Second, I believe in MHI the vamps are corpses animated by evil spirits, but spirits whose memories/personas are imprinted with those of the deceased they've supplanted. Thus the Susan Shackleford of Ringo's "Memoirs" books is a good and upright Southern lady, but in the main storyline she's a fiend of hell: the REAL Susan has long since met her eternal reward, but the evil that keeps her mortal coil from uncoiling (vs the assorted zombies, which <i>do</i> rot and have neither will nor personality left) is borrowing her memories and habits, and <i>believes itself to be her</i>. Raymond Shackelford II (alias Earl Harbinger), on the other hand, is still good because he is still <i>himself</i>, and didn't yet die.
(I'm confident of this model because I proposed a version of it in the MHN group back when I had only read about 1½ MHI books, in 2015 or so, and Larry Correia himself responded with a ♥️ to my comment. So it seems to have imprimatur.)
First of all, intend your puns whenever possible.
Second, I believe in MHI the vamps are corpses animated by evil spirits, but spirits whose memories/personas are imprinted with those of the deceased they've supplanted. Thus the Susan Shackleford of Ringo's "Memoirs" books is a good and upright Southern lady, but in the main storyline she's a fiend of hell: the REAL Susan has long since met her eternal reward, but the evil that keeps her mortal coil from uncoiling (vs the assorted zombies, which <i>do</i> rot and have neither will nor personality left) is borrowing her memories and habits, and <i>believes itself to be her</i>. Raymond Shackelford II (alias Earl Harbinger), on the other hand, is still good because he is still <i>himself</i>, and didn't yet die.
(I'm confident of this model because I proposed a version of it in the MHN group back when I had only read about 1½ MHI books, in 2015 or so, and Larry Correia himself responded with a ♥️ to my comment. So it seems to have imprimatur.)