Casual Werewolves vs. Vampires

Werewolves or Vampires?


  • Total voters
    32

neoselket

Ice Queen
For a long time, there has been a feud between monster/horror fans as to which is better, Vampires or Werewolves. To tackle this question, i'm going to delve into(some of) the original myths of the two creatures, so grab a seat, this will take a while.


Vampires


Let's start with Greek mythology, the oldest account(that i know of) of these creatures. The first vampire was a man named ambrogio, who fell in love with a priestess of Apollo named Selene. Apollo was jealous, and cursed Ambrogio so that any contact with sunlight would burn his skin. Ambrogio turned to Hades, the god of death, for protection, and Hades was willing to give it on the condition that Ambrogio bring hades Artemis' silver bow. He managed to convince Artemis to give it, but when she found out the reason she cursed him so touching silver would burn his skin. After explaining the situation, Artemis took pity on Ambrogio and turned him into the first vampire; he could use his fangs to collect blood with which to write love notes to Selene(long story), he would be immortal, and he would have strength and speed to hunt with(Artemis was the goddess of the hunt). He drank Selene's blood and turned her into a vampire, and their descendants were vampires.

(Note: this is the abridged version of the story, the full version can be found at http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/vampire-origin.html also, there were other vampires in Greek mythology, such as empousai and lamia, but this is the main one. There are also many versions of vampires in different regions of the world, but i'll be focusing on this one as there's far too many to list here.)

How to become a vampire
Someone could become a vampire in many ways, such as being promiscuous, having a cat jump over their corpse, and having red hair. Additionally, if a werewolf died, they would become a vampire after death, with the ability to transform into a wolf.

Misc

Before people knew much about decomposition, they came up with supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. For example, a corpse that was bloated with blood and had blood leaking from the mouth would be seen as being a vampire, due to the appearance of having drunk blood. They were believed to leave their graves at night, feed, and return before morning, as that would make them lose their powers. There is also a condition called porphyria which causes people to be extremely vulnerable to sunlight. Additionally, without modern medical technology, people were often buried prematurely, causing scratch marks to be discovered inside their coffins.
The idea of vampires not appearing in mirrors comes from the belief that mirrors were magical, and could show a reflection of someone's soul. Therefore, soulless vampires would not have a reflection.
The idea of vampires turning into bats comes from two sources(most likely): vampire bats and Vlad the impaler. In one battle(i forget which), Vlad released a swarm of bats at nightfall, which flew in the direction of the opposing army, giving the impression Vlad and his army had transformed into bats.

Weaknesses
Vampires could be harmed/killed by silver, garlic, sunlight, a stake through the heart, or holy objects. Additionally, vampires could not cross running water(in some myths), and if grain or salt was spilled near a vampire it would stop and could not leave until it had counted them all(this condition is referred to as arithmomania). Also, to prevent someone from turning into a vampire, people would often put garlic in the corpse's mouth and sew it shut, or put a brick or stone in it. Beheading was also an effective method of killing a vampire.

Abilities
vampires could suck blood, and in some cases had other powers such as turning into wolves(usually only when a werewolf turns into one), transforming into bats, immortality, and enhanced senses, strength, and speed.


Werewolves


Back to Greek mythology, The first werewolf was king Lycaon of arcadia, who wanted to test the god Zeus to see if he was truly omniscient. To this end, he killed one of his own sons and fed him to Zeus. Upon discovering this, Zeus cursed Lycaon and his offspring and turned them into wolves. A variation of this story has Lycaon sacrificing one of his sons to Zeus on an altar instead.(Note: again, there are many versions of werewolves and origin myths, so i'll only be listing one here.)

How to become a werewolf
A person could become a werewolf in a variety of ways, such as consuming the flesh of an animal killed by a wolf, drinking water from the footprint of a wolf, being conceived under a full moon, wearing clothing made of wolfskin, being cursed, or applying a magic salve. Being bitten was not usually on the list.

Misc
There were(rimshot) several types of werewolf. One, where the werewolf would transform by putting on a wolfskin(and would have to take it off at day, leaving it vulnerable), being able to transform at will, being cursed to be a wolf for a specified time(not just at the full moon), or to have one's spirit leave the body in a form of astral projection, roaming around in the form of a wolf.
There is a disease called hypertrichosis, which causes people to grow hair all over the body. This could have contributed to the belief that people were changing into wolves. Also, a mental condition called clinical lycanthropy causes the affected to believe they are a wolf or werewolf.

Characteristics

Werewolves were often interpreted as looking like a normal wolf, but having human eyes and voice, slightly larger, and no tail. They would therefore run on three legs, stretching out the fourth to look like a tail. Characteristics of a werewolf in human form included a unibrow(the eyebrows meeting in the middle), curved fingernails, low set ears, and a swinging stride. In some cases it was believed that cutting the skin of a human werewolf would show fur within the wound. In Russia, bristles under the tongue were a sign of a werewolf. Anthropomorphic(humanoid) wolves were largely a result of modern horror movies and special effects. Other werewolf legends stated that werewolves would be indistinguishable from normal wolves when transformed.

Weaknesses
Werewolves could be cured by being given wolfsbane. Also, if a werewolf was deprived of it's wolf skin while in human form, it would be vulnerable.

Abilities
Transforming into wolves, astral projection

That just scratches the surface, ha, of vampire and werewolf mythology. So in summary, here's a list of advantages and disadvantages to being a werewolf or vampire(cobbled together from different mythologies, not fiction).

Vampire pros: immortality, enhanced senses, strength, and speed, the ability to transform into bats or wolves(if a werewolf in life)
Vampire cons: sunlight, garlic, holy objects, running water, silver, no soul(so either you go to hell when you die or you are separate from your body and therefore not in control)

Werewolf pros: transforming into a wolf, astral projection, increased strength and speed
Werewolf cons: (sometimes) unable to transform if deprived of wolfskin or during daytime, turns into vampire after death

So vampires have more strengths, but also more weaknesses. My vote? Werewolves, definitely. Not only do they have less weaknesses, but they're cooler in my opinion.
 
Vampires are badass, and they live a pretty long time. They can also, on occasion, be really hot. Werewolves are not hot, just really hairy. To be fair, though, werewolves are badass, too.

Just watch Blade and the decision will be obvious.
 
Werewolves. Why? Because they're cool... and this totally doesn't relate in any way to me being a furry or anything. Nope, not even another factor contributing to why I like werewolves. Not at all... what? You don't believe me? Would THIS face lie to you?
 
How to become a vampire
Someone could become a vampire in many ways
... such as working in IT as a system admin or as a programmer. Lengthy times spent indoors in dark rooms with filtered air lead to an aversion of sunlight, natural air and the outside world. IT people are more active at night, forced to do work when no-one else is around and consequently sleep through the day. One more stupid question like "My computer isn't working pls fix" and the person snaps and is out for blood. Just like a vampire. :)

Vampire because they have control over their abilities. Werewolves can't control when they transform. Some fictional universes (which may or may not be based on real world myths) have vampires with other abilities. The book series "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" has vampires which drain a person's aura instead of their blood, but that's not a requirement for them to survive. They are actually on the side of the good guys. The Witcher has both good and bad vampires, where drinking blood is optional. (Not totally familiar with The Witcher, so I might be wrong here.) My point being that vampires are not inherently blood suckers nor evil.

The lack of a soul for vampires would make me say werewolves, but since werewolves turn into vampires on death, you're soulless either way?
 
... such as working in IT as a system admin or as a programmer. Lengthy times spent indoors in dark rooms with filtered air lead to an aversion of sunlight, natural air and the outside world. IT people are more active at night, forced to do work when no-one else is around and consequently sleep through the day. One more stupid question like "My computer isn't working pls fix" and the person snaps and is out for blood. Just like a vampire. :)

Vampire because they have control over their abilities. Werewolves can't control when they transform. Some fictional universes (which may or may not be based on real world myths) have vampires with other abilities. The book series "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" has vampires which drain a person's aura instead of their blood, but that's not a requirement for them to survive. They are actually on the side of the good guys. The Witcher has both good and bad vampires, where drinking blood is optional. (Not totally familiar with The Witcher, so I might be wrong here.) My point being that vampires are not inherently blood suckers nor evil.

The lack of a soul for vampires would make me say werewolves, but since werewolves turn into vampires on death, you're soulless either way?
I think the way it works is that the werewolves have souls in life, but when they die and their soul leaves their body, they become a vampire. And yes, you are correct that originally vampires were not evil, but they did drink blood to "reproduce", as it were. Also, werewolves could control when they transformed, the idea that it was involuntary came from Hollywood.
 
Werewolves.
While vampires have many abilities that are useful, all of the downsides that they possess outweighs the upsides. Werewolves also have cons, but they aren't as major as that of vampires, who suffer if exposed to silver, sunlight, and garlic, and with some myths, unable to enter a building uninvited (sometimes even individual rooms,) sometimes unable to cross moving water, and sometimes having to count each individual spilt grain of salt in a room.

Werewolves just have random transformations during the night, and the possibility of a cure.
 
Silver is also deadly for werewolves. Werewolves are only at their strongest for 3 days every month, any other time they will just be normal mortals that are killed very easily.
Forgot about the silver part, but my vote remains the same. Vampires are only viable in some situations, and could be pretty easily detectable with all they have to avoid.
Werewolves just have to avoid silver, which isn't too difficult if you know what you are doing.
 
Forgot about the silver part, but my vote remains the same. Vampires are only viable in some situations, and could be pretty easily detectable with all they have to avoid.
Werewolves just have to avoid silver, which isn't too difficult if you know what you are doing.
Aren`t werewolves the same? Only viable on a cycle? Like in Bisclavret when you are forced to transform once a week or in japanese myth when you just transform everytime you see something round.
Here are some more weaknesses for werewolves:

  • You can be cured, destoying your powers.
  • Act feral when transformed.
  • You have the weaknesses of a canine, One foul smell and I can walk away.
 
Aren`t werewolves the same? Only viable on a cycle? Like in Bisclavret when you are forced to transform once a week or in japanese myth when you just transform everytime you see something round.
Here are some more weaknesses for werewolves:

  • You can be cured, destoying your powers.
  • Act feral when transformed.
  • You have the weaknesses of a canine, One foul smell and I can walk away.
Yes, but none of the weaknesses aside from silver will kill a werewolf on its own. Most, if not all weaknesses of a vampire's will kill them.
 
Yes, but none of the weaknesses aside from silver will kill a werewolf on its own. Most, if not all weaknesses of a vampire's will kill them.
Ever heard of the postman weakness? You shoot a werewolf in the right paw and tommorow, teh postman has his right hand wrapped around the same spot you sot teh wolf. You know he is a werewolf then. Also, what is the point of being a werewolf if you can`t control your powers or are just a normal human when you are cured?

Vampires die? Yes. Do they come back? Yes.
 
Ever heard of the postman weakness? You shoot a werewolf in the right paw and tommorow, teh postman has his right hand wrapped around the same spot you sot teh wolf. You know he is a werewolf then. Also, what is the point of being a werewolf if you can`t control your powers or are just a normal human when you are cured?

Vampires die? Yes. Do they come back? Yes.
While that is true, and a way to deal with a werewolf, that relies on you managing to his the werewolf, and hit a spot that isn't easily covered by clothing.
Vampires don't really come back if you kill them. If you kill a vampire, the vampire stays dead. Unless some modern ideas changed that.
 
Unless some modern ideas changed that
In The Vampyre, the vampire could come back to life if it`s remains are bathed in moonlight. The Vampyre came out before Dracula.
You also want to know what mordern ideas changed? Vampires being killed by sunlight. Dracula could walk around in the sun, it only limited his shapeshifting powers and the same goes for Carmilla, which also came before Dracula.
 
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