Dhampir
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Dhampire (also dhampir, dhamphir or dhampyr) are mythological or folkloric creatures. Dhampirs are believed to be beings that are half-vampire and half-human, born from a vampire father and a human mother, or the reverse. Dhampirs, in comparison with normal human beings, are unusually adept at killing vampires. The word "dhampir" is associated with folklore of the Roma people of the Balkans.[1]
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[edit] Legend and folklore
In the Balkans it is believed that male vampires have a great desire for women, so a vampire will return to have intercourse with his wife or with a woman he was attracted to in life. Throughout the area the term dhampir refers to the offspring of a vampire and a human; terms for such a being that are used in various subregions include vampijerović, vampirić ("little vampire"), and lampijerović; in some regions the child is named "Vampir" if a boy and "Vampiresa" if a girl, or "Dhampir" if a boy and "Dhampiresa" if a girl. In other areas it is believed that the offspring of a vampire will "be slippery like jelly, and cannot live".[2]
Among all Balkan peoples it is believed that the child of a vampire can see and destroy vampires. Among some groups, the ability to see vampires is considered exclusive to dhampirs. The powers of a dhampir may be inherited by the dhampir's offspring. Various means of killing or driving away vampires are recognized among peoples of the region, but the dhampir is seen as the chief agent for dealing with vampires. Methods by which a dhampir kills a vampire include shooting the vampire with a bullet, transfixing it with a hawthorn stake, and performing a ceremony that involves touching "crowns" of lead to the vampire's grave. If the dhampir cannot destroy a vampire, he may command it to leave the area.
A dhampir is always paid well for his services. The amount of money varies, but there is never bickering over the price. Standard pay for a dhampir may also include a meal or a suit of clothing. Sometimes a dhampir is paid in cattle.
[edit] False dhampirs
Charlatans traveling the regions around the Carpathian Mountains and elsewhere in Eastern Europe would claim to be dhampirs. Operating by the original myth of vampyr (old spelling, both singular and plural) as spirit creatures, they were the only ones who could see the spirit and would put on elaborate shows for villages, often wrestling with an invisible foe until it was then trapped in a brass vessel. Usually a dhampir would wait until there was a death in a village.[citation needed] As rural people tended to be more superstitious, unnatural explanations would be believed for unusual events, real or imagined (such as believing to have seen the dead walking the village at night). The belief was that the vampyr would take over the recently dead corpse, for as long as it would last, to invade villages. They fed off life force directly, not by blood, sometimes killing victims in close proximity so life leaving the body could be consumed more quickly. Once fear, grief and superstition took hold in a village following a recent death, the dhampir would "come to the rescue".[citation needed]
[edit] Dhampirs in fiction
[edit] Anime/Manga
[edit] Blood: The Last Vampire
The character Saya, from the OVA movie Blood: The Last Vampire and its spin-offs, is a dhampir (this is only explained in the novel, video game, and manga). She was created through crossbreeding experiments having to do with vampiric hominids known as Chiropterans; and proceeded to hunt her own kin to extinction, even after finding out the truth of her origins. The version of her character from the series, Blood+, is of entirely different origin, being a pure-blood Chiropteran Queen rather than a hybrid (the chiropterans of the series are very different from those of the original franchise).
[edit] Journal of the Vampire Hunter: Claws of Darkness
The character Nicholas Bane is a Dhampir who grew up an orphan after his mother died and not knowing his father. He became a Vampire hunter after finding out the nature of his cursed life in hopes of finding a measure of peace. The focus of Claws of Darkness, takes place in Santa Anna, Mexico as Bane hunts a drug lord who became a vampire. At the same time a werewolf is killing numerous members of the cartel and is believed to be the victim of a brutal murder by the drug lord. Nicholas Bane seems to have numerous psychic powers such as the ability to see into peoples hearts, hypnotize people to manipulate their emotions, superior speed and strength. For a Dhampir, Bane seems fairly strong and is able to stand his ground against full vampires. It is shown that he relies on blood only in cases of extreme necessity and from packets in his brief case.[3]
[edit] Vampire Hunter D
Japanese author Hideyuki Kikuchi has written seventeen novels in his Vampire Hunter D series about a Dhampir called "D", who travels across a war-torn land fighting against "The Nobility" (the name true vampires use to refer to themselves). There have been two anime based on his books. The first is an adaptation of the original novel, while the other is an adaptation of the third novel in the series. In both anime titles, D is referred to, both directly and indirectly, as the son of Count Dracula. "Vampire Hunter D" has inadvertently created a new word, "dunpeal". The phoenetic transposition of the word "Dhampir" to Japanese resulted in "Danpīru", which was then incorrectly transcribed back to English as "Dunpeal".
[edit] Vampire no Juujikai
A relatively new vampire manga by Yuri Kimura, this series is notable in that it actually does use the term "dhampir."
[edit] Comics
[edit] Blade
Blade, from the Marvel comic book series Tomb of Dracula and others, became a popular character through the Blade movie made in 1998 and its sequels, starring Wesley Snipes as the main hybrid hero. However, instead of being the offspring of a vampire and human, Blade became a dhampir-like being because his mother was bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant with her baby, Eric. Blade is only recently depicted as a dhampir, as the original incarnation had the same origin, but did not have vampiric powers. Instead, he could 'smell' things of a supernatural nature, most usually vampires. However, in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Blade is indeed an actual dhampir, a son of a vampire and a woman.
[edit] Dampyr
Dampyr is also the title of an Italian comic series. The protagonist is Harlan Draka, a man who pretends to be a dhampir for money in the ex-Yugoslavia, until he discovers he truly is a Dhampir: his father is Draka, one of the most powerful Masters of Night (arch-vampires).[4]
[edit] Novels
[edit] Vampire Plagues
The character Jack Harkett is a Dhampir.
[edit] Demon in My View
The character Jessica Allodola from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Demon in My View is a dhampir who spent several years in suspended animation in her mother's vampiric womb. After her mother became human again, Jessica was born as a child with a direct link to Siete, the father of all vampires.
[edit] Dhampire: Stillborn
The protagonist of Dhampire: Stillborn, a graphic novel scripted by Nancy Collins, is a dhampir.
[edit] Lost Souls
The character Nothing in the novel Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite is a dhampir, and has an incestous relationship with his vampiric father.
[edit] The Saga of Darren Shan
Although the term dhampir is not used in the book series Cirque Du Freak, the main protagonist Darren Shan is half-vampire. However, he was not born as one (and thus not a "true" dhampir) but instead gained semi-vampiric abilities by sharing blood with a vampire, but not to the point where he would have become a true vampire.
[edit] Saga of the Noble Dead
Another dhampir is the character Magiere, the female protagonist of the Saga of the Noble Dead which commences with the aptly-titled novel Dhampir. In the latter case, the character begins the story with no knowledge of her ancestry and earns her living as a fake vampire-hunter as above. Her discovery of the true state of affairs comes as a considerable shock.
[edit] Slayer
The character Alek Knight is the dhampir anti-hero of the Slayer vampire series of novels by Karen Koehler. He is also a skilled vampire hunter.
[edit] Role-playing games
[edit] Dungeons & Dragons
The dhampir appears as a monster template in Libris Mortis under the name Half-Vampire, in Dragon #313 under the name Katane, and in Ravenloft: Denizens of Dread under the name Dhampir. All three are separate interpretations of the same concept and as such have different (though somewhat similar) powers and abilities.
[edit] Vampire: The Masquerade
In the Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game universe created by White Wolf Game Studios, a dhampir is the child of a 15th generation Vampire and a Mortal, but two 15th generation vampires can't procreate, because without at least some "spark of life", a new life is not possible. Another similar being is the freakish revenant, which is almost identical in biology to a dhampir, but created through generations of crossbreeding ghouls rather than procreation between a thin-blood and a human.
[edit] Kindred of the East
In the Kindred of the East role-playing game universe created by White Wolf Game Studios, dhampyr means the offspring of an Asian vampire (also called Cathayan or Kuei-jin) with a human or with another of its kind. Dhampires, or Shade Walkers, can function both day and night, although they find sunlight uncomfortable. They can breed with humans, but not with Kuei-jin or other dhampires.
[edit] Video games
[edit] BloodRayne
Rayne, the main character of the BloodRayne video game franchise, is another dhampir. She also has many brothers and sisters (whom she must slay) who are vampires.
She was a result of crazy laboratory experiments by a psychotic German scientist / vampire ruler Lord Kagan. Many of her brothers and sisters, who also came from the same scientific experiments, are more of a malicious nature. That is the reason why Rayne seeks them out and kills them.
Rayne was accepted into the Brimstone Society. This society seeks out supernatural occurrences that could be dangerous for the world. They send out their members, much like Rayne, to fight and eliminate these threats.
Rayne wears her red and black leather outfit, with two large blades that are attached to her arms. They flip out and can be used as hand held blades, slashing and stabbing opponents. Her flame red hair is unmistakable along with her glaring green eyes.
BloodRayne has been made into a movie that did poorly at the box office. This franchise also touts a comic book as well.
[edit] Castlevania
From the Castlevania series of video games, the character Adrian Farenheit Tepes (also known simply as Alucard) is the offspring of an unnatural bond between Dracula and a human woman named Lisa. He inherits many vampiric abilities such as the power to transform into a bat, a wolf, or a cloud of mist. He also has the unnatural strength of a vampire, the ability to leap great distances, and use various forms of magic. Through the series, Alucard aids humans in fighting against his father, and in the most recent games, which take place in the 21st century, he works under the alias "Genya Arikado" ("Arikado" in Japanese may be translated back as "Alucard") to prevent the return of a new dark lord.
[edit] Darkstalkers
Donovan Baine, a character in the video game series Darkstalkers, is also a dhampir.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ T. P. Vukanović. 1957-1959. "The Vampire." Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd ser. Part 1: 36(3-4): 125-133; Part 2: 37(1-2): 21-31; Part 3: 37(3-4): 111-118; Part 4: 39(1-2): 44-55. Reprinted in Vampires of the Slavs, ed. Jan Perkowski (Cambridge, Mass.: Slavica, 1976), 201-234. The reprint lacks footnotes. Most material on dhampirs is in part 4, under the heading "Dhampir as the Chief Magician for the Destruction of Vampires."
- ^ Vukanovic 1957-1959, pt. 3, p. 112.
- ^ Stakes are high! DrMaster releases The Journal of a Vampire! | DrMaster Publications Inc.
- ^ Edicola
