They may be able to go in to perform police duties. Vampiric activities must be kept to a minimum.
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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"Few creatures of the night have captured our imagination like vampires.
What explains our enduring fascination with vampires? Is it the overtones of sexual lust, power, control? Or is it a fascination with the immortality of the undead?"
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As always, it depends on the writer/DM
Assuming standard vampire mythology though, a warrant isn't an invitation to enter, it's permission for someone to enter against your will, with the backing of the government.
So, on a "magical" level, it wouldn't meet the criteria because the origin of that limitation isn't about a legal standing. It's about the space being lived in, and the construction of the space giving boundaries that can be/are present in a non physical way.
Foundations, doorways, windows, they all have a degree of "mystical" presence beyond their physical purpose, within this context but also in general. There's some beliefs out there about how a foundation has to be laid to make a space a proper limitation. It's akin to sanctified ground in a way.
And, depending on what stuff you dig into reading about this stuff, once that boundary is in place, the actual building/home could be destroyed, and the boundary can remain, a kind of ghost wall that can't be seen, but still has presence on a spiritual level.
With all of that in mind, the vampire would be unable to cross the threshold no matter what government agent said they could, unless that government could be said to be the owner. However, most of the mythology on this kind of stuff, ownership is irrelevant. What matters is who lives there, so even that might not work.
What if a house or the minimal requirements for the border was built overnight surrounding the vampire? Would they be able to leave? I assume it would be a distinction between whether it's the border or crossing of the border itself or if it's the whole house? Though invites could be rescinded and they get pushed out, right? So then it must be the whole house.
Leaving shouldn't be a problem. It's the sanctity of "home" that prevents them from going in without the invitation. Those boundaries are meant to keep bad out, not in. That even applies to some of the rituals and prayers used to bless a home in general. They're usually phrased to bring good, and bar bad.
Then there's also the fact that if you build around the vampire, you've made it part of the home, they no longer need an invite because they belong.
Back in the older myths, there's no mentions of rescinding an invitation at all that I ever ran across. That's a very modern concept. I'm not certain where it started tbh, it's been years since I was deep diving vampire stuff, and I wasn't particularly paying attention to when things came around as much as the various myths existing. I was into it out of a combination of personal interest and gathering ideas for world building.
I wanna say that the idea of a rescinded invitation expelling the vampire was brought into common thought in the movies, but I'm damned if I can remember for sure. Nor where it showed up first. My memory says it was somewhere in the eighties horror boom, but that might have been preceded by literary invention
Now, if I was writing vampires that had to be invited in, I like the idea of the "magic" of home being powerful enough to physically expel them. But I tend to like to base my magical effects on something historic (No matter how loosely applied) when I can, and I'd likely use the basis of the foundation of the home being the seat of the magic. So I still wouldn't apply the effect to a foundation built around them. They'd be safe inside the boundary until they left.
At most, I would have them feel uncomfortable there. Reason being for that much that the "life" of the home would be rejecting them. That's a concept I've played with a little as a DM/GM before.
There's an Adventure Time episode wherein a vampire won't enter a "house" - not because they can't, but because they believe it would be impolite.
This is reminiscent of that.
No self respecting vampire would do otherwise.
Nope - the warrant gives them a legal right to be there, with or without your consent, but is absolutely not an invitation.
No, as a vampire still needs to be invited into the home. A judge can make the sun assaulting officers with death rays illegal but theres nothing they can change about nature.
I disagree. The most governments can straight up kick you out of your home, so it seems to me the cosmic laws of the universe that govern whether a vampire has been invited in would recognize the warrant as an invitation by the judge into the home.
So in essence, all a Vampire would need is someone with the authority to let them into anyone's home. I wonder how one would define that authority?
Ooh, what if the judge is the Vampire!
Under this philosophy; citizens residing within states that have the castle doctrine would legally be protected from vampires while in their motor vehicles?
What is a castle doctrine?
Motor vehicles? Castle doctrine is about overriding the usual limitations (around what's reasonable use of force) on the right to self defence if you're in your home. Cars don't come into it.
Some places also extend the same protections that castle law provides to your home to your car, but that's separate from castle doctrine itself.
I didn't realize the car bit was separate, I assumed it was the difference between stand your ground and castle doctrine.
Yeah true "stand your ground" is anywhere, or at least anywhere public. Not sure if it applies in private spaces that aren't your own.
But couldn't the law be written so that a warrant once seen by the home owner must legally be considered a mandatory invitation, making the cop legally allowed to enter the home?
A, this is why magic isnβt real
B, the law can say whatever the fuck it wants it still canβt bend reality. More likely and much simpler, the vampire cop brings a non vampire friend who beats you until you βwillinglyβ invite them both in and they plant drugs all throughout your house.
just because they legally have to doesn't mean they physically have to though they could still not invite you in
Invited in by who though? You might say the owner, but then that means that kids or tenants don't count. So it might be "anyone with authority to do so", which would include judges following the prescribed process...
It could also just be "anyone lawfully inside already", which would allow the owner, kids, tenants, or even guests, but not a judge.
I meant: the warrant would equal an invitation to enter one's home, an invitation decided by the judge to which, as a law abiding citizen, the place owner would be forced to comply with.