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Top 5 Vampire Hunters
Interested in the practice of offing vampires as a career path? Or maybe you've decided to spend your evenings brushing up on your technique, just in case vampires overrun the earth. Well, if you're looking for some role models, we've got the best and brightest right here.
- #5 Blade A half-vampire who fights vampires. He fights them in comics, he fights them in movies, and he fights them on TV. I'm pretty sure he even fights them in novels. He also fights gods, wrestlers, and demons.
- # 4 Batman He's a detective, a scientist, a playboy, he's a vampire hunter. Flying in the face of all reason, Batman has fought vampires, and even defeated Dracula in movie form not once, not twice, but thrice. He's fought vampire versions of his traditional villains, and even became a vampire in an Elseworlds saga.
- # 3 - Buffy Summers Buffy's probably one of the best known vampire slayers, through her movie and the seven seasons of television show. Over time, fighting vampires has become so routine to her that she can just kill them whilst having a conversation, eating dinner, etc.
- # 2 - Simon Belmont Just about the whole damn Belmont clan is in on the vampire-killing action, but since I had to choose one representative I immediately went for Simon. There have been about twenty-five Castlevania games, and Simon has starred in a number of them, not to mention being a main character in Captain N: The Game Master. He even killed Dracula, only to have to bring him back to life and kill him again.
- # 1 - Abraham Van Helsing - The original. All others pale in comparison to the good doctor. If I have to tell you who this guy is, you should probably do some reading.
Vampire Related Video Games
There are plenty of video games out there for those of us that have a deep, engrained urge to off those deadly blood-suckers. Here are just a few of those:
- Castlevania: The classic. With over twenty-five titles, this game series goes back as far as 1986. It has both 2D and 3D incarnations, as well as both side-scrolling and/or RPG elements depending on the game. This game has movie and TV show spin-offs, as well as comic books, and is all-in-all a huge franchise.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Although its four titles doesn't nearly come close to Castlevania's record, Buffy is still a rather well-known franchise. Unlike Castlevania, the Buffy games are extensively action-based and multiplayer options are available.
- Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2 both feature a vampire named Kain who is mad as hell and ain't gonna take it anymore. He wanders the countryside, drinking lots of blood, and generally causing havoc. VAEEEEEEEEE VICTUS!!!
- Nocturne: It's the late twenties, early thirties, and Roosevelt's Supernatural Domestic Defense and League of Research has been operational for over twenty years. Enter The Stranger, and walk with him through a few of his missions.
- Dark Angel, Vampire Apocalypse: Although somewhat confusing, Dark Angel is a hack-and-slash style RPG in the tradition of Diablo where you have one game year (on the clock) to prepare for the coming of the ultimate evil.
- Darkwatch: A first-person shooter set in the Wild West, wherein you shoot lots of vampires and other undead critters.
- Vampire, The Masquerade: A couple of RPG games where you play a vampire. You live the way a vampire does, and become exposed to the seedy underbelly of the vampire subculture. In particular Bloodlines has quite critically acclaimed.
- BloodRayne: Nazis are bad. Vampires are bad. Vampire Nazis are worse than both. Fight them with your sword-cuffs! Also has a movie, thanks to Uwe Boll.
Community of Vampires
Are you a vampire, looking to make contact with other like-minded vampires? Or maybe you think you may be a vampire, but aren't sure if merely enjoying the taste of blood is enough of a qualification. Or perhaps you tend to feel run down as the day progresses, losing more and more of your energy into the world around you, thus qualifying you as a psi vampire. If any of these statements or questions are true, you may have a new home at Sanguinarius.
If, on the other hand, you just think vampires are cool and want to go clubbing, you may want to check out The Sanguinarium, the Virtual Sanctum of the Strigoi Vii.
Or maybe you like the idea of pretending to be a vampire for entertainment value. If so, then maybe you should consider White Wolf's series of pen and paper and live action games, entitled Vampire.
For a slightly more general online Vampire and Occult Society, you can try Darkness Embraced.
Community of Vampire Hunters
Are you concerned that vampires, zombies, and other undead pests may be causing trouble 'round your end of the burbs? If so, the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency may be able to help.
Unfortunately, people seem to think vampires are about a billion times cooler than vampire hunters, so there are far fewer communities online in regards to the eradication of the vampire menace than there are communities in regards to drinking blood.
In case you're interested in playing a Slayer-related game though, White Wolf's Hunter is an interesting counterpart to its Vampire game.
Oh, and there's always Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter, if you're looking for inspiration.
Tools and Ranks of Butchers Everywhere
Interested in becoming a butcher, or maybe just emulating Aaron Douglas and sticking it to vampires everywhere? Well here's some handy information on the tools and the trade of butchery.
You've probably got a butcher knife in your kitchen, but is it a professional enough knife to really get through your average vampire as fast as possible? You may want to perform the following checks, lest you be caught unprepared.
And what about your personal cleaver? Are you absolutely certain that your cleaver is a right-proper specimen, or is there a chance it's a glorified butter-knife? Better check here to be certain. (Note: In regards to vampires, Chinese cleavers are just as effective, if not more so. There have been hopping vampires in China long before Dracula ever came out of the coffin.)
It's also not just enough to have knives; A strong background in butchery is required if you're going to take the fight to the undead. Butchers tend to come in four flavors (Assistant Butcher, Butcher, Foreman Butcher and Master Butcher), and you're probably best off sticking to inanimate or fully-dead animals until you've progressed a bit up that ladder. If you're interested in doing so, you may want to check out the information here.