I know that vampires are not real. But even the vampires in folklore are as a rule more dangerous and dark than your typical Twilight vampire. And since Twilight, you seldom find anything else but those whiny wannabe vampires. ANd Astarion fits right into that.
How vampires were imagined in folklore was very regional; not all were "evil terrible blood drinkers" and some had little to do with what you describe. Some would in this modern times probably considered more dark comedy than horror. Just because Western media likes to reuse the same trope, doesn't make this trope neither more original, nor more "real".
In most mythology all kinds of revenants, including vampires, were feared. There might be exceptions, but they were rare. Certainly, vampires were not seen as sexy beings until recently due to - as you mentioned - modern western media, in most cultures, they were described as looking clearly dead and sometimes even rotting. True, they don't all drink blood, some absorb your life force (like the chinese Jiangshi) or eat your flesh (as in some legends from my home country Germany), but in most tales, they are not seen as anything than a terror.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
