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	Comparison of Vampire Myths in Popular Fiction - Page 2 of 3 last update: 2 Apr 2003
	Myth	SY	VN	AR	SV
	General
	Vampires are inherently evil	No	No	No	No
	Vampires are a kind of undead	Yes	Yes	Yes	Maybe
	Vampires are 'normal' humans, just altered	*Yes1	No	No	No
	Vampires are a different species (subspecies) than humans	No	No	No	No
	Vampirism can be cured	No	No	*No1	No
	Identifying features	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampire skin is unnaturally pale and cold to the touch	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	The pallor and coldness decreases after feeding	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Vampires are hideously deformed	No	No	No	No
	Vampires tend to have long and pointed fingernails	No	No	*No2	No
	Vampires have claws/talons	No	No	No	No
	Vampires gain monstrous aspects when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. glowing eyes or deformed features)	No	No	No	No
	Vampires change appearance when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. flushed or less dead-looking)	No	No	Yes	No
	A vampire's heart beats.	No	Yes	Yes	?
	A vampire's heart only beats if the vampire wills it to	n/a	No	n/a	?
	Vampires need to breathe	No	Yes?	No	?
	Vampires, in fact, don't breathe, unless they consciously intend to	Yes	No	No	?
	You become a vampire by ...	SY	VN	AR	SV
	... being killed by one (normally via blood loss) (with no further action necessary)	No	No	No	No
	... drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood (without dying first)	*Yes2	No	*sort of	No
	... suffering fatal blood loss and drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood	No	Yes	Yes	No
	... dying after being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	No	No	*sort of	No
	... dying after repeatedly being bitten by or drinking from a vampire	No	No	No	Yes
	... participating in some sort of ritual	No	No	No	No
	... committing suicide, dying unbaptized/apostate, not being buried in consecrated ground, etc	No	No	No	No
	... being the victim of an explicit curse	No	No	No	No
	... being born that way	No	No	No	No
	... getting infected by some kind of 'virus'	Yes	No	No	Maybe
	The subject must be willing for the transformation to be effective.	Yes	No	No	Yes?
	The new vampire appears dead for some time (often 3 days) before rising	No	No	No	?
	A newly made vampire will wake ravenous and will tend to attack anyone within range (unless fed as part of the process)	Yes	Yes	No	?
	Killing/Hurting Vampires	SY	VN	AR	SV
	A stake through the heart causes permanent death	*No3	Yes?	*some-times	No
	A stake must be made of special wood to be effective (e.g. ash or rowan or whitethorn)	Yes	No?	No	no info
	A stake must be made of special wood to be effective (e.g. from the true cross)	Yes	?	No	no info
	A stake through the heart causes paralysis only	?	No	No	Yes
	A stake must be made of wood to be effective.	?	No	No	?
	Sunlight causes nearly instant combustion and is nearly always fatal	Yes	Yes	*usually	Yes
	Sunlight causes severe burns and discomfort and is fatal after extended exposure	No	Yes	*some-times	No
	Sunlight inflicts no or mild (sunburn) damage	No	No	*rarely	No
	Sunlight must be direct to be effective	Yes	No?	*Yes	Yes
	Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight	No	Yes	No	?
	Sunblock provides some protection from sunlight	no info	No?	Yes	?
	Sunblock provides total protection from sunlight	no info	No	No	No
	Vampires suffer more than usual damage from fire	no info	Yes?	*Yes	?
	If invulnerable to normal attack, fire is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	no info	n/a	Yes	n/a
	Vampires suffer more than usual damage from silver	Yes	No	No	Yes
	If invulnerable to normal attack, silver is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	n/a	n/a	No	?
	Vampires suffer more than usual damage from wood	Yes	No	No	?
	If invulnerable to normal attack, wood is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire	n/a	n/a	Yes	?
	Beheading causes permanent death	Yes	Yes	*Usually	Yes
	It takes special effort to make a vampire stay dead (e.g. cutting off the head, sewing the mouth shut around a clove of garlic and burying the body at a crossroads)	*No4	No	No	No
	Dead vampires disperse to dust regardless of age	No	?	No	?
	Dead vampires decompose/disintegrate as a function of age	no info	?	No	?
	Vampires become more resistant to these methods as a function of age	Yes	?	Yes	?
	Animals	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires can be sustained by animal blood	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Vampires can be sustained indefinitely by animal blood (without suffering deleterious side effects)	No	No	*Yes	?
	Animals can become vampires	No	No?	No	No
	Animals can gain vampiric traits or be otherwise affected by drinking vampire blood.	No	no info	No	No
	Vampires have control over animals	No	No	Some	No
	Vampires have control only over specific animals	n/a	No	?	No
	Vampires can summon certain animals	n/a	No	Some	No
	Animals can sense vampires and feel threatened by them	no info	Yes	Usually	Yes
	When you are bitten by a vampire (and live) ...	SY	VN	AR	SV
	... they gain some power over you	No	No	No	No
	... you acquire some vampiric traits	No	No	No	No
	When you drink from a vampire (without being dead first) ...	SY	VN	AR	SV
	... they gain some power over you	no info	No	Yes	?
	... you acquire some vampiric traits	no info	No	Yes	Yes
	Fangs	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires have fangs	Yes	Yes	All	Yes
	Fangs are retractable	No	Yes	No	?
	Fangs are hollow (sucking)	No	No	No	No
	Fangs are hollow (injecting)	No	No	No	No
	Invitations	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires require an invitation to enter a private dwelling (of the living)	No	No	No	No
	That invitation can be simply retracted	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	That invitation can be retracted, but requires special procedures (e.g. specific wording or a spell)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Crosses ...	SY	VN	AR	SV
	... repel vampires	No	No	No	No
	... require the belief of the wielder to repel vampires	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	... are more effective in the hands of believers	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	... require the belief of the vampire to repel vampires	n/a	No	n/a	n/a
	... if effective, burns vampiric flesh on contact	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	... if effective, burns everything on contact	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	... may be replaced with other religious symbols according to the belief system of the wielder and/or vampire	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	... are ineffective	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	... only have a psychosomatic effect (that is, they only work if the vampire believes that they should work)	No	n/a	Yes	n/a
	Holy Water	SY	VN	AR	SV
	... is ineffective	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
	... if effective, burns (like acid) and can cause severe damage in quantity	n/a	n/a	n/a	?
	... can reverse or halt effects of vampiric attack	n/a	n/a	n/a	?
	Eucharistic wafers can be substituted for/function similarly to holy water	n/a	No	n/a	?
	Mirrors	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires have no reflection in mirrors or water	No	No	No	Yes
	Vampires leave no image on photographs or on film	n/a	No	No	Yes
	Vampires are repulsed by mirrors	n/a	No	No	No
	Daytime	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires are completely nonfunctional (e.g asleep or corpselike) during the day	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	If at all awake, vampires are sluggish during the day	Yes	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Vampires can function normally during the day, provided they avoid the sun	No	n/a	n/a	No
	Vampires can function normally during the day (without exception)	No	n/a	n/a	No
	Vampires can function normally during the day, but without their vampiric abilities	No	n/a	n/a	No
	Only the oldest/most powerful vampires can function during the day	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Supernatural Abilities	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Damage resistance, high strength and fast healing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Truly supernatural strength (like throwing cars)	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Superhuman perception (e.g. sight, hearing, mystical)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Hypnotic mind control	Yes	Yes	Most	Yes
	The mind control requires eye contact	Some	No	No	Yes
	Shapeshifting (often a wolf or bat)	No	No	No	No
	Mist or intangible form	No	No	No	?
	Ability to move through solid/airtight objects	No	No	No	No
	Superhuman speed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?
	Flight/Levitation	Yes	No	Some	No
	Inhuman stealth (Sometimes to the point of invisibility)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Control over weather	No	No	No	No
	Saliva has healing properties (usually used to close bite marks)	no info	Yes	No	No
	Miscellaneous Supernatural Restrictions	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires are repelled by garlic	Yes	No	No	No
	Vampires no longer need 'regular' food	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Vampires are not physiologically able to eat solid food.	Yes	Yes?	Yes	?
	Vampires can no longer eat or drink at all (other than blood)	Yes	Yes?	Yes	?
	Vampires can eat or drink, but get nothing out of it	n/a	Yes	No	?
	Vampires can become intoxicated by directly ingesting drugs or alcohol	No	?	n/a	?
	Vampires can become intoxicated by drugs or alcohol secondhand (e.g. by drinking from an intoxicated victim)	Yes	?	Yes	?
	Vampires must sleep with a sample of their home soil	No	No	No	No
	Vampires cannot cross running water	No	No	No	No
	Vampires cannot cross a line of salt	No	No	No	No
	Vampires are compelled to stop and count numerous objects (often grain) thrown into their path	No	No	No	No
	Hierarchy/Society	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires are societally compelled to obey their sire/creator	Yes	*No1	*No3	Yes?
	Vampires are mystically compelled to obey their sire/creator	Yes	No	No	No
	Beyond the 'generic', vampires tend to have the same supernatural traits/abilities as their sire/creator	No	No	Some	n/a
	Older vampires will, on occasion, weed out the population of younger vampires	no info	No	Yes	no info
	Vampires are loners that cannot abide to share territory	*Yes5	Yes	Some	No
	Relationship with Other Supernaturals (especially Shapeshifters)	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural allies	no info	sort of	n/a	No
	Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) are natural enemies	no info	No	n/a	No
	Vampires and Werewolves (shapeshifters) could care less about each other	no info	Yes	n/a	Yes?
	Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is extra yummy	no info	No	n/a	No
	Werewolf (shapeshifter) blood is indigestible	no info	Yes	n/a	No
	Vampires can be infected with lycanthropy (become werewolves, etc.)	no info	No	n/a	No
	Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires	no info	No	n/a	?
	Werewolves (shapeshifters) can become vampires (but lose all of their were abilities)	no info	no info	n/a	?
	Age and Power Level	SY	VN	AR	SV
	Old vampires tend to be stronger than newer ones	Yes	no info	Yes	Yes
	Old vampires tend to be stronger but generally just because the strong ones are better at not getting killed	No	Yes?	Yes	?
	Vampires get stronger as they age	Yes	No	Yes	Yes?
	A vampire's strength varies according to the strength of their 'sire'	No	no info	Yes	?
	A vampire can become stronger by drinking from another vampire	no info	No?	some-times	No
	Something about the person as a pre-vampire mortal has an effect on the powers/power level of the vampire	No	no info	*Yes4	?
	Vampires appear the age at which they became a vampire	Yes	*Yes	Yes	Yes
	Vampires age (physically)	No	slowly	No	No
	Miscellaneous	SY	VN	AR	SV
	When a vampire feeds, it is fatal (to the donor)	*Yes6	No	Often	No
	Being fed on is pleasurable for the human victim	Yes	No?	Yes	Yes
	Blood must be 'fresh' (from a living person, not stored or refrigerated)	Yes	Yes	*Yes	?
	Vampires must drink blood frequently (at least once every day)	No	No	No?	?
	Vampires feed on something other than blood (life essence, emotions, etc)	No	?	No	No
	The blood of other vampires is more sustaining or more powerful than that from a mortal	No	No	maybe	?
	A vampire is 'frozen' at the moment of conversion. That is, hair and nails can be neither shortened nor lengthened, tattoos don't stick, etc.	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
	A vampire is immune to mortal diseases	No	Yes?	Yes	Yes
	A vampire can no longer contract mortal diseases, but can still be a carrier	No	Yes	No	Yes
	Vampires are still sexually functional	n/a	No	No	Yes
	Only women vampires are still sexually functional	No	No	n/a?	n/a
	Vampires can bear children	No	No	No	No
	Vampires can father children	n/a	n/a	No	No
	A child of a vampire and a mortal results in a 'Dhampir', with some vampiric abilities and fewer of the weaknesses	Yes	Yes	n/a	n/a
	Vampires actively conceal their existence from mortal society	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
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