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[Descan]

Demigod might be what you're looking for, something like it. Demigod usually means an avatar of a god, though. So even that's not perfect.

[Neonivek]

Demigod might be what you're looking for, something like it. Demigod usually means an avatar of a god, though. So even that's not perfect.

Well then how about this... It is a divine force.

It is a force of nature that seems semi-sentient and exerts a divine presence and is worshipped like a god and seems to react accordingly.

It is a setting where nature, magic, and divinity are all the same source so to speak.

And yet that can mean there is diversity even in religion. After all whether or not transforming a planet through Feng Sui (or however you spell it) actually becomes a real issue, and even if you don't want to build a dam because clogging a river has an effect on your divine protector... the monsters created from building a settlement make it hard to survive without a wheat mill.

[Lord Shonus]

Eh. They have pretty good points, actually. Dracula is a natural target for anyone who's into ANY kind of vampire media due to being the "original", and it is an exceptionally dry, slow, and confusing book. When I tried to read it, I was completely unable to follow the story (note that I'm a fan of Wheel of Time and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which aren't exactly easy reads), or even make sense of the descriptions. Of course, I was reading an annotated version, where the annotations were so extensive that they were ten pages behind the text.

[FearfulJesuit]

I can't wait for the inevitable complaints to pop up that 120 Days of Sodom was disturbing and fucked-up rather than a ~~fabulous~~ romance about a dreamy nobleman and his taste in milquetoast bondage like Fifty Shades of Grey.

[Lord Shonus]

As much as I hate Twilight, as a modern pleasure novel, it IS. The writing is impenetrable, the pace is extremely slow, and the presentation is extremely odd. The story itself isn't bad (based on the Cliff's Notes), but it is almost impossible to FIND the damn story.  It certainly has greater literary merit, and is justly famed as the progenitor of modern vampire fiction, but it isn't a fun read.

A sample of one of the easier portions of the text:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of bell or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate. The time I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and fears crowding upon me. What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people? What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor’s clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor’s clerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor—for just before leaving London I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now a full-blown solicitor! I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if I were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me, and I expected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself at home, with the dawn struggling in through the windows, as I had now and again felt in the morning after a day of overwork. But my flesh answered the pinching test, and my eyes were not to be deceived. I was indeed awake and among the Carpathians. All I could do now was to be patient, and to wait the coming of the morning.
Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy step approaching behind the great door, and saw through the chinks the gleam of a coming light. Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise of long disuse, and the great door swung back.
Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation:—
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice—more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said:—
“Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!” The strength of the handshake was so much akin to that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was speaking; so to make sure, I said interrogatively:—
“Count Dracula?” He bowed in a courtly way as he replied:—
“I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in; the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest.” As he was speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out, took my luggage; he had carried it in before I could forestall him. I protested but he insisted:—

I had to read that ten times before I really understood it, and the exceedingly non-standard  conversational style is extremely jarring. The complaints are not without merit.

[Pnx]

There were actually a good number of vampire works before Dracula, but they were mostly Victorian pulp fiction works that basically used the whole vampire thing as a way of getting around sexual mores or as a cheap thrill thing. In general, none of these were really anything like sophisticated fiction though.
So in that respect I think Twilight might in some ways be more true to the origins of vampire fiction.

[Mr Space Cat]

The problem I have with comparing Twilight to Dracula is that there's just a bit of a gap between when Dracula was written and Twilight was written.

It's like comparing Bach to dubstep and the main complaint is that "Bach just doesn't use enough wubs. Skrillex is so much better."

[Furtuka]

What was the criticism for it? It sounds interesting, perhaps you just presented it poorly or it needs more development or whatever you want to use it for won't work out well

"If the planets are gods why don't they just summon up a destructive force to kill all the pesky humans?"

Which frankly my answer is that they cannot. They aren't omnipotent.

I don't know what the context for what you're saying is. But what you said there is hilarious if you're familiar with the Nasuverse.

[Solifuge]

There were actually a good number of vampire works before Dracula, but they were mostly Victorian pulp fiction works that basically used the whole vampire thing as a way of getting around sexual mores or as a cheap thrill thing.

Er... even "Dracula" does this. Lucy's whole vampirization thing is basically a big old sexy metaphore for her *ehem* Loss of Innocence. It even drives her Fiancé to seek revenge against the man who *ehemhemhemcoughcough* Lead her Astray. The big thing about the novel is that, though the mythology of Vampires existed in folklore prior, and even in pulpy horror serials, it wasn't mainstream knowledge... and Stoker sort of codified a lot of the folklore that went on to become standard tropes within Vampire Fiction.

[Kadzar]

That's all well and good, but the thing I really wanna know is: Dracula, better or worse love story than Twilight?

[Solifuge]

:I

_{^{But to answer your question, yes it's better.}}

[Flying Dice]

That's all well and good, but the thing I really wanna know is: Dracula, better or worse love story than Twilight?

Do you really need to ask?


Also, Cata DDA thread is locked for no apparent reason. 

[Darvi]

Toady's cleaning up.

[Lagslayer]

That's all well and good, but the thing I really wanna know is: Dracula, better or worse love story than Twilight?

A F.A.T.A.L. campaign is a better love story than twilight.

[Flying Dice]

That's all well and good, but the thing I really wanna know is: Dracula, better or worse love story than Twilight?

A F.A.T.A.L. campaign is a better love story than twilight.

More realistic, too. :V