Fact: Vampires are living, breathing, flesh and blood creatures. Many do drink human blood, but certainly not to the extent that it kills the source. Apart from anything else, that would take hours!
Fantasy: Vampires are demons, creatures with no souls who are striving to open the hellmouth and bring hell to earth ...
Fact: No, that's from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Much as I enjoy the show, not one episode has been based on truth. Not even slightly.
Fantasy: Vampires have large canine teeth, which they use to puncture the jugular of their victim before draining him or her of blood ...
Fact: Although some vampires do claim to have large canines, this is nothing out of the ordinary - So does my brother, and he's certainly not a vampire. As for puncturing the neck ... Well a vampire once told me that 'biting in the right situation can be very enjoyable, but I certainly don't bite to drink blood ...' A better place for drawing blood is from the shoulder, thigh, or fleshy base of the palm. And only use surgical instruments - Otherwise there is a risk of doing serious damage to the source.
Fantasy: Vampires are immortal, and may only be killed by a stake through the heart or having their head cut off and a slice of lemon put in their mouth (??) ...
Fact: Personally, I'm highly skeptical about the whole 'immortality' thing - As are most vampires. However, it hasn't been proven one way or the other, so I guess it's possible ... Just not plausible. As for the 'stake through a heart' bit - Well obviously a stake through the heart would kill a vampire ... It would kill anyone. A vampire may be immortal, but s/he is not invulnerable. A vampire's physiological make-up is no different from an average human's, and they are just as likely to get sick and die as anyone else. And what's that lemon-in-the-mouth thing about anyway?
Fantasy: Vampires have a strange power over people's minds ... (Mind control, or hypnosis).
Fact: Not necessarly. Anyone can learn hypnosis, or even a form of mind-control (perhaps, for example, through aura-manipulation). However, not every vampire has the requisite knowledge. I should probably note, however, that most vampires claim to have enhanced psionic powers. I'm not sure if this is true, but if it is then it would mean that a vampire would find it easier to use hypnosis, and many forms of mind-control.
Fantasy: Vampires can turn into a bat/mist/wolf/so on and so forth ...
Fact: No - That would make them a therianthrope, and even then most therianthropes are skeptical about the idea of p-shifting ('Physical-Shifting', or 'Shape-Shifting').
Fantasy: If a vampire bites you, then you get turned into one of them ...
Fact: Good grief, no! If that were true, vampires would be in the majority and vampire-sex would be a most cautious affair. In actual fact, there is no 'tried-and-true' way of 'turning' someone, or being 'turned'. A lot of vampires are doubtful that it is even possible. Check out my 'To be a vampire' page for more info on that.
Fantasy: Vampires hate the daylight - It turns them into dust/kills them ...
Fact: Ah, at last - Something resembling the truth. Vampires do not shrivel up and die if exposed to daylight. They do however get migranes and often a very nasty case of sunburn. Most vampires are photo-sensitive. This means that they are extremely sensitive to any kind of light - It hurts their eyes, causes sunstroke in the case of daylight, as well as sunburn ... Not all vampires are photo-sensitive, and not all photo-sensitive people are vampires ... However it does seem to be one of the only things almost every vampire has in common.
Fantasy: Vampires have enhanced strength/speed/senses ...
Fact: Actually, this seems to be true, at least according to the majority of the vampiric community. I remain skeptical, however, and there has been no proof of augmented senses etc. except for a few rather unbeleiveable tales ...
Fantasy: Vampires hate the smell of garlic ...
Fact: This follows on from the above Fantasy/Fact - The reason, apparently, is that because a vampire's sense of smell is enhanced, all smells are stronger ... As you can imagine, this is not a good thing when it comes to garlic, which can be pretty overpowering to most people anyway ...
