vampire medical experiments

OK, hesitantly reposting here after a long hiatus, because I'm really annoyed with how a different creative writing forum reacted to this. Please, don't go and tell me to figure this out myself, only reply if you have actual ideas for me. Also, don't go and say you don't like the idea, or it can't be done well, or similarly unhelpful comments.

I have a couple of characters who have just discovered that they can reach into a vampire's body and remove or damage organs at will. They will experiment on a series of vampires and see what they can discover. Kind of in the same style as the guys who discovered that removing the pancreas of a dog caused diabetes.

My vampires are beings of pure magic, and therefore their physiology is different from regular humans. I haven't figured out a lot of how it works, however, so just toss out ideas of made up medical problems, and I'll pick and choose the ones that could work for my story.

The one thing I've figured out is how staking works - vampires have a continuous flow of magic throughout their bodies, and the residual life energy in the wood, if it's stabbed right into the heart, disrupts this flow, causing instant death. (The wood has to be green, and anything alive that gets stabbed into a vampire's heart would cause instant death.) Vampires can also be killed by severe wounds with silver weapons, because silver absorbs magic.

edited 23rd Jul '12 9:26:12 AM by Ettina

So, what exactly is your question?

I'm guess Vampires are not of the Neighborhood Friendly variety, otherwise people might be perturbed by what is possibly casual torture.

It certainly makes for a quick way of slaying Vampires.

I am going to assume that it is only being stabbed in the heart that would disrupt the flow of magical energies otherwise your characters would cause instant death everytime they messed round with a vampires innards.

Is the constant flow of magical energies what animates the vampire? Does it allow them to regenrate/heal any damage they sustain? Does using their magical energy to heal mean the level of magical energy flowing through them goes down and needs to be replenished? Cause that would be a good reason for the need to drink blood from others. They feed upon the life magic found in blood from a living source in order to replenish the magical energy of their own bodies that may have been diminished when healing themselves.

In which case having any organs connected to their digestive system messed around with would affect their ability to feed and also their ability to regenerate/heal damage. Also is there an organ that would regulate the flow of magic in their bodies? Like if the flow of magic was too low the vampire would be sluggish and disorientated or if the flow of magic was too high it might cause them to be hyperactive either way if the flow of magic through the body isnt at a healthy level then slowly ocurring internal damage would result? Kinda like how the liver and kidneys help keep the blood flowing through our bodies clean.

"I'm guess Vampires are not of the Neighborhood Friendly variety, otherwise people might be perturbed by what is possibly casual torture."

Actually, they're semi-friendly, and the characters doing the torture are VillainProtagonists. The casual torture is supposed to be disturbing.

"Is the constant flow of magical energies what animates the vampire? Does it allow them to regenrate/heal any damage they sustain? Does using their magical energy to heal mean the level of magical energy flowing through them goes down and needs to be replenished? Cause that would be a good reason for the need to drink blood from others. They feed upon the life magic found in blood from a living source in order to replenish the magical energy of their own bodies that may have been diminished when healing themselves. In which case having any organs connected to their digestive system messed around with would affect their ability to feed and also their ability to regenerate/heal damage."

Actually, they need to feed for much the same reason we do - because they are constantly losing energy just being alive.

But good point - this energy is also used to heal themselves. One vampire who regularly starves herself has a silver stab wound taking way too long to heal. So messing with their digestive system would impair healing as well as gradually starving them.

"Also is there an organ that would regulate the flow of magic in their bodies? Like if the flow of magic was too low the vampire would be sluggish and disorientated or if the flow of magic was too high it might cause them to be hyperactive either way if the flow of magic through the body isnt at a healthy level then slowly ocurring internal damage would result? Kinda like how the liver and kidneys help keep the blood flowing through our bodies clean."

Actually, what you're describing sounds more like what the thyroid does. Good idea, thanks!