survive on the blood of the living, typically on human blood, and they can transform other humans into more of their kind. Some vampires choose to fight this urge and avoid feeding, but the majority choose to kill and feed as they please. Vampirism is passed on by a process known as recruiting, which involves a bitten/dying human drinking a vampire's blood. When this happens, the person becomes immortal and cannot die naturally, however he or she will be cursed with a constant thirst for human blood. Although vampires can give up blood, this is extremely difficult. Normally, vampires are indistinguishable from humans; but when thirsty or showing aggression, fangs appear in place of their canines and their eyes turn completely black.
All Vampires where once originally human themselves until they were turned by another Vampire, converted into a vampire by a "maker". Vampires come in all shapes and sizes and evolve with age.
Being technically deceased, their primary characteristics include a lack of a heartbeat, body heat, brainwaves, electrical impulses, need to breathe, and other bodily functions. Vampires live in close contact with humans, but retain their own laws and traditions. Reactions to vampires varies greatly. They are considered legal citizens within the United States, albeit with limited rights and strict rules. Their bodies are animated by their souls, which are kept trapped in their supernaturally-perserved corpses by the supernatural powers of vampire blood. Their bodies seem to work like living bodies, at least on a visible level, meaning they will not feel like they are dead as their bodies respond to certain things in ways of a living person would. Humans become vampires by an unknown process that involves a vampire's bite and/or a transfer of blood.
All vampires originate from and are descended from the Original Vampire, who made a Faustian blood covenant with the Devil himself in exchange for power and immortality, but at the cost of his humanity and being forever condemned to life with an insatiable craving for human blood. They have been encountered by many hunters. Vampires are also arguably the most frequently recurring supernatural creatures in the series and are one of the many known supernatural creatures.
History[]
Origins[]
At first, the origin of the vampire race was unclear and remained a mystery, but they have existed since some time after the beginning of humanity, but long before the time of Christ. Vampires were created by the Original Vampire Dracula himself and were also some of the very first supernatural creatures that ever walked planet Earth. The Original Vampire Dracula was the very first vampire and he appears to have a psychic connection with other vampires. However, it wasn't until the revelation of Dracula himself and the Turok-Hans was it known how vampires were created.
The Original Vampire[]
Dracula, the very first vampire in all of creation, was originally human who was born in ancient Sumarian. When he came home to find out his wife had committed suicide, he enraged with anger and swore to God that he would rise from the grave with the powers of darkness. So when Dracula died after being killed by the archangel Gabriel, he went to Hell and then he made a deal with the fallen archangel Lucifer himself, asking for a new life and Lucifer agreed, but only if Dracula swore to drink the blood of other lives. So Dracula agreed and then was taken to Purgatory, where he was captured and tortured by the last remaining Turok-Hans.
But the Turok-Han queen appeared before Dracula and used her large claws to cut open her wrist and feed Dracula her blood. After that, everything about Dracula was heightened (such as his strength, speed, healing, etc.) and then he returned to Hell and Lucifer killed Dracula but Dracula eventually woke up with a terrible hunger and then took his first life by drinking the blood of a human. After that, Lucifer gifted Dracula with immortality, the powers of darkness, and psychic powers. Then Dracula returned to Earth and rose as the very first vampire ever to exist. Then Dracula started a "plague" by creating more vampires (albeit much weaker then himself) birthing what is considered the modern vampires, an undead species of blood-drinking monsters sustained beyond mortal death and endowed with enhanced superhuman physical and mental powers and abilities of strength, speed, agility, durability, healing, heightened senses, resilience, compulsion, and virtual immortality, as well as powers of mind control, rendering them faster and stronger than humans (being physically superior to them by nature), and allowing them to travel in a hazy mist like form and also having the ability to adapt to sunlight and the power to render themselves invisible. Their physical powers and abilities would all grow stronger with age and the consumption of human blood, but with all these powers came a prince: a terrible hunger.
Annihilation[]
When Dracula was born as a vampire and created the vampire race, vampires were actively hunted by religious groups of Hunters, such as The Order of the Church, the Vampire Slayer, and the Van Helsings, up until the point the vampire race was all but extinct. Few vampires remained hidden or in deep hibernation. But Dracula himself was defeated by the very angel that killed him, the archangel Gabriel, whilst the archangel was human and had spent 400 years on Earth to defeat the Original Vampire and drained Dracula of his blood, bleeding him dry.
Then Gabriel wrapped Dracula in chains and dropped a large amount of vervain and wild roses on him, sealed him in a coffin, then a sarcophagus, and then left the Original Vampire to decay in a tomb deep underground on an island for the rest of eternity.
Rebirth[]
When Dracula had disappeared, the vampire species was all but extinct. Then a small group of vampires, all of whom knew Dracula, finally found his tomb after 3,000 years of searching.
Appearances[]
A vampire's appearance is that of a normal human as they can easily blend in society by assuming human form. Vampires are indistinguishable from humans, and appear as they did when they were turned, albeit with a paler complexion due to lack of blood flow.
However, as their true appearance is much more horrific, they all have common features, such as sharp, pointed, retractable teeth that emerge from their gums and extend beyond their human teeth. Their eyes turn completely black, the skin become unnaturally white with black veins visible beneath it, sharp rows of fangs and long claws grow instead of the teeth and nails. This set of fangs descend on the vampire's will, usually when about to feed, or when threatened or attacking. Some Vampires have been shown to have sharp finger nails, but nowhere near as long as the Alpha Elder Vampires or even Dracula's, which are more claw like and can be made to extend at will. Also, they have fangs that usually extend and retract willingly, though they can be stimulated to unwillingly extend. In addition, vampires are classified as being "undead".
Vampires can presumably grow hair, as Eric Northman cuts his hair, Lorena Krasiki's hair is shown to vary in length, and Franklin Mott states that he shaves.
Creation[]
“ | I have to admit...at first, it felt strange, the metallic taste. But then, it was like electricity coursing through my body-- a million stars exploding in my mind all at once. It was like nothing I've ever felt before. It was amazing. And all I could think now was...I wanted to do it again. | „ |
— Mina Harker, about becoming a vampire |
Vampires pass the "Dark Gift" to humans via exchange of blood. Vampires possess the ability to turn others, generally humans, into vampires by allowing them to ingest their blood, which will seemingly poison and rapidly kill them and cause them to have monstrous dreams with images of the people they love the most being in danger or dying and predatory animals with vampiric red eyes and some glimpses of a vampires clawed hands and teeth. They will then awaken in another place hours later and will adjust to their new traits and senses.
If they do not drink human blood for the span of three days, they will become human again by the morning of the last day. If they do drink blood, their condition will be irreversible and all-consuming, as they will have the ability to influence the weather, far less humanity and moral capability, and an intense fear for Christian ornaments such as a crucifix, which they persevere as glowing red and having an intense light.
Additionally, humans who have consumed vampire blood and die with it in their system will rise undead, simply drinking a vampire's blood and die within 24 hours with a vampire's blood in ones system, unless they feed on human blood. The nature of the human's death is irrelevant, however the body must be intact and able to function. Furthermore, the physiological trauma must be sufficient enough for the recipient to actually pass out, since the vampire blood in their system will only heal any non-fatal wounds or injuries that the victim sustained prior to dying. Upon mortal death, the undead body will awaken in a state of transition. In order to complete the transition, within the next 24 hours the person must consume an exceptional amount of human blood, at least a sips worth, or else they will die. Vampires can only feed on human blood to complete the process. Until a Vampire completes their transition, they will be insusceptible to the standard weaknesses of their species (i.e. they can still walk under the sun and enter homes uninvited).
A single vampire must bite and feed on a human to the point of near-death. At the right moment the vampire tears or bites his or her own flesh and offers his or her own vampire blood to the dying human, who then must willingly drink the vampire's blood.
After an amount of blood is consumed, the vampires frees him or herself from the victim's grasp just as the human begins the painful transition of physical death. While the victim's natural bodily functions cease, the vampire's blood in his or her veins infuses him or her with the magic which reanimates him or her as a newborn vampire.
It is known that humans can be changed into vampires, and werewolves can be changed into hybrids through the blood of the Original Hybrid Petrova. Witches can be turned into vampires, but the combined entity will be a normal vampire.
The Original Vampire Dracula was created by a powerful magical spell called the "immortality spell", to grant a human immortality and heightened abilities, but at the expense of a bloodlust, aversion to sunlight, and the inability to enter a person's home uninvited, casted by Lucifer Himself but the ritual method was similar to the creation of normal vampires in that he had to consume the blood of the Turok-Han Vampire Queen and then die with it in his systems, then he must consume human blood to complete the transition. Whatever the magical effect that flows through a vampire's veins that keeps it alive is still connected to the Original Vampire and the Alpha Elder Vampires. When that Alpha Elder dies, the connection is cut and all vampires of that bloodline will begin to die. But when the Original Vampire dies, all vampires (including the Ancients) will die as well.
Classifications[]
Though there are one species specifically of vampires, there are many classifications of vampires. The list is shown below.
- Originals; the first, oldest, and most powerful vampires, after Dracula. Described as “god-like” amongst vampires, they possess powers and abilities not seen even in Ancient vampires.
- Ancients; vampires at the age of at least 1,000 years or more. They are the strongest vampires, next to the Originals, with their abilities said to be second to them.
- Elders; vampires between the age of 500 to 1,000 years. They are much more powerful than other vampires and all clans consist of one elder.
- Ascendants; mature vampires between the age of 100 to 500. They are the most common types of vampires throughout the world.
- Alphas; the heads/leaders of a house, clan, or even small group of vampires, despite not being a true vampire species. The word “Alpha Vampire” is more of a title given to a vampire who rules over a hive or leads a small group. Though more commonly seen in vampires around over 100 years of age or more, many younger vampires can also be Alphas if determined and experienced enough.
- Fledglings; junior vampires. They begin to learn to control their thirst and only feed when necessary, as well as not kill the victim while feeding. A Fledgling remains so until the ages of between 30 to 100 years, sometimes even younger.
- Newborns; newly transitioned vampires. They become unstable because of their heightened senses and emotions as well as physical attributes. They remain newborns for the first year of their lives.
- Transitions; humans slowly transitioning into vampires. When a human is given vampire blood, they gain a vampires abilities for 3 days. If they resist the urge to feed on human blood for those 3 days, they will become human. If they do feed on human blood, they will become vampires. Additionally, if the human is killed with vampire blood in their system, it will bring them back to life as a vampire. Upon so, they have a full day to drink human blood, or they will die.
Other[]
Below are a list of subspecies of vampires:
- Dhampirs (also known as Halfbloods or Daywalkers); offspring of humans and vampires. As such, they are human-vampire hybrids. Born with all their powers and little to no weaknesses (the only exception being the thirst), Dhampirs are often known to be more powerful than vampires. As such, they are known to hunt vampires.
- Moroi; often referred to as witch-vampires, these vampires are able to practice magic.
- Werewolf-Vampire Hybrids; as the name suggests, hybrid creatures that are half werewolf and half vampire.
Powers and Abilities[]
The blood of the Original Vampire in their veins gives vampires many unique abilities. Vampires possess a number of powers that make them deadly creatures. The supernatural forces that sustain vampires beyond mortal death also endow them with immortality, heightened senses, and enhanced superhuman physical and mental abilities as well as powers of mind control, which make them physically superior to Humans by nature. Vampires are faster and stronger than humans, and can travel in a hazy mist like form. They have the ability to adapt to sunlight and the power to render themselves invisible. Their physical powers and abilities such as strength, speed, agility, durability, healing and senses all grow stronger with age, experience, and the consumption of human blood. Vampires who feed on animal blood will not be as powerful as those who feed on human blood. Most, if not all of the following abilities work better if the vampire has drunk human blood from a living source - if they are cut off if from a long period of time, they become weak and unable to use their power. Furthermore, the older a vampire is and the longer the exist, the stronger, faster, and more powerful they become.
Abilities common to vampires are:
- Enhanced Superhuman Strength: Regardless of their size or stature, Vampires have and possess the supernatural ability of abnormal physical superhuman strength that is greater than most other beings and also allows them to be noticeably far much physically stronger than average adult Human beings (of any size and shape), supernatural hunters, werewolves in human form and most other shapeshifters and they slowly grow stronger with time, age, and experience; older vampires can subdue younger ones with minimal to no effort. The superior physical strength of a vampire compared to that of a human is a prominent theme. Vampires possess strength equivalent to that of 20 or more strong men, sufficient to single-handedly lift average size cars and large trucks with ease. Vampires can subdue humans in many ways with ease, toss objects high into the air, shatter stone, smash metal, bench-press 18-wheelers, can overpower their prey and rip them apart with little effort. They can also throw humans and other vampires through wood, toss animals as big and heavy as a full grown horse and kick through wooden beams several feet in width. They can even fling their own kind straight up through the air and lift up a falling train. Feats of their strength include being able to press the weight of a small car, uproot trees, dismember grown men, and flip mobile homes over. They always have the advantage of superior strength in direct combat with a human. Young vampires experience a formidable increase in physical strength; able to lift heavy objects and overpower grown humans. Older vampires, however, can overpower their own makers and other creatures and throw others with great force and lift a fledgling off the ground with one hand. Boris, a 600 year-old vampire demonstrated his superior strength over Harmony, who was at that time a new vampire who had yet to complete the transition, by easily overpowering her. While vampires get stronger with age, younger vampires can have sufficient strength to withstand their elders such as the case in which Aidan, after drinking live human blood, fought and defeated his sire, Bishop, a vampire significantly older than himself. But as predators of humans, vampires are naturally stronger than their prey; newborn vampires, fledglings, or even new vampires who are still in transition generally have the advantage of physical strength when in direct physical hand-to-hand combat with a human; able to single-handedly lift a grown human off the ground and hurl or toss an average size fully grown human across a room with enough great speed and force to send them through a wall or across an alley, they can also knock them unconscious with a single karate chock, snap their necks with one hand, and crush their bones, all with little to no effort. While limited, the exact limit of their strength remains vague. Another critical factor to a vampire's strength is his or her age as their strength increases to a degree as they age; older vampires of a significant age are stronger than younger, weaker vampires. Their other feats of their considerable strength include single-handedly lifting overweight grown men high off the ground by the throat and snapping their necks without effort, striking opponents with enough force to break bones even by accident, ripping people apart, jumping several feet into the air in a single bound, and ripping out internal organs such as hearts with little to no effort. Their strength is also more powerful than that of werewolves that are not in wolf form. Their strength allows them to jump higher and further than any natural creature. Vampires who feed on humans are stronger than those who feed on animal blood. In Fifty Shades of Gray, one vampire roughly 180 years of age, is seen smashing his hand continuously into a stone wall, causing a large portion to chip off. However, newbie vampires may have difficulties while dealing with truly heavy objects.
- Accelerated Superhuman Speed: Vampires have superhuman speed that is greater than humans which allows them to have the supernatural ability to run, jump, and move at superhuman velocity much faster than humans, even extremely quick, moving faster than the human eye can possibly see and perceive, allowing them to sidestep/outrun bullets and cover miles in a short time, and werewolves in human form, both in speed, agility, and reflexes, and can possibly out run a werewolf even in wolf form and can move at amazing speeds, to the point where they appear to be blurs. Vampires are the fastest supernatural creatures. Vampires also move and fly fast enough to run on water. Vampires can also accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, faster than the human eye can see. When running across long distances, their speed is so great that they appear as vibrating blurs of motion. They can run in excess of 100 miles per hour. The creature’s sheer speed, combined with its unnatural stealth, makes it impossible for the vampire’s prey to detect or escape from the vampire until it is too late. Vampires are able to avoid gunfire easily, and react with unnatural quickness to any threat, due to the creature’s superhuman reflexes. Vampires themselves however, are able to perceive this movement. Their vision and reflexes are accelerated like their movement, as shown when Eric Northman was able to perceive a speeding bullet in slow motion, and himself in normal motion while moving at superhuman speed. Just like their strength, their speed increases with time and age, as older vampires are significantly faster than younger vampires. In addition, vampires have heightened reflexes that are similarly heightened.
- Superhuman Agility: Vampires have and possess amazing supernatural-human agility as well. Vampires are very agile and flexible, as they have shown that they can move, jump very high, climb up walls, scale sheer surfaces, jump very high off buildings without hurting themselves, perform amazing acrobatic and parkour feats and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion, making them more agile than humans and animals, as well as leap to great heights and are nimble enough to scale sheer surfaces with amazing speed, vertically or horizontally, much like a spider. They are very good at climbing. This makes it much easier to perform jumps, flips and other gymnastic maneuvers. Vampires also have greater reflexes than humans. Vampires can jump with their super speed too. Vampires that feed on human blood can jump much higher than vampires that feed on animal blood. This ability would allow them to access places that would be otherwise impossible for a human to reach. They can jump further than any normal human, such as from roof top to roof top or building to building. These abilities increase with age.
- Decelerated Falling: Vampires fall from great heights at a much slower rate than humans, almost appearing to float. This power was first seen when Harmony is seen jumping off the top of Oracle’s church and landing on her feet without any ill effects.
- Enhanced Emotions: Vampires experience emotions more powerfully than humans. Emotions like love, joy, and happiness are intensified for vampires allowing them to live life more intensely. This ability allows vampires to feel emotions at their peak regardless of their age. Original Vampires have been shown experiencing emotions as powerfully today as they did thousands of years ago. Conversely sadness, depression, guilt, fear and anger are also amplified causing most vampires to "turn off" their emotions.
- Emotional Control: Vampires have the supernatural ability to remove or dull their emotions. They can "switch off" their ability to feel emotions such as fear and guilt allowing them to kill without remorse, go against any opponent without fear and relieve themselves of depression and sadness. A vampire without there emotions is far more calculating and direct than one who keeps them on. However, the vampire will become a remorseless killer almost unrecognizable from the person they truly are. This ability fades with time and vampires who are over 500 years old are said to lose it altogether.
- Enhanced Superhuman Senses: Vampires have and possess much stronger heightened senses than humans and non-pure-bred werewolves. They have all the five senses humans have, only they are enhanced to a higher level. The can and have the supernatural ability to hear, see, smell, and also taste better than humans beyond the human limit, as their extremely keen senses of sight, smell, hearing, and touch are of supernatural keenness that are superior to those of humans, comparable on many levels to a wolf’s, and far exceed those of humans and werewolves. Their senses are heightened to 11.
- Sight: They are able to see better than humans. Vampires have razor-sharp senses of sight and can see with perfect clarity in the complete and total darkness of the night, to the point of being able to detect the bodily heat emanations from its victims. Vampires also seem to have night vision.
- Hearing: A vampire's razor-sharp sense of hearing is much greater than a human's. Their hearing is comparable to a bat or an owl, possessing a level of sensitivity on par with the bat’s own echo-sensitivity. They can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far of buildings and on phones, hear voices coming from another room, and hear a human's heartbeat.
- Smell: Vampires possess and enhanced sense of smell is much greater than a human's which allows them to smell almost anything, things that humans would not. Their senses of smell is as acute as that of a wolf or a dog’s, enabling the creature to track its prey for miles by the scent of the victim’s blood alone, a sensation that the vampire relishes. Vampires are also able to tell individual people apart by the scent of their blood coursing through their veins or bodily odors. A vampire can even sense a werewolf's presence purely by smell, as werewolves give off a unique smell that only vampires can smell. They are also capable of catching the scent off blood from several meters to far away. A vampire can track a human's blood over long distances. Giles once warned the Scoobies that, "Once a vampire has your scent, it's for life."
- Touch: The Vampire’s sense of touch is amazingly acute, as the creature can feel the heartbeat of a potential victim through thick walls, or it can detect the vibrations of a hunter’s footsteps and the direction of the footsteps, enabling the Vampire to either escape or prepare an ambush for the would-be hunter.
- Sixth Sense: In addition to its five senses, vampires possess a preternatural sixth sense. They can instinctively sense impending danger, usually posed by humans. The revenant can sense emanations of good or evil, instinctively avoiding the former while congregating in the latter. Like their strength, their senses seem to increase with age as they improve and grow stronger over time, as Luther was able to smell Kate, while none of the younger vampires could.
- Mind Compulsion: Vampires have the supernatural ability to influence, control and manipulate the body, mind, thoughts, emotions, behavior, and soul and alter or erase the memories of an animal's or a human's mind. Calling it "compelling", it is an ability that comes naturally with vampirism. Normal vampires cannot "compel" other supernatural creatures, as it does not seem to work on werewolves, ghosts and other vampires, whereas Alpha Elder Vampires can compel other vampires and vampire/werewolf hybrids.
- Glamour: Vampires are able to "glamour" humans and a few of the more common supernatural creatures such as werewolves. Glamour is a form of hypnosis or mind compulsion, which requires vampires to make eye contact and use their voices to make humans do their bidding. Glamouring does not affect other vampires, powerful witches, maenads or fairies. Excessive glamouring can have a negative effect on the mental stability of a victim. Glamouring is not an innate ability, as it needs to be taught and practiced. Vampires can glamour at least two humans at the same time, as both Jessica Hamby and Eric Northman have been seen to do so.
- Superhuman Endurance: Vampires can remain active at all times. Their bones are very strong and their skin is quite tough. Older Vampires are impervious to blades, gunfire, and are only ailed by water and sunlight.
- Nigh-Immortality: Being immortal undead beings, the most coveted trait of all is the vampire’s virtual immortality. Vampires will not and do not ever age or grow old another day beyond adulthood after they are turned and can and will live forever unless they are killed in specific ways. A vampire stops aging once turned. Upon their transformation vampires become immune to and do not get sick from any and all forms of conventional illnesses, toxins, diseases, poisons, cancer, viruses, and infections that affect humans. Conceivably, assuming the vampire feeds on a regular basis and evades vampire hunters, the vampire could live forever and never grow old. Consuming blood will allow them to maintain their vitality. The oldest known vampires are over 7,000-10,000 years old.
- Shapeshifting: The supernatural ability to alter and change the physical form of ones self. Vampires can take the form of a bat, wolf, bear, owl, crow, and rat. Older vampires are known to take on the appearance and memories of other humans.
- Flight: The unique ability known to older vampires to defy gravity and move towards anywhere in the air. Newborn vampires have a lesser variation of this power; they can land silently and carefully by floating down to the ground during falls. It is suggested that older vampires can fly, while younger vampires can merely levitate. When Willow asks Spike if all vampires can fly, Spike responds "can all humans sing?", suggesting that not all vampires have this ability.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Vampires have super reflexes which allows them to react faster than a human.
- Levitation: Full Vampires are able to and have the ability to defy gravity and rise and float their body into the air.
- Gravity Defiance: Vampires can adhere to walls and ceilings.
- Voice Imitation: Vampires are able to imitate voices; for instance, Spike has been shown to be able to imitate Henry Sturges, while Henry himself has been able to mimic the voice of a guard at Governor Burrell's Vamp Camp.
- Invulnerability: Vampires are nearly impervious to any form of harm and cannot be killed by any conventional weapons of method, such as pistols using regular bullets, stab wounds or gunshots. They have an impressive healing factor, to the point where a vampire was able to recover from a point-blank shot to the eye in seconds. Vampires have an extreme durability to pain. Kate was shot in the stomach with an arrow and merely sighed in annoyance, however they still react to punches and kicks in a similar manner to humans.
- Superhuman Regenerative Healing Factor: As long as they have enough human blood, Vampires can and have the supernatural ability to supernaturally, quickly and rapidly heal and recover from any and all types of infections and injuries that would permanently incapacitate or even kill a human, such as including cuts, massive burns, scars, bruises, projectile wounds, open wounds, poison, suffocation, extreme cold, aging, drowning, tissue damage, or disease etc., faster than humans in a matter of seconds at an accelerated speed that does not include amputation, making them immune to illness and ailments. Vampires heal extremely quickly, but still feel the pain of a wound before it heals. Vampires can snap their bones back into place after being broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement. They heal from any wound as long as they are fed. Vampires can also take a lot of punishment and will heal quite quickly, but not instantly as shown when Harmony still had a round mark after being impaled. The healing speed and effectiveness is improved if the vampire feeds on living blood from a human. Henry, for example, needed to feed from two humans to regrow his skin. Older/more powerful Vampires can recover from torso impalements and prolonged exposure to sunlight. If an injury is severe, vampires need human blood to initiate the healing process. The only injury that cannot be healed on its own is a werewolf bite.
- Magic: Vampires are highly capable of learning to manipulate Magic.
- Blood Bond: A blood exchange between a vampire and human (not before the human dies) will form a blood bond. The vampire will be able to sense the human's thoughts and emotions, knowing if that human is in any type of harm or distress - for eternity. The human will also experience sexual dreams about that vampire.
- Superhuman Stamina: Despite their hunger, Vampires don't tire easily, have far more endurance and stamina than humans, and are able to move at great speed for long periods, and it is nearly impossible to tire the vampire, due to its preternatural degree of endurance. They can run, fight and exert themselves much more and for longer than any human, though they can still get fatigued and even knocked out. They do not need to sleep and do not require food or oxygen. Harmony, who during at the time was a new vampire who had yet to complete the transition, took on an entire nest of over twenty other vampires, in a fight to the death, and emerged almost unfazed.
- Eidetic Memory: Vampires are said to possess perfect recall and to be unable to forget since becoming sired into the species. Their minds are often called "vaults" in which they store all information permanently, regardless of how far such memories recede into the past.
- Superhuman Durability: Vampires can take a great amount of physical damage without being slowed down and are able to endure physical pain better than humans and can recover from attacks that would cripple, maim, or kill humans with minimal effort. Even vampires who have been shot with wooden bullets have been seen to continue fighting, as long as they were not shot in the heart, or the head. They are incapable of being slain by most forms of conventional injury, including firearms or blades. Furthermore, the vampire cannot feel the pain that would result from such attacks. Gunfire has no effect on the revenant whatsoever, serving only to slow the creature down. Likewise, blades don’t affect the vampire at all, unless the blade pierces the heart or removes the head.
- Vampirism Fangs: Vampires have, possess, and can grow, extend, and react a pair/set of sharp, pointed, retractable fangs from their K-9 teeth that extend beyond their human teeth, that which that allow them to use them to feed themselves on the blood of humans and animals, they might come out when a vampire is close to blood or angry. Their fangs will occasionally come out and extend when they feed, are aroused by the scent of blood, or feeling intensely threatened or angered, especially if they are new vampires who have yet to gain complete control over their bloodlust. Vampire's teeth and fangs are also supernaturally much stronger than human teeth allowing them to tear into and rip the limbs off their prey and they can also rip open a human's neck and leave huge bite marks on the corpse of the victim it has fed on. The bite of a vampire can sever the limbs of humans and other creatures. This also enables them to be able to bite another person to turn them into vampires. In addition, if a vampire bites a human, either the human will die or become a vampire. Vampires are said to mainly bite the victim's neck, extracting the blood from a main artery. In folklore and popular culture, the term generally refers to a belief that one can gain supernatural powers by drinking human blood. The historical practice of vampirism can generally be considered a more specific and less commonly occurring form of cannibalism. The consumption of another's blood (and/or flesh) has been used as a tactic of psychological warfare intended to terrorize the enemy, and it can be used to reflect various spiritual beliefs.
- Clairvoyance/Supernatural perception: Like other supernatural species, as supernatural beings, vampires can constantly perceive, see, and hear ghosts. They can also sense werewolves, who give off a distinct, dog-like stench that can only be detected by vampires and other werewolves. Mother was able to sense the three "Orphans" that were hiding, while Aidan couldn't.
- Sunlight Adaptation: Although a rare ability among them, some Vampires have the ability too adapt to sunlight, though it merely causes illness in their skin instead of actual harm.
- Invisibility: Vampires have the power to render themselves invisible and can travel in a hazy mist or fog-like form.
- Atmokinesis/Weather Control/Manipulation: Vampires are able to control the weather within limits. They can and have the supernatural ability to influence meteorological energy patterns, creating rain, wind, hail, lightning, snow, sleet, fog and temperature changes that allows them to be able to create and direct fog, haze, and mist from nothing, summon a powerful storm, control the direction and the force of the wind, or even call down bolts of lightning to strike its enemies and then return the weather to normal later.
- Telekinesis: Older/Elder and powerful vampires can and are able to move objects and beings with their mind.
- Elemental Manipulation: The supernatural ability to control and manipulate the elements of air, earth, fire, water, lightning, etc.
- Pyrokinesis: Older vampires have control over fire and can summon heat and fire with their minds.
- Electrokinesis: Older vampires can summon lightning within their palms.
- Compelling Animals/Animal Control: Vampires are able to compel a crow to spy on humans, and go through entry ways into buildings. A 150-300 year old vampire can control one, 300-600 year old vampires can control two, etc. This is often useful for spying.
- Lapis Lazuli: Some vampires possess a Lapis Lazuli ring or necklace that enables them to walk in daylight without being harmed.
- Sire Bond: Although rare among them, Sire Bonds can be formed when a human is turned with the blood of the vampire whom they had strong human feelings for.
- Telepathy: Vampires have the supernatural ability, albeit a weak variant, to enter the minds of others as long as theirs is stronger than them. It is one of the hardest abilities to master seeing as vampires usually learn this the last. This ability also endows vampires with advanced form of mind control that allows vampires to mentally communicate over a vast distance without physical contact and long distances and hear the thoughts of their victims. Normally, this ability works tactically and the vampire requires physical contact in order for it to work successfully. However, some vampires have been shown to mentally communicate with others from a short distance sending distress calls and mental images during emergency situations. Like their physical attributes, their mental strength increases with age. Older vampires can read the minds of younger, weaker vampires. Vampires can also use telepathy to "whisper" to each other by speaking into each other's minds; a way to silently communicate even over great distances.
- Dream Manipulation: Vampires can mentally create and control dreams and the subconscious of both humans and weaker vampires. They have the ability to produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares and lucid dreaming, distort people's perception of reality and trap someone in their dreams. Vampires can manipulate and enter the subconscious of other vampires and even an Alpha Elder Vampire if they are vulnerable and weak enough. It is easier to get into a vampire's head if they don’t drink human blood. However, this is a learned skill that requires practice to achieve.
- Illusions: Vampires have the power to create illusions and trick the minds of others into seeing/feeling things.
- Illusion Casting: Vampires are capable of disrupting the reality of one or more things at once. The Illusion is limited, since it uses a short time but because the neutralization of the enemy and does not usually give orders to the victims.
- Telepathic Connection: Vampire sires have a connection with the vampires they have sired, allowing them to hear their cries if close enough.
- Psychic Countermeasures: Certain vampires have the power to detect if they are being watched by a Seer and block their sight.
- Vampire Creation: Vampires can pass their curse to others.
- Hypnosis: Although only seen in older and more powerful vampires, through the use of hypnosis, full Vampires are able to put someone in a trance, dominate the mind and will of a human, and control their minds. Vampires have a degree of hypnosis, Eli was able to subdue a woman simply by being in her presence. A nurse also had a need to give Eli something when she entered the hospital but could not figure out what. The creature can convince a potential victim to allow the vampire to enter the individual’s home or leave a house unseen, command one that has been bitten by the creature in any way the Vampire wishes, and to force the chosen victim to accept the Vampire’s dark embrace without a struggle. The Vampire’s bite seems to have an anesthetic effect on the victim, giving the creature the time it needs to feed. Afterwards, the Vampire may use this ability to astral project into their dreams and overall erase the victim's memories or even alter them to the point where something is completely different about them. Afterwards, the vampire may use this ability to make the victim forget about the attack. To dominate a human, the vampire need only make eye contact with its victim for a few seconds. However, the stronger the human’s will, the longer hypnosis takes. If necessary, the Vampire can completely crush the human mind or destroy the individual’s sanity, leaving little more than a drooling lunatic. In the same manner, the Vampire can create a human slave. This slave is totally obedient to his master’s will, to the point of being willing to sacrifice everything for his master’s safety, including his life. Such individuals inevitably lose their minds due to the vampire’s power over them.
Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities[]
- "The word you are actually looking for is "destroy". It is quite a feat to kill that which is already dead."
- —Rayne, on eliminating vampires
In spite of their superhuman powers of strength, speed, resilience, compulsion, and virtual immortality, vampires possess weaknesses and limitations that threaten their very being and give humans advantages over them. As with other supernatural creatures, vampires have weaknesses that hunters can exploit to defeat them. Vampires can not be killed in many ways that humans can, but there are certain methods that can be used to destroy them. When a vampire dies, they appear to burn away, reducing the body to a pile of ash along with the clothes they were wearing. Vampires have a number of weaknesses, which range from irritating to fatal (it should be noted that the death of a vampire is referred to as the "true death"). Unless they are wearing daylight rings or have adapted to sunlight, Vampires can be killed by sunlight and they are unaffected by holy objects or water. If vampires are killed by a wooden object stabbed through their heart, their body desiccates into a gray color, and their vampiric veins thicken and protrude from their skin. Vampires can build up tolerances to some weaknesses, such as vervain, allowing them to protect themselves from compulsion by an Alpha Elder and to help lessen the likelihood that it will seriously incapacitate them when used by enemies. However, it will still burn them upon contact, but if ingested, it will not weaken them as much if they take small amounts over time. They can also be harmed and killed by silver.
Common weaknesses[]
Common vampire weaknesses include:
- Heart Extraction: Removing the heart of a vampire will result in permanent death.
- Beheading/Decapitation: Dismembering, severing, or removing the head of a vampire will result in instant and permanent death. If the head of a vampire is severed completely, the vampire will perish. Breaking the neck of a vampire only causes mild discomfort. Beheading is by far the most commonly used and effective method of killing vampires. Cutting off the head of a vampire can and will kill any Vampire, no matter how old or how powerful the creature may be. This grisly practice originates from the belief that the Vampire is incapable of existing without its head or heart, as it cannot regenerate these vital parts. Without its head, the Vampire is unable to wander about at night without the head to direct it. As with staking, spurting blood must be avoided at all costs.
- Sunlight: Vampires cannot endure ultra-violet light in any form and cannot withstand direct exposure to the rays of the sun. If a vampire comes into contact with sunlight, their skin will burn and they will be severely weakened, and, eventually, burst into flames and perish. Prolonged exposure to sunlight will supposedly causes the vampire's skin to burn and eventually to burst into flames and disintegrate into a pile of ash, resulting in permanent death. The older a vampire is, the slower they will burn; when Godric walked into sunlight, he perished in about 30 seconds, while Bill Compton was just severely charred after 3 minutes. UV light burns heal more slowly than regular burns, such as those inflicted by fire. While sunlight is not lethal to the ones who have adapted to sunlight, vampires strongly dislike direct sunlight, which seems to cause them pain and discomfort. While sunlight can hurt them, Giles likened it to a really bad sunburn; rather than being lethal it only causes pain to vampires. Henry states that vampires long ago were indeed incapable of going out in the sun, but most of them gradually adapted and are now merely 'photosensitive'. For this reason, Vampires that have adapted to sunlight are primarily nocturnal, and will not go out while the sun is still on the horizon. They can also find other types of light uncomfortable, as vampires have increased sensitivity to light. The sunlight doesn't kill vampires who have daylight rings, but it annoys their eyes. They sometimes need to wear sunglasses and sunscreen in the daylight to avoid this problem.
- Fire: Fire causes vampires a great deal of pain and injury. If vampires are consumed by fire for a prolonged period of time, prolonged exposure to fire will result in permanent death and then they will die. Vampires can, however, quickly heal from even the worst burns, if given time and blood. However, if a vampire cannot take the time to heal from the burns, the vampire will die.
- Desiccation: When vampires go prolonged abstain periods and extended amounts of time without feeding from blood, their blood and skin begin to dry up and they begin to look like a mummy, as they will eventually desiccate and mummify. A lack of blood for a prolonged period of time will cause vampires to weaken and begin to resemble a corpse.
- Wood: Wounding a vampire with a wooden weapon will cause the vampire to become severely weak. Stabbing a vampire through the heart with a wooden stake will result in permanent death. Vampires die when stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake. Vampires are susceptible to wood and wooden objects, including stakes and wooden bullets. If the heart of a vampire is pierced with a wooden object, the vampire will explode, and leave a mass of blood where they were previously standing. Ancient vampires can become possibly immune to staking, as seen when Buffy staked Henry, who was able to remove the stake without meeting the final death. If so, the age of a vampire rendered immune to staking is really ancient, as neither Russell nor Warlow were immune, though they were from 2,800 to 5,500 years old.
- Vervain: A mystic herb called vervain is poisonous to vampires. Exposure to or ingestion of vervain can cause a vampire to become severely feverish and weak. Also, physical contact with vervain will burn a vampire's skin. If a human is holding, wearing, or has vervain in their system, a vampire cannot hypnotize or compel anyone who has ingested vervain or has it on their person. Vervain can be mixed with a vampire's drink which, if drunk, will severely weaken them.
- Invitation/Entry to homes: Vampires cannot enter a home owned by humans or werewolves without an invitation by the owner of the house, hence being verbally invited inside first, unless the vampire itself lives there. Vampires do not need to be invited into public places (such as bars or restaurants). However, once the Vampire has been invited inside, the creature is extremely difficult to get rid of. This usually happens when the household fails to recognize the Vampire for what it is. Once inside, the Vampire will drain each person of blood, one by one. In one episode, a house full of vampires is massacred simply by deeding the building to a human lawyer. However, if they somehow get in, attempting to enter uninvited for more than a few seconds, it will cause the vampire to essentially burn and melt away and they will also presumably suffocate. However, once the invitation was extended, the Vampire may enter whenever it wishes, at anytime thereafter. Thus, as long as the people do not give admittance to the creature, they remain safe. Interestingly, humans can rescind their invitations from vampires, which causes the vampire to immediately leave the house, and if the ownership of the house officially changes while a vampire is still inside it, the invitation is nullified, and the vampire will perish unless he or she escapes immediately. It is a person's only safe haven.
- Werewolf Bite: The bite of a werewolf and the poison, which involves injecting a toxic venom into the wound, is extremely lethal to vampires. It will cause them to hallucinate, grow severely weak and go rabid until it kills them. Petrovas' hybrid blood can cure the bite. Vampires suffering from the bite seem to always hallucinate moments from their past. A bite from a werewolf as the venom in the saliva will neutralize the vampire venom in their blood causing them to die and deteriorate. While typical vampires will eventually die from werewolf bites, it isn't lethal to Original vampires, though they still will experience the sickness and hallucination that accompanies it until their body heals.
- Magic: Vampires are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft - including the creation of harmful magical objects - as they have no particular resistance to the effects of magic, and are vulnerable to necromancy. Vampires are vulnerable to the effects of magic. Witches are able to give supernatural aneurysms that cause the blood vessels of vampires to explode. Marnie Stonebrook cast a powerful spell on Eric, causing him to lose his memory. Later she casts a spell on Pam, causing her body to slowly rot.
- Spells: They can be used to harm them to some extent.
- Garlic: Vampires hate the smell of garlic and they are repulsed by the scent and taste of garlic. Garlic is "irritating" to vampires. Likely vampires find the smell of garlic annoying due to their acute senses. While not lethal, garlic forces vampires to reveal their true nature, turning their eyes black and causing their fangs to show, it also seems to cause some small amount of discomfort as Harmony was seen coughing after eating some.
- Broken Neck: Breaking a vampire's neck will not kill it, but it will render it unconscious for few minutes. It was shown when Alaric snaps Stefan and Damon's neck they recover quickly.
- Dismemberment: Dismemberment is a grisly process that involves hacking off the Vampire’s limbs, one by one, to prevent them from rising from the grave and attacking the living. Obviously, any vampire is going to find it to be impossible to get up, wander around, and feed without its arms or legs. Ideally, this should be done with a sword or a woodsman’s axe.
Other Weaknesses[]
These are other vampire weaknesses that can work on even the oldest vampires. These include
- Silver: Any contact with silver will burn and melt the surface of the vampire it touches. The touch of silver burns a vampire's skin and causes great pain. Like with Shapeshifters, including Werewolves, Silver can also kill vampires.
- Angelic Blade: Vampires can be killed by being stabbed with an angelic blade.
- Archangel Blade: Archangels have their own angelic blades that are more powerful than normal angelic blades. An Archangel blade is capable of killing even the most powerful of vampires.
- Iron: Iron can be used to contain, injure, and kill vampires.
- Angels: Angels can kill even the oldest vampires without much difficulty.
- Scent-blocking Mixture: A mixture of saffron, skunks, cabbage, and trillium into a fire will cover a humans scent to attack vampires. This will even cover another vampires scent. However, older vampires with their stronger senses, maybe able to overcome this.
- Wild Rose: When ingested, wild rose causes a vampire to become severely weak and feverish. Also, If a vampire's skin is exposed to wild rose, it can result in burning them.
- Nephilim Blood: If a vampire feeds on a Nephilim, the blood will cause them agonizing pain and also causing the vampire to burn up from the inside.
Unique Weaknesses[]
These are recently identified weaknesses that can hurt vampires
- Dead Man's Blood: The use of blood from the recently deceased can also be used as a method to incapacitate vampires briefly.
- Werewolf Blood: If a vampire drinks werewolf blood, they began to bleed heavily from their eyes and nose and experience violent seizures. Moreover, a vampire who has drunk werewolf blood will be unable to create other vampires, instead creating defective, vampire-like mutants. The blood only remain in their system for a few weeks.
- Unidentified Flu Strain: If a vampire feeds from a human that had the mysterious new flu strain, then they will typically die within days.
Trivia[]
- Sound effects used for vampires portrayed in the series are that of hissing sounds from crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and even large cats roars.