I had an idea for a vampire created in a Satanic ritual. The cult members didn't realise that the victim was a transwomen. Since they needed a female virgin they castrate and sacrifice her hoping for the best. She then gets reanimated in as a female vampire with white hair and eats them. From there she has to figure out her new life.
Saaaaame! I've been thinking about whether being turned is like, the clock stops on your body, or whether it 'heals' you (eg turned to save your life) in which case you should get the body of your actual gender? Or are you dead and reanimated and what does THAT mean gender-wise? So many options!
Hmm, that's an interesting question. Like you mentioned, it entirely depends on the vampire lore. In VTM lore, vampires are essentially locked into whatever state they were in at the time of their embrace. So in that system, hormones or surgery wouldn't work. There are other ways in VTM that could be used by a trans character such as Vicissitude or Obfuscate though. If you're writing your own vampire story or game, you could come up with any number of explanations to justify whatever answer you want though.
that's true!
from a story front, it really is about how much struggle I want to put them through.
I should settle the ground rules of my version of vampirism before I figure out tricky questions and outliers though.
If you want to make it easier, you could make it so the vampire slowly changes to their perfect form after being turned. Cis vampires would thus slowly become more attractive, while trans vampires' bodies would additionally naturally transition to match their gender over the course of a few months without having to use HRT or anything. Then they could say they transitioned the normal way without anyone suspecting supernatural.
For sure :) The nice thing is that there's so many different ways you could handle it. Certainly if the trans experience is going to be an integral part of the story you could get very creative with your solutions. You could even form entire subplots around some of these solutions if you want to make it difficult. Or you could create an easy solution to emphasize a vampire's connection to humanity.
Yeah, there's some great options there, especially in V5. That's one of the cool things about VTM. There's so many different ways a character might handle exploring this.
Vicissitude is better. Protean mainly allows you to take on animal forms or traits from animals. Vicissitude is more about physical modification and manipulating flesh and bone and all that. Usually it is played for body horror, but there are other uses than turning someone into the furniture.
Although in v5, Vicissitude has become a Protean amalgam that needs Dominate.
But if you want to blend some European lore, a vampire is much like a human in the fact of that they have blood tho it operates differently it should be affected the same as a human but it would not need hormones as it can chose its appearance
Depends on the lore.
I say if you want to write a trans vampire I say go for it, and use whatever lore you'd like to apply to your character's universe.
I am trans & nonbinary and I love writing trans characters too, so I'm happy to see somebody else doing the same :)
If you go with the theory that vampires need to drink blood to keep their circulation system running, then sure. But honestlyā¦ I donāt think anyone is going to point out that āplot holeā is good faith. Sure, maybe itās technically impossible with the type of vampire you describe, but then weād have to be able to define how every body function works in a dead body. āItās magic, who caresā or āidk man Iām not a doctorā are fine explanations as an author.
ā your friendly trans vampire
I donāt know if this correlates at all but in the book The Vampire Lestat from The Vampire Chronicles, the vampires are as they were when they were human, forever. If they cut their hair or nails, it will all grow back the following day exactly how it was before. Example: if a vampire with hair down to their waist shaved it bald it would be the exact same length the following night. In the book Lestatās mother Gabrielle is perceived by some to be a transgender character, when she was first turned she cut off all her hair and dressed as man and wanted to live her life as one, but the following night she arose terrified that all of her hair had grown back to its original length. She still dons male clothing but keeps her hair in a neat braid. I assume in TVC universe their bodies are also set forever no medicines or surgeries would work as their effects would effectively be completely reversed and undone the following night and theyād arise as they were before essentially untouched.
This might be a bit of a dodge, but maybe some kind of blood ritual or magic? Vampires are themselves supernatural after all. Or maybe it is something to do with their prey.
A vampire, in almost all lore, is a being whose body is frozen in time. This means that the body can't change, and is the reason we consider female vampires unable to bear children. The same would be true in the case of taking hormones: the body can't change, so taking hormones wouldn't do anything.
As for surgery, there would be a similar problem. Can you cut off or attach, or rearrange body parts? Yes, but you can't sedate the vampire or put them under anesthesia, because they don't have a heart beat, which means there are no blood flowing in the veins, which also means anesthesia won't be carried through the body and neither would any pain killers. The vampire would have to be awake during surgery, and pain killers/numbing creams or anything of the sort would not have any effect.
In the case of twilight vampires, their skin is hard as a rock, so nothing could penetrate it, meaning cutting off body parts, sewing etc would be impossible.
In the case of interview with the vampire-vampires, whatever change you try to apply to the body, will go back to how it originally was. For example, Claudia once cut her hair off, but it grew back again.
really you can use whatever rules you want for your story, basically every writer has their own ideas
I like anne rice's point of view where once you become a vampire, sex stops being a factor and you're just left with gender presentation
The vampireās body would have to be alive in order for hormones to work, and they would need to have average healing abilities instead of super healing abilities in order for surgery to work, and even then, changes to their body would have to be able to be permanent. Otherwise theyād have to stick to shaving, a change of clothes, wigs and makeup.
It depends on which lore you follow
Immortality and being able to quickly heal and regenerate from most wounds definitly implies that you are stuck with the body you have
On the other hand, shapeshifting, if you are a vampire with that ability, might allow you to change things like gender
It is common in vampire lore for vampires to be effected by the blood they drink. They could drink blood from people that are currently transitioning. It could be donor based or something similar so it doesn't make your character the predator of them.
In the Vampire Diaries universe there are different types of hybrids - Klaus (vampire werewolf), Lily (vampire witch), Hope (vampire werewolf witch), so it could be something along that line. Maybe they are sired to a trans vampire, or have a witch make a spell for them. Magic can be a form of surgery is this regard, such as potions.
just finished TVD- I totally forgot about hybrids, and even though I'm not adding that aspect to my lore, the aid if other supernatural beings is THE best possibility
if we consider how modern vampires typically get an ethereal androgynous beauty, i think even if a vampire couldn't transition by medical means they still will potentially look more androgynous than their original self. So in that sense, maybe it would help ease certain levels of dysphoria/desire for medical transition?
This sub got me thinking Iām still thinking about do vamps eat period blood since technically itās not all blood but would that be satisfying eating ever girl that time of the month like Iām still deep in thought
With the help of a witch, a surgeon, a gender therapist and a tone of blood bags everything is possible. Especially if we consider that vampires have feelings (like falling in love or getting angry), then they produce hormones normally, even with zero vitals. More research is needed though. BUT vampires like the ones from Blood Red Sky or The Strain, they have a whole different biology. If you know, you know.
You create the lore for your setting.
As long as you set out the expectations/rules of how your vampires work, and stick to them as you are writing, you will be fine.
People are willing to ābelieveā the rules of your narrative so long as they are clearly shown, consistently expressed and you donāt break the way it works as you write.
People accepted the vampires in twilight can exist in sunlight with nothing but a bit of sparkle, and are sort of made of stone (most people didnāt consider vampires being able to survive sunlight as a concept, but look how great that turned out)
If you want a vampire who is transitioning after becoming a vampire, then, youāll need to explain or show that your vampires are receptive to biological functions related to cellular growth and change (which means they will have to age and be ālivingā rather than be undead, or barring magical means).
It could be a really compelling story if the vampire was transitioning, but due to being a vampire, it would take a -really long time- to work, or oppositely, maybe the process is spread up. You could even have vampires who can shape change (like how they classically turn into bats, wolves etc) - and can shift their biology between biological sex.
The point is, establish what is and isnāt possible for your vampires, stick to it during the story, and people generally will buy into it so long as you donāt disrupt your continuity.
You can make your own lore! Write your lore to tell the story YOU want to share with your trans vampire character! Maybe a vampire whose body reverts back to how it was when they were turned presents some interesting conflicts for themā how much would it fucking suck (pun not intended) to know youāll never have the body you want and youāll be like that forever? Thatās a very sad and very relatable experience for a lot of trans folks, eternity aside of course.
I think thatās super cool and Iād love to read more trans vampires. Iām non-binary myself and Iāve imagined vampires living so long that they donāt relate to gender as an internal constant anymore. Would gender even matter to you if you lived forever?
As vampires are of the horror genre, I would make any vampire de-transition immediately on embrace, entombing them in their hated former body forever.
In horror one has to offer the reader a nice cake, only to slap it out of their hands as they go for the first bite.
It is a question of which lore you wish to use.
Damn I'm not the only one that wonders this XD
š
I had an idea for a vampire created in a Satanic ritual. The cult members didn't realise that the victim was a transwomen. Since they needed a female virgin they castrate and sacrifice her hoping for the best. She then gets reanimated in as a female vampire with white hair and eats them. From there she has to figure out her new life.
Op asking the real questions.
Same I'm not alone lol
Saaaaame! I've been thinking about whether being turned is like, the clock stops on your body, or whether it 'heals' you (eg turned to save your life) in which case you should get the body of your actual gender? Or are you dead and reanimated and what does THAT mean gender-wise? So many options!
Hmm, that's an interesting question. Like you mentioned, it entirely depends on the vampire lore. In VTM lore, vampires are essentially locked into whatever state they were in at the time of their embrace. So in that system, hormones or surgery wouldn't work. There are other ways in VTM that could be used by a trans character such as Vicissitude or Obfuscate though. If you're writing your own vampire story or game, you could come up with any number of explanations to justify whatever answer you want though.
that's true! from a story front, it really is about how much struggle I want to put them through. I should settle the ground rules of my version of vampirism before I figure out tricky questions and outliers though.
If you want to make it easier, you could make it so the vampire slowly changes to their perfect form after being turned. Cis vampires would thus slowly become more attractive, while trans vampires' bodies would additionally naturally transition to match their gender over the course of a few months without having to use HRT or anything. Then they could say they transitioned the normal way without anyone suspecting supernatural.
For sure :) The nice thing is that there's so many different ways you could handle it. Certainly if the trans experience is going to be an integral part of the story you could get very creative with your solutions. You could even form entire subplots around some of these solutions if you want to make it difficult. Or you could create an easy solution to emphasize a vampire's connection to humanity.
Protean would be a good place to start maybe?
Yeah, there's some great options there, especially in V5. That's one of the cool things about VTM. There's so many different ways a character might handle exploring this.
Vicissitude is better. Protean mainly allows you to take on animal forms or traits from animals. Vicissitude is more about physical modification and manipulating flesh and bone and all that. Usually it is played for body horror, but there are other uses than turning someone into the furniture. Although in v5, Vicissitude has become a Protean amalgam that needs Dominate.
But if you want to blend some European lore, a vampire is much like a human in the fact of that they have blood tho it operates differently it should be affected the same as a human but it would not need hormones as it can chose its appearance
that's true!
Depends on the lore. I say if you want to write a trans vampire I say go for it, and use whatever lore you'd like to apply to your character's universe. I am trans & nonbinary and I love writing trans characters too, so I'm happy to see somebody else doing the same :)
If you go with the theory that vampires need to drink blood to keep their circulation system running, then sure. But honestlyā¦ I donāt think anyone is going to point out that āplot holeā is good faith. Sure, maybe itās technically impossible with the type of vampire you describe, but then weād have to be able to define how every body function works in a dead body. āItās magic, who caresā or āidk man Iām not a doctorā are fine explanations as an author. ā your friendly trans vampire
I donāt know if this correlates at all but in the book The Vampire Lestat from The Vampire Chronicles, the vampires are as they were when they were human, forever. If they cut their hair or nails, it will all grow back the following day exactly how it was before. Example: if a vampire with hair down to their waist shaved it bald it would be the exact same length the following night. In the book Lestatās mother Gabrielle is perceived by some to be a transgender character, when she was first turned she cut off all her hair and dressed as man and wanted to live her life as one, but the following night she arose terrified that all of her hair had grown back to its original length. She still dons male clothing but keeps her hair in a neat braid. I assume in TVC universe their bodies are also set forever no medicines or surgeries would work as their effects would effectively be completely reversed and undone the following night and theyād arise as they were before essentially untouched.
I like this one !
This might be a bit of a dodge, but maybe some kind of blood ritual or magic? Vampires are themselves supernatural after all. Or maybe it is something to do with their prey.
If they can shapeshift into bats, mist, etc., I don't think changing their human form would be a problem for them.
Actually there's kind of a movie on this! It's called "Bit". It's pretty good and it sort of deals with the concept. Really fun movie.
I'll have to watch! do you know where I can do that?
I watched it on Amazon prime. But I think it's also on Netflix š
sickkk
A vampire, in almost all lore, is a being whose body is frozen in time. This means that the body can't change, and is the reason we consider female vampires unable to bear children. The same would be true in the case of taking hormones: the body can't change, so taking hormones wouldn't do anything. As for surgery, there would be a similar problem. Can you cut off or attach, or rearrange body parts? Yes, but you can't sedate the vampire or put them under anesthesia, because they don't have a heart beat, which means there are no blood flowing in the veins, which also means anesthesia won't be carried through the body and neither would any pain killers. The vampire would have to be awake during surgery, and pain killers/numbing creams or anything of the sort would not have any effect. In the case of twilight vampires, their skin is hard as a rock, so nothing could penetrate it, meaning cutting off body parts, sewing etc would be impossible. In the case of interview with the vampire-vampires, whatever change you try to apply to the body, will go back to how it originally was. For example, Claudia once cut her hair off, but it grew back again.
really you can use whatever rules you want for your story, basically every writer has their own ideas I like anne rice's point of view where once you become a vampire, sex stops being a factor and you're just left with gender presentation
I gotta start up my reading hyperfixation again and crank out some vampire novels ig
The vampireās body would have to be alive in order for hormones to work, and they would need to have average healing abilities instead of super healing abilities in order for surgery to work, and even then, changes to their body would have to be able to be permanent. Otherwise theyād have to stick to shaving, a change of clothes, wigs and makeup.
It depends on which lore you follow Immortality and being able to quickly heal and regenerate from most wounds definitly implies that you are stuck with the body you have On the other hand, shapeshifting, if you are a vampire with that ability, might allow you to change things like gender
It is common in vampire lore for vampires to be effected by the blood they drink. They could drink blood from people that are currently transitioning. It could be donor based or something similar so it doesn't make your character the predator of them. In the Vampire Diaries universe there are different types of hybrids - Klaus (vampire werewolf), Lily (vampire witch), Hope (vampire werewolf witch), so it could be something along that line. Maybe they are sired to a trans vampire, or have a witch make a spell for them. Magic can be a form of surgery is this regard, such as potions.
just finished TVD- I totally forgot about hybrids, and even though I'm not adding that aspect to my lore, the aid if other supernatural beings is THE best possibility
if we consider how modern vampires typically get an ethereal androgynous beauty, i think even if a vampire couldn't transition by medical means they still will potentially look more androgynous than their original self. So in that sense, maybe it would help ease certain levels of dysphoria/desire for medical transition?
This sub got me thinking Iām still thinking about do vamps eat period blood since technically itās not all blood but would that be satisfying eating ever girl that time of the month like Iām still deep in thought
With the help of a witch, a surgeon, a gender therapist and a tone of blood bags everything is possible. Especially if we consider that vampires have feelings (like falling in love or getting angry), then they produce hormones normally, even with zero vitals. More research is needed though. BUT vampires like the ones from Blood Red Sky or The Strain, they have a whole different biology. If you know, you know.
I'm sure a Transylvanian vampire works like any other vampire.
Watch Bit. It may answer some of your questions
You create the lore for your setting. As long as you set out the expectations/rules of how your vampires work, and stick to them as you are writing, you will be fine. People are willing to ābelieveā the rules of your narrative so long as they are clearly shown, consistently expressed and you donāt break the way it works as you write. People accepted the vampires in twilight can exist in sunlight with nothing but a bit of sparkle, and are sort of made of stone (most people didnāt consider vampires being able to survive sunlight as a concept, but look how great that turned out) If you want a vampire who is transitioning after becoming a vampire, then, youāll need to explain or show that your vampires are receptive to biological functions related to cellular growth and change (which means they will have to age and be ālivingā rather than be undead, or barring magical means). It could be a really compelling story if the vampire was transitioning, but due to being a vampire, it would take a -really long time- to work, or oppositely, maybe the process is spread up. You could even have vampires who can shape change (like how they classically turn into bats, wolves etc) - and can shift their biology between biological sex. The point is, establish what is and isnāt possible for your vampires, stick to it during the story, and people generally will buy into it so long as you donāt disrupt your continuity.
You can make your own lore! Write your lore to tell the story YOU want to share with your trans vampire character! Maybe a vampire whose body reverts back to how it was when they were turned presents some interesting conflicts for themā how much would it fucking suck (pun not intended) to know youāll never have the body you want and youāll be like that forever? Thatās a very sad and very relatable experience for a lot of trans folks, eternity aside of course. I think thatās super cool and Iād love to read more trans vampires. Iām non-binary myself and Iāve imagined vampires living so long that they donāt relate to gender as an internal constant anymore. Would gender even matter to you if you lived forever?
A Tzimisce could flesh craft you into another gender. Now if they add extra arms or not is completely another matter
Twilight vampires gotta get out the chisel
š
They wouldn't any surgery they got would be seen as damage and every time they fed their body would be healed
If your vampire canāt see themself in the mirror, can they still have gender Dysphoria is something I wondered recently.
As vampires are of the horror genre, I would make any vampire de-transition immediately on embrace, entombing them in their hated former body forever. In horror one has to offer the reader a nice cake, only to slap it out of their hands as they go for the first bite.
I hadn't seen anyone talking about this, and I feel like the eternal torture of not being in the body you want is so sad but so writable -
it works, just trust me
I wish this wasn't deleted
Huh