1. What powers do vampires have?

There are many, many different versions of the vampire myth, both in legend and 
in fiction, so justabout any ability you could name has probably been 
ascribed to vampires at some point.

With that said, here are some of the powers traditionally ascribed to 
European vampires:

 The ability to change their shape. Common forms assumed are wolf, bat, rat, 
     cat, owl, fox, weasel, raven, spider, scorpion, and fly. 
 Strength far greater than that of humans. 
 The ability to summon and control animals, particularly rats and wolves. 
 Weather control. 
 Seeing in the dark. 
 Ability to control the minds of their victims in some way. 

Among the traditional limitations and vulnerabilities of vampires are:

 Weakened or harmed by sunlight. 
 Unable to cross running water, except at the ebb and flow of the tide. 
 Can't enter the home of someone without an invitation. 
 Cannot pass a thicket of wild rose or a line of salt. 
 Has to stop and count every grain in a pile of grain he/she encounters 
                                                   (type of grain varies). 
 Repelled by garlic and/or wolvesbane. 
 Repelled/harmed by religious symbols. 
 Does not cast a reflection. In some areas, vampires are believed not to 
     show in photographs, and in some, they are believed not to cast shadows. 

Methods of destroying a vampire include:

 Immobilized/destroyed by driving a stake through the heart. Some legends 
     say the stake must be of a particular type of wood 
     (generally ash, hawthorne, maple, blackthorn, buckthorn, or aspen), 
     and some say that the stake must be driven through in one blow. 
 Cutting off the head. Some legends say this must be done with a  
     gravedigger's shovel. 
 Burning; this is the one universal method of destroying vampires. 
 Cutting out the heart and burning it. 



2. What kinds of vampires are there?

This is a "sampler" of vampire legends from around the world.

Asanbosam: 
     African. Asanbosam are normal vampires except that they have hooks 
     instead of feet. They tend to bite their victims on the thumb. 
Baital: 
     Indian. These vampires natural form is that of a half-man, half-bat 
     creature roughly four feet tall. They are otherwise unremarkable. 
Bajang: 
     Malaysian. The bajang normally take the form of polecats. They could 
     be enslaved by sorcerors and forced to kill the sorceror's enemies, 
     and some families were believed to be hereditarily stalked by the 
     bajang. 
Baobhan Sith: 
     Scottish. The baobhan sith (pronounced buh-van she) are evil fairys 
     who appear as beautiful young women and will dance with men they 
     find until the men are exhausted, and then feed on them. 
     The baobhan sith can be harmed and destroyed by cold iron. 
Callicantzaros: 
     Ancient Greece. According to Greek legend, a child born on Christmas 
     will become a callicantzaros. These vampires often appear in 
     half-human, half-animal shapes. 
Ch'ing Shih: 
     Chinese. Ch'ing shih appear livid and may kill with poisonous breath 
     in addition to draining blood. If a Ch'ing Shih encounters a pile of 
     rice, it must count the grains before it can pass the pile. They can 
     be harmed and destroyed by normal weapons and by sunlight. 
     Their immaterial form is a glowing sphere of light, much like a 
     will-o'-the-wisp. 
Civateteo: 
     Mexican. These vampire-witches held sabbaths at crossroads and were 
     believed to attack young children and to mate with human men, 
     producing children who were also vampires.
     They were believed to be linked to the god Tezcatlipoca. 
Dearg-due: 
     Irish. The dearg-due is a standard European vampire, except that it 
     cannot shapeshift and may be defeated by building a cairn of stones 
     over its grave. 
Empusa: 
     Ancient Greece and Rome. Empusas appear as either beautiful women or 
     ancient hags. They are strongly related to the incubi and succubi. 
Ekimmu: 
     Assyrian. These are vampires of the spirit variety. They are 
     naturally invisible and are capable of possessing humans. They can be 
     destroyed by using wooden weapons or by exorcism. 
Hanh Saburo: 
     Indian. These creatures live in forests and can control dogs. They 
     will attempt to lure or drive travellers into the forest to attack 
     them. 
Incubus: 
     European. Incubi (plural of incubus) are sexual vampires. They are 
     spirit vampires of a demonic nature. They may enter homes uninvited 
     and can take on the appearance of other
     persons. They will often visit the same victim repeatedly. A victim 
     of an incubus will experience the visits as dreams. The female 
     version of an incubus is a succubus. 
Jaracara: 
     Brazilian. Normally appearing as snakes, jaracara are said to drink 
     the milk of sleeping women as well as their blood. 
Krvopijac: 
     Bulgarian. Krvopijacs (also known as obours) look like normal 
     vampires except that they have only one nostril. They can be 
     immobilized by placing wild roses around their graves. One
     way to destroy a krvopijac is for a magician to order its spirit 
     into a bottle, which must then be thrown into a fire. 
Lamia: 
     Ancient Greece and Rome. Lamias are exclusively female vampires. 
     They often appear in half-human, half-animal forms and eat the flesh 
     of their victims in addition to drinking their blood. Lamias can be 
     attacked and killed with normal weapons. 
Loogaro: 
     West Indies. Appearing as old women, these vampires go abroad at 
     night as blobs of light, much like the will-o'-the-wisp. 
Mulo: 
     Serbian. Mulos normally appear as people wearing white clothes. They    
     are active both day and night, and can assume the shapes of horses 
     or sheep. They eat their victims in addition to drinking their 
     blood. Mulos are also known as Vlokoslak. 
Nachzerer: 
     German. These are ghosts of the recently dead which return to kill 
     their families. 
Nosferatu: 
     Central and Eastern European. The "traditional" vampire described in 
     Dracula. Most vampires appearing in movies and books are of this sort. 
Rakshasa: 
     Indian. The Rakshasas are powerful vampires of the spirit variety. 
     They usually appear as humans with animal features (claws, fangs, 
     slitted eyes, etc.) or as animals with human features (flattened 
     noses, hands, etc.). They often appear as tigers. In any form, 
     rakshasas are powerful magicians. They eat the flesh of their 
     victims in addition to drinking blood.
     Rakshasas may be destroyed by burning, sunlight, or exorcism. 
Strige: 
     Eastern European. These are "birds of ill omen" who will attack 
     people at night, with a whole flock of strigoi sometimes attacking a 
     single victim. The strigoi use their long, sharp beaks to
     peck holes in their victims and drink their blood. 
Vampyr: 
     Serbian. The vampyr is naturally invisible, but can be seen by 
     animals or by a dhampir. A dhampir is the (living) offspring of a 
     vampyr, and is capable of seeing vampyrs and of harming them 
     physically. Dhampirs would often hire out to destroy vampyrs. 
     Vampyrs cannot shapeshift. 
Vrykolakas: 
     Medieval Greece. Described as being "swollen" and "distended," 
     vrykolakas can walk in daylight without being harmed. The vrykolakas 
     may only call to be let into a specific house once a night. In 
     addition to sucking blood, vrykolakas also cause nightmares. 
     They may be destroyed by exorcism or burning. In Crete, they are called 
     kathakano. 
Wampir: 
     Polish and Russian. Wampiri appear exactly as normal humans and have 
     a "sting" under their tongue rather than fangs. They are active from 
     noon until midnight. A wampir may only be destroyed by burning. When 
     the wampir is burned, its body will burst, giving rise to hundreds
     of small, disgusting animals (maggots, rats, etc.). If any of these 
     escape, then the wampir's "spirit" will escape as well, and will 
     later return to seek revenge. These creatures are also called 
     vieszcy and upierczi. 

Of course, this list is not exhaustive. Some other regional variants on the 
 vampire are: 
     dracul(Austrian), kwakiytl (American Indian), lobishomen (Brazilian), 
     murony (Wallachian), ogolgen(Bohemian), otgiruru (African), 
     oupir (Hungarian), owenga (African), strigoi (Romanian), 
     talamaur(Melanasian), vapir (Bulgarian), and varcolac (Romanian).



3. How does one become a vampire?

Again, there are many different versions. Some of these are listed below:

 suicide 
 excommunication, dying unbaptized/apostate, or anything else that puts 
     one "outside of the church." 
 being a wizard/witch 
 having been a werewolf 
 your parents cursing you, "May the earth reject you!" 
 babies born with teeth or with a caul may become vampires 
 if a cat or other animal jumps over a corpse before it was buried, 
 it may become a vampire. 
 anyone with red hair 
 victims of unavenged murder 
 seventh sons 
 sexually promiscuity 
 the offspring of a woman and a demon or an incubus will become a 
     vampire 
 anyone bitten by a vampire will become a vampire. In some versions, 
     you have to die from the bite to become a vampire; in others, three 
     bites are necessary 
 drinking the blood of a vampire will make you a vampire 
 being born with a caul (sometimes specifically a red caul). In this 
     case, it may be possible to prevent the change by burning the caul 
     and feeding the ashes to the baby. 

If it is suspected that someone is likely to become a vampire, it is  possible 
to prevent the occurrence by using one or more of the methods for destroying 
vampires listed above or by burying the suspect body face downwards. In 
eastern Europe, it was common to periodically check suspect bodies to
see if they showed any signs of vampirism. Similarly, in China potential 
vampires were not buried until after they had decayed considerably.



4. I'm trying to find a vampire.

Tracking a vampire is like tracking any other animal; you must start by 
going to the native terrain of your target. In the case of a vampire, 
these are places where sources of food, namely humans, congregate and can 
be relatively easily induced to slip off alone together for a bit.

Thus, you should go to bars, dance clubs, and other such places, preferably 
in large cities (greater variety of prey). Once there, watch the patrons. 
Look out for other people who are watching the patrons. If the place(s) 
you choose are preferred haunts of one or more vampires, then you should
eventually notice a pattern; someone who routinely slips off with a 
person, but rarely with the same person twice. Once you've got a few 
possible suspects, you can begin applying standard tests for vampirism; 
look at their skin, try to discreetly follow them a bit, see if they show up 
in mirrors. Of course, some of these tests may just be myths, so they 
don't have to meet all of them.

Once you're fairly sure someone is a vampire, you can begin the approach. 
Try to get to know them in a social context. This is the hardest, and 
potentially the most dangerous, part. Reasonably, most vampires will not 
want to be discovered for what they are, and if they think someone 
suspects, they will either move on or eliminate that person.

Should you succeed in this step, then you can begin to raise the subject 
of vampires. Be subtle.
Don't come right out and ask, "Are you a vampire?" Instead, bring up the 
subject of vampires in a conversation, and see what he/she says about it, 
if anything.

Good luck.



5. What is porphyria, and why is it called "the vampire disease?"

Porphyria is actually a group of diseases, all of which have to do with 
the metabolism of porphyrin, an essential ingredient in metabolising 
iron. It is a genetic disorder, and is in no way contagious.

In 1964, in an article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of 
Medicine, L. Illis proposed that porphyria might be an explanation for 
werewolf legends. More than 20 years later, in 1985, David Dolphin 
presented a paper at a meeting of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science proposing that porphyria might be an 
explanation for vampire legends.

What about porphyria made them make these statements? One of the 
varieties of porphyria, congenital erythropoietic porphyria, has among 
its possible symptoms severe light sensitivity, reddish-brown urine and 
teeth, mutilation of the nose, ears, eyelids, and fingers, an excess of body
hair, and anemia. In addition, some kinds of porphyria are associated 
with epilepsy.

However, there is no evidence that porphyrics have any sort of craving to 
drink blood, and, although it has been conjectured that eating garlic 
might be harmful to them, it is not.

In short, the hullaballo over porphyria and vampirism that went on for a 
short time was simply a typical media overreaction to anything that might 
heighten circulation/ratings. :-)



6. What is a "psychic vampire?"

A psychic vampire is a living person who "drains" others emotionally. 
Depending on the version, this may be an empathic drain (i.e., literally 
feeding on the emotions of others) or it may be a metaphorical drain 
(someone who "takes" emotionally without giving anything back; a "user").

The victims of a psychic vampire become lethargic and depressed, and, 
should they be drained too much, may become suicidal.

The vampire itself is generally represented as fairly normal except for 
its ability; depending on who you ask, psychic vampires may or may not be 
aware of what they do.



7. Will a `real' vampire please come and turn me into a vampire?

If vampires do exist, they will not be exactly what you have been led to 
expect from books, films and role playing games. So if you make such a 
request you are publically expressing a desire to escape into the fantasy 
world you have seen in these media. Don't embarrass yourself.

You should also consider that someone who truly believes they are a vampire
is more likely to be a criminally insane than undead. Do you really want to
invite a dangerous psychopath to come and suck your blood out?