The Vampire Archetype

The dead are rising! This blasphemous tome gives players and GMs everything they need to bring the shambling menace of the undead to their Pathfinder adventures. This book includes tools for fighting against the undead horde, but also options for the players themselves to control or even become undead creatures. GMs will find new tools and haunts, as well as information about the undead-plagued lands of the Lost Omens campaign setting. A massive bestiary section full of undead creatures brings more threats for GMs to use and summonable creatures for players, including more versions of classic undead like vampires, skeletons, and zombies. This 224-page hardcover rulebook also includes a full adventure themed around fighting the undead!

"There's no book available on the vampire culture today with the range, depth, and diversity of Belanger's Vampires in Their Own Words."—Katherine Ramsland, author of Piercing the Darkness and The Science of Vampires "Belanger gives empathetic access to an emergent new magical-religious community...An important sourcebook for both the scholar and inquiring public."—J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion, and author of The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead The Code of Silence Has Been Broken For this anthology, vampire Michelle Belanger convinced nearly two dozen real-life vampires to break the code of silence that has kept their fascinating subculture shrouded in secrecy. Sometimes provocative, sometimes surprisingly down-to-earth, these candid firsthand accounts come from both psi vampires who feed on energy and sanguine vampires who drink actual blood. Their true stories shed light on a variety of topics, including awakening to vampirism, the compulsion to feed and feeding practices, donor ethics and etiquette, and vampire traditions and codes of behavior.

Mark Jenkins’s engrossing history draws on the latest science, anthropological and archaeological research to explore the origins of vampire stories, providing gripping historic and folkloric context for the concept of immortal beings who defy death by feeding on the lifeblood of others. From the earliest whispers of eternal evil in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, vampire tales flourished through the centuries and around the globe, fueled by superstition, sexual mystery, fear of disease and death, and the nagging anxiety that demons lurk everywhere. In Vampire Forensics, Mark Jenkins probes vampire legend to tease out the historical truths enshrined in the tales of terror: sherds of Persian pottery depicting blood-sucking demons; the amazing recent discovery by National Geographic archaeologist Matteo Borrini of a 16th-century Venetian grave of a plague victim and suspected vampire; and the Transylvanian castle of "Vlad the Impaler," whose bloodthirsty cruelty remains unsurpassed. Jenkins navigates centuries of lore and legend, adding new chapters to the chronicle and weaving an irresistibly seductive blend of superstition, psychology, and science sure to engross everyone from Anne Rice’s countless readers to serious students of archaeology and mythology.

Gracious Wild is the story of Stacey Couch’s incredible journey out of the mundane world of science and reason into the vast shamanic realms of creativity and inspiration. Readers will travel on this intimate exploration of what happens when one woman allows the messengers of nature to guide her. These winged guides wrap her mind up in the mysteries they present, leading her to a richer, more fulfilling life. Stacey’s tale begins on an isolated island where, as a scientist, her main responsibility is to care for a couple dozen foxes in captivity. As a result of a series of ecological tragedies, the fox population is on the verge of extinction and a novel hawk species begins nesting on the island for the first time in recorded history. It is during her time watching the nesting hawks alone in nature that her real quest begins–a series of hawks become her guides; rousing life’s biggest questions like “why am I here?” Gracious Wild weaves Stacey’s relationship with the hawks alongside her study of shamanism with a good deal of information included for those seeking more details about this spiritual path. Stacey’s belief is, “that wild animals are trying to speak and interact with us every day. To listen to them is to listen to that which is divine within each of us. Their calls mirror our own inner calling to a greater purpose.” Gracious Wild offers a vivid and candid tale of a woman who loses then rewrites the meaning of her life at the same time showing readers their own humanity; how being open to spirit messages from animals can provide important and beneficial (life-changing) guidance.

An investigation of the modification and transformation of the vampire; contending that the vampire has evolved from a figure of fear to one of domestication and compassion. Researching into vampires and taking into account the historical evolution and contemporary significance this book will explore myth, repressed memories, desires and primordial images giving rise to the archetypal hero that is the modern vampire. With reference to Sigmund Freud's models and using Carl Jung's framework, including the collective i.e. the Shadow, Id, Ego, Superego will be explored in order to investigate this change from 'Beast to Beauty'. Studying cultural archetypes in relation to belief and historical evidence and following Freudian and Jungian approaches to psychoanalysis provides a pragmatic base for understanding the human psyche. The vampire show the evolution from a figure of fear to a figure of compassion and domestication.

An investigation of the modification and transformation of the vampire; contending that the vampire has evolved from a figure of fear to one of domestication and compassion. Researching into vampires and taking into account the historical evolution and contemporary significance this book will explore myth, repressed memories, desires and primordial images giving rise to the archetypal hero that is the modern vampire. With reference to Sigmund Freud's models and using Carl Jung's framework, including the collective i.e. the Shadow, Id, Ego, Superego will be explored in order to investigate this change from 'Beast to Beauty'. Studying cultural archetypes in relation to belief and historical evidence and following Freudian and Jungian approaches to psychoanalysis provides a pragmatic base for understanding the human psyche. The vampire show the evolution from a figure of fear to a figure of compassion and domestication.

An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.