I Dont Wanna Tag This As Character Design And Halloween Or Whateverr... Maybe Ill Change My Mind - Tumblr Posts

My entry for @cityfrightspm - Elena :]

if u wanna hear me yap about her design and slavic vampires.... u know where to go…

first off! about vampires... they're from south slavic mythology! specifically the serbia-romania area (as one would guess..) a root word for their name is Upir - mix of un- (to not/to not be) and pir (fire!), meaning they can't burn! this is why i changed her bloodfiend fleshy parts to look more like hot coal/burning wood :)

the context for the not burning thing is a bit of a longer story, ill yap about that later...

the outfit is based on mostly north serbian traditional clothing, with some patterns taken from romania! i gave her mostly male clothing (because i think elena would be mad at me if i put her in a skirt) with some elements from female clothes for funsies :]

before garlic became THE plant to ward off vampires, originally we used hawthorns, believed to be a magical plant here (one of... many). so that's what i used in this design; both as the actual plant itself, and in the patterns decorating her clothes :) i love how elena in game has this aura of confidence, i tried to play into that - wearing the thing that can kill her, right on her ankle and head; a bit cocky if you ask me

slavs believed the soul and the body are inseparable during life, but when one dies, their soul can take up to 40 days to move onto the second realm. if the body is destroyed thoroughly, or if the one who died was a good person in life, their soul won't have much trouble moving on. to help the dead move on easier, slavs cremated their bodies.

okk about actual vampires now...

if that isn't done, there's a risk one will become vampiric during the 40 day timeframe. bad people had a higher chance of 'turning' into a restless undead-basically undead witches, werewolves and vampires. those three are the same thing, so much so that in russian the words for werewolf and vampire switched meaning. they're all malicious entities with a similar function.

the whole 'not burning' thing is because.. you already had your chance. you cant go back and cremate them now that things have gone wrong. the best ways to kill a vampire are using hawthorn, or damaging their skin in general.. thats what the thorns from hawthorn were used for!

(this gets a bit gross) once their skin is damaged, you find out vampires dont actually have... meat. or bones. they're filled with a red jelly-like substance, which simply.... pours out of them if you cut them.... ew! one of the websites i referenced for this called them similar to pihtije (look that up if u dare. idk i think pihtija is yucky)

AND to finish off.... in today's pop culture vampires are generally associated with cannibalism and... sex? i find it interesting how things change overtime when spreading to different cultures! but i wanted to share the only correlation between vampires and sex i found researching the original myths!

Once someone turns vampiric, they can go back to their spouses and still are able to make children. If the child is born the same sex as the vampiric parent, they'll be born with similar... powers as a vampire. If the child is of the opposite sex, they'll be born human.

thats all for now tyyy for reading muah muah