Have Friendship, Will Travel

Vampirism FAQ:

Hi all, after some confusion among my pre-readers, I just want to clarify a couple of things about Vampires in this fic. It’s kind of a long winded explanation, but I think it’s necessary as so many fics in FiM fan-fiction seem to portray them differently and it can become confusing over time. You may choose to skip this FAQ if the vampirism thing doesn’t really matter to you, but if you want to look over some of the questions I’ve received, continue reading.

Do not read this if you have not finished chapter two. It contains spoilers/explanations to questions that arise from reading the second chapter.

What is a vampire, in a nutshell:

* They are undead creatures that need blood to sustain their life force.

* Sunlight doesn’t kill them, but it does weaken their vampiric super-strength and their self-healing capabilities. In direct sunlight, a vampire’s strength drops by about half, and he cannot heal himself.

* A vampire’s five senses are enhanced greatly.

* Vampires can detect when living beings are around, however they cannot detect other vampires and undead creatures.

* Garlic, silver and wooden stakes are no more fatal to them than apples, gold and metal stakes; albeit, most vampires find the smell of garlic to be repulsive with their heightened sense of smell.

* Vampires cannot ingest normal food without becoming sick; their bodies aren’t built to digest anything other than blood.

Is it fatal for a vampire to go without blood? How long can one go without blood?

Unlike Oblivion/Skyrim vampires, going without blood is fatal. In essence, the blood they drink is their life force, and is consumed when they do anything. The general time frame from fully sated to fatal deprivation is five days, assuming the vampire isn’t taking damage and/or overexerting himself. When a person first turns into a vampire, they start at about one to two days into the blood-deprivation cycle, meaning they are very thirsty but can still think clearly.

Can vampires consume the blood of animals/other species to survive?

I’ve received the suggestion that they should be able to drink the blood of wild animals as a substitute for human/pony blood, and I have two reasons as to why I’m against that:

1) Fluttershy would kill me

2) It feels like a cheap work-around to make a vampire’s life among civilized people/ponies easy.

Vampirism is supposed to be a curse in which people/ponies are required to drink the blood of their own kind (or similar sentient beings, for example a vampire pony can drink griffon blood) to survive and as such I want the characters in the fic to acknowledge it as such.

In the WoW video game, Death Knights can heal themselves by striking any creature; why can’t they in HFWT?

In WoW, Death Knights can heal on anything because it makes sense in a video game; they’d be the worst possible tanks if they could only heal themselves on living flesh-based beings.

HFWT isn’t a video game and DK’s needing sentient blood, just like normal vampires, to live works well for the plot I have lined up. Trust me, you’ll like it. :molestiastare:

Are vampires immortal? How would one kill a vampire?

Vampires are semi-immortal in that they will live forever assuming they have enough life energy to keep their undead bodies animated.

There are three ways to kill a vampire:

* Starve it for blood until it runs out of life energy.

* Cause so much damage to its body so that it runs out of life energy and can no longer heal itself. A great way to do this is to sever limbs; they take the most energy to regenerate, although a vampire can choose to hold off on the regeneration until later.

* Sever its head; without the head, a vampire cannot live.

Can you explain how vampirism is inherent in all Death Knights?

There’s really not much to explain here; A Death Knight is inherently a vampire and as such inherits their powers, abilities and weaknesses, on top of their Death Knight abilities.

The one thing thing to note about Death Knights is that they can absorb the blood of sentient beings through their runeblades on top of using their mouth and fangs.

If you have your doubts about Death Knight’s being vampiric by nature, read into the Blood talent tree. Here are some supporting factors for my DK/Vampirism plot device:

* Both Death Knights and vampires are undead and are considered abominations by normal standards.

* They are both semi-immortal in that they will live forever assuming they get enough blood to survive and they aren’t destroyed by means listed above.

* Death Knights and vampires both use life energy from their targets to heal themselves.

* Death Knights have many vampiric abilities, and they even have a Blood talent tree.

How does vampirism spread?

There are only two ways to spread vampirism:

1) Allow vampiric blood to enter the bloodstream of a living being

* This is the easiest way to turn a living being; the conversion takes effect over time and is only painful during the last part of the conversion, when the fangs grow in and undeath takes over the person.

* The conversion process takes roughly 24 hours, depending on the amount of body mass and blood in the vampire-to-be’s body. During the last part of the conversion, the person will feel very tired and will likely sleep until the conversion is finished.

*This does not work on a dead target, and as such it’s impossible for a normal vampire to resurrect someone into vampirism.

2) Use a Dark Resurrection spell to copy the dark essence of vampirism into your target

* This method is specific to Death Knights only; most normal vampires don’t have the magical know-how required to transfer their vampirism into the bodies of others using magic.

* This method is more painful for the target, as it effectively forgoes the blood mixing stage and turns the whole body into an undead creature in less than a minute.

* This method is risky as it can turn living targets into mindless ghouls. A Death Knight hoping to turn a living target to vampirism will usually put one to two drops of his own blood into his target’s bloodstream and let the conversion work itself out over time.

If a Death Knight or vampire was to bite a normal pony, would that pony become a vampire over time?

No, not unless the blood of the vampire somehow trickled into the wound of the normal pony and mixed with his/her blood.

Do vampires need to sleep?

No.

Does water hurt vampires?

No.

When Alphonse used the Dark Resurrection spell on Rainbow Dash, why didn’t she become a Death Knight herself?

It’s simple really; The Lich King is the only one who can make full-fledged Death Knights.

How much blood does a vampire drink each time?

In humans, between 0.5 to 1 US pint of blood per day, assuming the vampire didn't have to heal himself from a horrible injury and/or that he didn't over-exert himself.

Each additional day without blood stacks, so if you were to go without blood for three days, you'd need 1.5 to 3 pints of blood to fully satiate yourself.

How much blood can you drink before killing someone?

In humans, approximately 60%. Any more will put the person into shock.

Why do you say 'in-humans'?

Because I don't know a whole lot about equine cardiology.

Conclusion:

I hope this FAQ has answered most of your questions. Frequent or important questions asked in comments will be added to the FAQ.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the story as the chapters are released. :P

-Taktician

taktician.whooves@gmail.com