Nachzehrer
| |
| Nachzehrer | |
|---|---|
| Powers and Abilities | Incredibly hard to kill |
| Vulnerabilities | Silver, decapitation, copper pennies |
| Appearance | Human |
| Episode(s) | 11.04 Baby |
History
Nachzehrer are a type of ghoul-vampire creature, with certain breeds preferring to feed off the flesh of the dead, while others prefer to feed the blood and hearts of the living. Like vampires, nachzehrer live in small packs and keep extremely low profiles. Nachzehrer are extremely hard to kill, silver will temporarily slow them down and they have the ability to reattach severed limbs, including their heads. The only way to truly kill one is to place a obol, or copper coin in their mouth and chop off their head. If the pack's alpha is killed, everyone it turned will revert back to humans.
Characteristics
Powers and Abilities
- Infectious bite
- Increased strength
- Incredibly hard to kill.
Weakness
- Silver - Slows them down.
- Decapitation - Will stop a nachzehrer, but won't kill it.
- Copper Coins - Once one is in the mouth, decapitation will kill them.
Episodes
11.04 Baby
When the local Sheriff in Quaker Valley, Oregon is killed, Sam and Dean hit the road to investigate. Once in Quaker Valley, Sam meets with Deputy Donelly, who had become the recently deceased sheriff's replacement. When Dean believes that something was off with the crime scene photos, he goes to where the body was found and realizes the whole thing was staged. As he is speaking with Castiel about the type of monster he might be dealing with, Deputy Donelly arrives on the scene. Dean decides to show him what he had discovered, when Donelly suddenly attacks. A fight ensues between the two, ending in when Dean shoots him repeatedly with silver bullets. However, the silver doesn't kill Donelly, and it forces Dean to chop his head off, which also does not kill him. Not knowing what else to do, Dean takes the still living decapitated head and places it in his green cooler, where takes a photo of Donelly's fangs in hopes Cas can figure out what they are dealing with.
When Sam and Dean hook back up with an unconscious Lily Markham, they learn from Cas that they are dealing with a nachzehrer, and will need to place a copper coin in Donelly's mouth in order to kill him, which will change anyone he had turned back into humans. At a gas station, Lily Markham comes to and finds Donelly's head in the cooler. Dean attempts to calm her while Sam tries to find a copper penny in the gas station. Lily suddenly attacks Dean from the backseat, demanding to know what he did with the maker's body, eventually knocking Dean out and driving off in the Impala to the crime scene where she reattaches Deputy Donelly's head to his body.
As Donelly and Lily are driving the Impala with an unconscious Dean in the backseat, he lets Dean know that he knows he's awake and hunter. He explains to Dean that he knows about the Darkness being released, and is only buying time for himself by building an army of strong men and women. Unbeknownst to Donelly, Dean had picked the lock on his handcuffs and quickly lunges on top of him, forcing him to crash the Impala into water barrels. The crash knocks Lily out, and sends Donelly flying through the windshield. When Dean finds a Hello Kitty purse in the backseat, he begins looking for pennies, but is interrupted by Donelly who begins attacking him. In the ensuing fight Dean is able to shove a handful of coins into Donelly's mouth and decapitates him with the door of the Impala, finally killing him and reverting everyone he had turned back to human.
Nachzehrer in Lore
Nachzhrer is a vampire of Germanic origin, it's name translates to "after (nach) living off (zehre)." In the German lore, a nachzhrer is created by either suicide or accidental death, and its transformation is not communicable through bites or scratches like typical vampires. It is believed that the only method of killing a nachzhrer requires placing a coin in it's mouth, and decapitating it.
