Vampire

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Vampires (吸血鬼 kyūketsuki, lit. "blood-sucking oni") are creatures from Western folklore that drink the blood of humans to survive. They possess a number of powerful abilities, including super-strength, super-speed, summoning demons, transforming into a swarm of bats, regeneration, and eternal life. They also have a lot of weaknesses, including sunlight (which is why vampires are usually active at night) and flowing water (such as rain or a river). Similar but unrelated beings can be found in Asian folklore, such as the Jiang Shi.

Weaknesses[edit | edit source]

Although vampires have been portrayed to have enormous power (maybe), at any rate, they've got a great number of weaknesses. The following are weaknesses that vampires have been confirmed to mention about themselves in Rogen Project. Also, since the word vampire (吸血) seem to have the Kanji oni () in them, whatever weaknesses oni have, vampires also have them in a similar way. It should be noted that a lot of different works with a fictional universe take different approaches as to what weaknesses a vampire's got.

Turning into ashes or vaporising upon sunlight
Provided, it is not like disintegrating on the spot from exposure to sunlight, nor is it like the legends where vampires burn up. It's more to the extent of the skin flaking off gradually. Also, vampires seem to be quite composed when it's not direct sunlight, and therefore they are able to go outside under the shadow of a parasol. Furthermore, when they are burned up due to sunlight, they're able to absorb the residue, and thus become essentially immortal.
Inability to cross flowing water
Since on a rainy day, where the sky and the earth all becomes "flowing water", vampires cannot physically go outside. On clear days, only in certain places there's flowing water, and what this means in the end for rivers etc. is uncertain. The popular theory is that it wouldn't be possible to swim and cross over, but it would be no problem to go on a boat or fly over.
Crosses
The reason why vampires in general have a weakness to crosses is because the legends of vampires today have originally taken form in an area that is deeply rooted in Christianity, and it's because in those legends, vampires come about when a human's blood is sucked by another vampire. In short, if a pious Christian becomes a vampire like this, and if they succumb to their instincts and perform the action of sucking blood, each time they look at the cross, they will remember the depth of the sin, meaning that they'll then feel a guilty conscience.
To the very end, since it's a guilty conscience, even if you just show them the cross, they'll be startled, and the effect is that they will lose their fighting spirit. However, in the case of a silver cross, there is also a theory as for why it would take effect regardless of faith and piety. (See also the Silver Weapons section).
Flames
Since flames contain purification power, it is said that the damage dealt to vampires by burning with flames cannot be recovered. Before considering how flames could have purification power, they also have the ability to inflict more or less damage physically.
Garlic
Since garlic has high nutritional value, it is said they have an effect on all kinds of illnesses, it is considered that they have an ability to dispel evil spirits. Furthermore since they have a strong odor, they are said to be able to make devils unable to come close (although gods also seem not to be able to come close).
Silver Weapons
The reason silver stakes or bullets are said to have an effect on vampires is because silver is chemically reactive to arsenic and sulfur, changing its colour and its properties, and silver ions have a strong disinfectant effect against bacteria. In the time of the origins of the legends of vampires, since ions and bacteria have not been elucidated, it was suspicious that they would have a disinfectant effect, and so in order for nobles to avoid assassination, it was common sense to unify weapons with silver. Furthermore, since a major accessory attached to the body was the cross, it was common to make them out of silver as a poisonous distinguishing accessory. From details like this, silver has thus become considered to have the power to drive away impure things, and thus they've been considered a weakness of the representative of impure things, vampires.
Inability to go into houses uninvited
This is according to Christianity, that "devils do not come close to places where they are not welcome". Although they are not able to evade doors for which consent cannot be gained, if you successfully invite them even just once, it will thereon be a free pass to the house. There are also vampires who do petty-minded great effort in disguising and deceiving target humans to get a "yes" out of them.
Death upon a stake through the heart or death upon beheading
If a human does this kind of thing to an ordinary living thing, then without omission they'll die, but since vampires neither age nor die, it's said that there aren't many measures to annihilate them. It's useless if the stake isn't white ash, and although there are various theories saying that any kind of tree is okay, but it seems to be generally agreed upon that iron and glass stakes are no good.
Concerning the parts related to this weakness as well as the part related to silver, it has been a legend passed on that has existed much further back into the past than the "Count Dracula" that has formed our present image of vampires, going back to around the 4th century.

Vampires in Rogen[edit | edit source]

Vampires in Himawashi are a young but powerful youkai species. They possess a far broader range of abilities than most youkai, including oni-level strength and tengu-level speed, but also have a far broader range of weaknesses. Vampires in Himawashi show no paticular aversion to the Christian cross, though they can still be harmed by spiritual attacks like any youkai; they do, however, show a vulnerability to roasted soybeans, presumably a result of being identified with oni. While sunlight has the power to destroy them, they can survive brief exposures, and even travel around at day as long as they remain in the shade. They also forfeit growth and maturity, and are thus biologically immortal.

Elzie Hirochi is the only known vampire to survive prone weaknesses, thus making her immortal. It's speculated that the only weakness she can't survive is a stake to the heart.

Dhampir[edit | edit source]

Dhampirs are hybrid offsprings between a male vampire and a female human (sometimes it's the other way round). Unlike vampires and like the latter, they can survive weaknesses for a short amount of time. The only way they can avoid sunlight is sheltering themselves in the shade.

Characters under these species[edit | edit source]

See Also[edit | edit source]