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On the contrary: vampires are an allegory for the upper class, being parasites who suck the blood (wealth) from society.
(Also, the nature of being immortal means you have plenty of time to wait for your investments to appreciate, so all but the newest vampires should be wealthy enough to afford a castle if they want.)
That’s what Bram Stoker’s Dracula was about, which has shaped modern ideas of vampires.
Older stories were a little bit more “monster in the dark”. There was a fairly famous case where 18th century New Englanders took the heart out of a young dead woman, burned it and fed it to her brother to break a vampiric curse.
Since the actual curse seems to have been tuberculosis, this didn’t quite work.
God damn, is everything tuberculosis or something?
I read a book that made that argument.
Ay, somebody got my reference! xD
Sigh… share with the class, please.
“Everything Is Tuberculosis” by John Green
They both read a book and got tuberculosis
No, sometimes it’s hallucinogenic bread mold.
I’m willing to bet there haven’t been any vampires in that family since, so…
The vampires in your workplace:
Haha, I was looking for a mention of this guy.
The monsters have never been the problem, it’s always been class warfare. The nobility are the monsters
I was gonna say something about how there should be a modern setting with working class vampires. Then I remembered that vampire the Masquerade exists and has the Anarchs.
Yes, Dracula lived in a castle because he was a landlord. But all classic vampires in literature are in a sense. Originally, in oral history and folk takes, vampires were more about fear of sickness and about not understanding how diseases spread. But later, literary Vampires were a standin for the universal experience of how landlords are bloodsucking pests. Take Dracula: the protagonist is a solicitor who comes to Transylvania to help the vampire buy land and various properties in England. Then the plot revolves around preventing his moving to England, but the heroes fail at that, because he has prepared to well, is just too rich and has filled out all the legal paperwork.
Any vampire that doesn’t live in a castle or similatly expensive abode is either a) fairly new to the vampiring game, b) actively chosing not to, or c) terrible at investing.
I’ve said it before and ill say it again: if you can’t make money as an immortal, you just can’t make money
you’re immortal you’ll eventually learn that the blind accumulation of wealth is a treacherous poison and that the true treasure is community.
Arguably a castle is a fortress first an abode second. Part of the reason why castles are so expensive now is because the cheap sturdy ones got used for other things over time and the less sturdy ones were abandoned and ruined, this leaves us with the castles that are expensive and annoying to repair.
A vampire could definitely set things up to have an easy to maintain easy to live in fortress akin to Roman castra for them and their clan. Relatively easy to upgrade with the most expensive elements being the living space since the walls probably only need large scale work every hundred years or so.
Yes, vampires often live in nests, but I’m not sure about that first part.
In all media i’ve seen two types of vampires, rich and powerful individuals or pure bloodythirsty monsters. No in between. Even jojo does this, dio is a powerful and rich individual with almost full control over himself, but jack the ripper is turned into the knife monster with no self control or place of his own.
Fun vampire fact:
It is considered extremely rude and offensive, in vampire culture, to not allow a guest who really needs to use the bathroom into your home, to use it and then quickly leave.
I thought vampires didn’t urinate or defecate? Touching up your hair also seems tricky.
Well, I mean, what, are you running a hemoglobin screen on everyone you meet?
How are you to know who is and isn’t a vampire?
(lol)
But uh I hadn’t heard the no urinating or defecating thing. Maybe I missed it? I’ve more familiar with the uh, more vintage vampire lore, than with… sparkly caesarean sections.
I basically mean most stuff up to Buffy.
#NotAllVampires
#NoTallVampires
My vtm character is trailer trash, it’s pretty great honestly
Good point though. Most vampires are gutter punks.
I’d wager all the vampires who lived a long time were of a wealthy or powerful family though. Wouldn’t take all that long to figure out Jonathan who suddenly doesn’t work his fields in the day anymore is a vampire, but the count/duke/rich cunt who nobody sees anyway? Could live for centuries just being rich and weird.
On the other hand, rich and powerful people from influential families are much more noticeable. People will see you not aging, and they are more likely to recognize you if you are caught feeding. It will stand out if you never eat, only show up at night, or don’t have a reflection. Plus, I suspect that people who grew up rich and spoiled will be far less likely to know how to avoid drawing attention compared to people who’ve lived at the mercy of those in power.
A filthy vagrant however can just wander from town to town for centuries without anyone noticing anything too out of the ordinary. Every time you arrive in a new location, it’s a fresh start. As long as you keep a low profile, no one’s going to be coordinating and comparing records looking for a wandering serial killer. Although traveling in a small group posing as a family or merchants would probably be safer since people are less likely to assume you’re all dangerous.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more a circus or carnival sounds like a great place for vampires. You have permanent mobile shelter complete with loyal followers. You have plausible deniability for anything being weird or off, including an easy explanation for only being seen at night (show time). If you sell alcohol and can feed on people without killing or turning them, you’re pretty much set.
A filthy vagrant however can just wander from town to town for centuries without anyone noticing anything too out of the ordinary.
Ah, the Belgarath approach.
Cirque du Sanguine, coming this fall on HBO.
