The measures employed against Unnatural Predators are varied: some repel, some are antidotes, some are intended to divert the Unnatural Predator from its deadly mission. I have used the term "apotropaic" which means "to turn away evil", because it covers all of these and more.
To begin with, the most notable characteristic of these apotropaics is that the themes are broadly similar the world over; for example, most Unnatural Predators have a compulsion to count things of a particulate nature, such as seeds and grains, and most of them can be repelled with strong smells. Secondly, it is notable that the most common apotropaics reveal an interesting mix of the mystical and the practical. Despite the metaphysical significance with which we have imbued the piercing of a vampire's heart, stakes were probably originally simply a very practical way of pinning a corpse to the ground; in fact thorns and stakes both have obvious mechanical attributes which combines with their mystical significance to produce very effective protection.
So what repels Unnatural Predators, or at least contains and controls their malign influence? Can a study of these methods and materials reveal more about the nature of the supernatural assailants?
Apotropaics is a huge subject, covered at length in the book of Unnatural Predators. Join our mailing list to get publication information and site updates.
