“Blutpir: Vampire Species Concept” (May 2023)

(About 30-40 minutes to read)

–Different species of hominid, thus still “human”, just not Homo sapiens [species Homo sanguinus]; this differentiates between the two species with “H.sapiens” or simply “Sapiens” and ‘vampires’ or ‘blutpir’

Due to their preternatural condition and state, especially their means of reproduction, they fall outside the realm of typical biological and taxonomic classification, therefore, they may or may not “technically” be a species of ‘human’ or hominid.  A scientific name is unnecessary for them (unless they were to be discovered by H.sapiens and scientifically classified), so they are simply called blutpirs or ‘the Blutpiren’ (collectively).

–Not specifically nocturnal; daylight isn’t lethal (and not harmful anymore than to humans); sometimes termed ‘Children of the Sun’—sunlight (UV light) rejuvenates them similar to blood, but not as much; it works like a supplement to them

–Not “immortal”, per se, but do have notably enhanced longevity (up to a few centuries or so, with thus comparatively slow aging to that of humans) along with greatly enhanced healing time and immune system

–Don’t feed purely on blood (human or otherwise) and don’t/can’t drain a person “dry” or near that much by just drinking; the victim’s body, if killed from being drained, would sometimes be suspended (like cattle) to allow remaining blood to drain into a container for temporary refrigerated storage (allowing for multiple meals over the course of roughly a week or so to be consumed by the individual vampire); generally, victims aren’t killed for their blood as draining to the point of death isn’t typically needed (but deaths, intentional and not, do sometimes occur)

• blood only needs to be consumed almost supplementary either once every 7 days or so or the same amount consumed in smaller quantities over that course of time
• failure to consume adequate or particularly minimal amounts of blood will gradually result in certain body systems being weakened and/or shutting down (effects can be rather variable depending on numerous factors of the vampiric individual); ex: extended healing time, weakened immune system, etc.
• blood does not have to be human (H.sapiens), however non-human blood is generally less sufficient and can lead to weakened body systems/abilities over an extended period of time (bad effects are rather variable in how long they take to occur)
• refrigerated blood (used within a certain amount of time/days) can be used, including blood donor bags, although not usually sufficient for long-term use because fresh blood better provides needed sustenance to the vampire’s body
• overconsumption of blood can occur and often leads to vomiting the excess blood or the excess blood not being absorbed by the body and temporarily upsetting the GI tract
• they can further supplement their diet if not able to consume much, if any, blood for awhile, with sunlight (UV light); amount of sunlight needed is variable from vampire to vampire

–They are themselves a large contributor to the lore, myths, and other fiction on vampires and the supposed weaknesses, abilities, etc. of vampires; this intentional misinformation is very useful in protecting them as a population and species because it acts almost as a sort of ‘sleight of hand’—distracting people into believing that real vampires wouldn’t be like how these vampires actually are (energetic-disorder vampires, i.e. psi-, sang-, etc., also help in this, as do vampire roleplayers), it is like a decoy tactic to keep them concealed and secret in plain sight of society

–Tend to be cat-like in certain ways (can seem similar to feline therianthropes)

• Bare teeth and snarl, growl, and hiss
• Apt to defend themselves with claws and teeth
• Are also either solitary or are in mated pairs (usually for a rather extensive time) with a particular territory to reduce overlapping and amplification of feeding/hunting grounds, thus allowing feedings to generally remain discreet to the public and societal authorities
• This solitary or paired territory system is relevant to vampires’ associations with other vampires, not related to their social habits with humans

–Emphasis on their animality and how that relates to the animality within H.sapiens; relates to the concept of “monsters”, demons, savages, and ‘beasts’

–Can be killed by a stake (or other object) piercing the heart; it depends on how large and severe the wound in the heart is (e.g., how much blood is lost and whether or not the wound can be healed before the brain shuts down), but nevertheless the damage would not have to be done by a wooden stake

*Distinctive Physical Attributes & Abilities:

–General H.sapiens physical appearance overall

—Teeth/Fangs: partially retractable top canine teeth that default to a normal, or (usually) just above normal (to maintain sharpness) human canine tooth position/length but can extend (due to specialized muscles/tendons near the root of the teeth); roughly similar to retractable cat’s claws

—Saliva: contains anti-coagulant and anesthetic properties to assist in efficient feeding

—Eyes & Vision: irises contain chromatophores that allow for a limited range of eye color change from original/initial iris, some vampires may be able to change their irises to almost black, mimicking a very dilated pupil; iris is able to enlarge beyond normal human iris sizes; color detection is typical of H.sapiens, but night vision is heightened because of a tapetum lucidum reflective layer behind the retinas that is always there, which produces an “eye shine” appearance sometimes

—Hearing: enhanced beyond H.sapiens range

—Smell: enhanced beyond H.sapiens range, although the most comparatively heightened olfactory sense is toward blood

—Strength, Speed, & Agility: increased compared to average H.sapiens of similar body size and build

—Nails: strong, thick, not easy to break; tend to automatically grow out to a somewhat claw-like pointed shape unless filed/shaped/clipped regularly

—Facial and Body Hair: beard/mustache cease to grow anymore and body hair becomes lighter and finer

—Reproductive Capabilities/Means: [one of the main aspects of them that falls more notably under ‘suspension of disbelief’] only some people can be ‘turned’ based on unknown factors—possibly genetic, immune or health related, or other factor(s), therefore the vampiric species condition isn’t compatible with all H.sapiens, and if those incompatible with it are attempted to be ‘turned’ death will result for the individual; sterile regarding sexual reproduction (within and outside of the vampire species), thus members of their species do not undergo pregnancy or birth, nor menstruation

—Complexion(s)/Races: any H.sapiens ethnicity and skin color; do not have a pale complexion in general unless they’ve gone too long without feeding on blood

—Mental Abilities: compulsion/persuasion to some extent through eye contact and/or vocally, works on many or most H.sapiens but a portion of people are not prone to this suggestive ability—primarily acts as an additional means for protecting the vampire from being recognized as such or otherwise as a threat.

—Taste: heightened for blood, thus allowing the ability to taste different nuances between blood of different species and kinds of blood in a given species

—Telepathic Radar (with other vampires): mental sense that allows vampires to detect other vampires and their approximate location within a certain range; assists in establishing and maintaining hunting/living territories

–Some kinds of psychological disorders could be healed/cured or reduced after being turned; neuro-atypicality would likely remain; prior scars and tattoos would remain on the body, but new wounds are unlikely to scar and new tattoos would heal quickly but possibly fade somewhat faster than on humans, and can drastically fade over the extended life of a vampire after centuries

—Physical Healing: depending on the severity and extent of the injury or wound, it can be healed within minutes (minor, shallow cuts or scrapes), hours (deeper cuts), or days (broken bones, torn ligaments and tendons).  Nervous system damage, as also teeth (including enamel) damage can be healed.

~It is possible, however, that some severe, deep and potentially lethal injuries/wounds can be healed to a non-lethal level much more quickly (such as in critical organs, like the heart, brain, and lungs) as the body allocates a mass amount of its resources to healing that area to a safer, non-/less lethal state, and allow it to continue healing at ‘normal’ vampiric levels after that.  However, consumption or direct injection of blood is needed during or shortly after this acute emergency process as the body’s resources and benefits from prior blood consumption are greatly reduced and strained.

~Large blood loss would be one of the most acutely threatening conditions for the vampire that they wouldn’t be able to heal from on their own without consuming or injecting more blood to account for most or all of the blood lost (and their GI tract, more particularly the stomach, will only allow them to consume up to about 3-4 pints of blood in the course of an hour or so; in an emergency situation of large blood loss, the vampire will not be able to drink more than that max amount of blood without vomiting most of it).

—Eye Color Changes (during ‘shifted’ state): *Original Eye Color = **Shifted Eye Color; Dark Brown = Black, Medium to Light Brown = Fiery Amber, Green and Hazel = Vibrant, semi-luminescent Green, Dark to Mid Blue and Violet = Icy, semi-luminescent Blue, Light Blue and Gray = Silvery, semi-luminescent Gray, Albino = Same (reddish/pink) with some luminescence; Solid Black (sclera & iris)—occurs in all blutpirs, but only during certain mental/mood shifted states, primarily when feeling enraged.

—Reproductive Means/Process:

–Process of “turning” into a blutpir is called somaversion

–Additional factors in who can be ‘turned’: pre-adolescence and elderly people can’t (generally prior to roughly 13 or 14 years old for the former, and over roughly 65-70 years for the latter, though other factors affect the capable age an individual can be turned)

–Vampiric condition is caused and carried by a preternatural pathogen (not specifically bacteria or virus, though can act in some ways similar to a retrovirus).

–Vampires must reach a ‘fully mature’ reproductive age, which generally occurs about 2 years after being turned; prior to then (during their neonate, juvenile, and ‘semi-mature’ phases) they can’t convert anyone into a vampire, but neither is the pathogen lethal or otherwise harmful to H.sapiens.

–After reaching full vampiric maturity, the pathogen becomes lethal to most humans who undergo the turning process (however, other exposure to the vampire’s blood/etc. that may contain the pathogen is harmless); some specific, unknown factors result in a small proportion of H.sapiens being capable of going through the turning process successfully.

–Vampires can detect this difference between individuals:

—The vampire can only detect a ‘compatible’ person’s blood after drinking it/entering their bloodstream and the pathogen goes through the activating process, with the vampire only being able to detect compatibility after at least their first attempt to turn someone (if the H.sapiens dies from it, the blood was incompatible, so the vampire can detect a difference whenever/if they do find a compatible person); drinking multiple people’s blood during the roughly 24hr activation window will result in inability to identify whose blood is compatible (if a sense of compatibility occurs)

Initial Turning Phase (Phase 1):

–The vampire must drink the individual H.sapiens’ blood and allow time for their blood to enter xir system

–From there, the pathogen reacts to the donor’s blood, specifically altering itself for the individual’s body system, cells, and DNA; the pathogen is at this point ‘active’, per se, but only for the specific person’s body/blood (hence why general/other contact with the pathogen for H.sapiens results in no harm and no effect or turning).

–This process can take one to three hours, usually, and remains effective for about 24 hours after the initial consumption of the blood.  If blood from multiple people is consumed during that time, each person’s blood will result in the pathogen activating specifically for xir (as the overall pathogen is made up of many, separate individuals, kind of like individual viruses), however, this can reduce the chances that the proper, correlative pathogen will end up in the H.sapiens’ system if only a small amount of blood is exchanged (which will result in no effect).

–The pathogen, once active for X person, is primarily likely to cause a severe biological and immune response in xir body, usually resulting in anaphylactic shock and death shortly later; in essence, most H.sapiens bodies will near immediately severely reject the activated pathogen, almost like a severe allergic reaction; the small proportion of people whose bodies do not reject it are compatible with the pathogen

–The activated pathogen needs to enter the H.sapiens’ bloodstream.  This is typically done by either the vampire cutting their own skin and pressing the wound up against a wound in the H.sapiens, or with blood in the vampire’s mouth (via biting xir lip or taking some from another wound they opened on their body), xe bites the human’s lip, allowing the blood to enter into the recipient’s bloodstream.

Turning Phase 2:

–If the human’s body/blood is compatible with the pathogen, they will survive it entering their system.

–A mental bond is developed at this point between the vampire (sire) and their charge that will last for an extended time so that a ‘mentoring’ phase can occur before the charge is fully mature.

–This also begins the neonate phase for the vampire which occurs until the end of xir vampiric transition.

–The transition is not immediate or quick, however, the rate at which the body and mind change to the vampiric state is still quite fast compared to biological, non-preternatural body changes.  It usually lasts about 7 days, more or less.

–Blood cannot be utilized and digested properly by the neonate until the changes for such occur in their digestive tract and other body cells; ranges from 1 to 2 days.  They may feel generally weak and ill during this time with a loss of appetite and are prone to mild or moderate dehydration, so they are often limited to drinking small amounts of just water.  Fever doesn’t tend to occur at any of the turning stages but does happen in some cases.

–After the body is altered to utilize blood consumed, the neonate needs about three times as much blood as a fully turned vampire and needs the blood everyday (sometimes every two days if they are stronger) or their health will drastically decline quickly.  Fully turned vampires tend to drink about 4-8 oz. of blood every 4-7 days (or a near equivalent as multiple feeding sessions over those days); neonates tend to need 12-24 oz. of blood during that same amount of time.

–Human blood (verses other vertebrate blood) will strengthen the neonate more and faster and allow for a shorter transition.  If other, non-human blood is used primarily or only, or if not enough blood is consumed regularly during the transition, it may take closer to two weeks to complete the transition.

Turning Phase 3:

–This phase is marked by the beginning of the neonate’s blood consumption (their first drinking of blood).

–The body is further altered to make the non-human physical aspects, from changes in their eyes and vision, changes in other physical senses (acuity and perception of them), nail/claw changes, muscle and bone, teeth, etc.

–Teeth are altered to allow proper alignment and the regrowth of any lost or removed teeth (may not include wisdom teeth in individuals who had them removed if there is not enough room for them in the mouth without misaligning other teeth); damaged teeth/enamel are healed and fillings or false teeth are expelled from the mouth.  The top canine teeth are changed to a different form, sharpness, and length with a retracting mechanism developed at their roots.

–Human nails fall off and are replaced by the stronger, thicker, and more claw-like vampire nails.

–Eyes can become temporarily extra sensitive to light as vision is enhanced, resulting in eye pain in all but dim lighting until the body fully adjusts to the changes.

–Muscles and connective tissue are usually weak-feeling and sore until their alterations are complete.

–Skeletal changes: most bones become more shock resilient and stronger

Turning Phase 4:

–Final stage in transition.

–Mental, emotional, and instinctual changes are made during this stage and usually occur within the last day or two of the transition.

–Ability to undergo the mild physical “shifting” (in eyes and releasing/dropping of top canines to full length) does not occur before this stage and is most often needed to coincide with a form of “mental shift” (the physical ‘shift’ can occur without a mental ‘shift’, and vice versa, though it is fairly uncommon for the physical ‘shift’ to happen without a ‘shift’ mentally).

–Necessary blood consumption will reduce as this stage completes.

*Other Attributes and Species History:

—Social and Mentoring Aspects:

• Stages of Maturity:
  • Juvenile: occurs from end of transition to about one year post-transition; mentor/sire bond is strongest at this time
  • Semi-mature: occurs from one to almost two years post-transition
  • Fully-mature: reached at about two years post-transition; able to ‘turn’ others; mentor/sire bond fades at this point
• Territories:
  • Size: variable
  • Established and Maintained: [see detailed section below]
  • Only one or a ‘mated’ pair of blutpirs live in a territory; any gender or sex for the pairs.
• Rogue Vampires: charges that lose their mentor before they are fully mature, especially early juveniles; they lack proper knowledge and skill to survive well and are a risk of exposure for their species.  If they enter another blutpir’s territory, they will likely be killed.  Fully mature vampires can detect stage of maturity of other vampires.
• A sire will generally only have one bond at a time but exceptions may rarely occur

—Territories:

-Established and maintained: via psychic perception (limited to detection of blutpirs)

-Initially small when first establishing, and over time grows larger to a proper, needed size for the specific blutpir (including by factors like human population density in the given area)

-A psychic ‘imprint’ or ‘impression’ of a resident vampire’s territory can remain temporarily while the resident vampire is away from the territory—this can be from weeks, to months, possibly years, and the ability of the impression to persist longer depends on the age, experience, and strength/health of the vampire (e.g., older vampires typically have longer lasting territory impressions while away than younger vampires).  This impression can be detected by other vampires to signal to them that the area is already taken by another vampire.

-Territories include the general/entire range and the ‘home-range’—the latter being where the vampire spends most of their time in the territory and is often notably smaller than the general range.  They may also rotate parts of their home-range (such as living in the same place, but changing specific hunting/feeding grounds occasionally).

-Even though territory disputes can and do occur, blutpirs generally try to avoid them and they primarily happen when one or more blutpirs intentionally invade an occupied territory in order to try to ‘overthrow’ the current resident vampire.  Such disputes can result in vicious physical fights, even death of one, both/all vampires involved—although these were more common when human populations were overall smaller and less densely populated in most areas compared to modern times.

-Resident vampires in a given territory will tolerate other vampires entering and temporarily staying in their territory, but the non-resident vampires need to alert the resident one via psychic impressions that xe is only going to be there temporarily, is submissive to the resident one, and will not move in on their hunting/feeding grounds (e.g., will not hunt in the resident’s territory).  Their psychic connections are not advanced enough to share conversations, or even ‘read’/’hear’ specific verbal thoughts or visual thoughts, yet they have psychic abilities that allow them to share a limited amount of concepts to each other mentally from certain physical distances; ability to decipher and properly/accurately create these different ones comes from experience, primarily via mentoring. 

-Nevertheless, a resident vampire can decide at any time that they may not want the outsider(s) in xir territory anymore, and can alert them with a warning psychically.  If the warning is not heeded, the resident may take more confrontational action toward the outsider(s), including physically.

—Early Species History and Evolution:

–Pre-Agricultural Revolution: [related to why the vampires are more parasitic on humans rather than killing them; that it relates to advantageous evolution instead of morals, ethics, or emotion/compassion toward killing humans]

• They began in a tribe with multiple vampire individuals.  Eventually they spread out individually to other tribes.
• Initially they fed on non-human animals; they hunted small animals, mainly just drinking their blood, and drank the blood from large game caught by and for the tribe.  They ate other food like the humans in the tribe.
• Lacking in enough blood, a blutpir attacked a human but killed them due to blood loss; possibly from being bitten in an artery.  Eventually it learned to bite in non-lethal areas on humans in order to avoid killing its prey, which aided in its survival by keeping its prey around longer, especially since humans were scarcely populated.  This led to feeding in a parasitic manner on humans.
• Preference for human blood developed because of increased abilities and health compared to drinking non-human blood only.  These blutpirs became better survivors.  Mentors passed on this knowledge and skill to their charges, which were spread through their species generation by generation.

**More Topics & Aspects to Consider:

–Body metabolism (pre-somaversion) differences: do they require differing amounts/frequencies of blood consumption? Different metabolisms can affect how much blood is needed; more blood is needed for higher metabolisms

–Body types in regards to underweight, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese: will anything major change about these shortly after or due to ‘turning’? metabolism is increased and may lead to weight loss but how much depends on the individual

–Mental illnesses: will they be healed/cured by ‘turning’? for some conditions, they can be cured; neuroatypicality, however, generally stays

–Physical illnesses and disorders: will they be healed/cured by ‘turning’?  Are there limitations as to which kinds can be ‘cured’ this way?  If so, what are some of them? Becoming a blutpir can affect the health of the body and has the ability to heal in ways that a H.sapiens’ bodies can’t heal, including neurologically

–Growing of nails/claws: do they ‘shed’ thin layers while the nail grows outwards, similar to cat claws? No, they grow like regular human nails, but just in a different shape

–Saliva: are the anticoagulants and anesthetics in the saliva always there (produced and released from glands all the time) or is it only released from glands at certain times?  If the latter, would that be when the top canines are used for biting? These are only secreted when the vampire is “shifted”, so to speak, including when the fangs are descended

~Possible storylines, characters, etc.:

–blutpirs who store larger amounts of blood from fresh victims via hanging them upside-down, slitting throat (carotid arteries) while victim is alive, and letting the blood drain into a container

–neonate going through the process of somaversion

–historical/old accounts of blutpirs (from blutpir and/or human perspective)

–if they were discovered on a large/larger scale or even a relatively small scale, but by certain organizations, facilities, etc.

*Typical vampire myths/lore that they DON’T fit:

• notable aversion or harm from crosses & religious symbols, holy water, and areas of sacred ground
• sleeping in coffins/caskets/crypts
• pale complexion and rather cold skin (exceptions for complexion are related to ethnicity or overall health, not specifically the vampiric condition)
• shapeshifting into bats, wolves, or anything else
• allergy to, harmed from, or repelled by garlic
• can’t be seen in mirrors/reflective-materials/cameras
• being “undead”; have no heartbeat
• killed (or especially burst into flames or turn to ashes) by [direct] sunlight
• ’soul-less’, demons, or otherwise malicious, emotionless ‘savages’/killers (killers, yes, but not necessarily and aren’t the typical mindless monsters of lore/media)
• must sleep all day (particularly not in a nearly comatose-like or paralytic way, i.e., torpor)
• must be invited into an active human residence in order to enter
• allergic (especially fatally such) to silver and silver bullets
• live within packs/covens/groups
• are usually or often part of societal nobility or live an upperclass type of lifestyle (some do, most don’t)
• all or most dress in a gothic style—classic or modern gothic included; or Victorian style clothes
• turn to ash or otherwise disintegrate when killed
• experience euphoria or ecstasy from drinking blood
• only able to drink blood, can’t eat food
• vampire politics

Short summary of that last section is basically that I’ve not had much fondness in thinking of vampires as having a lot of the usual traits and such (and of course the not so usual Twilight ones that I won’t even bother mentioning as specifics).  Granted, I do like to see the variety of takes on vampires in modern media and the ways that a particular concept of vampires keeps, alters, or excludes certain ‘typical vampire traits’, and most of the time I still manage to identify to some extent with the vampires conveyed.

If anything, though, vampires have been to me for a long time a conceptual creature that holds and portrays a strong essence of the blending between ‘humanity’ and ‘non-human animality’ without even needing to physically shapeshift into a very nonhuman form—at the most I prefer them with only a few minor physical changes (mainly eye color, fangs, and claw-like nails).  Maybe my mind sees them kind of like therians that are ‘amplified’, so to speak, in physical appearance changes, abilities, and some other attributes that set them apart from Homo sapiens humans.  Whether or not that’s the case, I can say that I identify quite significantly *with* vampires and *as* a vamprie, and most notably this concept of them above that I’ve rendered myself.  I see aspects of myself, my animality, and mainly my felinity in them because they resonate in ways with my animal-human identity—to be actually physically and mentally human, and yet parts of oneself are not quite human and those aspects can rarely be shown to the world and others around the person (in my case, because of social mores or other social consequences and that many aspects of my cat therianthropy and other animality I literally can’t show to others).

As I’ve written in a separate essay, I identify strongly with shapeshifters, too, but I think more so if the shifters are the type that live and express their animality (even if just in subtle ways) outside of being shifted into a nonhuman form.  Basically, that they are a constant blend of human and nonhuman animal and it filters through into their lives, actions, thoughts, etc. on a regular or daily basis, rather than only being the animal when in a different physical form.  And vampires capture that kind of balance and essence in my view that I’m so drawn toward identity-wise and personally.  They live with a type of ‘amplified animality’ on a daily basis, whether they choose to embrace it, over-control it, or push it away (though I have a special fondness for some vampire characters that embrace it without flaunting it or being overbearing about it).  I live with my animality every day, to whatever extent, and it’s usually rather balanced with little conflict between human and non-human, although I do have some times (primarily sexually related) when my animality (felinity, to be specific) becomes greatly increased and it’s highly enticing to delve into and more freely explore and experience that aspect deeply.  However, I’ve never managed to go very far into that experience and exploration due to any of a few reasons I’ve explained more in that separate essay.

I guess I also anymore relate to the connections often made between vampires and sexual experiences, with vampires typically portrayed as being at one of their most animalistic states when feeding or biting, especially during actual sex or what can be viewed as a sexually-associated experience (for the vampire and/or victim/partner/donor).  My felinity is heightened the most in relation to sexual experiences and sexual triggers, even though I’m not much for liking the cliché of cats in association with sex, and my animality is thus at its highest state during such times.