Build Your Own Vampire Project Period 5 Team The Fangtastics

Period 5

Team The Fangtastics

Team Members: Richard Lin, Andy Zhuo, Ryan Gallo, Jacky Bian, Benjamin Kores

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: Slavic Europe

Justification:

Vampirism originated from folklore sprouted from the medieval times where there were many stakings and grave digging to spot potential revenants and burn them. Some of the more common causes of becoming a vampire in slavic folklore included being magicians, suffering untimely deaths (suicide), and having demonic spirits taking over the body during or after death. Many vampires were known and referred to as the English word “heretic”, in Russian “eretik” meaning “the follower of a heresey, a person who deviates from the dogmas of the predominating church.”

Citation:
Oinas, Felix J. “Heretics as Vampires and Demons in Russia.” The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 22, no. 4, 1978, pp. 433–441. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/307666?

Vampire's Abilities: Healed by the moonlight/enhanced powers in the moonlight, immortality, faster healing rate, enhanced strength, speed, and senses

Justification:

Immortality, faster healing rate, and enhanced strength, speed, and senses are common characteristics of vampires in most modern and old vampire stories, but we specifically derived these from their European folklore origins. Their immortality is limited and is only a factor in that the vampire cannot age; they can die, just not from natural causes. Their strength and speed is greater than that of the average human, and they can heal much faster as well. In addition to this, the vampires’ senses are more adept than ours (for example, colors are brighter, vision is clearer, their sense of smell is stronger, etc.). As for the healing and strength from moonlight, we got this from The Vampyre by John William Polidori (1819) and Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1871). Since vampires are more active at night time, their powers are slightly stronger at this time but only under the direct moonlight.

Citation:
Le Fanu, Sheridan Carmilla. 1872.

Polidori, John William “The Vampyre”. The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register; London: H. Colburn, 1814–1820. Vol. 1, No. 63., 1 Apr. 1819.

Vampire's Weaknesses: Sunlight, garlic, aversion to religious symbols, holy water, werewolf’s bite, stake through the heart, the sword of Michael

Justification:

The sunlight won’t kill a vampire, but it will cause them discomfort and will weaken their powers. This combined with their stronger senses causes them to be oversensitive to the sun, so they usually stay inside during the day as to avoid this. Garlic also won’t kill them, but if hung out somewhere is will act as a repellent and cause the vampire to stay away. Religious symbols have a similar effect on a vampire, as they won’t kill or harm them but it will keep the vampires away. The only exception to this is holy water, which will burn a vampire in large amounts. The three things that are fatal to a vampire are a werewolf’s bite, a stake through the heart, and the sword of Michael. If a vampire were to be bitten by a werewolf they would die immediately, as with getting a stake through the heart and getting stabbed with the sword of Michael.

Citation:

Sommers, Stephen, director. Van Helsing. Universal Studios, 2004.

Holt, Nick. Vampireology: The True History of the Fallen Ones. Candlewick Press, 2010.

Vampire’s Reproduction: Reproduction through blood transfusion and bites.

Justification:

The basis of vampire reproduction occurs because vampires can not reproduce through normal human process since they are technically dead and their human fluids are disposed of. Therefore Vampires reproduce through the transfer of bacteria often by a bite, or through a blood transfusion where all human blood is replaced with vampire blood. When they are bitten if they are not yet dead they must then feed on the vampire blood of the one who bit them and then hunt for human blood. If any of these steps aren't fulfilled they remain human but may have faint vampire like instincts. Other sources suggest that dead bodies could be buried and reanimated by demons without the process to becoming a vampire. We derived these from both Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and the 1922 film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”.

Citation:

“List of Vampire Traits in Folklore and Fiction.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2019,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vampire_traits_in_folklore_and_fiction#Reproduction_and_feeding

Vampire's Camouflage: Use of shapeshifting

Justification:

In the original novel Dracula, Dracula can shapeshift at will, and can grow or shrink. In the novel, his featured forms are a bat, a wolf, a large dog, and a fog or mist. When the moonlight is shining, he can travel as elemental dust within its rays. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices in the form of a vapor. With this ability to shapeshift, our vampire can take the form of anyone or anything that will allow him to blend in with humans, such as a dog, a bird, or even a CEO of a company.

Citation:

“Count Dracula.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Apr. 2019,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Dracula#Shapeshifting.

Vampire's Home: Aristocrat's Castle in Eastern Europe

Justification:

Vampires are long lived creatures of the darkness, yet also believed to be high standing aristocrats who’ve garnered immense wealth throughout their lives. In many literatures, including Dracula by Bram Stoker, vampires are believed to live in castles furnished with expensive articles. Throughout Eastern European folklore, such as those surrounding Arnold Paole, inhabitants of villages were primarily the victims of vampire attacks. Thus in this project, the vampire lives as noble in an extravagant castle, preying on villagers with their class status and vampiric abilities.

Citation:

Dracula by Bram Stoker, Chapter 2, May 5

Keyworth, G. David. “Was the Vampire of the Eighteenth Century a Unique Type of Undead-Corpse?” Folklore, vol. 117, no. 3, 2006, pp. 241–260. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30035373.

Vampire's Preferences: Sleeping on dirt grounds

Justification:

In the original novel Dracula, Dracula needs to transport boxes of soil from his home in Transylvania to his new residency places in England, as they are needed to maintain his strength in a place that’s outside of his home.

Citation:
“Count Dracula.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Apr. 2019,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Dracula#Weaknesses