[Hannibal]

The belief in vampires still exist in some countries. In america, some people want to be vampires, dress like them and drink blood at parties, etc, but hardly reanimate upon death...

What do you think?

Was there, is there, might there have been, could there be anything such as a vampire?

[Slade]

Hmm... I could go into the entire history of Vlad the Impaler (The Count led an interesting and bloodsoaked life). However, I'll link you up to a place that does it for me. Clickey!

What magic was in this world seems to have left along with all human dignity. There don't seem to be too many of the undead prowling about these days, especially those that pray off of humans.

[Chyld]

I follow Maddox's line - if some annoying little goth kids (no offense to any genuine goths) believe there's such thing as vampires, then we need vampire hunters...

[Jane Sherwood]

I've believed in vampires and other supernatural creatures for a very long time now. I even used to research that kind of stuff at length, but I think my interest faded at some point, and now I have problems getting the mythology right. I've heard so many different versions of the vampire legend that everything's gotten all muddled in my head...

(I always thought Elizabeth Bathory was rather interesting, but not many people seem to be as familiar with her as Mr. T. Impaler...)

This post has been edited by Jane Sherwood: 10 February 2005 - 04:58 PM

[Hannibal]

Vampirism could be concievable scientifically, based on the unrelated research of monoatomic elements and the human consumption of them, but I won't go into that as there is info there that may not be suitable for public consumption(no pun intended).

"Vampirism" seems to have evolved into various social and psychological definitions, and the confusion seems to be involved in the lumping together of that of the undead, the psychotic, sadomasochism, and sociopathic.


Here is a bizarre website unique to Vampire Hunting:

http://vampirehunter...-Home-Main.html

This post has been edited by Hannibal: 10 February 2005 - 06:27 PM

[Slade]

Hehe, that's pretty cool. Let me submit some oddity to the discussion.

Time Travel Store. This one is admittedly satirical, but it's still pretty funny.

Back to vampires, where did the garlic as a ward thing come from? And I like to not disbelieve in the supernatural because it would make the world more boring. And the aversion to silver? Everybody know's that's werewolves! I only seem to see it used in movies that involve bullets, which makes me hypothesize that it's an excuse to introduce gun fights into vampire hunting.

[Hannibal]

Actually, silver and silver bullets come from gypsy lore, and silver from the time of the plague. Silver is an antibiotic, and was used to purify water, and is still used to some degree to disinfect wounds. People who had and used silver might stave off the plague...associated with vampires. silver daggers or poniards were also stuck into the hearts of dead bodies to deter them from becoming vampires. Silver bullets blessed by a preist or used by dhampirs were said to kill vampires and destroy ghosts.

Garlic is used around the world from China to Mexico to Greece to Romania to ward off vampires and ill spirits.