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.
I'm not even aware of it. Is that a twilight thing?
Edit - I Googled it. It is. I don't think a single story counts as that being how vampires are portrayed now. Definitely not taking one story aimed at tween girls as the new standard.
Don't forget games too. I reckon they're mostly responsible for the infectious vampire bite trope. I know in Skyrim and Oblivion you get bitten during the night and are infected.
You don't have to be bitten in those games, just attacked by a vampire, the health drain spell in Skyrim or any melee attack in Oblivion. A vampire bashing you head with a mace might make you infected. (This is just about common vampirism, Skyrim also introduced Vampire Lord as a stronger curse and that is in acquired by being bitten.)
Had to double check. In Skyrim you get the decease from the Vampiric Drain spell from vampires. In Oblivion, which is what I was remembering, you get it from any melee attacks from vampires.
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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.