Some useful terms...
This is a shortened version of the Lexicon of Terminology used on the Vampire Church website, compiled by Damien Daville. Credit for these terms also goes to Father Todd at the Sanguinarium, Sanguinarius at Sanguinarius: Vampire support page and Setanankhu from House Kheperu.
Adra / Mentor: The creator of a vampire, also includes, education, awakening or guidance.
Ardetha (are-death-aa): someone who is made a vampire through a ritual or ceremony.
Awakening: When a latent vampire realizes (and accepts) what they truly are.
Black Swan: A friend or lover of a vampire (or vampires). Is not actually a vampire, but likes spending time with them. They have an understanding of the vampiric lifestyle, but no real inclination to become one.
Blood Fetishist: A person who gains some degree of sexual satisfaction in the sight of blood. They usually have no need for the blood, and only want a little.
Blood Junkie: A derogatory term for a sanguinarian.
Bloodletting: Cutting the flesh to release / extract blood. Often used for feeding (also for bloodplay and fetishism).
Bloodplay: Refers to the use of blood in rituals or in sexual / fetishism circumstances.
Chi / Prana: The life force. Energy / Psi vampires feed by using this to their benefit. Sanguinarian vampires also receive pranic energy, however, they receive it through the blood.
Clinical vampirism / Renfield's Syndrome: A psychological condition. The sufferer feels a desire or need for blood and often they draw their own blood and drink it.
Coming out of the Coffin: To go public with your ‘vampiric tendencies’.
Coven: An organized group of vampires. Often they have certain traditions, rules, rites etc.
Dayside: The ‘real world’. Life as a non-vampire, bills, jobs, taxes etc.
Donor: A person who gives or shares their blood of their own free will.
Dhampyri: someone who was born a vampire or awakened before puberty.
Elder: A teacher in the vampiric community. Is often respected for their experience, accomplishments and devotion.
Embrace: Turning a person into a vampire by giving a vampire’s blood to a non-vampire.
Energy signature: Term for a person’s ‘vibe’. Vampires apparently have a very unique energy pattern, which can be recognized by other vampires and, in some cases, people skilled in magick and psychism.
Energy Vampire: A vampire who feeds primarily, if not solely, on psychic energy rather than blood.
Feeding: The act of consuming pranic energy (blood) or psychic energy (emotional and elemental energy)
Fledgling: a newly awakened, uninitiated and inexperienced vampire.
Gaja (ga-jaa): a fashion vampire, one who does not embrace the Strigoi Vii philosophy and is only focused on the aesthetic aspects of the vampire scene.
Golden Circle: The people around a small coven or circle, which include black swans, vampires, kitra, etc.
Haematodipsia: A strong form of haematophilia.
Haematomania: A strong psychological craving for blood.
Haematophilia: An erotic attraction to the taste, sight (or smell) of blood.
Haven: a vampire gathering place. Most often a gothic nightclub, bar or coffee house.
Kitra (key-traa): in the vampiric caste system this is an initiated member who functions as a donor, advisor, companion, watcher and altar to focus and balance energy during rituals. A mix of vampire and donor.
Klavasi (latent vampire): someone who has awakened after puberty.
Human: Term used for the purposes of distinguishing those who are not vampire. (this term is misleading because it implies that vampires are not human.)
The Hunger: The desire to feed, also identified as the Thirst. The Hunger is both a psychological and physical sensation. Physically, it manifests as an intense hunger or thirst - but not for physical food or drink.
Hunter: Someone that hunts, stalks, threatens, or does harm (whether it be physical, psychical, psychological, or emotional) to someone because s/he is a vampire, or because the hunter believes them to be so.
Latent vampire (ardetha): Someone who is already naturally a vampire, but whose vampiric tendencies have not yet manifested.
Leech: A rude and derogatory (well, at least disrespectful...) term to call someone who is a vampire.
Lilitu / Lilian: Also the Children of Lilith. This is an order or movement within the vampire community which promotes the idea that Lilith was the spiritual forebear of vampires.
Mortal: Term used for the purposes of distinguishing those who are not vampire. (This term is, at best, misleading because it implies that vampires are "immortal".)
Mundane: Term used to distinguish those who are not vampires.
Nightside: the primal nature, the AKA "the dragon" which includes the side of oneself which is awakened during ritual, sexual arousal, artistic creation,
of the Blood: A term sometimes used to refer to someone as being a vampire.
Porphyria: An acute medical condition which has been postulated by some scholars to have inspired the vampire myths of the past. Sufferers of porphyria have pale, flaky skin and are very sensitive to sunlight. They are also severely anemic, and some sufferers of porphyria have been known to drink blood in an attempt to relieve the cravings brought about by anemia.
Poser: Someone pretending or claiming to be a vampire who is not, with the intent of deceiving others, by making false claims as to their powers, abilities, lifespan, etc.
Psychic energy: Refers to emotional and elemental (energy of the earth), also the life force that surrounds and is contained in living things.
Psychic Attack: A term used for an attack by a psi-vampire. Any uninvited draining of one's vital energy. One is said to have experienced a Psi-vamp attack when a psi-vampire has targeted and successfully fed from you, without your consent. Another view is that psychic vampire attacks ONLY take the form of such draining by the use of the psyche.
Psychic vampire: Someone who feeds from psychic energy, drains life-energy rather than blood from others. Technically speaking in some views, psychic vampire is a vampire who is psychic while a psi-vampire is a vampire who feeds on energy, preferably emotional energy.
Real Vampire/RealVamp: A sanguine, psychic, or energy vampire. A real vampire has a particular condition which includes but is not limited to the following characteristics: a real need for blood or life energy; heightened sensitivities; light sensitivity; a largely nocturnal sleep cycle. The heightened sensitivities are believed by many to include a number of psychic abilities, such as empathy, astral projection, clairvoyance, and energy manipulation. The sensitivity to light and the nocturnal body cycle are not so limiting that a real vampire cannot be up and out during the day, it is simply an effort for them to do so.
Sanguinarian :Someone who has a physical thirst, need, craving for blood (which is non-erotic in nature) in more significant quantity than is generally required or desired by other blood-drinkers).
Sanguine: A term which indicates a blood-drinking vampire. Energy vampires or psi-vamps, if they supplement their feeding with the active drinking of blood, are considered to be sanguines.
Seeker: Someone who is seeking after vampires, or knowledge of vampires, usually desiring to become one him/herself.
Sexual Vampirism: A relatively rare variety of vampirism that feeds primarily from sexual energy.
Slayer: A person that makes public and obnoxious claims of killing people who are (or who the slayer thinks are) vampires.
Source: Someone from whom a vampire will get blood.
Incubus / Succubus: A vampire who feeds only while having sex or purely through sexual energy. In Medieval folklore, a Succubus was a female demon who appeared to people, often in dreams, and seduced them.
Thirst: The craving, need, desire, urge to drink blood, experienced as an intense thirst-sensation or withdrawal.
Twilight: to maintain a consistant balance between the Dayside and the Nightside.
Vampire: A much-disputed term with many meanings, depending upon who you're talking to. It can include psychic vampires, energy vampires, emotional vampires, sanguines, blood-fetishists, and the kind of vampire you find in fiction or on the Silver Screen. Here, it is used to encompass all of the above-listed groups into a general category, ie may refer to both real and non real vampires.
Vampire bait: A poser or wannabe who is just screaming for a vampire to come after them.
Vamping out: Experiencing an acute flare-up of the thirst, involves a change in the person's manner, breathing, pulse rate, thought patterns, etc.
Vampiric Community: The community of people who identify with or have been identified with the label "vampire".
Vampire lifestyler: Someone who incorporates fictional vampire imagery and trappings into his/her personal life, often cultivating a "Vampiric" physical appearance and forming alternative extended families and social structures modeled on the "covens" or "clans" of vampire fiction and role-playing games, and utilizing that terminology.
Wannabe: Derogatory term for someone who wants to become a vampire, usually with unrealistic expectations of what it would be like, and usually without consideration of such practical matters as how one would find sources.
White Swan: Someone who cannot tolerate the Vampire lifestyle and proves antagonistic to the Scene. In general, White Swans are still a part of the Gothic or fetish scene, which often brings them into contact with the vampire community despite their disgust of vampirism.
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