7) Feeding: Tapping the land, and vampirism.

To start this on the right note, I want to address something that I have come across often when I mention kitsune are vampires. The reactions I get when this is mentioned are varied, and are often either amusing, or aggravating, depending on the person spoken with.

There are many different sorts of vampires all over the world. Every society in existence has vampire stories, and each has their own unique twist on it. There are the blood-drinkers of Europe, to the vampires of the Native Americans which drain the warmth from the human body, to the Roman vampires who bite noses off.

Kitsune are none of these. Kitsune, like everything else, have their own place, and are unique. There are reasons why the kitsune are 'vampires', and it has nothing to do with our modern interpretation or the recent increase in the 'gothic' movement.

The kitsune have been compared with the European Succubus and Incubus, and with good reason. Kitsune are notorious seducers. In fact, the term for the entrancing effect of the kitsune on it's target, whether this is mind control, or sometimes possession, is 'seduction'.

Kitsune, as spirits, have a link to the land. This is a tie to the element the kitsune is 'attuned' to. As such, the longer a kitsune spends in the area, the more that element is noticed. When the kitsune becomes 'real', manifesting, it causes an effect on the environment. The gifts placed at shrines, or out in the open for kami are a way of giving the spirit power, and as such, the negative effects of the spirit being there are lessened.

Kitsune have been known to feed off of many things, including words, knowledge, writing, music, the land, and the people around them. Legends have people who take a kitsune lover, and waste away, needing a priest to separate the 'link' between the kitsune and her intended. This link allows the kitsune to drain the person, even when not in the same area as their lover, and the severing of the link doesn't necessarily mean the death of the kitsune.

One of the most common forms of feeding from a target is through sex. Since kitsune are creatures who enjoy sensations in the first place, so this makes sense. The effect of lovemaking for a kitsune's partner is, according to many sources, more pleasurable than most mortals can handle.

Kitsune seem to prefer willing partners. Those more willing to be with a kitsune do not seem to be affected as much by the effects of lovemaking, and if the kitsune and her mate are happy together, the mortal stands a very good chance of staying alive, if not entirely sane.

A case where a kitsune has taken from someone not willing has been listed in Kitsune, though this was done because a certain lord had been trying to have an affair with his maid, but couldn't because of a jealous wife. The kitsune, instead, transformed into the lord, met the maid, and had sex with her in the samurai's stead.

It is also mentioned that when a nogitsune does feed, they will tell their partner what is needed to alleviate the pleasure/pain, as a recompense for the service the victim provides. The reason behind this is that the sensations mating with a kitsune causes does not go away after the kitsune has finished. This tale, and the treatment, is listed in Kitsune, page 167-8 (the treatment was listed as 'decocted buckwheat', but I've since learned, from a book called Kwaidan, that this mixture is called soba, and was usually peddled at the side of many roads as a remedy.)

Kitsune who have mortal bodies most likely do not have the same effect on their partners as kitsune who are manifested or summoned. It could be, mating with a spirit has a detrimental effect on the mortal, and other legends of spirits would attest to this.