Vampire (mythology)

Vampires were mythical creatures that were feared for their dependence on sucking the blood of other beings to survive. A wide variety of other lifeforms shared traits with these creatures and either inspired or made use of the legends.

Legends

The Doctor's TARDIS had records of vampire legends on at least seventeen planets, particularly Earth, but myths of vampires existed on almost every civilised world. Common traits were that they drank blood, could turn others into vampires, feared sunlight, had no reflections, feared crosses, couldn't cross running water and could only be killed by a stake to the heart or beheading. (TV: State of Decay, The Vampires of Venice, PROSE: Goth Opera, AUDIO: Son of the Dragon, REF: Monster Files: Vampires) Vlad III was thought by the people of Wallachia to be a monster, which lead to a popular fictional representation of him. (AUDIO: Son of the Dragon)

Vampires were represented differently across various cultures. Chinese vampires had long fingernails. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) In a 1992 survey, the thing that frightened Russians the most was vampires, specifically ones that lived on life energy. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)

Vampire-like creatures

• The Great Vampires from the Dark Times inspired many vampire legends. They were also able to turn humans into vampires. (TV: State of Decay)

The King Vampire, leader of, and last surviving Great Vampire. (TV: State of Decay)

• When humans were transformed into Haemovores, they became vampiric. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
• Plasmavores behaved like vampires. (TV: Smith and Jones)
• Axos was "a space-vampire," draining all energy from planets. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
• The Saturnyns disguised themselves as vampires in 16th century Venice. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)
• Vlad III the Impaler inspired the fictional vampire Dracula. Bram Stoker, who wrote the novel Dracula, was said to be inspired by a Haemovore (PROSE: The Curse of Fenric) or his own wife Florence Stoker (COMIC: Bat Attack!).
• A vampiric infection came to Earth in the 19th century, with the first human host being Oscar Wilde. (COMIC: Bat Attack!)
• Several vampiric individuals existed on Europa. (PROSE: Managra)
• An unknown alien race customised androids to have all the traits of vampires, including a dislike of garlic. (AUDIO: Situation Vacant)
• Dark Space 8 once encountered a sweat vampire in one of their many adventures. (AUDIO: Bang-Bang-A-Boom!)

This is likely a reference to the Salt Vampire of Star Trek.

• The Forge had obtained vampire DNA from South America in 1911. They attempted to create Vampire/Human hybrids. (AUDIO: No Man's Land, Zagreus, PROSE: Project: Valhalla)
• The Vampire Warriors were another vampire-like species. (WC: Snowfall)

Types

There were a variety of vampiric-creatures such as...

• Psychevores, which fed on the mind/life energy
• Datavore, which fed on information