Fat Vampires--do they exist?

[D-503]

This sounds like trolling gibberish, but I'm deadly serious here. I have never seen a corpulent vampire. Not in VtM source material, and not really anywhere else.

My question to the audience: do they exist in any settings I'm unaware of?

And secondly, as pertains to VtM, how does the vampiric body process body fat? If you're embraced while obese, can you get rid of the fat somehow? Surely not by exercise, since regular metabolic functions have ceased. Can you just scrub it out through your blood, like an internal liposuction procedure? Conversely, let's pretend you were embraced while skinny, but wanted your undead body to look like a Kardashian; since you can't gain fat through eating anymore, would fat injections work on the vampiric body? Or is this entering Vicissitude territory?

Is there any lore, anywhere, that covers these issues? Or are we just led to assume that vampires are rarely/never fat?

[Black Leaf]

Originally posted by Jock McSteed:

My question to the audience: do they exist in any settings I'm unaware of?

Chicago by Night has several fat vampires. Al Capone isn't exactly slim and Horatio Ballard is actively obese.

And canon at least is that vampires stay the same as at the time of their embrace. (Which sucks if they haven't shaved for a few days).

[FlyingTorcensoredWhale]

Originally posted by Black Leaf:

Originally posted by Jock McSteed:

My question to the audience: do they exist in any settings I'm unaware of?

Chicago by Night has several fat vampires. Al Capone isn't exactly slim and Horatio Ballard is actively obese.

This. I've played in that setting and Ballard was obese and disgusting. And kind of awesome as a character.

[The Prime Minister of Canada]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

I asked this very question a while ago on the Onyx Path forums, and the answer I got back was that upon becoming a vampire, most of the body's excess weight is purged in the process. Stuff like body fat and most types of bodily fluids are converted into vitae, which the vampire eventually burns off as they either starve, or use too much of their powers.

So to answer the question, fat vampires don't seem to exist. Or if they do exist, they're not as rotund as mortals can grow to.

Apparently, it's supposed to harken to the trope of vampires being slim and sexy. It probably explains why so many Nosferatu are depicted as being nearly skeletal in build, since I highly doubt the clan is going around embracing a bunch of anorexics.

Vampirism - The ultimate weight loss solution!

[Incarna]

Ambrosio Luis Monçada (Lucita's sire) is fat.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Ambrosio_Luis_Mon%C3%A7adaç

So is Antoine https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Antoine


There is also a obese ventrue bloodline in requiem lol https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Macellarius

[D-503]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

I asked this very question a while ago on the Onyx Path forums, and the answer I got back was that upon becoming a vampire, most of the body's excess weight is purged in the process. Stuff like body fat and most types of bodily fluids are converted into vitae, which the vampire eventually burns off as they either starve, or use too much of their powers.

So to answer the question, fat vampires don't seem to exist. Or if they do exist, they're not as rotund as mortals can grow to.

Apparently, it's supposed to harken to the trope of vampires being slim and sexy. It probably explains why so many Nosferatu are depicted as being nearly skeletal in build, since I highly doubt the clan is going around embracing a bunch of anorexics.

I think this makes the most sense, at least from a pseudo-science perspective. I mean, it seems like the vampiric body, being predatory by nature, would become more efficient in order to accomplish its only goal. And part of efficiency is eliminating waste material.

I can see why other types of lore might diverge from this logic, but to me this would be more fitting. This isn't a perfect analogy, but it's akin to why you don't see fat lions.

[Saint.Million]

As a rule in vampire fiction, people generally exist as a vampire exactly how they looked when they were embraced. Only a tad... dead-er.

Do fat vampires exist?

Well, their existence is at the very least as plausible as any vampire existing at all.

[M2Stech]

No, vampires like to eat all organic and live healthy.

[YOU ARE LYING I NEVER HIT YOU]

Originally posted by Aldaris:

Originally posted by Jock McSteed:

The woman next to the piano was more... glam-fat.

She isn't even fat at all though.

Looks like BMI > 27, with body fat at 35-40%. Categorically fat.

[Lλmbdλ]

...

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Horatio_Ballard

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/whitewolf/images/d/d7/Horatio_Ballard.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180523002012

Horatio Ballard of clan Ventrue, child of Lodin (former Prince of Chicago)

[DOUBLE F]

well if they only feed off of blood, they cant be fat

[AterCorvus]

In white wolf games, there is no thing like "this is impossible". Almost the same as in real life.

[D-503]

Originally posted by AterCorvus:

In white wolf games, there is no thing like "this is impossible". Almost the same as in real life.

Well, there is a difference between saying they can exist in tiny numbers (in the lore); and saying they're as common as they should be, based on current trends in society.

I understand that any game master can make up certain rules, or point to anecdotes to justify them; but if, in practice, you very, very rarely see fat vampires, then they might as well not exist in terms of pop-culture perception.

[Saint.Million]

It doesn't matter if they CAN exist. What matters is this...

Did the original have female fat vampires? No. Because the devs knew that's not what the majority of gamers wanted.

They knew what people wanted were sexy/seductive female vampires like Jeanette, or Ming Xiao. And those kind of characters are the reason WHY the original became a cult classic.

But nowadays it's somehow become a crime to be a straight male and want sexy/feminine characters in games (I.e. things that are perfectly normal and natural for a straight male to want).

Now we have to pretend we think overweight/masculine females are just as attractive, even though we don't...

Want proof we don't think that? Just look at any adult video site and see which video's are getting the most views...

It's a case of reality Vs social conditioning.

[Aldaris]

Originally posted by S7:

It doesn't matter if they CAN exist. What matters is this...

Did the original have female fat vampires? No. Because the devs knew that's not what the majority of gamers wanted.

They knew what people wanted were sexy/seductive female vampires like Jeanette, or Ming Xiao. And those kind of characters are the reason WHY the original became a cult classic.

But nowadays it's somehow become a crime to be a straight male and want sexy/feminine characters in games (I.e. things that are perfectly normal and natural for a straight male to want).

Now we have to pretend we think overweight/masculine females are just as attractive, even though we don't...

Want proof we don't think that? Just look at any adult video site and see which video's are getting the most views...

The writing and the voice acting is why it became a cult classic. The ugly ass characters and fake looking tits everywhere? No so much.

No, it hasn't became a crime to be that. Stop drinking from the conservative kool-aid.

[D-503]

Originally posted by Aldaris:

The writing and the voice acting is why it became a cult classic. The ugly ass characters and fake looking tits everywhere? No so much.

No, it hasn't became a crime to be that. Stop drinking from the conservative kool-aid.

I'm going to attempt to see both sides of the argument, and thereby satisfy no one but myself.

I do agree that the writing and characters meant more than the 90s-era basketball-sized silicone sacs in Bloodlines 1.

That being said, I also believe in the right of the not-insubstantial player base who want to see big knockers on otherwise thin women, to see said knockers in the games they play.

Regardless of my preferences (I'm not into adult-film standards), I empathize with my fellow men who are. And I would bet quite a substantial sum of money, that absolutely no NPCs in Bloodlines 2 will look like Heather. That is to say, a 14-year old boy's wet dream. That might sound dismissive to describe it as such, but I'm just making light of things.

Is the kind of sexiness depicted in Bloodlines 2 vitally important to the game's overall quality? No. But by the same token, the question begs to be asked: if it's not important, why was it deemed necessary to change it? It must be important to someone.