Vampire Community
By Diana Savage
© 2003
v. 1.0
The following are
my observations of the "Vampire Community." I use the word community very
loosely since, if it is a community at all, it is several communities. As a
group it is fractious one. As a member of many underground and minority
communities, I consider it the one with the least internal cohesion. Everyone
has judgments on each other. Personal infighting abounds. Various cults and
pseudo-cults thrive in this shadow world.
The "Real
Vampire" community is the best organized as exemplified by the Sanguinarians. I
will be using the definitions common in this group since they are the best
articulated. If you object to labels read no further, this is not written for
you. This is written for those who find labels are useful tools.
Real Vampire: A person
who physically craves life energy (prana) which can come from living blood or
from psychic energy. Deprived of prana a real vampire will become increasingly
tired until they have feed on prana.
Sang or Sanguianrian: A
person who derives prana from blood.
Psi Vampire: A person
who derives prana from psychic energy.
Elemental Vampire: A
person who derives prana from elemental forces such as lighting or fire.
Fetish Vampire: A
person who enjoys blood for the sake of blood. They may draw prana either from
blood or psychically but they do not crave blood nor do they grow tired when
deprived of outside sources of prana. In some cases fetish vampires derive
sexual satisfaction from blood and blood sports and may even require it for
sexual satisfaction.
Poser: A person who is
not a vampire but pretends to be one. Often they will pose as an ancient
historic vampire such as Dracula or Countess Bathory. Posers are often Role
Player who carry their game over into the other vampire categories and attempt
to play with non-consenting individuals. Others are confused about the
boundaries between reality and play. Still others are attempting to enter
another vampire category and feel the need to put on an act to gain entrance.
Finally there is a group whose motivation is primarily malicious and engages in
this behavior to case dissention or to ridicule others.
Role Player: A person
who plays games where they take on the persona of vampire. These games can be in
gaming groups or on line groups. The primary difference between them and posers
is they play with other consenting individuals and acknowledge that what they
are doing is fictional.
Lifestyle Vampire: A
person who lives their life fully or partly in the role of a vampire. This may
be in the form of dress or may take the form of real-time role playing. Such
individuals may or may not be another type of vampire.
Donor: A donor is not a
vampire but an individual who for any number of reasons has chosen to
voluntarily supply blood or prana to a vampire.
Cutter: A person who
cuts themselves. These people often do so to relieve inner pain or pressure.
They differs from a fetish vampire in that a cutter is expressing pain or
desensitizing themselves to pain while a fetish vampire engages in blood play
for pleasure or arousal. Some members of the vampire community are cutters but
this is incidental and this definition is included for completeness and to show
a group that might be mistaken for being a member of the vampire community but
is not.
Supernatural Vampires:
I have not run into a name for the vampires we read about in literature or see
in movies. The consensus of the vampire community is that none exist. Anyone who
claims to be a supernatural vampire is assumed to be a poser. As a spiritualist
and a shaman, I will not categorically state that no supernatural vampires exist
but it seems unlikely that they would manifest their presence within the human
vampire community which is purely human in nature.
Please remember
that people use terms differently. Because I use a term differently then you
does not mean that either of us is wrong. Nor does it mean I'm putting you down
or forcing you into box. Labels are to aid communication, they are not reality.
No one fits neatly into a label and should not be constrained to it limits.
The Countess of Blood Lake
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fetish_Vampire
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lake_of_Blood
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