Use for questions about vampires, beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, usually by drinking their blood. Use either alongside a work tag when asking about vampires in said work or alongside the [story-identification] tag when looking to identify a work where vampires are a prominent aspect.
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures. In modern fiction, vampires are usually considered to be "undead" and can often only be killed by a stake through the heart, decapitation or fire. Common vampire tropes include hypnotic charisma, an inability to cross a threshold uninvited, a lack of a reflection in mirrors and an intolerance to religious symbols and garlic.
Although vampiric entities have been recorded in many cultures, and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe. In modern fiction, vampires are often associated with Transylvania, the north-western region of Romania.
Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel, providing the basis of modern vampire fiction. Dracula drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy". The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, video games, and television shows.
Source: Vampire on the English Wikipedia
