Here's something I just thought of. In a lot of the works of fictions from which I'm sure most of us are inspired, the vampire is a villainous creature, often the central antagonist of the story. See Dracula, Carmilla, the Castelvania series, etc. Yet in a lot of fics on this site and a few other modern vampire stories like Twilight or the Blade comics for example, a vampire is often given a heroic or at least anti-heroic role, sometimes even being the main character.

They most especially turn out to be the protagonist in Fimfiction stories, with most of the ones I've seen posted to this group turning either an OC or a canon pony into a vampire and then following them on what happens from there. Not bashing on this, just saying.

Now, yes, even the stories with vampire protagonists tend to have other vampires as the villains, but I do think it's an interesting trend that there tends to be more sympathy towards the once purely malevolent creatures than before, and I'm seeing them in heroic roles more and more often. Why is this? Could be lots of reasons. IMO, I think it's because writing a vampire is like writing a superhero, only with tragic background for character drama and weaknesses to counteract the OP-ness of the rest of their abilities already built in.

But personally, I always felt that it was for this very reason that vampires made far more interesting antagonists than heroes. Some of my favourite kinds of stories are ones about normal people going up against entities more powerful than themselves and winning somehow. Metal Gear Solid is a good example of this, as it's a series in which you fight psychics, cyborg ninjas, a hundred year old half plant guy who can use photosynthesis, a Russian who can shoot lightning from his hands, several people in giant walking tanks, and yes, even a vampire, while you the player are just a normal guy with not even much armour who takes them all down with conventional weapons and quick thinking.

But hey, that's just me. What about you guys? What's your take on a vampire's story role? And yes, you can take this entire post and apply it to lycans too.

Why are vampires largely used as "tragic heroes" nowadays, when they used to be honorable monsters?

Vampire: The Masquerade.

Granted, VtM is pretty much just an indicator for a social trend, but it had a big part. If you haven't played it, it's a tabletop pen-and-paper RPG that lets you play as a vampire. The main problem isn't fighting bad guys. It's holding on to your humanity. That cute girl you seduced for dinner? If you can't hold yourself back from draining her dry, you just killed an innocent. Don't worry about the cops. Worry about what that does to your soul.

Worry about how little her life really meant to you. How little every life really means to you now. After all, if you're a predator, what holds you back except the laws of the predators and your own Humanity? Add to that fighting eldrich monsters, the Sabbat, amped-up Werewolves that will eat you up and go looking for the tough guys... yeah, you might be a vampire, but you're far from the biggest fish. Sorta like what you were saying about MGS.

It's a really well-done game system, even if combat is kinda broken. No, it's not singularly responsible for adjusting the vampire mythos, but it did play a major part. It's been around since the late 80s-early 90s.

Here on FiMfiction, I think that the vampire has a special brand of horror. This is a largely vegetarian society. To a newly turned pony, the idea of drinking blood is even more insane than it is to omnivorous humans. Furthermore, the concept of coexistence for vampires is harder in the MLP world. Do you kill the poor little bunny who fell into your net while trying to bring home a carrot for his family, or do you meet a nice colt in a bar and pray that you don't drain him dry? Does the sun kill you, hurt you, or does it just weaken you like old-school Dracula?

What good is the magic of Friendship to you? Friends wither and die. If you sire another of your kind, what if she turns against you? What if that special somepony whose blood you so adore turns you in to the Lunar Inquisition? These are all existential questions that come free-with-purchase to vampires.

You're dead on about them being superheroes too. I like to write vampires as physically powerful, but psychologically weak. They're far more carnal than mortals. They can buck a wagon into next week, sure, but they know their "friends" are just one frenzy away from becoming food. All Superman has to worry about is Kryptonite. Vampires have to worry about waking up to find Lois Lane splattered all over the lane.

That's my two cents at least. It's been a while since I've seen a good thread like this with a well-thought-out Origin Post!

896876 In my vamp fic (that I have as since cancelled due to retarded story line) I portrayed the vamp as an anti-hero of sorts (no qualms with killing (as long as the victim is the lowest in society i.e the desperate and destitute) for sustenance) I think the reason for this new view or at least a desire to portray vampires as a hero (ideally this should be as a dark and gritty hero, even 'good' vampires are still vampires) steams, as much as we would like to deny it, from the Twilight saga.

(Dodges thrown boot)

...ahem...As I was saying the desire to portray the vampire as a force of good was first introduced to the mainstream media at large by Twilight saga. Now I'm not advocating that they are good in any way shape or form, they are truly terrible books both in terms of character development and plot but like it or not they brought vampires into the spotlight (and they sparkled fabulously *BLAM*
Any way as my recently departed college was saying, it is the new attention brought to vampires that now influences us to write them as heroic figures. It's also likely that we write them at all in a subconscious attempt to do a good or at least better job of making heroic vampires. After all a hero that is immortal, eats people to live and may or may not have an aversion to UV rays should be at best a Knight in Sour Armour. The setting that we also write in also acts a force that influences the way they are portrayed, after all it would be to much of a stretch of imagination to believe that any of the main cast (except possible Pinkie) would be okay with becoming a monster in every sense of the word, and be absolutely okay with killing just cause.

One thing that sort of relates to the internal conflicts of the vampires; if we use a Canon character as our victim, we tend to use Twilight Sparkle. Why? Well, other than the way too easy obvious joke , there's this sort of irony from the student of the sun being now harmed by the sun. Add to the fact that she loves her friends, and the whole inner conflict of her feeding on blood, you pretty much have your fic written for you.

Also, I think I emphasized a bit on my brand of vampires that they will go nuts from the presence of blood.

Well, Vampirism gives an easy setup for writers of a slightly nervous disposition like me.
It gives us a clear indication of what was before, and what was now.
It is also very different thinking of what rules are in play.
On another site I worked with a Story of someone having to adjust to the vampire world, in VTMB. However on this site, (Mainly out of fanboying, I´ll admit :P) I was allowed to sneak in on Vampire Cheerilee. However, while I of course want to focus the story on Cheerilee and her adventures, Part of me also wants to explore the Villain. The villain I am writing is sort of a challenge to myself.
"Can I make this Villain, A. Believable, B. Relate-able, C, Despise-able."
(I know a lot of those might not be words, but roll with the foreigner here a moment. )
So While Vampires does seem to get a trend as the Heroes, I dont think we have lost all the Villains yet.

What about applying this to the spider-drow things in D&D? Even more monstrous, and they can't hide there nature. They don't even have fantastic powers, and weaknesses abound. They would have to hide from everything, even many of there own kind, so a story based on that would be interesting, to say the least. Adding vampiric traits would add even more issues, namely the "conversion" debate.