According to some vampire lore, it is not the blood itself the vampire needs to survive. It is the life force. When the vampire feeds, that is what they are draining. The blood is simply a symbol for that energy, and the act of drinking a symbolic gesture that transfers the life force into them. It is like taking Catholic communion. The wine is a symbol of the blood of Christ, and the cracker a symbol of his flesh. The ritual transforms these things into the real thing. Likewise with vampires, the ritual of drinking blood transforms it into the very life energy of their victim, which they devour. Because of that, a dead body is of no use to a vampire, because there is no life force remaining with it. It is like an empty six pack.

I have always liked this kind of vampiric feeding over the more trendy view of blood being like pepsi. Put it in the fridge for later and snack on it any time. That makes it too easy to be a vampire, IMHO. If someone is going to get uber supernatural powers, they ought to get some difficulties they have to surmount as well.

Technically isn't the church promoting vampirism by making you drink the "blood" of christ, just saying, do not want to offend anyone, but on that not we were talking about that in class and technically isn't jesus a vampire or zombie.

In the original legends vampires had to feed on the blood of virgin females so thank Hollywood that you're allowed to feed on any living person.

Not even close to what that symbolizes, but I'll stop there before I violate the forum rules.

virgin females? Jeez that must be hard to be a vampire. There aint many virgin females around.

Yeah, the original legends were intended to keep young girls in the house at night. Nowadays every 9 year-old girl would go out and lose her virginity to be 'safe'.

We just talked about that in class, it made no sense to me. I do not want to break forum rules or start something.

HEY LET'S TALK AROUND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.

And yeah, one thing I did, though this is kinda the opposite of what we're on about, was, on my vampire characters, I used their vampirism to roleplay my way around how weird it was for them to eat people via Namira's Ring. Doesn't make much sense for vampire lore/history in just about any regard, but then again the vampire lairs in Skyrim have bloodied bones and all these weird embalming tools and creepy bloody stuff, so meh.

I'll be brief and hopefully I won't get scolded. The body and blood of Christ thing was incorporated into Christianity when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. It symbolizes the flesh and blood of a sacrificial animal - one of the many things incorporated into Christianity to get the pagans onboard.

Yeah, I've wondered about this: Are all vampires cannibals? Are all cannibals vampires? Some vampires are cannibals?

Don't be hating on the embalming tools...I keep a set by most of the beds in my houses.