Dhamphir

Dhampir- Vampire's child. Sometimes thought to be the only person who could see a vampire and kill it. The legend of the Dhamphir originates mainly from Romania. Up until the 19th and 20th centuries, people would hire themselves out as vampire killers under the guise of being a Dhampir (Serbia). Also known as a vampirdzhija (Bulgaria). The last documented record of a vampire hunt being conducted by a dhamphir was in 1967.

~ The Dhampir ~

The ironic thing about this part is that it contradicts most folklore (and all biological fact!). Most everywhere, the vampire cannot spawn children or have sex. I mean...he's dead. His penis doesn't work! However the dhampir is found in the same areas that spawned the legends vampires can't have kids. Anyway the dhampir is a child of a male vampire and a female Gypsy. A dhampir could not be spawned by any other human.

The story goes that after a male Gypsy was buried he would have and overwhelming urge to visit his living wife and would rise from the dead to visit her and, well, do more than just visit!

Very rarely the woman would become pregnant after the 'visit'. Almost always the child would be born boneless and thus would die quickly. However, on rare rare rare occasions, the child would be born with bones and live.

The child of this union was almost always male and had special powers that allowed him to become a powerful vampire hunter. He was able to feel a vampyre just by looking at him. He was able to destroy a vampire without special weapons. As well, the Dhampir could enchant a pistol and make it slay a vampire as surely as a wooden stake would.

The dhampir was considered a powerful member of the gypsy community, but was treated normally. They were not immortal and they did not have any particular special powers but some dhampirs did have a semi-slippery like body due to the fact they were normally born without bones.

The powers of a dhampir would be passed onto the offspring (also almost exclusively male) that he created and that they created and so on. These abilities could only be inherited, never learned.

There is a report of someone who claimed to be a dhampir who went to a villages looking for work as a hunter. He would start by mentioning an unholy stench in the air that only he could smell. He would then attempt to find the source of this scent. He would then take off his shirt and look through the sleeve as if it was a telescope. He would then describe the shape and appearance of the invisible undead that only he could see. He would then engage in a dramatic fight with the undead (but sometimes he would just shoot it). Once killed the vampire would stink even more...and sometimes a pool of blood would run on the ground. More often the vampire would not be killed and would flee to another town. The dhampir would stick around long enough to get his pay and go to the next town and fight the vampire anew.