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There is a planet called Vegavampira, and on this planet the only really intelligent animals are Vegan Vampires, but there is one problem, because they are Vegan, they will not kill, nor will they take blood or animal products without the animal's prior consent, however, as they are the only sentient beings on the planet that are intelligent enough to provide consent, they are unable to feed from the animals that live around them.
And to survive these Vegan Vampires must feed on the blood of non-Vampires, even though another Vampire would happily give consent for their blood to be given to another Vegan Vampire, the Vegan Vampires specifically need a substance to stay alive that is contained only within non-Vampire blood.

So here is the question, if they are unable to feed upon the other animals on the planet (as the other animals are not intelligent enough to give consent, and maybe they wouldn't want to), and Vampire blood doesn't do them any good, how will they survive?

Note: They will accept non-vegan produce if consent is given, or there is no being to give consent (that if it did not come from a being - animals, plants etc not included).

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    $\begingroup$ Carrot juice! ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Thucydides
    Sep 5, 2015 at 13:34
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    $\begingroup$ They will all die, and we'll throw a huge Darwin party! Yay!! \o/ \o/ $\endgroup$
    – o0'.
    Sep 5, 2015 at 14:10
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    $\begingroup$ This reads more like a riddle than a sensible world-building question. You've contrived a situation to which you've excluded all of the potential answers. $\endgroup$
    – KillingTime
    Sep 5, 2015 at 14:39
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    $\begingroup$ Re: GM Plants - Sounds like you have your answer already. Now you've got to ask "How did they feed before they went through the rather lengthy 'blood-making GM plant' research and development process?" $\endgroup$
    – KillingTime
    Sep 5, 2015 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ If these creatures have developed and evolved to a point where they exist on a diet which is a plant based blood substitute, haven't they ceased to be vampires in any meaningful sense of the word? After all an audience has a degree of expectation when they read/hear the word "vampire" (i.e. undead, sunlight-fearing, blood-drinking, etc) and these creatures tick none of those boxes. $\endgroup$
    – KillingTime
    Sep 5, 2015 at 16:00

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There is no way the vampires in this world have always been vegan. If vampires naturally feed from blood, at some point they naturally did drink blood from the creatures around them. It might be barbaric, but there would be no vampires stupid enough to starve themselves to death when they have the means to feed themselves.

As your Vegan Vampires matured as a species, so did their knowledge of the world around them, and they learned about what in the blood they drank is what they actually required to live. Some vampires would have started experimenting in how they can create blood, or at least the substance in the blood they require, by other means. You can, for example, synthesize this substance, or find or create plants that fill the need that could previously only be sated by drinking blood.

Eventually that can develop into vampires that find it morally wrong to feed on creatures when they don't give their consent, instead relying on these alternate means.

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  • $\begingroup$ "there would be no vampires stupid enough to starve themselves to death when they have the means to feed themselves" I believe people died because of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asceticism $\endgroup$
    – SK19
    Mar 10, 2018 at 1:04
  • $\begingroup$ That phrase more or less refers to animal instinct. Animals usually only stop eating when they plan to die - or if they are physically unable to. $\endgroup$
    – Sumurai8
    Mar 11, 2018 at 10:20
  • $\begingroup$ @SK19 I agree. Fix the sentence to be “no vampire species stupid enough” $\endgroup$
    – SRM
    Dec 24, 2018 at 19:18
  • $\begingroup$ What is it with people having a sudden interest in a question and answer from 3 years ago. $\endgroup$
    – Sumurai8
    Dec 24, 2018 at 19:55
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According to the question, they aren't against meat or animal by products in and of themselves, but are against killing and are against taking animal by-products without consent.

The simplest answer is carrion. Carrion would have none of these problems. Instead of killing a cow, then draining its blood to serve the vampires, let the cow die of old age.

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Some animals on Vegavampira could have periods. One meal per month is a tough diet, but it could be enough for a vampire.

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  • $\begingroup$ One meal per month? I think there is room for more. $\endgroup$
    – SK19
    Mar 10, 2018 at 1:05
  • $\begingroup$ Multiple animals each providing a meal per day or more. $\endgroup$
    – SRM
    Dec 24, 2018 at 19:20
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They go beyond veganism, beyond Jainism even, and become breatharians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia

Inedia (Latin for "fasting") or breatharianism /brɛθˈɛəriənɪzəm/ is the belief that it is possible for a person to live without consuming food. Breatharians claim that food, and in some cases water, are not necessary for survival, and that humans can be sustained solely by prana, the vital life force in Hinduism. According to Ayurveda, sunlight is one of the main sources of prana, and some practitioners believe that it is possible for a person to survive on sunlight alone. The terms breatharianism or inedia may also refer to this philosophy when it is practiced as a lifestyle in place of the usual diet.

Since Carrot juice constitutes murder (and) Greenhouses prisons for slaves, the only truly ethical way to live is to breathe and absorb the energy of the Sun!!

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Worldbuilding, PaUl. Please improve your answer by explaining how breatharianism will help Vegan vampires survive. Since I don't know the concept this leaves confused and uncomprohending. Have fun here! $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Mar 10, 2018 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ I like the improved version. The problem is with vampires and ... sunlight! $\endgroup$
    – SRM
    Dec 24, 2018 at 19:20
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So there is no way that these vampires could have evolved into vampires if they were always vegan but, if your talking about a recent thing where all vampires have become vegan, there is a solution.

I've put a link to a Telegraph articel about a kind of GM Crop which was created a few years ago. The idea is that, to get more blood for transfusions, human DNA was inserted into rice DNA to create rice that blood can be extracted from. Hope this helps!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8871899/Genetically-modified-rice-created-to-produce-human-blood.html

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One word:

maple syrup

Maybe they are Canadian vampires? Just saying...

Ok, Seriously.

Maybe they can go for an extended time, say 50 years or so, even if it puts them in a weakened state. Now suppose there was at one point a sentient species on their planet capable of giving consent. Maybe it was some kind of symbiotic relationship. Where said creature got something in return from the vampires. Now perhaps for some reason this species died out. Something in their symbiotic relationship broke down. Maybe they over populated their world and they other species couldn't keep up. Maybe it was some illness that wiped them out. I don't know.

That would put them in the current state, which is untenable, but still have a history that was.

I don't see how they could survive to this point, unless it was so.

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Do it like the ancient greek

This part is interesting:

nor will they take blood or animal products without the animal's prior consent

The ancient greek had the same ethical problem. In their ritual sacrifices of animals, they had to obtain the consent of the beasts. The greek had a solution for every problem, though. They invented a nice little device called

Hipocrisy

Which Google defines as:

the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.

Check out this description of how a sacrifice was done a couple millenia and then some ago:

The pouring of water on the head forced the animal to "nod" in agreement to the sacrifice. It was important that the sacrifice not be treated as an act of violence; instead, it must be an act in which everyone was a willing participant: mortals, immortals, and animals.

Then the person performing the ritual would pull out a knife (machaira) that had been hidden in the barley and quickly slit the animal's throat, allowing the blood to drain into a special receptacle.

Your vampires could do the same: pour some water on the beasts noggin' while asking "hey, can I have some of your blood?"

If that's not your style, Vampirella is a comic books character that comes from:

planet Drakulon, a world where a vampiric race lived on blood and where blood flowed in rivers.

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My vampire is vegan (well, as far as human food goes) because the process of being turned altered his digestion. Essentially it has left him with multiple intolerances. The only animal product he is safely able to consume is human blood. So, long story short (too late!), he is forced to ethically source the same nutrients from plant based sources, as well as genetically engineering a suitable substitute (rather like the rice answer).(http://amzn.eu/5LeqUnu) One possible way would be to analyse what constitutes blood and source those elements from plants. There are plenty of info graphics that show how plant sources of vitamins/minerals/etc measure up against their animal based counterparts. Just ask any vegan where they get their protein/carbs/B12 from and they're happy to help. 🙂 fitbit.com/foods/Lamb+Blood/7287 The link is just an example.

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    $\begingroup$ The question here is how does he then survive, not how did he end up a vampire or vegan. $\endgroup$
    – Brythan
    Jul 1, 2017 at 9:52
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to WorldBuilding! Please edit your question to focus on the question asked by the OP. If you have a moment please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about how the site works. Have fun! $\endgroup$
    – Secespitus
    Jul 1, 2017 at 10:13
  • $\begingroup$ "My vampire is vegan (well, as far as human food goes)". Huh? $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Mar 10, 2018 at 5:56
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Vegan Vampires Essentially Vegan vampires could exist in this situation but they would only be eating fresh "virgin" if you will :) coconut water...

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Let's not forget the idiocy introduced into the vampire lore recently where abouts the sun just causes them to twinkle merrily and not burn to ash as other stories have told.

While this is one of the dumbest things to enter the vampire realms, it does set a a standard that illustrates just how much freedom you have to change the way things work for everyone.

I once wrote a jesting short story about a pre-pubescent dorky vampire that revealed...

"You know the whole blood thing? Vampires, sucking blood, all that? It’s not true at all. I don’t need to drink blood to survive. I’ll tell you what it does do though. It keeps you from feeling absolutely drained of energy. There’s something about the components of hemoglobin that stimulate the endorphins in the vampire body. I don’t know all the facts because only one other vampire was kind enough to stop laughing long enough to tell me. I haven’t had any blood for about 29 years because it’s too much work and I don’t care to live my life to the fullest anyhow. Plus, I never had the nerve to kill anyone. I used to bite girls in school and taste their blood before they beat me up or one of the monitors pulled me away, but that’s about it. Aside that, I tried to drink the blood out of a package of steak from the grocery store, but it didn’t really help. Since the effects were so minimal, I figured it would take immense effort to maintain such a life style. Even if I did have the nerve to do it, the only thing I fear more than an eternity in the condition I’m in is suffering an eternity in jail while in the condition I’m in. Where do you even send someone that’s my age but looks like a 13 year old?"

I simply changed the rule. You don't need it to live, but it really helps. After all, nothing else short of wooden stakes can kill you, so why can you starve to death? The laws of nature have already been abandoned. Why cling to tradition?

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I think Anne Rice provided this answer. Vampires are immortals. As punishment, vampires entombed naughty vampires in stone vaults to starve them. They don't die, they just get hungrier and hungrier, if they don't feed.

A Vegan Vampire can simply forego feeding on anything it deems unethical and they will only feel unformtable as a consequence, which is identical to how they'll feel if they fed on something unethical.

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