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This article is about a subject whose real name is unknown, being identified only by a title, nickname, or alias. |  |
- Buffy: “Everyone who's turned since the Seed was destroyed is a zombie vampire.”
- Xander: “Zompires! I've named them. My work is done here.”
- — Buffy Summers and Xander Harris[src]
"Zompire", a pormanteau of the words Zombie and Vampire, was the term Xander Harris invented to refer to all new vampires sired after the destruction of the Seed of Wonder by the Slayer Buffy Summers.
History
An explanation of how the zompire epidemic emerged.
During the period of the end of magic on Earth after the destruction of the original Seed of Wonder, while the demon spirits that were responsible for reanimating and creating new vampires were still able to reanimate the bodies of those sired by vampires, they were unable to actually cross into the earthly dimension to inhabit them. As a result, all vampires sired during the period of the end of magic rose as feral, mindless creatures coined as zompires, due to their similarities between zombies, with no trace of their human predecessors' memories and/or personalities. They were described as pack animals, preferring to fight in groups opposed to singular hunting.
Over the months following the Seed's destruction, the zompire population rose to numbers far beyond what could be maintained by the Slayer Organization or anyone else. The viral infection appeared to originate from a lone zompire being boarded on an airplane before proceeding to sire all the passangers.
As the zompires were too mindless to adhere to the rules that Harmony Kendall had set that had allowed vampires to be embraced by the public, the San Francisco Police Department eventually initiated an anti-zompire task force to counter them. The zompire pandemic was presumably effectively halted by the restoration of magic, when the creation of a new Seed of Wonder meant that those sired by vampires or zompires from then on instead rose as a new kind of vampire. The presence of zompires was still rampant, but the species itself was presumably rendered irreproducible because of the occurrence of a new vampire type, just like how the emergence of zompires meant that normal vampires could not be replicated.
Appearance and Physiology
Claire rises as a zompire.
Zompires were similar to appearance as normal vampires, but with some differences. They had pronounced brow ridges like normal vampires, but had an entire set of sharpened teeth whereas only the incisors and canines of the normal variety were pointed. Zompire's eyes were also orange opposed to yellow and their skin had a blue-greyish hue (the paleness of regular vampires' skins varied).
A zompire's physiology and behaviour essentially mirrored that of the animalistic nature seen in regular vampires when hunting/fighting, but without the human intelligence that allowed them to assimilate in human society. However, zompires were intelligent enough to sire other humans.
Powers and Abilities
Zompires possessed the same strengths and weaknesses to normal vampires to an equal degree. They possessed enhanced strength, speed, durability and razor-sharp nails (A newborn zompire was seen tearing off a man's scalp). They could be killed by a stake to the heart, decapition, sunlight, fire and could be harmed by holy items. However, they didn't seem to need an invitation to enter a human's residence.