To begin with being an Upyre is a dual fact of biology and of the spiritual and this dual fact creates a culture in which the needs of an Upyre are met. An Upyre must feed or die as would any other living being regardless of the tribe, family, lineage, clan, house, lodge or one’s circle or court. The vampyre lifestyle is a way of living, usually a human, life and it may or may not have in it a spiritual element and often a sexual element. For one living the vampyre lifestyle to feed is not a biological need and such often treat feeding as a treat or a fetish. An Upyre does not choose to be what it is nor is it a curse any more than one chooses an ethnic group. An Upyre can process what it feeds from on a biological level so that an Upyre blood drinker would consume an amount of blood that would make a human ill. One living the vampyre lifestyle may consume some blood and may even develop a mental-sexual fixation on blood but that is an addiction not an actual need. Both the living Upyre and the one living the vampyre lifestyle may be drawn to the occult and so both may have power to some degree. Often an Upyre will shun the going tropes of the vampyre because its eyes and its skin is not easily hidden nor are its senses. One of the vampyre lifestyle often is drawn to the going vampyre tropes and will build all it does around those tropes. This difference can cause the one of the vampyre life to seem more “real” than the Upyre.

Part of being an Upyre is predatory consciousness which includes an awareness that a predator should blend in. For that reason an Upyre would use the gothic and vampyre lifestyle gatherings to blend in and be social, as well as meet other Upyreshi. Most in the vampyre lifestyle shun even the idea of an Upyre and some even see those that do not as having a mental disorder. Many groups in the vampyre lifestyle use obvious symbols that draw the eye whereas Upyre groups tend to use subtle symbols and are trained to look for them. This does not make the one in the vampyre lifestyle less or fake and the Upyre greater or real, merely different with different goals. One issue between the Upyre and the member of the vampyre lifestyle is that both use similar and in some cases the same terms, such as having a Beast and going through an Awakening and the need to achieve balance in one’s life. A member of the vampyre lifestyle may not like daytime but an Upyre is harmed by solar radiation and this reaction is objectively observable. It is common for some in the vampyre lifestyle to term what they are as a mental-medical condition or something to be initiated into; no one can become an Upyre. An important feature of being an Upyre is that one tends to be stronger, faster and healthier than humans; in fact, a strong Upyre can go on without illness for over two decades as an example. A member of the vampyre lifestyle is subject to all the usual ills of mortal life though they may know how to heal faster than one outside the life. Another major difference between one of the vampyre lifestyle and an Upyre is that many in the vampyre life are empathic types; Upyre are not.

Both the active member of the vampyre lifestyle and an actual Upyre are part of the Night of Pan of which The Testament of Shadows speaks. Houses in both the vampyre life scene and in the Upyre community are known to have members of both types. Older Upyre Houses and Clans tend to weed out those who are not actual Upyreshi while those in the vampyre life make no such divisions so long as the member goes with the going trope. It is held by Upyreshi that the vampyre life was learned by interaction between Upyreshi and humans of the same type that created lines of donors that once fed Upyreshi in return for protection and provision. The confusion between a living Upyre and one living the vampyre life draws hunters to both who see them as the same.