Now that a new season of True Blood has begun I find myself asking a very important question. If vampires do indeed exist, what would the world be like if they were to choose to ‘come out of the coffin’? Even though it is most common for vampires to stay hidden in humanities shadow there have been a few instances where vampires have decided to make themselves known to the human world.
Of course any True Blood fan knows that the expression ‘coming out of the coffin‘ was first coined in season one describing how vampires had made themselves known to the public, choosing to live openly as vampires among humans. After Japanese scientists perfect a synthetic blood substitute that fulfills the needs of vampires the vampire population decide that there is no longer any reason to hide in the shadows. Now that the need to kill in order to feed is gone most vampires desire to live out in the open and enjoy the same rights and freedoms as their living counterparts. Not every vampire feels this way though and there are always a few old school vampires who have no desire to play by the new rules. There are also more than a few anti vampire groups out there that wish for nothing more than to stake every last one of those goddamned bloodsuckers. No one ever said that integration would be easy.
In the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton it’s not only vampires that live out in the open but every other supernatural creature imaginable as well. Vampires hold the same rights as regular humans and at least within America they are regarded as regular citizens. Of course having vampires as regular citizens can pose some special difficulties, especially within law enforcement. Not every vampire in the world is satisfied with living among humans without getting a chance to take a bite out of one every now and then. When a vampire goes rogue and regular law enforcement can’t handle the situation, they call in Hunters such as Anita to either bring them in or take them down.
In Daybreakers not only do vampires live out in the open, they’re the dominate species. Almost 95% of the population have been turned into vampires which causes an unexpected problem… The 5% of the population that is still human is dying out and there is just not enough human blood to go around. Without regular supplies of blood vampires begin to go hungry and feed off other vampires. The worst part of vampire cannibalism is that when a vampire drinks vampire blood it causes them to mutate into horrible creatures known as subsiders. There are only two possible ways to save vampire kind; find a blood substitute or find a way to save the human race. When hematologist Edward Dalton meets a human who calls himself Elvis and claims to be a former vampire a third option emerges; cure vampirism and turn all the vampires back into humans.
So, if vampires were to reveal themselves to the human world how would it play out? Would they be accepted as fellow people with the same rights and responsibilities as any other citizen? Would they be hated and hunted by fearful humans until there are none left? Would they become the dominate species, taking over the world and using humans as nothing more than cattle?
I ask you dear reader, what would you do if vampires came out of the coffin?
-Chris
I would buy lot of garlic!
They aren’t called Hunters in the Anita Blaker series, they are Federal Marshals :) Also (if I remember correctly) they never bring in vampires that have broken the law, they just kill them.
Thanks for the 411, nice to have fact checkers watching your back. =)
Actually, wasn’t Anita a bounty hunter for hire before becoming a Federal Marshal? If I remember correctly she didn’t become a marshal until Cerulean Sins.
That may be true, it’s hard to keep track of 19 books lol. But you might be right, I remember her saying something about the government making them official and all that.