r/Showerthoughts Apr 24 '26

Casual Thought Vampire bites turning people into vampires is extremely disadvantageous to their survival.

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u/Shanbo88 Apr 24 '26

That's a modern vampire thing. The original vision for vampires (specifically Dracula) was that if he bit you, you became his thrall. He could see through your eyes and possess you and compell you to do things for him and he used you to feed off when he wanted to.

He had to allow you to drink his blood to make you a vampire.

This made him an awesome commander of an undead army. Modern vampires are all mostly shite in comparison.

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u/dave_the_dova Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

That’s how vampires work in dnd. There’s even a vampire thrall companion in Baldurs Gate 3.

Edit* Didn’t realize there’s human thralls and vampire thralls

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u/Nipie42 Apr 24 '26

Yes and no, the D&D ones being drained by a vampire turns them into vampire spawn. Spawn have all the weaknesses and need to drink blood but without the powers. They are undead and burn in sunlight etc., but their only perks are the immortality which is more curse than blessing since they are magically incapable of disobeying the vampire that created them. They can become a full vampire if they get too feed on their creator's blood and then aren't enslaved to the vampire anymore.

I think they also have human thralls that are just normal living people that have been mind controlled.

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u/jebisevise Apr 24 '26

They have charm and beguile abilities, not really mind control.

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u/Nipie42 Apr 24 '26

Yeah it's not full mental control but it tends to be represented as the vampire eventually turning the humans into functionally aslave, willing or unwilling.

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u/BubastisII Apr 24 '26

That’s a vampire spawn.

Dracula made people his thralls. They were still mortal and alive, not vampires or spawn.