Vampire Anatomy & Biology, All questions answered, and more!

BASIC VAMPIRE ANATOMY

So, many of you are probably wondering just how the vampire body works. How do you turn a mortal? What's dead blood? How alive is a vampire's body? Can it grow? Lose weight? Bald? What about kids? Can vampires have sex? Do drugs? Get drunk? All those questions answered (and more!) in this convenient lesson in Vampire Biology 101.

To start, I'd like to clarify that this is just my theory. I have used biology to back up all of my claims so that the vampires on this site are kept as realistic as possible, as opposed to having a magical spin on the vampires of Demaitre. This theory isn't "universally" correct. It's just the theory I have worked out for this site, not every vampire site around the world. This should go without saying, but since it is my theory, e-mail me if you want to use this on your own site. If you e-mail me and credit me, I am more inclined to say yes.

TURNING A MORTAL:
Here on Vital it is most common to see a vampire turned by a transfer of blood between a mortal and a vampire. The vampire drains the mortal of most of its blood and, in return, the mortal is given blood from the vampire. This begins the transformation. Blood must be ingested via the mouth and swallowed. You cannot become a vampire by getting vampiric blood in a cut you may have. Typically, the mortal is still left alive and conscious during the turning, though you can have the mortal be completely deceased. In the latter circumstance, the mortal can be dead for no longer than four minutes. After 4 minutes, the brain does not get the fresh blood and oxygen it needs to function and will rapidly kill itself over the next few minutes, so if you are turning a mortal by means of completely killing them (Drama, oooh!) then do so in four minutes time, nada más.

THE BASICS:
When a human is turned, most of the internal organs disintegrate and are absorbed by the muscles and blood of the vampire-to-be's body. The oesophagus is rerouted to the aorta, meaning everything swallowed goes straight to the heart. The lungs are left intact in all vampires, due to some being required to breathe. It's an evolutionary relic, of sorts. Lastly, the brain remains alive and continues to process information for all parts of the body.

THE BRAIN:
I'd assume this to be self-explanatory. The brain has to function in order to have a sentient human, so why would it be any different for a vampire? Biologically, it shouldn't. If the brain failed to function, you would have a vegetable for a vampire, and it would starve itself to death in a matter of days if the sun did not kill it first.

THE HEART:
The heart still pumps and circulates blood throughout the body, though the speed and strength of this beating varies in vampires, from what feels like a stand still heartbeat to a normal heartbeat. At the time of feeding, the heartbeat in all vampires quickens to get the new blood to all parts of the body, brain first, which creates the euphoric high that occurs during a feeding. Then, it either remains normal or it slows down as the rest of the body gets its new blood. Everything ingested into a vampire must pass through the heart, meaning eating and drinking almost all substances will kill a vampire. Exceptions have been noted below.

THE LUNGS:
Though many vampires are not required to breath, they all still have a trachea connected to the lungs. This allows vampires to take in air for talking, sighing, gasping, screaming, etc. If they had no lungs, and, thus, no ability to take in air, then they would be mutes. Veins still pass through the alveoli of the lungs, meaning molecules and substances can still cross the air-blood barrier, be it oxygen or carbon dioxide or tetrahydrocannabinol, the active "ingredient" in marijuana.

THE SKIN:
The skin is essential for holding everything in. That's obvious. Why I thought I'd mention it is the fact that the skin is required to perform a few special tasks, such as increased healing abilities. Did you know that, on a cellular level, humans should never get older? We should never age, wear down, and die, because the cells are always exactly the same. They are exact replicas of the cells you had when you were born. That being said, in vampires, aging has been solved. The cells work like they should and the vampiric body never ages. The skin of a vampire heals faster as well, presumably due to this never-aging phenomenon.

DEAD BLOOD: (Marcus's Little Addition...)
This is just a little notice with regard to the term "dead blood" used in the coven descriptions. Dead blood, by definition of Vital, is blood that no longer moves through-out a body. Such blood would be found in a corpse, or as packaged blood such as is used in blood transfusions. The blood within vampires is still sustaining a body, thus it is "live" blood. However, should one vampire attempt to feed from another vampire, it will not have any sustenance for them.

SUBSTANCES ALLOWED INTO A VAMPIRE'S BODY:
For the pure enjoyment of the game, we've stretched the rules to add to the enjoyment of the game. The three substances allowed into the vampiric body are alcoholic beverages, inhaled narcotics, and injected narcotics.

An elaboration:

Your character doesn't have to be affected by drugs and alcohol. Some site members prefer to have their characters be immune to the effects narcotics typically have on the body, but as a personal preference, I always enjoy a thread of Drunk Colton confessing embarrassing, plot affecting information.

As for why we allow vampires to drink alcohol, but not milk, is somewhat of a stretch, but, for the purposes of fun and enjoyment, this is the logic and research I have behind that.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

If alcohol (the specific type of alcohol being ethanol) is absorbed into the blood stream, then it causes no harm there. The stretch part is that alcoholic drinks are not pure ethanol, thus, there is a load of stuff being added to the blood that shouldn't be there. BUT, again! It's a stretch for the enjoyment of you, the role player. Take full advantage of the bars and nightclubs.

As for drugs. I say that anything inhaled smoke wise or powder wise (marijuana, crack/cocaine, opium, etc.) and anything injected directly into the blood stream (morphine, etc.) are a-ok by biological standards. Anything pill or plant wise (mushrooms, ecstasy, etc.) would not float, because they'd need to be digested in the stomach.

Also, I think I should mention that I do not support the use of these drugs in any way, shape, or form, before I sound like a complete drug-addict-alcoholic mix. Long live the clean blooded, and such.

Moving on!

SEX AND PREGNANCIES:
I'm going to do this section FAQ style. It might keep you interested if I crack jokes and write nice, pretty paragraphs filled with mind-boggling imagery, but... No. As most men say, let's get in, out, and done with this.

- Can vampires have sex?
'Course. Blood still flows to all the right places... And that should be all I have to say.

- Can vampires get pregnant?
No. In a female vampire, the womb and ovaries were killed off and absorbed back into the body. They cannot produces eggs and cannot be artificially inseminated because there is no hospitable territory for a foetus to be carried. Male vampires no longer produce sperm. In fact, all the fluids usually produced in an ejaculation have stopped being produced, so instead of semen, a small amount of blood is released.

- What if my mortal, female character is pregnant when she gets turned? What happens to the baby?
To set up this topic, I must explain one thing: the baby will NOT be turned into a "baby vampire." According to Wikipedia.org and AIDS research, blood is not shared between the mother and the foetus while the baby is en-vitro. This means that, while the mother can be drained of blood and fed blood back to be turned, the blood she is receiving would not affect the baby.

- If the baby is not turned, what happens to it?
As is aforementioned, the uterus in a woman dissolves. The means the baby is not going to be able to stay inside mom. There are two scenarios here, and I'll briefly explain them both.

Scenario One: the foetus is under six months of age. At that stage, it is nearly impossible for a foetus to grow, develop, and live outside the uterus of the mother. For simplicity, we're saying the baby would be miscarried. If the foetus is only two or three months along, it, like all the unnecessary organs in the vampire's body, would be rejected, attacked by the red and white blood cells of the body, broken down, and absorbed back into the body of the new vampire. After four months, the vampire would go into pre-term labour and the baby would be physically expelled from the body.

Scenario Two: the foetus is six months en-vitro to full term. It will still be birthed, only at this point in development, it is possible for the baby to survive if taken to a hospital. The baby would not, and I repeat, would NOT be a vampire. It would be a mortal baby, able to age and die.

THE ONLY WAY TO GET A "BABY" VAMPIRE IS TO TURN A MORTAL.

And that's it, folks. Any more questions? PM Coleslaw, Marcus, Jill, Tsuka Nitta, or Nafretiri for answers.