Terminology is a tricky thing.

Anyone who visits the major websites dealing with the Vampiric Community and vampiric people, and reads most of their content, will quickly realize that labels, terms, and names are a divisive topic. You don't have to read far to find debates about how "vampire" should be spelled (vampire? vampyre? vampyr?), whether or not each spelling designates something in particular, what those particular things are, how the spellings evolved, who uses them and how important it is. You'll find debates on whether the "correct" term is psy-vampire, psi-vampire, psychic vampire, psi-feeder, energy-feeder, or something else. You'll find disagreement about whether people should say blood vampire, blood drinker, sang-vamp, sanguin, sanguinarian, blood-feeder, or something else. Multiple sub-groups hold (openly or privately) that they're the real "vampires" with the only true claim to the word, and yet others insist that "the V-word" shouldn't be used at all because of all the "baggage" attached to it.

In addition to the lack of consensus on the key terminology, many groups and organizations developed their own independent lexicons of specialized terms. While there is a high degree of overlap, with many terms widely shared, each group has its individual neologisms and labels. Keeping track of them all requires considerable mental agility.

In my case, I have come to agree with those who think we should avoid "the V-word" altogether as being too inflammatory, too vague, too broad, too divisive, and too misleading to the "outside world." (See What's in a Word? for a bit more of my reasoning.) I also am proposing a somewhat radical shift in how to define, train, and appreciate some sectors of the community. These two decisions mean that I've had to come up with some new terminology, and I also need to clearly explain how I am using existing terms. I prefer not to split hairs--the groups I'm discussing are broad and include much variation. The variations will be covered more fully in the articles about each group.

As with all such argument-specific lexicons, my choice, or invention, or definition of each term is entirely arbitrary. (Translation: if you haven't heard it before, I made it up.) I'm not implying, or expecting, that these terms have any relevance or authority outside of this website (and whatever offline organizations may be attached to it). The definitions given below are intended strictly to clarify how I will be using each term in my own articles, so my readers can understand them in context.

• Energy Medium: a human being born with a pronounced and highly developed ability to manipulate and influence biological systems and energy dynamics, involuntarily and at will, and who has no need or desire to drink blood in any quantity.
  Note: In rare cases Energy Mediums define themselves as non-human, but all other defining characteristics stand.
• Gwaetgar: a non-human, or "Otherkin," blood drinking vampiric person who has similar energy working abilities as Energy Mediums, in addition to the unique capability of directly utilizing the energy in blood. The rarest type of vampiric person. Gwaetgar is a Welsh word meaning "bloodthirsty."
• Human vampire-like predator: a person who may or may not be vampire-identified, but who deliberately plans and commits criminal acts such as sexual assault, aggravated assault or homicide, with "vampire-like" aspects (biting, drinking blood, and so on). May or may not suffer from a recognized mental health diagnosis such as psychosis or antisocial personality disorder.
• Lifestyler: a person who dresses and acts in a vampire "style" for esthetic, philosophical or personal reasons. May or may not be a vampiric person.
• Otherkin: a person who believes that he or she is something other than human on the level of the soul, or essence, although he or she appears outwardly, or biologically, human. Some vampiric people identify themselves as "vampire Otherkin."
• Psychic vampire: a concept in occult theory based on the presumption that "energy" can be "fed on" by astral entities or living beings.
• Psychological vampire: a person who is not vampire-identified in any way, but who affects other humans negatively due to conscious or unconscious behaviors, such as attention seeking, manipulation, selfishness, aggression, and so on. May suffer from any of several recognized mental health diagnoses.
• Sanguinarian: a person who self-identifies as a human being with a medical need to drink blood.
  Note: In rare cases Sanguinarians define themselves as non-human, but all other defining characteristics stand.
• Vampire: a human being who has passed through death and returned to continue physical existence in the world, usually with some enhanced powers and advantages. May or may not exist in reality. Also spelled vampyre or vampyr.
• Vampire fan: a person who enjoys vampire-themed fiction, media, role-playing games and so on, without being in any way a vampire-identified person or sympathiser.
• Vampire fiction: fiction (including films, television shows and games) created for amusement and enjoyed by vampire fans, vampire-identified people and vampiric people alike for recreation. Usually involves wish-fulfillment fantasies that are not taken seriously by either the creator or the reader/viewer/player. Creating and enjoying vampire fiction does not make a vampire fan a vampiric person, and does not invalidate the reality of a vampiric person's condition.
• Vampire-identified person: Any living person who identifies as, or with, vampires (of any definition) to the extent of acting on that identification. In other words, by participating in online and/or offline groups or fora, drinking blood, attempting to control or develop "psychic vampire" skills, openly living or dressing in a "vampiric" manner (a "Lifestyler"), serving as a donor, or in other ways considering him- or herself to be part of a like minded group and thereby distinguished from non-vampire-identified people.
• Vampiric Community: the entire group of vampire-identified people, to the extent that such people share common interests and goals, recognize a commonality that transcends their differences, and gain a sense of belonging in this common ground.
• Vampiric people: a shorthand term I use for referring to Sanguinarians, Energy Mediums and Gwaetgar as a group, when I don't want to write all three terms out.

Most of these terms will be discussed in more detail in the relevant articles.