Are Vampyres Perceptibly Different To Non-Vampyres? 10/10 Reiki Practitioners Say “YES!”

In a poll conducted between July and August 2015 the South African Vampyre Academy, a VC research and statistics gathering entity, found that ten out of ten Reiki practitioners interviewed claimed to be not only aware of Vampyres and vampyric people, but also to be able to identify them by their energy signatures, by sight, feel or touch, suggesting that there is something definable and different between Vampyres or vampyric people and non-Vampyres which warrants further investigation.

Ask A Vampyre: The What, Why And How

Since the Vampyre Community came out of the shadows around the world in the late 1980’s, it has encountered hostility and resistance. It has been demonized and attacked by hostile outsiders in the Shinai world, and waves of propaganda have been thrown against it by those who either do not understand, or do not want to understand – or who DO understand, but act against us out of hatred or religious fundamentalist ignorance and zealotry. All this results in very muddy water and for people looking at the murk while trying to understand what is in the pool, it can be very confusing indeed. This article will provide a basic explanation of our local community in South Africa and a brief to-the-point explanation of what real Vampyres are. Hopefully our readers will find understanding what we are a little easier.

Culture Shock – Part 3: Community Building By Any Other Name

Newcomers to the South African VC are often frustrated by some aspects of our culture. They struggle with the terminology, they find the culture cryptic and arcane, and some things just don’t suit them all that well. In part 3 of this series of articles covering a few examples of issues which give the noobs (and then the rest of us) a headache in the local community, we take a brief look at some of the terminology we use in South Africa. Unsurprisingly, most of this terminology has largely been inherited from other parts of the world – but much has been renewed, reinvented, and some has even been created from scratch.

Culture Shock – Part 2: Bats of a Different Shade

Newcomers to the South African VC are often frustrated by some aspects of our culture. They struggle with the terminology, they find the culture cryptic and arcane, and some things just don’t suit some of them all that well. In part 2 of this series of articles covering a few examples of issues which give the noobs (and then the rest of us) a headache in the local community, we take a brief look at the different kinds of Vampyres you will find in the VC.

Culture Shock – Part 1: The Secret

Some newcomers to the South African VC have been quite perplexed and even frustrated by some aspects of the culture. They struggle with the terminology, they find the culture cryptic and arcane, and some things just don’t suit some of them all that well. Top of the list has to be the secrecy. It’s quite a different outlook to get used to, when you have been accustomed to being open about everything else, having lived in a human-rights-friendly country for the past 20 or so years, and not having to fear any more for your life on account of being different, or looking different. It certainly is complicated. But, as one elder told me when I first entered the community, “there’s no politics like vamp-politics”. That’s for sure.

The Mantra of the Living Vampyre

I am a living Vampyre, gifted with an affinity for energy and a need to consume it.

I do not need to cause harm to feed, nor to take it by force,
For there are those who will give of themselves freely at my request.
I grant anyone I ask for help the right to refuse to help me, should they choose it,
Just as I reserve the right to choose to help those it is within my power to help.
I cherish those who choose to sustain me, in gratitude for their kindness.

I know that everyone has a dark side, and that mine is no darker than most.
I know that I have a shadow, just as everyone has a shadow.
I know that if I do not walk in light, I walk in shadow, without light.
I cannot walk in light without casting a shadow, and my shadow cannot exist unless I walk in light
I accept that it is by my shadow that I shall know the light.
As a Vampyre, I walk the line between the light and the shadow, and at times, astride it.

I know that though I am one, those like me are many – as I also know that through our Communion, the many are one.
I understand that alone I am strong, but together with others like me, I am stronger.
I hold myself accountable for my actions, as I hold others accountable for theirs.

I do not call myself “monster”, because monster is, as monster does.
The Beast is a monster, but I am not the Beast.
The Thirst is strong, but I am stronger.
Though I suffer in Thirst, I am more than this.

I am a Vampyre, but I am also human as well.

Vampyre Nature: Part 4 – “Vamping Out” and “the Beast”

[In a four-part Series focusing on Vampyre nature, we continue with part 4 – “Vamping Out” and “the Beast”, and what these mean to a self-identified Vampyre.]

Aside from “vamping out” – which is the suffering we endure when we reach feeding time, or go beyond it – we in the community also speak of “the beast”. To us, this is the personification of our thirst – the thing within us that drives us to feed, and while we are feeding, to indulge in it, to go further, deeper and longer. It is the part of ourselves which we suppress and ignore, and which some even fear. It is this part of our nature, more than any other, which frightens us. Not so much in terms of controlling our impulses, but because the presence of such an impulse implies that there is a darkness within us that is very real and very strong, and very much a part of us. It is this part of ourselves which rattles the closet door in the dark, and causes even us to look in the mirror and whisper, shocked – “monster”.

Vampyre Nature: Part 2 – Feeding

[In a four-part Series focusing on Vampyre nature, we continue with part 2 – Feeding, and what this means to a self-identified Vampyre.]

For the many who have fantasized about being a vampire as portrayed in fiction, perhaps as children or teenagers – we are meant to believe that indulging in harmless fantasy never really crosses over from the “I Wish” or the “What If” side of the room, to the other – where it starts to grab at the door knob and even beats on it with clenched fists. But what if it did?

Vampyre Nature: Part 1 – Awakening

[In a four-part Series focusing on Vampyre nature, we begin with part 1 – Awakening, and what this means to a self-identified Vampyre.]

Many times I have wondered about our nature as Vampyres. What is it? Where does it come from? Why me? And why blood? Of all things, surely something else would be easier to obtain, and to explain? But blood? As a sanguine, it should come as no surprise that I should question this need of ours – this need which drives us to consume the essence of others, to take it into ourselves and to make it a part of us – and which sets us apart from those around us.

Don’t Feed The Trolls

I thought I should make the subtitle of this piece “How To Identify A Role-Playing Troll In Online VC Forums”, seeing as we seem to get so many of those.