Inside the World of Vampire Fandoms

Over the years, the trend of vampires has come and gone many times. The most memorable wave of vampire trends for my generation, of course, would be the Twilight series. The first book of the Twilight series, which was first released in October of 2005, quickly gained a huge following, which only continued to grow as the series began to transform into an on screen phenomenon in 2008. The Twilight series easily became one of the biggest causes of the vampire obsession of our childhoods.

Around the same time period that Twilight began to rapidly grow, the use of social media seemed to skyrocket as well; many vampire fan pages and role-playing communities began to make its entrance to the web. On Twitter, there is a massive online role-playing community for the hit television show The Vampire Diaries. Role-players will often create an online persona for themselves, either depicting an actually character from the story of choice, or creating their own character based on attributes present in other characters of that story. Some role-players will chose to continue on the story lines of characters who didn't get some of their connections fully developed, while others will chose to completely rewrite the existing characters to create a story line of their own(2).

Often times in these online role-playing communities, many members will adopt the commonly known variations of Gothic or Victorian styles. Many members will display Gothic themed backgrounds, photos, music, and graphics on their online profiles to express the character they are engaging in(3).

A common trend among fandoms, especially in the vampire community, is the use of fan fiction. Fan fiction is where a fan of a specific story will create their own fiction writings, based off the characters or themes in the previously existing story they are following. One of the most popular sites where this fan fiction is shared, is an online storytelling platform called wattpad.com. Already being familiar with the site, I decided to do my own digging on the site; just by searching the words "vampire fanfiction" in the search bar, a result of over 18,500 stories were given to me. In many cases, people will even turn their favorite celebrities into vampires for the sake of their stories. You can find vampire fanfiction including anything from Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to fans writing about members of the popular boy band One Direction turning their fans into vampires(4).

For those vampire lovers who would prefer the in person communications, many fans have adopted live action roleplaying, commonly known as LARP. One popular LARP convention among vampire fans is the Convention of Thorns. Convention of Thorns began in 2016 in Poland. This masquerade themed LARP gives roleplayers a space to play out the characters they have created in a community where others will build off of their stories, and where roleplayers can enjoy themselves without judgement, because everyone is there for the same reason. Every year, a little less than 200 people will be allowed to attend the Convention of Thorns. There is a participation fee, costing around 500 euros for each person(1).

You can find the online trailer for Convention of Thorns here:

Fans of the vampire community have explored their love of the supernatural creatures in many ways over the decades, with their options increasing rapidly as the internet advances and more and more people are being introduced to the world of roleplaying and LARP. 

Works Cited

1. Bowman, Sarah Lynne. “White Wolf's Convention of Thorns: A Blockbuster Larp in the Nordic Style.” Nordic Larp, 6 Dec. 2016, nordiclarp.org/2016/12/06/white-wolfs-convention-of-thorns/.

2. Jeewa , Zakia. “Social Network Fandoms & Online Role-Playing: Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries Fans on Twitter.” Social Network Fandoms & Online Role-Playing: Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries Fans on Twitter, 2014, pp. 138–146.

3. Mellins, Maria. “The Female Vampire Community and Online Social Networks: Virtual Celebrity and Mini Communities: Initial Thoughts.” International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, vol. 4, no. 2, May 2008, pp. 254–258. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1386/macp.4.2.254pass:[_]3.

4. Vampire Fanfiction - Wattpad, www.wattpad.com/search/vampire%20fanfiction.