The Forever Evolving History of the Vampyre Community

A quick note on Suggested Content

This will be the first of many blogs I will be doing on the History of the Vampyre Community. Since the publication of Project V’s historic VC timeline https://www.projectvampyre.org/vc-historical-timeline, we have received a lot of praise for creating such a huge resource that not only shares all sorts of developments within the VC regardless of the size of the contribution, but we also provided links for you to delve deeper into that dated event and even fact-check us. Upon this resource being released, I have received many requests from individuals to start writing blogs about my thoughts on VC history and the events that came along the way. Some wanted a vamp discussion series, while others wanted a podcast. These are all pretty cool suggestions, and I will be slowly working my way into these. As I filter through these subjects, I will be stealing a fellow mentor's tactic: writing a blog, hosting a VC roundtable, and then leading a vamp discussion.

Sorry Hurlewain

But yes, I will be slowly but surely adding more historical content, and we will start with this one. I cannot promise back to back historical content as I have many other topics and projects I’m working on.

What is our history? Where does it begin?

First, we would need to define what counts as history for the vampyre community, and where it starts. Do we start it off in 1965, Dracula Fan Club? No, surely there was something more before for the Dracula Fan Club to develop somehow 2,000 proclaimed vampyres. We could dig deeper into the writings of Dion Fortune in the 1930s that reference Psychic Vampyres. But how did Psychic Vampyres come to be? Do we go back to the Theosophist salons in the late 1800s, to which Astral Vampyres refers? But what about vampyres who drink blood? Or those who believe vampyrism is a choice and immortality can be achieved? How far does this go? Do we start at the Dracula Fan Club, or do we march to Dracula's Castle and start banging on his door for some answers?

I joke.

For pure sanity, going and looking for when the true creation of our history began will drive you crazy, believe me, I know I spent a good chunk of my life I won't get back creating a long, extensive VC timeline. The majority will say 1965 is our beginning, but the information we know proves otherwise.

Do we break it down to what we know is ACTUALLY the VC, or do we go back to what influenced the VC? Oh, wait, now we are being ping-ponged in so many directions, from the folklore rabbit hole of vampire pumpkins and vampire haunted wagon wheels to sparkling vampires. This must be so frustrating. I bet you are screaming at me, telling me, “Just start with what is important to what pertains to the modern VC.”

Is it really that simple? No.

But for your sanity and Mine, when I write about Vampyre Community History, I will specify exactly what is being referenced, whether we are discussing folklore or the modern-day vampyre community.

What is with the Lack of Preservation?

Have you ever tried to look for VC resources but mostly find the most popular ones, such as the Psychic Vampire Codex or random vampyre appearances on shows and articles, and they just don't go deeper? Or maybe when you are looking into the older writings and events of the VC, and find little to no evidence of some of these communities existing? Well, that's because, in the past AND the present, the VC has had trouble preserving history. Back then, it was more about the community's secrecy. This was a policy held in high regard until, you know, certain members of the VC made it much more public and less hidden in the shadows. But I digress. In most vampyre covens/clans in the 80s, they had rules, or, in other words, a code of conduct, as we have today in VC spaces and houses. I kid you not, if you were to take all these codes of conduct and put them next to each other, they would all say something about secrecy. Examples: Older iterations of the Black Veil, House of the Dreaming, The Five Laws of Elysium (Which is in relation to Sabretooth Lineage, thus the black veil), House Valurs, The Totum Lex Vampyrica, etc.

Nowadays, I would say it's more about the VC not taking the community's future into account; they don't archive their communities and resources. During my journey of making a VC website list, many of the websites kind of go poof over the years, especially recently, and if they weren't backed up on the Wayback Machine, it becomes difficult to find anything else.

Why Study and Preserve VC History

Besides, the reasoning is that we have a cool history. Well, I would say learning and preserving our history keeps us safe. Learn how we have evolved, the mistakes we made, the bad actors within the community, and most importantly, how far we have come as a community.

I think the faster people actually learned about VC history, the better. When you go in blind, you don't realize how fruitful the community truly is. Like, yes, we have had our ups and downs, but seeing people work together and build something this long-lasting is empowering. Doesn't that make you want to do your absolute best to keep it alive? To preserve what we have so that later generations can also see the same beauty?

The Future Becoming History

The Vampyre community has gone through various evolutions. For VC contributors and innovators, we have seen many cool creations. Community Maps, Call lines, studies, forums, timelines, etc. We have also seen a lot of these creations fall. Partially due to the lack of support or to the owner of these creations moving on. The creations we see now or soon to come will make history and make tradition, or will get lost in history as a distant memory.

Let's build something we are proud of, bring new ideas to the table, the future is near and will cycle through. While we make history, let's ensure we learn from our past mistakes and preserve these lessons to continue educating the generations after us.