Vampires - need help defining them

[Oversleep]

So I want to incorporate vampires into the supernatural part of my world. I am reworking them right now to fit into mechanics of my world but I realized I don't know which are the most important/widespread/popular attributes of vampires.

A vampire is a being with body of supernatural capabilities when compared to human. Other traits include need for blood (sucking it in by biting people)... aaand? Other than havings fangs to do it? I have already went to TVTropes but that's (surprisingly) unhelpful. Anybody got some good study of vampires? Anything?

They're associated with night (as sunlight is supposed to be harmful). Bats - either control over them or transformation into one; they can make new vampires by biting people although whether each bite is contagious is not agreed upon. Mind control over mortals? Only to lure them (like the Call in Watch series) or something more?

Casting shadow or having a reflection... those are hard to explain if your magic sort-of obeys physics...

The being pale thing I got down

I'm not sure what to do with the coffins.

Weaknessess:

decapitation... it works on everything though. Fire and holy symbols are usually useful against creatures of the Dark... but what if they're not of evil? Also, the age-old questions: would cross work on Jewish vampire? Would atheist be able to scare off a vampire? Would anything work on atheist vampire?

Silver. That's pretty universal but I'm not sure how would I incorporate it. It also works against werewolves but why? Is silver universally effective against dark creatures?

Running water. No idea either what to do with it or what to make of it.

Stakes. I understand it's because destroying heart of a being living on blood is hard for them... but why wood?

Invitation... dark forces cannot enter homes until invited, right?

Garlic. It almost feels random. What is garlic doing as somebody's weakness?

Et cetera, et cetera.

I may be later discarding things left and right but right now I want to see what can I fit in into the system.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Oversleep

[Zathoth]

Read Dresden Files, Butcher answers all of these questions beautifully... except garlic, for some reason...

[Oversleep]

2 minutes ago, Zathoth said:

Read Dresden Files, Butcher answers all of these questions beautifully... except garlic, for some reason...

I'm in the middle of Grave Peril. But my world is more hard-magic. I actually don't remember what Butcher did with vampires; I remember the four kinds of werewolves but I did not like all of them although some were interesting.

[Zathoth]

Just now, Oversleep said:

I'm in the middle of Grave Peril. But my world is more hard-magic. I actually don't remember what Butcher did with vampires; I remember the four kinds of werewolves but I did not like all of them although some were interesting.

Dresden Files isnt rock hard, but it does have rules.

Lets go through how Butcher answered these because Im tired and too lazy to be creative.

Crosses: Faith is a kind of magic that hurts vampires. It needs to be a symbol you have faith in, Harry for example uses his pentangle necklace. I would just need to pick up a guitar or throw a copy of Number of the Beast at them. A rapper could probably use the dollar sign they wear around their neck.

Streaming water screws with magic.

Thresholds are protective fields against magic, Harry can't use magic inside a Home (a place that has been lived in and cared for, public places are public places), magical creatures can't even enter.

 

 

[The Honor Spren she/her]

Check out a book from the library called "A Practical Guide to Vampires." I find it extremely helpful.

[Oversleep]

@Zathoth those I remember but I don't remember the rest of vampire attributes. Sunlight burns them in DF but I don't think we know why.

@The Honor Spren I'll look for it online as I my library is in a whole different country

Anyway, I think I'll be splitting vampires into two different things - original vampires (lots of attributes, partially demonic which will explain those dark-forces based weaknesses) and mage-version of vampires derived from the original vampires (it's something cool... I think. But the take-away is they're enhanced people feeding on blood).

[aeromancer he/him]

18 hours ago, Oversleep said:

Weaknessess:

decapitation... it works on everything though. Fire and holy symbols are usually useful against creatures of the Dark... but what if they're not of evil? Also, the age-old questions: would cross work on Jewish vampire? Would atheist be able to scare off a vampire? Would anything work on atheist vampire?

Silver. That's pretty universal but I'm not sure how would I incorporate it. It also works against werewolves but why? Is silver universally effective against dark creature?

Running water. No idea either what to do with it or what to make of it.

Stakes. I understand it's because destroying heart of a being living on blood is hard for them... but why wood?

Invitation... dark forces cannot enter homes until invited, right?

Garlic. It almost feels random. What is garlic doing as somebody's weakness?

Et cetera, et cetera.

I may be later discarding things left and right but right now I want to see what can I fit in into the system.

Vampires come from two basic origins, either based off of Bram Stoker (and heavily modified from pop culture) or based off something like Camazotz from Mayan(?) mythology. Now, current vampires are usually just boosted humans with bloodlust, and lack the finer points of the classic vampire. I'd rather the old ones. Also, for fun, I'm going to see if I can identify the historical basis of weaknesses.

Religion: In I am Legend (the book), the protagonist has to use Stars of David against the Jewish zombies, because his crosses don't work. He coats his house in every religious symbol eventually. The origin of this comes from the assumption that vampires are demonic in nature, and thus, can be banished by religion.

Silver: This is fun, it comes from summoning. Well, the principles of summoning, anyway, that silver is a ward against anything dark. Silver, along with cold iron, is usually effective against anything that goes bump in the night

Running Water: Running water disrupts ley lines. I think. (Actually, I'm not sure about this one. I do know that running water was highly symbolic in the middle ages, though)

Stakes: This is from thorns, specifically bloodrose. It's a flower that kill vampire from a thorn scratch. Also, take a look at aconite, if you look up plants.

Invitation: Also from summoning. The door to your house represents a threshold that can't be crossed.

Garlic: No, this one is stupid, unless you give your vampires a really good reason for doing so.

Sunlight: Like all good creatures of the dark, vampires hate sunlight. Shouldn't kill them outright.

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

13 hours ago, aeromancer said:

Garlic: No, this one is stupid, unless you give your vampires a really good reason for doing so.

Wiki-ed garlic: "In Europe, many cultures have used garlic for protection or white magic, perhaps owing to its reputation as a potent preventative medicine."

It's also not specific to vampires, apparently.

[Voidus]

19 minutes ago, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

Wiki-ed garlic: "In Europe, many cultures have used garlic for protection or white magic, perhaps owing to its reputation as a potent preventative medicine."

It's also not specific to vampires, apparently.

It's also incredibly healthy
Of note is that many vampiric weaknesses are natural occurrences or substances (Sunlight, running water, garlic, wooden stakes)

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

Not sure if your still looking for help, but I might be able to work out a list of several dozen powers common to vampires. If desired, I can create a second list that details common modern abilities attributed to vampires. 

A fun-fact you might enjoy confusing people with is that they were originally called: Vampyres. With a y instead of an I. It makes me laugh.

also: Vampire fun-fact video. It details their origins.

Edited January 3, 2017 by ShadowLord_Lith

[Oversleep]

@ShadowLord_Lith please do. Both lists would be extremely useful.

If you happen to have anything on werewolves please also send it my way

@Ernei well, I was under impression that if each bite turns victim into a vampire then the question is whether the victim was sucked dry and died or was not and survived to become a vampire.

Nevertheless I won't be doing each bite = instant new vampire.

Mind control - I meant control over mortals (normal humans). Pretty much every main character is some kind of a mage so the vampire would have to be really powerful to even start affecting them. Although normal human friends and relatives are vulnerable which can always come in handy.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Oversleep

[Oversleep]

27 minutes ago, Ernei said:

I get the feeling that normal folk like us all are screwed in your setting -.-

Actually most of the people have enough potential to be able to do some magic but as of right now it's commonly believed you need a considerable amount of power. This belief is gonna be challenged a little when one of the main characters discovers the mentioned vampire-derived mage thing. It's a magic trick that goes around the problem of not having enough power for advanced magic.

And then there's a very specialized and reaally secret thing that allows even weak humans totally wreck the high-power mages. But I'm getting into the stuff I don't plan on revealing too early.

And magic power is not everything - actual ability on wreaking havoc is a function of creativity, ability to think in a rigid system (like Realmatics) and, for a lack of better term, programming prowess. So I think I can safely assume that I could pick some Sharders, initiate them and end up with a bunch of High Epics.

But yeah, no-magic folks are the poster people for "Collateral damage of magic battle". But even with absolutely zero magical power you can get some gifted abilities from some of the mages. It's a more advanced version of the vampire-derived mage thing (ugh, I think I have to invent some shorter phrase for that). You can't get High Epic with that but you can totally go Radiant Squire and that, combined with firepower, would considerably increase your survivability.

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

@Oversleep,

this is what I have so far.

Spoiler

VAMPIRE( or VAMPYRE) ABILITIES, QUIRKS & WEAKNESSESS

 

MODERN ABILITIES:

Physical: strong enough to lift cars without strain, fast enough to create a blur effect, invulnerability to almost everything, inhuman beauty, pale/ reflective skin, extreme healing, fangs, supernatural grace, never getting tired, unnaturally good hunters instinct, lacking the need to sleep, extremely enhanced senses.

 

mental: can think several times faster than an average human, perfect/near perfect memory, perfect spatial awareness.

 

Supernatural: any random supernatural ability(i.e. Telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc...), eternal youth(VERY different from immortality), and ability to create other vampires via blood transfusion or venom of some sort.

 

MODERN WEAKNESSES:

Other vampires, werewolves, magic, fire, extreme pain/shock, their creator can have dangerous control over them(ensure the creator is usually hunted down and killed, reducing vampire population.).

 

 

CLASSICAL ABILITIES:

 

Physical: strong enough to lift boulders without strain, fast enough to create a near teleportation effect, invulnerability to nearly everything, inhuman beauty to the point where it instills unease, pale skin, extreme healing, fangs, supernatural grace, never getting tired, unnaturally good hunters instinct, extremely enhanced senses.

 

Mental: can think several times faster than an average human, perfect/near perfect memory, perfect spatial awareness, can sense prey after it's been bitten, can sense their "offspring".

 

Supernatural: hypnotic gaze, blood manipulation of previously bitten prey, mental control of women/men depending on gender, perfected seduction, shape-shifting into bat/wolf/bat-swarm/snake/etc..., weather manipulation, transformation into and travel via clouds of mist, invisibility, eternal youth(again, VERY different from immortality), and ability to create other vampires via blood transfusion.

 

CLASSICAL WEAKNESSES:

Physical: wooden stakes, sunlight, running water, garlic(WHY?!?!?!), holy religious symbols, holy water, silver

 

SOMETIMES HAPPENS REGARDLESS OF THE ERA:

 

QUIRKS: 

human emotions, retains previous personality, (occasionally) cries blood instead of tears, (once that I know of) reflect sunlight- similar to crystal.

 

I'll finish it some time in the next three days and give you the finished copy, okay?

 

Also, what specific things can your mages do? If you have a plethora, just give us like three things... please? I have a... strong... desire to hear more... much more...

Edited January 4, 2017 by ShadowLord_Lith
Added a question.

[Oversleep]

1 hour ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

I'll finish it some time in the next three days and give you the finished copy, okay?

I'm awaiting eagerly

1 hour ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

Also, what specific things can your mages do? If you have a plethora, just give us like three things... please? I have a... strong... desire to hear more... much more...

I have already pretty much spammed Creation Daily with my ideas I think I'll start my own thread sometime.

Simple answer: any sufficiently powerful mage can create his own power. It's exactly like building your RPG character.

Longer answer: Without diving into details, an initiated Soulsmith chooses something, some concept or ability and molds his aura to it. For example the main character, Haesar, is a fire mage. It's not really original but he didn't really have time to think things through and later on just got used to it.

[Here was a long description on how things work but I decided against posting it... yet. It's not yet polished and I'm a little paranoid ]

There are a lot of common powers like fire, water and so on. Gravity, magnetism, electricity, sound... telekinesis...you know how it goes, just read any superpowers list... and then there are some bizarre ones, like Angle. Angle's power is - you guessed right - power to control angles. He could walk through a battlefield unscathed (he's protected by angle-warping field). He intuitively understands trajectories AND he can warp angles; too bad he can't get his hands on any ranged weapon. He has an infinitely sharp sword (the explanation of inner working of this is left as exercise for the reader).

General rule is the more specific your power is, the more powerful it is. And that's where the fun starts. People have to walk a line between versatility and utility. One on one, air mage is gonna have stronger wind than storm mage (who can control air, water and electricity). But light mage can do all sort of fun things while laser mage can basically fire a laser...

There's also another rule: your power has to make sense and be consistent - your power can't be teleportation and fire; but your power can be air, water and electricity since that's what a storm is. You can change your aura to be storm but how do you change it into fire and teleportation?

I mean, that's the rules they worked out so far: something happened some time ago and a lot of knowledge was lost and they have to rediscover things earlier mages could do (like having unrelated powers). Because that's not impossible. There are some fun combinations (like tapping iron while Steelpushing oops wrong thread ).

Fun fact: second in command in Haesar's team is an ice mage. They argue a lot. Cause since I already do have a fire-based leader I took it all the way with the tropes

Edited January 4, 2017 by Oversleep

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

Would the ability to manipulate minor inconveniences work?

Could I, with this power, instantly fix any minor inconvenience? Or cause any?

Like, could I, if the guy was super powerful (to the point where most people were just annoying), make people disappear? Would that abilities capabilities change depending on the persons company?

 Or is this simply an impossible or non-existent ability?

[Oversleep]

I think "minor inconvenience" is a too broad term. The thing is, the power has to run on something: illusion could be running on light or be a subset of mind manipulation. Fixing minor mechanical inconveniences could probably be done under telekinesis or metal manipulation. Fixing both those and electrical would be harder without tricks to use different powers (unless you decide to manipulate metal by magnetism and just go with electromagnetism). You see where I'm getting?

Unless you find some common denominator for "minor inconveniences" other than the name itself

Of course if the guy was infinitely powerful his power could be "reality bending" but at that point you're Dr Manhattan and you can do everything and you're a god. The more broad the power, the less powerful it gets. With something like that you'd need to drain stars to fuel your magic. Of course, trying to get the power from external sources is different and trying to channel so much energy would not be good for you. Reference: Vin Ascending.

BTW, I forgot to said that all most Soulsmiths get basically Stormlight (improved body + regeneration).

[Voidus]

6 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'm awaiting eagerly

I have already pretty much spammed Creation Daily with my ideas I think I'll start my own thread sometime.

Simple answer: any sufficiently powerful mage can create his own power. It's exactly like building your RPG character.

Longer answer: Without diving into details, an initiated Soulsmith chooses something, some concept or ability and molds his aura to it. For example the main character, Haesar, is a fire mage. It's not really original but he didn't really have time to think things through and later on just got used to it.

[Here was a long description on how things work but I decided against posting it... yet. It's not yet polished and I'm a little paranoid ]

There are a lot of common powers like fire, water and so on. Gravity, magnetism, electricity, sound... telekinesis...you know how it goes, just read any superpowers list... and then there are some bizarre ones, like Angle. Angle's power is - you guessed right - power to control angles. He could walk through a battlefield unscathed (he's protected by angle-warping field). He intuitively understands trajectories AND he can warp angles; too bad he can't get his hands on any ranged weapon. He has an infinitely sharp sword (the explanation of inner working of this is left as exercise for the reader).

General rule is the more specific your power is, the more powerful it is. And that's where the fun starts. People have to walk a line between versatility and utility. One on one, air mage is gonna have stronger wind than storm mage (who can control air, water and electricity). But light mage can do all sort of fun things while laser mage can basically fire a laser...

There's also another rule: your power has to make sense and be consistent - your power can't be teleportation and fire; but your power can be air, water and electricity since that's what a storm is. You can change your aura to be storm but how do you change it into fire and teleportation?

I mean, that's the rules they worked out so far: something happened some time ago and a lot of knowledge was lost and they have to rediscover things earlier mages could do (like having unrelated powers). Because that's not impossible. There are some fun combinations (like tapping iron while Steelpushing oops wrong thread ).

Fun fact: second in command in Haesar's team is an ice mage. They argue a lot. Cause since I already do have a fire-based leader I took it all the way with the tropes

If you ever need ideas for random minor powers let me know, I have a compendium of... well a lot, for the Reckoners RP.
How specific can the powers be? Could someone pick "Moving precisely 1.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 tonnes of earth" and then move that one tonne at the speed of sound?

[Oversleep]

4 hours ago, Voidus said:

If you ever need ideas for random minor powers let me know, I have a compendium of... well a lot, for the Reckoners RP.

I know. Remember when I said I could pick Sharders to initiate them in that system and end up with a bunch of High Epics? I think that if I picked you, you could easily redefine "overpowered"

4 hours ago, Voidus said:

How specific can the powers be? Could someone pick "Moving precisely 1.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 tonnes of earth" and then move that one tonne at the speed of sound?

Well, you still need to fuel those kinds of things. The more specific the more efficient your power is and the more powerful (for example, I nerfed telekinesis to avoid "why can't he rip them in half" problem. Then some people took that principle of specificity to the edge, sacrificing a lot of things and ended up as really powerful Coinshots and Lurchers. They are scary).

So, moving earth. Telekinesis is not up to the task (nerfed it is) but you can go with earth and keep chopping things off until you end up with power of moving a precise amount of earth of precise shape. Not really so much as 1.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 tonnes but you could totally destroy a city given enough time.

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

Slightly updated version:

Spoiler

VAMPIRE( or VAMPYRE) ABILITIES, QUIRKS & WEAKNESSESS

 

MODERN ABILITIES:

Physical: strong enough to lift cars without strain, fast enough to create a blur effect, invulnerability to almost everything, inhuman beauty, pale/ reflective skin, extreme healing, fangs, supernatural grace, never getting tired, unnaturally good hunters instinct, lacking the need to sleep, extremely enhanced senses.

 

mental: can think several times faster than an average human, perfect/near perfect memory, perfect spatial awareness.

 

Supernatural: any random supernatural ability(i.e. Telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc...), eternal youth(VERY different from immortality), and ability to create other vampires via blood transfusion or venom of some sort.

 

MODERN WEAKNESSES:

Other vampires, werewolves, magic, fire, extreme pain/shock, their creator can have dangerous control over them(ensure the creator is usually hunted down and killed, reducing vampire population.).

 

 

CLASSICAL ABILITIES:

 

Physical: strong enough to lift boulders without strain, fast enough to create a near teleportation effect, invulnerability to nearly everything, inhuman beauty to the point where it instills unease, pale skin, extreme healing, fangs, supernatural grace, never getting tired, unnaturally good hunters instinct, extremely enhanced senses.

 

Mental: can think several times faster than an average human, perfect/near perfect memory, perfect spatial awareness, can sense prey after it's been bitten, can sense their "offspring".

 

Supernatural: hypnotic gaze, blood manipulation of previously bitten prey, mental control of women/men depending on gender, perfected seduction, shape-shifting into bat/wolf/bat-swarm/snake/etc..., weather manipulation, transformation into and travel via clouds of mist, invisibility, eternal youth(again, VERY different from immortality), and ability to create other vampires via blood transfusion.

 

CLASSICAL WEAKNESSES:

Physical: wooden stakes, sunlight, running water, garlic(WHY?!?!?!), holy religious symbols, holy water, silver.

 

Mental: ...?

 

Spiritual: magic affects everything. Including them. Vampires could probably kill each-other. Werewolves are its traditional enemies. Some legends consider vampires to be fey, and so Rowan affected them powerfully, along with iron and knowing their birth-names.(though this is a fairly rare thing, take with a grain of salt.)

 

SOMETIMES HAPPENS REGARDLESS OF THE ERA:

 

QUIRKS: 

human emotions, retains previous personality, (occasionally) cries blood instead of tears, (once that I know of) reflect sunlight- similar to crystal.

 

Will continue to update as add as I discover more.

 

Also, can your mages steal power and/or innate-investiture(for lack of a better term) from other mages?

Edited January 5, 2017 by ShadowLord_Lith
Add on

[Oversleep]

22 hours ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

Also, can your mages steal power and/or innate-investiture(for lack of a better term) from other mages?

I haven't thought much about this; I canonized nothing.

Generally mages cannot directly affect each other magically (some can and they are regarded as scary or at least it's uneasy around them) - Haesar can throw a fireball at somebody but he can't just set that somebody on fire from a distance. He could however hold on to somebody and set them on fire. But it's a process which is actually a reverse of what you'd need to do to drain them.

Storytelling enforces that most of mental powers can affect other mages (otherwise those would be useless. I have some reasons to back it up).

You mean more like Hemalurgy or more like one Surgebinder stealing somebody's else Stormlight? Hemalurgy kind... it's a plot point. It's related to what a Middle Bad of the story can do and some of secrets of the worldbuilding.

Stealing somebody's else Stormlight... You'd need a way to create a link between you and your victim. It's not about needing a pathway - consider auras to be different Investitures, you can't just go and power Allomancy with Breaths.
Usually if such a link exists (like between teammates) power can be gifted (because somebody is running dangerously low on resources) but stealing would require a way to invade someone or break them in such a way that power leaks out. If you're getting at vampires being able to do that I can say that's it's plausible - blood of a mage is Invested (for a lack of a better term). However they still won't be able to drain them - they're getting blood and that blood happens to carry some of the power.

There are some monsters who feed on souls so for them it's all the same whether it's a soul or power since that's pretty much the same (Soulsmiths, remember?).

EDIT: I pretty much invented half of that on the spot. I think starting "Ask about my worldbuilding" thread is a good idea

Edited January 6, 2017 by Oversleep

[Eki]

The book "Let the Right One In" (which I think has an American movie adaption called "Let Me In" or something) has kinda interesting vampires.

Spoiler

Humans have brain tissue in their guts (In real life, that is. It's weird), and in this book, vampirism is basically that second brain changing, making the affected person blood thirsty. The longer they go without feeding, the more the second brain takes over, compelling them to consume blood. In one case in the book, a newly infected vampire resorts to drinking her own blood to stop the urge. Vampirism also makes the person stronger, halts aging, and affects other parts of the body. But the brain thing is the most interesting, I think.

Vampirism is spread through biting, but it seems like vampires prefer to kill their victims instead of letting them survive to become vampires.

That, along with the fact that most people can't handle being vampires (because they can't or don't want to kill people, mostly. (iirc, most vampires end up killing themselves) Or because they get violent at the wrong time, and get killed. Or because they don't know about all the weaknesses of their kind), is why vampires aren't taking over the world.

It is a fairly disturbing book, to be honest. Good if you like horror, I guess. Can't vouch for any translation though, I only read the original.

[Oversleep]

1 hour ago, Eki said:

The book "Let the Right One In" (which I think has an American movie adaption called "Let Me In" or something) has kinda interesting vampires.

  Hide contents

Humans have brain tissue in their guts (In real life, that is. It's weird), and in this book, vampirism is basically that second brain changing, making the affected person blood thirsty. The longer they go without feeding, the more the second brain takes over, compelling them to consume blood. In one case in the book, a newly infected vampire resorts to drinking her own blood to stop the urge. Vampirism also makes the person stronger, halts aging, and affects other parts of the body. But the brain thing is the most interesting, I think.

Vampirism is spread through biting, but it seems like vampires prefer to kill their victims instead of letting them survive to become vampires.

That, along with the fact that most people can't handle being vampires (because they can't or don't want to kill people, mostly. (iirc, most vampires end up killing themselves) Or because they get violent at the wrong time, and get killed. Or because they don't know about all the weaknesses of their kind), is why vampires aren't taking over the world.

It is a fairly disturbing book, to be honest. Good if you like horror, I guess. Can't vouch for any translation though, I only read the original.

I think my friend read it few years ago. Title is similar, horror checks out, vampires... He also said it's weird.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Oversleep

[ErikModi]

Really, vampires are whatever you need them to be for the story.  In most older folklore, they're more or less about fear of death, decay, and corruption.  For Bram Stoker, they were basically fear of STDs that no one was acknowledging existed.  In the modern times, they can be fear of stalkers, date rapists, abusive partners, authority figures, whatever.

First, ask yourself "what purpose to vampires serve in my story?"  That'll give you a basic starting point for what "kind" of vampire you want to make, whether it's the modern sexy vampire, the slightly older disturbing vampire, the older-still monstrous vampire, the even-more-older rotting corpse vampire, or the oldest-of-the-old incorporeal vampire.  That'll also help you figure out what weaknesses make sense.  Are your vampires legitimately cursed by God?  Then holy objects (or maybe just crosses) will work.  Do humans have some special ability to resist them?  Then holy objects will probably still work, but for different reasons.  Are they literal "creatures of the night?"  Then sunlight fries them into crispy critters.  If not, maybe sunlight just weakens them, or has no effect at all.  Are they abominations of nature, causing natural and physical laws to break down around them?  Then you have a reason for them to cast no reflections and such.

The important part isn't necessarily finding definitive answers to why vampires are the way they are, but why they are the way they are in your story.  There's so much vampire fiction and folklore that "accuracy" isn't so much a moving target as it is a nonexistent one.  For instance, sunlight destroying vampires is wholly an invention of Hollywood, created for the film Nosferatu as one of the changes necessary to avoid a lawsuit for being an unlicensed adaptation of Dracula.  Coffins are also a Hollywood invention, this time from the Dracula films, Bram Stoker originally just had "boxes of earth," since Dracula had to sleep in his native soil.  So you really are free to use, modify, and discard any particular rules you want, and create your own if it serves the story better.

I hesitate to go into anything more specific, since I have my own series of vampire novels I'm writing (self-published the first one), and don't want to give away too much about how the vampires in that world work just yet.

[Oversleep]

@ErikModi the thing is I'm doing opposite of what you're describing. I'm trying to work out vampires because my approach is "that's where all that folklore and fantasy vampires come from" so I need to reverse-engineer fantasy, if you get what I'm saying.

For example, Greek demigods would be actually ancient Soulsmiths etc.

[ErikModi]

Still, the steps are pretty much the same.  Separate fact from myth, at least within the rules of your story.  Are all vampires destroyed by sunlight?  Are all vampires repelled by crosses (or any holy object)?  Does the wielder actually need to have faith for it to work?  Do they need to sleep in their native soil?  Are the rules the same for all vampires, or are there offshoots/subspecies/"Clans"/whatever that have different rules?  Are the myths just that, myths, or are they distorted versions of the truth, or are they misattributed to vampires and actually describe another beastie entirely?  Have vampires spread disinformation?  "Haha, wooden stakes, that was a good one!"

Basically, decide what is and is not true about vampires in your world, what people do and do not believe about them (which can be two completely separate things), and then work on the reasons why, if that aspect is important.

I'd say that, as far as getting the general public to accept what you call a vampire is actually vampire, you really only need three things:  drinks blood, lives forever barring specific methods of killing, primarily or exclusively nocturnal.  Anything else you want to make them, there's foundation in folklore and fiction for it.  Heck, if you want to decide the actual vampires are incorporeal entities who sometimes possess corpses to walk around and drink the blood of the living, or sometimes just move around as a spirit-thing and drain "life-energy," that's pretty accurate to some of the earliest folkloric descriptions of vampires.