Myth and legend are filled with various kinds of vampires with all manner of strange and terrible powers. Accompanying such tales there is usually provided information as to special means to warding them off as well as the special ways which are the only methods of destroying such monsters permanently. In these regards I will seek to explain in role-playing game terms how it is all possible. That is, using as a model the vampire as described in Central and Eastern European folklore, we will consider how it can exist and what makes certain of its powers possible, and then examine the reputed vulnerabilities of such demoniacal creatures.
What created the first vampire? This is a very valid question. We assume that this form of monster is at the very least able to infect others with the curse of undeath and the mindless demand to periodically slay the living by drinking their blood. Even allowing for, but a single progenitor of all others, how did the very first one come into being? It had to start somewhere. There can be no doubt that the first vampire achieved this condition through some form of demonic pact. Such a condition would be eminently satisfactory to those of the nether realms, for to exist in undead state the vampire would perforce spread its evil through the world. In fact, the end result should be a growing mass of blood-sucking fiends which would eventually wipe out all humanity. This in turn would cause them to perish for want of their sustaining fluid, and thus pack the netherhells full of souls. Assured victory for the forces of evil!
Yet with the powers of vampirism come a number of weaknesses. Those susceptibilities are the saving of mankind and the doom of the demonic. To assert that vampires are not affected by the various warding things and do not possess weaknesses is to fly in the face of reason. Obviously, were it not so, no human would remain alive, nor any vampire either. Now we might expect to hear the argument that the blood-sucker can control the passing on of its curs, that the vampire can select which victim is to merely die, which to be tainted with undeath. That might be so, but to assert such control limits the spread of vampirism is utter nonsense.
Consider the differences in individual. Accepting as a given that the curse of vampirism limits drastically the normal range found in humans, there are still sufficient peculiarities and similarities to bring about the condition spoken of earlier, the destruction of human life. A male vampire seeks female converts and numbers of them. Would then a female vampire not likewise seek to expand her experience? The answer is plain. In this manner alone, assuming, but three new vampires created in a century of each vampire's existence, with new "converts" being made only in the first decade of undeath, we have an exponentially growing infestation. Allowing for the creation of the first vampire to have become active in the early middle ages, this gives us ten centuries, 100 decades. In the first these are but four of three creatures, but by the second decade there are now 13. The nine new ones create 27 more by the third decade of the first century, and those 27 have made 81 additional vampires by the fourth decade. Simple arithmetic shows that a critical stage is soon reached. No, the vampire is vulnerable to many things, or else its kind would have extinguished humanity and itself long ago.
With that matter settled, it is time to examine these foul creature's potential.
First of all, let us consider what it is that makes vampire what it is. How can one no longer living remain undecayed and quick? There can be but a single answer. It is the bestowal of some evil energy originating from the nether realms. This negative force is part of the unseen energy which pervades the cosmos. It is that which enables magic. There exists in all things at least some of this stuff. In the mundane world it is of mixed, positive and negative, sort. In the higher plane it grows ever more positive in nature, while in the nether ones it becomes ever more negative. There are many names for the energy, but that used by the ancient Egyptians seems best suited for employment in explaining magical power. Their word for it was heka (pronounced HEE-ka), and hereafter I will use this term when speaking of the unseen energy of the multiverse.
Thus we must accept that the enabling force which keeps vampires from decay, motivates muscles and nerves, enables their intellect, such as it is, to remain active is negative heka power. This vitalizing energy likewise causes these demoniacal things to be virtually immune to most injuries. Trauma which would harm or kill a living human is nothing to these creatures of darkness because the negative heka acts to restore their form to the state in which it was when the power initially entered the body. Think of it in this way: The negative heka is a container and the body water filling it. The "container" is very strong, so few things break it. Likewise, it is very encompassing, so there is little chance that the "water" it holds will be spilled or otherwise lost. Strike the water, and it returns almost instantly to its former state. Pierce it, and the liquid is unaffected. (We'll return to this in a bit. . .). Drop the container full of water and its resiliency causes it to suffer the fall and impact generally unscathed. Should it suffer damage with or without loss of content, infusion of additional negative heka will repair the vessel, and refill the liquid.
Is there more to a vampire than its negative energy and physical body? Of course. Just as humans consist of body, mind and spirit, so too is the vampire tripartite. It retains a mental faculty as well as a strong and malignly vile spiritual one. Each must be considered.
The mind of the vampire no longer functions as does the human one. It has no true reasoning power such as that which it possessed when it achieved its cursed state. It can remember, of course. The perverted intellect of these creatures gives them seeming reason and memory which combine so as to enable them a great cunning. Reason can not assail it, and the vampire has no doubts or fears. It might scheme, but it does not think per se.
The spins of the monster is the adhesive which keeps the vessel of its physical form intact. It's spiritual component is not so unassailable as the mental one. The dark and evil power of the vampire's being grows greater as it continues to feed on the lives of its victims. This is granted in order to drive the creature on to greater deeds of evil. Despite such power, the vampire is also made vulnerable by its spirit. No conscience disturbs the creature, but the spirit can comprehend what it has become, and before such it quails. Put another way, the spirit of the vampire can be harmed. If it is destroyed, then the vampire is nothing but a zombie bound to physically degenerate, corrupt and become dust in time - be it in days, weeks, or months. (The possession of such a body by a demonic "walk-in" is possible, but such consideration is not germane in this treatment.)
The vampire is kept in its condition of undeath by negative heka. Its physical form is regenerated quickly by the force of this heka. Its cunning is intrinsic and exists until the vampire is destroyed. The spirit of the monster is likewise restored by the power of the nether energy. Knowing all this, one might well wonder how such a demonic thing can be stopped. So let us now return to what we started at the beginning of this treatment. In order to retain this capability, the monstrous thing must drink human blood.
Why? Well, it is said that life is in the blood. This is true in many ways. Blood conveys nutrients and oxygen, carries away waste, bears defense mechanisms throughout the body. It does more. Blood circulates heka energy too. In the mundane physical body this power is a mixture of positive and negative, therefore not too efficient, but very necessary. It is the heka in the victim's blood which the vampire requires, not merely the physical matter it must have. Certainly, the demonic creature must have fresh blood to circulate throughout the body, but the power from the ingestion of the liquid is the heka. Because the vampire is not living, its physical body no longer manufactures blood. Without such substance the heka cannot move freely through the body, and the vampire's physical form degenerates. Fresh blood filling the veins and arteries is necessary to maintain the monster's physical well being. Even though it does not circulate, the mere presence of it facilitates the flow of heka along it. Before the in-taken blood can putrefy, the action of the negative energy coursing through out it destroys it. Thus the vampire must continually renew the stuff by drinking the life of humans.
Fearless Vampire Slaying, Part 2
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