The Vampyre's path to self-acceptance. By Akhkharu.

From the moment of my awakening, the image of my vampyric identity has changed many times, shifting and crystallizing the more I learned. When I found out about the Vampyre Community, it was the first time I met people with experiences similar to mine. However, my experiences were still vastly different from other people. I sometimes found myself not speaking up about my own theories and interpretations to try and conform to other people's ideas; trying to fit neatly into one label even if I related to many of them, because i did not feel like my own experiences were valid enough to qualify as a vampyre.

So, like many of us do, I asked myself the question: What makes a vampyre? At first, the answer seemed simple; but on a second thought, this isn't an easy question at all.

I've seen many vampyres attribute our identity to one main common factor: our thirst.

There is really no wrong answer to this question, and this one is not an exception; it is definitely the most obvious one. The vampyre must feed. It is what keeps us strong and it is an essential help for our health, be it spiritual, mental, or physical. Blood, or energy, fuels us all; and all vampyres, in different amounts, gather it from external sources. Given this, now begin the differences that make the question complicated; Why do we have a need to feed? Depending on the individual and their beliefs, there are so many different possible answers to this. A big part of the Vampyre community believes they need to consume blood or energy because they have an energy leakage in their system, or because of health issues; A smaller part approaches the vampyric path as a left-hand sorcerer, not specifically because of a need to feed but because they find it is beneficial to gather more energy for sustenance. There’s even a minority of vampyres who decide to exclusively feed on nature's energy. That is to say – because there are so many ways of being on this path, it is very difficult to define our nature neatly. We are changing, creating new labels and facets of our common experience. Sanguine, Psychic, Eros, Astral, Ceremonial, they can all bleed into each other. I realised this is a beautiful thing; it is what makes our experience unique, and every single vampyre deserves to feel accepted for who they are. We must make it so that each and every one of us feels free to speak their mind. Accepting our own experience is even more important, but it is the most difficult thing we can do. Some days the pain and the shame and the guilt can get so heavy on our shoulders, and for most of us vampyrism isn't a choice. Being one of us has its good and its bad, but that's why we built a community; to see the gifts and the beauty in it. I, as a vampyre, refuse to be defined by my suffering. I want to identify with the pleasure of feeding and empowering myself, of becoming stronger and full of life. The community is ever-changing, and so are we; we shouldn't have to consider this special thing we have a flaw or something that makes us less than. We have our lows and our highs but nonetheless we are not broken. This is why we must keep listening, improving, looking for more voices in the VC to fight misinformation, enrich our culture and learn more - about other vampyres and, through them, maybe about ourselves too.