I figured with it being close to that time or year and not that many people read my journal anyway, I am going to post a bit of my own knowledge about the most feared of all super natural creatures.
There are many myths, legends, and stories told about Vampires and the only 2 consistancies are that they feed on the blood of the living and are for the most part immortal. However some myths about vampires are that they can be killed with a stake through the heart, fear religious icons( such as a cross), can not stand water (Holy or otherwise, however there is one small exception to this), and can be killed by sunlight. Now to break them down into more accute detail.
A stake through the heart is one way in which is conceived to kill a vampire, but really a stake through the heart would kill anyone vampire or not. The 2nd most often used method in literature and media is to expose the vampire to sunlight....this however could be just for weakness effect. There are several works in which a vampire can move freely about in the sunlight the most reknowned example is from Bram Stoker's work in which Dracula is able to walk among the citizens of London in broad daylight although doing so weakens his vampiric powers. So it may never be known whether this is true method for dispatching of a vampire.
Vampires are said to fear religious relics such as the cross and churches. This is mainly due to the religious references of how vampires came to be the progeny of Cain who was said to have been cursed for the killing of his brother. Again this piece of knowledge is truely unknown as their are several works in which such religious artifacts have no effect on the undead lords of the night.
The last area vampires weakness to water this seems to be common among most vampire lure. Water has a purifying effect which weakens a vampire while brief contact is not fatal, but prolonged exposure can be. Some vampires are able to counteract the purifying effect by adding special herbs to the water.
This is just a brief bit of the knowledge I possess on these undead creatures. I have been fascinated with them since my childhood and one thing that has always fascinated me about them was their immortality. As humans we fear that which we can not comprehend which it is for this reason that we fear ghosts and even death itself. In the most basest of concepts we have a fear of the unknown. Truth be told I would love to be immortal to see what changes time brings as well as developments of future civilizations.
 REFSergeant · Thu Oct 23, 2008 @ 09:02pm · 1 Comments |
