this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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Vampires

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"Few creatures of the night have captured our imagination like vampires.
What explains our enduring fascination with vampires? Is it the overtones of sexual lust, power, control? Or is it a fascination with the immortality of the undead?"

Feel free to post any vampire-related content here. I'll be posting various vampire media I enjoy just as a way of kickstarting this community but don't let that stop you from posting something else. I just wanted a place to discuss vampire movies, books, games, etc.
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This question and others like it come up a lot online.

So, lets bypass the dur-hur bullshit answers quickly. "It's all myth and fiction , so it doesn't matter" and "whatever the writer decideds."

The real answers need another pair of questions: what type of zombies and what types of vampires?

See, I'm an amateur writer ( meaning I don't generate enough income from it to wipe my ass with, but I've sold enough to say I'm a writer to some extent), a long time DM, and a mythology enthusiast. So I've stayed up nights thinking about, or debating with others this kind of question often enough to have developed a bit of a mental library on the subject. Not to mention actual books and ebooks.

Generally, zombies tend to be either magically created, or biologically spawned (be it by the living humans or nature itself). There's other types, and sub types galore. The original zombie is a creature magically created to be a servant. Here, in the real world. Now, I don't believe in magic per se, but the people that have zombies as part of their cultural history sometimes do, so real world zombies fall into the magically created category for the purposes of this question. Yeah, arguments can be made otherwise, but I'm driving this ship.

Vampires, in their real world origins are murkier because you still have to ask "which vampires"? Shit, the murk is even deeper when you realize that the *wordz vampire is old enough and has gone through enough languages to get into English that you can't even precisely point to the true origin of the word beyond something slavic or turkic, which means the nature of those vampires equally shrouded.

However, vampires, unlike zombies, are definitely dead. They die, get buried, and rise again, but most definitely not alive. See, some of the lore of zombies isn't exactly clear on that side of the bite fest. There's lore where the zombie isn't dead, just soulless, having had its soul removed, trapped, by the houngon/bokor (you pick your preferred practitioner and the spelling, I'm too tired to explain the difference) and thus is undead by virtue of not really being a person rather than being technically dead. Since known zombies had heartbeats, they explanation would fit best is suppose.

Using the most basic versions of the two, a zombie bite is no different from any human bite. But the vampire bite is still a vampire bite.

So, wtf does that mean?

It means that nothing happens. The zombie might have some nasty bacteria in its mouth, but a vampire from real world myth won't get infections. In the opposite direction, assuming the vampire bite automatically changes the target once it is killed, then there's a chance that it might successfully change the zombie into a vampire, since its body at least still has life.


Now, obviously, there were assumptions made for that. Change any given assumption, and the outcome follows suit. If real world type zombies are actually dead, they couldn't be changed. If vampires from Slavic myths were not really dead at all, who knows?

But it's a decent leaping point for thinking about such things.


Now, as any writer or DM is wont to do, lemme take you into my world for a bit.

In the shared universe I both write and DM in, there's multiple types of both. Some vampires of the most common type are made by a magical symbiotic viroid. Some of them can actually inject their symbiote into a dead body and animate it until it falls apart. Regular reinjections can extend that viability.

Some of those can cast necromancy magic instead, and raise a corpse. That corpse will stay moving as long as they put magic into it, or otherwise sustain it, or they cease to do so and it falls apart.

The main character in my self published book in that world is a necromancer of peak skill and power. His zombies will rise looking alive, and since he has the skills to do it, that's true even if the dead person is dust hundreds of years old. Just isn't easy, and it takes a shit load out of him.

In that universe, a vampire biting that kind of zombie will annoy its necromancer and may end up his next target for attention. While symbiotic vampires in that world are less vulnerable to control and manipulation via necromancy than truly undead or infernal/demonic vampires, necromancy is more than just making zombies.

However, a zombie bite is only going to annoy a vampire. In singles anyway. A swarm of the fuckers might do more damage than the vampire could heal, assuming the vampire didn't escape or otherwise prevent it. Most necromancers can't really keep a standing army of undead though. Not that it's impossible, but there's limits to how much energy you have to sustain undead. Even then, you gotta get the bodies, and put them somewhere. Ever seen a swarm of humans? Like at a concert? Imagine trying to keep thousands of zombies in your back yard. Not practical at all.

Anyways, that's my malarkey

Revenants are like vampire zombies.

[โ€“] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The vampire would most likely not turn into a zombie, but that depends on how the zombies work in whatever universe.

Traditionally, zombies are immune from death magic.

I would expect nothing would happen.

Vampire might be confused and not like the taste. And if the the vampire were experienced, may even know that the zombie is immune and pointless, either from looking or smelling, or even sensing supernaturally.

At most, maybe the vampire, if desperate, might be able to "eat" from zombies, though it would probably be disgusting and purely an act of desperation.

Either way, the he vampire is 100% the superior demon/being. Unless you're talking resident evil/racoon corp/purely bio/scifi, then all bets are off, but that's hard to truly consider a zombie.

[โ€“] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The vampire vomits, for they are both undead.

[โ€“] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

The zombie then evolves into a revenant.

[โ€“] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

dead mans blood. vampire dies.

[โ€“] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I dislike media that conflates vampirism with a zombie bite, where anyone bit by a vampire becomes one. The turning is usually much more deliberate, and not just from being a snack once.

A lot of cartoons do this to get around killing off their characters in whatever Halloween episode they have. But still annoying to see an entire flock of vampires flying through the Town

[โ€“] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

Anime rules and Buffy rules, as well as old school Dracula/ rules are like this, I'm pretty sure. The vampire only sires deliberately.

[โ€“] JackbyDev@programming.dev 7 points 2 days ago

I'm gonna say they both remain unchanged, but the Vampire is now a carrier of the zombie virus (if it's that type of zombie).

  1. Vampires turn humans into vampires. Zombies are no longer human. A vampire biting a dog does not make a vampire dog.
  2. I'm more convinced that a vampire could become a zombie (any mammal can become a zombie), but I'm going to rule that vampires are already undead, so the process to make them turn undead has no effect. That said, if the zombie has a virus, it would still populare the vampire's body. Sort of making them an asymptomatic carrier for it, I guess.
[โ€“] titanicx@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean really when you look at it a vampire is simply a well-dressed zombie.

From a distance.

[โ€“] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 1 points 2 days ago

Without the smell and internals being all exposed.

[โ€“] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well vampires are the undead, and zombies are living dead, so I posit that the bitten zombie would thence become an unliving dead. So, just dead. They cancel each other out, I guess.

[โ€“] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because, a zampire is a hottie worth fuckin'? Yup, that maths.

[โ€“] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Vampires are already zombies.

[โ€“] Kenny2999@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

The biting intensifies and 9 monts later a lich is born.

[โ€“] DaniNatrix@leminal.space 2 points 2 days ago

I love how the zombie looks like you just told them it was actually Saturday and not Monday after their alarm went off lol "what?! No way! Yay!"

[โ€“] Zephyr@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The zombie becomes part of the vampires ghoul horde. To become a vampire one must first have a soul to transact with the devil of which zombies do not have, similarly to become a zombie one must be alive for the zombie virus to spread of which vampires are not. The vampire has demonic magical influence and the zombie does not so it becomes part of Its ghoul horde.

AFAIK, vampires aren't demonic in origin, or abyssal/infernal in any way, really. They don't employ contracts of any sort, and don't traffic in souls, nor any other resemblance to demons or devils, at all. ๐Ÿ™‚โ€โ†”๏ธ

Depends on the canon, really. If you wanna go with the authentic Hungarian roots, the requirements to be a vampire are fairly tight. Likewise, Haitian Voodoo has some pretty tight requirements on what a zombie actually is.

Once you cross the pop culture wall, no holds barred. It depends entirely on the author.

[โ€“] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

These are the questions that World of Darkness was made for!

[โ€“] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Neither, because you don't turn into a vampire by being bitten by one (otherwise the vampire population with increase exponentially until everyone on earth is a vampire), and to become a zombie the zombie bites you.

But I'm pretty sure this is one of those posts that are deliberately incorrect to drum up engagement.

[โ€“] titanicx@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

It really depends on the lore that you're going with for the vampire. There are quite a few stories where just the bite of a vampire transfers into the victim. As long as they're not fully drained.

They're trying to get the correct answer in the most efficient way possible, is all. Quick! OP needs to know right now!

[โ€“] SuperNinjaFury@midwest.social 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As I understand it, it's not just the zombie bite that turns you but the transference of the zombie virus (zombie's saliva getting into the zombie's bite) I'd imagine biting a zombie would transfer the disease as well (zombie flesh inside humans mouth). Unless the virus itself is only found in the saliva but I just kind of assumed it was all throughout the zombie.

[โ€“] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's true for later versions like resident evil and 28 days/week/years, but traditional zombie films were slightly more supernatural/mysterious. At the very least they only portrayed turning via a bite

Yeah, you're right. It just depends on which version of the mythology you're going with. From what I know the roots stem from voodoo in Africa where magic was used to raise the dead and turn them into a servant of sorts, so you're version is definitely closer to the origin.

[โ€“] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Vampires and zombies only bite and turn living people, and both are already dead. Necromancers can make zombies and animated skeletons from the dead though.

[โ€“] myster0n@feddit.nl 1 points 2 days ago

At least in the marvel universe the zombie infection is stronger than vampirism. Proof : Wolverine's healing factor could resist being turned into a vampire, but not being turned into a zombie