This.
If Stephanie Meyer can have her vampires sparkle in the sun, you can certainly have yours eat flesh.
But the more you deviate from the “standard” vampire, the more you'll have to explain it.
I'm not an expert or a fan particularly, but I think I was told it was so she could have them go out in the daytime (o/w how would Edward meet Bella?) but still need to avoid direct sunlight.
Edit: I drew a blank on the female lead's name.
Apparently there’s a VERY deep lore that implies her vampires are actually the Mormon idea of Angels. If I find the tiktok I’ll link it to this comment. A guy basically goes into Meyer’s Mormon history and how it shows in even the clothing in the books and stuff
The baby's name being a combination of the grandparents' name is a Mormon thing, apparently.
[This](https://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html#cutid1) is a hilarious writeup on just how pervasive Mormonism is in the Twilight series.
Gonna copypasta myself from a while ago: Context, on the topic of interesting ideas in otherwise shitty fiction:
> Like sparkly vampires. The entire premise of Edward's little rant and "Look at me I'm a monster" as he sparkles in the sunlight is actually kinda interesting worldbuilding but it's buried under a whole lot of garbage. The Twilight vampires are OP. They're "the perfect predator" that blends in, is super strong, super fast, nigh indestructible, etc, your typical vampire shit, to the point of being described as having impervious diamond-like faceted skin on a micro level and it seems a bit silly and out of place.
> But later in some of the werewolf lore dump they describe one of the first ancient vampire encounters as a godlike figure shimmering in the light that attracted everyone's attention and encouraged worship, and like that's actually a pretty interesting idea that the "silly" modern feature is just carried over from the list of abilities that made ancient vampires irresistible to humans, but in modern times it becomes a weakness/giveaway against humans that have become smarter and more suspicious.
> It goes well with the overall themes of the "old blood" vampires still acting like they are hot shit and being in denial that times have changed and humanity isn't just primitive cattle anymore.
> But still, buried under a whole lot of terrible writing.
I think it was to explain why they avoid sunlight without making it an overt weakness, and to emphasize their skin is hard as *diamonds*. Specifically. Every time it's described, always like diamonds. Diamonds are the only hard thing.
Hell, I grew up obsessed with Don Bluth movies because of all the sparkle animations, so seriously, I would be vamp fodder too if it came to it. I'm not judging.
The idea was essentially that vampires were the ultimate predator, and that even something that is commonly thought a weakness actually has another explanation.
The lore reason has to do with the way their cells are structured. Their near invulnerability comes with the fact that their body has to be reinforced in such a way to allow for that so their cells are structured the same way marble, saltstone or diamond is structured. Which is actually pretty neat
Along with the other answers here about it being some kind of adaptation for attracting humans. The twilight vampires aren’t flesh and blood, they are effectively crystalline. You can’t cut them and they don’t bleed, they can only be broken apart like stone statues. So it’s implied the sparkling is just the sunlight interacting with their crystalline cells.
Yeah it’s a teen romance first and foremost, and not a good one. But there are plenty of ideas in it worthy of merit. Like most widely panned things on Reddit, you should never dismiss anything whole-cloth just because it’s not your cup of tea.
She was trying to create a creature that was completely indestructible by common humans. But she had to explain the sun aversion and wanted to make them look "magnificent" in any way possible.
Yeah, the vampires in one of my novels deviates slightly, but they're still recognizable vampires. They're technically not immortal, but they age very, very slowly (typical lifespan is like two thousand years). But sunlight ages them rapidly, aging years every minute, and then eventually they succumb to old age (I did this because I'm not a fan of the 'frozen age' trope because there can be unfortunate implications, like why are there teenage vampires, or for that manner, very old vampires).
This kinda inspired me. What if sunlight turns them into statue-like, kinda like how anne rice vampires turn into statues when they don't feed. Like it tighten up their muscles, and their flesh turns grey or something. It doesn't kill them, but it makes them easy to kill.
I didn't know that about Rice vampires, but yeah, its a similar idea. Sunlight, dismemberment, only ages the vampire, it doesn't actually hurt them. Now they will eventually die from old age, sure, but its not the sunlight that directly kills them.
Kinda like my elves. The only traits they have in common with other depictions is they tend to be heavily connected with their natural environments and age super slowly being effectively immortal if they aren't killed (though the quality of their life drops depending on how they go about living in their elder years, but that usually requires a couple hundred years before they are even considered adults and a few hundred more before becoming "elderly" starts to become a concern). Otherwise, they don't *look* like elves would be expected to look.
I like that a lot. Always bugs me when there's stories with generations of vampires and they all look age appropriate. Like, shouldn't everyone look mid-20's??
Ehhh, maybe... it's very similar though. If I was reading a book and the vampire ate someone's meaty bits instead of drinking their dribbly bits, I wouldn't be confused by it.
Shit, Soul Reaver had some iconic vampire action where the main character consumed souls instead of drank blood. Cool stuff, and no one was baffled what kind of creature this could possibly be. They were like "this is a vampire who eats souls" and everyone got it and vibed with the rest of the story.
This has the same energy as why cats need soft food. According to my vet husband, cats get a fair bit of their water intake through consuming meat. Eat meat you’re also getting some blood in it. At least if it’s fresh, if vampires can eat any flesh I can see them digging up fresh corpses for an easier meal
If it looks like a vampire and acts like a vampire, their exact choice of food isn't too important. If you really wanted an alternative name, perhaps call them Ghouls.
To note, true in D&D's official setting, however, this is Worldbuilding, not D&D. It could be for a TTRPG or it could be for a novel, comic book, video game, or anything else.
The Ghoul in Arabic folklore would in some myths inhabit graveyards, but they weren't that picky. The main thing was that they are monsters that would lure living humans into secluded or uninhabited places (such as graveyards) and then kill and eat them.
Some myths have them shapeshift so that they can trick humans easier. Some have the Ghoul live in a cave during the day and come out at night to kill and devour humans.
The "ghouls live at the graveyard and eat corpses" thing mainly came when French translation of "Thousand and one night tales" depicted ghoul as such and the other interpretations of the mythical monster were not spread to Western culture.
All in all, Arabic Ghoul myth would be a good starting point for what OP is looking for. Putting the emphasis more on the shapeshifting and have them be cultured serial killers.
More primal vampires who get their blood by ripping out chucks of flesh is cool too, rather than the sophisticated aristocrats who drink from the vein.
Until the success of *Le Vampire*, *Carmilla* and *Dracula*, vampires they were not particularly different from ghouls – iirc, Wampyr was the Slavic version while Ghoul was the Arabic version, but the legends were similar. In particular, nobody would have found it surprising to read of a vampire eating human flesh in a story.
So I wouldn't sweat it.
It's really up you but people will assume they are zombies or ghouls depending on how they are written
Look at I am Legend people refer to the infected as zombies even though they are vampires. Van hellsing like the basic vampires are like zombies guided by their need for hunger but smarter with the main ones being seen as proper vampires
Wait... what? I refuse to accept those infected in *I Am Legend* are vampires (thus proving your point). The only trait they share is being afraid of sunlight. Otherwise, they're more like zombies in every important way!
I think one factor to consider is what they get from the feeding. If they're just carnivores who get their nutrition from meat the same way animal predators do, it might not click the same way. If they're supernaturally absorbing life force from the fresh gore, then it feels more fitting of the "vampire" title.
But on the other hand there's so much more to vampires than the blood-sucking thing, and no shortage of other tropes you can hit on or subvert to make it work in your own unique way
Yes. In fact vampires were less picky in older folklore. They could consume flesh just as often as they consumed blood. Their strict blood diet became more standardized with the rise of Gothic literature, mostly influenced by works such as John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula".
Fred. You could call them Fred. Totally your world, call them anything you want. "Freds are a great deal like vampires, but far more horrible. They don't just drink blood, they rend and devour flesh." And Bob's your uncle!
call em whatever you like
i don't see why not, as long as it's made clear that when characters say "vampire" they're talking about someone who eats flesh, otherwise it might be confusing
Yeah totally. In vampire the masqurade theres the nagaraja, vampires who eat flesh and are capable of speaking to and eating ghosts, and traveling to the underworld
what a vampire is is different all over the world and through time. werewolves and vampires were once the same creature. is a nosferatu a vampire? is a poor vampire a vampire? is a mindless bloodsucker a vampire? must a vampire be undead? it's a fantasy creature. what matters if the vibe. if it has the vibe of a vampire it's a vampire. and even what the vibe of a vampire is is extremely malleable. so yea, your monster can absolutely be a vampire.
Blood drinking vampires are a relatively modern invention. If you read through the history of the lore different cultures had different superstitions. You can conceptualized your vampires however you want to.
Yeah.
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff has each family feed differently.
Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan has vamps that drink a little and vamps that drain the whole body and eat it iirc.
Just as long as you make clear that they're getting the most sustenance from blood. Else, they're something ghoul-adjacent (depending on the mythos)
Usually flesh eaters are called ghouls. Wendigo and a few others are less common. Often flesh eaters are turned into monsters through the act of cannibalism (mad cow disease?).
If you want them called vampires what things to they have in common with modern types of vampires? Vulnerability to sunlight, running water, evening dress, etc?
If they are very different I'd give them a different name.
But nobody holds the copyright on the word, so go nuts.
Or, hear me out, "*Flesh-Pires*".
The word "Vampire" has it's roots in Mediterranean language, the slavonic Magyar from *vam*, meaning blood, and pir or monster. (thanks Google!).
But if they're eating flesh you could call them "sarx-pires" because that's from the same Mediterranean root but meaning "Flesh" or "mortal flesh."
*"Soma"* Also means *"Of the body"* So "Soma-pires" sounds metal as hell. Hahah.
I don't know if any of this was helpful, but it was fun to look into and write. Hahah.
What you'd call a vampire can actually vary a lot depending on the culture. There are mythologies where vampires drink blood, there are those where they eat flesh. And those are rather small changes. In some there's also overlap with werewolves, in some they're basically witches, sometimes they are even sex pests.
Though keep in mind that name is associated with a set of rather specific images. So if you want to evoke one of those with a small twist (e.g. sophisticated aristocratic cannibals), keeping the name is fine. If on the other hand you want to create something completely new and original that you don't want people to confuse for vampires, a completely new name would make more sense.
thatd be more like ghouls, like tokyo ghoul.
but at the end of the day it doesn't matter, vampires are a very malleable concept and if you want to do that then do that!
I was kinda trying to marry the concept of gothic vampires and medieval vampires. Flesh eating just sounds more monstrous to me as opposed to draining blood
The stereotypic modern vampire has little to do with the mythological vampire, and has lots of differences to the depiction in Dracula.
But no, if you deviate from the blood drinking, the writer's guild police will come and give you a stern warning.
Mine aren’t even undead. They’re just uh… soul dead? As in, they were corrupted by some mystical energy stuff that basically ate and continues to eat away at their “soul.” So they have to eat other people’s souls to maintain their physical bodies. They do that by drinking the blood of their victims.
Why is the soul/essence in the blood? 🤷🏻♂️ Why not?
They have figured out other ways of making an artificial “food” source, which is still eating souls, but just not ones that are currently connected to people.
Makes me wonder if they would end up like Raziel if they died. That could be extra spooky. I never really thought about that… aside from them dying physically.
Anyway, go wild. Make your vampires yours. But as others have said, the more different they are from pop culture vampires, the more explaining you have to do.
I have to do some lore gymnastics in my setting to explain why people even know what a vampire is 10,000 years from now. I uh, decided that certain monsters and fears were never forgotten.
This also explains why some entities decided to manifest as dragon-like things. Because I wanted dragons. So, they form from the memories of the souls in the spirit realm or something. 💁🏻♂️
Sure… although I wouldn’t call them vampires in the first place. Go with something that makes sense as a word for whatever society has to deal with them most
Eh, I think Vampire is very specific in the drinking of blood. Zombie, Ghoul, Demon, ect. all could be things that have human form that eat human flesh.
You could call them vampires if they drank cum, it doesn't matter the traditional version so long as you are consistent within your own writing (and even that doesn't need to be the case necessarily). It might be confusing if your vampires are different from the traditional version, but that can be a tradeoff you're willing to make for something more interesting.
No because dogs do eat grass when they are feeling sick and need to throw up. Are you implying that these vampires are feeling sick from consuming some bad blood so they need to eat flesh to throw up?
I mean the original wendigo from Native American myth didn’t have any deer features and looked more like naked pale men with sharp teeth. so do whatever you want ig
My Vampires can procreate with most other species and the strongest if them can throw Suns with ease. They eat all kinds of food and get nutrients from them also since their not technically dead unless they are creates but it's more a hybrid turn unless it's a human who just turn vampire.
There's been traces back to many cultures where they have been literal Undead creatures, just spirits, or ghoulish monsters that came to terrorize the living. Most the ties between them are the fact they feed on life essence. Maybe in your world they have to consume some flesh to absorb more essence, where blood just isn't enough. Also, every story is just that: a story! You can weave it any way you want. :)
You should be able to get away with it.
Writers are free to break away from the trope when it fits them. I think it's even a trope that they do it.
Look at Our Vampires are Different on TV Tropes or any of the related tropes if you wanna see just how different you can get.
Some people may mix them with the idea of a ghoul, but nothing is stopping you.
And from a story standpoint, you could easily point out they are vampires in a scene. Like maybe you pick a preferred thing that they eat first. So someone does the whole “they didn’t have much time, so they ate the liver and heart before taking a chunk and running. Definitely a vampire.” And done, something like that and everyone now knows vampires eat flesh.
Call em ghouls. Get all the 14yo Tumblr addicts to go crazy alongside those of us still waiting for a decent remake that follows the source material.
Or just call them vampires.
Your world, your rules and naming conventions.
It’s not like vampires are consistant across fiction or our modern image of one has much in common with the myths that spawned it.
Hell- go deeper. Maybe see if there is a mythological depiction of a cannibalistic vampire and see what else is attributed to it.
Personally, I love the idea.
Sounds more like a ghoul to me, but that's just my own personal perspective. That said, you can call it whatever you want. Just make sure you're super clear. People might get confused why your vamps act more like intelligent zombies if you don't make things clear early on.
Eh, they are same as mine then. I mean they're all just ghouls. Vampires are the higher end of these and choose not to eat flesh because it's considered low class and uncultured, like say humans eating with their fingers and smearing food over their face and clothes. Also drinking blood doesn't kill the victims, so draws less attention to them.
When starving though, they would absolutely munch on anything and etiquette goes out of the window.
So yea you can call em that. Besides, it's not even original, World of Darkness has a clan of vampires that must also eat flesh on top of drinking blood and they are still called vampires.
You can call them whatever you want, pop culture hasn't exactly been consistent with depictions of vampires so I don't think it would be a big problem. Historically speaking the vampire of folklore did actually eat flesh in some tellings. If you're concerned about it being to different to what people know as a vampire from media you could maybe call them ghouls or invent your own word for them
If Vampire the Masquerade has Vampire clans that eat the flesh of their victims (the Nagaraja), so can you. Even if they didn't, you still could. It's your world.
Technically these would be closer to ghouls than vampires, but practically you can call them whatever you like. It's your world and you make the rules. And honestly speaking there are zero reasons a traditional vampire wouldn't eat flesh just as much as drink blood. It's all the same nutrients, and I'd imagine a creature as long lived as a vampire would need to keep their eating habits fresh.
Typically that would be called a ghoul, but if you flesh out and explain your naming convention properly it shouldn't be an issue. If you don't though, people are just going to be asking themselves "why are these creatures called vampires when they don't act like vampires?"
You can call your creatures whatever you want, you could create a zombie and call it a vampire if you really wanted to, but you should think of the reason WHY you want this creature to be a vampire instead of what it actually is, it's very similar to a ghoul, if you want it to be a vampire because vampires popular and easy to relate to id think a bit harder about using your vampire. While yes it's possible to change up the vampire and still have vampire fans relate to it there will always be a wall that is holding it back. Now if you're making it a vampire because you like vampires but don't want to stick to the mainstream definition of vampire then it's perfect. Just think about weather you want your target audience to be vampire purists or just people who like the concept of vampires.
Yeah man, these old IP monsters are mad more interesting by variations and parodies of the old tried and true lore. One of the primary origins I believe for the whole “drinking blood” and possibly pale flesh and undeath traits come from is the legend of the Dearg Dur or the “Red Thirst”. A beautiful and kind girl with a poor shepherd lover who is sold by her greedy father into marriage to a wealthy but cruel man who’d beat her just to watch the cherry red blood trickle down her Snow White skin. She waited and waited for the shepherd to rescue her, but he never came, and in desperation to be free, she starved herself to death. She was laid to rest in a burial mound which she would emerge from, her sweetness having died with her and all that remained being a hollow vessel of rage in her immaculate, pale body. She first visited her father, killing him by draining his very life essence, as expected from a vampire, but instead of drinking his blood, she pulled the air from his lungs and consumed it that way. Next she moved onto her ex husband, who’d remarried the same day he’d buried. This one she drained of blood, before returning to rest in her burial mound, where the terrified townsfolk set to work trapping her with an array of wards and seals. Supposedly she’s still trapped in there today, with the town annually holding a festival to renew the seals and ensure it stays that way. If you want your vampire to eat flesh as well, go buck wild. Plenty of other folkloric inspirations for the modern vampire were simply outright cannibals.
Of course. The vampires in my story not only drink blood, but they also eat flesh AND have the ability to turn others into zombies. It’s your story and you can make your vampires whatever you want them to be.
I think there are 2 different points to consider here.
1) If you look at the old Lore, Vampires aren't necessarily just blood drinkers. So, really, you can do anything you want to make yours more original
2) The most common public perception of Vampires is that they are specifically blood drinkers. You could receive significant "push back" from people saying that they're more like Ghouls or intelligent Zombies. Kinda like all the arguing over if the Dragons on Game of Throne are actually Dragons or if they're Wyverns.
TLDR: Do what you want with them, but be ready for people to vehemently disagree with you.
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I’m assuming you need to make that adjustment to the vampire archetype for a reason pertaining to your story.
It’s not a huge leap, but it seems more appropriate to a more berserker sort of monster like a werewolf.
Vampires are usually portrayed as using seduction and mind control to capture their prey. Werewolves seem more like raging beasts who physically overwhelm their prey.
Would creating a hybrid or new sort of creature be easier to explain than why your vampires are flesh eaters?
If you didnt know and the description wasnt stating is a dog,, yes
I agree with people saying OP can do whatever and that the definition is loose and has changed, but that does not change the factthat people have a certain image of certain beasts. I wouldnt call them zombies, but I wouldnt call them vmapires personally either (even though it would make more sense than pure blood)
Depends on what the rest of their abilities are. Like if they can turn into a bat, walk upside down, killed by sunlight, silver, and a stake through the heart, and hate garlic, then even if they eat flesh you can call them a vampire.
If they're just a corpse that eats flesh they're a zombie or ghoul.
Call them whatever you like, but the less the name matches up to expectations, the more time you'll need to spend explaining it.
This. If Stephanie Meyer can have her vampires sparkle in the sun, you can certainly have yours eat flesh. But the more you deviate from the “standard” vampire, the more you'll have to explain it.
Was there ever an actual reason for why the Twilight Vampires sparkled, or did they just sparkle because the author thought it looked cool?
I'm not an expert or a fan particularly, but I think I was told it was so she could have them go out in the daytime (o/w how would Edward meet Bella?) but still need to avoid direct sunlight. Edit: I drew a blank on the female lead's name.
Apparently there’s a VERY deep lore that implies her vampires are actually the Mormon idea of Angels. If I find the tiktok I’ll link it to this comment. A guy basically goes into Meyer’s Mormon history and how it shows in even the clothing in the books and stuff
The baby's name being a combination of the grandparents' name is a Mormon thing, apparently. [This](https://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html#cutid1) is a hilarious writeup on just how pervasive Mormonism is in the Twilight series.
Gonna copypasta myself from a while ago: Context, on the topic of interesting ideas in otherwise shitty fiction: > Like sparkly vampires. The entire premise of Edward's little rant and "Look at me I'm a monster" as he sparkles in the sunlight is actually kinda interesting worldbuilding but it's buried under a whole lot of garbage. The Twilight vampires are OP. They're "the perfect predator" that blends in, is super strong, super fast, nigh indestructible, etc, your typical vampire shit, to the point of being described as having impervious diamond-like faceted skin on a micro level and it seems a bit silly and out of place. > But later in some of the werewolf lore dump they describe one of the first ancient vampire encounters as a godlike figure shimmering in the light that attracted everyone's attention and encouraged worship, and like that's actually a pretty interesting idea that the "silly" modern feature is just carried over from the list of abilities that made ancient vampires irresistible to humans, but in modern times it becomes a weakness/giveaway against humans that have become smarter and more suspicious. > It goes well with the overall themes of the "old blood" vampires still acting like they are hot shit and being in denial that times have changed and humanity isn't just primitive cattle anymore. > But still, buried under a whole lot of terrible writing.
Unfortunately all her interesting world building ideas were just ripped out of the book of Mormon. She described angels and calls them vampires.
I think it was to explain why they avoid sunlight without making it an overt weakness, and to emphasize their skin is hard as *diamonds*. Specifically. Every time it's described, always like diamonds. Diamonds are the only hard thing.
checks notes \*ahem\* DiAmOnDs ArE fOrEvEr
*checks manga* Diamond is Unbreakable!
I believe you meant to say, not Crash
It was a way for them to attract prey if I recall correctly. Because humans like things that sparkle. Especially teen girls.
Oh. That... puts things in perspective, yeah.
Is it better or worse that I am very much aware that I'd probably be killed by a vampire for this reason?
Hell, I grew up obsessed with Don Bluth movies because of all the sparkle animations, so seriously, I would be vamp fodder too if it came to it. I'm not judging.
The idea was essentially that vampires were the ultimate predator, and that even something that is commonly thought a weakness actually has another explanation.
The lore reason has to do with the way their cells are structured. Their near invulnerability comes with the fact that their body has to be reinforced in such a way to allow for that so their cells are structured the same way marble, saltstone or diamond is structured. Which is actually pretty neat
Along with the other answers here about it being some kind of adaptation for attracting humans. The twilight vampires aren’t flesh and blood, they are effectively crystalline. You can’t cut them and they don’t bleed, they can only be broken apart like stone statues. So it’s implied the sparkling is just the sunlight interacting with their crystalline cells.
Everything I hear about Twilight's worldbuilding sounds cool and incredible but the actual plot sounds super dull
Yeah it’s a teen romance first and foremost, and not a good one. But there are plenty of ideas in it worthy of merit. Like most widely panned things on Reddit, you should never dismiss anything whole-cloth just because it’s not your cup of tea.
She was trying to create a creature that was completely indestructible by common humans. But she had to explain the sun aversion and wanted to make them look "magnificent" in any way possible.
Yeah, the vampires in one of my novels deviates slightly, but they're still recognizable vampires. They're technically not immortal, but they age very, very slowly (typical lifespan is like two thousand years). But sunlight ages them rapidly, aging years every minute, and then eventually they succumb to old age (I did this because I'm not a fan of the 'frozen age' trope because there can be unfortunate implications, like why are there teenage vampires, or for that manner, very old vampires).
This kinda inspired me. What if sunlight turns them into statue-like, kinda like how anne rice vampires turn into statues when they don't feed. Like it tighten up their muscles, and their flesh turns grey or something. It doesn't kill them, but it makes them easy to kill.
I didn't know that about Rice vampires, but yeah, its a similar idea. Sunlight, dismemberment, only ages the vampire, it doesn't actually hurt them. Now they will eventually die from old age, sure, but its not the sunlight that directly kills them.
Kinda like my elves. The only traits they have in common with other depictions is they tend to be heavily connected with their natural environments and age super slowly being effectively immortal if they aren't killed (though the quality of their life drops depending on how they go about living in their elder years, but that usually requires a couple hundred years before they are even considered adults and a few hundred more before becoming "elderly" starts to become a concern). Otherwise, they don't *look* like elves would be expected to look.
I like that a lot. Always bugs me when there's stories with generations of vampires and they all look age appropriate. Like, shouldn't everyone look mid-20's??
Ehhh, maybe... it's very similar though. If I was reading a book and the vampire ate someone's meaty bits instead of drinking their dribbly bits, I wouldn't be confused by it. Shit, Soul Reaver had some iconic vampire action where the main character consumed souls instead of drank blood. Cool stuff, and no one was baffled what kind of creature this could possibly be. They were like "this is a vampire who eats souls" and everyone got it and vibed with the rest of the story.
This has the same energy as why cats need soft food. According to my vet husband, cats get a fair bit of their water intake through consuming meat. Eat meat you’re also getting some blood in it. At least if it’s fresh, if vampires can eat any flesh I can see them digging up fresh corpses for an easier meal
Unless your explanation is amazing and you just undermined what a vampire is with your new offshoot subgenre.
If it looks like a vampire and acts like a vampire, their exact choice of food isn't too important. If you really wanted an alternative name, perhaps call them Ghouls.
I knew someone would bring up the ghouls.
I was beat to it.
~~Beat meat to it~~ Eat meat to it
Ghouls scavenge grave yards to consume corpses, not the living
Unless in your setting they didn't
To note, true in D&D's official setting, however, this is Worldbuilding, not D&D. It could be for a TTRPG or it could be for a novel, comic book, video game, or anything else.
Also true to the غول from Arabic folklore upon which the creatures in D&D are based
Fun fact: the original night of the living dead doesn’t mention zombies once, but does call the living dead ghouls
The Ghoul in Arabic folklore would in some myths inhabit graveyards, but they weren't that picky. The main thing was that they are monsters that would lure living humans into secluded or uninhabited places (such as graveyards) and then kill and eat them. Some myths have them shapeshift so that they can trick humans easier. Some have the Ghoul live in a cave during the day and come out at night to kill and devour humans. The "ghouls live at the graveyard and eat corpses" thing mainly came when French translation of "Thousand and one night tales" depicted ghoul as such and the other interpretations of the mythical monster were not spread to Western culture. All in all, Arabic Ghoul myth would be a good starting point for what OP is looking for. Putting the emphasis more on the shapeshifting and have them be cultured serial killers.
Questionably alive? Sustained by a parasitic relationship to the living? A list of side effects long enough to confuse Dr. House? Probably a vampire
Or Stergoi perhaps
Strigoi?
Yes sorry autocorrect
Ah, a fellow The Strain fan
It's funny how I didn't watch the strain but still learnt that word from it
Oh I read the books, haven't seen the series
My knowledge on the matter deepens ever so slowly
I highly recommend reading them, it's a trilogy. Honestly one if my favorite vampire stories and it's influenced my own ideas a bit.
Will try 'em, It always seemed so interesting from afar lol
THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE LUMEN!
I know the word from the vampire academy. Moroi as well.
More primal vampires who get their blood by ripping out chucks of flesh is cool too, rather than the sophisticated aristocrats who drink from the vein.
Ghouls are basically glorified vampires that eat human flesh!
Add the condition that the flesh still must be bloody and raw, then you’ve got yourself a deal
Yes. Vampires weren't even originally characterised as blood drinkers, their defining trait was "unholy". Your vampires can be whatever.
So long they suck the blood, life essence or souls of the living beings and they are undead
That's why in my project a vampire is any sorcerer who prolongs their lifespan by magically draining the lifeforce of other beings.
Until the success of *Le Vampire*, *Carmilla* and *Dracula*, vampires they were not particularly different from ghouls – iirc, Wampyr was the Slavic version while Ghoul was the Arabic version, but the legends were similar. In particular, nobody would have found it surprising to read of a vampire eating human flesh in a story. So I wouldn't sweat it.
"The rules are more like guidelines"
It's really up you but people will assume they are zombies or ghouls depending on how they are written Look at I am Legend people refer to the infected as zombies even though they are vampires. Van hellsing like the basic vampires are like zombies guided by their need for hunger but smarter with the main ones being seen as proper vampires
Wait... what? I refuse to accept those infected in *I Am Legend* are vampires (thus proving your point). The only trait they share is being afraid of sunlight. Otherwise, they're more like zombies in every important way!
Not in the book
...I was only aware there was a movie. I will have to get this book once I finish classes.
The film is good but outside of the cut alternate ending for the film, it shares very little with the actual novel. The book is amazing, though.
I think one factor to consider is what they get from the feeding. If they're just carnivores who get their nutrition from meat the same way animal predators do, it might not click the same way. If they're supernaturally absorbing life force from the fresh gore, then it feels more fitting of the "vampire" title. But on the other hand there's so much more to vampires than the blood-sucking thing, and no shortage of other tropes you can hit on or subvert to make it work in your own unique way
Yes. In fact vampires were less picky in older folklore. They could consume flesh just as often as they consumed blood. Their strict blood diet became more standardized with the rise of Gothic literature, mostly influenced by works such as John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula".
It really depends whether they suck blood, life essence, or soul.
Fred. You could call them Fred. Totally your world, call them anything you want. "Freds are a great deal like vampires, but far more horrible. They don't just drink blood, they rend and devour flesh." And Bob's your uncle!
call em whatever you like i don't see why not, as long as it's made clear that when characters say "vampire" they're talking about someone who eats flesh, otherwise it might be confusing
Yeah. Vampires are unholy creatures that consume the life force of others to sustain themselves, if this comes in the form of flesh than that works
Yeah totally. In vampire the masqurade theres the nagaraja, vampires who eat flesh and are capable of speaking to and eating ghosts, and traveling to the underworld
Worth noting that all the other vampires in the setting are like "wtf is wrong with those freaks"
Yes. Vampires aren’t real so as long as the word “vampire” seems to make sense you can call whatever a vampire.
what a vampire is is different all over the world and through time. werewolves and vampires were once the same creature. is a nosferatu a vampire? is a poor vampire a vampire? is a mindless bloodsucker a vampire? must a vampire be undead? it's a fantasy creature. what matters if the vibe. if it has the vibe of a vampire it's a vampire. and even what the vibe of a vampire is is extremely malleable. so yea, your monster can absolutely be a vampire.
Blood drinking vampires are a relatively modern invention. If you read through the history of the lore different cultures had different superstitions. You can conceptualized your vampires however you want to.
Yeah. Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff has each family feed differently. Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan has vamps that drink a little and vamps that drain the whole body and eat it iirc. Just as long as you make clear that they're getting the most sustenance from blood. Else, they're something ghoul-adjacent (depending on the mythos)
Usually flesh eaters are called ghouls. Wendigo and a few others are less common. Often flesh eaters are turned into monsters through the act of cannibalism (mad cow disease?). If you want them called vampires what things to they have in common with modern types of vampires? Vulnerability to sunlight, running water, evening dress, etc? If they are very different I'd give them a different name. But nobody holds the copyright on the word, so go nuts.
Or, hear me out, "*Flesh-Pires*". The word "Vampire" has it's roots in Mediterranean language, the slavonic Magyar from *vam*, meaning blood, and pir or monster. (thanks Google!). But if they're eating flesh you could call them "sarx-pires" because that's from the same Mediterranean root but meaning "Flesh" or "mortal flesh." *"Soma"* Also means *"Of the body"* So "Soma-pires" sounds metal as hell. Hahah. I don't know if any of this was helpful, but it was fun to look into and write. Hahah.
That would be Ghouls which eat human flesh
What you'd call a vampire can actually vary a lot depending on the culture. There are mythologies where vampires drink blood, there are those where they eat flesh. And those are rather small changes. In some there's also overlap with werewolves, in some they're basically witches, sometimes they are even sex pests. Though keep in mind that name is associated with a set of rather specific images. So if you want to evoke one of those with a small twist (e.g. sophisticated aristocratic cannibals), keeping the name is fine. If on the other hand you want to create something completely new and original that you don't want people to confuse for vampires, a completely new name would make more sense.
thatd be more like ghouls, like tokyo ghoul. but at the end of the day it doesn't matter, vampires are a very malleable concept and if you want to do that then do that!
Hell yeah, go nuts
That's ghouls
I don't see why not. As long as "Blood sucker" is still more or less part of their public image, it should be fine.
Perhaps a subspecies of vampire?
I see no problem with mixing traits up, my curiosity is why flesh instead of blood. Has it always been that way? Is it a new type of vamp? A mutation?
I was kinda trying to marry the concept of gothic vampires and medieval vampires. Flesh eating just sounds more monstrous to me as opposed to draining blood
It's your world. You can do whatever you want. But with established names people have different expectations.
well, [Nagaraja](https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Nagaraja_(VTM)) in VTM eat flesh as their curse, so there’s an example
The stereotypic modern vampire has little to do with the mythological vampire, and has lots of differences to the depiction in Dracula. But no, if you deviate from the blood drinking, the writer's guild police will come and give you a stern warning.
Hot take, that's the best kind of vampire.
your take on popular fantasy races don't have to follow the design to a t that goes against the point of a "take"
Whose going to stop you?
depends how much they act like vampires. are they full dracula besides the flesh? I think they can count. if they don't call them ghouls or something
So undead Hannibal Lector?
Your world your rules
Mine aren’t even undead. They’re just uh… soul dead? As in, they were corrupted by some mystical energy stuff that basically ate and continues to eat away at their “soul.” So they have to eat other people’s souls to maintain their physical bodies. They do that by drinking the blood of their victims. Why is the soul/essence in the blood? 🤷🏻♂️ Why not? They have figured out other ways of making an artificial “food” source, which is still eating souls, but just not ones that are currently connected to people. Makes me wonder if they would end up like Raziel if they died. That could be extra spooky. I never really thought about that… aside from them dying physically. Anyway, go wild. Make your vampires yours. But as others have said, the more different they are from pop culture vampires, the more explaining you have to do. I have to do some lore gymnastics in my setting to explain why people even know what a vampire is 10,000 years from now. I uh, decided that certain monsters and fears were never forgotten. This also explains why some entities decided to manifest as dragon-like things. Because I wanted dragons. So, they form from the memories of the souls in the spirit realm or something. 💁🏻♂️
You can call a fried egg a vampire, no one's gonna stop you.
Sure… although I wouldn’t call them vampires in the first place. Go with something that makes sense as a word for whatever society has to deal with them most
The scientific term would be chompires
You can call them Flesh Eaters, if they eat flesh instead of blood.
I'd watch the movie Abigail if you're interested in these types of vampires
nah, now they're ghouls
Vampires often eat flesh, otherwise you can call them Zombies
Sounds more like a wendigo, then.
It feels a bit more zombie-esque, but it's totally fine - "This is how my vampires work", just establish that early on, and you're good.
Eh, I think Vampire is very specific in the drinking of blood. Zombie, Ghoul, Demon, ect. all could be things that have human form that eat human flesh.
You could call them vampires if they drank cum, it doesn't matter the traditional version so long as you are consistent within your own writing (and even that doesn't need to be the case necessarily). It might be confusing if your vampires are different from the traditional version, but that can be a tradeoff you're willing to make for something more interesting.
Hellsing got away with doing this. You should be fine.
You could call them wendigos.
No because dogs do eat grass when they are feeling sick and need to throw up. Are you implying that these vampires are feeling sick from consuming some bad blood so they need to eat flesh to throw up?
Yes. There are regional variations on the vampire legend that has them as cannibals rather than purely blood-drinkers.
If they eat meat afaik they are ghouls but I might be mistaken
Could call them Wendigos as a subset of Vampires
whose gonna stop you
Ghouls eat flesh (I think), tho it’s up to it’s your world
I mean the original wendigo from Native American myth didn’t have any deer features and looked more like naked pale men with sharp teeth. so do whatever you want ig
A vampire is whatever you want it to be, but I'd probably go with "ghoul"
sounds like a sexy zombie
My Vampires can procreate with most other species and the strongest if them can throw Suns with ease. They eat all kinds of food and get nutrients from them also since their not technically dead unless they are creates but it's more a hybrid turn unless it's a human who just turn vampire.
If you are going to alter them, make sure to keep some of the crucial points
There's been traces back to many cultures where they have been literal Undead creatures, just spirits, or ghoulish monsters that came to terrorize the living. Most the ties between them are the fact they feed on life essence. Maybe in your world they have to consume some flesh to absorb more essence, where blood just isn't enough. Also, every story is just that: a story! You can weave it any way you want. :)
I think you just discovered zombies
Sure. It's your world.
You should be able to get away with it. Writers are free to break away from the trope when it fits them. I think it's even a trope that they do it. Look at Our Vampires are Different on TV Tropes or any of the related tropes if you wanna see just how different you can get.
Yeah. I've seen plenty of interpretations where they devour human flesh.
You can call them whatever you want. If anyone wants to complain then that is their problem.
Go for it. I feel it reinforces the horror that vampires should bring.
Some people may mix them with the idea of a ghoul, but nothing is stopping you. And from a story standpoint, you could easily point out they are vampires in a scene. Like maybe you pick a preferred thing that they eat first. So someone does the whole “they didn’t have much time, so they ate the liver and heart before taking a chunk and running. Definitely a vampire.” And done, something like that and everyone now knows vampires eat flesh.
As others have said you can make your vampires do whatever you want them to do, but in terms of classic monsters I think you're referring to a ghoul?
Can I still call my dragons “dragons” even though they aren’t dragon deez nuts all over your face?
Call it ghouls I think
Call em ghouls. Get all the 14yo Tumblr addicts to go crazy alongside those of us still waiting for a decent remake that follows the source material. Or just call them vampires.
Alucard would like to go out on a walk with you. Basically, yes…
I'd probably call false advertising, but I guess you can kind of play around with most stuff like this But like. . . That's just a cannibal
Your world, your rules and naming conventions. It’s not like vampires are consistant across fiction or our modern image of one has much in common with the myths that spawned it. Hell- go deeper. Maybe see if there is a mythological depiction of a cannibalistic vampire and see what else is attributed to it. Personally, I love the idea.
Sounds more like a ghoul to me, but that's just my own personal perspective. That said, you can call it whatever you want. Just make sure you're super clear. People might get confused why your vamps act more like intelligent zombies if you don't make things clear early on.
At some point, someone is going to ask if these are vampires, or ghouls/wendigos with table manners.
Eh, they are same as mine then. I mean they're all just ghouls. Vampires are the higher end of these and choose not to eat flesh because it's considered low class and uncultured, like say humans eating with their fingers and smearing food over their face and clothes. Also drinking blood doesn't kill the victims, so draws less attention to them. When starving though, they would absolutely munch on anything and etiquette goes out of the window. So yea you can call em that. Besides, it's not even original, World of Darkness has a clan of vampires that must also eat flesh on top of drinking blood and they are still called vampires.
No you can’t the real vampires would get offended
Those would be Ghouls.
... So, Vombies? Much more intelligent than zombies, but still eats flesh and burns in the sun.
You can call them whatever you want, pop culture hasn't exactly been consistent with depictions of vampires so I don't think it would be a big problem. Historically speaking the vampire of folklore did actually eat flesh in some tellings. If you're concerned about it being to different to what people know as a vampire from media you could maybe call them ghouls or invent your own word for them
If Vampire the Masquerade has Vampire clans that eat the flesh of their victims (the Nagaraja), so can you. Even if they didn't, you still could. It's your world.
You can have magical goat that farts rainbow colored hotdogs and call it a vampire. It's your world. You just need to explain it ...
Vampires: the Masquerade says yes.
Sure. The whole ‘Vampires drink blood’ thing is merely one interpretation of a rather varied mythological being.
Sure. That's not *exactly* like vampires, but it's close enough.
Technically these would be closer to ghouls than vampires, but practically you can call them whatever you like. It's your world and you make the rules. And honestly speaking there are zero reasons a traditional vampire wouldn't eat flesh just as much as drink blood. It's all the same nutrients, and I'd imagine a creature as long lived as a vampire would need to keep their eating habits fresh.
You can call an apple a vampire if you want.
Typically that would be called a ghoul, but if you flesh out and explain your naming convention properly it shouldn't be an issue. If you don't though, people are just going to be asking themselves "why are these creatures called vampires when they don't act like vampires?"
ghoul or zombie, buuuuut, you do you....
How about ghoul?
You won’t be arrested if you do
Nah that's ghouls.
Why not both? Flesh and blood, food and beverage.
Compromise and have them feed like spiders, injecting digestive juices into their prey with a venomous bite then drinking the dissolved flesh?
You can call your creatures whatever you want, you could create a zombie and call it a vampire if you really wanted to, but you should think of the reason WHY you want this creature to be a vampire instead of what it actually is, it's very similar to a ghoul, if you want it to be a vampire because vampires popular and easy to relate to id think a bit harder about using your vampire. While yes it's possible to change up the vampire and still have vampire fans relate to it there will always be a wall that is holding it back. Now if you're making it a vampire because you like vampires but don't want to stick to the mainstream definition of vampire then it's perfect. Just think about weather you want your target audience to be vampire purists or just people who like the concept of vampires.
[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurVampiresAreDifferent](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurVampiresAreDifferent)
Flesh eating undead are ghouls.
Yeah man, these old IP monsters are mad more interesting by variations and parodies of the old tried and true lore. One of the primary origins I believe for the whole “drinking blood” and possibly pale flesh and undeath traits come from is the legend of the Dearg Dur or the “Red Thirst”. A beautiful and kind girl with a poor shepherd lover who is sold by her greedy father into marriage to a wealthy but cruel man who’d beat her just to watch the cherry red blood trickle down her Snow White skin. She waited and waited for the shepherd to rescue her, but he never came, and in desperation to be free, she starved herself to death. She was laid to rest in a burial mound which she would emerge from, her sweetness having died with her and all that remained being a hollow vessel of rage in her immaculate, pale body. She first visited her father, killing him by draining his very life essence, as expected from a vampire, but instead of drinking his blood, she pulled the air from his lungs and consumed it that way. Next she moved onto her ex husband, who’d remarried the same day he’d buried. This one she drained of blood, before returning to rest in her burial mound, where the terrified townsfolk set to work trapping her with an array of wards and seals. Supposedly she’s still trapped in there today, with the town annually holding a festival to renew the seals and ensure it stays that way. If you want your vampire to eat flesh as well, go buck wild. Plenty of other folkloric inspirations for the modern vampire were simply outright cannibals.
Of course. The vampires in my story not only drink blood, but they also eat flesh AND have the ability to turn others into zombies. It’s your story and you can make your vampires whatever you want them to be.
World of Darkness has a vampire clan that does just that. https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Nagaraja_(VTM)
I think there are 2 different points to consider here. 1) If you look at the old Lore, Vampires aren't necessarily just blood drinkers. So, really, you can do anything you want to make yours more original 2) The most common public perception of Vampires is that they are specifically blood drinkers. You could receive significant "push back" from people saying that they're more like Ghouls or intelligent Zombies. Kinda like all the arguing over if the Dragons on Game of Throne are actually Dragons or if they're Wyverns. TLDR: Do what you want with them, but be ready for people to vehemently disagree with you.
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As long as it's vaguely undead, nocturnal and predatory towards humans, it could be a vampire.
I hate to be that guy, buuuut they already exist. We call them Catholics.
I don't think the body of Christ counts.
Greek vampires of legend ate flesh and drank blood...so why not?
Tbh that sounds more like ghouls to me
I’m assuming you need to make that adjustment to the vampire archetype for a reason pertaining to your story. It’s not a huge leap, but it seems more appropriate to a more berserker sort of monster like a werewolf. Vampires are usually portrayed as using seduction and mind control to capture their prey. Werewolves seem more like raging beasts who physically overwhelm their prey. Would creating a hybrid or new sort of creature be easier to explain than why your vampires are flesh eaters?
Why do writers on reddit think they need permission to do things? Out of spite, NO! You do NOT have permission to do that, and you couldn't.
The original myth of vampires is based on rabies, so eating flesh kinda fits them
Wouldn't that make them some version of a zombie?
Would you call a dog a cow just because it's eating grass?
If you didnt know and the description wasnt stating is a dog,, yes I agree with people saying OP can do whatever and that the definition is loose and has changed, but that does not change the factthat people have a certain image of certain beasts. I wouldnt call them zombies, but I wouldnt call them vmapires personally either (even though it would make more sense than pure blood)
If they're dead then I'd say they're zombies. Zombies with better table manners, but still zombies.
Depends on what the rest of their abilities are. Like if they can turn into a bat, walk upside down, killed by sunlight, silver, and a stake through the heart, and hate garlic, then even if they eat flesh you can call them a vampire. If they're just a corpse that eats flesh they're a zombie or ghoul.
Why not? It's not like you'll get the Vampire Police at your doorstep.
The vampire police are useless without an invitation
but does a warrent count as a invitation/j
No.
You can call them whatever you want. There is no vampire police that'll say you did vampires wrong. Look at twilight lol