Vampires not having reflections is rather terrifying and sad if you think about it.
Imagine, if they manage to live long enough, they'll one day forget what their faces look like.
They'll forget all about the placement of their features, the hue of their eyes. the curvature of their chins. They'll have an idea of their general appearance, but how all these items work in concert to form the image that is "them" may one day fade from memory.
They can get portraits done, but even the best ones aren't perfect representations. The same can be said for plaster molds and the like.
I'm not really sure what that would do to a person's sense of identity.
I've not looked in a mirror for almost a decade.
This is what happens to ugly people.
>>84265933
Here are enough mirrors, bodies of water, and reflective surfaces in the world to know you're full of shit and trying your best to be dramatic.
>>84265903
>Take a picture of yourself with a smart phone
>You know know what you look like
Was that so hard?
![2012-12-10-Dating-Simian[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/lLD0Ty4.jpg "2012-12-10-Dating-Simian[1].jpg")
>>84265903
depends on what kind of vampire they are
there are always portraits and statues, but some of them can just pluck their eye out so they can look at their face and put it back in
>>84265933
bullshit
this has to have happened to you
>>84266025
if they don't show up in mirrors, why would they show up on film?
don't you know how cameras work?
>>84266025
> picture comes out as a corrupted mess
> no matter how many ties you try, it basically refuses to work
>>84266067
I don't know, why the fuck do their clothes also not show up in mirrors, the logic behind the whole mirror thing is all sorts of fucked.
>>84265903
Really? THAT'S your biggest concern?
That's kinda small potatoes to the much bigger issue. That is, that it's a representation of the fact you don't have a soul. Nevermind the fact that, by seeing this, you know for a fact now that souls actually are a thing at all, stripping away all mystery to there being an innate tangible thing of YOU buried inside every living person, but you find this out on the day you learn you don't have one anymore!
You now know, without question, there is some meta-physical aspect to you and it will effect you when you die, but none of this matters to you any longer, you don't have one. The knowledge you're a walking empty husk of a being, a thing that isn't heavensent nor damned, because you have neither to look forwards to when you die, whatever would go there is already gone. Everytime you pass by something reflective, you're not reminded of the fact you don't know what you look like, you're reminded it doesn't matter what your outside appearance is because there's nothing left inside. You're less than a fucking dog, at least when he barks at his reflection it's a sign he's got more of a soul than you ever will.
But I guess it would kind of suck if you had this massive pimple and everyone was too uncomfortable to tell you.
>>84266086
depends on how competent/willing to commit the artist is
>>84265903
Mirrors were pretty rare for quite a while. Plenty of folks never got one good look at themselves.
>>84266122
They could still catch a glimpse of themselves in a pool of water. Vampires can't even do that.
>>84266090
>>84266142
Eh. You could easily see yourself infrequently enough to have an inaccurate or non existent idea of your face, like people still do with their voices even if they hear them accurately now and again.
>>84266090
Nigga, if we're using the soulless husk vampires than you wouldn't care at all, you're an affront to god that exists for the sole purpose of bringing death to others without any feelings of pity or remorse, you exist to kill.
>>84266090
SOMEBODY GETS IT!!
>>84265903
Or they can take a photo before transformation.
Or even more pratical, pay someone to draw them. Plenty of good painters around, and vampire houses are usually full of paintings.
>Kill brother in a desperate bid to attain immortality and win the love of the woman he was going to marry
>She throws herself from the walls of your castle
>Can't even SEE your preserved good looks afterwards
Yeah, Vampires got it rough. Also, consider the implications of being a Vampire who cannot ever see the light of day. Depending on where you are, you might only have a scant few hours a day to accomplish what you wish. And even then, consider living in a period of time or a place where there IS no night life. You're forever damned to wander the moonlit night, condemned to rarely meet pleasant company, to never enjoy the frivolities of common life, to visit a store and buy some ice cream.
In more modern settings, this is of course mitigated by the progress of society, but it's still gotta be a lonely, pitiable existance, forever ruled by the fear that the morning sun WILL kill you if you stay out too long.
Every aspect of your existance as a Vampire would be a reminder in one form or another of the damned, twisted beast you've become.
>>84266142
It's pretty rare that you can see your reflection in water clearly enough to actually make out the facial features. Usually you can just sorta-kinda see some vague shapes and colors.
>>84266067
>>84266080
Cameras and mirrors work differently.
>>84266266
You could survive the sunlight if you were a pre-Nosferatu vampire, post-Nosferatu you're fucked
>>84265903
Sometimes I see myself in a photo and think >Oh, I look like that? Even if I have a mirror I never care to see myself in detail so basically I see myself but I don't register a thing, everything is done automatically.
>>84266309
Refer to this
>>84266090
As this guy said, the image of you doesn't appear, despite whatever is being used, because something is so fundamentally wrong with you that the mundane laws of physics don't want to recognize you exist.
>>84266090
You haven't even considered the worst implication of having no soul:you'll never be able to play the saxophone
>>84266090
So wait does becoming a Vampire KILL your soul or are you simply the animate corpse and your soul has passed on? And besides I mean I guess it wouldn't really matter to you if you have no soul since there's no soul. Really when you think about it Vampires are just really smart animals, they're called evil but if there's no soul they're just beasts surviving and thriving.depending on the lore
>>84266424
It's a little known fact that most vampires discover this fact, and in a sad attempt to compensate, many develop obsessive levels of attachment with pipe organs.
Truly, a damnable fate beyond what any words can express.
>>84266407
That and the flipped axis throws you off. Most people are pretty asymmetrical.
>>84266442
>depending on the lore
This is one of the biggest defining factors honestly, the legends of vampires have been around for a long as fucking time and have changed a shit ton over time, people like to say modern romance authors are taking serious liberties with vampires but going from Dracula to Edward is a pretty mild lore change as far as the whole things goes.
One could argue the why vampires are destroyed by sunlight, don't show up in reflections (or digital recording for modern stuff) and drink blood are based around the same idea.
They lack essence.
They don't show up in reflections because they aren't really there. Sure, there might be something physical, but, it lacks the essence for it to appear.
They are destroyed by sunlight because of the idea that the sun's beams reveal what's hidden and what's truly there. Without essence, sunlight reveals what is actually there.. nothing.
And they feed off blood/breath/ki of others so they can steal what is symbolic of essence, in a vain hope of making themselves more real.
Pardon my ramble.
>>84266510
And hell, in some settings the Vampire might well still have his soul, but is trapped within a hellish karmic cycle born of his own monstrous acts.I just really fucking love Strahd, alright?
>>84266442
Actually... in some medieval beliefs, vampires were actually the corpses suicides ridden by demonic spirits to fulfill their wicked desires in a physical form, dragging the soul that was once the owner of the body along with them.
>>84266573
corpses of those who committed suicide.
>>84266510
Originally they were a subtype of zombie
bah. even the most backwards people should understand that inanimate objects have reflections and thus there's no paranormal component to them
and for that matter i've never been into the supernatural being involved in vampires. better they're just like centaurs and satyrs and all those other things. just humans with some bat genes in there. and maybe a predilection for magic but nothing a human couldnt manage themselves if they tried.
and obviously, from staying out all night and drinking blood, they're kinda kooky in the head. buncha weird phobias. can't cross running water or can't resist counting shit you scattered on the ground.. maybe even so nutty you can't recognize your own reflection anymore, or you have that impostor-syndrome disorder where you don't react to shit properly so you see fakes everywhere.
>>84266684
Are we talking the modern idea of the flesh eating walking corpses, or those who are enslaved after death by a warlock like with the traditional Vodou zombie?
>>84266705
I think it may be possible that you don't actually like Vampires.
>>84265903
What about things like 3D scanning using IR or the alike? Are Vampires only invisible on the visible spectrum? If they're functionally immortal and don't need to breath, what's to stop them getting a full-body cast made? Because fuck you casting can get insane detail, just hop over to /tg/ and see for yourself
>>84266752
The one that raise from its grave and cause harm without premeditation or a mind. Get up, spread diseases, drink blood, back to the coffin.
>>84266705
So, now explain to me how magic is just advanced technology.
Seriously, what kind of uncreative lunk are you to no be able to appreciate basic metaphors?
By the way, Centaurs and Satyrs are more than just people with animal parts, they represented ideas of savagery, primal lust, and the pleasures of the flesh.
I'm sure this is bait, but, fuck, I'm biting because this kind of "Oh, I have my wizard treat magic as science" kind of bullshit that's killing fantasy!
>>84266844
I'm honestly a little disappointed that people can't really reconcile Magic and Science.
Everyone says "Magic is just science you can't explain" or whatever. And the idea ALWAYS becomes SCIENCE outmodes magic or divinity, they never like to play with the idea of these aspects meeting. Despite the fact that Greek Mythology possibly invented the idea of Robots.
>>84266844
This anon gets it. Too many "fantasy" settings go out of their way to describe magic, instead of just letting less be more and have magic be fucking magical. The idea that magic can be quantified in formulas and treated like mathematics is the stupidest shit, and it's infesting fucking everything because people have been taught to stop using their imaginations and to mock anything that illicits an unexplainable awe.
Just, fuck. This kind of shit is why I'm working on writing and publishing GOOD fiction, because so much of it is fucking atrocious.
>>84266992
Actually, that, I like alot, and I've seen it done a few times. Check out the Ebberon setting for D&D.
>>84266992
We have lots of magic meets science, specially on Japanese fantasy RPGs. You also have Star Wars that is basically technology from Magic, you got Fullmetal Alchemist where the world have a different set of rules so their science is part magic, and we have the science extreme Dennou Coil where it is pure technology but looks and feel like magic.
>>84267113
Okay I guess I just wanted to hamfisted bring up that Greek mythology had Robots.
I think that's kinda neat.
>>84265903
No it won't. Prisoners don't have access to mirrors and they don't "forget what their faces look like".
>>84266684
Actually the oldest vampire legends can be traced back to the Draugr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugr
>>84267231
They have augmented reality and advanced programming/hacking looks like magic circles. Also it have its own share mysterious stuff from digital creatures that are not supposed to exist to digital ghosts and having your digital self and conscience separated from your physical body making it an out of the body experience in a technological setting. It is basically the opposite of robots made with magic, here it is magic made with technology but still feel supernatural.
>>84267515
I don't think that qualifies as a vampire. Drinking blood is only one of the many ways it have to kill from devouring to driving mad and it doesn't seems to link it to its immortality.
In Dracula, vampires don't cast shadows and although visible in moonlight the light by which they are seen does not correspond to the light from the moon. Basically vampires don't interact with light and what people see is just a mental image, despite being physically a corpse. Vampires represented the old and obsolete and as such their unenlightened state was made literal.
Why the hell are almost all vamps in modern media Nosferatu- and Dracula-like? Why can't they be like any of the more interesting vampire lore?
>>84267873
Make your own them.
>>84267873
Because the popular stuff overshadows everything else to the point where audiences expect vampires to hate garlic and explode in sunlight. Vampires have lost most of their symbolism and become generic monsters. Hell, even monsters in general have just become enemy bad guys and lost their original meaning.
>>84267873
https://youtu.be/5FkBjM1z3E4
a professional artist can paint you a portrait with the same accuracy as presidential portraits
no camera, no mirrors
problem fucking solved
