The Myth Of Turning – by Val

Vampires and mundanes in fiction have a relationship that can be both simple and complex at times. In simplistic fictional representations, people are nothing more than food for the vampire, a source of energy, a means to an end. In more complex fiction, especially in the last few decades – and more profoundly so ever since 1976 when Anne Rice published Interview With The Vampire, the relationship became more a question of emotion, the loneliness and suffering of the immortal and beautiful undead versus the longing to be with warm living humanity and to keep it company.

At any rate, for better or worse, it led to the somewhat annoying stereotype in vampire fiction where we have beautiful, wealthy and independent vampires who brood their immortality away feeling sorry for themselves. That aside, the idea that a romance between an immortal vampire and a mortal could exist successfully for any span, without one half of the relationship crossing over the breach between mortal and immortal, is in the light of logic, simply not practical.

Mundanes are mortal, unlike vampires who are frozen in time for eternity, they wither, age and die while their immortal mates watch and eat their lonely hearts out. For many followers of the fiction, the solution to this little conundrum is obvious. The vampire should turn the mundane into a vampire, so they can spend more time together. Much more time. And naturally, being a mundane is, well… so mundane. Hardly ever do we see fiction showing where the vampire somehow manages to regain his or her mortality.

When people encounter real Vampyres – real human living Vampyres, they tend to transfer the fictional expectations onto the real Vampyre, asking us to “turn” them also. Perhaps this is because they are confused. They think we are like the fictional vampire. They think we too are ageless, immortal and gifted with all the traits of the fictional vampire – and that “turning” will magically – literally – provide them with a franchise as fellow Vampyres. Well, they’re hopelessly mistaken. Vampyres die too – they get sick and they get hurt. They may have some special gifts, but it is rarely the case that you will find a Vampyre with a gift that cannot be developed or even owned naturally by a non-Vampyre. Not all of us are even that beautiful – at least not how the stereotype portrays us. Plus we have the drawback of being dependent on the energy of other living beings, along with a statistical range of likely health issues… Why would anyone born healthy and full of energy want that?

Despite the logic that asks “why on Earth would anyone want to become a real Vampyre?”, they want it. There are dozens of search results online for “spells that will turn you into a vampire instantly”. There are even people who pay money to charlatans who offer to perform magical rituals to turn them into ‘vampires’, or who sell “spell kits” to them. Recently an article on Barcroft video told the story of a “vampire couple” in the UK, where the vampire “turned” his mate using a magic ritual – and they seem fairly convinced that this was successful. There is even a picture of them sitting at a table toasting each other with glasses of the good stuff over dinner. Really? Does it actually work?

It is a fairly old truism among Vampyres that says “anybody CAN drink blood or feed psychically, but only real Vampyres NEED to”.

I have been active in the VC for some years now, and not once have I ever heard of a Vampyre claiming to have been ‘turned’. At least, none who had a snow-ball’s hope of being taken seriously by the community. Why is that? It could be because the community at large is aware – SELF-aware, that being a Vampyre is something you are born to. If you’re not born to be one, you’re not one. No Vampyre will offer to turn you because that’s not how it works. They are not lying to you when they tell you it doesn’t work. Pestering people to try and do the impossible is only going to annoy them. Paying someone for a “miracle fix” won’t mean that it will work – but it will make them richer at your expense.

We don’t even talk about it that much in the VC. The notion of “turning” is discouraged due to the number of requests we receive from desperate people who are convinced that their mundane lives are worthless and miserable and will somehow magically be transformed into “shiny happy people” – with fangs and a cool hairstyle! It gets quite annoying when your website’s inbox is flooded with requests from aspiring little Edwards and Bellas, to be turned and rescued from their depressing self-inflicted little mortal coils.

“I’m so unhappy.” *whine* “I don’t want to go outside anymore…” *whine* “My girlfriend left me.” *whine* “My life is so dull and uninteresting…” etc. It’s really depressing to consider, isn’t it? I mean, if I were one of those fictional vampires, I might chew into my own wrists just reading that. Do people who say these things really think being transformed into a Vampyre will set everything right in their lives? Will it make them more interesting to other people? Unless they plan on posting “I’m a Vampyre!” along with their phone number on Facebook, I seriously doubt it. In that case, others might find them mildly amusing, somewhat briefly. These days, unless you sparkle, the girls probably wouldn’t take you seriously.

The unawakened Vampyre is often a needy, self-centered, emotionally upset black hole of attention-seeking misery – unpleasant to be around, and probably not even realizing why they are acting the way they do. Real self-identifying Vampyres arrive at their awakening through their own internal process of self-realization, and learn either thrugh their own experiences, or under the tutelage of a mentor, what it is about them that they have to deal with and how to deal with it. Once this point is reached, the real Vampyre becomes a far more stable, happy and whole individual, much nicer to be around, a stable friend – a stronger personality, self-reliant, self-empowered and resilient. Well, that’s the theory. Some awakened Vampyres I’ve interacted with are still real assholes.

As a Vampyre, I am very much aware that you don’t need to be a Vampyre and affilicted with a need to feed on the energy of others, to be a strong personality and self-reliant, self-empowered and resilient. It took me my whole life up to this point to realize that it doesn’t need to take others their whole lives to get here.

The best advice I can give to those in search of that unnameable something, envious of what they think Vampyres have, and who are dissatisfied with what they have in their own lives, is this:

First know and love thyself. All the rest will follow.

The most important advice I can give to those of you who are thinking of asking a Vampyre to “turn” you is this:

Don’t.

Then go back to the beginning of this article and read it again.