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The End of an Era

2011-09-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

This posting is an interview with a vampire/lycan from the now defunct "Atrum Infero" clan, the clan's former blood merchant and "dark keeper" known as StarLord Scribe. We wanted to share some earlier information about the clan's beginnings, stuff that hadn't been documented, but may be useful for historical reference, or for those considering starting their own clan, perhaps some pitfalls to avoid.
Atrum Infero will long be remembered, mentioned in whispers, murmured from the sleeping mouths of those who continue her dark dreams.

Q: You were with Satoria from the beginning, can you tell us about the early days?

A: Yes, I'd like to say Atrum Infero had humble beginnings, but really, this was once a great clan of hundreds of vampires and thousands of souls within the virtual world of Second Life. The group was started as an offshoot group within Crimson Republic, ruled by a queen named "Jadebelgie"

Q: So it was in effect, a clan within a clan?

A: Satoria Exonar's initial goals were to focus on RolePlay as the key element of vampirism, and stray away from the importance of statuses and the accrual of mass members to build ranking. There were like-minded people wishing to experience more roleplay beyond what was happening within CR, and our Queen Jade was supportive of the RP group existing within the larger family.

Q: How did it become its own separate group then?

A: There were several events that happened around the same time, which prompted Satoria to break away from the main clan and start off her own new group. One factor was tensions within the main group. At the time, CR was very wild, dark, and highly competitive. A lot of vampires would do sneaky things to each other, stealing souls, blood, and minions from each other. One could see a lot of drama occurring on a regular basis, and you often hear these biker-clad vamps calling each other "hun" or "dear" in the group or voice chat, this was always used in a derogatory sense and preceded a slurry of accusation flying.I don't know if this still goes on today or not, I was banned from the clan lands since I was a devoted minion of Satoria and hence chose to leave CR when she did.

Another of the clan's queens ("Inferno", who was never part of Atrum Infero, yet knew all of the parties involved) had recently spun-off her own group (Phoenix Tears of Blood Clan) because of the same stuff happening to her and her minions. Inferno was a very successful huntress, but wasn't quite the court favorite for reasons unknown to me. I suggested queen Jade bring her on equal footing with some of the other royalty, but she didn't want to be part of that since it would make her look as if she played favorites, a bit of a catch 22 I guess, but that's beyond me. Inferno also liked the idea of RP but didn't want to be party to Satoria's group, since she was already a queen herself, and knew that with tensions mounting, thought that this may be a case of "too many cooks in the kitchen", so bowed-out of invitations and branched off to start her own clan while the dust settled.

Anyway, Satoria got caught up in much of this drama, in fact at times I think she enjoyed it. However, about the same time she also had a SL romance go horribly wrong. One of her minions (whom I only knew of 3rd-party, named "Minotaur" something) had asked her to give up a large number of souls and minions to help him raise up his ranking, and she complied because of (so stated) being in love with him. Though I don't know all the details, I do know that one day he just up and left, taking all the collected souls and minions with him, so it looks as if he was just using her. I think that experience was the proverbial nail in the coffin (so to speak!), and being quite embarrassed about it she just wanted a new start.

So, Atrum Infero was born out of this, and continued to exist for several years before eventually puttering out and fading away.

Q: You mention romance and drama, are those normally part of bloodlines?

A: I should mention that through the course of the game a lot of dark things and trickery have been used on people to seduce them into playing, giving up their soul, blood, and coercing people to do things they wouldn't have otherwise done. There's a lot of mind-fucking and evil manipulation by slimey sick people that goes on, in this and other sensual/mature-themed games. Someone could likely write MORE books about it, and yes indeed bloodlines has been known to create drama in both the virtual and real world.

Vampires are often portrayed as seducers, or people who use tricks of seduction and coercion, or guilt, to gain and retain new victims, and though it isn't officially stated in the game guide, bloodlines is filled with lots of vampires, lycans, and humans trying to swoon people into their clutches. Satoria always said she didn't resort to seduction or sex, and it's true I have never had pixelsex with her, though I know she was actively cybering with other people in SL, over public and private IM, and that she also corresponded offline with several of her minions.

It may be "just a computer game" but remember we're not talking about fighting with computer-controlled bots, this MMORPG game is played by human-controlled avatars with real people behind them. The actions you consent to do or choose not to do could have real-life consequences, if they somehow directly or indirectly involve other people. For example, your choice to virtually engage with others online -- not your husband, wife, or significant other -- can easily be looked at as a form of cheating. It's just as bad as cybering someone over IM, webcam, or virtual pixel-sex. Imagine what the real-life implications of giving your heart and soul to another person is, that is essentially the whole minion/liege relationship, it is often referred much like BDSM master/slave unions, and so shouldn't be something undertaken lightly, unless this person is indeed someone you would term a significant other, husband/wife, or boyfriend/girlfriend. There are exceptions to this rule of course, like two guys who are liege and minion don't generally fall into that category unless they are homosexually attracted to one another, as well two women with the liege/minion relationship aren't always lovers, but it does make people think when they see this, because bloodlines in SL is a very dark and sexually driven game. Just hang out in the bloodlines-friendly areas and clan groups for any length of time and then tell me if you don't agree with much of this.
Q: Yes, those are some deep and interesting points. You also mentioned the term "sympathetic magick" in some of your other blog posts, which relate to that. Back to our story though, when Atrum Infero started, was playing bloodlines any different?

A: Oh yes, as was Second Life. This was before windlight and viewer enhancements, there weren't age restrictions on sims, no viewer 2 or any of that. SL in general was highly unstable, which made it a challenge to do any sort of long roleplay. If you look at the avatars of bloodlines staff and some of the earlier objects created, like the blood spike, soul reaper, and blood tanks (if you can find them), you can gather they were made before more complex builds and textures were around. Mars and Lyle sure pushed the limits with what could be done though, they did good in that sense.

Also, the rules of the game weren't so elaborately defined by Liquid Designs. Back then, the formal idea of human blood dolls, lycans, and war weren't officially parts of the game, and you could only use the electrum potion once in your virtual lifetime. New avatars could be bitten on day 0, and lots of things about the game were very different, for example bloodlines counted every soul and minion including blood dolls and inactive players, so there was no distinction between them. Things changed drastically once they updated the ranking system! Most of the RP and rules we followed were stuff that was never written into the instructions or guides, yet it was common knowledge to the royalties and higher ups, so we all passed around notecards about how stuff worked, both technically in the game and some of the more obscure inner-circle things that goes on, something we've always referred to as "the code". I could guess that 2% of people that play bloodlines know anything about this stuff.
Q: I see. So Satoria was the main queen of Atrum Infero. Were there others, like a King or royalty who left the larger clan or joined to start the new one with her?

A: Satoria was one of the high queens of the CR clan. When Atrum Infero formed, she didn't even have a name for the group yet. It was basically just her and a few hand-picked minions, blood dolls, and those who had good RP skills or something to contribute. One of her original minions, "Aaron" (who is now a SL musician) was there and had his own sim with a castle and a few RP areas on it, this is where half of the stuff happened. He came up with the name "Paradise Lost" which eventually became its own clan. Satoria didn't like the name because the name had a confusing reference, and she didn't like the idea of people having to explain if it harkened to the poem, play, movie, or other modern references, and so she chose Atrum Infero (which loosely translates to "dark reunion" from the Latin), yet eventually the friction got the best of them and they parted ways.

It must be hard for vampires in power to stick with a king or queen over them, I've hopped clans a bit myself because of tensions, and I saw several people in CR sprout off their own clans, that must have been hard for Jade to deal with, yet their group still stays in some of the higher rankings so they must be doing something right.

Satoria had similar issues with high ranking people in her group. If you look back through her history and follow the bloodline of people whom she attacked and vice versa, you may be able to build a picture of how many empires she helped form. So to answer her question, yes, there were others who helped build Atrum Infero, but the trend seems to be to leave a clan and start your own once you reach a certain level of minions. Satoria used to joke about her status as a Queen being lost so many times and would often wear leg braces or odd avatar bits to show that she's been broken yet again.

Q: What about the Tusk sim? Wasn't that the home of Atrum Infero?

A: Yes. I'm not sure how it came to be that, but I remember Satoria first saying she met someone who had this awesome and magickal place which was dark themed and that they would welcome using it for the clan activities. It wasn't always filled with Atrum Infero artworks, and the castle wasn't always the seat of many clan-specific RPs or parties, but eventually Amby allowed the creation of the grand lodge, the blood circle, turning cave, and other areas that we would use for clan activities. This became more so the clan home when others ("Dregg", "druid", "DrAlban", etc.) left to make their own clans, so we didn't have competing regions that others might flock to. Originally, we couldn't even make landmarks of Tusk and it was all very clandestine which added to the mystery. She had other places like Templum Ex Obscurum that she did RP at but alas all those sims are gone now too.
Tusk was a very special place, probably one of the most significant builds SL ever had on a database. It had a great shopping area and the landscape was well suited for all kinds of RP by various groups including fae, vamps, furry, gor, goth, demons, tiny, etc. Amby's castle was this massive and incredible build that took up half the sim. It was so big in fact that you couldn't take a picture of it even if you used Ultra mode in your viewer, it was just too big and tall to be captured in one snapshot.

After awhile though, the stores were closed up, home rentals ceased (Tusk Myst was part of it for awhile, and had parcels or per-prim rentals) and traffic dwindled since so many people had gone off to other clans or left SL entirely. Once Satoria grabbed her stuff and decided to suddenly poof from SL, I think the end was inevitable for Atrum Infero, and when Amberly pulled the plug, that may have helped to do us in. There were others who had smaller parcels of land devoted to the clan, but not much came about from that.

Q: Didn't Satoria leave a successor?

A: She did, she empowered "RoxHardcore" as the clan's Queen, however entrusted her liege to "Leitha" -- one of Dregg's minions. So there was lots of confusion with her sudden departure. Some went to clans with familiar people in them, others went to new clans, and some (like me) just left that part of the game entirely and returned to the generic "Curse" clan that every new player starts with. Atrum's SL group membership has dwindled to about 150 people, and no longer are there listings of her queens and kings at the slbloodlines.com website, no, the minions and lieges have all but disbanded, so Atrum is no more.

Q: So the clan is pretty much dead then, what of this blog website and SL groups that still exist?

A: To be honest, I'm not in the SL groups anymore, even though I was one of the moderators before. When Satoria left, it didn't take me long to bow out afterwards. My blood dolls left the groups too, so who knows what state those are in. For the blog, I think this site has a lot of good information, and since it is one of those free google blogger accounts, it wouldn't hurt to leave it around for those who stumble upon it. Ultimately though, that's up to Mythian Bailey, who originally started the site with Satoria.

Tusk video posted to Vimeo

2011-01-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

In memory of Second Life's Tusk sim (as created by Amberly Kinsella) from Christopher Calhoun on Vimeo.

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this project, especially Amberly Kinsella, the original creator goddess of the world of Tusk!

Backstory:

Shortly before Tusk closed up, I began a machinima project to capture the beauty and roleplay experiences at Tusk (once a virtual world/sim in LindenLab's SL grid)

However, the island was hit by a large meteor and sank into the virtual Linden grid oceans..

to rest somewhere in the abysmal depths..

along with hundreds of other forgotten worlds..

whose days are also lost to the madness of time...

Tusk will always be remembered though, her magick, her power, and the memories set there, that and the loving memory of my priestess Satoria Exonar, who has also since left the virtual worlds, seemingly never to return..

Thus, since a full-motion gorgeous HD Machinima extravaganza can not be finished at this time (sigh..)

may I present you the nearest equivalent -- a motion slideshow set to an original score.

Music composed and performed live by me, editing by me in iMovie on the MacBook Pro.

Screenshot "photos" submitted by several Second Life residents for this project.

Atrum Infero TUSK photo book / machinima project!

2010-08-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

Satoria always wanted to get into machinima, and make some movies about some of the roleplays we have done as a roleplay group and clan family.

To that effort, I wanted to create a sort of teaser video, as well a historical capture of the land we called home for some time, Amberly Kinsella's Tusk (which is no more... see previous post!)

Just before the sim was closed down, we had started making a Machinima of Tusk, showcasing the land's features.. I experimented with some very low-quality video (screenr) test captures, which are horrible but are the only animated clips I have of Tusk.. As well, we've been gathering photos from people who uploaded them to Flickr, Snapzilla, or to me personally.

The soundtrack is an ethereal sort of ambient mp3 music track (composed and performed by myself) -- I thought this captured the essence of Tusk better than Industrial/Goth/Metal tracks would, so please complain to me if you think otherwise ;)

Well, now that Tusk is gone, I am not able to capture more video sequences to make an actual machinima movie.. ugh! We can only do a sort of glorified slideshow... so.. I have two choices...

#1 - Scrap the project!
#2 - Get some help and finish it!

Selfish and stubborn that I am, I chose option #2.

Q: Ooh! You need help? Is there a way I can help?
A: Yes! Please do! Here are details..

We have some screenshots and videos that I took in Tusk, but these are very limited, and could use lots of images from others, to finish the Machinima. Lots of places we didn't have time to capture in pictures at all, like the caves.. underwater areas... airship.. pools.. fishing... inner tube floating... waterfall.. firepits.. fetish circle.. even more places within the castle! As you can see, my set of screenshots isn't so extensive LOL ..

So, whatever images, screenshots, photos, videos, objects, textures, whatever you may have about Tusk (whether you are in them or not, at any resolution, quality, or size) please please send them to my email address (as listed in my StarLord Scribe profile in SL)

If you don't have the ability to email these to me, but can pass me photos, textures, etc. via SL, whether you can give them full perms or not, I can meet with you in world for the transfer.

Really, I will do my best to work with and use whatever pictures/etc. we can in the Machinima, and thanks in advance for your support for this project. :)

Q: Who has helped out so far?
A: A few Tusk visitors and bloggers

Thanks in advance to these folks:

Prandi Capalini
RoxHardcore Cyberstar
Satoria Exonar
Torley Linden
Veri Monday
Andron Rae
StarLord Scribe
Penanya Core
Jango Werefox

Any of these folks (or friends thereof, who were in Tusk, whenever!) we really need more images, so dig through those inventories and see what you can find. I want to post the machinima so folks can look back on it with grand memories of the Tusk that once was, she may be lost to the madness of time, but will haunt our conscious forever ;)

Warm regards,
The Dark Keeper (StarLord Scribe)

Commentaries on what happened to Tusk

2010-08-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings, family!

For those that have been away for some time (as I have..and am still for the most part), it is with some regret that we inform the world wide web that that land of Tusk (a most fantastic sim with RP areas, stores, castle, and home to Atrum Infero), has joined the thousands of shredded pixels within the metaverse, and having poofed into the Ethers of time, is officially no more.

Q: What happened to Tusk? Why was it put up for sale, etc?
A: I'd like to say it's a big mystery, but really it isn't that complicated.

Note that I am not Amberly. We have crossed paths, even friended in SL, however I can't speak officially for her, so will simply paraphrase from what she has told me candidly..

The great creator Goddess, Amberly Kinsella, was to do this delicately and diplomatically, with tact and respect for us all. The plan was to store all of the objects of hers on Tusk, and return all of the other objects (e.g., Satoria's circle of 100L blood tanks, items in the fetish room, etc.) to those owners whom they belonged. Secondly, whilst putting the sim on auction for someone to bid upon, she would make the castle and all other objects transferable to the new owner, thus, in this fashion, Tusk would remain.

Running a sim is quite expensive (basic Linden Labs rates as of August 2010 are US$295 a month for a private full region, not to mention the $1000 setup fee when bought it direct from Linden Labs).

Some sim owners run clubs, games, shopping malls, tip jars, and the like to help with operational costs. There were some storefronts, vendors, etc. on Tusk, however, since Tusk itself was not generally making enough revenue (even though it certainly had active visitors), well, it got to the point where it was no longer feasible, in fact as all good things must come to an end, so thus did the projects of Tusk come to the end of their storyline .. she had her own reasons, simple as that .. so she prepared to put it up for sale and allow someone else to take it over.

Q: If it was up for sale, why couldn't someone in the family take it over?
A: As she placed it on auction, she informed the Lindens it was to go ASAP, and taking this literally as the Lindens will do, they deleted it. Gone. Poof.

In a nutshell, the Sim is gone because Amberly no longer wanted to maintain it -- the expense of running the sim was really secondary. She bought Tusk outright over 3 years ago... some of us may recall when Tusk was just a bitty parcel on the mainland, Torley Linden has some snapshots of it in Snapzilla, of the earlier castle the larger sim was based on.. it eventually outgrew its humble beginnings, and grew to include Tusk and Tusk Myst, which was closed some time before the main Tusk island went down.

Amberly asked the Lindens to close the Sim just as the next month's rent was due, and so she figured they would charge her another month, and she would thus have a month to look for a buyer, however, this was not the case. She logged in later that day to find out Linden labs took it off line since they weren't given a specific date, just said ASAP so that's what they did! The good news was that she wasn't charged another month's rent, the bad was of course Tusk was gone..

Q: What about the blood circle and all of Satoria's things?
A: Satoria took them just before leaving the SecondLife grid.

Satoria did safely return objects of people (such as I, StarLord Scribe) and took her own items back into inventory long before she had any idea Amberly was getting rid of the sim.

Q: Will someone else rebuild Tusk? What of the home of Atrum Infero?
A: Uncertain..

Sure it would have been better if the Lindens kept Tusk around for art's sake, or perhaps enjoyed the opportunity of auctioning it to one of us or one of Tusk's many fans, who would then assume ownership and continue to maintain its majestic character for all to enjoy, but as it was, they didn't, and that's that. Others have stepped up to offer a temporary home to the clan.. If you are family and reading this, then please check group notices by Queen RoxHardcore Cyberstar on this topic ;)

Q: Since Tusk is gone, is Atrum Infero gone as well?
A: No. Atrum Infero continues to exist!

The land and the family are not one in the same, lands and castles and things will always come and go, as do people in SL come and go, indeed as do people in the clan come and go. Atrum will continue forever.

Q: Will Tusk be rebuilt? Is Amberly building anything? Something pink (LOL)?
A: The answers to this are unclear, however, a machinima in the works by StarLord Scribe.

See the next post about the Machinima project -- We'll certainly be looking out for what sort of fantastic projects Amberly will work on next!

Lycan Dreams...

2010-07-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Walking along the road, I noticed the air was chilled, yes, looking down to the stream below, following its curves from the distance to the west, under the bridges, a shrinking trickle of water working its way through a layer of ice that forms over it like a white cocoon.. reminds me winter is so near.. the land and paths clustered with brown sleeping trees and the dry ground-cover erodes away to the cold earth below.. gazing off the path, just beyond my field of view, where the sharpness of vision gives way to a blur of the unknown, I can sense something is there, watching me, as if stalking me in its motionless way.. something that could easily shift into motion, his or her claws digging into the surface as it gains ground to meet my pace, and so swiftly, deftly, stand or walk on whatever powerful legs propel its feet or paws upon me...

"Ah, is you.. it is you.. I caught your scent a few miles back, and surely knew you were to come this way..", a deep throaty, hungry voice softly echoed in my mind, "and knew, thus you were like and our kind.."

Like and our kind, I thinks to myself, what is this beast saying? I continued my walk, shivering slightly, knowing my journey now had accompaniment which wasn't to leave soon, yet wasn't a threat at this point either.. A dark hunger, but unlike a vampire, I knew my days were not numbered and it didn't wish to drain me of my blood.. wondered for a moment just how human I may be, or if it was wondering this and I had picked up on its very thoughts..

"smiles.. of course.. you see, it is not a matter of prey or capture, simply, you may be family, and best if you had the mark of us so we did not mistake you at some later frenzy as such to feed upon our brothers and sisters, or to seek to disable them, mistaking you a threat at some future time when primal instinct may overtake reason and knowledge of the other..", the velvety voice continued its dialogue, as if rehearsed or said before, more so formality than rhetoric or deja vu unto me...

And thus again I wondered what was to come of this moment and what indeed it wanted, if it did indeed want. Without saying, I felt as if it were asking me to be bitten or clawed or some such markings upon me so that it would come to pass I affirmed I was one of them or perhaps it was questioning me, in my own mind, that I may be what it thought I was, or was to be..

"You need to be clear in your mind on this, dear one, and yet I haven't asked of you any of this, you do perceive well my intent or curiosity to know.. are you like and, our kind?"

Like, and, our kind?

"No.. no.. Lycan. Our Kind, Kindred. Smiles.."

I see..

"I know you can sense it, for here we are, at this moment, it was you who came into my domain, and proceeded thus knowing.."

Then as quickly as it appeared it seemed to have subsided, without my motion to question or challenge this last statement, and I returned to my walk and proceeded along the path, wondering what would come to pass..

[written by StarLord Scribe]

VAMPIRISM and VIRTUAL REALITY

2009-06-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

We are in the presence of knowledge that covers a multitude of natural and artificial phenomena,which by its very virtuality and interactivity involves us within an embracing of aesthetics and truth.Virtuality and the virtual as a power opposed to the actual is a way of being, of digital simulation. The self is truly virtual, thus the virtual self can be transformed into an actual living personality.

Casks and tanks, bite and blood, turning and survival allow us to immerse ourselves completely into the image and interact with it. The impression of reality felt under these conditions is so intensely experienced that one can say we are in the presence not only of reality itself but also the simulation of reality. The relations between, the support things give each other, the multiplicities of a full vampiric system provide multiple pathways for energy to flow, for escape, re-orientation as well as self-regulation within the system, re-assessment and deeper levels of consiousness.

Moreover, the absence of physical constraints forces us to judge each other solely by the content of thoughts. Thus, a unique opportunity to know someone's unleashed inner life is being available to us. The metaphysical dimension of such a place reminds us the interrelatedness of all things, that the natural flow of existence brings us together whether it is the physical "real" or the virtual self.

We spend time together cos we are all cut from the same thread.
We are enormous but undeniably united.
Some may move away but nobody truly leaves.
Once you are here, you are family.

Satoria Exonar

THE HUNTER by ROXHARDCORE CYBERSTAR

2009-05-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

THE HUNTER;

WITH BODY POISED AND SENSES HONED I STALK MY ENEMY,
HIDING IN THE SHADOWS FOR ONLY MY EYES TO SEE,
DARKNESS IS MY LOVER, I RESIDE IN ITS EMBRACE,
PATIENTLY AWAITING THE APPEARANCE OF YOUR FACE,
TIS NOT WITH EGO I WAGE THIS FIGHT BUT ONLY FOR MY SURVIVAL,
WITH PATIENCE AS A VIRTUE I WAIT FOR YOUR ARRIVAL,
AS I SENSE YOU NEAR YOUR HEAVEN SENT ,
WITH STEALTH AND PRECISION I MAKE MY DENT,
LEAVING APON YOU A TASTE OF DEATH ,
AS YOU DRAW YOUR VERY LAST BREATH,
HOLDING IN MY ARMS YOUR LIFELESS SHELL,
A STEADY REMINDER OF MY LIVING HELL,
TWAS ONCE A CURSE BORN UNTO ME,
THAT I MUST DWELL AN ETERNITY.

BY: ROXHARDCORE CYBERSTAR
TO:MY CLAN WITH ETERNAL DARK LOVE<3

Vampirism and BDSM

2009-03-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

When examining the psychological view or that which is taken once we remove various authors' visions nuances and personalities, we find certain things in common in most every vampire archetype: the fact that a human being had been seduced, bitten and killed by a vampire and is now basically a minion..a deeper psychological and mental bond..a new Being with supernatural powers, a new Kind of hard and deep sense of respect about casts and the whole family order exactly as in a bdsm society.

In 1819, Dr. John Polidori distilled even further the literary vampire's essence by replacing the ghoulish appearance with an aristocratic one, such a strange irony that since we start to look trough the whole bdsm society we see that exactly in the same period we can see a whole aristocratic way and moods been incorporated into bdsm as well. He further fashioned the personality of his vampire character after the infamous English Romantic poet, Lord George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824), for whom he had worked for a time and had grown to dislike by the time he wrote his story. Suddenly, the classic myth of the vampire had become something intriguing and sexually appealing to readers rather than horrific, and the beginnings of the Vampyric archetype was born together with the pointless connection with dominance and submission based in bdsm inside the vampire literary culture.

As the first to utilize the new spelling of "Vampyre,", Polidori's main character, Lord Ruthven, also had the characteristic bloodthirst, as well as more elegant and appealing characteristics. Novelists from then on continued to utilize this style of vampire in increasingly sexually oriented stories (including Bram Stoker's _Dracula_). Later, screen writers would develop this idea even further with the sensual movie version "Dracula," starring Frank Langella.

This new Vampyric Essence could be experimented with in many ways now. Apart even further by removing the two remaining negative traits of the vampire, bloodlust and the animated zombie theory, we have an extremely sensual, sexual, aristocratic, dominant and hardly rough, magically and physically powerful Being. If one learns to emulate the powers of the vampire while keeping strongly in mind the intrinsic elegance and "European dominant Aristocracy” that has developed within the archetype over the years, we now have the ingredients for this new point of view now known as the Vampyre.

SL Bloodlines, in a nutshell

2009-02-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

SL bloodlines, in a nutshell

This article links to Liquid Designs FAQ page as well, for basic 'how-to' questions or frequently asked questions by new and prospective players of the bloodlines thirst sim, their own FAQ does a fairly adequate job.. however.. questions still arise!

Thus, StarLord Scribe has written up this notecard (now posted as a blog entry here for us) "Everything you wanted to know about being a Bloodlines player but forgot to ask.." (Ok, not everything.. but darn close to it!)

The Curse
The cost of being a vampire, other than the 599 lindens to get the HUD for the sim, is that you are going to lose .25 liters of blood a day.

There are ways around this, like amulets, or drinking blood from a container, but basically, because thirst for blood is one of those things that vampires do... you are going to need to bite people! Blood will go away whether you bite people or not, and whether you login to SecondLife or not. It's automatic. Do what you can to survive, your liege is counting on you!

Where to bite people.. or where not to bite. To bite people, you need to go to an area that allows scripts (since the bite is a scripted function)

You can see if there are no scripts allowed by looking at the top middle of the screen and seeing what looks like a little printed page with a red "no" symbol on top of it, like with traffic signs for no turning for example.. (pun.. ok..)

Other symbols you find along the top of the window are a box (building) and a person with an arrow (push objects) and a person somewhat jumping into flight (flying ability) so if they aren't permitted and you had some reason to use them but can't, look for these to appear with a "no" symbol also.. in areas that don't allow it..

What happens if you try and bite someone in a no script area? It won't work. There are also places which specifically do not want any kind of roleplay, so when you first arrive, a good practice is to NOT be wearing your stats or attachments less you get immediately banned from an otherwise nice area.

Look around once things rezz and look for a no biting or a no vampire sign of any sort, it's usually pretty obvious. There are other vampire sims besides bloodlines, and some of these places don't want competing products around (CCS and Transylvania are two one of them), so use discretion. If the coast is clear otherwise then bites are likely permitted.

How to bite people? It may be obvious, but, just because you have a HUD and fangs at the ready doesn't mean that you can just randomly walk around shops and public places and click to bite everyone you see. That's like sending a friend request to some strange person you don't know or haven't chatted with, some people may be offended by your eagerness and mute or report you for harassing them. It's almost like spam, or unsolitced roleplay.

Think about it, if you were walking down the street and some person randomly stalked you, swooped you up and bites you, draining your blood, would you like that? Well, you're a vampire, of course you would.. but many humans would not.. SO... Always ask ;-)

Lesser clans have been known to bite randomly without asking, and that's not only lazy but shows lack of creative roleplay ability. The simplest thing to do would be greet someone in a friendly sort of way. You can wear your vampire clan or group tag if it helps, but not needed.. Once you have their attention and reply, you can ask them for the bite. Here comes the fun part!

Role play the bite! "Hi. I'm a vampire. May I bite you? Muhahahaa!" isn't so creative, so based on your avatar you can say something appropriate for the region, your outfit and personal style are. If you are a sexy Mae West or Marilyn Monroe type of vixen, you may want to flirt with your fresh victim and describe how sexy they are and how delicious it would be to you if able to give them a vampire's kiss, to drink their blood.

Again, to role play your bite, you don't have to be Winona Ryder as Elisabeta or Tim Curry as Frankenfurter (or what not, LOL), but I and just about everyone else who understands Vampirism will likely recommend you role play..

Here's some ideas for you.. Vampires can be of several types, you can use whichever approach fits your avatar's character and the sim you are in. Generally, use your abilities and skills. You can be friendly, helpful, seductive, whichever approach works for you..

If your character is in a certain costume (e.g., victorian era ball gown, school girl, cyber/tech warrior, elf, furry, sci-fi character, etc.) then go for it and roleplay your bites in that character.. just like real life, humor is good too..

Think about how important this is, the person is giving you probably enough blood to survive at least another day, and may end up giving you their soul. It's worth it to make some effort..

People will generally react positively or negatively, and newbies may not know what to think, you can explain briefly that you are a Vampire in the bloodlines sim and part of the fun of the game is to bite people, as such you are cursed and must drink blood to survive, or whatever you can come up with.

Either way, once they say 'yes' then you go ahead and give them a bite. You can bite em and leave em, but what if they want to be a vampire too? Well, there's the afterthought of course -- when you bite someone, they are given fang marks and a landmark to bloodlines. If you leave them, what's to stop them from teleporting off and then getting turned by someone else? If you don't someone else likely will. Any fresh person who teleports to Bloodlines is going to get overloaded by requests from every vampire stalking the entry area waiting to gain more souls..

After the bite! Right then, so your bite should be followed by a thank you and explanation of how their blood may taste.. I like to use the wine connoisseur role play, look at the environment around me, and then describe the flavor of their blood.. if at the beach I can say, "Mmmm, warm human blood with a slight hint of saltiness, sand, and suntan lotion lingering afterwards .. tasty!" or some such thing. I also treat the victim as if they were my lover, call them my dear for example.. If they are interested they will generally ask you about the game and how you like your vampire second life, etc.. I'll leave that part to you..

There's another choice.. if they can't decide to become a vampire, but like the idea, you can live between revenant and vampire by becoming a feeder (masculine) or blood doll (feminine)

Blood Dolls and Feeders The concept of being a cursed vampire is sometimes not appealing to humans, so there is a way to remain human but still have fun in Bloodlines and serve the clan. You can be a walking tank of precious blood for vampires to drink from as well refill you.

This is called a "blood doll" -- the basic idea is that vampires may drain you down to 6% humanity, and give you enchanted apples to refill yourself. The formula is basically 4 apples per 20% of humanity or 1 liters of blood. You have 5 liters of blood (shown as a percentage of humanity), so 20 apples gets you a full 100% humanity. This is interesting to note that an apple costs 14 lindens each, you do the math how much it would cost you to buy blood at the bloodlines store..

Well if you aren't able to do that, grab a blood doll and drink away. Some blood dolls don't want apples, they just want to be drained, so it's like a freebie ;) The practice is just like biting, you always must ask if you may bite a blood doll.. Using the spike on a blood doll is generally frowned upon, so be extra nice and careful if you are extremely low and need lots of blood.

Also watch how much you are taking, you don't want to destroy the blood doll or turn them revenant, because then you are either going to need to potion them back to humanity (at 249 lindens), or turn them from revenant into a vampire, and either way, once turned, that person is cursed and is going to loose .25 liters of blood a day.

It's also a respect thing, the blood dolls exist for us, as well they are in the game but don't want to be turned. Interesting huh? As well, some blood dolls just want the HUD and to be drained and that's that.. You as liege decide how it will go..

Add-ons
Once you have the HUD, fangs, stats, and bitemarks you're done, right? Wrong! There's all kinds of fun add-ons that you can get to make the game more fun.

You don't have to buy any of them, but as for me, I like it.. There are some you can get at the main bloodlines store, and other products (such as bite packages from something spunky) which can be added to your inventory and work with the bloodlines system. I won't go into a lot of detail, but useful items are the spike (to drain someone more quickly, great for turnings), blood tanks (to store blood more than the 5 liters you can carry within your body, which is normally used for turnings also), and uh.. well there's more but I will stop for now.

Check the bloodlines website for some of this, but remember there is a lot to this game which isn't going to be posted on their website or this one for that matter... People make up their own stuff as well, but that's beyond the scope of this FAQ..

Status
Ah, status. People get confused on this, and some people make up their own tags, but realistically (in the thirst bloodlines game rules themselves) this is how it breaks down..

Note that if someone tells you for example you can be a Vampire Emperor, they are pulling your leg, there is no such status in the game. Though there may be a clan status which is created for you to be a certain thing, a position to hold, or a role to assume, the game 'status' is different from this..

In the aspect of the game itself, anyone can call themselves whatever they want, but if their souls and blood and minions don't add up, then the fluff they advertise is, well, just fluff.

Let's start at the bottom and work our way up then... lowest of all is the Destroyed status. This means you were completely drained of blood and then bitten again, or drained past zero due to the curse. I have minions who won't hunt or are never online and they have become destroyed.

Depending on how they got destroyed, you may or may not fix it simply by giving them blood. If your vitae blood ever drops to zero and you become destroyed, you lose the souls you have collected, but you retain the souls pledged to you by your minions.

Once destroyed, if blood can not fix it, then you need a potion to rescue yourself. I will personally give a free potion to anyone once, if they wish to return and be a true vampire. I know someone who had a minion who by no fault of her own managed to get destroyed and so her liege rescued her from the abyss before her souls went destroyed with her.. however, the liege wasn't the first person to bite her, and she eventually went back to her soul owner, taking her minions with her. So.. consider things like this before forking over the lindens to rescue someone, they may have their reasons to leave you anyway.

Moving on though, now here are the Human statuses..

Fresh Victim - never bitten, never nothin. You can bite them, and possibly more..

Human in Limbo - Bitten, but didn't get the HUD. You can clean the old bite with a wormwood, and bite them as new. Then if they ever get the HUD the soul will count up to you, well, unless they get wormwood again LOL.. Note that if you bite someone in limbo without first having them drink wormwood, it doesn't do anything. No affect at all, like a free bite just for fun but no benefits..

Human - a bitten person who has and has worn the HUD (default, not much mystery there, blood has a percentage of humanity greater than 0%, and their soul went to the one that bit them) Humans with the HUD can bite people and get vital blood, even though they aren't a vampire!

Revenant - (drained of humanity to 0% and/or vital blood to 0, but hasn't gotten vitae vampire blood yet) Most people fast forward through the task of a Revenant getting 5L by having them drink from a tank in one sitting, thus turning them (see my other post for an example turning ceremony that includes this).

And now, the fun part, the Vampire statuses!

A basic Vampire is any human who went Revenant (0% humanity) then reached 5 liters of vital blood -- thus 'turned' -- everything above that is about status, based solely (pun!) on the number of people's souls you and the minions who total up to you have collected. Here's the breakdown by number of souls:

10 - Bloodletter
25 - Tormentor
50 - Hellion
100 - Impaler (remember Vlad? He was one of these..)
150 - Deathmerchant

For the next few status, I like to call them 'Royal', as well the title will vary slightly based on the gender of your Vampire. Again, number of souls is what decides status.

200 - Archfiend / Archfiendess
250 - Count / Countess
300 - Baron / Baroness
350 - Prince / Princess
400 - King / Queen

There's nothing above that within the game.. though.. ahem, secretly, there may be ;)

Honors
You used to be able to get honors by doing stuff in the game, like biting x number of people in a day (Frenzy awards for 25, 50, 75, or 100), or biting x number of people within x minutes (Berzerk awards for 10 bites in 10 minutes), however they have discontinued this now. Honors continue to show up on the bloodlines website for earlier players that have gained them.

Blood Wealth
You will see this on the bloodlines website, it's not a soul status, but is a type of status simply based on how much blood you have on hand, either in casks, tanks, or carried on your person. You get blood by biting, spiking, or purchasing it in bulk.

Societal Status
..and a note about cheating the sim I'm not sure the metric this uses, but I assume that people are ranked by total number of souls collected, that is those they have personally collected along with the sum total of all souls from their minions. When I last checked there were over 24,000 people in Bloodlines. Keep that in mind when you see who is ranking where, but also, it doesn't account for the way in which the souls were collected..

Huh?

Yes dears, that is.. people can collect souls without biting, by extracting them using potions and soul reapers, or buy souls from merchants that deal in them and sell them off to people! It may be hard to fathom, but this is how a number of high ranking people in the game became where they were, by buying their way in. Not exactly the mark of a good vampire, even if Liquid Designs gets some profit out of the idea.

There's another sneaky way people can obtain status, by creating another SecondLife account (commonly referred to as an Alt), getting both online at the same time, biting your own Alt, getting it a HUD, and liege it to yourself. That's an almost instant process for 599 lindens each and a bit of technical legwork, well, if repeated you can see how easy it would be for someone to rank themselves up quickly?

As for me, I'd rather spend my lindens on other stuff like clothes! So, if you see people with an extreme amount of souls, then don't feel distraught or worried that you will never attain such numbers... It is quite likely they didn't do it in the most noble of ways, King or Queen or not, there are thieves within bloodlines also, people who steal blood or persuade people into giving their souls away to them in numerous ways. It's a dark game, remember that..

Now let's move on to the subject of clans.

Clans
As there were in ancient Romania, there are a number of Vampire families, referred to as 'Clans' -- a common misconception given is that the number one clan is that with the most people, that it's all a numbers game as posted on the bloodlines site.

High ranking people with great numbers of souls and blood bring the clan's status up in position. It's more a race or war about quantity than quality, but some people like that, so they can be in these clans, even if said clan is not a Romanian family name or have any such resemblance to something vampiric.

What may not be readily apparent is the great number of people who are unaffiliated with any such clan, by default, you are simply given membership in the 'Curse' clan. There is no clan land or leader or groups for curse clan, it's, as the requirement given suggests, just generic.

Now for those that like to group together with likeminded people and have fun, clans are formed. Each clan may have it's own rules, land, or approach to using the sim and playing the game.

There may be smaller groups or occupations that exist within larger clans, such as an army, blood collectors, soul reapers, or any such thing people like or dislike.. that's what makes the game interesting.

Most clans get along well with each other, but don't be surprised if you get the snub from other clans, after all, they are competing with you for status and may not take kindly to other clans in their territory or going after someone they may have their eyes set on -- just like clans of old, there may be alliances and differences between the various clans.

You join a clan through Liege. Generally, when you are bitten and obtain the HUD, that person who has your soul is your Liege -- you share a special bond with the person who turned you, so naturally you Liege to them, and with that, you become a member of whichever clan that Liege is a part of.

The Liege and Minion relationship Now you are turned, you are a vampire, and ready for the hunt. You have aligned with your Liege and clan, and now your Liege has a duty to help you to learn to hunt, help you with aspects of the game, and be there for you.

While it's not usually possible to be with your every walking moment in SL, I mean, believe it or not, they may have a SecondLife which includes other minions or outside interests ;) Yet they will normally make efforts to check-in on you or otherwise be available for you when you call upon them, in many cases giving you offworld email address, IM, or some communication beyond the boundaries of SL.

Some Lieges setup groups that their minions may interact with each other even, or go beyond the sim role to help you in SecondLife locating items or places, helping in whichever way they can. Do remember, as the protege advances, so does the master, and they know that it behooves them to be great to you, since you are helping them. Your numbers total to your Liege, and helps to make him, her, or other being greater in game status, which in turn (if applicable) helps their Liege do the same.

That said, if you ever find a problem with your Liege, your clan, or anything of it, please bring it to their attention so they can help work through it and do their best to fix it. And if they can't, then you may go to their Liege, and so on (as high as it may go..)

If someone along the bloodline is unwilling or unable to help, then a minion of yours may be coaxed or talked into leaving, becoming disloyal to Liege and/or the Clan. True, the code speaks not of these things. At least not outwardly. It assumes you know what is.

So be on guard that not every clan is non-competitive, all are not based on mutual respect and acceptance, all are not friendly family, all do not value roleplay or common etiquette in biting and reaping. For some they just want membership and will do what they can to increase their numbers.

That said, if a minion decides they no longer want to participate in the clan or even decides to leave the sim or SecondLife itself (to wear the HUD no longer), it would be honorable to approach their liege and let them know, offering their collected souls, blood, or other items to them which are transferable. A minion is affected by the curse yet to be offline and offworld, to the time that they will loose their blood and be destroyed, they likewise may allow their Liege to hold onto their collected souls until such moment they return.

Whew.. There are other aspects and anomalies within the game, but we can save that for a later time.. If you have questions, feel free to find me inworld or send a notecard (my IMs are capped if I am offline). Of course, your Liege will likely answer these things for you quite well :) Comments? Suggestions for future articles? Mmm...

Respectfully yours,
StarLord Scribe

Turning Ceremony (an example RP)

2009-02-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

In my travels I've seen a number of good roleplay ceremonies for a turning -- you will likely come up with your own, but here is a text I stumbled upon (given to me by destroyed vampire Tash Kaestner, who based it on one from another girl)

You are good role player, you can do better, but this one here could assist you or give you an idea how to turn someone with roleplay, at the same time informing a few things about the game or getting over technical hurdles.. Enjoy..

(Liege and Minion at a place the liege decided to turn at with a bloodtank/cask in sight. We assume the person was fresh or went through the wormwood ceremony and the HUD is acquired... the minion to be wears in the following order, HUD, fangs, stats, and your blood container has at least 1L or you have 5L total basically..

Liege: *smiles mysterious towards you* now the moment has come, i will finally give you the gift of the night, the kiss that will end your life and enter you into the ranks of the undead. First of all, i will now drain you of your blood.

(liege bites human, explaining that a spike will be used to drain them more quickly, a blue menu box will appear soon, please always accept he highest percent u can see.. use the spike till the minion is below 5% humanity, then take the last drops with bites till the revenant animation starts.)

Liege: Now, you are neither alive nor dead. You are a revenant, between two worlds. To enter the ranks of he night you will now need Vitea, blood that flew once through vampires veins. *smiles* In modern nights we can use tanks like this. So then, please drink from the tank 5 litres.

(after that make sure the tank holds 5 litres of blood, tell them to click the tank, choose drink and then 1.0 litre. do so 5 times)

Liege: *watches the unatural energys waving through your body with a big grin* now you are one of us, a nightstalker, a predator amongst the living. Undead yourself you walk the nights searching for blood and souls. But we still not done.

(this is a good moment to tell your new minion how to refill the tank, giving u back the amount of blood u want him or her to. some only taking back the 1 litre they had to invest, some taking up to 3 litres, its up to you)

Liege: It is time now, for us both to make a very special covenant. From this day on, i will be your so called liege. This means i will take care of you, teach you the way of vampires and what you need to survive the nights to come. And you will be my minion, obeying me and being ea´ger to learn what i have to give.

(instruct them to look on the HUD in the upper right of your screen. You'll see different buttons, amongst them is one showing a wheel and a man. Please click it and a menu will show up.. wait for them)

Liege: Fine, now choose in the menu Clan and then set liege, don't click on Done yet ! instead enter in your chat /666 and then my name exactly as it is written.

(for example, they can type "/666 StarLord Scribe" to Liege to me ;)

(the stat viewer changes to show the clan title, Atrum Infero)

(now, you take them to one of the clan lands, show them around, give them some gifts, add them to the proper groups, etc... congratulations you have a new minion. take good care of them!)

Famous Vampires: Countess Elizabeth Báthory

2009-02-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

(excerpt from Wikipedia)

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, Alžběta Báthoryová in Czech, Elżbieta Batory in Polish, 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614), was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. She is possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as the "Bloody Lady of Čachtice", after the castle near Trencsén (Trenčín), in the Kingdom of Hungary, where she spent most of her adult life.

The Báthory family defended Hungary against the Ottoman Turks.

After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though she was only convicted on 80 counts.[1] In 1610, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later. She was never formally tried in court.

The case has led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth. These stories have led to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

You may read more by clicking on the title of this blog post, which links back the the Wikipedia article.

Famous Vampires: Dracula

2009-02-10T23:10:00.000-08:00

When we think of Vampires, quite often people think of Dracula.
(excerpts from Wikipedia)

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.

Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of diary entries and letters. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

But who *was* Bram's Dracula? Most people point to Vlad III the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Ţepeş in Romanian), also known as Vlad Dracula, or simply Dracula (1431 – December 1476), was a Wallachian (present-day southern Romania) voivode. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–1462, and 1476. Vlad the Impaler is known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign.

As prince, Vlad maintained an independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire and was a defender of Wallachia against Ottoman expansionism.

But where does the vampire part come in? Well, research suggests that Stoker actually knew little about the Prince of Wallachia, but took what was there and embellished the hell out of it to make it the fantastic story which exists today.

Tales of vampires are still widespread in Eastern Europe. Similarly, the name of Dracula is still remembered in the Romanian oral tradition but that is the end of any connection between Dracula and the folkloric vampire. Outside of Stoker's novel the name of Dracula was never linked with the vampires encountered in the folklore.

Despite his alleged inhuman cruelty, in Romania Dracula is remembered as a national hero who resisted the Turkish conquerors and asserted Romanian national sovereignty against the powerful Hungarian kingdom. He is also remembered in a similar manner in other Balkan countries, as he fought against the Turks.

It is somewhat ironic that Vlad's name has often been thrown into the political and ethnic feuds between Hungarians and Romanians, because he was ultimately far from an enemy of Hungary. While he certainly had violent conflicts with some Hungarian nobles, he had just as many Hungarian friends and allies, and his successes in battle with the Turks largely benefited Hungary in the long term. Hungary later found itself under siege but was never entirely penetrated by Ottoman forces. Though neither the first nor the last powerful ruler to take on the Ottoman Empire, Vlad's battle tactics were quite influential in damaging the impression of Turkish invincibility among Europeans and reversing the European aura of appeasement.

Romanian folklore and poetry, on the other hand, paints Vlad Ţepeş as a hero. His favorite weapon being the stake, coupled with his reputation in his native country as a man who stood up to both foreign and domestic enemies, gives him the virtual opposite symbolism of Stoker's vampire. In Romania, he is considered one of the greatest leaders in the country's history, and was voted one of "100 Greatest Romanians" in the "Mari Români" television series aired in 2006.

A vampire by any other name

2009-02-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

Bram Stoker's Dracula, Twilight, Lost Boys, Vampirella, and other creatures of the night.. Throughout Hollywood movies, TV, and radio, we have growing interest in vampirism. The word 'Vampire' is derived from the Slavic language, and loosely translates to mean an animated corpse that feeds on blood.. these are known in some form or another across the world..

Greece: Vrykolakes (excerpt from http://www.anagnosis.gr)

Put aside the bats' wings and other paraphernalia of the Victorian romantic imagination in order to appreciate the very potent fear of vampires which was felt by Greeks well into the twentieth century.

The soil of Greece has in most parts eroded into the sea, making deep soil deposits very valuable as much-needed farming land. Yet the Greek Church forbids cremation, so that there is still not a single functioning crematorium in the country. As a result, land for burial is scarce.

The practice is to bury a body in the ground for three years, after which the bones are exhumed in the presence of the relatives and placed in an ossuary. When at this time it is discovered that the body has not decayed, it is believed that it remains inhabited by an imprisoned soul which feeds upon the blood of the living in order to sustain itself. Such a person has become a vampire, and preys first and foremost upon its near relatives. They may deceive people by their appearance as ordinary living beings.

More can be found here

China: Chiang-shih.

Chiang-shih are re-animated corpses, who lurk around the world of the living due to unresolved business or an improper burial.. They have fangs and claws, attacking in a beast-like animal manner (the form is popular in Japanese anime, though this sounds more zombie like than anything, they are considered vampires).

Central America: The Aztec lord of the underworld ate the spirits of the recently deceased, while Camazotz, the Mayan cave god, is said to have a rodent's nose and claws.

India: The Rakshasas

These creatures drink blood, often blamed for the deaths of infants. In the Ramayana we read of Rama and Hanuman's battle against the Rakshasas to free Sita from Ravenna. Although the mother goddess Kali has often been described as having vampire traits, but this is largely a misunderstanding of who Kali is.

Australia's 'yara-ma-yha-who' feed on humans, usually regurgitating them after a while, hoping to catch them again later. After enough encounters the victims would slowly turn into yara-ma-yha-who themselves.

Romans often blamed infant deaths on Strix, also witches who drank the blood of children and flew through the night are often described to be vampires.

In North America, we have much vampire lore which has made it to mainstream media, television, books, and movies...

WELCOME

2009-01-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

Proud to launch the blog of Atrum Infero.

This is an initial project to make some references and create a thumbnail database.

Dark culture is not to be understood as a subculture but as an open community, which comprises individuals with similar interests.

This blog is a wireless dark cooperativa and is founded to function as a live organism of inspiration and creativity

May the night go on forever

Satoria