What makes vampires weak

The wounds made by silver prevent the flesh from regenerating as it normally would. Vampires are cursed creatures, unable to enjoy the daylight at any point in their lives. Their pale skin reflects this, as thus their sleeping schedule. They typically sleep during the day and go out at night in search of prey.

This makes them vulnerable during the day. Many people forget this, but vampires are also just as vulnerable to fire as regular humans. After all, silver and sunlight burn their flesh. If you can throw a Molotov cocktail on a vampire it can do fatal damage. Vampire stories are usually stories of love and betrayal.

Typically a vampire falls in love with a human. The human partner can no longer tolerate the blood sucking activities of its favorite pale aristocrat, and takes law into its own hands or reports the vampire to human authorities. So the fact that vampires can harbor genuine feelings of affection and love towards some humans makes them vulnerable to betrayal.

Vampires hate crosses. Especially crosses made of silver, but even a basic wooden cross can help you keep a vampire away. Other holy symbols have not been as explored, but it is argued by some that even signs of Hindu gods and goddesses like Vishnu and Shiva can be used as repellents. Not many humans enjoy the smell of garlic. But vampires take it up a notch. While vampires can survive for months, some even years without a single drop of blood, their strength heavily depends on it.

Blood is the only nutrient that vampires need in order to survive and gain strength. But finding a fresh supply of blood often involves hunting down humans and large animals.

If not done quietly and with precision these hunting trips can expose their location and alert humans of their presence. The constant danger associated with acquiring the only vital nutrient they can absorb is a significant weakness that vampires have to take into account on a day-to-day basis. There are constant historical anecdotes where people behead and burn suspected vampires.

Subsequent outbreaks—including one in and that likely killed ID6—ravaged the city again over the two centuries that followed. Perhaps six weeks after burial, she was exhumed and a brick placed carefully between her teeth. As it nibbles away, by some occult process, it also slowly kills the surviving members of its family. It may then begin gobbling corpses in neighboring graves. But the real vampires—blood gorging, infectious-disease bearing ticks, mosquitoes, and rat fleas—remain with us too, taking human blood and sometimes spreading death with a single bite.

Feast on more vampire stories with Vampire Forensics in bookstores …. Image of Venetian vampire skull and brick and historical vampire illustration courtesy the National Geographic Channel. Some vampires could even become human-sized bats.

Vampires could also transform themselves into mist at will, while still retaining their normal consciousnesses in that form. A vampire can control the will of those it bites, even before the victim fully transforms into a vampire, although those with great willpower can defy control; Dracula was amazed when Storm did so twice.

The exact length of time needed to mesmerize the victim depends on the strength of will of the vampire and that of his or her victim. Vampires were rendered immune to the ravages of disease and of aging. However, if deprived of blood for a lengthy period of time, a vampire would begin to show distinct signs of aging, such as his or her hair turning gray. Upon ingesting fresh blood, the vampire would revert to the age in which he or she had been at the time of death.

In most cases, vampires were able to heal themselves from minor injuries within a very brief period of time. Some vampires, such as Count Dracula, could heal from severe burns or broken bones within the span of a few hours, where as most other vampires might require several days to heal the exact same injury. Vampires were not able to regenerate missing organs or severed portions of their anatomy, with the exception of hair. Apart from periodic inconveniences, injuries like these would not critically impair a vampire's effectiveness.

Because the ichor was similar in function to blood, poisons and other toxic substances that were circulated in its bloodstream would adversely affect a vampire, although no dosage was large enough to cause death. Most vampires possessed superhuman physical strength anywhere from 10 to 20 times greater than they possessed in their mortal lives. The vast majority of known and recorded vampires were capable of lifting from 1, lbs to 4, lbs, with only Count Dracula and his predecessor Varnae being known to lift more at 4 and 7 tons respectively due to their special stance as ruler of Earth's vampire race.

Vampires have many limitations imposed upon their supernatural abilities, and even upon their very existence. Below are a listing of weaknesses common to supernatural vampires. Once convinced of their existence, however, the same media provides an education on basic anti-vampire tools, such as religious symbols, sunlight, wooden stakes, and holy water, although those using them may not fully understand details of the tools' requirements.

Vampires are regularly required to consume a few pints litres of blood every other night. Failing to do so would cause the vampire to weaken and after an extended period without blood seemingly perish. A vampire's ability to metabolize blood and their frequency of feeding usually varies however depending on a number of factors: Length of time between feedings, damage or injury to the body, resurrection from a near death state, and excessive use of their supernatural abilities and strength.

Typically, vampires cannot travel more than miles km from their land of birth, unless their bring at least one pound g of their native soil wherever they choose to sleep during the day. For example, Dracula would typically have coffins with dirt from his native Transylvania shipped to his various hideouts all over Europe and the United States so that he would have a place to rest unharmed from the sun. However, in many instances vampires including Dracula have been depicted being able to travel to far off places and sleep in locations that do not have their native lands earth on hand.

What happens to a vampire who does not do this remains unknown, but given the instances that a vampire has slept without being around soil from their native land suggests that this is not a lethal weakness.

A vampire's greatest weakness is sunlight, due to their altered metabolism, vampires were unable to withstand direct sunlight.

Sunlight, somehow caused the ichor to congeal within the vampire's veins and the skin to rapidly decay. Direct exposure to sunlight caused the vampire to dehydrate completely and turn to powder, [ citation needed ] or even explode in certain cases.

Some vampires, such as Dracula have been able to reform their bodies following being turned to powder from the sun, while others have been completely obliterated from contact with the sun. The conditions in which a vampire can come back from the dead may be particular to one who is rightfully the lord of all vampires. However, the deity must be one that was believed in at the time of the vampire's original death; a cross had no effect on Varnae, for example, since he died approximately 16, years before the crucifixion.

Another consideration is if the vampire in question worshiped the faith whose religious symbol is being used against them. For example, when David Eshocl used the Star of David against Dracula, Dracula was weakened by its sight, but stated that because he followed Christianity and not Judaism before becoming a vampire, the Star had a lesser effect on him.

If a worshipper of a god is turned into Vampire he will burst into flames when touched by the god in question. Thor realised this when a Vikings settlement was turned in to vampires.

Further, there may be an element of belief by proxy or a vampires own belief that a symbol may harm them, as there have been instances where a crucifix has been used by someone who is not holding the item.

For example, Quincy Harker [23] and Elainne Turac [24] have both utilized weapons that would project the symbol of the cross against Dracula while not actually holding the religious symbol. Further, Quincy's faithful dog Saint, has a collar lined with silver crosses that were able to harm Dracula. Lastly, a religious symbol can lose its power over a vampire if the vampire is capable of making the believer's faith falter.

In such situations, the strength of the religious symbol's ability to repel a vampire would weaken. Vampires have a mystical aversion to entering any human dwelling place to which they were not verbally invited. A human bitten by a vampire but not fully transformed can invite a vampire. Vampires have been shown to burst into flames if they enter a private residence without being invited first. Another weakness of vampires is to impale them through the heart with wood, which will cause them to eventually decompose into a skeleton.

Originally, it was thought that a wooden stake would be the only means of doing so; however, advancement in vampire hunting techniques have indicated that any wooden object that can break through a vampire's chest and pierce the heart is sufficient in killing a vampire.

For example, Blade learned that wooden daggers would prove to be just as effective, [26] while Frank Drake and Rachel van Helsing have used wooden bullets. However, very powerful vampires, such as Dracula, can reanimate if the stake or other object is removed, so long as the body isn't destroyed. Silver is highly harmful for vampires, to the point even Dracula himself can be crippled if impaled through the heart with a silver wheelchair spoke. Silver weapons can kill vampires in a similar fashion to wooden ones, though very powerful vampires such as Dracula are resistant enough so they cannot be killed by such.