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PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
So, I have a couple of questions regarding some physical aspects of vampires. It says that they don't die of old age and that through consumption of blood on a regular enough basis, they can maintain a peak physical form. If it works that way, then;

1. Couldn't they theoretically still taste and digest, as their bodies still work? And if so, couldn't a vampire gain weight by eating and drinking too much?

2. Could two vampires, through intercourse, conceive and give birth to a legitimate child? Would this child be a vampire, or is vampirism solely granted through the blood kiss?

I've wondered because how does a vampire infiltrate nobility and never end up at a party with people asking "why don't you eat anything?" And if they retain their base desires and free will, unlike other undead, then would they not still have a sexual drive, regardless of their ability to conceive children?
Something to think about...
 

Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
I think that it's safe to say that vampires still have feelings of desire and a sex drive. You need only look at Vlad and Isabella, for example.

Eating and drinking is a different matter. They may well be able to eat food and consume drink, but whether they gain any pleasure or satisfaction from it is open to doubt. It would be for the sake of keeping up appearances and no more. As a result, they're very unlikely to eat or drink too much, so I can't see weight gain being at all likely.
 

PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
Ah, that makes sense. What about the conception of children, though? I can see explanations that could support it, but I can also see restrictions. I'd like to know what you think, and anyone else who happens upon this thread.

Thanks for the reply
 

Count Vashra

Lord of Shadows
True Blood
Sep 29, 2013
1,717
New Zealand
I don't think vampires can have children. All the child vampires in Warhammer I've heard about were sired at that age. It's been discussed elsewhere, but basically a vampire's body is too dead to produce children. Look at Vlad+Isabella. Their as close to normal husband/wife relationship vamps get, but still sired rather than had children. Probably because they couldn't. Plus would a vampire really want to be responsible for looking after a little baby for 10+ years until its old enough to take up the mantle?
 

PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
Valid point. I had considered that they couldn't, but now that you mention it, even if they could why would they? It makes sense now... and it's really ironic considering I don't feel like raising children myself, and I'm not even immortal so I have even less time to spend on it :) Thanks for answering!
 

Lynks

Lord of RAW
True Blood
Dec 29, 2010
2,215
Sydney
For warhammer vampires, basically all of their internal processes except for their muscles start shutting down very quickly. They don't deteriorate, but they just don't work- especially as time goes on.

They don't eat because their digestive system doesn't allow it, or otherwise they don't eat much because their digestive system can't process it anywhere near fast enough. In some of the books (i no longer remember which) it mentions vampires eating and then throwing up the food later to pass off suspicion however it's exceptionally unlikely for a vampire to draw enjoyment from anything other than blood, even if they can still taste properly. As for why they can drink blood... MAGIC!

As for the children, it's the same deal- the man and lady parts just don't work properly anymore, being dead and all. Plus, it's also often said/ implied that the desire for blood overpowers the sex drive and so the sexy times tend to revolve more around that particular activity
 

SothaMortis

Zombie
Jul 27, 2013
46
Sweden
Ok so imagine this: The most obese person in the world of warhammer gets the blood kiss. Would he be the most obese vampire in warhammer for all eternity? Or the opposite: For some reason a vampire gives the blood kiss to the weakest, and puniest human he could find. A person who can barely lift his legs. How would he grow muscle? Or is it pure magic?
 

Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
Lynks, I seem recall having read in other sources (not Warhammer) that Vampires were still able to be involved sexually with each other in the conventional manner, but I can't find the information again now, so I may be imagining it.

Regarding the blood kiss being given to an obese human, there are two issues with this. First, obesity is not common in the Warhammer World, so it's not likely to be an issue which arises very often, and second why would a vampire choose such a weak target to sire? Such a poor quality specimen would be better off being killed in the eyes of a vampire I feel.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
The dark blood would start powering up the obese humans muscles, so where he was slow and weak before, he'd still be fast and strong. Maybe his bulk would mean he'd still be slower than a slimmer Vampire, or a heroic human, but still faster and stronger than most average folk. I love the idea of a repugnant, over-engorged Vampire who can surprise people with his agility and scalpel like precision. I've used the Nurgle lord for him in my army; Hubsh Baulsafr, although he's physically the model errs more towards zombie than vampire... There's a good Ogre Kingdoms model that would work well for him, Brakk something something...

Yeah, regards to Vampires and children... well vampires are immortalised at the moment the blood kiss is given, so in theory a vampire baby would be forever a baby, immortalised at the moment it was born... or... would it even grow into a fetus?

I don't go along with the "Vampires private parts don't work at all" (say for example in The Strain, where they wither away and drop off/dry up) idea... too much sexiness in Vampire novels, that was the entire reason I read Genevieve as a lad. I do agree with the blood thirst kind of replacing it... I think a lot of Vampire sexy time revolves around kissing but when it goes elsewhere it can go elsewhere. My argument for inability to produce children but ability to engage in sexy time would be that the dark blood is so strong and potent it immediately overpowers and prevents any kind of foetal growth.
 

SothaMortis

Zombie
Jul 27, 2013
46
Sweden
I for one am so tired of the romanticised teenage vampires. I want the creature from your nightmares that looks like it clawed it's way from the underworld just to eat you and when it comes to that, I think GW is delivering.


The dark blood would start powering up the obese humans muscles, so where he was slow and weak before, he'd still be fast and strong. Maybe his bulk would mean he'd still be slower than a slimmer Vampire, or a heroic human, but still faster and stronger than most average folk. I love the idea of a repugnant, over-engorged Vampire who can surprise people with his agility and scalpel like precision. I've used the Nurgle lord for him in my army; Hubsh Baulsafr, although he's physically the model errs more towards zombie than vampire... There's a good Ogre Kingdoms model that would work well for him, Brakk something something...

Nice! I'm gonna look for these models and see if I can make an overfed-ultra-decadent vampire model just for showcase xD
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
Greasus Goldtooth might be your guy. He's so big and fat, sitting on a horde of treasure (skulls and corpses?) he needs a 50x100 base lol
 

Markond

Skeleton
Apr 10, 2014
86
In the New World of Darkness games there's a clan of vampires called the Macellarius that are horribly obese and gain even more weight with passing ages, greatly overfeed on blood and can unhinge their jaw to swallow a person whole just to be sure they got every drop of blood. They hold massive feasts where each vampire will devour whole families. They're from the Ventrue bloodline whose closest warhammer equivalent would be the Lamians, their powers centered around mind control and manipulation. Its also possible for them to get celerity, analogous to quickblood, which makes them hit with the speed and weight of a moving car.

My take would be a coven throne with an actual throne atop it and a great corpulent vampire lounging there surrounded by empty bottles and wine glasses, plates strewn about and bodies drained dry and piled up like leftovers. Potentially a nurgle champion cleanup up, with an elongated open jaw like a snake filled with lot of long needle thin teeth.
 

PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
I think the whole thing with "teenage romanticized vampires" was reserved for Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have a soft spot for the romance part of a story, but not to that extent. I thought it was cool that Vlad ended up loving Isabella enough to give her the blood kiss to save her from her sickness, but there is an easily distinguishable line between Vlad the bloodthirsty warlord and Edward the sparkly nooblord. I agree with Irisado that Vlad and Isabella are a perfect example of love and desire, and I also feel like it is implied that they had sexual desires and relations with one another aside from the battles and such. It makes even more sense considering that they only need to feed once a year if they have mastery over their thirst, which I'm assuming Vlad did, so the idea that the thirst for blood overpowers all other desire seems a little over the top to me. If I could feel nothing but thirst and the desire to conquer the empire as a vampire I'd rather live a short life and die happy.

The obesity thing seems to me like they could easily be obese if they gorged themselves on people, whether or not they ate food, and that the only way they would lose weight is if they cared to exercise these above average undead muscles of theirs. Someone greedy and lazy who was carried around on a throne all the time and cared not about his appearance but only about the power and wealth he had accumulated and feeding on humans could easily, in my view, become overweight.

I now have another question for all of you about the nature of Vampires in Warhammer: Can the Strigoi Ghoul Kings speak? I always imagined them as spending their centuries inside their crypts going crazier and crazier, but it seems to me they would speak. In my mind they are mumbling in a low growl at times, and shouting in a guttural and broken English (or whatever the common language is in warhammer) to talk to the ghouls. This makes sense to me because Vorag Bloody Tooth gathered an army to his cause and it seems like you'd need to be able to verbally communicate to gather an army. While they are "half mad and barely intelligent" it seems to me like they would still have the function to speak, albeit poorly.
 

SothaMortis

Zombie
Jul 27, 2013
46
Sweden
I now have another question for all of you about the nature of Vampires in Warhammer: Can the Strigoi Ghoul Kings speak? I always imagined them as spending their centuries inside their crypts going crazier and crazier, but it seems to me they would speak. In my mind they are mumbling in a low growl at times, and shouting in a guttural and broken English (or whatever the common language is in warhammer) to talk to the ghouls. This makes sense to me because Vorag Bloody Tooth gathered an army to his cause and it seems like you'd need to be able to verbally communicate to gather an army. While they are "half mad and barely intelligent" it seems to me like they would still have the function to speak, albeit poorly.

If i'm not mistaken, in older versions of the army book when the blood lines still existed there were some story about a skaven assassin who tried to sneak through some underground crypts and got tangled up with ghouls and a ghoul king who put a curse of years on the skaven assassin, took his swords and threw them on his pile of treasure while saying something like " One new present for [ghoul kings name]" So yes, they can talk, but in lack of more lore on the strigoi I assume that it depends on how much they got to talk to intelligent creatures over the years. There should be a ghoul king around Mourkain who is building a kingdom for himself there, he should be able to speak properly while the ghoul king that is still hiding under a cemetary somewhere with only zombies and ghouls for company the last century has probably degenerated his linguistics.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
@PureSphinx Necromancy doesn't require verbal communication with regards a Vampire Lord (including SGK I would imagine). Their followers/units are bound to their will. I've been reading the Rise of Nagash trilogy and Arkhan the Black can feel his Master's unspoken will shifting its orders when Nagash isn't even present or nearby.
 

PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
But in the lore of the ghouls it says that they aren't truly undead, therefore technically necromancy isn't used. While they might be bound to his will as he is a level one caster in game, I still think that "half-mad and barely intelligent" doesn't necessarily exclude some type of speaking ability, and like SothaMortis said, ghoul kings like Vorag should still retain some of their linguistic aptitude. This is just my two cents, though.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
True. Personally I do prefer to go along with that idea. I believe Ghoul socio-politics probably isn't far off Orc socio-politics... They're both savage, primitive, like eating human flesh... I imagine them speaking similarly to how the apes talk when they speak out aloud in the recent Planet of the Apes film. Fractured but intelligable.
 

Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
Relations between vampires have been excessively romanticised by dramas/soaps aimed at teenagers, but these shouldn't, in my view, detract from better quality writing about relationships between vampires. It's like anything, if it's poorly written then it will come over as being weak and unconvincing. If it's plausible and well constructed then it's much more convincing.

On the issue of speech, vampires could also use telepathic communication to guide less undead minions, such as Ghouls. I'm sure that they wouldn't need to give verbal orders to them, although they could do so, and the Ghouls would probably be capable of understanding basic commands.
 
Jun 24, 2014
25
Regarding babies, I can't say much about the Warhammer Vampires but I do know that in various slavic countries, there are legends of halfbreeds, children of a vampire father and a mortal mother. Also, in Greece (where I come from) it was said that a male vampire will seek out his wife and try to have sex with her. So I guess that his "private parts" work or he'd be in for a pretty awkward reunion...
 

Shareya

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 16, 2012
1,379
There are no children in Warhammer Fantasy that have been born as Vampires. It does not work. There are a few who have been sired at a very early age however.
There are fat vampires (Ulrika The Vampire: Bloodforged, if I recall correctly). They are however rare and at least the one I know, used her mass as a strange "shield".
Vampires can eat food/drink but it's tasteless/pointless, only done for a show.
Vampires can have sex, but not quite how humans do. Though there is plenty of touching as well, but it's difficult if not impossible to say how well their private bits work, if at all. Forgive me here, I can't properly quote everything here, but here are some examples (everything is vamp/vamp):

"She shivered as he kissed her, both aroused and vaguely unsettled."

"Her hands remained where they were and she lay still, tensing as Stefan’s sharp teeth dragged across her skin, then sighing and clutching him tight as they pierced her flesh with a delicious shock of pain and found her vein. She closed her eyes as he began to draw blood from her with gentle pressure. This was a different sort of pleasure than taking blood. That was the pleasure of hunger sated and strength returned. This was the pleasure of control lost and the drifting, sleepy rapture of tension released. The dark memories of Krieger faded away, to be eclipsed by rosy dreams of flying, of gliding with Stefan like dragons in a sky of blood. He was leading her, drawing her on in his wake, and she was happy to follow, to let him choose the path, to give herself up to his will and let him do with her as he pleased. If he wished to drink his fill and let her die, so be it. She would die in bliss, floating towards his warm red sun until it consumed her in its molten core. She groaned in dismay when he raised his head and the kiss ended. It felt as if a cord between them had been cut, and she was suddenly cold and alone. She cupped the back of his neck and pulled him back down again, but he resisted."


And the juicy part:
"She pulled his mouth to hers and bit his lips and tongue, drawing blood and sucking greedily. He bit back. They clawed at one another, tearing away each other’s clothes and writhing against one another. From the few things Gabriella had told Ulrika about love between vampires, she had thought it would be nothing more than the exchange of blood, but now she discovered that was not the truth. They were animals, after all, beasts, who must learn to control their savage natures or they would tear their victims limb from limb. Their love was just as animal as their feeding – pain and pleasure in equal measure, biting and kissing, clawing and caressing, wounds that healed as soon as they were made, and bare skin made slippery with blood and tongues. She had never experienced anything like it before. Not during the rough galloping of horse soldiers, nor the fights with Felix that became romps and then fights again, nor the shameful, sensual surrender to Krieger. This was wilder than any of those, the pleasure stronger and more enduring, the play more give and take. There was a danger to it that only made it more exhilarating. Either of them could take too much and kill the other. It felt as if they were rolling on the edge of a precipice, daring each other to fall to their deaths."

There have been quite a few situations in many books were a vampire felt physical/sexual attraction towards a mortal (or another vampire). Though like said before, if they do the kinky stuff like humans? Who knows! I am fairly sure BL will never bother to think on it too much.
 
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