Buffy the Vampire Slayer - TV Series

Compendium of Vampire Typological Traits and General Characterization in Contemporary Fantasy Novels
Part 5

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ~ TV Series

Yes, I know it is not a novel. I wanted to do this one, anyway. So there.

What is vampirism?

Vampirism is more like metaphysical possession than a disease. It is said that humans who become vampires loose their souls and are possessed by a demon.

Becoming a vampire

Human who gets bitten by a vampire ‘sire’ and is subsequently given blood of said sire falls in death-like-state/deep coma and rises as a vampire the following night, usually in a very grumpy mood and hungry.

Life expectancy

Immoral unless killed. Metaphysical diseases also apply and can be fatal.

Extermination methods

Many and imaginative. Wooden stake through the heart, beheading, magical means, direct sunlight, fire, holy water, crushing, squashing, stabbing, etc. Resulting corpse disintegrates into ashes.

Hollows series by Kim Harrison

Compendium of Vampire Typological Traits and General Characterization in Contemporary Fantasy Novels
Part 4

Kim Harrison ~ Hollows Series

Please note that I have yet to read the 6^th book in the series so this is susceptible to some latter changes.

What is vampirism?

Vampirism is some sort of metaphysical blood disease.

Becoming a vampire

Quite complicated. It seems there are 2 options.

Top-notch vampires are born as regular children with paranormal qualities in vamp clans. Their parents are still alive vampires, too. Living vamps turn into undead after (often arranged) physical death and resume existence in another quality.

The other way is to be ‘adopted’ by vampire clans (usually it includes regular blood donations) and turned directly from human to vampire. These vamps are considered having lower social standing.

Life expectancy

Alive until death for alive vamps. Can fall ill.

Immortal unless killed for real vamps. No physical diseases apply.

Extermination methods

Ordinary methods (natural death or death from illness included) for live vampires although they are a bit harder to kill than average human.

Wooden stake through the heart, decapitation for undead. Silver also works well. Both live and undead vamps can be killed by magical means. No info about what happens to the resulting corpse.