Celebrity Vampires

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Boxilar
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Celebrity Vampires

Post by Boxilar »

I was re-reading the Dresden Files when an off hand comment got me to thinking. "All our intel indicates Dracull has been in eastern Europe for the last century or so." I'm quoting from memory and can't remember the exact book it appears in, but if Dracula isn't just a work of fiction in Wapsi Square, and is based off of someone real, then either;

(A) Our boy Count Draculla isn't actually a Vampire or,

(B) He's not Vlad Tepes, and has adopted the guise of Vlad The Impaler to "legitimize" himself and pass himself off as royalty, a pretender to a throne, as it were.

Old Vlad was many things, but unknown and forgotten wasn't one of them.
waldosan
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Re: Celebrity Vampires

Post by waldosan »

i think pop culture can attest to that, you see we've long forgotten about dracula, vlad the impale(r) and most of the mythology surrounding the myth of vampires in general. our vampires are either hot leather wearing bad@$$es that are gunning down their own kind and werewolves for the general good of just about EVERYONE, or they are sparkly fairies that go to highschool and live off of teenage angst and drama yet still manage to be total douchetards. none of our current vampire culture has anything to do with dracula, Transylvania, or, really, fear for that matter. i think that right now if Vlad Dracula was in fact THE Vlad Dracula, then the last thing he'd want to be is famous or at the very least known by those not currently in his little hamlet, town, village, area, thing.

this goes off a basic assumption; since the story of Dracula is so well known then becoming famous while being Dracula would simply be akin to painting on the moon a big giant disclaimer saying that all that junk you thought wasn't real actually is. the "veil" would fall and generally people would once again know what it is to fear the dark, even if the only reason to fear the dark is because they started fearing it and acted against it thus fulfilling their own fears when the paranormals decide to fight back. think Hellboy.

also, the MIB is apparently a real thing in the wapsiverse so they are probably actively suppressing any news and stories of the paranormal. probably extremely well.

as for if vlad is vlad in universe, i would say he's probably not THE vlad dracula since vampires seem to be a bit more squishy in the Wapsiverse than generally everything else that isn't a human.
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Boxilar
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Re: Celebrity Vampires

Post by Boxilar »

I know this received a lot of attention when Pratt and McBride showed up and was extensively discussed. Paul's vamps are apparently created when someone dies alone and forgotten with at least some of their blood still in their bodies. At least this is what Suzi McBride believes. Until we find out different, I'll go with her explanation.

And soft and squishy is relative. In most fiction vampires are portrayed as being at the apex of human predators. In the Dresden Files, the various types of vamps (and there are several flavors with their own unique power sets) are players in the supernatural community mostly because the bigger fish don't care what they do and they, the vampires, are organized enough that they can theoretically defend against bigger badder predators. In Wapsi, vamps know their place in the supernatural food chain, and they're only a step above humans, who would be their primary prey. It was hard to tell from what was left of Bloody Meatsnak, but he was probably an average human male, meaning while McBride would have to be supernaturally strong to physically overpower him, she would "only" have to be three or four times stronger than the average adult human male. An average chimpanzee would have a similar strength. Compared to a being like Phix, or Monica now, they are "shitty little mosquitos".

I guess what I was getting at was in Wapsi Square, Vampires rise because they are forgotten and are neglected. Lily and Suzi are apparently trying to do some good, but I think most vampires would be lashing out at a world they see as having done them wrong. And they might try to compensate for being forgotten, by creating past lives and legends about themselves, to seem more noble and greater than they are. "Vlad" may well have inspired Stoker in the Wapsiverse, Anne Rice may be a frustrated Vampire herself, trying to garner the fame and fortune she missed out on in life. And Vampires as a whole would use the romance of being "turned" to lure in willing groupies and prey with a false promise of eternal unlife. The whole "sparkling vampire" thing might be the latest PR campaign to lure in willing victims.
waldosan
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Re: Celebrity Vampires

Post by waldosan »

once again i think the MIB would put an end to any renegade vampire sects trying to get a following of groupies, it seems like they would be actively trying to avert any sizeable accumulations of any one species much less one that prey's on normal humans for general sustenance. that and in order to maintain the "facade" or the "masquerade" they'd probably want to keep tabs on any vampire group, even if the vampires tried something small they'd still stand out like a sore thumb for the simple fact that theirs actually worked. rumors have a habit of transcending impossible barriers when you're looking hard enough, even in the real world. the way that it sounds both lily and suzi would be put down quickly if they stepped out of line and "turned" someone or went off the deep end and started actively hunting people all predator style.

since there hasn't been any kind of a hint that there are vampire groups, covens, hierarchies, governments or groups bigger than two then ontological inertia says that the absence of these things means they don't exist unless their existence is explicitly stated or implicitly suggested with a wink here and an eyebrow there. the infrastructure needed for vampires to generate PR for themselves while holding off the MIB or staying on their good side simply isn't there, at least if it is it isn't there for the two vampires in this story.

either way i'm agreeing with you in saying that the person who in the wapsi verse is writing dracula, claiming to be dracula, or generally is called dracula by those that know them is not in fact vlad, holy monkey balls, the impaler. they are simply too low on the food chain to survive any meeningful time greater than the average human's lifespan.

which brings up an interesting question, who is the MIB protecting from whom? because so far we've seen that just about every human character except for like, two of the boyfriends and the parents from way back when are the only really normal people. (note: i refuse to accept that a museum director that get's lost in his own museum is indeed a normal human, lakshmi and cody? have been put on a bus and they won't come back unless it turns out that they are half orc druids.) i really think that the MIB in the wapsi verse are to guard the "things that go bump in the night" from the humans, i mean in universe we've survived blasts that have glassed an entire third of the planet, the loss of an entire civilization that was more advanced than modern civilization, as well as countless other random apocalypses that no doubt stemmed from all our myths being true to some degree. one of which is probably some kind of "everyone's a bloody vampire" apocalypse which would be a good reason as to why they are in fact so low on the totem pole of T.T.G.B.I.T.N

can you imagine the holy war that would occur if the masquerade was broken and humans decided they didn't like the possibility of demi-gods? i don't foresee all of the myths surviving something like that. only the ones that are literally invincible (charon's daughter) and are easily reincarnated (monica, apparently) or the ones made out of inanimate materials (the golem girls, tepoztecal, jen's mom) would really have any hope of surviving. i don't forsee any kind of a good outcome if it's found out by the general public that sphinxes hunted humans at all. and demons would be another problem, mostly because everyone has them...
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Boxilar
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Re: Celebrity Vampires

Post by Boxilar »

You make some good points. I agree that there isn't a vast vampire conspiracy, partly because the MiB would crush them if they got too far out of line, and partly because the mechanism of vampire creation in Wapsi doesn't really allow for it. Vamps can't create more of their own. The potential vampire has to die alone and forgotten. I've speculated before that the reason the whole "turning" myth would have come about was because vampires would tend to prey on those who would be least likely to be missed, the aforementioned forgotten souls, and they would rise as vampires because they were forgotten, not because a vampire killed them. This would be the reason that the world isn't awash with vampires.

I was just speculating that some enterprising individuals may have built cults of personality around themselves. "Dracula' and others like him may be viewed as relatively harmless by the larger supernatural community, as long as he doesn't cause too much trouble. And the MiB as a whole seems to deal with much bigger fish, anyway. Protecting the supernaturals from the mundanes may be part of thier mission, but given that Brandi set up the world grid to keep ill intentioned Gods and Titans out, thie MiB primary mission seems to be protecting the world at large from greater supernatural threats.

As far as a Holy War? Bud and Brandi, both of whom could destroy the earth and survive the experience, are on the supernatural side. The war would be brutal and short. But I think part of sealing earth away from supernatural intrusion is an attempt to let humanity choose it's own destiny without outside interference.
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