Vampire Subtypes: Hereditary vs Turned
Everyone knows our resident vampire, Edith. Edith was born to two lovely parents, one a vampire and the other a human. She’s been a vampire since birth, however, that isn’t the only way one could become a vampire. As long as a creature has blood and is capable of consuming it in return, they can be turned.
But, let’s go more into it, shall we?
Vampirism first began appearing in humans due to excess levels of magic energy post-mortem. If the spirit was still connected enough to the earth, then they could wake back up, body changed. This only worked if the body was still in a well enough state to function; ie. If someone was decapitated, then they could not come back, however, if they died from starvation, drowning, or something else that would not permanently alter the form in a way the soul could not recover.
These newly living creatures were often hunted by humans for being demonic in nature; they preserved, however. Early vampires began to integrate into society, slowly mingling and procreating with society. This caused a deformation in the genes, only identifiable in humans, that made creatures begin to become born into vampirism.
Hereditary Vampires, although the more common of the two types, are still not very common in most places.
The deformation in a creature’s DNA is caused by the excess magic energy, causing them to inherit traits from their inflicted parent. The gene is only observable in humans to have an effect, however, other creatures can have the gene; it just won’t manifest in any way that affects their life. (This becomes slightly more complicated wi to human vampire-supernatural unions and worn be dove into here.
Vampirism is a dominant gene, meaning if a vampire chooses to have a child, that child will almost certainly be a vampire as well. For example, we will say,
Vampirism: represented by a ‘V’
Absence of Trait: represented by a ‘A’
Genes are created in pairs called gene pairs; these are a combination of two alleles. Alleles are the specific type of trait someone has and are represented by someone’s phenotype and genotype. Genotype is the specific combination of alleles (VA, VV) a Phenotype is the physical manifestation of their genotype (if they’re a vampire or not)
In this circumstance Parent One has a VA genotype and Parent Two had AA genotype, the chance of the child being a vampire as still at least 50%. However, if Parent One were to be of the VV genotype then the child would have a 100% chance of being a vampire, because they’re dominant alleles.
Moving from the scientific aspect of Vampirism, Hereditary vampires also have a few distinct identifiers. The immediate alert are their fangs. They’re shown to be significantly longer than Turned vampires and even have the possibility to show up as double fangs. As well as that, they have pointed ears, similar to elves. Hereditary vampires also have unnatural eye colors; they can appear in shades of red, pink, purple, yellow, white, or silver.
Of the two types, Hereditary vampires are also the only ones so to the ability to have children. Turned vampires cannot. This pairs well that Hereditary vampires age only slightly slower than a human does, but they still do age mostly normally.
Turned Vampires are creatures that were once of their living and typical species, then were given vampirism. This form of vampirism can appear in any creature with the stipulation they can consume and give blood like previously stated.
With a human as an example, becoming a vampire is not an easy process. It can be caused by either subtype of vampire and there are not specificities to either. First, one must give their own blood to a vampire through open wound (this can be a bite), then they must drink at least a pint of the vampires blood in return, also from an open wound. This is a sickening process as vampire blood is highly toxic to humans, however, once the sickness passes, the process will begin.
First, they will begin to lose an appetite, only finding interest in occasionally drinking water or eating soft foods. This will progress until they acclimate to the diet of a vampire, mentioned here, As well as that, they will begin to experience jaw pain as their canines are pushed out as new teeth form beneath them. Turned vampires can also have micro-fangs, where the fangs are incredibly small and barely noticeable. They are pushed out the same way baby teeth are until the new fangs are present. Their eyes will turn red in hue, but will not glow like a Hereditary vampire’s will.
The most significant difference is aging. If someone is turned to a vampire, similar to myth, they stop aging. They can only be killed through starvation through lack of nutrients or having their heart removed from their body.
I hope everyone enjoyed the lesson, this one was much longer than anticipated as well as longer than any other post! (I’m almost certain…)
I am well aware I used a lot of words here to describe a lot of different things, so if you have any questions I’ll try my very best to help.
I am not a professional when it comes to science, however, biology is my favorite field of science, and especially genetics I adore. I hope I did it justice with my explanation!
