Build Your Own Vampire Project Pd. 8 Chomp Suey

Build Your Own Vampire Project

Period 8 Group 6 Team Chomp Suey

Trinity Chen, Siying Chen, Helen Xue, Jenna Mui, Gabriel Cruz, Jasmine Mayor

Objective: The goal of this project is for your team to create the rules and attributes of your own vampire universe. While creativity is necessary, research is actually the focal point. The caveat is that your vampire universe must be based on research your team completes about stories associated with vampires from any point in time, history, folklore, or fiction. 

Vampire’s Ethnicity: Filipino

Justification: Vampires are apart of the folklore in the Philippines. The Aswang Syncrasy details their beliefs about five different mythical creatures. One of these is the vampire, which is a creature that sucks blood. 

Ramos, Maximo. “The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore.” Western Folklore, vol. 28, no. 4, 1969, pp. 238–248. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1499218.

Vampire’s Abilities:

1. Grows wings and tongue 
2. Detaching torso 
3. Immortal (unless killed)
4. Sparkling in sun

Justification:

1. Grows wings and tongue:

Vampire moth has wings and a proboscis to suck blood. They were named “vampires” because of their ability to drink blood for sustenance and to enrich their young with sodium.

Roach, John. “Vampire Moth Discovered-Evolution at Work.” National Geographic, 2 Oct. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2008/10/vampire-moth-discovered-evolution-at-work/

The mandurago (a variant of the Filipino aswang) stalks children and hunts them by turning into a bird and waiting until the person is alone. It then extends a long tongue that is sharp at the end to suck the blood of the person from the base of the neck, ankle, or upper arm.

“The Aswang.” Vampires: a Field Guide to the Creatures That Stalk the Night, by Bob Curran, New Page Books, 2005, pp. 35–37.

2. Detaching torso:

The Filipino, Manananggal, or “self-segmenter” is described to be a beautiful old woman who has a detachable torso. This torso has wings that support her in her hunt of sleeping pregnant women, aiming to consume their blood and unborn children.

Anzelone, Allie, et al. “Asia.” Vampire Legends Around the World, vampiresaroundtheworld.weebly.com/asia.html.

3. Immortal (unless killed): Vampires are said to be immortal. That is, they cannot be killed by diseases and they will not die of old age. Nevertheless, they can be killed in unnatural ways. These methods include burning them, putting a stake through them, decapitating them.

Coelho, Paul. “On Immortality.” 30 Aug. 2006, paulocoelhoblog.com/2006/08/30/on-immortality/.

Foreman, R M. Vampire Slaying For Dummies 101: How to Slay a Modern Vampire. msu.edu/~foreman6/writing/vampslay101.html.

Moniz, Ariel. Immortal Affairs. 2014, hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/ImmortalAffairsArielMoniz.pdf . 

4. Sparkling in sun:

“Edward in the sunlight was shocking. I couldn't get used to it, though I'd been staring at him all afternoon. His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday's hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.”

“13.” Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer, Little, Brown and Company, 2005.

Vampire’s Weakness(es): 

1. Decays in sunlight (Burns in sunlight and also sparkles, making a grisly painful death → very entertaining for spectators)
2. Allergic to (but will not die from): eating garlic, touching silver
3. Lactose Intolerant
4. Arithmomania
5. Right Angles

Justification:

1. Decays in Sunlight

As mentioned before, vampires will sparkle in the sunlight, but they are also at their most vulnerable states there. Under the sun’s gaze, newly turned vampires will burn and their skin will blister. Older vampires tend to grow a resistance to it over time, but will always have sensitive eyes in daylight.

Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Grand Central Pub., 2012.

2. Allergies:

1. Eating Garlic:

Garlic has adverse effects on vampires, but it’s not as bad as it’s typically portrayed. Vampires who consume garlic would have watery eyes, reveal their vampiric traits (such as their fangs), and sneeze uncontrollably. Vampires who eat garlic could be easily identified by humans, so most tend to avoid it.

Carver, Jeremy. “I See Your True Colors... and That's Why I Hate You.” Being Human, season 1, episode 7, Syfy, 28 Feb. 2011.

2. Touching Silver:

Vampires are highly allergic to silver. They would get an irritating feeling similar to humans touching poison ivy. When a vampire does come in contact with silver, they would feel an awful combination of burning and itching, similar to licking a block of dry ice.

“Chapter 2.” Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men, by Molly Harper, vol. 2, Pocket Star Books, 2009, pp. 24. Jane Jameson.

3. Lactose Intolerance:

Vampires cannot consume anything containing the sugar lactose, at least without consequences. This is because vampires are essentially dead and their bodies make an insufficient amount of lactase (the enzyme that breaks lactose down into simpler substances that would be easier to digest). Once consumed, vampire bodies will react the same way humans with bad lactose intolerance do—with terrible indigestion, bloating and, explosive diarrhea. After experiencing an episode, vampires must replenish themselves with a fresh supply of blood.

“Vampire Health Research.” Vampire Learning Centre, Wordpress, 19 Feb. 2016, vampirelearningcentre.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/160/.

4. Arithmomania

1. A way to ward off Chinese Jiangshi (hopping vampire) is to leave a pouch of coins for them to count.

Bunson, Matthew. The Vampire Encyclopedia. Random House International, 2001.

2. Count Von Count is a vampire character on Sesame Street that teaches children to count. He will count anything and everything.

“Count Von Count.” Muppet Wiki, muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Count_von_Count.

3. In Christian superstition, throwing salt over the shoulder wards off the devil. Additionally, because vampires are afflicted with arithmomania, they are compelled to count every grain of salt.

Welsh, Chris. “Spilling Salt.” Spilling Salt, 3 Jan. 2019, www.timelessmyths.co.uk/spilling-salt.html.

Vampires have a unique weakness to right angles because of their brains which enhance spatial reasoning. When they see too many right angles, they upload too much information into their brains and break into an uncontrollable seizure. The idea that crosses are fatal to them come from this as a cross has four right angles. (Natural selection is playing a good part in the modern world so most vampires alive today can see more than four right angles, but if a vampire sees too many, they will be in a lot of pain.)

Watts, Peter. Blindsight. Tor Books, 2008.

Vampire’s Reproduction: Turning humans

Justification:

This is perhaps the most common way of becoming a vampire found in literature and media. Typically, to turn a human into a vampire the human must be bitten by a vampire.  This occurs due to the exchange of blood between human and vampire which is now known as the “embrace”. This is believed to have originated from Slavic vampire folklore.

Jøn, Allan Asbjørn. “From Nosferatu to Von Carstein: Shifts in the Portrayal of Vampires.” ResearchGate, Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies, Jan. 2001, www.researchgate.net/publication/280805194_From_Nosteratu_to_Von_Carstein_shifts_in_the_portrayal_of_vampires.

Vampire’s Camouflage:

1. Wealthy
2. Accountants

Justification:

1. Wealthy- Vampires tend to be part of the aristocracy because they live long enough to amass a great amount of wealth. They intend to live with this wealth for eternity. Vampires also surround themselves with servants and feed their own greed. Our vampire uses his wealth to hide his vampirism.

Wright, Robin Redmon. “Vampires and Zombies as Critical Public Pedagogy: Using Horror for Critical Adult Education and HRD Instruction.” New Prairie Press, https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2011/papers/110/.

2. Accountants- As a result of his arithmomania, the vampire makes a very good accountant. Although boring at times, living as an accountant allows the vampire to reminisce on life before becoming a vampire, supplement his wealth, and get a break from an adventurous and eventful life.

Hayes, Drew. “The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant.” Google Books, Reuts Publications, 12 Aug. 2014, books.google.com/books?id=bO3noQEACAAJ&dq=fred%2Bthe%2Bvampire%2Baccountant&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKpZjghLfhAhUOy1kKHSs8BUoQ6AEIJzAA.

Vampire's Home: Isolated Mansion

Justification: Since vampires are often wealthy aristocrats, they live lavish lifestyles. In our case, the vampire would live in a mansion. In the book Vampire Kisses, the vampire’s home is described as an “abandoned mansion an exiled baroness built on top of Benson Hill.”

“Dullsville.” Vampire Kisses 1: Vampire Kisses, by Ellen Schreiber, HarperCollins Pub., 2003, novels77.com/vampire-kisses/chapter-2-dullsville-70594.html.

https://novels77.com/vampire-kisses/chapter-2-dullsville-70594.html

Vampire’s Preferences:

1. Children/Fetuses/Pregnant Women
2. Red objects

Justification:

1. Children/Fetuses/Pregnant Women

Unborn babies and children are a common victim to vampires, stemming from their infertility. To prey on an unborn child, the vampire can use its long, tube-like tongue to suck out the fetus from an expectant mother, killing it. They are also known to steal children, particularly infants. This is especially evident with the Philippine story of the Manananggal, because one of its main sources of prey are sleeping pregnant women, as it consumes their unborn children and sucks the women’s blood. Ramos, Maximo. “The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore.” Western Folklore, vol. 28, no. 4, 1969, pp. 238–248. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1499218. Stuckey, Johanna. “Goddesses and Demons: Some Thoughts.” AmazonAWS, MatriFocus, 2 Aug. 2015, 3:20, s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/44000759/Goddesses_and_Demons__Some_Thoughts_by_Johanna_Stuckey.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1554387100&Signature=kTuOIojE2jG0Jz%2BXgB4Acjt7GZE%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DGoddesses_and_Demons.pdf.

2. Red objects

The character Marceline in “Adventure Time” is shown to be an untraditionalvampire, as she is shown to consume the color from objects that are red instead of just drinking blood. However, Marceline is shown to still drink blood, but only due to its red color. Additionally, Marceline only sometimes drinks blood, and mainly only does so when she is “Red Starved,” and goes into a feral state and tries to consume the blood of a living Creature. This is evident in Episode 38 of the fifth season of the show, “Red Starved.” “Adventure Time.” Created by Pendleton Ward, season 5, episode 38, 2010. 

Add Your Own: Pet Vampire Rabbit

Justification:  A vampire rabbit with fangs used to suck the juice out of vegetables, turning them white. It is not known how the rabbit became a vampire.

Howe, James. “Bunnicula.” Google Books, 8 Aug. 2006, books.google.com/books?id=gMe0bwAACAAJ&dq=bunnicula&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj24JyYhrfhAhXwUt8KHTzSAG8Q6AEILjAB.