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Just to add to this messed up debate, since we are talking about Vampire's spawning. How about the non-spawned Vampires, the ones that didn't get it from a previous vampire. And imo there is far too little of this in literature.
ie Dracula, sold his soal to the devil. also in legends there were cases of Spontaneous Vampirism, for example it was long suspected that those with red hair were particularly vulnerable. The idea that vamperism can come from making a deal with a devil or by being rejected from the afterlife.
I think it's actually pretty common, since vampires had to come from somewhere in the first place and any story that gets back to their origins has to have something, whether it's soul-selling, blood spirits, demonic possession, human mutation, being bitten by a radioactive bat, or whatever.
The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance. - Good Omens
= My most popular campaign item; for all your adventuring convenience.Show
Zauber's Mutable Rod: This rod has a number of useful functions that make it easier to live in the wilderness. It is made of polished wood, with five studlike buttons on one end. Each button produces a different effect when pressed. Unless otherwise noted, the rod’s functions have no limit on the number of times they can be employed. • When button 1 is pressed, one end of the rod produces a small flame, equivalent to a candle. • When button 2 is pressed, the rod unfolds into a two-person tent, complete with bedrolls and warm blankets. • When button 3 is pressed, the rod becomes a one-handed hammer, suitable for pounding pitons into a wall. • When button 4 is pressed, the rod becomes a sturdy iron spade. • When button 5 is pressed, the rod becomes a wooden bucket able to hold 2 gallons of liquid. Once per day, it can be commanded to fill with fresh water. If the rod is seriously damaged or broken in any of its alternate forms (button 2, 3, 4, or 5), it reverts to its basic rod form and cannot be activated for 24 hours. Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Rod, minor creation; Price 375 gp; Weight 2 lb.
I think it's actually pretty common, since vampires had to come from somewhere in the first place and any story that gets back to their origins has to have something, whether it's soul-selling, blood spirits, demonic possession, human mutation, being bitten by a radioactive bat, or whatever.
Most of those however involve all vampires having come from that original source. Be it Cain as the forefather of all vampires, Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned etc. all vampires are branches out from the first Vampire. One original vampire gets bitten by a deseased bat, or sells his soul, is damned by god or whatever, and goes from there to create all other vampire lines.
I mean the idea that there be multiple, independent sources, different people at different times who either sell their souls or are cursed by the gods, or whatever, who return from the dead as vampires.
I mean the idea that there be multiple, independent sources, different people at different times who either sell their souls or are cursed by the gods, or whatever, who return from the dead as vampires.
I see; you mean the individual instances are uncommon within a given fictitious work, rather than the presence of vampires deriving from that origin as a whole.
I would say that it's because a single special event sells the mystique and power of vampires a bit more, and reproducing by passing the curse along gives them a whole interesting hierarchy with which to play. It also saves a lot of explaining about how you manage the change, since it's easily explained as being in the control of an agent descended from a legendary figure who transformed by the original method.
You could easily change it to multiple characters involved in a single event, like the twelve brothers who drank the blood of a mythic demon being the origin of the twelve bloodlines, but once you start spreading the actual occurrences out, it becomes closer to something that could happen with anyone at any time (which is less favoured for making vampires seem special).
For example, if the story was that any red-haired corpse buried in unhallowed ground became a vampire, they approach more of the flavour that we currently see in zombies (easier to create accidentally, and much more common).
The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance. - Good Omens
= My most popular campaign item; for all your adventuring convenience.Show
Zauber's Mutable Rod: This rod has a number of useful functions that make it easier to live in the wilderness. It is made of polished wood, with five studlike buttons on one end. Each button produces a different effect when pressed. Unless otherwise noted, the rod’s functions have no limit on the number of times they can be employed. • When button 1 is pressed, one end of the rod produces a small flame, equivalent to a candle. • When button 2 is pressed, the rod unfolds into a two-person tent, complete with bedrolls and warm blankets. • When button 3 is pressed, the rod becomes a one-handed hammer, suitable for pounding pitons into a wall. • When button 4 is pressed, the rod becomes a sturdy iron spade. • When button 5 is pressed, the rod becomes a wooden bucket able to hold 2 gallons of liquid. Once per day, it can be commanded to fill with fresh water. If the rod is seriously damaged or broken in any of its alternate forms (button 2, 3, 4, or 5), it reverts to its basic rod form and cannot be activated for 24 hours. Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Rod, minor creation; Price 375 gp; Weight 2 lb.
I see; you mean the individual instances are uncommon within a given fictitious work, rather than the presence of vampires deriving from that origin as a whole.
Not all works, it is actually a very modern trend to do this. In Brahm Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing recognizes that a Vampire is the cause of a character's illness and death, showing that he has encountered or is knowledgable about Vampires, but the book indicates that Dracula's curse wasn't caused by a previous vampire, in his tale Vampires can create others, but are not all traced back to a single event, any vampires he has dealt with before, or learnt from his studies, have come from unrelated sources then Dracula's case.
Or as has been pointed out, Red Heads were particularly vulnerable to coming back as Vampires in old lore, as read headed people were seen with a degree of superstition and connection with the devil, each one would be a spontaneous event.
Aye, but we were talking about general trends, weren't we?
I'll admit to not having read Dracula in any direct sense, but is it possible (in that particular case) that Van Helsing had previously fought vampires created by Dracula? It need not be the case, of course, but it's a possibility from the description you've given.
The older myths tend to have been welded together over time, but it's true that they seem to have treated vampires as yet another monstrous creature, rather than giving them a specific special origin like more recent works.
The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance. - Good Omens
= My most popular campaign item; for all your adventuring convenience.Show
Zauber's Mutable Rod: This rod has a number of useful functions that make it easier to live in the wilderness. It is made of polished wood, with five studlike buttons on one end. Each button produces a different effect when pressed. Unless otherwise noted, the rod’s functions have no limit on the number of times they can be employed. • When button 1 is pressed, one end of the rod produces a small flame, equivalent to a candle. • When button 2 is pressed, the rod unfolds into a two-person tent, complete with bedrolls and warm blankets. • When button 3 is pressed, the rod becomes a one-handed hammer, suitable for pounding pitons into a wall. • When button 4 is pressed, the rod becomes a sturdy iron spade. • When button 5 is pressed, the rod becomes a wooden bucket able to hold 2 gallons of liquid. Once per day, it can be commanded to fill with fresh water. If the rod is seriously damaged or broken in any of its alternate forms (button 2, 3, 4, or 5), it reverts to its basic rod form and cannot be activated for 24 hours. Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Rod, minor creation; Price 375 gp; Weight 2 lb.
In Brahm Stokers, Dracula, Vampires must return to the soil of their grave, and combined with the difficulty of travel in general for a vampire. Dracula's travel to england was an enormouse operation, requiring years or preperation. The purchase and preperation of properties in avance, soil being sent over to he could stay there, arranging shipping and feeding on the way there leaving a trail of death and mysterious disappearances in his wake (as in the ship he travels in comes ashore with the captain tied to the ships wheel, dead, and the crew missing)
Then any vampires he creates are also bound to their grave. This combined difficulty to travel and the very tracable trail he would leave behind, makes it unlikely that he has ever left Translavania before this time, and also that he would be known to whereever he has traveled to create those vampires, ie traveling far off places and creating vampires exposes him.
I will also point out that Dracula is sloppy. he purchased all the england locations through the same office, via a buyer that he would associate with over there, with no secondary front to shield the true buyer. He leaves the ships logs that document the mysterious disapearances, rather then destroy the log and leave everyone to assume a plague killed them. So I would asume that this was the only time he's done this.
Also this creates an epicentre, if he creates a vampire in town, and that vampire creates a vampire a mile away, and that vampire creates a vampire a mile away and so on, that points an arrow at him. So if any vampire appeared in boston, the first thing you would look for would be whoever just traveled there from Translavania, and hey didn't Count Dracula just buy a house down the street from there?
So any Vampires Dracula created (not counting his trip to england) likely are all in Translavania. So any vampires that Van Helsing has ever encoutnered before were not from Dracula, or else it is very, very unlikely to have been from him.
So that makes it possible, but I agree that it would be very unlikely unless the vampires he creates have less stringent requirements. I suppose it's not usually a problem for him, since (as is often the case) it's only the specialists who seem to be familiar with vampires.
The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance. - Good Omens
= My most popular campaign item; for all your adventuring convenience.Show
Zauber's Mutable Rod: This rod has a number of useful functions that make it easier to live in the wilderness. It is made of polished wood, with five studlike buttons on one end. Each button produces a different effect when pressed. Unless otherwise noted, the rod’s functions have no limit on the number of times they can be employed. • When button 1 is pressed, one end of the rod produces a small flame, equivalent to a candle. • When button 2 is pressed, the rod unfolds into a two-person tent, complete with bedrolls and warm blankets. • When button 3 is pressed, the rod becomes a one-handed hammer, suitable for pounding pitons into a wall. • When button 4 is pressed, the rod becomes a sturdy iron spade. • When button 5 is pressed, the rod becomes a wooden bucket able to hold 2 gallons of liquid. Once per day, it can be commanded to fill with fresh water. If the rod is seriously damaged or broken in any of its alternate forms (button 2, 3, 4, or 5), it reverts to its basic rod form and cannot be activated for 24 hours. Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Rod, minor creation; Price 375 gp; Weight 2 lb.
