History Main / Dhampyr

Dhampyrs are usually at high risk of being {{Mary Sue}}s and/or very, ''very'' {{Wangst}}y. When done "right", however, they're usually tormented with an uneasy childhood, either because KidsAreCruel and they're {{Half Breed}}s surrounded by [[BullyingADragon bigots]], or because their vampire half is rightly feared by mortals. Of course, that's [[ParentalAbandonment assuming their vampire parent is around.]]

** It is a plot point that this depends on how much vampire blood do they have. A dhampyr with a lot of vampire blood has more powerful magic but has to keep it in the night (but not as much as a vampire) while a dhampyr with little vampire blood has little power in comparisoon but can walk in the sun with little to no discomfort.

* ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'' has the same half-vampires canon has, which means that they have one-half the powers, no extra color senses, and also one-half the bloodlust. It also confirms that you can have [[spoiler:quarter-vampires, or quarter-humans, which have one- or three-quarters vampires' power and baggage]], and that female half-vampires are fertile. Yet unknown whether a female half-vampire can have a child with an activated shapeshifter.

* ''{{Blade}}'': The title character's mother was turned into a vampire when she was pregnant with Blade, causing him to develop into a vampire/human hybrid. He is immune to all the vampiric weaknesses, but still ages. He has super strength. His tagline is ''All the strengths, none of the weaknesses'', despite that fact he doesn't ''have'' all the strengths, and is constantly fighting his blood addiction.

* In the Brazilian André Vianco's books from the ''Os Sete'' chronology (there are two different universes with different vampires), half-vampires, with all dhampyr abilities compared to usual vampires and great but not deadly discomfort at sunlight, come from a human who drank vampire blood but still didn't steal blood, and when he does he will slowly go the way to vampire, increasing both powers and weaknesses, until his heart stops beating. Apparently also, if the stolen blood (not the one from the transformation) is from a vampire with (more) supernatural abilities, like Lobo's vampire werefolf transformation or Inverno's freeze powers, the new vampire also gets them.

**** The online "Savage Progressions" vampire template class cannot take a half-vampire from this book to a standardly templated vampire.

**** But {{Ravenloft}} also averts the Mom-bitten-while-pregnant variant, as the products of such prenatal infection grow up to be "vampyres" -- ''living'' blood-drinking monstrous humanoids, with mind-controlling saliva -- rather than dhampirs. The darklord of Forlorn, Tristan [=ApBlanc=], is such a vampyre.

* SeraMyu has Bloody Dracul Vampir, daughter of the Vampire Count Dracul [[spoiler:The basis for Dracual and [[IAmNotMakeingThisUp actully the Biblical Abel]] ]] and Le Fay, a human woman.

** It is highly unlikely that they thought "How cool, a dhampir who comes to save us" or anything, since Dhampirs were rumoured to die horribly young, due to, for example, not having bones or suchlike. And then there was the "Your mom slept with an undead" thing, which would both more likely lead to pity and repulsion than admiration. Which is why the job was often done by for example some traveling gypsy dude who'd travel on soon enough.

* ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'' has the same half-vampires canon has, and also confirms that you can have [[spoiler:quarter-vampires, or quarter-humans]], and that female half-vampires are fertile. Yet unknown whether a female half-vampire can have a child with an activated shapeshifter.

* A short strip published in an old issue of ''Vampirella'' features a dhampir with many of the same abilities as vampires ''and'' the power to turn vampires into dust with a mere touch. The last vampire in the story is saved from this fate when a human who misunderstands the situation kills the dhampir instead...[[spoiler:only to discover in the last panel that his hunter had a twin sister with the same powers.]]

* The manga version of ''{{Karin}}'' features a Dhampyr, of the human mother variety. She's fine in the sun and she can work the series' [[AppliedPhlebotinum bats]] and their [[LaserGuidedAmnesia powers.]] She's a major player in the second half of the series. This is a case of our vampires are different, where vampires are considered a separate but related living species to humans, as a result all Dhampyrs are sterile.
** It is worth noting that OurVampiresAreDifferent in the respect that they are a separate species with their own culture and history and politics and all. Everything else seems to hold [[spoiler: except for the main vampire]].

* The manga version of ''{{Karin}}'' features a Dhampyr, of the human mother variety. She's fine in the sun and she can work the series' [[AppliedPhlebotinum bats]] and their [[LaserGuidedAmnesia powers.]] She's a major player in the second half of the series. As a token nod to biology, all Dhampyrs are sterile.

* The manga version of ''{{Karin}}'' features a Dhampyr, of the human mother variety. She's fine in the sun and she can work the series' [[AppliedPhlebotinum bats]] and their [[LaserGuidedAmnesia powers.]] She's a major player in the second half of the series.

* ''Dracula2000'': A {{Dhampyr}} is born to a human [[spoiler: (Abraham Van Helsing)]] that has used the blood of a Dracula to increase his life span and another human.

* In ''Blood Cross,'' the character Tsukimiya is described as a hybrid of vampire and angel. It is never explained what vampires or angels even are, or how she became a hybrid of the two, so the significance of this is unknown. She is capable of [[TransferableMemory reading the memories of others]] by drinking their blood with her fangs, [[BloodyMurder turning her spilled blood into spikes and bladed weapons]], and has a strange brand on her chest over her heart as result of her angelic nature. For a never explained reason, all angel hybrids possess this brand, which will kill them after an unspecified period of time.

* ''{{Blade}}'': The main character Blade is written as a {{Dhampyr}} in some of the later works.

It is more common for the father [[HumanMomNonhumanDad to be the vampire]] in this MixedMarriage, since it's universally far easier for a male vampire to impregnate a mortal woman for a female vampire to carry a child to term, due to their dangerous unlifestyles and strict diet. Sometimes avoided altogether by just having a Vampire (male or female) bite and turn a pregnant woman (see ''{{Blade}}'').

* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent The protagonist]] of "The Lost Art Of Twilight" by Thomas Ligotti, born from [[{{Squick}} his mother's staked corpse]], is his own, very special subset of this trope. Unlike most fictional Dhampyr, however, he has very few actual powers, aside from the ability to [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible paint bizarre abstract canvases]] [[BrownNote that are literally nauseating to look at]]. He's also quite curious about his father's side of the family, and so invites them. This being Ligotti, [[DownerEnding this doesn't]] [[TearJerker go well]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel for him.]] [[AFateWorseThanDeath At all.]]

** This becomes a WallBanger when you see that even though the vampires in the movie are repeatedly doing experiments trying to create another "Daywalker" like Blade, and even though Blade's origin is well-known to them, no one ever even ''thinks'' about simply biting another pregnant woman to see how the baby turns out.
*** Wallbanger averted if you think about it. It would take years to raise another "Daywalker" if they just bite pregnant women, and Blade is an urgent threat. It would be more practical to create already grown-up Daywalkers to kill Blade than raise a baby, train and make him/her loyal, especially if Blade can simply infiltrate their secret bases(as he does in all three movies) and take them away.

It is more common for the father [[HumanMomNonhumanDad to be the vampire]] in this MixedMarriage, since it's universally far easier for a male vampire to knock some girl up than for a female vampire to carry a child to term, due to their dangerous unlifestyles and strict diet. Sometimes avoided altogether by just having a Vampire (male or female) bite and turn a pregnant woman (see ''{{Blade}}'').

A subtrope of HalfHumanHybrid, a {{Dhampyr}} is a child born of a vampire and a human. Generally they have all of a vampire's powers and none of their weaknesses. They are also frequently portrayed as vampire hunters. Just as some cultures once believed that murderers and suicides could rise as vampires, a child born approximately nine months after the death of the father might have been accused of this.

Dhampyrs are usually at high risk of being {{Mary Sue}}s and/or very, ''very'' {{Wangst}}y.

For some reason, their mother in this MixedMarriage is [[HumanMomNonhumanDad almost always the human one]]. Sometimes avoided altogether by just having a Vampire (male or female) bite and turn a pregnant woman (see ''{{Blade}}'').

When done "right", they're usually tormented with an uneasy childhood, either because KidsAreCruel and they're {{Half Breed}}s surrounded by [[BullyingADragon bigots]], or because their vampire half is rightly feared by mortals. Of course, that's [[ParentalAbandonment assuming their mom is alive.]]

Also, sometimes they only get a truly "halfsie" deal, [[AllGenesAreCodominant with half the powers of a vampire and half the vulnerability.]] Sunlight won't kill, but will discomfort. Same for garlic, etc. [[CaptainObvious Stakes through the heart probably are still lethal though]].

* In Medieval Eastern Europe, villages would often hire the services of a "Dhampir" to rid them of vampires who are giving them bad luck. These vampires were invisible to normal people, but a Dhampir was able to see them by looking through the sleeve of his coat. He would then grapple with the invisible vampire and eventually succeed, inspiring fanfare, food, and income from the villagers.

*** Wallbanger averted if you think about it. It would take years to raise another "Daywalker" if they just bite pregnant women, and Blade is an urgent threat. It would be more pratical to create already grown-up Daywalkers to kill Blade than raise a baby, train and make him/her loyal, especially if Blade can simply infiltrate their secret bases(as he does in all three movies) and take them away.

* ''GraveOfTheVampire''-the child produced from a vampire raping a woman is clinically dead in the womb, and, after it is born, the mother feeds him on her own blood, and keeps him out of direct sunlight. Upon adulthood, he is sensitive to sunlight, and eats VERY rare steak. He also hunts down his daddy. Eventually, [[spoiler:after killing his pop-pop, he becomes, apparently, a vampire himself]]
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[[CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SotN_Alucard_2077.jpg]]

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If you want the image to be right-justifed, use:
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[[caption-width:250:[[{{Castlevania}} "I have come to put an end to this."]]]]

* The manga version of ''Karin'' features a Dhampyr, of the human mother variety. She's fine in the sun and she can work the series' [[AppliedPhlebotinum bats]] and their [[LaserGuidedAmnesia powers.]] She's a major player in the second half of the series.

** In the Asian setting ''Kindred Of The East'', a Kuei-Jin (Asian vampire) breeding with a human can produce a Dhampyr. They have minimal access to vampiric disciplines, but their main power is their supernatural luck, the spiritual side-effect of the unlikelihood of their birth. This also justifies why the mother is usually human: Kuei-Jin are fertile only if they spend a certain kind of chi when they wake up. If a vampire mother ever ran out of that kind in the course of nine months, she will miscarry, while a vampire father need only spend that type on the night of conception. Ironically, both parents can be vampires. This is very rare, however.