so i'm going to be making a more detailed presentation of the vampire subplot. i know nik had some questions, but i thought it would be good to make a formal thing of it. i'd appreciate it if people post here about questions or thoughts they had. i have a pretty good idea in my head of what i think the vampire world would be like in the ybh context, but i want to make sure that i include information that people would like to know about..

I asked most of these in the PM, but just for posterity:

• Do all vampires live in the Underworld/ part of the High Court?
• What are the requirements for being part of the High Court?
• At what age are most vampires turned? Is there a ritual involved?
• Can you be born a vampire? Can vampires have children biologically?
• Are there ways to be shunned from the vampire community?
• How do the powers work? What are the powers?
• If you are a muggle when you are turned into a vampire, do you gain wizard abilities?
• Are vampires discerning as to who they turn? Are there rules against turning muggles?
• Can vampires eat normal food?
• How does sunlight affect them? How about garlic? Crosses? Do all the basic rules we know about vampires (Stephanie Meyer excluded, of course) apply?
• What do the laws of the wizarding world state about vampires? They are classified as "beings," but what rights does that afford them, and more importantly, what rights don't they have?
• When a vampire is turned, do they look that age forever or do they top out at a certain age?

do vampires need to sleep?

Hmm. I don't know. Never thought about it haha. What do you think?

Well, sleep is for the sole purpose of your body being able to regenerate and like... reboot, I guess. Vampires don't really need that? I feel like feeding serves the purpose for them that sleep does for other people. So I would say they don't need sleep. I'm not sure if they should be able to sleep, though. Sleep is all controlled by brainwave activity and circadian rhythms. In most vampire myths and stories, vampires go dead when the sun is up. Like, they're for all intents and purposes corpses in their coffins until the sun goes down. But our vampires walk around and stuff, they're just itchy and uncomfortable in the sun, and a lot of the stuff we talked about before is based on the fact that blood is their only real sustenance and they're actually pretty much dead otherwise. I assume vampires have brain activity, obviously, but circadian rhythms and most other things that maintain homeostasis don't really apply to something dead. Like... zombies don't need sleep and I doubt they can sleep because that part of their body is no longer necessary. So I would say vampires definitely don't NEED it, but maybe they can put themselves into a kind of... trance-like state that's like sleep, but is slightly more dangerous because it's probably a lot like those vampires in their coffins where they're like, completely unresponsive and therefore entirely vulnerable. And there's no real benefit to doing it unless you're severely injured. Then, for some reason, it speeds up the healing process or something? I dunno. I'm obviously babbling, but... does any of that make sense?

Here's my take on it:

Okay so I always figured since they're in the wizarding world where there's potions, magic, and shizz, that vampires would be able to walk into sunlight because of a special sunscreen they put on their skin or potion they can drink that allows them to do normal daily human stuff out in the light. I also figured that most vampires would feel uncomfortable being in the light as it's like programmed into their nature to just stick into the shadows so that's why most of them only tend to come out in the dark. Or that kind of stuff is like expensive because it's a hard potion to brew so unless you know how to make it, you'd probably have to pay for it and that's why only heads of the Ministry or rich vampires are able to buy it.

Or we could totally go the Vampire Diaries route and say that there's magical rings that a vampire could wear allowing them to walk out into sunlight.

As for the sleeping thing I'd really like for them to be able to sleep partly because Reever is a bit of a lazy bum and he needs his beauty rest xD. Sleepless Reever is even more cranky than usual and he needs some way of getting over his hangovers.

Ultimately though I think Vampire strengths and weaknesses should be left up to Seth as the High Court was created by him.

Ultimately, I kind of agree with Nik here that sleep for vampires is a trance-like state. But let's just say, for arguments sake, that our vampires need this trance like state to keep their mentality sharp. Much like humans, if we don't sleep not only do our bodies wear down, but our brain does. We go all Nightmare on Elm Street if we go too long without sleeping. And our vampires sometimes get put through a lot that can weigh on them. They can use this time of "sleep" to recover their mental state. If that makes any sense.

Yeah, Paige, I wrote up this a few days ago.

And I like the points you made about sleep, so sounds good to me.

...can they go crazy and lose control and nom on people without their proper amount of trance-sleep? Lol

Haha I guess if you want? they can definitely go angry w/o enough blood stuff. ie Isabella = cranky murder bitch.

I was mostly being silly lol. But you know, what's the good of having a vampire if you can't go blood crazed once in a while?

Also: scars. If you had notable scars/tattoos before you were turned, do those go away once you're a vampire or do those stick around and just any new injuries you incur heal quickly? Also, is that a vampire thing, the healing? Its possible I'm making that up lol.

hmmm...i don't know. i feel like those scars would stay. and maybe they'd heal quickly, but have scars of injuries? OR they'd take a long time to heal since no blood = no blood clotting. or they'd drink a shit ton of blood and then that would cause quick healing?

Going off everything I have read about vampires, the common tale is that they heal quickly, like in the blink of an eye. They are like the physical perfection of themselves once they've been turned, and they remain flawless after that point. Scars before death would linger, but they would become unnoticeable. One would have to look closely to see any scars. Tattoos is never mentioned, but I believe they would remain. They aren't raised flaws on the skin, but rather are smooth and become essentially one with the skin.

All of that makes very good sense! I like the idea of healing almost instantaneously, though it makes sense that if you had just fed, it would happen faster than if you had gone a long time without it. Pre-vampire scars should stick around, but I don't think new ones would stay unless they were inflicted by a supernatural force. Like with the werewolf scar Bill (is it Bill?) Weasley sustains, it's a magical scar so it's different from like if he'd just been wounded with a knife or something. And yes to keeping tattoos. I'd just be really pissed if I was someone who was turned into a vampire and all my tattoos disappeared. New ones would stick around, though, right, they'd just be smooth, like Amara suggested.

What about hair? I was just watching Interview with the Vampire and Claudia cuts her hair and it grows back immediately because she's kind of stuck in her same body forever. Is that the case? Or is it because our vampires are more or less based on slightly scientific backgrounds that their hair simply doesn't grow? i.e. if Birdie got a haircut, it would never grow back on it's own, she would need a charm or whatever?

OH OH OH OH ALSO I ASKED ELLIE BUT IF IT COMES UP, I'D LOVE FOR US TO DECIDE IF VAMPIRES CAN BREATHE OR NOT.

like, i think it was tentatively decided that they could but didn't need to since they don't need to pump blood to their hearts, but yea. just wanted to check.

That's how I've been writing Birdie; able to breathe, but it's not necessary.

maybe it's an old habits die hard kind of thing

I've been wondering, do our vampires cry? If they do, would they cry blood a la True Blood (at least... I believe the vampires in True Blood cry blood, I've never actually watched the show) or would it be regular tears or something else (I dunno what that would be, just throwing it out there)?

Yes, the vampires in True Blood cry blood.
I've been writing that my vampires can't cry.