Vampirology Poll Ruffles A Few Feathers

In the past few days, a poll was posted on the Vampyre Academy website, one which asked essentially one question twice with two sets of alternative answers. The poll began with a statement:

“The dictionary defines a vampirologist as ‘one who studies vampirology’ or ‘A person that researches, studies, and discusses vampires in both the fictional and real world and the trends that follow them.’ Please give your input on how you as a VC participant think a vampirologist should measure up to this definition.”

Sang Castles, Fangtasies And Other Tales – by Octarine Valur

Recently there was some upset in the VC about, what else – but Vampyres? This article is not an attempt to prolong existing arguments, to incite new arguments about who is “more” of a Vampyre than who, or to place blame for any past events – or to take cheap shots at anybody. It is a simple examination of our history as a community, and about the issues raised in a number of separate debates, some in public, and some in private.

As with any discussion, we should begin at the starting point – a baseline, and for this discussion, it is this: Some people, particularly modern participants of the VC, understand that the Vampyre Community as we understand it today – that is, the online aspect of this subculture, once had no ‘Psis’ or ‘Hybrids’ at all. These individuals have stated that it once consisted exclusively of blood drinkers, and that it was founded by sanguine Vampyres. Psi-vamps – or psychic or energy vampires, are regarded by these same individuals, as an external group which was ‘allowed’ to identify as Vampyres and to participate in Vampyre groups due to what some have called ‘a lapse in standards and liberal allowance’.

In contrast to opinions expressed lately from some quarters, chiefly sanguine, I see no need to segregate the community, on or offline, based upon feeding method… and like any reasonable person, I can understand the need for sang-only forums and psi-only forums, which are there to deal with feeding issues – but what these individuals have described lately is a total separation, on and offline… and based not upon logic or some morally justifiable reason – but upon a festering dislike based upon the same lack of knowledge and ignorance as what sparked off the first conflict – and that I don’t agree with.

The posts made by most of those in favor of segregation of psi and sang participants frequently include derogatory language, leaving the reader in little doubt that they bear a festering hate for psi’s and ‘hybrid’ feeders. I’m a sanguine too – but I can’t wrap my head around that way of thinking.

Lessons From Apartheid – A cautionary tale of segregation – by Cian Ashling

Last week, the OVC (Online Vampyre Community) was shaken by the claim, made in a series of passion-filled arguments in a popular international VC forum, that “most” Sanguinarian vampyres wish to divide the existing VC along the lines of sanguine and psychic or energy Vampyres, so that each interacts solely in their own separate community. This was followed with repeated admonitions to Psi-vamps, ‘hybrids’, Therians and Otherkin, that they should follow suit and separate into distinct little subculture clusters of their own, isolated from the Vampyre Community at large, since they “should never have been allowed to participate in the VC in the first place”.

A Question Of Elders – by Psion Valur De Nocte

It seems that the ‘hot topic’ of the moment in the wide VC is ELDERS….who are they? What are they? How do we know who they are? And should we care?

The Potential For Good vs Evil In The Vampi(y)re Community – A Dissertation by Octarine Valur

Vampyres. Real living human Vampyres, not the mythical fictional variety or the lifestyler – real people who have a natural deficiency of some sort and who must feed on diverse energy forms, including that found in blood (with deference also to those who do not ascribe to the notion of energy being the necessary element contained in human blood) in order to maintain a healthy balance. We see ourselves as a unique group, both part of the human condition – and in some ways detached or separate from it at the same time.

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.

Craving The Limelight: Julia Caples (Lady DarkRose) – by Octarine Valur

How one Vampyre’s relentless pursuit for media attention sabotages a decades-long attempt by a persecuted alternative subculture to be taken seriously by the general public on an international level.

Vampyre History Project Posts 2012 Entry

The Vampyre History Project, also called “The Secret History of the Vampyre“, has posted its 2012 entry. Running since early 2010, the project has amassed tons of historical information relating to the real Vampyre Community as well as to historical mention of vampire hysteria, interesting uses of the word “vampire”, as well as issues relating to vampire fiction, art, and the development of the modern Vampyre culture – and also the stereotype many of us are identified with today.

First Contact Situations, What To Expect, And How To Handle Them – by Val

In the modern Vampyre Community, most groups tend to set a minimum age limit for participants. The most usual reason given for this is safety, and from what I can tell, it seems this limit is more often set at 18 years. Some set entry requirements at 21 years, and a few (probably just to be funny) even at 25. But why is there such a limit? What is the need for it? IS there a need? This article will address the kind of risks that may be posed when underage persons approach the Vampyre Community.

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.