Vampirism

Symptoms

Most physiological vampiric traits are common post-mortem changes.

• pale skin due to pallor mortis

• staining of the skin due to livor mortis

• shifting in eye color--from natural hue to a pale blue, cream, or white

• stiffness in limbs and muscles due to past rigor mortis, especially in the legs

• room temperature body, with the extremeties often feeling cold, due to algor mortis

Others are a unique result of the medical reanimation of a vampire.

• craving for blood, flesh, or other organic material, theorized to be a side effect of the embalming process

• Autovampirism or autocannibalism

• Vampirism or cannibalism

Vampirism is comorbid with a variety of disorders.

• clinical depression

• suicidal ideation

• post-traumatic stress disorder, usually related to the circumstances of a violent death

• dissociation

• derealization

Some vampiric comorbidities are contested, as, due to the nature of being a vampire, many of these delusions are reality. Some experts say that such syndromes can still develop in vampires, with the added caveat that the symptoms of these syndromes are even more so exaggerated and disconnected from the vampire's reality. These contested disorders include:

• Cotard's Syndrome

• hypochondria

• somatoparaphrenia, specifically that which involves limbs or body parts that have been replaced or recolored by vampirc operations

Causes and Process

The primary surgery in vampire reanimation is organ removal and replacement. All digestive organs are removed from the torso. The lungs are commonly also removed. Heavy machinery is then inserted and wired up correctly. Its main function is to supply electrical pulses to regulate brain and heart activity, as well as filter oxygen into the blood stream for the patient. The technology used is often set up to recieve ingested blood or flesh and reuse it properly throughout the body, in an attempt to work with the cravings many vampires experience. In addition to this, some vampire machinery is programmed to release embalming fluids into the bloodstream at regular intervals, in order to preserve the patient's outer appearance. Electrical stimulation is often applied to the recently deceased body to prevent rigor mortis during surgery, especially in colder areas.

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Post-op recoloring of skin in order to offset livor mortis is common. If the vampire's machinery is not set up to inject embalming fluids into the bloodstream, then the patient must do so themself. The electrical stimulation of the brain and nerves often results in chronic pain post-op, which may or may not fade over time.

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It is worth noting that many reputable doctors will outright refuse to perform vampiric procedures, due to anything from personal prejudice to religious reasons to moral and ethical concerns. As a result, the process has fallen to a lot of lower-level doctors, who often behave in a predatory way regarding payment from their clients.

Vampire Culture

There is an overwhelming social prejudice against vampires, due to their often disfigured appearances and financial situations--be that "expensive rich vampire with more money than sense" or "poor morphine-addicted vampire from the lower levels". Another reason for bias is the cravings many vampires get for organic matter, such as for blood, flesh, or specific organ tissues. Many see vampires as inherently violent due to these cravings, even though cases of vampiric violence are few and far between. The operations causing vampirism are expensive. As a result, vampires are either upper-class members of society or deeply in debt. It is much more common to hear about the indebted vampires, because any rich vampires are overwhelmingly reclusive with their condition due to social prejudice.

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Some groups of vampires take on posthumous names, while others disagree with the practice, on the basis that they are not mentally dead. In an earlier form of the preservation process, morphine was used to perpetually delay putrefaction in place of embalming fluid, which resulted in most older vampires becoming addicted to the substance. Morphine is still used today in cheaper versions of this operation as an embalming fluid, and is commonly used as a painkiller post-operation.

Notable Cases

• Eloise Deorwine is a vampire, though this is unknown to the general public. Eilos Deorwine, Ivain Ray, and Gunhlide are aware, as are a few select members of her staff.
• Vera Donner, bassist of the folk-punk band Ye Miserable Bastards

Type

Physiological