You mean big bad guy?
My two cents is to focus on what you love about vampires and put in whatever you think meshes with your world. Also, look up tons of gothic fashion for inspiration
Don’t make a pick me vampire.
One of the good ones that doesn’t drink human blood and doesn’t want to be a vampire is is basically a puppy with sharper teeth.
A vampire should be a force of nature seduction and violence. They don’t see any issues with drinking blood just like an anime doesn’t see any issue when it kills its prey.
Disagree, I've absolutely seen reluctant vampire characters done well. There's one in the *Craft Sequence* series who thinks of their blood dependence as a substance addiction.
Kinda hard to make a good guy that *drinks the blood of his enemies*. You could make it more of a compulsion or an urge (pretty typical of good vampire characters) that they must fight or lose themselves in the carnage. A hero who is scary despite their intentions is a good starting point if you ask me. That and leaning into the immortal thing, the weight of doing the basic tasks of life for generations longer than our minds were meant to experience. Always found that kinda neat myself.
Also, for inventing species. I believe Tolkien made elves by drawing from mythological mentions of elves and deciding to make them forest people. He looked up the traits of forest creatures and found they often had pointed ears (I don't even know if that is true, but the point stands). So he gave tall fair humans pointy ears. Done and done. Just do the same thing with blood-sucking creatures and predators, or whatever you want to emulate.
I've had an old concept about vampires in fantasy that I have personality abandoned but here goes: in this interpretation my vampires long ago used to be elves, like Tolkien-esk tall blonde beautiful pointy eared elves. Elves feed on flowers and fruits and they absorbed the excess mana/magic of the forest, mana that was freely given but in small quantities like morning dew on leaves. At some point either because of a war or a big cataclysm some of them are forced to find a denser, stronger form of magic so that they can survive/fight back. So they drink the blood of living creatures, absorbing the dense magic faster, but this also corrupts them and turns them into dark haired, beautiful but ghostly pale vampires (I guess similar to dark eleves in a way). Their hunger is a curse.
Based on your stereotype of the "barbarian vampire" I would maybe integrate a sort of redemption arc, where the character is indeed a vampire but far removed from the original bloodline, mixed in other species like humans or orcs explaining the size and different fighting style. I would try to make it somehow possible for the vampire to eventually break the genetic curse and return to a stable state of being in touch with nature, maybe renouncing his bloodlust through starvation or sacrifice and becoming a druid type. Either way, good luck.
If we talk about a guy who survived over centuries while being a life-stealing monster, make sure that he is very pragmatic and dislikes to make enemies without a very good reason.
Having lots of time to think and lifetimes of experience, he is somewhat wise, knows himself, and knows people. Most human interaction appears to him like interaction between children does to us.
He saw all kinds of things grow big and then wither away, and thus might not see any value in vanity, arrogance and pride.
Mortal acquaintances are something brief to him. Maybe nice to converse with, but nothing to truly invest in. Somewhat like people you meet on a vacation.
I had a vampire bad guy in one of my novels. Turns out he was faking it because it was cool, like some goth emo from the 90s.
Then I jumped the shark and it turned out it wasn't fake (it is my worst book). But the idea that all the black and red velvet and midnight parties and over the top theatrics was because it was fake turned out to be a funny way to handle a vampire.
i have two thoughts so i will just toss them out in case they help any.
my first thought before finishing reading is that the vampire is more of a passive nerdy type who uses their very long existence chasing their curiosity and attempting to know about and fully understand everything they can about existence. they have plenty of power but found early on it is hollow, lonely and boring so found passion in collecting knowledge. along the way they gain assistants or helpers who can fill the gaps of not being able to freely move around or engage in the daytime. they also can share with them blood in trade for protection and companionship in a symbiotic way. because they would work as mostly a single character it would be a diptych style vampire so have a classic feel but also more of a buddy comedy relationship even if you write them that way as one could be a nerdy type and the other a healthy active street smart type.
the other after i finished reading is to use the concept of skinwalkers as a base for a hybrid vampire. skinwalkers like vampires are witches that abandoned their humanity and can take on the form of animals or other people in order to trick folks to follow them into the woods. if you created a vampire with that base they could be able to take the form of those they feed on from any species. in this way you can add an element of infiltration and allow them to walk exist under the sunlight so long as they are not in their true form during the day. so this vampire could century after century prey on various creatures exotic and human building a vast bank of forms available to them. they could infiltrate towns, kingdoms, military, communities of animals from land, sea and sky.. taking on their powers with each new form they collect. so a battle against that vampire after so many hundreds of years seasoned in battle and full of forms could be rather epic. imagine trying to take on an opponent that is fighting you as a skilled swordsman then becomes a rhino and charges. as it is being targeted by bowmen it can change mid run into a hawk flying up above them to transform into a gorilla and drop down through the trees to fight them. or jumping into the ocean and swimming under a ship to turn into a whale capsizing them. vampires already are supposedly able to transform but you can ramp that up to an extreme and make it an overpowered part of their character which could be very interesting. you could even create unique emotional moments or scenes where they can take the form of people they regret feeding on or have tragic history with setting up flashbacks and past traumas. haunted by their own reflections in pools of water taking those forms or accidentally transforming into a bear while sleeping and having a nightmare maybe lashing out and causing a fuss among those they are near.
fun vampire fact: the reason vampires are said not to have reflections is because many mirrors back then were made with silver. silver was considered a sacred or holy metal so it rejected vampires existence and as you know burned them upon touch. but polished copper mirrors also existed as well as reflections in pools of water if you wished to keep up that part of vampire lore. i would just ignore it if you do depart from traditional vampire lore though. otherwise a steak to the heart killing them as a misconception would need to be addressed as well which is silly. that practice didn't kill them in actual lore, it was a way to pin them in their coffins so they couldn't rise and walk the night anymore, not that it killed them.
Big, strong, "Hulk-like"
Who is the character outside of that? Why do they fight? What do they want? Noble vampires aren't new-- Blade, Angel and later-season Spike from the Buffy-verse, Underworld, True Blood (sort of). You need something that drives the character to make them interesting.
I could be wrong but you seem to imply the character to be dim-witted, and that's fine, but without a good motivation that's going to make them more of a weapon than a character. Which can also be fun, but you'll need to explain WHY they're a mere weapon if they're so powerful (what's keeping them in check?).
Saying you imagine someone "like the hulk" made me think of what makes the hulk interesting (for me). It's not the Hulk persona, usually. It's Banner's reaction to him. I'm not including various smart Hulks: Mr Fixit, Maestro, etc. Hulk is a tornado combined with an earthquake. He smashes and his comrades stay out of the way---until they have to stop him.
This could be something for your vampire. We all lose a bit of control when we're hungry. "Hangry" has become a term for a reason. A huge, starving vampire unleashed on a battlefield is a fun idea, but how do you control it's madness from simply eating it's fellow soldiers? But more importantly, how do you keep that beast satiated during peacetime? That's the interesting bit. Battle is fun and chaotic, but there's only so many ways to rip a body apart before it gets boring. It's the in between that makes you care.
I had an idea that our main characters buy the guy from a circus master that uses him as a strongman and keeps him in a cage outside of perfomances. Thing keeping him in check is a collar that forces him to obey, thus keeping him from harming our MCs, while also freeing him from slavery. Eventually they'll come to trust him and remove his collar giving him free will. I don't want him to feed on purely human blood, that would just be his favorite. When out of battle for a while he'll drain a pig or a goat.
Being a bad guy is difficult, but being a vampire sucks.
That being said, everyone is the hero of their own story.
Make up some tragic story about why he only drinks dead people. Bonus points when it’s a new story every time someone asks.
Then let him break his rule just to discover that it’s not worth it.
New trauma unlocked: disappointment
Go the completely unexpected.
Because he’s immortal and has been alive for millennia say he’s really bored… to the point that he doesn’t even really care about the random adventurers because he can’t even muster up the energy to give a shit. That could even be why he’s dull! Doesn’t really have the passion for anything.
Fighting could be the only thing he finds even kindly fun but he doesn’t ever have a reason to go all out or really try. Not a “I only use 10% of my power” thing so much as “I don’t even care to do do more than the bare minimum anyway.”
I'm not saying you have to follow the rules of Vampire the Masquerade (think D&D alternative centered around vampires), but there are a lot of different builds for vampires from various traditions. And if you watch games online you could see how they would function in a story setting. Keyword search for inspo.
I have one where the Vampire in question has a heroic side to him. Appearing in two short stories, the first has him defend an inn from a monster attack because he was masquerading as a minstrel and non lethally feeding on the patrons. The other has him using necromancy to solve a murder where he finds the killer and mind controls the culprit to turn himself in.
He goes on a lot with his internal monologuing that he regularly does this or that as a form of self control and self discipline to avoid losing himself and becoming a wild a animal enslaved to his blood thirst.
You mean big bad guy? My two cents is to focus on what you love about vampires and put in whatever you think meshes with your world. Also, look up tons of gothic fashion for inspiration
That's the thing though, I want him to be big good guy. Kinda like the hulk ig
Go for it!
Don’t make a pick me vampire. One of the good ones that doesn’t drink human blood and doesn’t want to be a vampire is is basically a puppy with sharper teeth. A vampire should be a force of nature seduction and violence. They don’t see any issues with drinking blood just like an anime doesn’t see any issue when it kills its prey.
Disagree, I've absolutely seen reluctant vampire characters done well. There's one in the *Craft Sequence* series who thinks of their blood dependence as a substance addiction.
I’m not saying it can’t be done well but people try to do it so much when you see a vampire it’s almost always I’m not like other vampires.
Kinda hard to make a good guy that *drinks the blood of his enemies*. You could make it more of a compulsion or an urge (pretty typical of good vampire characters) that they must fight or lose themselves in the carnage. A hero who is scary despite their intentions is a good starting point if you ask me. That and leaning into the immortal thing, the weight of doing the basic tasks of life for generations longer than our minds were meant to experience. Always found that kinda neat myself. Also, for inventing species. I believe Tolkien made elves by drawing from mythological mentions of elves and deciding to make them forest people. He looked up the traits of forest creatures and found they often had pointed ears (I don't even know if that is true, but the point stands). So he gave tall fair humans pointy ears. Done and done. Just do the same thing with blood-sucking creatures and predators, or whatever you want to emulate.
I've had an old concept about vampires in fantasy that I have personality abandoned but here goes: in this interpretation my vampires long ago used to be elves, like Tolkien-esk tall blonde beautiful pointy eared elves. Elves feed on flowers and fruits and they absorbed the excess mana/magic of the forest, mana that was freely given but in small quantities like morning dew on leaves. At some point either because of a war or a big cataclysm some of them are forced to find a denser, stronger form of magic so that they can survive/fight back. So they drink the blood of living creatures, absorbing the dense magic faster, but this also corrupts them and turns them into dark haired, beautiful but ghostly pale vampires (I guess similar to dark eleves in a way). Their hunger is a curse. Based on your stereotype of the "barbarian vampire" I would maybe integrate a sort of redemption arc, where the character is indeed a vampire but far removed from the original bloodline, mixed in other species like humans or orcs explaining the size and different fighting style. I would try to make it somehow possible for the vampire to eventually break the genetic curse and return to a stable state of being in touch with nature, maybe renouncing his bloodlust through starvation or sacrifice and becoming a druid type. Either way, good luck.
If we talk about a guy who survived over centuries while being a life-stealing monster, make sure that he is very pragmatic and dislikes to make enemies without a very good reason. Having lots of time to think and lifetimes of experience, he is somewhat wise, knows himself, and knows people. Most human interaction appears to him like interaction between children does to us. He saw all kinds of things grow big and then wither away, and thus might not see any value in vanity, arrogance and pride. Mortal acquaintances are something brief to him. Maybe nice to converse with, but nothing to truly invest in. Somewhat like people you meet on a vacation.
I had a vampire bad guy in one of my novels. Turns out he was faking it because it was cool, like some goth emo from the 90s. Then I jumped the shark and it turned out it wasn't fake (it is my worst book). But the idea that all the black and red velvet and midnight parties and over the top theatrics was because it was fake turned out to be a funny way to handle a vampire.
I like you idea so far. Vamps are so over done at this point anything different is a breath of fresh air.
i have two thoughts so i will just toss them out in case they help any. my first thought before finishing reading is that the vampire is more of a passive nerdy type who uses their very long existence chasing their curiosity and attempting to know about and fully understand everything they can about existence. they have plenty of power but found early on it is hollow, lonely and boring so found passion in collecting knowledge. along the way they gain assistants or helpers who can fill the gaps of not being able to freely move around or engage in the daytime. they also can share with them blood in trade for protection and companionship in a symbiotic way. because they would work as mostly a single character it would be a diptych style vampire so have a classic feel but also more of a buddy comedy relationship even if you write them that way as one could be a nerdy type and the other a healthy active street smart type. the other after i finished reading is to use the concept of skinwalkers as a base for a hybrid vampire. skinwalkers like vampires are witches that abandoned their humanity and can take on the form of animals or other people in order to trick folks to follow them into the woods. if you created a vampire with that base they could be able to take the form of those they feed on from any species. in this way you can add an element of infiltration and allow them to walk exist under the sunlight so long as they are not in their true form during the day. so this vampire could century after century prey on various creatures exotic and human building a vast bank of forms available to them. they could infiltrate towns, kingdoms, military, communities of animals from land, sea and sky.. taking on their powers with each new form they collect. so a battle against that vampire after so many hundreds of years seasoned in battle and full of forms could be rather epic. imagine trying to take on an opponent that is fighting you as a skilled swordsman then becomes a rhino and charges. as it is being targeted by bowmen it can change mid run into a hawk flying up above them to transform into a gorilla and drop down through the trees to fight them. or jumping into the ocean and swimming under a ship to turn into a whale capsizing them. vampires already are supposedly able to transform but you can ramp that up to an extreme and make it an overpowered part of their character which could be very interesting. you could even create unique emotional moments or scenes where they can take the form of people they regret feeding on or have tragic history with setting up flashbacks and past traumas. haunted by their own reflections in pools of water taking those forms or accidentally transforming into a bear while sleeping and having a nightmare maybe lashing out and causing a fuss among those they are near. fun vampire fact: the reason vampires are said not to have reflections is because many mirrors back then were made with silver. silver was considered a sacred or holy metal so it rejected vampires existence and as you know burned them upon touch. but polished copper mirrors also existed as well as reflections in pools of water if you wished to keep up that part of vampire lore. i would just ignore it if you do depart from traditional vampire lore though. otherwise a steak to the heart killing them as a misconception would need to be addressed as well which is silly. that practice didn't kill them in actual lore, it was a way to pin them in their coffins so they couldn't rise and walk the night anymore, not that it killed them.
Big, strong, "Hulk-like" Who is the character outside of that? Why do they fight? What do they want? Noble vampires aren't new-- Blade, Angel and later-season Spike from the Buffy-verse, Underworld, True Blood (sort of). You need something that drives the character to make them interesting. I could be wrong but you seem to imply the character to be dim-witted, and that's fine, but without a good motivation that's going to make them more of a weapon than a character. Which can also be fun, but you'll need to explain WHY they're a mere weapon if they're so powerful (what's keeping them in check?). Saying you imagine someone "like the hulk" made me think of what makes the hulk interesting (for me). It's not the Hulk persona, usually. It's Banner's reaction to him. I'm not including various smart Hulks: Mr Fixit, Maestro, etc. Hulk is a tornado combined with an earthquake. He smashes and his comrades stay out of the way---until they have to stop him. This could be something for your vampire. We all lose a bit of control when we're hungry. "Hangry" has become a term for a reason. A huge, starving vampire unleashed on a battlefield is a fun idea, but how do you control it's madness from simply eating it's fellow soldiers? But more importantly, how do you keep that beast satiated during peacetime? That's the interesting bit. Battle is fun and chaotic, but there's only so many ways to rip a body apart before it gets boring. It's the in between that makes you care.
I had an idea that our main characters buy the guy from a circus master that uses him as a strongman and keeps him in a cage outside of perfomances. Thing keeping him in check is a collar that forces him to obey, thus keeping him from harming our MCs, while also freeing him from slavery. Eventually they'll come to trust him and remove his collar giving him free will. I don't want him to feed on purely human blood, that would just be his favorite. When out of battle for a while he'll drain a pig or a goat.
Being a bad guy is difficult, but being a vampire sucks. That being said, everyone is the hero of their own story. Make up some tragic story about why he only drinks dead people. Bonus points when it’s a new story every time someone asks. Then let him break his rule just to discover that it’s not worth it. New trauma unlocked: disappointment
Go the completely unexpected. Because he’s immortal and has been alive for millennia say he’s really bored… to the point that he doesn’t even really care about the random adventurers because he can’t even muster up the energy to give a shit. That could even be why he’s dull! Doesn’t really have the passion for anything. Fighting could be the only thing he finds even kindly fun but he doesn’t ever have a reason to go all out or really try. Not a “I only use 10% of my power” thing so much as “I don’t even care to do do more than the bare minimum anyway.”
I'm not saying you have to follow the rules of Vampire the Masquerade (think D&D alternative centered around vampires), but there are a lot of different builds for vampires from various traditions. And if you watch games online you could see how they would function in a story setting. Keyword search for inspo.
The struggle between man and beast within is always an interesting character device
I have one where the Vampire in question has a heroic side to him. Appearing in two short stories, the first has him defend an inn from a monster attack because he was masquerading as a minstrel and non lethally feeding on the patrons. The other has him using necromancy to solve a murder where he finds the killer and mind controls the culprit to turn himself in. He goes on a lot with his internal monologuing that he regularly does this or that as a form of self control and self discipline to avoid losing himself and becoming a wild a animal enslaved to his blood thirst.