The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan's Vampires

Darren Shan's Vampires

The vampires in the Saga are different from the standard vampires found in popular culture. They are truly alive, can be killed by several means—including, but not limited to, decapitation or piercing of the heart—and are not inherently evil. Vampires do not drink from the neck, but cut a vein of a victim, drinking small amounts of blood from the vein, and then healing it with their saliva; a breakaway group called the "vampaneze" insist on killing their victims and draining all their blood. Doing this, the "Vampaneze need to feed less often". The problem with this is, the "vampaneze" can become stronger by doing so. Draining all of a human's blood would have a vampire or vampaneze absorb part of the spirit of the human, allowing the vampire or vampaneze to see into their memories (Darren does this in The Vampire's Assistant, to save the spirit of a dying friend). Neither vampires nor vampaneze have fangs, but instead use their hard, sharp nails to cut into their prey. These nails can also be used to scale walls in a spider-like manner. Vampires do not combust when exposed to sunlight, but it will burn them easily and exposure for four or five hours will kill them. They can, however, remain active during the day (provided they remain in the shade) and are not bothered by garlic, silver, or holy objects (such as crosses and holy water). Fresh human blood is the most nutritious for vampires, but they can feed on preserved human blood or the blood of certain animals when necessary. Some animals' blood, however, is toxic to vampires. Vampires cannot reproduce; further vampires are created by blood-to-blood contact with humans, traditionally through the fingertips, but if any creature, human or animal, were to orally ingest vampire blood, it would be driven into a murderous frenzy and then die (similar to rabies). Vampires are not immortal either; they age at one-tenth the human rate (half-vampires one-fifth). This comes into play in the series when Darren meets an old girlfriend he had; now they are adults but Darren still looks about the same as he did when they first met. The oldest vampire in the series is Paris Skyle (claimed to have inspired the popular vampire folklore entity, Dracula), who was "blooded" at age two and lived for over 800 years. Vampires cast reflections and shadows but cannot be photographed due to a particular vibration of "vampire atoms." And like in folklore, they sleep in coffins.

Vampires are strong, fit, and can run at a very high speed, called "flitting". Flitting causes a static charge to build up in a vampire's body, which Mr. Crepsley learned to use to force open locks. A vampire's senses are all superhuman. They can endure incredible amounts of physical trauma, are resistant to most chemicals and diseases, and heal quickly. A vampire's healing factor is not as effective as in most fiction, and, unlike the beautiful vampires of Anne Rice, most of Shan's vampires are heavily scarred and unattractive. More abilities include breathing an invisible gas that renders a human unconscious, telepathically communicating with other vampires and humans (three vampires could also mentally command spiders), and locating vampires and humans whose thought patterns they have learned to recognize. Vampires cannot dematerialize into a mist, nor can they transform into bats, rats, or wolves. On the other hand, these animals are friendly to vampires, although cats and dogs hate them. The blood of snakes, rats, and cats are poisonous to them.

Vampire society is ruled by honor, personal pride, and tradition. They have a strict hierarchy with higher ranking vampires having absolute rule over lower ranking ones, though they exercise their powers in moderation and are respectful of those beneath them. There are far fewer female vampires than male ones. Vampire matings last only ten or fifteen years with the couple then choosing to re-mate or go their separate ways. Vampires are forbidden to use projectile weapons like guns, bows, and crossbows as they view these as dishonorable, preferring hand-to-hand fighting with swords, axes, etc., or throwing weapons such as a shuriken; the vampaneze are forbidden from using any form of throwing weapons. Vampires live old fashion lives: no vampire is shown making references to pop culture, driving a car, or using computers. Vampires see humans as a chaotic and slightly inferior race, but most value human lives. Some vampires form friendships with humans and many fall in love with humans. Vampire Gavner Purl boasts a pair of pink underpants embroiderd with elephants, a present from a former human girlfriend.

Darren Shan's vampires do not follow the religions they did as humans, but worship an unidentified pantheon. They believe that the souls of good vampires are reborn as wolves in the eternal nights of a distant world called Paradise, while evil vampire souls remain bound to the Earth for eternity. They do have gods, but there are a great number of them and they are referred to as The Vampire Gods. Vampires believe they are descended from wolves, just as humans are believed to have evolved from primates. Wolves are held as the cousins of vampires. Wolves like vampires, especially since they have a scent that means no harm to them.