How different can I make my vampires?

Are there any vampire characters who aren't any of the extremes, the Wangsty romantic vampire or the Dlacula kill them all vampire? Can there be a character who us in between those extrremes or even not all?

Um, read Our Vampires Are Different — there's a lot of variation.

Short answer: yes, there are vampires who aren't either extreme, and some that deviate off in quite some different direction

Why don't you make vampires something never seen before? Why don't you make them have different reasons and needs for drinking blood? Consider that a vampire is a human who becomes a monster; maybe a monster drinks blood to feel more human?

Just curious. Why do you want them to be vampires?

I think it would be a great twist to have a pale, sunlight avoiding, nearly immortal character that wasn't a vampire. Just to mess with people's heads.

"Are there any vampire characters who aren't any of the extremes, the Wangsty romantic vampire or the Dracula kill them all vampire? Can there be a character who us in between those extrremes or even not all?"

Well, there's the vampire on BloodTies: a comic-book artist who solves cases on the side, and is cheerfully promiscuous in order to get blood. About his only issue with being a vampire is the territoriality that keeps him from living with the woman who turned him, and he's pretty much adjusted to that.

And in many of the stories with a Wangsty vampire lead, there are supporting vampire characters who are neither Wangsty nor evil. Such as the tech guy in Moonlight (a vampire geek!) or Janette in ForeverKnight. A Perspective Flip could result in an interesting take on vampirism.

Most of my vampire characters fit into neither stereotype as well. I have a couple of minor characters introduced solely to get killed off who fit the Dracula stereotype, and one character who is my attempt to write a female Vampire Detective, but apart from that, I have:

• A child vampire who's 2000 years old, likes to kill pedophiles and hopes to live at least another 2000 years.

• A very young vampire who hunts down slayers, who is basically your typical Lawful Good type in personality.

• A viking teenager who gets turned into a vampire (this story is set about 1000 years before the others) and interprets it as being chosen by a valkyrie to become a hero after death.

And various supporting characters, most of whom are older mentor types.

edited 29th Mar '10 9:45:24 AM by Ettina

I liked the Vampire-Viking idea.

Much support for this idea. I'm actually workign on somthing like this already. It's about a man who comes to terms with his vampirism and then becomes a well adjusted man and how he lives a very normal mundane life in spite of his vamprism.