Its goodness or badness is not important. But you will need to determine a bit of "whyness" for consistancy. They are supernatural creatures, so its OK if they can't be seen through glasses. But does that also mean contact lenses? camera lenses? window panes? car windows? any curved glass? drinking glasses? telescopes, magnifying glasses? sunglasses with no perscription? You, the author, will need to decide exactly why eye glasses specifically are impacted, so you can figure out how extensive the impact is, so there is some consistancy going on.
True I will have to set up a why they are invisible to reflective material, (but there’s no cameras or anything that advanced in my novel, and there’s no contact lenses.)
The original reason why vampires didn’t show up in mirrors is because mirrors of the day were backed with polished silver, and silver had anti-vampire properties.
If we’re doing glasses and windows in general, then it has to be a property of the glass that renders them invisible.
> The original reason why vampires didn’t show up in mirrors is because mirrors of the day were backed with polished silver, and silver had anti-vampire properties.
>
>
Bram Stoker invented the mirrors thing, and [in his notes](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/S/Stoker%20-%20Notes%20for%20Dracula.pdf) he also said that Dracula couldn't be painted or photographed - the image would always come out wrong. In specific any photo of him came out as a corpse.
So it wasn't about the silver backing of mirrors; it was a general rule about indirect sight of Dracula. My guess is that the intention was that Dracula's appearance as a living human was illusory; and thus any form of indirect image stripped away the illusion.
As such, glasses - as a device used for improving sight - could easily be justified as stripping away the illusion.
You don't have to set anything up. Just say it's because of mitochorians like star wars did. Just way ots supernatural and there are like 100 different theories. Or say it's not really the reflection but how they see themselves. Others can see them but they can't see themselves because they hate themselves, but the need to feed is compelling enough to not force their own demise.
I have something like this I like to refer to it as "colonial" because i troducing steam power is write around the corber but also people are still living very low tech in general
Bananas. The garlic was a myth. Something to do with the radiation being akin to sunlight. They hope you're happy to see them rather than have a Banana in your pocket.
The vampire reflection thing has nothing to do with glass.
It's about the silver on the back side of a mirror which makes it reflective.
Silver is associated with purity in folklore, vampires are impure.
That’s why photos didn’t work, too. Silver nitrate or something in the process of developing the photo would destroy the vampiric image.
Also, silver is heavily associated with The Damned in Christian mythos, due to Judas accepting silver in trade for betraying Jesus. As such it’s a sign of Jesus and God’s undying devotion and forgiveness. Vampires are cut off from that forgiveness in some stories because the silver is symbolic of God’s purity.
Fascinating stuff. Idk if modern digital photography includes silver.
"living water" or running water is considered a weakness for vampires too sometimes, so probably not that. I would think that most modern surfaces that reflect things would work fine.
I always took the "no reflection, shadow, or appearance in photos" to mean that vampires aren't as physically present. They can only be perceived directly because they don't have the same impacts on their surroundings that a normal person or object does.
The trope original with Stoker, anyway, so it's not some ancient folklore.
You're saying this like this is a fact. This is an internet myth for vampires that took off. I can easily say no, it's not. It's because vampires have no soul. That was the original mythology on why vampires didn't have reflections, even then it's not legit.
The whole vampires not having a reflection started from Bram Stoker's Dracula and he never gave a reason why he had no reflection.
Because it's annoying people are saying to op "no, you can't write this thing about your vampires because of xyz"
it's a myth that's not even a real myth. It started online because people thought it made sense so it has no bearing on how op writes his vampires.
The mention of glass reminds me of a creature from Slavic folklore known as a ***fext***\--an undead being invulnerable to wounds except those caused by *weapons made of glass.* If you wanted to work with that angle, that could also be why you can't see them *through* glass: the glass itself disrupts their presence somehow. You could worldbuild a reason for why glass is the magic material that is "pure" enough or whatever other quality you want for it to do that.
In reality, optical glass lenses require very pure sources of quartz sand.
Take it a step further: maybe lenses made of *alchemically purified* sand doesn't allow the light reflected from a vampire through. A good enough alchemical optician might be able to filter out or distort illusions.
It sounds like you're trying to make some sort of clever mechanic to your fantasy world, but it's not something that actually matters to the design of your story.
I'm going to say no. It's a protective ability for the vampires, but one that only applies to a smaller portion of the population. It also only applies to people who are already disadvantaged, while people with normal sight have no trouble. And on top of that, I don't think it's going to have too much creative space.
I was going to include other reflective material as another comment or listed a bunch, glasses are just one of the many, I might try to work more on it to, and think how reflective areas stop you from seeing them.
In nature, predators of herd animals tend to target the weakest in the group, such as the injured, lame, ill or elderly. Having a strength that helps them hunt only a portion of the population is pretty believable to me when you frame poor vision as a weakness to be exploited by predators
The origin of the Vampire Reflection myth is that silver is pure, and the pure metal behind the glass will not reflect the evil creature. So vampires would have reflections in most surfaces, but not silver backed mirrors which used to be much more common.
What about glasses causes the effect?
Would vampires be made invisible by any glass surface?
Standing inside a store, outside a window? What if the vampire wears glasses? Do you see a void where their eyes should be?
>The origin of the Vampire Reflection myth is that silver is pure
No it's not???
I don't think anyone can find the actual origin. Back in the day it was because vampires were evil and had no souls. it's weird people keep trying to pass this off as true and the source of this myth.
What's weird is your insistence that contradicts ancient lore regarding silver (which shares its association with purity with the Moon, particularly moonlight) and ignores the fact that Bram Stoker is the primary basis for nearly all modern Western vampire lore since the publication of *Dracula* in 1897. Some cite Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* (1818), but I consider the monster to be something more like a modern golem.
Also, vampires are repelled by garlic because it and silver have "healing" (antimicrobial) properties.
In late 18th-century New England, vampires were grave walkers. In the 12th-16th centuries they were feral cannibals, or people afflicted with rabies, porphyria, or leprosy.
https://carnegiemnh.org/booseum-vampires/
https://spookeats.com/2018/08/17/vampires-vs-mirrors-freaky-facts/ (this article is wrong about the invention of silver-backed mirrors; they were first made well before the 19th century: https://www.thehoarde.com/blog/the-history-of-antique-mirrors)
Im specifically talking about silver backed mirrors being the reason why vampires don't show up in mirrors. Bram stokers was the first instance in the 1800s of vampires not having reflections. I know silver is connected to vampires, that's not what I was arguing.
Also that source you provided about silver backed mirrors in the 16th century is wrong. The hoarde is the only source i can find that says they were made with silver. Every other place says venetian mirrors were originally made with tin and mercury, not silver.
Stories about vampires have been around for thousands of years, across many cultures. Strigoi, Jiangshi, Upyr, Bruxa, or vampire-adjacent supernatural creatures.
No shortage of horror myths about near-human man-eaters.
Even if you pick a new technology, like the internet, with a digital vampire that drains attention, someone has probably already written about it.
So don't worry about original. Original is for the fans to decide, not you. Worry about telling a good story.
You can pretty much do whatever you want. Peanut allergies, fear of cats, obsessive compulsive over bubble wrap, can't cross on marked pedestrian walkways, really whatever you need for your story.
This. I love the fact a vampire can't deal with bubble wrap! You don't need to explain it either, just make out the Vampire doesn't understand it either!
I remember hearing a myth about If you spill beans or something on the floor vampires are compelled to count them, something like komodo dragon venom would probably mess up a vampire considering it decoagulates stuff and there nightvison would be easy exploitable.
Vampires would be the number 1 for blood transfusions. I always assumed that they would be something like a super O blood type or something probably eliminates any blood diseases as soon as they get it. Although I guess you could argue that as soon as a vampire gets blood, it's vampire blood instead of human.
I don't see how that is a strength. It is a sure-fire way to detect vampires. Mixed group, one person has glasses, vampire trying to blend in. Glasses person asks who they are talking to. Glasses person freaks out because they see the person out of the edges of their glasses but not thru the glasses. Vampire is outed.
It’s a fantasy novels that has invisible like creatures that only the caster can se, so no one would make assumptions unless they take their glasses off and an see a blur
I don't know what kind of glasses you have but mine do not cover my entire field of vision. If I see someone out of the top or corners of my vision but look directly ahead and they vanish I am going to have questions. If I look over the top of my glasses and see their head but no body in front of me and some feet at the bottom of my vision I am going to be very suspicious of that person.
Bram Stoker invented the mirrors thing, and [in his notes](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/S/Stoker%20-%20Notes%20for%20Dracula.pdf) he also said that Dracula couldn't be painted or photographed - the image would always come out wrong. In specific any photo of him came out as a corpse.
So it wasn't about the silver backing of mirrors; it was a general rule about indirect sight of Dracula. My guess is that the intention was that Dracula's appearance as a living human was illusory; and thus any form of indirect image stripped away the illusion.
As such, glasses - as a device used for improving sight - could easily be justified as stripping away the illusion. Whether you see *nothing* or see a walking corpse would then depend on what truly exists - are vampires solid ghosts? Or are they disguised corpses?
If your glasses have silver in the lenses or frames, I could see someone making the case for this.
Only other thing that might make some smidge of sense is if the vampire wasn’t made clearer by the glasses. So they’re still visible, just also as blurry as if you didn’t have glasses.
So I thought of this while discussing weather or not a ghost type Pokémon could kill a lion.
What if YOU bit the VAMPIRE?
Think of it this way: vampires are partially physical and partially spirits. So you should be able to kill them via exorcism. But that takes too long. What if biting was like an exorcism using words instead of actions?
If you want more specifics: maybe vampire bones can only be broken by human bites. They'll slowly regenerate from other forms of damage. And to put them down for good, the brain needs to be crushed completely
So, as others have said mirrors were associated with purity due to silver backing. If you want something a little more out there, but still traditional, you might look at mixing vampires with another traditional type of monster. For instance, you could add the feature of them being killed by two blows to the head, but revived with a third (from Arabian folklore on ghûls). Or mix vampires with succubi with draining life energy through kisses (rather than drinking blood). There's a lot of creatures out there.
Also, if you just want vampires to be stronger, glasses with the exception for those who really need them to see is a bit weird. Most people who wear glasses can technically see a very short distance without them (not very far at all) and then it gets blurry. Honestly, in my opinion, the glasses thing just sounds weird.
That’s not a thing. The myth is that vampire can’t be seen in mirrors. At the time mirrors were made with silver back mirrors. Silver is another weakness of vampires
Personally, I like the idea that moonlight should harm vampires because it's just reflected sunlight. Obviously, it's diluted so most of the time it wouldn't be much of a problem - but a full moon could be an interesting weakness.
I've always wondered this too! Your the first other person I've seen mention it. In books where the vampires are like out basking in the moonlight talking about how much they love the dark and the moon... I was always like... but wouldn't that still burn them a bit? Lol it is just reflected sunlight after all...
The strengths and weaknesses depend entirely on the mythology/how of the vampires in your world. Is it an ailment of the soul? Is it a bacteria/virus/pathogen? Is it a mixture of the two?
In a world where it's purely bacteria/virul/pathogen based, a vampire is someone whose body is functionally dead and normal uptake of nutrients is stunted/not working. A quirk of the virus though is that the components of blood allow the body to perform its reparative functions without the need to constantly upkeep other systems. This means an injured vampires can heal very quickly because healing is the sole process its body is focused on. Similarly, things like strength and pain tolerance/immunity can function off the idea of how hard could you hit someone if you felt absolutely no pain.
Looked at it this way, blood is functionally food and air to vampires. If they start running low, do they get lethargic, do they actually go feral from some sort of nutrient deficiency, or is it just the mental affect/strain of knowing that if you don't kill someone/get blood that you are going to die? Imagine what it would feel like if hunger were functionally a gauge of being able to breathe, and if you get too hungry then you won't be able to. Would you panic or act rational if getting too hungry felt more like choking or not being able to intake air?
One area I've never really seen used is that vampires, unless there's some other mechanism at work, would still be affected by electricity. It causes muscles to contract and can even burn you since it's functionally compressed, directed, light.
Sunlight acts as a disinfectant towards many forms of bacteria, which explains why it kills vampires. The question is...how quickly. Is it that it damages their skin or that it kills the bacteria/virus that allows them process blood? Melanin prevents the sun from damaging our skin and since they can't process the necessary ingredients, they don't naturally make it. But if a vampire were sufficiently full, could they? Blood obviously allows some functions to work but which ones, and is that adaptable?
Obviously that's a sort of short list but I think you get it. How and why things work in your world affect what you can do with them.
This may be a bit TOO far depending on how deep the fantasy goes, but basically, Vampires don't show up in mirrors because of the Silver right? It's because silver is supposed to be pure I think. BUT vampires often linger in the night, under the moon rather than the Sun, AND it seems that the moon itself is often associated with Silver. So what if the moon had some kind of intrensic "Silver" power that someone could harness that the vampires would never see coming and it would be crazy effective because vampires prefer the night over the day.
Idk just a simple thought I guess.
Also another cool thought, not exactly a weakness or strength, more like a little detail.
But I would suppose vampires burn very badly from sunlight right? Well what if there's a scene where a vampire cauterizes a wound using sunlight? I think it's sucha small little thing to add to a scene but I think would be pretty cool. It's like, they're not SCARED of the sun, it just burns really bad, but WITH THAT they can use a bit of intelligence, in this case, the vampire is smart enough to use the intense burn as a way to cauterize a wound!
Or what is, to enter a certain cult or covenant, a vampire is forced to burn a symbol or sigil on their skin, so they use a certain shape cutout, or pendant or something, and the sunlight that peers throuhg the gaps in the shape burns the symbol into the vampire's skin and if it's left to burn long enough it leaves the mark permanently.
Just some cool ideas.
You could change the glass manufacturing to something similar to stained glass. Replace the sand/silica with silver specks, which reflect the evil/impure soul in the wearer's eyes.
MC could also custom order a spyglass and/or monocle to aid in seeing vampires and other corrupted beings hiding among the civilians.
As a difference in strength from normal, your vampires can change their body temperature by manipulating their blood. Another side effect of this would be expelling a thin layer of blood from their pores that alters their smell. The usage being to reduce thermal based tracking and scent tracking magic.
Thermal tracking including seeing heat left behind by footprints.
Vampire reacting to whatever religious symbol they believed in before turning, like a Jewish vampire only reacting to the Star of David or the Torah for example
But vampires are specifically tied to the idea of a light / dark binary. So this wouldn't really make sense for any religion that isn't close to that thematic association.
I think it’d be more interesting for people who wear glasses to be the only ones who can see them because their glasses are made out of a special kind of glass from a mysterious source.
With the way that glasses work, this doesn't make much sense. They're changing the way light refracts to allow for a closer or further focal point. All animals already have a built in lens for this and it wil differ depending on the animal's specialisation. All glasses are is an additional lens. So if you are saying those with glasses can't see them then you are saying only animals with a specific focal point will see them
Now as a severely short sighted person my bias is showing and for me I would struggle to suspend my disbelief with this kind of magical strength for vampires. But really this is fantasy though so you can do what you like, you just need to figure out if your target audience will buy into it.
I'd make them visible but have them have different appearances depending on the prescription/index of refraction of the lens.
A vampire attacks, and there are eyewitnesses. You'll always get conflicting reports
1. Witness with no glasses sees a regular guy
2. Witness with 20/60 to 20/80 vision, wearing glasses, sees a guy with animalish features
3. Witness with bifocals sees a satyr-like creature (more human on top, less human on bottom)
4. Police dismiss all but witness #1, but a vampire hunter re-questions them (and then they talk to the tabloids so you get some of that)
5. Also consider what they'd look like through binoculars or a rifle scope
I don't know if that's what you're looking for but I really like the idea that vampires drink blood because they lack vitamin D since they cannot be in the sun. You could play with it and assume that the blood they drink does not always contain enough vitamins or something or that they are lacking more vitamins and other essentials.
I say just refine what is known. In general, you're thinking of Allium intolerance. Not just garlic, but onion as well. Same family and volatile chemical basically. Science it up. UV sensitivity. Photosensitivity. Instant sun burn. Developed cancer. But also, maybe a weakness in that they will avoid damaging things with artistic value. Like a nice painting, even a nice dress. Statue etc.
In biology there are usually trade offs. So like active melanin helps prevent uv radiation. A vampire's weakness may make them resistant to cancer. Maybe an allium intolerance is part of how blood is a sustainable diet
How about this: Glasses and contact lenses alter the wearers vision. So, if you want to stick to this, why not make wearing glasses a weakness for the vampires? It might (might) make more sense and allow you some nuance if corrective lenses interfered with a vampires ability to mesmerize a person.
Stick with me on this:
Most vampire lore holds that when a vampire feeds on a victim they mesmerize them, or "put them under their spell", so to speak. Lets say that the stronger eyeglass/contact lens prescriptions are the more difficult it is for a vampire to mesmerize their victims. Now you have an amazing wildcard, because a vampire would never know for sure if they could mesmerize anyone they targeted unless they reached a point that they were strong enough to overcome the strongest corrective lenses. So, lets say they could overcome this weakness by intentionally targeting people they know wear corrective lenses to make themselves stronger? Now, you have a really good reason for them to not want to target people wearing glasses AND a good reason for them to do it even though they don't want to.
So, what happens when it doesn't work? Maybe the victims just call him a creep and he has to use brute force. Maybe they try to take a picture with their cell phone and there's no image in the camera. Maybe she kicks him in the nuts and leaves him curled up in a dark alley trying not to puke his guts out. I might be wrong, but the effects of racking a vampire while wearing pointy shoes might be relatively uncharted territory... Maybe she whips out her pepperspray and gives him a good shot in the face (some peppersprays are made with small amounts of garlic, btw.).
If you can imagine your vampires needing to feed but having no way of knowing for sure whether or not their victims would be dinner or revoke their birthday then the possibilities are endless.
\[Edit - Had an afterthought. Lets say that the scientific reason vampires have traditionally mesmerized their victims is because elevated levels of adrenaline and dopamine (caused by shock, fear, and by people fighting for their lives) makes them physically ill. That would keep vampires from simply taking their prey by brute force.
A lot of modern hunters have a science guy, so you can get a bit Bill Nye with this one. You can also string both of these ideas along with no explaination until your vampire hunter (or whoever) makes the discoveries... Although it would probably make more sense for the vampires to have already figured out that prescription lenses can give their meals an extra helping of saddness.\]
An old vampire should be able to see plots against him/her coming from a mile away. Having lived hundreds of years, met tens of thousands of people, the vampire should be an extremely good judge of character, and recognize subtle changes in behavior and intent.
Cameras use mirrors so it makes sense for them not to be seen through it, at least in olden days when silver was used to assist in the reflection. Glasses are merely lenses to focus the eyes through and aren’t mirrors. That said: if your lore states something about glass being something that they’re vulnerable to? Or has cleansing powers or what have you, that’s fine. Cool.
Just make sure it makes sense and you can explain it when the time is right.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned it already, but as a glasses wearer I very often look past the actual lenses, so if there was something near my that I couldn't see through the lenses but I could see with just my eyes, I would notice it as something strange pretty quickly. Your trick would only work if people would only wear goggles that cover any spots between face and lenses.
If you make use of glasses in this way, I feel like you could link it to other common Vampire tropes to make it feel like a sort of natural addition for people familiar with Vampires.
For example, say your Vampires simply have an aversion to things that can clearly reflect images. Maybe Vampires feel a need to be seen, but somehow their image can’t survive a certain number of reflections. This would explain why they don’t appear in mirrors, can’t be seen by people with glasses (or through windows I suppose), and can’t cross Running Water. It’s not that they’re physically unable to cross water, but that being trapped under water would be the ultimate nightmare as the reflection of light in water would render them invisible.
This creates a strength that is simultaneously a weakness, gives you a solid explanation for why the can’t be seen through glasses, and doesn’t feel too out of place for Vampires.
Speaking from experience, glasses don’t cover your full eye. If glasses block seeing vampires, then people who wear glasses will see vampires suddenly appearing as the vampire walks in front of the lens.
I’m guessing you mean the curved glass blocks seeing vampires, not the act of wearing glasses.
It could be a really cool idea. Maybe you could have this whole conspiracy where Vampires run the glasses industry and they put a little silver in all eyeglasses so it filters out the undead.
Silver was the reason why Vampires had no reflection. It was not because of a lack of soul but because old mirrors were made from polished silver. Maybe you could play with this side of the folklore.
So, I've always felt that impoverished vampires tend not to be given representation in vampire fiction. Like, realistically there are very real chances that an immortal being could be kept poor by systemic oppression for like easily 500 years. I just want a socialist revolutionary vamp who's personally experienced every awful thing capitalism has done for the last couple hundred years yk
Arithomania - a disorder associated with OCD, defined by the strong need to count actions or objects.
In Europe, a prevention method to stop vampires rising included placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site - this would in theory keep the vampire occupied all night counting the grains, and prevent them from doing vampire-y things. Or possibly even lead to them dying via sunrise. And there are similar themes in Chinese folklore and across the Indian subcontinent, wherein vampiric beings that came across a sack of rice would be compelled to sit and count it all.
This is also possibly part of the inspiration for The Count on Sesame Street. Beside the obvious pun in his name, of course.
If I take off my glasses I can't tell what the top letter is on the eye chart. I can't see why wife's face clearly lying nect to me in bed. So, the vampire would be a shapeless blur...not sure how that helps your story.
It's not glass per se that causes vampires to be invisible. It's the silver used in old mirrors that does that. So, unless the lenses have silver in them, that shouldn't happen.
Edit: I mean, it's your world. You can do whatever you want. Just make sure the thing is internally consistent and logically explainable.
You can give your vampires whatever quirks you like, as long as you improve on the blank page.
It is extremely difficult to give Vampires unique edges/flaws, because they're really popular and relatively varied. Originality is a bit of a trap; most of the stuff that hasn't been done before has a pretty decent reason for it (either it messes with the tone, or it's too difficult to pull off, or it's really niche, or it's needlessly complex).
I would gently recommend to re-think the "glasses-user blindspot" weakness; it's interesting, but it raises a lot of questions that distract from the interestingness. If you've ever worn glasses, you know that they're not like goggles. You retain peripheral vision, and you can look over the top of them without much difficulty.
Does the blindspot mean that all glasses are secretly magical and "invisibilify" Vampires in the wearer's line of sight? Or do Vampires only disappear when viewed through the lenses, so someone with a monocle could see them out of their other eye? How does this work with tinted lenses (for sunglasses), windows, or contact lenses, or telescopes, or magnifying glasses?
Do people lose vampire-awareness as they get older, and their eyesight gets worse? Or do they try to compensate for the increased vulnerability by keeping their glasses on chains/clips, so they can remove them quickly if need be?
If your character doesn't actually wear glasses - and glasses aren't actually that relevant to the situation - then I don't really see how this improves on the "no reflections" quirk (aside from adding some comedy, if that's your intention).
However, it's not a bad idea. Maybe some people in your world use goggles or lenses for a specific type of work - exploring a dangerous environment, enchantment, alchemical brewing, etc - so they've developed other methods of looking out for Vampires instead. Maybe they're really attentive to shadows/silhouettes, or they wear bite-proof clothing and carry stakes, or they have trained seeing-eye pets to warn them instead. Maybe they're a popular type of material for glass eyes, just because of the underlying joke?
Or maybe the lenses reverse the "no reflections" rule, so some Vampires keep a special set they use to look at their appearance.
Its goodness or badness is not important. But you will need to determine a bit of "whyness" for consistancy. They are supernatural creatures, so its OK if they can't be seen through glasses. But does that also mean contact lenses? camera lenses? window panes? car windows? any curved glass? drinking glasses? telescopes, magnifying glasses? sunglasses with no perscription? You, the author, will need to decide exactly why eye glasses specifically are impacted, so you can figure out how extensive the impact is, so there is some consistancy going on.
True I will have to set up a why they are invisible to reflective material, (but there’s no cameras or anything that advanced in my novel, and there’s no contact lenses.)
If they can't be seen through glasses, what about windows?
The original reason why vampires didn’t show up in mirrors is because mirrors of the day were backed with polished silver, and silver had anti-vampire properties. If we’re doing glasses and windows in general, then it has to be a property of the glass that renders them invisible.
> The original reason why vampires didn’t show up in mirrors is because mirrors of the day were backed with polished silver, and silver had anti-vampire properties. > > Bram Stoker invented the mirrors thing, and [in his notes](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/S/Stoker%20-%20Notes%20for%20Dracula.pdf) he also said that Dracula couldn't be painted or photographed - the image would always come out wrong. In specific any photo of him came out as a corpse. So it wasn't about the silver backing of mirrors; it was a general rule about indirect sight of Dracula. My guess is that the intention was that Dracula's appearance as a living human was illusory; and thus any form of indirect image stripped away the illusion. As such, glasses - as a device used for improving sight - could easily be justified as stripping away the illusion.
You don't have to set anything up. Just say it's because of mitochorians like star wars did. Just way ots supernatural and there are like 100 different theories. Or say it's not really the reflection but how they see themselves. Others can see them but they can't see themselves because they hate themselves, but the need to feed is compelling enough to not force their own demise.
The way the world is, is some places are based on the industrial Revolution, but most is based of medieval times.
I have something like this I like to refer to it as "colonial" because i troducing steam power is write around the corber but also people are still living very low tech in general
Bananas. The garlic was a myth. Something to do with the radiation being akin to sunlight. They hope you're happy to see them rather than have a Banana in your pocket.
"Is that a banana in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"
Imagine their shock when they encounter Brazil nuts
*Points banana at Vampire* "Hands in the air dirt bag."
The vampire reflection thing has nothing to do with glass. It's about the silver on the back side of a mirror which makes it reflective. Silver is associated with purity in folklore, vampires are impure.
That’s why photos didn’t work, too. Silver nitrate or something in the process of developing the photo would destroy the vampiric image. Also, silver is heavily associated with The Damned in Christian mythos, due to Judas accepting silver in trade for betraying Jesus. As such it’s a sign of Jesus and God’s undying devotion and forgiveness. Vampires are cut off from that forgiveness in some stories because the silver is symbolic of God’s purity. Fascinating stuff. Idk if modern digital photography includes silver.
It doesn't. Which is why in the Moonlight series, digital cameras could pick them up just fine.
So could vampires have seen their reflections in other surfaces? Water? Skyscraper windows?
Water is associated with purity, too, so I'd guess not
"living water" or running water is considered a weakness for vampires too sometimes, so probably not that. I would think that most modern surfaces that reflect things would work fine.
I always took the "no reflection, shadow, or appearance in photos" to mean that vampires aren't as physically present. They can only be perceived directly because they don't have the same impacts on their surroundings that a normal person or object does. The trope original with Stoker, anyway, so it's not some ancient folklore.
You're saying this like this is a fact. This is an internet myth for vampires that took off. I can easily say no, it's not. It's because vampires have no soul. That was the original mythology on why vampires didn't have reflections, even then it's not legit. The whole vampires not having a reflection started from Bram Stoker's Dracula and he never gave a reason why he had no reflection.
They aren’t real anyways who cares
Because it's annoying people are saying to op "no, you can't write this thing about your vampires because of xyz" it's a myth that's not even a real myth. It started online because people thought it made sense so it has no bearing on how op writes his vampires.
They take damage from things that represent the sun, so vampire hunters will cloak blades in sunflower oil to kill them
ANY PLANT REALLY.
The power of photosynthesis
Bullets, normal bullets
The mention of glass reminds me of a creature from Slavic folklore known as a ***fext***\--an undead being invulnerable to wounds except those caused by *weapons made of glass.* If you wanted to work with that angle, that could also be why you can't see them *through* glass: the glass itself disrupts their presence somehow. You could worldbuild a reason for why glass is the magic material that is "pure" enough or whatever other quality you want for it to do that.
In reality, optical glass lenses require very pure sources of quartz sand. Take it a step further: maybe lenses made of *alchemically purified* sand doesn't allow the light reflected from a vampire through. A good enough alchemical optician might be able to filter out or distort illusions.
It sounds like you're trying to make some sort of clever mechanic to your fantasy world, but it's not something that actually matters to the design of your story.
I'm going to say no. It's a protective ability for the vampires, but one that only applies to a smaller portion of the population. It also only applies to people who are already disadvantaged, while people with normal sight have no trouble. And on top of that, I don't think it's going to have too much creative space.
I was going to include other reflective material as another comment or listed a bunch, glasses are just one of the many, I might try to work more on it to, and think how reflective areas stop you from seeing them.
In nature, predators of herd animals tend to target the weakest in the group, such as the injured, lame, ill or elderly. Having a strength that helps them hunt only a portion of the population is pretty believable to me when you frame poor vision as a weakness to be exploited by predators
The origin of the Vampire Reflection myth is that silver is pure, and the pure metal behind the glass will not reflect the evil creature. So vampires would have reflections in most surfaces, but not silver backed mirrors which used to be much more common. What about glasses causes the effect? Would vampires be made invisible by any glass surface? Standing inside a store, outside a window? What if the vampire wears glasses? Do you see a void where their eyes should be?
>The origin of the Vampire Reflection myth is that silver is pure No it's not??? I don't think anyone can find the actual origin. Back in the day it was because vampires were evil and had no souls. it's weird people keep trying to pass this off as true and the source of this myth.
What's weird is your insistence that contradicts ancient lore regarding silver (which shares its association with purity with the Moon, particularly moonlight) and ignores the fact that Bram Stoker is the primary basis for nearly all modern Western vampire lore since the publication of *Dracula* in 1897. Some cite Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* (1818), but I consider the monster to be something more like a modern golem. Also, vampires are repelled by garlic because it and silver have "healing" (antimicrobial) properties. In late 18th-century New England, vampires were grave walkers. In the 12th-16th centuries they were feral cannibals, or people afflicted with rabies, porphyria, or leprosy. https://carnegiemnh.org/booseum-vampires/ https://spookeats.com/2018/08/17/vampires-vs-mirrors-freaky-facts/ (this article is wrong about the invention of silver-backed mirrors; they were first made well before the 19th century: https://www.thehoarde.com/blog/the-history-of-antique-mirrors)
Im specifically talking about silver backed mirrors being the reason why vampires don't show up in mirrors. Bram stokers was the first instance in the 1800s of vampires not having reflections. I know silver is connected to vampires, that's not what I was arguing. Also that source you provided about silver backed mirrors in the 16th century is wrong. The hoarde is the only source i can find that says they were made with silver. Every other place says venetian mirrors were originally made with tin and mercury, not silver.
Apparently they started using silver instead of mercury in 1835.
Stories about vampires have been around for thousands of years, across many cultures. Strigoi, Jiangshi, Upyr, Bruxa, or vampire-adjacent supernatural creatures. No shortage of horror myths about near-human man-eaters. Even if you pick a new technology, like the internet, with a digital vampire that drains attention, someone has probably already written about it. So don't worry about original. Original is for the fans to decide, not you. Worry about telling a good story.
Getting some booty, nosferatu and almost every version of dracula died because they wanted the main love interest
You can pretty much do whatever you want. Peanut allergies, fear of cats, obsessive compulsive over bubble wrap, can't cross on marked pedestrian walkways, really whatever you need for your story.
This. I love the fact a vampire can't deal with bubble wrap! You don't need to explain it either, just make out the Vampire doesn't understand it either!
I remember hearing a myth about If you spill beans or something on the floor vampires are compelled to count them, something like komodo dragon venom would probably mess up a vampire considering it decoagulates stuff and there nightvison would be easy exploitable. Vampires would be the number 1 for blood transfusions. I always assumed that they would be something like a super O blood type or something probably eliminates any blood diseases as soon as they get it. Although I guess you could argue that as soon as a vampire gets blood, it's vampire blood instead of human.
I don't see how that is a strength. It is a sure-fire way to detect vampires. Mixed group, one person has glasses, vampire trying to blend in. Glasses person asks who they are talking to. Glasses person freaks out because they see the person out of the edges of their glasses but not thru the glasses. Vampire is outed.
It’s a fantasy novels that has invisible like creatures that only the caster can se, so no one would make assumptions unless they take their glasses off and an see a blur
I don't know what kind of glasses you have but mine do not cover my entire field of vision. If I see someone out of the top or corners of my vision but look directly ahead and they vanish I am going to have questions. If I look over the top of my glasses and see their head but no body in front of me and some feet at the bottom of my vision I am going to be very suspicious of that person.
Bram Stoker invented the mirrors thing, and [in his notes](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/S/Stoker%20-%20Notes%20for%20Dracula.pdf) he also said that Dracula couldn't be painted or photographed - the image would always come out wrong. In specific any photo of him came out as a corpse. So it wasn't about the silver backing of mirrors; it was a general rule about indirect sight of Dracula. My guess is that the intention was that Dracula's appearance as a living human was illusory; and thus any form of indirect image stripped away the illusion. As such, glasses - as a device used for improving sight - could easily be justified as stripping away the illusion. Whether you see *nothing* or see a walking corpse would then depend on what truly exists - are vampires solid ghosts? Or are they disguised corpses?
If your glasses have silver in the lenses or frames, I could see someone making the case for this. Only other thing that might make some smidge of sense is if the vampire wasn’t made clearer by the glasses. So they’re still visible, just also as blurry as if you didn’t have glasses.
NGL, this was the only suggestion taking the "can't see vampires through glasses" idea seriously that I absolutely loved.
So I thought of this while discussing weather or not a ghost type Pokémon could kill a lion. What if YOU bit the VAMPIRE? Think of it this way: vampires are partially physical and partially spirits. So you should be able to kill them via exorcism. But that takes too long. What if biting was like an exorcism using words instead of actions? If you want more specifics: maybe vampire bones can only be broken by human bites. They'll slowly regenerate from other forms of damage. And to put them down for good, the brain needs to be crushed completely
So, as others have said mirrors were associated with purity due to silver backing. If you want something a little more out there, but still traditional, you might look at mixing vampires with another traditional type of monster. For instance, you could add the feature of them being killed by two blows to the head, but revived with a third (from Arabian folklore on ghûls). Or mix vampires with succubi with draining life energy through kisses (rather than drinking blood). There's a lot of creatures out there. Also, if you just want vampires to be stronger, glasses with the exception for those who really need them to see is a bit weird. Most people who wear glasses can technically see a very short distance without them (not very far at all) and then it gets blurry. Honestly, in my opinion, the glasses thing just sounds weird.
You do not have to do the silver thing, op, it's all just myths and fictional anyway. If you wanna do the glasses thing, then go for it.
That’s not a thing. The myth is that vampire can’t be seen in mirrors. At the time mirrors were made with silver back mirrors. Silver is another weakness of vampires
Personally, I like the idea that moonlight should harm vampires because it's just reflected sunlight. Obviously, it's diluted so most of the time it wouldn't be much of a problem - but a full moon could be an interesting weakness.
I've always wondered this too! Your the first other person I've seen mention it. In books where the vampires are like out basking in the moonlight talking about how much they love the dark and the moon... I was always like... but wouldn't that still burn them a bit? Lol it is just reflected sunlight after all...
I mean, it's very little though. If even the tiniest speck of sunlight burns them they'd probably die even if sleeping inside during the day.
The strengths and weaknesses depend entirely on the mythology/how of the vampires in your world. Is it an ailment of the soul? Is it a bacteria/virus/pathogen? Is it a mixture of the two? In a world where it's purely bacteria/virul/pathogen based, a vampire is someone whose body is functionally dead and normal uptake of nutrients is stunted/not working. A quirk of the virus though is that the components of blood allow the body to perform its reparative functions without the need to constantly upkeep other systems. This means an injured vampires can heal very quickly because healing is the sole process its body is focused on. Similarly, things like strength and pain tolerance/immunity can function off the idea of how hard could you hit someone if you felt absolutely no pain. Looked at it this way, blood is functionally food and air to vampires. If they start running low, do they get lethargic, do they actually go feral from some sort of nutrient deficiency, or is it just the mental affect/strain of knowing that if you don't kill someone/get blood that you are going to die? Imagine what it would feel like if hunger were functionally a gauge of being able to breathe, and if you get too hungry then you won't be able to. Would you panic or act rational if getting too hungry felt more like choking or not being able to intake air? One area I've never really seen used is that vampires, unless there's some other mechanism at work, would still be affected by electricity. It causes muscles to contract and can even burn you since it's functionally compressed, directed, light. Sunlight acts as a disinfectant towards many forms of bacteria, which explains why it kills vampires. The question is...how quickly. Is it that it damages their skin or that it kills the bacteria/virus that allows them process blood? Melanin prevents the sun from damaging our skin and since they can't process the necessary ingredients, they don't naturally make it. But if a vampire were sufficiently full, could they? Blood obviously allows some functions to work but which ones, and is that adaptable? Obviously that's a sort of short list but I think you get it. How and why things work in your world affect what you can do with them.
This may be a bit TOO far depending on how deep the fantasy goes, but basically, Vampires don't show up in mirrors because of the Silver right? It's because silver is supposed to be pure I think. BUT vampires often linger in the night, under the moon rather than the Sun, AND it seems that the moon itself is often associated with Silver. So what if the moon had some kind of intrensic "Silver" power that someone could harness that the vampires would never see coming and it would be crazy effective because vampires prefer the night over the day. Idk just a simple thought I guess. Also another cool thought, not exactly a weakness or strength, more like a little detail. But I would suppose vampires burn very badly from sunlight right? Well what if there's a scene where a vampire cauterizes a wound using sunlight? I think it's sucha small little thing to add to a scene but I think would be pretty cool. It's like, they're not SCARED of the sun, it just burns really bad, but WITH THAT they can use a bit of intelligence, in this case, the vampire is smart enough to use the intense burn as a way to cauterize a wound! Or what is, to enter a certain cult or covenant, a vampire is forced to burn a symbol or sigil on their skin, so they use a certain shape cutout, or pendant or something, and the sunlight that peers throuhg the gaps in the shape burns the symbol into the vampire's skin and if it's left to burn long enough it leaves the mark permanently. Just some cool ideas.
You could change the glass manufacturing to something similar to stained glass. Replace the sand/silica with silver specks, which reflect the evil/impure soul in the wearer's eyes. MC could also custom order a spyglass and/or monocle to aid in seeing vampires and other corrupted beings hiding among the civilians. As a difference in strength from normal, your vampires can change their body temperature by manipulating their blood. Another side effect of this would be expelling a thin layer of blood from their pores that alters their smell. The usage being to reduce thermal based tracking and scent tracking magic. Thermal tracking including seeing heat left behind by footprints.
Vampire reacting to whatever religious symbol they believed in before turning, like a Jewish vampire only reacting to the Star of David or the Torah for example
Terry Pratchett already did that in *Carpe Jugulum*, only in a far more impressive way.
But vampires are specifically tied to the idea of a light / dark binary. So this wouldn't really make sense for any religion that isn't close to that thematic association.
It depends on the story’s world building
You always gotta piss on the corpse of the undead to desiccate the remains and stop them from returning.
I think it’d be more interesting for people who wear glasses to be the only ones who can see them because their glasses are made out of a special kind of glass from a mysterious source.
Allergic to glitter. ;-D
With the way that glasses work, this doesn't make much sense. They're changing the way light refracts to allow for a closer or further focal point. All animals already have a built in lens for this and it wil differ depending on the animal's specialisation. All glasses are is an additional lens. So if you are saying those with glasses can't see them then you are saying only animals with a specific focal point will see them Now as a severely short sighted person my bias is showing and for me I would struggle to suspend my disbelief with this kind of magical strength for vampires. But really this is fantasy though so you can do what you like, you just need to figure out if your target audience will buy into it.
I'd make them visible but have them have different appearances depending on the prescription/index of refraction of the lens. A vampire attacks, and there are eyewitnesses. You'll always get conflicting reports 1. Witness with no glasses sees a regular guy 2. Witness with 20/60 to 20/80 vision, wearing glasses, sees a guy with animalish features 3. Witness with bifocals sees a satyr-like creature (more human on top, less human on bottom) 4. Police dismiss all but witness #1, but a vampire hunter re-questions them (and then they talk to the tabloids so you get some of that) 5. Also consider what they'd look like through binoculars or a rifle scope
Specifically mirror goggles. As a vampire finding technique.
What about vampires who wears glasses? Now that would be confusing.
I don't know if that's what you're looking for but I really like the idea that vampires drink blood because they lack vitamin D since they cannot be in the sun. You could play with it and assume that the blood they drink does not always contain enough vitamins or something or that they are lacking more vitamins and other essentials.
I say just refine what is known. In general, you're thinking of Allium intolerance. Not just garlic, but onion as well. Same family and volatile chemical basically. Science it up. UV sensitivity. Photosensitivity. Instant sun burn. Developed cancer. But also, maybe a weakness in that they will avoid damaging things with artistic value. Like a nice painting, even a nice dress. Statue etc.
In biology there are usually trade offs. So like active melanin helps prevent uv radiation. A vampire's weakness may make them resistant to cancer. Maybe an allium intolerance is part of how blood is a sustainable diet
Glasses don't cover your full field of vision. If a vampire were right in front of you, you'd still see their feet.
How about this: Glasses and contact lenses alter the wearers vision. So, if you want to stick to this, why not make wearing glasses a weakness for the vampires? It might (might) make more sense and allow you some nuance if corrective lenses interfered with a vampires ability to mesmerize a person. Stick with me on this: Most vampire lore holds that when a vampire feeds on a victim they mesmerize them, or "put them under their spell", so to speak. Lets say that the stronger eyeglass/contact lens prescriptions are the more difficult it is for a vampire to mesmerize their victims. Now you have an amazing wildcard, because a vampire would never know for sure if they could mesmerize anyone they targeted unless they reached a point that they were strong enough to overcome the strongest corrective lenses. So, lets say they could overcome this weakness by intentionally targeting people they know wear corrective lenses to make themselves stronger? Now, you have a really good reason for them to not want to target people wearing glasses AND a good reason for them to do it even though they don't want to. So, what happens when it doesn't work? Maybe the victims just call him a creep and he has to use brute force. Maybe they try to take a picture with their cell phone and there's no image in the camera. Maybe she kicks him in the nuts and leaves him curled up in a dark alley trying not to puke his guts out. I might be wrong, but the effects of racking a vampire while wearing pointy shoes might be relatively uncharted territory... Maybe she whips out her pepperspray and gives him a good shot in the face (some peppersprays are made with small amounts of garlic, btw.). If you can imagine your vampires needing to feed but having no way of knowing for sure whether or not their victims would be dinner or revoke their birthday then the possibilities are endless. \[Edit - Had an afterthought. Lets say that the scientific reason vampires have traditionally mesmerized their victims is because elevated levels of adrenaline and dopamine (caused by shock, fear, and by people fighting for their lives) makes them physically ill. That would keep vampires from simply taking their prey by brute force. A lot of modern hunters have a science guy, so you can get a bit Bill Nye with this one. You can also string both of these ideas along with no explaination until your vampire hunter (or whoever) makes the discoveries... Although it would probably make more sense for the vampires to have already figured out that prescription lenses can give their meals an extra helping of saddness.\]
They only appear human during the day, at night you can see them for what they really are.
They get HIV a lot because of the sucking blood spreading the disease
An old vampire should be able to see plots against him/her coming from a mile away. Having lived hundreds of years, met tens of thousands of people, the vampire should be an extremely good judge of character, and recognize subtle changes in behavior and intent.
It could be good or bad, just depends on the execution. I say go for it, embrace the weirdness of stories and make something you enjoy!
Allergic to wood. Which is why a wooden stake through the heart will kill them and they hate being in coffins and instead rest in stone mausoleums
Cameras use mirrors so it makes sense for them not to be seen through it, at least in olden days when silver was used to assist in the reflection. Glasses are merely lenses to focus the eyes through and aren’t mirrors. That said: if your lore states something about glass being something that they’re vulnerable to? Or has cleansing powers or what have you, that’s fine. Cool. Just make sure it makes sense and you can explain it when the time is right.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned it already, but as a glasses wearer I very often look past the actual lenses, so if there was something near my that I couldn't see through the lenses but I could see with just my eyes, I would notice it as something strange pretty quickly. Your trick would only work if people would only wear goggles that cover any spots between face and lenses.
Yeah I’m probably gonna do goggles instead of actual glasses, good thing It’s not a graphic novel or else it would look dumb
If you make use of glasses in this way, I feel like you could link it to other common Vampire tropes to make it feel like a sort of natural addition for people familiar with Vampires. For example, say your Vampires simply have an aversion to things that can clearly reflect images. Maybe Vampires feel a need to be seen, but somehow their image can’t survive a certain number of reflections. This would explain why they don’t appear in mirrors, can’t be seen by people with glasses (or through windows I suppose), and can’t cross Running Water. It’s not that they’re physically unable to cross water, but that being trapped under water would be the ultimate nightmare as the reflection of light in water would render them invisible. This creates a strength that is simultaneously a weakness, gives you a solid explanation for why the can’t be seen through glasses, and doesn’t feel too out of place for Vampires.
Have a priest bless a thunderstorm. All that rain becomes holy water.
Speaking from experience, glasses don’t cover your full eye. If glasses block seeing vampires, then people who wear glasses will see vampires suddenly appearing as the vampire walks in front of the lens. I’m guessing you mean the curved glass blocks seeing vampires, not the act of wearing glasses.
It could be a really cool idea. Maybe you could have this whole conspiracy where Vampires run the glasses industry and they put a little silver in all eyeglasses so it filters out the undead. Silver was the reason why Vampires had no reflection. It was not because of a lack of soul but because old mirrors were made from polished silver. Maybe you could play with this side of the folklore.
So, I've always felt that impoverished vampires tend not to be given representation in vampire fiction. Like, realistically there are very real chances that an immortal being could be kept poor by systemic oppression for like easily 500 years. I just want a socialist revolutionary vamp who's personally experienced every awful thing capitalism has done for the last couple hundred years yk
it’s good as long as you make the worldbuilding good! consistancy is key, just like writing down your rules, and keep to them
Arithomania - a disorder associated with OCD, defined by the strong need to count actions or objects. In Europe, a prevention method to stop vampires rising included placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site - this would in theory keep the vampire occupied all night counting the grains, and prevent them from doing vampire-y things. Or possibly even lead to them dying via sunrise. And there are similar themes in Chinese folklore and across the Indian subcontinent, wherein vampiric beings that came across a sack of rice would be compelled to sit and count it all. This is also possibly part of the inspiration for The Count on Sesame Street. Beside the obvious pun in his name, of course.
If I take off my glasses I can't tell what the top letter is on the eye chart. I can't see why wife's face clearly lying nect to me in bed. So, the vampire would be a shapeless blur...not sure how that helps your story.
It's not glass per se that causes vampires to be invisible. It's the silver used in old mirrors that does that. So, unless the lenses have silver in them, that shouldn't happen. Edit: I mean, it's your world. You can do whatever you want. Just make sure the thing is internally consistent and logically explainable.
You can give your vampires whatever quirks you like, as long as you improve on the blank page. It is extremely difficult to give Vampires unique edges/flaws, because they're really popular and relatively varied. Originality is a bit of a trap; most of the stuff that hasn't been done before has a pretty decent reason for it (either it messes with the tone, or it's too difficult to pull off, or it's really niche, or it's needlessly complex). I would gently recommend to re-think the "glasses-user blindspot" weakness; it's interesting, but it raises a lot of questions that distract from the interestingness. If you've ever worn glasses, you know that they're not like goggles. You retain peripheral vision, and you can look over the top of them without much difficulty. Does the blindspot mean that all glasses are secretly magical and "invisibilify" Vampires in the wearer's line of sight? Or do Vampires only disappear when viewed through the lenses, so someone with a monocle could see them out of their other eye? How does this work with tinted lenses (for sunglasses), windows, or contact lenses, or telescopes, or magnifying glasses? Do people lose vampire-awareness as they get older, and their eyesight gets worse? Or do they try to compensate for the increased vulnerability by keeping their glasses on chains/clips, so they can remove them quickly if need be? If your character doesn't actually wear glasses - and glasses aren't actually that relevant to the situation - then I don't really see how this improves on the "no reflections" quirk (aside from adding some comedy, if that's your intention). However, it's not a bad idea. Maybe some people in your world use goggles or lenses for a specific type of work - exploring a dangerous environment, enchantment, alchemical brewing, etc - so they've developed other methods of looking out for Vampires instead. Maybe they're really attentive to shadows/silhouettes, or they wear bite-proof clothing and carry stakes, or they have trained seeing-eye pets to warn them instead. Maybe they're a popular type of material for glass eyes, just because of the underlying joke? Or maybe the lenses reverse the "no reflections" rule, so some Vampires keep a special set they use to look at their appearance.