Eric Northman is a character in a novel Dead Until Dark and is also in the True Blood tv series.. He is a 1000 year old vampire who owns a club in a small town and also serves as the appointed vampire sheriff for Louisiana area 5. This means he keeps all the vampires in that area under his radar and makes sure everyone is behaving up to code. Eric is quite ruthless and kills with 0 hesitation.
Both Lord Ruthven and Eric seem to draw a lot of attention from others due to their mysterious nature . While Eric is just phyiscally attracitve , Lord Ruthven seems to get attention from his disposition. When the story first begins and Lord Ruthven is being introduced as this peculiar person the writer states ” those who felt this sensation of awe , could not explain whence it arose” which gives off the idea that people may have been into him based on his energy and less from charming looks. In True Blood there are a lot of woman who offer themselves up to Eric in the same way at this gathering in The Vampyre woman are attempting and failing to woo Lord Ruthven. Eric definitely entertains the women who gather around him more than Lord Ruthven but mostly because its just another way for him to exercise his power and dominance.
Interesting comparison! I was thinking that Ruthven reminded me of Bill, but you make a convincing comparison with Eric as well.