Vampire

vampire, n. 1. in Eastern European folk mythology, the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep; French, from German Vampir, from Serbo-Croatian vampir; 18th c. 2. in modern fantasy and occult fiction, a variety of monster inspired by the literary character Dracula, an anti-semetic caricature created by Irish author Bram Stoker (1847-1912), and based upon Vlad III Dracul Tepes, a fifteenth century viovode or prince of Wallachia. Vampirish, vampiric. Also revenant, leech, ghoul, vrykolakas, strigoi, nachzehrer, nightwalker, blutsauger, blooddrinker, nightcrawler, anthropophagus. 3. refers to members of a sub-cultural movement, tangentially related to the Goth movement, composed of borderline psychotics who imagine that they are actual vampires, either imitating vampire behavior through dress and consuming small quantities of human blood, or by adopting a "New Age" belief system in which they draw "psychic energy" from others. [GJ1]
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Addendum: The original Eastern European vampire, a shambling mindless ghoul reanimated by sins in life and who feeds on flesh, has little to do with the frill-shirted Romantic sophisticates sipping blood from crystal wine goblets popularized by Anne Rice and her imitators. Even the sensitivity to sunlight is a recent invention, which does not exist in Stoker's writings. An excellent academic account of the origins of the vampire myth is Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber. [GJ1]
Addendum #2: Players of the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG, and in particular players of the Vampire LARP, should never be confused with the nutcases of Definition #3. Vampire LARPS are not vampire cults. Vampire LARP players do not believe they are really vampires. An individual's attraction to occult RPGs bears no correlation to their actual level of belief in the occult; as a matter of fact, an actual occultist might find occult RPGs to be insulting. [GJ1]