Guild Wars 2

I’ve been wondering: are there vampires in Tyria? I’d be very interested to know if there are vampires or werewolves or some other such thing.

None that we know of.

I see. Would anything in the lore outright reject the idea?

Don’t norn have a wolf form? I think it looks kinda like a werewolf?

No idea on the status of vampires.

So there are no formal werewolves, but a norn could fill the role of one by specializing in his wolf form.

I can live with that.

There are, in fact, vampires in Tyria (world), though they are rare, and bear little resemblance to the western concept of vampires.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hopping_Vampire

Those are, uh… unique little guys.

To expand on Tuomir’s statement, we only see them in far southern Cantha, in the lair of a corrupted forest spirit. The vampires kill themselves, in the process draining the entirety of their victims “health” or “energy” (in lore terms, probably different ways of expressing that they drain vital energy.)

No vampires and no werewolves. Closest thing you could get would be a necromancer specializing in blood magic and a norn who’s very close to the wolf spirit.

Keep in mind a necromancer doesn’t drink blood and has no issues with daylight.

And a norn wolf shaman has no problem controlling his wolf identity. It’s a change of flesh, not of mind. In fact the only norn we know of that lost control of his transformation was Svanir. And he was the result of an Elder Dragon’s curse.

Ehecatl.9172:

Keep in mind a necromancer doesn’t drink blood and has no issues with daylight.

You can make them sparkle though!

And as far as I know, those vampires are not considered to be undead by the game, like you would expect with normal vampires. I think they are just called vampires, but are really just bat-like creatures with blood/life draining behavior.

Well Vampires are bats if you’re not going for the mythical/fantastical definition.
Chicken or the egg?

Well in GW1 we had some skills that had the word vampire in the name, like Vampiric Touch which were from Prophecies, but Proph had no creature called vampire. They were introduced in Factions and only lived in the Echovald Forest. They are mostly based on the chinese jiangshi, who aren’t really vampires, but close enough in mythology to be confused with them I guess. However, keep in mind that the Echovald Forest and the people who dwelled there, the Kurzick are based on gothic themes, which is also a usual setting for vampires, meaning we have another connection.

That said, I’m glad we don’t have classic vampies in Guild Wars because I’m so sick and tired of them. Unlike what seems to be 90% of the internet population, I never found them interesting to begin with and them being so popular now through all that Twilight garbage and what not, I think it’s refreshing to have a fantasy setting without them.

Werewolves as mentioned also don’t exist in Guild Wars, yet there are quite a few shapeshifters, most of them still have complete control over their body though. We do have mummies, if you are interested in them too, Palawa Joko is one for example (he also happens to be a lich).

So as far as we know, vampires are simply a concept in Tyria, but they do not exist. The skill names indicate that people know what a vampire is, but it is probably simply folklore, just like on our world.

I would argue that the GW1 vampires have a very undead-like appearance, and the mythical creature they are based on is a reanimated corpse.

As for werewolves, in GW1, Svanir became “Nornbear” after being corrupted by Jormag, becoming a feral monster. Perhaps corrupting a norn with a strong connection to Wolf (so no Son of Svanir) could result in a “nornwolf”?

Tuomir.1830:

There are, in fact, vampires in Tyria (world), though they are rare, and bear little resemblance to the western concept of vampires.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hopping_Vampire

Beat me to it.

There are no “vampires” in the concept of beautiful undead humans who feast on the blood of the living and have a heavy weakness to sunlight. But the Hopping Vampire – which originates from Chinese mythology iirc – do exist. Though their origins in terms of GW is unknown. They appear to just be a unique form of Incubus/Blood Drinker.

I suspect that things like werewolves, vampires, etc. if they exist in Tyria in any form, will take the same appearance as mermaids and angels in Tyria. The concept of them is known, but that’s all they’re known for certain to be – a concept. You have things referencing mermaids (Siren’s Bay, Siren’s Call, etc. etc. Cobiah telling his sister a tale of seeing a mermaid), but nothing actually hints at them being true – and the response someone gave Cobiah when he explained why his sister was where she was, they gave a confused “a mermaid?” response as if they didn’t know what it was (so it’d be subject to believe that mermaids are an uncommon folklore tale – perhaps originating from largos?). Werewolves – if tales of such existed – could easily come from humans having seen a norn turning into wolf form before knowing what a norn was (e.g., before 1078 AE) – kind of like how werewolves in reality originate from the norsemen berserkers who wore wolfskins as they charged into battle while hopped up on drugs to feel no pain and become feral. And stories of vampires could come from well-appearanced undead or from blood magic necromancers.

But as far as we can see, such folklore creatures don’t exist.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

So as far as we know, vampires are simply a concept in Tyria, but they do not exist. The skill names indicate that people know what a vampire is, but it is probably simply folklore, just like on our world.

Not quite. The word Vampiric means something that takes energy or blood from something else. A parasite can be described as vampiric. Mosquitos can be vampiric. Using the word doesn’t mean the people of Tyria have myths or legends about vampires.

Also we’ve never seen nor heard about a myth about vampires.

Ehecatl.9172:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

So as far as we know, vampires are simply a concept in Tyria, but they do not exist. The skill names indicate that people know what a vampire is, but it is probably simply folklore, just like on our world.

Not quite. The word Vampiric means something that takes energy or blood from something else. A parasite can be described as vampiric. Mosquitos can be vampiric. Using the word doesn’t mean the people of Tyria have myths or legends about vampires.

Also we’ve never seen nor heard about a myth about vampires.

So in the GW universe, vampiric means merely leeching.
There are no victorian vampires explicitly in the lore. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we find some in the mad king’s realm.

i’d vote Konigs answer as the best explanation to the OP’s thread. keep in mind that the term “vampiric” is a reference to the concept of a vampire. Not the other way around. So maybe the concept of a vampite originated with necromancers who took on undead appearences while the uneducated villagers didn’t know exactly what the necromancer was but that is how Tyria could have the concept of a vampire without actually having one in lore.

Film with hopping vampires.