villandry +

Sirens learning sign language so they can communicate without enchanting anyone

Disabled fairies who can’t fly pushing for accessibility

Spirits helping save people from fires and other natural disasters because they can access areas too dangerous for the living

Fae snatching children from abusive homes and raising them in safety while the changeling wreaks havoc

Psychic psychologists and medical doctors who are able to figure out exactly how to help even if their patient is non-verbal, young, or afraid of being honest because they’re with an abuser

Griffons policing wildlife preserves and hunting down poachers.

Selkies teaming up with the Coast Guard for search and rescue efforts.

filled with anxiety, self-doubts, extreme jealousy

a one-way thing

never stepping out of your comfort zone

blantantly forces you to do something you don’t want to do

hostile atmosphere is ever-present

lack of autonomy

uncomfortable, stagnant, undermining, empty

forgetting that you have a life outside of your relationship

make you feel limited, inferior, confined, always exhausted, insufficient

compromise your mental health and growth

what relationships should be:

promotes your welfare

filled with trust, honesty, and a stable communication

freedom to choose and speak

mental health is considered a priority

two-way thing

a safe, supportive space for both of you

empowers and fulfils you

might be filled with both the good stuff and sometimes bad stuff

^ but only because it helps you grow

1. If you do not go after what you want, you will never have it. 

2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no. 

Okay (*cracks knuckles and gets ready for a long post*) I’m going to make the assumption from your username and useof the word “character” that this is a question about vampiric traits you can eitherincorporate into your writing as an author or identify in the fiction of othersas a reader. If it isn’t and you like… need to make a call on your creepy nextdoor neighbor who is never around during the day and hisses uncontrollablywhenever they pass the church down the block, you should probably get off theInternet and contact your local eccentric ex-priest/librarian or something.

Moving on, though, the big thing about determining whattraits a vampiric character might have lies with exactly what type of vampirethey are and what aspects of vampirism are being emphasized in a narrative. I don’t think any set of traits will ever be 100% “clear” signs, as folklore and literary traditions regarding vampires can be incrediblyinconsistent and contradictory. Depending on what you’re reading, vampires may have a ruddy complexion or be deathly pale; they may cause dogs to go silent or theymay cause dogs to howl; they may achieve their final rest through marriage orbe under compulsion to get married to prolong their unlife. Furthermore, a singlevampiric trait may be written in different ways depending on who is doing thewriting. For example, there are a lot of stories about vampires being repelledby certain classes of plants. For Paul Barber, who comes at the issue as afolklorist/historian, these plants are significant because many of them havethorns in which a rising vampire could become entangled and thereby be stopped;for my friend who is writing interactive fiction regarding vampires, theseplants are important because some of them are still green in the winter, andthereby symbolize an overabundance of life which repels the undead; for me,back when I ran a very Catholic-flavored Vampire: The Masquerade game, theseplants were significant because several of them have legends claiming that theywere the wood from which the true cross was built. These sorts of things can work in a ton of different ways, and with that in mind, I’m going to try to break them down into broad categories, based on what traits might be useful foremphasizing certain types of vampires

Compulsions: Goodfor emphasizing vampires as condemned former humans, as entities tied tocertain aspects of their pasts, or as static creatures locked into certainmodes of behavior

Vampires must always use some variant on theirreal name (Carmilla, all thosespin-offs of Dracula where he callshimself “Alucard”)

Vampires must always tell their life’s story totheir lovers, although they may frame their tale as being about somebody else (PaulFeval’s La Vampire)

Vampires must marry and drain virgins to prolongtheir lives or may attain rest through being married… making them want to marrypeople a lot (numerous plays based on John Polidori’s “The Vampyre”, Étienne-Léonde Lamothe-Langon’s La Vampire, Varney the Vampire)

Vampires must steal people’s hair to continue tolook youthful… making them look like they’re dying it a lot (La Ville-Vampire which is like… super weird)

Vampires must stop to count spilled seeds, knotsin fishnets, or other groups of items (folklore… also Sesame Street)

Eerie Traits:Good for emphasizing vampires as creepy, unnatural, or just “wrong”

Vampires have glowing eyes or bodies (La Ville-Vampire, Dracula, probably some other stuff)

Vampires disturb or anger animals (“The Familyof the Vourdalak”, Dracula)

Vampires have cold bodies and/or icy,unnaturally strong grips (“The Mysterious Stranger”, Carmilla, Dracula)

Vampires smell unnaturally good or unnaturally bad(“Wake not the Dead”, Dracula)

Vampires are really pale or have a ruddy,blood-tinged complexion (folklore, waaaay too many books for me to want to lookup and list)

Vampires have some manner of unhealable woundfrom their days as a mortal (Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon’s La Vampire, Varney the Vampire)

Religious Traits: Good for emphasizing vampires as condemnedby God, inherently demonic, or cursed for their sins

Vampires cannot pray, use/touch holy symbols, enterchurches, or are otherwise repulsed by holy symbols and holy things (“TheFamily of the Vourdalak”, Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon’s La Vampire, “Le Morte Amoureuse”, Carmilla, Dracula)

In a manner similar to Mephistopheles and otherdevil figures, vampires cannot cross thresholds or enter dwellings withoutinvitations or assistance (Dracula)

As with demons and evil spirits, vampires losetheir power at the crowing of the cock… even if said cock does that thing from Hamlet and crows at night (Le Captaine Vampire, maybe Dracula)

Stuff Vampires Hate: Good for emphasizing vampire’sconnection to folklore or removal from the everyday world of men

Vampires can be repulsed, stopped, or harmed byX plant, with X plant having the potential to be acacia, aspen, ash, blackthorn,hawthorn, garlic, juniper, linden, maple, oak, wild rose, rowan, or greenshells from nuts (folklore regarding plant-based repellents, stake materials, andother vampire countermeasures, Dracula)

Vampires cannot cross running water, or will berejected by bodies of water, or have to navigate bodies of water by floatingaround like they’re a plank (folklore, Varneythe Vampire, La Ville-Vampire, Dracula)

Vampires are generally nocturnal and don’t wantto be up during the day (folklore, waaaay too many books for me to want to lookup and list)

Unrecordablity: All of this comes from Stoker; good foremphasizing vampires as soulless or in an unnatural state

Vampires do not show up in mirrors (Dracula)

Vampires cast no shadow (Dracula)

Vampires may not be photographed; yourphotographs either won’t show them or they will show up as a dead body (BramStoker’s notes for Dracula)

Seriously, if you even try to paint a vampire,your painting will turn out wrong and look like someone else (Bram Stoker’snotes for Dracula)

Werewolf Traits: There was something of a perception in the nineteenthcentury that vampires and werewolves were sort of the same thing, and BramStoker used a lot of stuff from Sabine Baring-Gould’s The Book of Were-wolves in writing Dracula. These might be useful in creating vampire-werewolf hybridcharacters or in emphasizing the animality and beast-like nature of vampires.

Werewolves/vampires have joined eyebrows (Dracula)

Werewolves/vampires have hair on their palms andpointed, talon-like nails (Dracula)

Werewolves/vampires can’t follow people intofields of rye (The notes and typescript for Dracula)

Other Stuff

Vampires are insensible to music (Bram Stoker’s notesfor Dracula)

Vampires can fit through tiny cracks and holesand may just show up places that they shouldn’t (folklore, Dracula)

Vampires can make themselves look young afterfeeding and may look like they got plastic surgery or something (“TheMysterious Stranger”, “The True Story of a Vampire”, Dracula)

Maleficent is certainly someone you wouldn’t want at a party, but she’s also someone powerful enough that only a fool would ever dare treat her with such blatant disrespect. The only way the King and Queen could possibly have gotten away with not inviting Maleficent was to not invite any of the fairies at all; inviting the other fairies and excluding her is explicitly taking sides in the conflict between the fairy factions.

Which means they made themselves her sworn enemies, and she responded by treating them as such from then on. If you actually get into analyzing the social dynamics of the scene, it’s very clear that Maleficent was willing to show mercy at first by giving the King and Queen a chance to apologize for their disrespect to her. She doesn’t curse Aurora until after she gives them that chance and they throw it back in her face with further disrespect.

There are some exceptions (The Jin, infamous for having free will, come to mind-although oddly the genie, as an evolution of the Jin mythos, do not have this exception apply to them) but the fact that spirits of all kinds having a set of rules that govern them that they have to obey (even ones that seem to be instruments of chaos) is a remarkably clear point in most stories.

I’d love to see a return to the ‘older’ views on spirits and the like.  They aren’t human and shouldn’t react as humans do (or follow the same rules).  Even ‘evil’ spirits can be allies or at least useful if you know the rules and think things through.  Conversely, even ‘good’ spirits can be enemies if you don’t follow the rules (insult them or expect them to BREAK the rules for you).

Honestly, someone who has to THINK their way out of a problem, using what exists instead of the universe re-writing itself around them as they passively ‘beweave’ with hands clasped over their wittle hearts instead of DOING something… (I have real issues with both passive ‘heroes’ and ‘universe rewrites itself around hero so they’re right’)

That’s why the image of the Slavic witch is my most favourite - because depending on the need/story she (or sometimes a he) could be an enemy or a friend - sometimes at the same time. She just was, and if someone went to her for help and was nice and respectful, she could help them. If someone went against her, she would try to destroy them. In all the oldest legends there’s always a way out - follow the rule, or do something specific, and you can go. Help someone= they will help you. You didn’t have to be the strongest or even the kindest - but be smart, goddamnit, and brave in the right moments ad you were generally okay;)