Curing Vampirism

[HyperionSol]

I'm scrolling through Van Richtne's Guide to Vampires but I'm not seeing anything about potentially curing vampirism. Not that I was expecting one since vampirism is undeath and it is Ravenloft. What I'm wondering is if the fraternity may have come across some methods of curing vampirism, even if it is a small window or some game mechanic that can be undertaken. Sort of like curing Lycanthropy can only be attempted once.

The reason for this is I'm setting up a Ravenloft game (one shot for now, but it might expand) and I'm looking at potential mechanics to use. (wererats and a vampire are in this adventure). My idea is a vampire and lycanthrope race for pure vampires and lycanthrope and classes in vampire and lycanthrope for those who are afflicted with it.

Yes, I am aware vampires can't be born, but I theme it as making dhampirs, but taken a step further as a powerful vampire parent was involved or some other factor that allowed the individual to be a vampire at birth and unique biology allowed them to grow into their prime, but no further. Usually by feeding and a lot of it.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Castles Forlorn: Eve of Sorrows p.27

The Purification of the Corrupt Flesh

Written by an unnamed priest of Diancecht in 1737 Forfarian Calendar (350 BC), this treatise discusses how holy water acts against the undead. It includes a description of using holy water as a cure for vampirism and injecting it into the blood as a deterrent to the undead who would feed upon it. This may be speculation though but it is also the base of a theory of the reason vampyres (the living race, not the undead) came to be (although under a chain of events that also created the domain of Forlorn).

As a DM you do whatever you want so another potential theory is a staff of life, as mentioned in the Requiem boxed set it can potentially cure undeath.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

My idea is a vampire and lycanthrope race for pure vampires

This sounds like vampyres (the living race I mentioned before.

Despite their resemblance to vampires, vampyres are as mortal as any humanoid. Like vampires, they feast off of the blood of humanoids.

VIEW CONTENT:

The victim of the vampyre's bite is targeted by its domination ability.

VIEW CONTENT:

An infestation numbering in the hundreds has infiltrated society in Lekar. Although they existed prior to their "prince" Vladimir Ludzig's arrival from an outlander world, the vampyres have built secret feeding houses where humans are kept as cattle and playthings. The Lekar vampyres are not without human allies, and some of these vile individuals, such as Vlad Drakov II, may partake of the same indulgences the vampyres do at the feeding houses.
On the Prime Material Plane, a whole country, Vladantilan, is ruled by the vampyres, who treat the human population as slaves and chattel.

...and lycanthrope and classes in vampire and lycanthrope for those who are afflicted with it.

The downside for your scenario is that vampyres are born not made.

[Baron Von Stanton]

...and lycanthrope and classes in vampire and lycanthrope for those who are afflicted with it.

The downside for your scenario is that vampyres are born not made.

Unless there's an infectious variant of vampyre.

[Baron Von Stanton]

The only situation I've seen of a vampire being cured of vampirism was, I think in Return To The Temple Of Elemental Evil, where the situation of a paladin who was slain and cursed to be a vampire was resolved by taking the staked ex-paladin back to his order, where the members of which would slay him and resurrect him via his ashes.

[alhoon]

Just my 2 cents: Since you are making something quite away from the norm, keep following your instinct. You see, VRGtVampires has nothing about "a powerful vampire shiring lesser vampires treated as a race" either.
You have a goal in mind, you probably have the players and what they are willing to do in mind. Start there.

Think of what would challenge your players (not gross them out) but make them pause and think "would I really do that?" and follow that line. At least, that's what I would do.

[Mistmaster]

In the Mistworld, if you kill a Vampire's sire before the created Vampire or the Spawn killed their first victim and you bath him in holy water, the light ofthe sun will ressurrect them as living humans.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

What I'm wondering is if the fraternity may have come across some methods of curing vampirism, even if it is a small window or some game mechanic that can be undertaken.

By base 3.5 rules, destroying an undead creature and casting at least a resurrection spell would return the former undead to its living state. That would technically constitute a cure, though raising the dead is riskier in Ravenloft. "Curing" sounds like it ought to simply remove vampirism, which this method doesn't quite do, as the undead character must first become classically dead.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

By base 3.5 rules, destroying an undead creature and casting at least a resurrection spell would return the former undead to its living state. That would technically constitute a cure, though raising the dead is riskier in Ravenloft. "Curing" sounds like it ought to simply remove vampirism, which this method doesn't quite do, as the undead character must first become classically dead.

This raises the question which vampires turn to ash when staked etc like in some movies?
We know for sure Duke Gundar didn't but what is your (I am asking everyone) take to this?
Do just vampire spawn turn to ash and "true" vampires don't?
Does it depend on the individual strain of vampirism?

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

In baseline 3.5, it isn't especially clear what happens to a vampire's body after it is destroyed. I presume staking does not turn it to ash, as the SRD says, "...it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the body is destroyed." I would consider reduction to ash to be a form of destruction (and if it did turn to ash, what would it mean to remove the stake?).

This does bring up another fair question: does a staked vampire count as dead for the purposes of resurrection? I think technically yes, but it is only one piece of wood away from being actively undead again, which is more than can be said of most true corpses.

For destruction by sunlight, I would be inclined to actually have the vampire reduced to ash (or at least turned into a very badly burned corpse).

For immersion in running water, I am not sure. I could see the vampire dissolving and the ashes flowing downstream. However, the last movie I recall seeing death by running water in was Dracula A.D. 1972 (in which a vampire was killed by a bathroom shower), and the body was not turned to ash. That said, when Dracula gets staked (by a broken carriage wheel) at the beginning of the movie, I believe he does turn to ash.

[Jeremy16]

I believe the trope of vampires turning to ash when staked is just Hollywood's lazy shorthanded way of avoiding the more unpleasant aspect of vampire lore. The traditional method of cutting off a known vampire's head and burning the rest of the body is too gruesome for most audiences. Plus, imagine if the hero had to stop and do that with every vampire that he stakes - it would interrupt the flow of the narrative!

[IanFordam]

I believe the trope of vampires turning to ash when staked is just Hollywood's lazy shorthanded way of avoiding the more unpleasant aspect of vampire lore. The traditional method of cutting off a known vampire's head and burning the rest of the body is too gruesome for most audiences. Plus, imagine if the hero had to stop and do that with every vampire that he stakes - it would interrupt the flow of the narrative!

In addition to that, the many vampire corpses would be harder for Buffy to explain to the residents of Sunnydale than all of the ash.

[Mistmaster]

Vampires turning to ashes and demons having black blood, in Buffy was also a way to keep the ratings of the show low.

[Rebel Mage]

I also think that vampires turning to "ash" could also be them turning to dust, as their corpse is suddenly subject to all the time that has passed since the vampire's first "death." So, if a vampire is really old, they could turn to dust; if they're a younger vampire, you'd just be left with a corpse of an appropriate... "age." That's just how I like to flavour things.

I mean, if we look at Dracula:

It was like a miracle; but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumble into dust and passed from our sight.

I shall be glad as long as I live that even in that moment of final dissolution, there was in the face a look of peace, such as I never could have imagined might have rested there.

It is him turning to dust. And, since Dracula has probably been dead for more than 400 years, it's a natural result of time, especially if we compare it to what happens to Lucy, who has not been dead for that long:

There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True that there were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what we knew.

[Pizza]

For immersion in running water, I am not sure. I could see the vampire dissolving and the ashes flowing downstream. However, the last movie I recall seeing death by running water in was Dracula A.D. 1972 (in which a vampire was killed by a bathroom shower), and the body was not turned to ash.

I’m melting! Melting! - The Wicked Witch of the West

Personally, I like them turning into sparks and then spoke from the Blade movies but what would be left to cast Resurrect on. Same as Wicked Witching them