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AR annotations are generally not included because I'm not familiar with the mythos. In that case, the annotation mark usually means I got different answers from different contributors.
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Myth: Vampires are hideously deformed
AB: *No
Note: One lines of vampires can make themselves appear decomposed, athough that is presumably not their base form.
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Myth: Vampires gain monstrous aspects when angered, stressed, using vampiric abilities, etc. (e.g. glowing eyes or deformed features)
AB: *No
Note: Not normally, but Anita ocassionaly reports percieving differences.
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Myth: A vampire's heart beats.
AB: *Usually
Note: A vampire's heart might not beat when haven't fed in a while, blood pressure too low. It's probably safer to say that a vampire just won't die from having his heart not beat.
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Myth: When you are bitten by a vampire (and live) you acquire some vampiric traits
AB: *sometimes
Note: Biting is part of one of the levels of making someone a human servant.
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Myth: When you drink from a vampire (without being dead first) they gain some power over you
AB: *Yes
Note: I'm not sure what annotation I meant to put here
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Myth: When you drink from a vampire (without being dead first) you acquire some vampiric traits
AB: *sometimes
Note: Biting is part of one of the levels of making someone a human servant.
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Myth: Crosses repel vampires/ Crosses require the belief of the wielder to repel vampires
AB: *Usually/*Yes
Note: Whether a cross has been consecrated appears to have an effect as well.
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Myth: Vampires are completely nonfunctional (e.g asleep or corpselike) during the day/Only the oldest/most powerful vampires can function during the day
AB: *Usually/*Yes
Note: Generally, daytime vampires are sufficiently corpselike that Anita was able to raise one once. There was at least one exception of a very powerful vampire functioning during the day, however.
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Myth: Vampires have inhuman stealth (Sometimes to the point of invisibility)
AB: *Yes
Note: This may or may not be supernatural in origin. Since they do not breathe, they make less noise.
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Myth: Vampirism can be cured
AR: *Rarely
Note: Reader Natalie Cruz says "in Tale of the Body Thief Lestat could have become a human if he would have stayed in the human body. He left his spirit out of his body and placed it into a human body. So, in a sense, they could be cured."
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Myth: Vampires tend to have long and pointed fingernails
AR: *No
Note: Contributor David the Gnome says "Anne Rice vampires do not have long and pointed fingernails. Their nails are the same shape and size as when they were mortal, however, their nails are clear and reflecive, seeming almost to be made of glass.
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Myth: Vampires are societally compelled to obey their sire...
AR: *No
Note: According to contributor Petra Martincevic: Normally not. Only Lestat told Louis something else, but they can leave them. The only thing is NEVER KILL YOUR CREATOR!:
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Myth: Something about the person as a pre-vampire mortal has an effect on the powers/power level of the vampire
AR: *Yes
Note: According to contributor Petra Martincevic: David Talbot could call ghosts and could see them, so he told Armand in his book, as he want to sit in the attic to see the little girl, which was told, that she died there.
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Myth: Vampirism can be cured
BtVS: *Very Rarely
Note: I was tempted to leave this one as "No", but it's come up enough now. A sufficiently powerful wish or bathing in some sort of demon blood (I don't remember which) can return a vampire to mortal status. It's also been explicitly mentioned in Angel that his eventual reward for being such a cool guy will be his mortality.
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Myth: Vampires, in fact, don't breathe, unless they consciously intend to
BtVS: *Yes
Note: This one gets debated. One the one hand, if they don't breathe, how do they talk (or smoke?). On the other hand, Angel once claimed he could not perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because he no longer had breath, and the cast has made numerous other comments about not breathing. Of course, there's the issue that we see them breathing all the time -- because the _actors_ need to.
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Myth: Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight
BtVS: *No
Note: Reader djbell tells us "The last three episodes of Angel, season two, show that at least two other "suns" (therefore other UV sources) did not effect the vampire Angel. See episodes: 42 - Over the Rainbow, May 8, 2001; 43 - Through the Looking Glass, May 15, 2001; 44 - There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, May 22, 2001" Of course, that was another dimension with different magical rules. Angel has also walked around a shooting set of a beach, which implies (but does not prove) no UV problem.
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Myth: Dead vampires disperse to dust regardless of age.
BtVS: *Yes
Note: Yes, the Master did leave bones. He was freakish that way. But he still dusted.
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Myth: Vampires can be sustained indefinitely by animal blood (without suffering deleterious side effects)
BtVS: *Yes
Note: The only case where we really know a vampire went human-free for an extended period of time is Angel. By the end of that time, he did look awfully unhealthy, but it's not clear whether that was the result of rat blood not being as good or whether he just wasn't getting enough.
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Myth: Eucharistic wafers can be substituted for/function similarly to holy water
BtVS: *Yes
Note: We've never seen this on screen, but Buffy has some in her Slayer kit, so they must be good for something.
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Myth: Vampires have no reflection in mirrors or water
BtVS: *Yes
Note: This is mentioned (and seen) frequently on the show, but it does start debates in the discussion areas because some kinds of photography involve reflective surfaces and photography does work.
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Myth: Vampires have hypnotic mind control
BtVS: *Some
Note: The Master had some sort of influence, and Drusilla showed mind control. On the other hand, given that we know Dru had psychic gifts before she became a vampire, it's not certain whether this is a vampire trait or specific to the individuals with the ability.
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Myth: Vampires have a mist or intangible form / Shapeshifting (often a wolf or bat) / Vampires must sleep with a sample of their home soil
BtVS: *No
Note: Yes, Dracula "turned to mist", apparently shape-shifted, didn't die when he was staked, needed his home soil, and so on. The thing is, we haven't seen any other vampires with these exceptions, but we have seen vampires with extra abilities dating back to their mortal life. Since the only exception to the rule is Dracula, I am considering it to be an intrinisc trait and not a vampiric trait and leaving the answer as is.
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Myth: Vampires are repelled by garlic
BtVS: *Yes
Note: We've never seen this on screen, but Buffy has some in her Slayer kit, so they must be good for something. In one of the books, Drusilla mentions being burned by garlic.
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Myth: Vampires can bear children/Vampires can father children
BtVS: *No
Note: Yes, Angel and Darla had a child. But since everyone's reaction to it was "but vampires can't do that", we have to figure that it was some sort of divine intervention and not a true change to the rule.
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Myth: Vampires suffer more than usual damage from silver/If invulnerable to normal attack, silver is one of the few substances that will harm a vampire
DS: *No/*Yes
Note: Oddly, the vampire was vulnerable to silver bullets, but not his cane topper.
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Myth: A vampire's heart beats.
FK: *Yes
Note: A vampire's heart does beat, but almost imperceptibly - at about 10 beats per minute.
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Myth: Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight
FK: *Yes
Note: Nick did have a tanning bed in his apartment to inprove his resistance, so it's possible that UV light is slightly less effective than direct sunlight.
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Myth: Beheading causes permanent death
FK: *Usually
Note: P.N. Elrod put that annotation marker there. I'll have to ask her what she meant.
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Myth: Vampires can no longer eat or drink at all (other than blood)
FK: *No
Note: The one thing we do see vampires drinking is wine, but that wine is blood-laced, which presumably makes the difference. Contributor Silvfox says "In the original TV movie, Jannette mentions to Nick that it is acutally just blood with a little wine mixed in... probably about a 10-1 ratio."
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Myth: A vampire is "frozen" at the moment of conversion. That is, hair and nails can be neither shortened nor lengthened, tattoos don't stick, etc.
FK: *No
Note: According to contributor Cia: Some aspects are frozen... Janette is told in the episode "Faithful Followers" that her tatoo will be gone tomorrow and will have to be started over.
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Myth: A vampire is immune to mortal diseases
FK: *yes
Note: Normally, yes, but there was one episode that centered around a possibly exception.
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Myth: A stake through the heart causes paralysis only
KK: *Yes
Note: A stake, left long enough, will prove fatal. In the meantime, it causes paralysis.
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Myth: Vampires can be sustained by animal blood
KK: *Yes
Note: It's a matter of last resort, though.
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Myth: Vampires are "normal" humans, just altered
SY: *Yes
Note: contributor Eissej the Rouske says: When they become vampires they die, but they are still human. Over time they change into something else. One says about his own skin, "I suspect it toughens a little with time... It is curiously fragile stuff, this pseudoflesh of ours."
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Myth: You become a vampire by drinking (or being injected by) a vampire's blood (without dying first)
SY: *Yes
Note: contributor Eissej the Rouske says: They never flat out say, but they imply that by drinking vampire blood is what kills you. You definitely have to drink their blood, and the change is definitely immediate (or nearly so) and you also have to still be alive when it happens, but I can't find anyplace that says rather you are killed by becoming a vampire or if you have to be dying when you drink.
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Myth: A stake through the heart causes permanent death
SY: *No
Note: contributor Eissej the Rouske says: It shorts out their circulatory system. They implied that a vampire could come back from just a stake. One vampire was killed and they said something about how the killer staked the vampire, and stuffed it's mouth with garlic to keep it paralyzed, then exposed it to sunlight.
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Myth: It takes special effort to make a vampire stay dead (e.g. cutting off the head, sewing the mouth shut around a clove of garlic and burying the body at a crossroads)
SY: *No
Note: According to contributor Filksinger: the vampire hunter's who hunted the vampires in the story used wooden stakes made of woods that legend says vampires are vulnerable (and this was apparently true), chopped off their heads, filled their mouths with substances that supposedly were bad for vampires (again, apparently, true), and burned the bodies. However, I am fairly certain it was never stated which of these was _necessary_. The vampire hunters weren't known to have this information. It is entirely possible that the stake would kill the vampire quite well enough, and the hunters just went overboard.
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Myth: Vampires are loners who cannot abide to share territory
SY: *Yes
Note: According to contributor Eissej the Rouske: The Masters won't take another Master in their territory, but their fledgelings share their area and sometimes vampires who don't plan on being Masters are alowed to share space.
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Myth: When a vampire feeds, it is fatal (to the donor)
SY: *Yes
Note: According to contributor Filksinger: This is only the case if they wish to _fully_ feed. A vampire can survive for some time on blood without killing, and will sometimes feed on people to a limited degree as an entertainment, playing with the person's death, while the victim enjoys the thrill. However, something about the death itself feeds them as well, requiring that they _eventually_ kill.
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Myth: A stake through the heart causes paralysis only
VF: *Yes
Note: A stake, left long enough, will prove fatal. In the meantime, it causes paralysis.
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Myth: Vampires have inhuman stealth (Sometimes to the point of invisibility)
VF: *Yes
Note: In this case, they have literal invisibility, more than stealth
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Myth: Vampires are societally compelled to obey their sire/creator
VN: *No
Note: In fact, the territorial nature of vampires tends to sever even the bond between a vampire and child.
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Myth: Vampirism can be cured
WoD: *Rarely
Note: The source material talks quite a bit about "Golconda", a kind of transcendence that could be considered a return to mortality. On the other hand, I can't think of a single solid instance of anyone actually managing it.
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Myth: You become a vampire by participating in some sort of ritual
WoD: *Rarely
Note: Yes, technically, the Tremere (and certain bloodlines) initially started themselves off using magic. On the other hand, they seem to transmit the condition the old-fashioned way.
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Myth: Sunlight causes severe burns and discomfort and is fatal after extended exposure
WoD: *Yes
Note: There are some Disciplines that allow a vampire to walk in the sunlight, but they're generally found in the obscure sourcebooks.
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Myth: Any UV source (e.g. tanning lamps) will function the same as real sunlight
WoD: *slightly
Note: I cannot remember the exact source, but I've been told one of the books mentions a UV light being used offensively. Reader Silverfox says "If I'm not mistaken, this was used in the adventure module "Ashes to Ashes". A hunter used a specially prepared UV lamp to damage the vampires assaulting him."
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Myth: Vampires can be sustained by animal blood/Vampires can be sustained indefinitely by animal blood (without suffering deleterious side effects)
WoD: *Usually/*Usually
Note: There are some types of vampire with restrictions.
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Myths: Crosses require the belief of the wielder to repel vampires/ Crosses are more effective in the hands of believers/ Crosses only have a psychosomatic effect (that is, they only work if the vampire believes that they should work)
WoD: *sometimes/*sometimes/*sort of
Note: There is a merit, True Faith, which can be used to repel vampires. Also, a vampire may take a Flaw to be repelled by crosses. It is not specified whether this is a mystical or psychosomatic effect.
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Myth: Holy water is ineffective.
WoD: *Usually
Note: Another aspect of the merit True Faith sometimes allows holy water to be effective.
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Myth: Vampires have no reflection in mirrors or water/Vampires leave no image on photographs or on film
WoD: *Rarely/*Rarely
Note: Lack of reflection is a clan flaw of the LaSombra.
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Myth: Vampires are completely nonfunctional (e.g asleep or corpselike) during the day/If at all awake, vampires are sluggish during the day/Only the oldest or most powerful vampires can function during the day
WoD: *Yes/*not applicable/ *No
Note: As a function of the discipline Fortitude, vampires can extend their waking efficacy for a few hours on either side of the day. It takes a great deal of effort, however. Elder vampires, naturally, are more likely to have high levels of the Discipline. There is also a very rare Merit/skill that allows a sleeping vampire to function through a mortal lackey.
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Myth: Older vampires will, on occasion, "weed out" the population of younger vampires
WoD: *Yes
Note: This hasn't so much happened yet as it is expected to happen. Certain very old vampires need to feed of off other vampires rather than humans.
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Myth: Vampires can bear children/Vampires can father children/A child of a vampire and a mortal results in a "Dhampir", with some vampiric abilities and fewer of the weaknesses
WoD: *No
Note: Contributor David the Gnome says "This is very little known fact regarding the WhiteWolf vampires. They actually CAN bear and sire children. Although it is VERY rare, and VERY difficult. First off, the vampire wishing to do so has to have a humanity rating of at least nine at the time of conception. If the vampire is the female, then she has to mantain this humanity rating for the entire time, and she also expends two blood points every night to awake. If her score drops, she immediately miscarries. If the child is sired by a vampire and is born to a human mother, the birth will be very violent and difficult. If the child is successfully born, it will be a Dhampir, and have lessened powers and weaknesses of a vampire." I do not have rule book verification of this. Also, some "thin bloods" are able to bear children.
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