And now for vampire lingo…

Vampires are obsessed with eternal life and their elitism, in that they have attained immortal life, and they believe that this is because they somehow deserve it. After all, not everyone who’s bitten three times becomes a vampire, so they must be special, right?

A lack of empathy and no moral compass are better indicators of who will become a vampire, leading to a culture of narcissism.

Death is on vampire’s minds, since they have smugly defeated it (they believe), but they still don’t like talking about it. They have escaped the Grim Reaper’s scythe. They have escaped the shears of Atropos (Morta in the Roman version), the Fate who cut the thread of life. Note that the Greeks called them the Fates, while the Romans called them the Parcae or Fata, but similar beings show up in other cultures as well. For instance, you’ve got the Russian Rozhanicy, the Slovenian Sudzenici, the Bulgarian Nerechnitse and the Polish Rodzanice. In Norse mythology, they are the Norns, who are Urd (or Urth or Wyrd), Verdandi (or Verthandi), and Skuld.

Old vampires tend to embrace mysticism and theories about the deep mysteries of the universe. (This would be fascinating to explore at a later date.) They revere the darkness, which they believe contains the secrets of the universe.

Lady Agatha says “by the Darkness” as a mild oath. A less mild oath would be “death and damnation”. Mickey might use that, as well as Guy and Lady Agatha. Agatha might also say “evil Atropos”.

The change to become a vampire is the Big Sleep or crossing the river (as in the River Styx) or crossing over.

Vampires are obsessed with blood, but do not like to use the word, preferring euphemisms: elixir, ichor (in the classical sense), medicine, cherry syrup (in Mickey’s case), red gold. Using the term “bloody” as an adjective would be like using “fucking” as an adjective for most humans. “blood” or “bloody” are taboo words, hence used for swearing.

Vampires abhor the evidence of decay that comes with life. While they know themselves to be superior to humans, they still do not like to confront evidence of death. So, vampires can get obsessive about worms and maggots, which feed on decaying matter, and are repulsed by the idea of mushrooms (mushrooms with garlic being horrifying to a vampire!). Thus, Lady Agatha reserves the epithets “worm” or “maggot” for vampires she does not like or who are beneath her (like Cuza and Frenchie).

Humans are viewed as vermin or livestock by vampires. Vampires feed on humans, and thus they have little respect for them, because of their inherent narcissism and belief in their superiority. They might call humans “cow” or “swine” or “snack” or “three-course” (as in “he’d be a three-course”) or “steak dinner”.

Werewolves are immortal, like vampires, but they are endowed with magic from the moon, the antithesis of darkness. Werewolves have always been the enemies of vampires. Perhaps because the moon must fight every month to defeat the darkness. Her children, the werewolves, carry on that fight against the vampires. In OtMH, Cuza addressed werewolves as “dogs”. Vampires would also use “cur” or “beast” or “mongrel” (esp. Guy or Agatha) with adjectives denoting savagery (mad dog, savage beast, etc.) or rotting flesh (stinking dog, putrid mongrel, etc.).