how come a steak thru the heart kills them
Too much LDL - they actually die of a heart attack.
A lot of people get this wrong and try and put a stake through their heart which ends up turning out bad for them…
Terry Pratchett? Is that you?
In a similar manner, a lot of people believe vampires have a fear of garlic. And in a similar manner, this is also a mistake.
The true subject of vamperic anxiety is garlic butter, and they fear it in the same way you or I fear facing the scale after a particularly sumptuous holiday feasting season.
“A moment on the lips, an eternity on the hips,” as Dracula is wont to say.
Only tangentially related, the reason they don’t have a reflection is because old mirrors were lined with silver
Hawthorn is supposedly especially dangerous for the undead according to Balkan folklore. Stakes for dealing with the undead would have been specifically made from hawthorn for its magical properties, although I think that little tidbit has been phased out in modern depictions.
When Petar Blagojevic, an infamous Serbian vampire, was staked, it was said that “when they drove a hawthorn stake through him, fresh red blood flowed from his mouth and ears”, so I assume it could also have the effect of bleeding out whatever blood it consumed.
As a side note, I find it interesting how vampires (weird bloated corpses that could fit through small holes like some weird gelatinous creature) have become more like dhampir (their half-human offspring) in modern media.
They still need to pump blood, it’s just not their blood anymore, hence why they need to drink every few days. They wouldn’t be able to do much without blood circulation. Explains why they don’t eat, their digestive system is completely changed. At least, that how I always imagined it.
