Vampires

Vampires are both a class and a type of undead. The creature commonly thought of as vampire has its roots in the 1819 novella The Vampyre. This vampire is a nocturnal, pale-skinned, fanged undead who drinks blood and can turn into a bat. However, this vampire's traits are collected from a huge palette of vampiric creatures mainly from Europe, which collectively have come to be called vampires too.

Etymology
After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity. Specifically, it was the Serbian word "вампир" ("vampir"), used for Arnold Paole, a purported vampire from the time period when Serbia was incorporated into the Austrian Empire, that made it into the West European languages.

What the word ultimately means is unknown, though there are two theories. Almost all Slavic languages possess some variation of the word, such as "upir", "wąpierz", and "upiór". One theory thus states that the Slavic languages have adapted the word from a Turkic term for "evil supernatural entity" (commonly simplified as "witch"), which is the Tatar word "ubyr". The word "upir" as a term for vampire is found for the first time in written form in 1047 in a letter to a Novgorodian prince referring to him as "Upir Lichyj" ("Wicked Vampire"). Another theory is that the Slavic variations come from the Slovak verb "vrepiť sa", which means "stick to" or "thrust into", which would make "upír" translateable as "someone who thrusts or bites".

Following the popularization of vampires in horror stories in the early 19th century, the word "vampire" has been adapted to represent two monster definition. Primarily, "vampire" refers to the common Western idea of a blood-sucking undead with fangs and a dislike for sunlight. Secondarily, the word can be used to describe the collective of vampiric creatures abundantly present in the mythology of about every culture. In this sense, the word is a little arbitrarily applied. A vampire of this kind is not really required to drink blood, only to feed on something either the living or the pure possess. However, monsters like zombies, which eat brains, are generally not regarded as being covered by the second definition of "vampire".

Vampire origins and variations
Due to the immense variety of vampiric creatures, it is impossible to say where the concept of vampires originated, if it originated in one spot and from one source at all. At the least, European vampires are believed to have their roots in two observations: the one on decomposition and the one on disease.

When life functions cease, decomposition sets in. This humans have always known. What humans not have always known is why and how this happens. Two bodies buried at the same time decompose differently depending on the differences between the condition of the bodies, the soil, the temperature, and a number of other factors. As such, on occasions where bodies were dug up, sometimes one body or a few would not look as decomposed as the rest or as what people expected them to be. In fact, due to formation of decomposition gasses, bodies can appear "well-fed", and those same gases can increase the internal pressure of the body and force blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. Following this, if a hole is poked into the body, as with a stake, the escaping gases can produce a sound as if sighing or groaning. Also, when a body decomposes, its fluids evaporate, causing loss of skin mass. As such, nails and hair can appear to have grown a while after the body stopped working, simply because the skin has pulled back. Observations like these would give the impression that the deceased had remained active until dug up and finished for good.

Another common theme with early vampire lore is disease, specifically easily transmittable ones. A theme of vampirism itself is that it is a transmittable condition no one but the depraved wants to have, setting up a comparison between the ravenous reanimated corpse that works under the cover of night and a highly contagious disease to people who have no knowledge of the existence or workings of bacteria and virusses. Specifically, vampirism is compared to rabies and tuberculosis. Rabies is a contagious disease that affects both human and animals and is often transmitted through biting, since the virus is highly present in the infected's saliva. This is due to the virus increasing the salivary glands's activity, which itself can result in frothing around the mouth. At first this is saliva, but as the infected's condition worsens, tissue becomes weaker and blood can pour through into the froth. Rabies also affects the central nervous system and causes inflammation of the brain, thus accounting for a wide range of behavioral changes the infected can go through in later stages of the disease, such as nocturnal activity, introversion, increased sexuality, and aggression. Finally, rabies makes the senses more sensitive, thus sometimes causing its patients to avoid bright light and noise or things that smell and taste strongly. Tuberculosis's link with vampirism is mostly an English association, where it was noted that if someone died from tuberculosis, that person's relatives would lose their health slowly and eventually die too. As such, the first to die was thought to be a vampire who drained their family's life from beyond the grave.

When the word "vampire" comes up, the common image that appears is that of a deceased human with pale skin, red eyes, and fangs, and possibly pointy ears and claws. A vampire may be the same person as the deceased or a demonic soul inhabiting the recently vacated body. Vampires are nocturnal creatures who sleep in their coffins, which are sometimes filled with blood or earth from their grave, by day and who are harmed by sunlight. They cannot cross running water (a bridge may or may not get them across) or go into a house uninvited, are repelled or even harmed by garlic, silver, iron, and religious (often Christian) paraphernalia, have no reflection and sometimes no shadow either, and need to be killed by a stake through the heart, decapitation, or burning. To spare themselves any of these fates, vampires can change into bats or a variety of other animals or even fog. They can control animals, hypnotize people, have improved strength and agility, and do not age into weakness. They require blood as nourishment and usually bite people's necks to acquire the blood. Depending on fiction and circumstances, the victim dies, becomes a semi-dead servant of the vampire, or becomes a vampire themself. If not bitten, theoretically any deceased can return as a vampire, but those who've led bad lives or were cursed during life are more prone to it.

Many of these traits have been taken from the rich diversity of vampiric creatures spoken of in European cultures, though vampiric creatures are by no means monsters exclusive to Europe. A selection of vampires other than West European vampires is described below to give an idea of the world-wide variety.

The nachzehrer is a German vampire. The name translates to "afterwards devourer", which refers to the nachzehrer's tendency to eat parts of its own body, an act through which energy is drained from the nachzehrers' relatives. When nothing more can be eaten without handicapping the nachzehrer, the nachzehrer rises and starts feeding on both corpses and the living people they can get their hands on. A nachzehrer has the ability to turn themself into a pig and by ringing the bells in a church belfry, they can bring death to all who hear. Nachzehrers cannot create other nachzehrers, and new nachzehrers rise up at random, although removing the name of the deceased from their burial clothing is a guarantee they can't turn into a nachzehrer. A nachzehrer can be rendered immobile by placing clumps of earth under their chin, placing a coin or stone in their mouth, or tying a handkerchief tightly around their neck. To permanently get rid of them, the nachzehrer has to be beheaded, a long spike has to be driven all the way through the head, or the tongue has to be fixed into place.

The sampiro is an Albanian vampire. It is completely wrapped up in its burial shroud or other flowing pieces of fabric, giving it an appearance not unlike a ghost's. The only part clearly visible are the sampiro's glowing eyes which pierce from the darkness under their hood. Sampiros also wear very high heels, which make a characteristic tapping noise as the creatures follow their prey. The high heels also make sampiros sway ominously. Another sound produced by sampiros is the smacking of lips in anticipation of their meal. Adding to their creepy apparition is that sampiros are prone to come out when there's fog. However, sampiros are not all that dangerous, as they nourish on fear almost as much as blood and only take a little bit from their victim. Only when a sampiro chooses to visit a particular victim multiple times is there a chance of death. Sampiros do not create other sampiros. Traditionally, any person whom Albanian society at large doesn't like is prone to become a sampiro after death.

The wampir/vieszcy/upierczi is a Russian and Polish vampire that looks very much human. Instead of fangs, the upierczis have stingers under their tongues with which they pierce skin to get to the blood. Upierczis have the ability to cause droughts. Their time of activity starts at noon and ends at midnight. New upierczis come into existence from the deceased who committed suicide, died a particular violent death, or practiced witchcraft during life. Upierczis can be destroyed by being drowned in fresh water (possibly salt water too), but the safest option is to burn them. When burned, the upierczi's body will burst open as hundreds of small, disgusting animals (maggots, rats, etc.) jump out. All of these have to be killed too, or else the upierczi can resurrect themself.

The jiang shi (Chinese)/gangshi (Korean)/kyonshī (Japanese) is more akin to a zombie than a vampire, but it does have vampiric traits and modern adaptions tend to emphasize this comparison. Traditionally, jiang shis are corpses reanimated due to a person's qi not leaving the body fully or the body being buried in a qi-rich environment. Jiang shis have long white hair, long black fingernails, a lolling black tongue, and a greenish skin, the latter of which is to be blamed on the growth of moss. Due to rigor mortis, they cannot move their limbs very well, hence their name, which translates to "stiff corpse". In order to move around, jiang shis hop. A good protection against jiang shis is thus to make the doorway a bit lower so they can't hop into the house. Jiang shis are not intelligent and only act on their need to feed. Traditionally, spells can make a jiang shi more manageable, though the usage of an ofuda is a modern invention. Jiang shis feed on qi by sucking out breath, though can just as easily be destroyed if their breath is sucked out. Since jiang shis are blind, a person should stand still and hold their breath to prevent detection. Many modern interpretations of the jiang shi, though, have them feeding on blood like European vampires. A jiang shi can be scared off by their own reflection, and destruction happens with fire, peach wooden weaponry, or the nailing of jujube seeds into the acupoints on the jiang shi's back.

The estrie is a Hebrew vampiric creature which is exclusively female. Rather than undeads, estries are humanlike demons or demonic humans, dependig on interpretation. Estries feed on blood, but if they are injured by a human, they need to eat bread and salt given to them by that very human in order to heal. Similarly, estries are not sensitive to religious symbols and can heal from injuries too if they can get a human to pray for them. Estries favor the night, but may not be bound to it like many other types of vampires. They can change form and favor the guise of a cat or owl. Estries can also fly in human form, but only if their hair is unbound. Estries are best destroyed by decapitation or burning, and if another method is used that does not damage the body too much, their mouths need to be closed or filled with dirt in order to prevent them from rising again.

While traditionally not counted as vampires, the modern interpretation of succubi and incubi often has them as vampires on account that they prey on the living in a fashion not unlike the West European vampire. The words "succubus" and "incubus" are Latin and respectively mean "person who lies under" and "person who lies on top", referring to traditional perceptions of which gender should be located where during intercourse. "Succubus" is actually a malformation of the original word "succuba", which indicates a female form. This and modern sentiments that people have the right to their own preferences have brought some to 'introduce' succubae and incubae - female versions of the redefined succubi and the incubi. The 'cube collective are demonic creatures rooted in the Abrahamic religions that feed on emotional and sexual energy. Commonly, they visit their victims at night. Their superior strength makes it easy to restrain their prey, accounting for the occurrence of sleep paralysis. Their is no specific way to destroy one of these creatures, but proper display of religion and religious artifacts will chase them off.

Vampires in fiction
The lore of the West European vampire has been largely formed by British writers, particularly Victorian (1830s to 1900s) Englishmen, almost a century after the vampire craze of the 1720s and 1730s brought the East European creatures into the West European landscape. The creature's story properly starts with John Polidori's 1819 gothic horror novella The Vampyre, which combined the various East European vampiric traits into a coherent entity and set the stage for the suave, charismatic, and aristocratic vampire. The vampire of the story is the British Lord Ruthven, whom was lightly based on the real-life Lord Byron, a controversial English nobleman at the time who easily made enemies. However, Byron was a friend of Polidori's, and the intent of the connection between him and Ruthven wasn't to villainize him, but to redirect the demonization by others. The plot of the The Vampyre details the meeting of the Englishman Aubrey with Lord Ruthven, whom Aubrey thinks to befriend. Instead, Aubrey figures out that Ruthven is a vampire and responsible for the deaths of two women they met in Italy and Greece and in the end is unable to save his own sister from the same fate, which brings about his own death as well.

The second big entry in the West European vampire lore is Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood, which is a penny dreadful gothic horror series generally believed to be from the hand of James Malcolm Rymer. Its original run lasted from 1845 to 1847. Due to the medium of choice, Varney the Vampire is not a coherent story with a specific plot. The story is stated to be set in the early eighteenth century, but there are references to events and conditions that place it in the mid-nineteenth century. Also, Varney's adventures occur randomly in various locations across Europe, including London, Bath, Winchester, Naples, and Venice. The plot, unplanned as it is, details Varney's harassment of the Bannerworths, an impoverished human family of which Varney might be an ancestor, though he also terrorizes another family, the Croftons, of whom he turns one woman into a vampire out of revenge at one point. The reason for Varney's targeting of these families originally was sustenance, but later in the story it is suggested that monetary interests are the motivation. Over the course of Varney the Vampire, Varney is presented with increasing sympathy as a victim of circumstances - a first in vampire fiction. Though he tries to save himself, he is ultimately unable to do so and commits suicide by throwing himself into Mount Vesuvius. As one of the early West European vampires, Varney set several standards of the entity: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his victims, has hypnotic powers, and has superhuman strength. On the other hand, Varney does not suffer any confinement due to his condition, such as needing to avoid sunlight or to sleep in a coffin. He can eat and drink as a human as well, though it does not do anything for him.

Following Varney the Vampire is the 1872 gothic horror novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Unlike its predecessors, the vampire of the story is female as well as homosexual, making Carmilla the progenitor of the lesbian vampire genre. The story was originally published in Carmilla was in the magazine The Dark Blue and only months later reprinted in the author's collection of five horror stories called In a Glass Darkly. The significance of the second print is that Carmilla is written as part of the casebook of the fictional Dr. Martin Hesselius, an occult doctor, as are the other four stories. Carmilla tells the story of Countess Mircalla Karnstein, who lived in Styria, Austria during the late 17th century. In the present of the mid 19th century, she is a vampire who goes by various anagrams of her original name to inflitrate and gain the trust of families that have a daughter in the household. These daughters she feeds on for the course of a few weeks during their sleep, after which they die. Mircalla's last victim is Bertha Rheinfeldt, niece of General Spielsdorf, who only was just too late in discovering Mircalla's ploy to save Bertha. Mircalla's sight then goes to Laura, a descendent of hers through her mother's line, to whom and to whose father she introduces herself as Carmilla. Carmilla takes a special interest in Laura, delaying her fate long enough for Laura's father to get suspicious and take his daughter on a trip away from Carmilla. Coincidentally, they meet Spielsdorf, a friend of Laura's father, from whom they learn who and what Carmilla actually is. With Spielsdorf's help as well as Baron Vordenburg's, a member of a family of vampire hunters, Carmilla is destroyed and Laura saved.

Carmilla's influence on the West European vampire is larger than one might initially suspect. For starters, the titular character was very lightly influenced by the historical figure of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who since the 1970s has become part of vampiric lore herself. In turn, Carmilla was of large influence on the novel Dracula and is considered the inspiration for the Sisters as well as Countess Dolingen and with that Countess Marya Zaleska, thus putting Mircalla at the source of all significant female West European vampires. Another development presented by Carmilla is the addition of weaknesses and limitations for vampires. Mircalla isn't harmed by daylight, but she's not nearly as energetic and powerful as during the night. Favorably, she and other vampires use daytime to return to their graves, in which a pool of blood to sleep in is located, to keep themselves going. Vampires can't relocate their own gravesite, thus limiting the range of their territory. On the other hand, Mircalla is significantly more powerful than her predecessors. She possesses superhuman strength and can shapeshift into multiple kinds of animals, though heavily favors the shape of a cat. Mircalla can pass through closed doors and even the lid and earth on her own grave. Mircalla's fangs aren't overly obvious and her complexion not particularly pale. A plot point of Carmilla that is never cleared up is the number of people helping her infiltrate various families, after which they disappear from the story. Though they could be vampires themselves, the story presents Mircalla's death as the end of the problems in Styria, making it more likely they are servants, whether human or something else. Carmilla thus is the first story to feature a vampires' 'need' for servants. As with Varney, Mircalla is given moments of insight into her character that prevent her from being and being interpreted as a complete monster.

The fourth and last big classic vampire tale is Bram Stoker's iconic 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula, which featured not one but four vampires, may have been meant to contain a fifth, and directly inspired the "creation" of three more vampires through important adaptions of the novel. The novel takes a lot of inspiration from the novella Carmilla, which is most noticeable in the deleted first chapter titled Dracula's Guest. The titular vampire is named after but is not meant to be the historical Vlad III, patronymically named Dracula, which means "Son of the Dragon", though many adaption conflate the two.

The first confirmed cinematic representation of Dracula was F. W. Murnau's character Count Orlok, but Orlok possesses none of Dracula's aristocratic charm and seductiveness. Modern times have valuable contributions to the vampire phenomenon as well. Anne Rice's highly popular Vampire Chronicles, which draws prospects from more classical options, such as being harmed by Christian artifacts, garlic and sunlight. Probably the most famous (and infamous) vampire novel series is the Twilight series, which ignored the effects of crosses and garlic, and changed being harmed by sunlight to simply glittering when exposed to it. Blade films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature vampires as antagonists and expendable. The Vampire Diaries also features themes such as romance and sexuality into the gory subtext.

Vampires in Monster High
The Monster High vampires are Dracula and his adoptive daughter Draculaura, Gory Fangtell, Bram Devein, Justin Biter, Thad and Valentine. According to Facebook, Draculaura has cousins living in Transylvania.

Vampires in Monster High draw many classical characteristics, such as pale skin, pointed ears and the lack of a reflection. While they still drink blood, it isn't as prominent of a need as seen in other fiction. It is mentioned they are an exclusively aristocratic species, relying on "inferior" monsters, such as zombies, to do work for them.

While Draculaura, the main vampire in the series is seen as innocent, the other vampire characters are seen as cruel and haughty. Garlic seems to only makes vampires sick, and they're only more sensitive to the sun rather than being directly harmed by it. Draculaura uses factor 500 sun cream to protect herself against the sun.