View source for Vampire (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

{{Short description|Fictional species}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Vampire (''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'')}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{weasel|date=March 2010}}
{{primary sources|date=March 2010}}
{{in-universe|date=March 2010}}
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Use American English|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox fictional race
| name               = Vampire
| other_names        = Vamp, Vampyr, Lonely One, Van-Tal, Lurk
| image              =
| alt                = 
| caption            = The character [[Darla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Darla]], displaying her vampiric features in "[[Welcome to the Hellmouth]]" (1997).
| series             = '''[[Buffyverse]]'''
| type               = Human-demon hybrid
| first              = ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (1992) (non-canon)<br>"[[Welcome to the Hellmouth]]" (1997)
| creator            = [[Joss Whedon]]
| distinctions       = 
*Superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, and durability
*Heightened senses of smell, hearing, and night vision
*Accelerated healing
*Sharp fangs
*Innate hand-to-hand combat skills
*Immunity from telepathy
*Immortality
*Sharp fingernails
}}

In the fictional world of the television series ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and its spin-off series ''[[Angel (1999 TV series)|Angel]]'', a '''vampire''' is a unique variety of [[demon]] that can exist on the earthly plane only by inhabiting and animating a human corpse. In ''[[Fray (comics)|Fray]]'', a ''Buffy'' comic book spin-off set about a century in the future, vampires are also called "'''lurks"'''.

==Description==
[[File:Paul Ruebens as Amilyn (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1992).jpg|thumb|left|150px|The vampire Amilyn in the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|non-canonical film]].]]

[[Vampire]]s in the canonical ''Buffyverse'' differ significantly from their counterparts in the 1992 ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' movie. While the movie's vampires possess the ability to fly, maintain a relatively human appearance, and do not disintegrate into dust upon death, the canonical vampires introduced in the television series are portrayed as demonic spirits that inhabit human corpses.

The canonical vampires (introduced in the [[Welcome to the Hellmouth|first episode]] of the television series) are demonic spirits that inhabit human corpses.<ref>"[[Lie to Me (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Lie to Me]]", Season 2 episode 7</ref> Because of their partly human nature, vampires are considered impure by other demons.

According to [[Rupert Giles]], an occult expert in the series, when an ancient race of demons called the [[Old Ones (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Old Ones]] were banished from Earth, the last one fed on a human and mixed their blood, creating the first vampire.<ref name="buffypilot">"[[Welcome to the Hellmouth]]", pilot episode</ref> This vampire then fed on other humans and made more of its kind, essentially becoming a biological weapon for the Old Ones against the human race. According to [[Illyria (Angel)|Illyria]], a character in ''[[Angel (1999 TV series)|Angel]]'', vampires existed during her time as an Old One{{mdash}}long before the rest were banished from the realm. 

On occasions, vampires would recruit humans such as criminals or services from occult organizations like Wolfram & Hart for tasks during daytimes due to their inability to be around sunlight.  

=== Characteristics and abilities ===
The series vampires exhibit superhuman abilities, including increased strength, heightened senses, and accelerated healing. These powers intensify as they age or when they consume the blood of powerful supernatural beings. Vampires live indefinitely without aging, with the oldest losing the ability to appear human.

Vampires in the series possess all the memories and skills of their human predecessors. They also retain much of their host's personality, including any mental illnesses or emotional instabilities. For example, [[Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Spike]] (unlike most vampires) retained his love for his dying mother. [[Harmony Kendall|Harmony]] kept her [[valley girl]] personality and her love of unicorns. [[Darla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Darla]] tells the newly turned [[Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Liam/Angelus]] that "what we were, informs what we become"; after her resurrection as a human, she says that the darkness he unleashed as Angelus was always in him as a human, long before they met, resulting from memories of abuses by his father.

Vampires in the ''Buffy'' universe live on a diet of blood, preferring fresh human blood; they can distinguish the blood of different animals by flavor, and those who do not drink human blood enjoy that of otters. They require no other food or drink; although they can ingest it, they generally find it bland. Prolonged deprivation of blood can impair a vampire's higher brain functions and they become "living skeletons",<ref>"[[Pangs (Buffy episode)|Pangs]]", Season 4, episode 8</ref> but do not die. They do not need to breathe air{{mdash}}although they can breathe to speak or smoke{{mdash}}and they cannot pass breath on to others via CPR. They are affected by drugs, poisons, and electricity, and they can be sedated and [[taser]]ed. Some vampires in the series enjoy [[recreational drug use]] like alcoholic and caffeinated beverages, and tobacco; Spike, the witty "[[Bad boy archetype|bad boy]]" vampire, frequently enjoys smoking cigarettes, and Angel, who frequently drinks coffee and tea to cope his restless lifestyle.

Vampires can change at will between human appearance and a monstrous form with a pronounced [[brow ridge]], yellow eyes, and sharp teeth. This transformation can happen in seconds. In human form, they can be detected by their lack of heartbeat and lower body temperature. They do not cast reflections, although they can be photographed and filmed.

=== Vulnerabilities ===
The vampires in ''Buffy'' can be killed when they're beheaded, exploded, penetrated through the heart by a stake (wooden object), or come into contact with sunlight, fire, or excessive amounts of [[holy water]].  When killed, a vampire rapidly turns to dry dust. Vampires heal quickly from most injuries, but do not regrow lost limbs, and can acquire scars. Their vulnerability to sunlight limits vampires' movements, and makes most nocturnal. Spike, however, is shown on several occasions driving during the day by blocking the sunlight coming through his car windows with foil, and leaving a small strip clear to see the road.

Vampires' flesh burns upon contact with blessed objects such as holy water, a [[Bible]], recently consecrated ground, or a [[Christian cross]].  Knowing this, Buffy wears a small cross pendant necklace at all times for minor protection.
Vampires can enter consecrated buildings but appear to feel ill at ease. They cannot enter a human residence without having been invited once by a living resident; once given, such an invitation can only be revoked by a magic ritual. If all living residents die, they can enter freely. Areas open to the public and the homes of other vampires, demons, and non-humans are not protected.

To reproduce in the series, vampires must drain a human being of most of their blood, then force the victim to drink some of the vampire's blood.<ref name="buffypilot" /> This process is known as "siring", and the vampire who does so is called a "sire". Sires often act as mentors to their 'children', and form small covens of related vampires for various purposes. Some vampires can be telepathically linked to those that they have sired.<ref>''Angel'' season 1 episode "[[Somnambulist (Angel)|Somnambulist]]"</ref> The amount of time it takes for a new vampire to rise seems to vary; Buffy often kills vampires as they rise from their graves, but other vampires rise after only a few hours. Vampires generally cannot reproduce sexually, but mystical circumstances allow the characters Angel and Darla to conceive a son, [[Connor (Angel)|Connor]], who has a human soul with vampire-like abilities of strength, endurance, agility, and senses, but none of their weaknesses or need to drink blood. Connor physically ages like humans, indicating that, unlike vampires, he is not an immortal and therefore will die eventually.

Finally, vampires are attracted to bright colors and are said to dislike [[garlic]].<ref>[[The Wish (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|The Wish]]</ref>

=== Variations ===
Vampires in the ''Buffyverse'' do not have human souls, but a character Giles in the episode "The Harvest" says the human corpse a vampire is born into is infected with a demon soul via vampiric blood, and therefore lacks a conscience. [[Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Angel]] and [[Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Spike]]{{mdash}}vampires characters whose human souls were restored to them{{mdash}}feel remorse for their previous actions. However, soulless vampires are capable of feeling human emotions such as love, though these tend to be expressed as twisted and obsessive behavior, and without souls, they typically can only experience the [[negative affectivity]] associated with evil.

Variations of vampires are seen on both ''Buffy'' and ''Angel''. In the ''Angel'' season 2 episode "[[Through the Looking Glass (Angel)|Through the Looking Glass]]", Angel and his team travel to a parallel world, Pylea, where he becomes a "Van-Tal" demon with green skin, spines and a bestial appearance. This form is described in the series as the vampire (specifically the demon that creates the vampire) in its purest form. While in this form, Angel lacks the ability to reason, possessing neither the compassion his soul gives him nor the sadism he possesses as Angelus.

The seventh season of ''Buffy'' introduces the [[Turok-Han]], an ancient species of vampire analogous to [[Neanderthal]] man.<ref>"[[Never Leave Me]]" Season 7 episode 9</ref>  These Turok-Han, colloquially referred to as "über-vamps", are stronger and harder to kill than common vampires, can usually withstand a stake to the chest without dusting and show only minor burns when doused with holy water, but can still be killed by beheading or sunlight.

==Creation==
[[Image:Vamp Dusted.JPG|left|thumb|A vampire "dusting". The writers felt that having vampires disintegrate after death would be convenient for the story.]]
In the show, the idea of the "vamp faces" — to have vampires' human features distort to become more demonic — was implemented because Whedon wanted to have high school students that the other characters could interact with normally only to discover that these people would turn out be vampires, creating a sense of paranoia.<ref name="Welcomecomm"/> He also wanted to make the vampires look demonic, stating, "I didn't think I really wanted to put a show on the air about a high school girl who was stabbing normal-looking people in the heart. I thought somehow that might send the wrong message, but when they are clearly monsters, it takes it to a level of fantasy that is safer."

In early episodes, the vampires appeared "very white-faced, very creepy, very ghoulish". This was changed in later seasons to make the vampires look more human because of the sympathetic vampire character Angel and because elaborate make-up was time-consuming. Whedon said that people thought the white faces were "funny looking" but found it creepy, comparing it to the monsters in zombie movies such as ''[[Day of the Dead (1985 film)|Day of the Dead]]'' and ''[[The Evil Dead]]''.<ref name=Welcomecomm>{{cite video|people=[[Joss Whedon]]|title=Commentary for ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "[[Welcome to the Hellmouth]]"|medium=DVD (Region 2)|location=United States|publisher=[[20th Century Fox]]|date=2000}}</ref> The character of the [[Master (Buffyverse)|Master]] was designed to be in permanent vamp face to highlight his age and make him appear animalistic. Make-up artist John Vulich based the Master's appearance on a bat, saying that the character has devolved to a more primal, demonic state over the years.<ref name=Harvestcomm>{{cite video|people=[[Joss Whedon]]|title=Commentary for ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "[[The Harvest (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|The Harvest]]"|medium=DVD (Region 2)|location=United States|publisher=[[20th Century Fox]]|date=2000}}</ref>

When creating the vampire "rules" that they would use in the show, the writers used elements from existing vampire lore. They decided the vampires would not fly as in the ''Buffy'' movie because they could not make flying vampires look convincing on a television budget.It was decided that vampires and their clothes would turn to dust after they died. According to the Gamer.com, this effect cost nearly five thousand dollars to create. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Norman |first=Zooey |date=2018-05-07 |title=Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 25 Secrets About the Show That Totally Slayed Us |url=https://www.thegamer.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-facts-show/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=TheGamer |language=en}}</ref> Each episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer contains fifty to eighty special effects shots around 10 percent of that ended up in the final shows.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Norman |first=Zooey |date=2018-05-07 |title=Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 25 Secrets About the Show That Totally Slayed Us |url=https://www.thegamer.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-facts-show/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=TheGamer |language=en}}</ref>  Garlic is mentioned or used as vampire repellent in a few episodes, but its effect on vampires is never stated. Some established rules, such as a vampire's inability to enter a home uninvited, both helped and hindered the storytelling. Whedon said that whereas shows such as ''[[The X-Files]]'' spend time explaining the science behind the supernatural and making it as real as possible, ''Buffy'' and ''Angel'' are more concerned with the emotion resulting from these creatures and events than justifying how they could conceivably exist. The shows therefore tend to gloss over the details of vampire and demon lore, simply using the Hellmouth as a [[MacGuffin|plot device]] to explain unexplainable things.<ref name="Harvestcomm" />

In the first episode, vampires' clothes reflect the era in which they died. Joss Whedon felt this concept was a "charming notion" but rejected it because he believed that if every vampire in the show were dressed in old-fashioned clothes, they would cease to be scary.<ref name=Welcomecomm/>

==See also==
* [[Vampire fiction]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.atpobtvs.com/vampires.html Vampires section at "All Things Philosophical on BtVS and AtS"]

{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}

[[Category:Fictional characters with accelerated healing]]
[[Category:Fictional characters with superhuman strength]]
[[Category:Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds]]
[[Category:Fictional hybrid species and races]]
[[Category:Fictional species and races]]
[[Category:Fictional vampires]]
[[Category:Fictional warrior races]]
[[Category:Buffyverse vampires| ]]