Vampire powers absolutely fascinate me, and today, I wanted to talk more about them! I absolutely love powerful characters that can flex their powers during very important fight scenes. With balance and moderation, of course. I know in my series, among my living vampires, my ‘royal vampires’ are very powerful, and that’s because of their very powerful bloodlines.
Say you’d like to utilize that classic idea in your story. How would you go about doing it? I wanted to explore different ideas on just that.
Sire-Based
If we look into traditional vampire lore, we notice a lot of ‘humans being turned into vampires’, and them having a connection to their sire. You can play to the classics by doing this! A powerful vampire siring a bunch of fledglings could have their power signature slowly seep into them as they age, and then when the fledglings pass it on, they also begin that power creep into the new vampire.
You’d want to think about if the sire could withhold the power, or if it’s natural. Would what they drink (or who) affect how the power grows? Could fledglings develop totally new powers - and would that affect the sire? That could make for a very interesting story.
Hereditary
This one is my favorite, and it’s the one I use in my Kingdoms of Blood series. Royal vampires have powers in their bloodlines based on ancient vampires. For example, Ares & Jasper are descendants of Vlad the Impaler (who is a different person from Dracula in my lore!). Their powers are all about restraint. Meanwhile, Goliath & Ash (related to Dracula!) can turn into bats and meld into the shadows, essentially ‘vanishing’ and drowning out everyone around them in darkness.
The bloodlines in this case are passed on through my vampires, who are living and can reproduce. I never did describe how someone becomes an ‘ancient’ vampire in my series though. Would be a shame if someone really dangerous ended up one, eh?
Anyhow, you could do themes like mind magic, elemental magic, shapeshifting, anything that tickles your fancy. There could be mixtures of powers too if bloodlines mix, but I suggest having a ‘nerf’ or limit too, as to not make your characters too overpowered without balance.
Cursed/Blessed
A curse upon an entire family or bloodline (or blessing) is a really need method you can use. If your vampires are living and reproduce, it’d be passed onto children. If they are sired, it’d be passed onto fledglings. This could be a really unique way to gain powers. This could also start a cool plotline - either vampires hunting down powerful sorcerers or witches, or what have you, to gain ‘blessings’, or pissing said powerful entities off enough to be ‘cursed’. Or a ‘curse’ disguised as a ‘blessing’. Perhaps a way to turn a ‘curse’ into a ‘blessing’? Or someone fucks up, aaand… it goes the other way.
Also… did your vampires perhaps piss off a god? Could that be why a particular holy object works well against them? Hmm! Even more intriguing…can they stop the curse?
The plots around this idea could be phenomenal! And not just applicable to vampires, either, though I love the idea of it being a thing in vampire bloodlines.
—-
Hopefully that light dive into vampire powers through bloodlines inspired some ideas! I love reading unique vampire lore, and giving ideas, too. For more ideas on writing vampires, feel free to check out my blog at therealdesastr.com and search ‘vampire’!
Say you’d like to utilize that classic idea in your story. How would you go about doing it? I wanted to explore different ideas on just that.
Sire-Based
If we look into traditional vampire lore, we notice a lot of ‘humans being turned into vampires’, and them having a connection to their sire. You can play to the classics by doing this! A powerful vampire siring a bunch of fledglings could have their power signature slowly seep into them as they age, and then when the fledglings pass it on, they also begin that power creep into the new vampire.
You’d want to think about if the sire could withhold the power, or if it’s natural. Would what they drink (or who) affect how the power grows? Could fledglings develop totally new powers - and would that affect the sire? That could make for a very interesting story.
Hereditary
This one is my favorite, and it’s the one I use in my Kingdoms of Blood series. Royal vampires have powers in their bloodlines based on ancient vampires. For example, Ares & Jasper are descendants of Vlad the Impaler (who is a different person from Dracula in my lore!). Their powers are all about restraint. Meanwhile, Goliath & Ash (related to Dracula!) can turn into bats and meld into the shadows, essentially ‘vanishing’ and drowning out everyone around them in darkness.
The bloodlines in this case are passed on through my vampires, who are living and can reproduce. I never did describe how someone becomes an ‘ancient’ vampire in my series though. Would be a shame if someone really dangerous ended up one, eh?
Anyhow, you could do themes like mind magic, elemental magic, shapeshifting, anything that tickles your fancy. There could be mixtures of powers too if bloodlines mix, but I suggest having a ‘nerf’ or limit too, as to not make your characters too overpowered without balance.
Cursed/Blessed
A curse upon an entire family or bloodline (or blessing) is a really need method you can use. If your vampires are living and reproduce, it’d be passed onto children. If they are sired, it’d be passed onto fledglings. This could be a really unique way to gain powers. This could also start a cool plotline - either vampires hunting down powerful sorcerers or witches, or what have you, to gain ‘blessings’, or pissing said powerful entities off enough to be ‘cursed’. Or a ‘curse’ disguised as a ‘blessing’. Perhaps a way to turn a ‘curse’ into a ‘blessing’? Or someone fucks up, aaand… it goes the other way.
Also… did your vampires perhaps piss off a god? Could that be why a particular holy object works well against them? Hmm! Even more intriguing…can they stop the curse?
The plots around this idea could be phenomenal! And not just applicable to vampires, either, though I love the idea of it being a thing in vampire bloodlines.
—-
Hopefully that light dive into vampire powers through bloodlines inspired some ideas! I love reading unique vampire lore, and giving ideas, too. For more ideas on writing vampires, feel free to check out my blog at therealdesastr.com and search ‘vampire’!
Life as humans know it comes to a close when vampires take over as dominant species in our world, and magic makes its return. It's up to several unusual heroes to protect the innocent in a select few areas around the world.
by Des M. Astor
Genre: Vampire Horror, Dystopian Urban Fantasy
Hey, I’m Ares. Big, bad, scary vampire that your kind is supposed to be afraid of. And I’m here to help save you!
They call me the “Dancing Crow”. Don’t ask me who ‘they’ is. No idea. Anyway, my kind has emerged from the shadows and ripped the mantle of ‘dominant species’, or whatever, right from your hands. Shame, really. If only you didn’t erase magic from your history.
Anyway-z, I used to prowl the streets, ripping to shreds the evils of your society. Like some twisted superhero, or something. Everything changed when other vampires had enough, and well, here we are. Now my gang and I are trying to establish harmony in this city, at least. Not many would expect a gang, of all things, to be heroes. But here we are.
Our job is to help you widdle humans by getting rid of an evil tyrant, Ash, in this unnamed city. Well, that’s hard to do, so we got allies. A half-dragon, a Tasmanian Devil shapeshifter, you know, cool stuff like that. Now, if only I could get this vampire hunter to leave me alone. No idea what her deal is, but she clearly can’t kill me despite ‘trying’ her hardest. Ah well, I know my job, and it’s to continue doing SOMETHING to help out here.
CONTENT WARNING: Heavy gore, sexual assault and rescue from it, extreme religious indoctrination/manipulation, and heavy profanity.
This is Book 1, version 2 of “The Kingdoms of Blood” series.
Check out the audiobook trailer!
Ever see a Tasmanian Devil shapeshifter before? Well, you’re about to meet one. The name’s Darcia Deville.
We might have established harmony in Elapid City, but there’s a bunch of twisted vampire hunters eyeing us now. If they get their knives into our vampires, well, that can only end badly. So, now, we’re taking the fight to them.
Everything just had to go wrong, though.
My partner, Robert Smoke, a turned vampire, ended up captured by an insane scientist known as Doctor Astral. I need to save that brat in distress before he gets himself tortured to death. Not only that, but this woman is messing around with magic and science to an alarming extent. Wolfmen never existed before.
Apparently, they do now.
CONTENT WARNING: Extreme gore, descriptive sex scenes, profanity, rescue from sexual assault, & graphic torture.
This is Book 2 in “The Kingdoms of Blood” series.
About the Author:
Website-FB-X Amazon-Goodreads
Des M. Astor is a dystopic urban fantasy author who twists everything you know about creatures like vampires. If you're looking for gory, action-heavy novels that take several steps away from common myth for a flavor of her own, her works are the ones for you. She has a fascination with horror, and is unafraid of spiders, bats, and serpents. In fact, she adores all three. She takes pride in her worldbuilding, to the point where you might question if she's stepped out of an alternative Earth onto ours in order to tell these stories...
Website-FB-X Amazon-Goodreads
Des M. Astor is a dystopic urban fantasy author who twists everything you know about creatures like vampires. If you're looking for gory, action-heavy novels that take several steps away from common myth for a flavor of her own, her works are the ones for you. She has a fascination with horror, and is unafraid of spiders, bats, and serpents. In fact, she adores all three. She takes pride in her worldbuilding, to the point where you might question if she's stepped out of an alternative Earth onto ours in order to tell these stories...
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
$20 Amazon giftcard,
Audiobook of The Dancing Crow,
Audiobook of Huntsmaster City
-1 winner each!
This looks awesome! Thanks for hosting this giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it does :D Thanks for checking it out and reading about my ideas & my series!
DeleteI like the cover art. Looks great. Sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! The cover was a blast to make, I'm glad you really like it.
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