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Spearhafoc In reply to Xlavok [2017-06-20 20:04:55 +0000 UTC]

I mostly work from pre-1923 sources for vampire characters, rather than creating my own, and the Victorian era tended to depict vampires as irredeemably evil. Of those that aren't, the major one is Sir Francis Varney from James Malcolm Rymer's Varney the Vampire or, The Feast of Blood. He's more like the conflicted anti-hero type that's popular today (with the one difference that he's also hideously ugly instead of handsome). In my universe, Varney has actually served as a superhero in some capacity, being in the then-clandestine Knights of the Round Table in the early Victorian era. He's also worked with the Vordenburg Foundation to hunt down more dangerous vampires.

I also have Clarimonde, who I plan to depict as more of a celebrity than a superhero, but she's on the side of humanity when push comes to shove (not in the original story, but I can see a reformation being possible from the text). Manor, I see as an LGBT activist, along with his husband, Har (who also becomes a vampire at the end of the story). Even Countess Sarah Kenyon, who's depicted as a complete monster in her original story, I have working with humans (albeit unwillingly). 

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Xlavok In reply to Spearhafoc [2017-06-20 23:05:45 +0000 UTC]

Well here's one idea you can have, what if Claramonde, Varney, hell even Carmilla, Sarah or Dracula etc have 'embraced' someone which they can be a original character of yours especially they can be the leather jacket gothic punk (Picture Andrew Eldritch when female) anti-heroine that is popular in "Vampire: the Masquerade" imagery?

Of course though you have to remember the context to what the Victorian Era has depicted as "irredeemably evil" which first of all "evil" is a subjective term depending by which society defines it to be which thing is the entire "good and evil" dichotomy doesn't really exist but rather as I would see it that the actual definition of "good" under a Abrahamic Christian sense is that anything that Yahweh says, does, etc and submitting to him is considered "Good" while anything outside that is considered "Evil" which this is why I often view Satan and Lucifer to be like Prometheus figures trying to empower humanity while the Abrahamic God want to subjugate humanity to his whim. Well in the Abrahamic God's case, I see him as more like a abuser Deity who seems entitled over humanity so much that he gets to claim that he "created us" (from the basis he created his own realm) despite other Deities created humans as well.

Basically going back to the main point, I think you should alter things around and present Vampires as largely misunderstood creatures in a world that sees them as evil because they transgress alot of things that Abrahamic religions find as "evil" (like their immortality, cheating death, blood drinking, etc) of course though there's no denying that there's vampires that want to rule humanity like cattle but that's because they're mostly nobility and haute bourgeoisie backgrounds that already subjugate peasantry and working classes in their mortal life and they're used to that life style which that carried over to their Vampiric unlife as "easier way to feed" but there's also vampires who want to integrate themselves into human society well particularly engaging in night life activities especially hanging around night clubs and especially the "Vampire own Night clubs" trope while Upper class Vampires are often found in high class areas like Masquerade Balls and such which they spend their nightly feeding on mortals there.

Of course I wonder if you read the "Dracula Tapes" by Fred Saberhagen which predated Anne Rice making Vampires sympathetic particularly Dracula which means that I think there could be other opportunities like making Countess Sarah Kenyon sympathetic as well (probably ditching the whole "Being a Government agent" since I don't think Vampires would ever settle themselves into mortal affairs) and perhaps like a anti-heroine or maybe making her part of the "Nobility" inspired by "Vampire Hunter D".

Anyways I'm curious, I wonder if you're familiar with Vampire: the Masquerade and Requiem by any chance? That's majority of the inspiration I'm trying to get.

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Spearhafoc In reply to Xlavok [2017-06-21 01:02:35 +0000 UTC]

I have a lot of ideas that I plan to explore in future projects that make a lot of what you're saying difficult to incorporate. 

It sounds like you have a lot of ideas and very specific ideas of how to execute them, why not write this yourself? I use mostly Public Domain concepts and characters, so there's nothing stopping you from using them. The beauty of Public Domain concepts is that anybody is free to interpret them uniquely. I'd love to see different takes on some of the more obscure things I draw. 

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