Vampires and religious items

Then only x religion works and vampires should be able to more effectively dominate the parts of the world where that religion is less present.

I will but I don't see what that has to do with the original story of Dracula. God trolled him and he gets rekt by holy items because God continues to troll him over his dead waifu

What if god just enjoys worship in different forms? Or there are many gods and they all hate vampires?

Because the Sword is the universal icon of death and the return to an inert state, for the living and the undead.

Praise Humakt!

Why does it only work on vampires? Could nazis ward off Jews with religious symbols?

Why aren't they afraid of swords then?

They would much rather ward off commies and anglos

>strong belief that the vampire should not be allowed to exist
Does that include a strong belief that vampires and other undead CANNOT exist by all known models of biochemistry and thermodynamics, or does it have to be a moral opinion that they SHOULDN'T?

Definitely moral, get your science out of here atheist fag. Vampires are Christian! CHRISTIAN!

The Jews sure couldn't ward off Nazis with the Star of David.

No-one said it couldn't

You will have a bit of a problem with believing that they cannot exist if you face one.

The latter creates conflict for creation myths and the former makes God seem SUPER petty. That said I use the former all the goddamn time in real world settings.

>The latter creates conflict for creation myths
No, humans just don't know shit or interpret everything incorrectly. Like in TES.

How do we know vampires haven't taken over other parts of he world?

Actually since the definition of a vampire is something that drinks blood, almost all cultures have vampires.

Then why do you need religious items in the first place?

God is super petty, everyone knows this

Well, "My love is endless and I'm your kind lord but here's a list of ten things you must not do and if you do even just one of them you'll spend rest of the eternity in hell where you'll be tortured 24/7" kind of does send mixed signals...

You wouldn't. But since most humans will put their faith in a higher power when faced with an impossibly terrifying threat like a vampire they are going to put more (mostly desperate) belief in an item symbolic of their religion and the being they are begging to save them than say a gun.

That is what it's become, originally it was just Dracula and he was cursed by God. I'm sure blood drinking monsters have existed in stories since ancient times from many different cultures, but I don't think they were called vampires

Are you fucking serious?

Jews have no hell.

God is clearly a woman. Lucifer probably didn't even do anything wrong, he just got fucked in the divorce and lost his house

While Dracula is what we think of in modern culture when we say vampire, all the other cultures versions still count as vampires and always have since the only definition of a vampire is something that drinks blood

Yeah, so I've heard. Jewish endgame is basically zombie apocalypse where all the dead raise from their graves and collectively march towards the promised land, whatever that is.

Yea I'm serious. If you can provide me with stories that pre date Dracula and refer to him as a vampire that drinks blood and wasn't cursed by God I will retract my statement

Caine being the first vampire is not biblical, user.

I'll bet you also think the only definition of marriage is two people that love each other. Despite the bible creating that word and it specifically stating man and wife

Vampire is just the English word for it. Just like the word god is different for different languages or how countries names can change depending what language you're speaking at the time.

Trying to athiest up your setting?

Well then where's the stories at? Surely they must exist if vampires weren't written about only in the last 100 years

I use the later for my setting. Almost all gods hate demons (and vampires are demons) so much that their holy symbols fuck them. Some religions are more effective than others tho, depending on how much they hate.

To think of vampires being noticeably similar across cultures is silly. Polish mythology has its own framework for vampires, only they aren't called as such, but their behavior and abilities were similar. Strigoi I think they were called. The concept of interred dead coming back to life in some malicious / evil form is present in most cultures, it's a very real and common fear.

Dude, I can provide countless examples. First of all, the word itself started to be used in Eastern European legends about dead people rising from their graves to drink blood of the living in the XVII century. Then, there is a lot of vampire literature that predates Dracula and features blood drinking vampires.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire#Medieval_and_later_European_folklore
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region#Slavic_Europe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vampyre
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region

If you want more accurate sources just research the ones that catch your interest.

Read the Dresden files. People unconsciously decide to not believe in what they see.

> myths conflict
> myths are wrong
What's the problem?

I like the idea that it's specifically symbols of resurrection that hurt them, revealing their own undeath as inferior and fake.

Especially since the Sun is one of the most universal ones.

Sweet, I learned something today. Was that so hard?

The Power of Christ Compels You!

>vampirebdsm.jpg

>Was that so hard?
Was it so hard to do it yourself instead of shitting on a thread to feel superior?

thank you based fertility god

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla
ah yes the original lesbian vampire story which also created the modern vampire archetype

Well, the old Hunter's Handbook said you need to drive your stake in them, is this a revised edition?

what a fucking humiliating way to die.
thats how you know your neonate is a scrub

>Vampire Tied to the Bed
>"Fuck Her Harder!"
>"Its Not Working!"
>"You need to set it to vibrate!"
>Light shines through eyes and mouth and as she explodes into orgasm

I mean everyone knows that garlic can resurrect a mediocre meal

It's because hells come back for the eye socket.

What if I believe exclusively in the power of hygiene products to refresh and moisturize?

>underrated post

That might not be enough. But a defibrillator will certainly work.

That is actually a really interesting take on the concept. Continuing with this train of thought, wouldn't Buddhist idols be anathema to vampires as well, given that they represent true freedom from rebirth?

...

kek, though obviously it's hard to tie every vampire weakness into a coherent whole. Classic vampires are pretty silly.

I must have read the original idea from some blog post defending the idea that crosses hurt vampires. It works if the narration assumes that Christianity is correct, but I think you can expand the concept by going more with a generally spiritual explanation.

The whole "you just have to believe really hard" is a bit too arbitrary/postmodern for the take on the myth.

Well I think its simply because undead are an abomination to the natural way of life, making them unholy so holy things will of course kill em as they restore the natural order.

>The whole "you just have to believe really hard" is a bit too arbitrary/postmodern for the take on the myth.
That reductionist attitude towards vampires was popularized by I Am Legend I think. There vampires were specifically weak against anything they believed on while living. Not that you'd tell from the movie since they made it about zombies instead and changed most the major plot points

But muh bible fanfiction.

As has been stated by someone else in this thread, it all depends on the setting really and I can understand that that would be true in high fantasy and classic vampire settings

that'd better be made out of silver and passed along across generations, user

Well, I think silver is pretty resistant to both friction wear and moisture.

But that would Chaff!

Reduced mobility
Shit, think that Dracula movie where they have to move his coffin and some earth too; vampires can't move around much, and few people do turn into vampires, most are just food while a few are just enthralled.

Now consider this: Gods from various religions can make vsmpires, so each vampire is vulnerable to the god that cursed, while probably being grounded to an area where his own belief was the main belief

That gotta make for awkward conversations.
>"... passed down for generations by women of the family, and now it's up to you to..."
>"God, grandma, I think I'm gonna die of embarrassment before the vampire get the chance to attack"

But it'd be so versatile!

Eh...they do and they don't.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehinnom
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol

Vampires are the ultimate earthly manifestation of corruption and vileness, the inversion of all holy rites and sacraments, risen undead fiends not resurrected by miracles but by sin and damnation, feed upon the mundane blood of mortal men and not the sanctified blood of Christ - or if you're of another religious persuasion, of the lifeblood of men, the waters within us, the gifts of our ancestors and lineage, they are takers of life, passers of disease and are banished and depowered by the radiant light of the Lord.

Holy symbols, symbols deemed by their very existence to represent divinity and sanctity, are anathema to these beings of utmost manifest evil. Vampires, in my head, are tantamount to physical demons, gifted with the power of true darkness. Vampires are all that is filthy, desecrated, gluttonous and vile. Dragons are like that, too, but mindless violence for violence's sake, they are wrathful and greedy, while maintaining a status of manifest evil.

Yes, but they are also manifestations of reason, intellect and taboo. They represent the forbidden practice of medieval medicine, same-sex relations and blood transfusions, all of which were forbidden in the medieval paradigm.

I prefer to think of them as a spiritual parasite, as much a part of nature as the wolf or hawk. They manifest in spiritual filth, much like flies are attracted to waste, and help break down that which lingers but refuses to decompose, like hopes which may never come to pass and dreams which may never be.

In the realm of shadow, the vampire provides an essential ecological function which allows civilization to exist and progress, for without deceit, there can be no civilization, for we all have different values and beliefs, and not everyone can be accommodated.

We may not give thanks to the wolf for keeping our fields from being overrun by elk and boars, from destroying our pastures and spreading disease from overpopulation, misbreeding and lethargic vegemite stupidity, but we should.

Just like we should give thanks to plagues and sickness for punishing us for living in filth and squalor, for cleansing the spiritual corruption which resides in our beings.

Is it not the christian faith who says this world is but a passing fancy?

So what, vampires exist to hunt supporters of X party?

And are not all creatures of myth made manifest by men's shadows, his belief in sin and his desire to sin? Are they really anything more than an outlet for our earthly desires made manifest in the spiritual realm?

Starts with D and ends with a T
>You wouldn't believe who supports the other party

Nah, some of them are about how nature, or death, or diseases, etc... are scary.

And that's forgetting the creatures that aren't supposed to be malevolent.

Count Dracula is my favourite interpretation of the vampire - essentially an evil sorcerer possessed of Satanically-endowed immortality and unnatural powers, a rotten old evil dwelling in a rotten old place, a dominating force of darkness and insidious corruption.

However, I like notion of vampires as manifesting in spiritual filth, but it still sort of plays into my view of them, of sinners dying with evil in their hearts and rising in unnatural, satanic undeath to further sow sorrow and horror. But I do not think of them as natural in any way. They are things that should not be. They're an inversion of the thing they once were, a dark reflection of an upright person of faith. Any intellect or reason they may possess is of darkness and evil, all things no righteous man should know of.

If thing either is or it isn't.
There is no "should"

...

That's what makes them what they are. By all rights, they aren't supposed to exist. A corpse should not leave its grave, walk, speak and mingle amongst the living. Only your chosen God and his Saints and Son should have the authority over the souls and body of humanity. A vampire is something outside this divine order.

Has anyone seen Dracula 2000?
On the movie's lore vampirism happens because you have been privated from god's grace

Everybody is afraid of swords.

then explain jesus.

The bible used to have people living for 1000's of years, giants that roamed the lands, rains and rivers of blood, curses of locusts and all sorts of other supernatural events and creatures.

How is any of that "Not part of the plan?"

You are either omnipotent or your not, there is no middle ground.

Saying your "Cursed by the devil" is no different than saying you are "Cursed by god". It all happens according to divine will, nothing is by accident. If god creates a being that rises from the grave and feeds off the blood of mortals, then it all happens according to his will.

I for one, can't stand talking with someone whose god is two faced.

You have to hold yourself and your religion accountable for what your god says and does.

Basically, whenever god needs to do something that mortals can't understand, he uses the devil. That way when confronted by their ignorance, he can protect them from themselves, allowing them to continue to have faith until they are ready to accept the higher truth.

Because the Devil also exists, and actively works against humans and Gods' plans. He was the angel second only to God. God is also absolute divinity, humans are not, we in these bodies are the utmost mundanity. That's why God had to send angels of the lowest orders to speak to us, and why he had come down as Jesus to usher in a new covenant. The totality of the power of God appearing all at once? Even higher orders of angels would destroy a man entirely if he saw them. Imagine the sheer otherworldly force of God appearing at once. When God appeared to either Abraham or Moses (I forget exactly which figure), the people with the prophet asked him to make God go away, because his mere obscured presence was so terrifying. I, as a human, will not deign to to sum up just how it is exactly God works.

Vampires are not part of the natural plan or actions of God, they are directly Satanic in origin, they are bereft of God's touch as corrupt clay. In God's plan, they shouldn't exist and are in direct opposition by their very existence to God and his plan.

I'm not a believer at all, or a theologian in any sense, this is just me rationalizing my preferred idea of vampires into Christian mythology, which is what I tend to associate them with, and not unreasonably I think. I'm enamoured with the idea that God isn't necessarily omnipotent, just incredibly, incredibly powerful, to the point it would seem like absolute power from a mere human standpoint. Blasphemy, but there you go, stuff changes over time.

That's retarded. Its just deferring responsibility for your own deity. You're either omnipotent or your not. Either the devil is an instrument of gods divine wrath, or god isn't omnipotent, you can't have it both ways.

>what is worldbuilding

I'm trying to be creative here, my man. I didn't think this thread talking about vampires had to stick to real world fact.

Dracula is not the first instance of a vampire you mong.

If the cross represents the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others, as exemplified by a certain carpenter, then a lamb, bearing the same connotation, would work as well.

The idea of this sacrifice, you see, is anathema to the predatory vampire, which sees itself as reigning supreme above humanity and cannot fathom sacrificing its own existence for another.

What few know is that there are other ideas which are anathema to this creature.

Whichever martial gods or great devourers you call on, when you reveal a being of almighty power to the vampire, he, in his arrogance, cannot accept it. Every fish above a certain size believes itself to be the biggest, and the vampire is no exception. The very idea that he, the hunter, might become the hunted is incomprehensible to him.

Moreover, present to him the elephant if this does not succeed, for the elephant is the untouchable prey. Even the lion can to little to harm a bull elephant, and a hunter needs a special gun of the highest caliber to stand so much as a chance. That the prey might escape unscathed and leave him wounded is yet another concept that the vampire's existence cannot accept.

>vampires exist in setting
>God does not exist in setting
why?

Vampires are unholy and kept alive on Earth by unholy means. Obviously any kind of sanctified or blessed object will weaken their mortal tethers.

>holy water: pre-blessed, no faith required
>cross: not blessed, faith + focus required

>garlic, salt, rice grains, etc: vampires have a very sensitive palette and are prone to autism as the years pass