I’m Thirsty

An Evil Omen

ℑ𝔣 𝔬𝔫𝔩𝔶 𝔳𝔞𝔪𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔰 𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔩...🖤🦇🕸

I was wondering if you've read the mysterious stranger published 1860 by an anonymous author in german and then translated into English.

im almost finished it and it is seriously one of the best vampire stories I have ever read, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it bc I'm lwk obsessed w ur blog lol

also what are your thoughts on varney the vampire?

heyy i haven’t even heard of that but i love old pieces of gothic literature so i will need to check it out. anonymous author makes me think it was written by a woman so love that. on the topic of varney the vampire:

For the sake of this calculation we'll be basing vampires off of human physiology, being as generally, vampires come from humans. It doesn't really take into account magical means or anything of that sort, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Vampires have a lot of cool abilities generally, like heightened strength, speed, shapeshifting, etc. etc. I would imagine that this would be somewhat strenuous to do, so I decided to base vampiric caloric intake on an athlete, who needs anywhere from 2k-10k calories a day.

based on the research I did (sorry I wrote this all out like 2 years ago and I don't think I saved the links. If I find them I'll edit this post/put in the comments) ~1 liter of human blood is about 700 calories. Based on that, a vampire would need at least 3 liters of blood a day to meet their caloric requirements.

The average human stomach can hold ~1-1.5 liters of food/liquid. That could be pushed to 3-5 liters, however at that point things can rupture. That being said, there are some cases where people have had more, with one person having upwards of 12 liters of liquid in their stomach.

While I'm not accounting for magical means since that can vary a lot, I imagine that during the turning process, since a lot of other physical changes happen, one could presume that vampires would increase their stomach capacity. Since they're predominantly if not wholly getting by on blood, having a digestive tract that will better support those needs would make sense. Looking at the natural world, animals such as ticks and mosquitoes swell significantly after they've fed on blood.

All of that being said, perhaps they are able to pace it out throughout the night. It feels more like a case-by-case basis tbh. (Thinking of a few pop culture examples, Dracula seemed to not take a whole lot of blood at one time based on the book. At the end of the first season (I still need to read the book sorryyy) of Interview with a Vampire, Louis, Lestat, and Claudia drink a lot of blood. However they're a bit messier and can't drink it after the person dies, so who knows how much they managed to get really. Meanwhile Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 drinks a whole bear one night, which safe to say has more than 5 liters of blood.)

So, what does this mean for humans? The average person has ~5 liters of blood in their body, give or take depending on height, weight, etc.

At 14% (.7 liters) of blood loss, most people will be fine, but may feel weak, lightheaded, or dizzy. Most people's vitals would not be affected

At 15% (.75 liters) and 30% (1.5 liters) blood loss, vitals will show an affect, but this likely would not result in death for most people

At 30% (1.5 liters) blood volume lost, a person is in a bit of trouble. Without fluid replenishment and/or a blood transfusion, this amount of blood loss can lead to death. 

At 40% (2 liters) or more blood volume lost, without immediate and aggressive life-saving measures, this will usually lead to death.

To reiterate, a vampire likely will need at least 2000 calories a day, if they are not overly active. The more active they are, the more blood they'll likely need. One liter of human blood is ~700 calories. Therefore, a vampire will need approximately 3 liters of human blood a night in order to sustain themselves. At 2 liters of blood loss, most humans will need serious intervention or it will result in death.

Generally, it likely is in the vampire's best interest not to kill too many people they feed on. More missing and dead people means more questions, and more questions might lead back to them. Being that an angry mob isn't ideal for most vampires, they should try and feed from ~2-3 people a night in order to meet their caloric needs while keeping their food source alive. Vampires should also try and vary who they feed from, since it takes people 6-8 weeks to replenish their red blood cells.

Sources: (will update if I find more of my old sources!)

If we want to take into account that vampires are still producing some body heat to avoid that dormancy period, we could reduce that percentage further. Quickly looking it up brought me to a site that mentioned that 50%-80% of our calories go towards body heat, with the other percentages going towards digestion and physical activity. Using this range, we can then estimate that vampires would need as many as 1000-5000 calories or as little as 400-2000 calories a night

Considering vampire body heat (or lack thereof) poses some interesting questions. One of the ways we create body heat is through digestion; would the fact that vampires produce little to no body heat be an indicator that their digestive system works differently? Based on what I read when I was half asleep, it's not one of the main ways we produce body heat, but I am curious. I feel like there's more research that could be done from that, and that it could be a fun question to answer from a writing standpoint (or I'm just a huge nerd lmao). Maybe we could get a more exact percentage for the average body heat produced, but I'm not sure (math is not my strong suit).

I recently heard of a study that someone was doing on vampire bats and how they store energy (they had the little guy running on a treadmill, it was wild seeing a bat run instead of fly) longterm, I feel like the results of that could be a helpful thing to draw from too when it comes to thinking about how their digestive system works.

Guess vampirism made me good looking?

@madgrad i'm going to get you ^w^

@bewarethecircles you're next :)

Queer Vampire Books 🦇

Who is your favorite vampire (from a book, movie, or TV show)? ❤️

While the Batty About Book Club is reading Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, I want to help the rest of my bookish bats find their next read? Check out these books featuring queer vampires! 🦇

do you think catholic priests are irresistible to vampires? virgins, covered in crucifixes (inherent allure of the forbidden,) access to their throats limited by those sexy little collars, etc.

1910s:

Les Vampires (1915-1916)

1920s:

Genuine: The Tragedy of a Vampire (1920)

Nosferatu (1922)

1930s:

Dracula (1931)

Vampyr (1932)

The Vampire Bat (1933)

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Condemned to Live (1935)

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

1940s:

Return of the Vampire (1943)

Son of Dracula (1943)

House of Dracula (1945)

The Vampire's Ghost (1945)

1950s:

Horror of Dracula (1958)

I Vampiri (1957)

The Vampire (1957)

Blood of Dracula (1957)

The Return of Dracula (1958)

Blood of the Vampire (1958)

1960s:

Blood and Roses (1960)

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Slaughter of the Vampires (1962)

Castle of Blood (1964)

Blood Bath (1966)

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

A Taste of Blood (1967)

Le viol du vampire (1968)

Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969)

1970s:

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

The Velvet Vampire (1971)

Dark Shadows (1971)

The Shiver of the Vampires (1971)

The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

Requiem pour un vampire (1972)

Blacula (1972)

Dracula A.D. (1972)

Alucarda (1977)

Salem’s Lot (1979)

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

1980s:

The Hunger (1983)

Fright Night (1985)

Vamp (1986)

Near Dark (1987)

The Lost Boys (1987)

1990s:

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Dracula: Dead and Loving it (1995)

Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

Two Orphan Vampires (1997)

Vampires (1998)

Blade (1998)

2000s:

Queen of the Damned (2002)

Underworld (2003)

Van Helsing (2004)

Let the Right One In (2008)

2010s:

Dark Shadows (2012)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Dracula Untold (2014)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

The Invitation (2019)

Carmilla (2019)

2020s:

Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Renfield (2023)

Nosferatu (2024)

Abigail (2024)

The very first Goth Club I ever went to was the Church in Dallas. I began going in 2000 when my friend Paul took me there to cheer me up on my 25th Birthday. There is a Documentary out about it now I intend to watch tonight after work called Dark Sanctuary: The Story of the Church.

The Church is gone now, closed and little more than a memory and a themed night at another club but once, it was the gathering place for goths in Dallas. There were two compilation CDs released by DJs who worked at the Church in the 1990s. They are called The Church Compilation vol 1 & 2. The first was composed by DJ Karl Fought when he was the resident jockey there. The second was by DJ Virus when he took over. Both Compilations can be heard in their entirety on Mixcloud. Here are links:

Vol 1.

Vol 2.

Petticoat

1900

Specifics depend on where you are, but the basics are always the same--food, water, and a safe space to rest.

If you can provide any of those three, you will eventually get bats, if you don't already have them (you can have bats without knowing it).

I personally recommend focusing on food.

For food, that means using less pesticides and growing native plants, increasing the number of insects on your property. Check local conservation organizations for information.

Water is harder to provide (bats drink on the wing, so they need enough space to fly by and take a sip without also getting eaten by a fish or taken out by another predator). Water features come with a host of issues to deal with (mosquitos, among other things), I haven't found a good resource to suggest for this.

HorrorVale is a Halloweeny, Spooky themed RPG that takes place in the Underworld! Fight Zombies, Vampires, and even Creepy things that seem strangely similar to monsters you've seen online in this ghoulish romp!

HorrorVale is currently 25% OFF on Steam for the Zombies Vs Vampires Fest special event, so now's your chance to dive into this SPOOKTACULAR adventure!