Image credit: Rainheal picrew Image description: Hershal, a vampire with a bat-like appearance and a green cloak. End description.
By now we all know about vampires who decide to live with humans
But did you know that some humans like to forgo human society and live amongst the living dead?
Would that interest you, dear reader? Surely if you've ventured this far into this website you have some kind of morbid curiosity about beasts like us.
Have you ever heard of a man named R. M. Renfield? He was quite the character.
Image credit: Dracula (1931) Image description: Renfield running up a set of stairs. End description.
Renny was the servant and familiar of my old friend Dracula. He had a deep fascination with vampirism and when Drac promised to turn him in return for decades of service and worship he threw himself into it like a drowning man into water.
A familiar is a human who does a vampire's bidding in exchange for the promise of immortality and vampirism somewhere down the line. The sad truth is that this promise is often empty. Familiars ususally work themselves to the bone trying to fulfill their vampire's wishes and never get their reward. Familiarity is a very dangerous profession as well. Vampire hunters want you dead, and other vampires will kidnap or kill you to spite your vampire. The tasks of a familiar are dangerous on their own. At their worst, they involve procuring live food for the vampire. At their best, they involve busywork like cleaning or putting papers over the windows to keep out the sun. Workplace hazards are everywhere for a familiar, from legal trouble to cursed artifacts in the vampire's home.
I feel very badly for Renfield. I warned Dracula against encouraging his morbid excitement in regards to vampirism. I warned him against making the man any sort of promises. I even chastised him day in and day out for his treatment of the man which drove him mad.
I don't believe in turning humans. It goes against every moral code I have. I don't think it's right or ethical. But Renfield's situation was not unique. There are plenty of humans who want to become vampires and who would do anything to achieve this. Renfield has a pseudo-syndrome named after him now and he still was not the craziest familiar I've ever met. Not by a long shot. I've seen familiars die for their vampires before, enthusastically and willingly. It is disturbing to say the least.
I warn you, do not become a familiar.