Vampires

Creature
Name: Vampire
Classification
Grouping: Undead
Data
First reported: In folklore
Country: All over the world
Status: Unconfirmed

A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creatures who overcomes death by sucking the blood from living humans. The most common variation of this myth portrays the vampire as a dead person that rises from the grave at night to seek his or her. Vampires are also popular in film makers movies. The vampire came from Bram Stokers's novel "Dracula." People have added a number of variations to the vampire (e.g., the ability to fly,like the vampire bat, a lust for beautiful women as victims who then become vampires upon being bitten, fear holy cross, garlic or garlic item, holy water, and death by sunlight or by a special stake driven through the heart. Vampires are believed to be base off of  Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory.

A commonly accepted definition of the European (or Slavic) vampire is a dead body which continues to live in the grave, which it leaves, however, by night, for the purpose of sucking blood of the living, whereby it is nourished and preserved in good condition, instead of becoming decomposed like other dead bodies.

Vampires are also a popular in books. What seems to be common about vampire myths is their connection with the fear of death and/or there desire for immortality. The ritual drinking of blood to overcome death has been practiced by many peoples. The Aztecs and other Native Americans, for example, ate the hearts and drank the blood of captives in ritual ceremonies, most likely to satisfy the appetite of their gods and gain for themselves fertility and immortality. Also typical were the rites of Dionysus and Mithras, where the drinking of animal blood was required in the quest for immortality. Even today, some Christians believe that their priests perform a magical transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ to be eaten and drunk in the quest to join God in eternal life.

Side note(a more thorough investigation on vampires and how people believe in and/or are vampires):
Vampyre Lifestylers or "Vampyres" (as opposed to "Vampires") are individuals who are attracted to the contemporary vampire lore and who seek to emulate it by dressing in exotic vampire-like costumery, decorating their homes in dark Victorian (or funeral parlor) gloom, assuming prosthetic fangs and colored contact lenses. It is partly outgrown but distinct from the Gothic subculture.

The Vampire subculture* (or Vampyre Scene) like other system of beliefs consists of people who have committed themselves to an ideology, maintain ethical tenets within a hierarchical system, participate in rituals specific to their clans and in which aesthetics holds a significant, often magical place of significance within the group; aesthetic being broadly defined as symbolism, style, language, religion, art, presentation of self, appearance, and other cultural expressions.

* From a sociological perspective, when a group of people participate in a shared aesthetic in which identity and status are organized around a style that is distinguishable from the dominant culture it is referred to as a subculture.

The vampire subculture is largely a social creation within Western popular culture, seemingly drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England. The Vampire subculture seems to exist in opposition to the Judeo-Christian principles of mainstream Western Society. Vampyres pride themselves on practicing the antithesis of Christian ethics and this is apparent in the sexual and violent activities that permeate their interactions and rituals. Many people are introduced to the Vampyre scene through the role-playing game "Vampire: the Masquerade," others through the erotic nature of the lifestyle and many more through popular literature such as Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. The subculture is typically delineated by a particular style of dress, referred to as "garb" and decor that combines elements of the Victorian, Punk, Glam, and Gothic fashions with styles featured in vampire films and fiction.

The general lay-out including but not limited to a very pale complexion, a wardrobe made up predominantly of dark clothing, a Victorian, or Renaissance fashion style of dress and hairs, black or blood-red lipstick, macabre silver jewelry, assortment of fetish, corset, bondage, sunglasses, long and sharp fingernails fangs, FX contacts, and a generally melancholy or lugubrious air to go with it. Preferred colors are usually red, black, and purple. Music is dominated by Gothic; other genres include Industrial, Death Metal, Classical, Techno and a variety of other forms. Some of the more popular Vampyre bands include Inkubus Sukkubus, Type O Negative, Nosferatu and Malkador. Wine is the drink of choice and some members will also drink absinthe although it is illegal in the United States and most European countries.

Vampyres frequently attend Fetish Scene and Body Scene Clubs, which involve public sadomasochistic activities. It is at the numerous "Scene" clubs where the worlds of body mutilation, piercing, performance art, blood rituals, tattooing, and all forms of bondage and violent sexual activity converge. Lifestylers often form alternative extended families and social structures modeled on the "covens", “sires” or "clans" of vampire fiction and role-playing games. Many also utilize lingo and terminology taken from vampire fiction and RPGs. Some are real vampires in the sense of craving blood, while others are blood fetishists, and still others are just drawn to the "Vampyre aesthetic". The subculture is most apparent in North America and Europe, and to a lesser extent in certain parts of South America and Asia. There are active groups, dedicated bars and night-clubs in New York, London, Paris, Montreal, Tokyo and Melbourne.