Editing Kindred Basics (section)

===Vampires are monsters-demonic spirits embodied in corpses.=== 
False.. .and true. Vampires are not demons per se, but a combination of tragic factors draws them inexorably toward wicked deeds. In the beginning, the newly created vampire thinks and acts much as she did while living. She does not immediately turn into an evil, sadistic monster. However, the vampire soon discovers her overpowering hunger for blood, and realizes that her existence depends on feeding on her previous species. In many ways, the vampireâ€™s mindset changes-she adopts a set of attitudes less suited to a communal omnivore and more befitting a solitary predator.

At first reluctant to kill, the vampire is finally forced into murder by circumstance or need- and killing becomes easier as the years pass. Realizing that she herself is untrustworthy, she ceases to trust others. Realizing that she is different, she walls herself away from the mortal world. Realizing that her existence depends on secrecy and control, she becomes a manipulative user of the first order. And things only degenerate as the years turn to decades and then centuries, and the vampire kills over and over, and sees the people she loved age and die. Human life, so short and cheap in comparison to hers, becomes of less and less value, until the mortal â€œherdâ€ around her means no more to her than a swarm of annoying insects. Vampire elders are among the most jaded, unfeeling, paranoid- in short, monstrous- beings the world has ever known. Maybe they are not demons exactly -but at that point, who can tell the difference?