Roots of Origin

The vampires of the past used to be soulless monsters, inherently evil, and often associated with the devil. Today's vampire stories find other ways to explain the origins of vampires and in some cases, they don't even bother. I've listed a few examples below of movies, television shows, and books that I'm familiar with and the different explanations they give for the existence of vampires.

[Photo URL: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-vampire-diaries-tv-show/images/16586463/title/tvd-poster-photo]  In The Vampire Diaries, a show on the CW geared towards young adults, we find out in the eighth episode of the third season, "Ordinary People," that the Originals (the original family of vampires) were turned into vampires with magic by their mother, who is a very powerful witch and wants to keep her family from dying. [Photo URL: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lover-awakened-j-r-ward/1100173197?ean=9780451219367]  The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a paranormal romance series by J.R. Ward centering around a brotherhood of elite warrior vampires. In this world, vampires evolved alongside humans and are a separate species, meaning that a human can't become a vampire. A vampire is basically human until they are around 25, at which point they transition. In the case of the warriors, they go from being physically small and weak to heavily muscled, deadly males. [Photo URL: http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/poster/2921/Underworld-movie-poster.html] In the first Underworld movie we find out that the vampires (and werewolves) in this world are descended from Alexander Corvinus, whose body, in a time of plague, somehow mutated the virus and became immortal. According to the legend, "Alexander Corvinus... Hungarian, a warlord... who came to power in the early seasons of the fifth century. Just in time to watch a plague ravage his village. He alone survived. Somehow, his body was able to change the disease... mold it to his benefit. He became the first true immortal. And years later, he fathered at least two children... who inherited the same trait."  "The sons of the Corvinus clan. One bitten by bat, one by wolf... one to walk the lonely road of mortality as a human. " [Quote URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320691/quotes] [Photo URL: http://stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html] Last but not least is the Twilight Saga, originally a series of novels for teens which was later translated to the big screen. This series, arguably one of the most popular vampire stories, doesn't explain the origin of vampires. The question is touched upon in the second book/movie, but no one seems to know if vampires are soulless and therefore damned or if they still maintain the hope of redemption.  These are just a few examples of origin stories that I'm familiar with, although I'm sure that each individual vampire story, whether it be a movie, television show, or book, has their own version, or like the Twilight Saga, leaves us wondering.