Dumb question for today

[indri]

Could you vamp a gorilla?

Comments

[rahirah]

That's a very interesting question, along with whether or not one can vamp animals in general. I think you could wank it either way--if all vamping requires is an exchange of blood, then I'd say that any animal which could normally provide a vampire with sustenance (all mammals, say) could be vamped. But it's also possible (especially if you consider vamping as more a magical/symbolic act) that you can't vamp anything but a human. However, if you had a pure demon of the sort which created vampires to begin with, it might be able to infect another species and create a species of alt-vamps. (I wonder if that's the origin of the Turok-Han; they were the result of a demon infecting a different species of hominid, way back in the day. Though I suppose they could also be impossibly ancient and demonified human-based vampires.)

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

It depends. About 24.4 % of the Gorilla beringei have the genes that make suspectebal over for the vamperic transformation, whereas with the Gorilla gorilla specie is it est that only about 7.8 % can be carrier.
See also Dr. Fupmand report “Iinfectious Para-normal parasitic diseases in Hominidaes”

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Can't see why not - as long as there is a vamp demon ready to move in!!

Having just been thinking about keswindhover's Buffy/Discworld cross over I've just visualised a vampired Pratchett Librarian, and must go and lie down somewhere, quietly!!

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

Well, there's Bunnicula. If a bunny can be vamped, why not a gorilla?

Maybe Anya encountered Bunnicula at some point.

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

Ook?

[jolielaide.livejournal.com]

Good question. It also kind of makes me go, ewww. :)

Thanks for the Oakland pimp, chica!

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

Ook Ook

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

*hands you a banana*

[romanyg.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, with the question of the soul, that opens up a whole can of humanocentric thinking. There's the whole question of symbolic reasoning, the capability of metaphor. But, in Jossverse at least, we've seen that a vampire can exist with or without a soul, that without a soul s/he doesn't have a moral compass, has no need for morality, only desire. Any creature capable of the desire to eat and reproduce would be capable of hosting the demon.

But then again, we've seen that the social system, the relationships learned in life, inform the vampire, shape it. Any social animal turned vampire would have the same issues. And any great ape has plenty of those. I don't know about gibbons and siamangs since they're the least social, but then again, with their territoriality, they'd probably make good vampires. *g*

[indri]

Thank me if you get any useful info!

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I'd say no - because if it was possible to vamp animals Dru would have had a whole truck load of them.

[indri]

You've read my mind on this one. I can't imagine anyone but Dru trying.

[indri]

I'd somehow forgotten about the Turok-Han. I agree that they seem to be a vamped different species of hominid. Given what little we know of the "pure" demon (if that's what we saw in Pylea) then maybe any warm-blooded species with sufficient higher brain function to match or exceed the demon would suffice. (Anything dumber would probably die quickly.) So you could possibly vamp a lion or a whale but not a gerbil or a shark.

If the vamping is a magical/symbolic act then you still have to ask, how human is good enough? If a closely-related homnid's OK, then what about a chimp?

Lemurs are probably out though :)

(Vamp)Indri

[indri]

*slaps forehread*

Of course! What was I thinking?

I suspect there may be something in Walsh and Angelman (1995) as well.

[indri]

a vampired Pratchett Librarian

*shivers in fear*

[indri]

But is Bunnicula Jossverse canon?

Inquiring minds want to know. Also, me.

[indri]

Yes, there's the whole question of what creatures in the Jossverse have souls. Most humans and some demons and we have no info at all on non-magical animals other than humans. Barb raised the point about the Turok-Han being possibly vamped hominids -- but now that I think about it some more, there's a fairly big disconnect between standard evolutionary theories and Jossverse prehistory.

To survive, the vamped creature would need to be smart enough not to walk out into the sun, so a successful vamped group would need some communication skills and memory. You'd need a social species. But it doesn't tell us which creatures could, theoretically, be vamped.

Hm.

[romanyg.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I hadn't really considered that the Turok-Han were another species of hominid. But then the whole creation mythos of Jossverse doesn't fit in with any standard evolutionary model.

Also a vamped creature's survival would depend on who or what did the siring and if they stuck around to teach basic survival skills. I'd always wondered why vampires seemed to procreate with such a wide spectrum of parental investment, from 'bite them and leave them' to centuries long relationships.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

And Count Duckula!