The Scientific Vampire (The Blood)
Vampires have always been amongst the most popular mythological creatures, from the tales of Bram Stoker to more modern incarnations like those in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight. However, in case you have been living in a cave and these have all bypassed you, here is a brief overview of the vampire legend: vampires are generally believed to be human beings who, in life, were bitten by another vampire and then return after death to feed on the blood of other humans. Vampires are generally assumed to never die naturally but, depending on which adaptation you read, can be killed by exposure to sunlight, garlic, holy water or direct penetration through the heart with a wooden stake. Vampires are now a pretty popular part of modern culture, but how could the myth have first come about?
Although few scientific papers exist on this topic the internet is rife with debate and appears to point to several different medical conditions:
Probably the most popular theory of the origin of the vampire is the disease porphyria: as explained by this article in Scientific American. Porphyria is actually a term for several diseases which are all caused by irregularities in production of heme, a chemical in blood. Some forms of this condition, such as cutaneous erythropoietic porphyria (CEP), lead to deposition of toxins in the skin. Sufferers are often sensitive to light since light activates these toxins. When active, toxins eat away at the skin causing disfigurement, including erosion of the lips and gums. These factors could have led to the corpse-like, fanged appearance that we associate with vampires and their dislike of sunlight. Interestingly, people who suffer from porphyria also have an intolerance to foods that have a high sulphur content…such as garlic.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Another possible explanation for vampires is tuberculosis (TB). This is a lung disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The reason this disease has been suggested as the origin of the vampire myth is because victims turn very pale, often avoid the sunlight and cough up blood. This is actually due to the disease damaging the lungs, but it’s easy to see how it could be misinterpreted as someone having recently drunk blood. According to this study, the vampire myth may also have arisen from the fact that TB spreads rapidly and easily from person to person. The infectious nature of this disease may have led to the belief that the vampire rises from the dead to feed on his loved ones, causing them to suffer the same symptoms.
An intriguing alternative explanation is Catalepsy. This is a disease of the central nervous system leading to a slowing of the heart and breathing rate, with sufferers often seizing up completely. These symptoms may have led people to mistakenly believe the sufferer to be dead. Therefore, since these individuals were perceived to have risen from the dead, it is easy to see how this disorder could be linked to paranormal mythology
Although few scientific papers exist on this topic the internet is rife with debate and appears to point to several different medical conditions:
Probably the most popular theory of the origin of the vampire is the disease porphyria: as explained by this article in Scientific American. Porphyria is actually a term for several diseases which are all caused by irregularities in production of heme, a chemical in blood. Some forms of this condition, such as cutaneous erythropoietic porphyria (CEP), lead to deposition of toxins in the skin. Sufferers are often sensitive to light since light activates these toxins. When active, toxins eat away at the skin causing disfigurement, including erosion of the lips and gums. These factors could have led to the corpse-like, fanged appearance that we associate with vampires and their dislike of sunlight. Interestingly, people who suffer from porphyria also have an intolerance to foods that have a high sulphur content…such as garlic.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Another possible explanation for vampires is tuberculosis (TB). This is a lung disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The reason this disease has been suggested as the origin of the vampire myth is because victims turn very pale, often avoid the sunlight and cough up blood. This is actually due to the disease damaging the lungs, but it’s easy to see how it could be misinterpreted as someone having recently drunk blood. According to this study, the vampire myth may also have arisen from the fact that TB spreads rapidly and easily from person to person. The infectious nature of this disease may have led to the belief that the vampire rises from the dead to feed on his loved ones, causing them to suffer the same symptoms.
An intriguing alternative explanation is Catalepsy. This is a disease of the central nervous system leading to a slowing of the heart and breathing rate, with sufferers often seizing up completely. These symptoms may have led people to mistakenly believe the sufferer to be dead. Therefore, since these individuals were perceived to have risen from the dead, it is easy to see how this disorder could be linked to paranormal mythology
The Great New England Vampire Pandemic
Her name was Mercy Brown and people were swearing that she was still alive even after she had been buried in the local church graveyard.
Children playing near a hillside gravel mine found the first graves. One ran home to tell his mother, who was skeptical at first—until the boy produced a skull
Because this was Griswold, Connecticut, in 1890, police initially thought the burials might be the work of a local serial killer named Michael Ross, and they taped off the area as a crime scene. But the brown, decaying bones turned out to be more than a century old. The Connecticut state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, soon determined that the hillside contained a colonial-era farm cemetery. New England is full of such unmarked family plots, and the 29 burials were typical of the 1700s and early 1800s: The dead, many of them children, were laid to rest in thrifty Yankee style, in simple wood coffins, without jewelry or even much clothing, their arms resting by their sides or crossed over their chests.
Except, that is, for Burial Number 4.
Bellantoni was interested in the grave even before the excavation began. It was one of only two stone crypts in the cemetery, and it was partially visible from the mine face.
Scraping away soil with flat-edged shovels, and then brushes and bamboo picks, the archaeologist and his team worked through several feet of earth before reaching the top of the crypt. When Bellantoni lifted the first of the large, flat rocks that formed the roof, he uncovered the remains of a red-painted coffin and a pair of skeletal feet. They lay, he remembers, “in perfect anatomical position.” But when he raised the next stone, Bellantoni saw that the rest of the individual “had been completely...rearranged.” The skeleton had been beheaded; skull and thighbones rested atop the ribs and vertebrae. “It looked like a skull-and-crossbones motif, a Jolly Roger. I’d never seen anything like it,” Bellantoni recalls.
Subsequent analysis showed that the beheading, along with other injuries, including rib fractures, occurred roughly five years after death. Somebody had also smashed the coffin.
The other skeletons in the gravel hillside were packaged for reburial, but not “J.B.,” as the 50ish male skeleton from the 1830s came to be called, because of the initials spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin lid. He was shipped to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Washington, D.C., for further study. Meanwhile, Bellantoni started networking. He invited archaeologists and historians to tour the excavation, soliciting theories. Simple vandalism seemed unlikely, as did robbery, because of the lack of valuables at the site.
Finally, one colleague asked: “Ever heard of the Jewett City vampires?”
In 1854, in neighboring Jewett City, Connecticut, townspeople had exhumed several corpses suspected to be vampires that were rising from their graves to kill the living. A few newspaper accounts of these events survived. Had the Griswold grave been desecrated for the same reason?
In the course of his far-flung research, Bellantoni placed a serendipitous phone call to Michael Bell, a Rhode Island folklorist, who had devoted much of the previous decade to studying New England vampire exhumations. The Griswold case occurred at roughly the same time as the other incidents Bell had investigated. And the setting was right: Griswold was rural, agrarian and bordering southern Rhode Island, where multiple exhumations had occurred. Many of the other “vampires,” like J.B., had been disinterred, grotesquely tampered with and reburied.
Children playing near a hillside gravel mine found the first graves. One ran home to tell his mother, who was skeptical at first—until the boy produced a skull
Because this was Griswold, Connecticut, in 1890, police initially thought the burials might be the work of a local serial killer named Michael Ross, and they taped off the area as a crime scene. But the brown, decaying bones turned out to be more than a century old. The Connecticut state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, soon determined that the hillside contained a colonial-era farm cemetery. New England is full of such unmarked family plots, and the 29 burials were typical of the 1700s and early 1800s: The dead, many of them children, were laid to rest in thrifty Yankee style, in simple wood coffins, without jewelry or even much clothing, their arms resting by their sides or crossed over their chests.
Except, that is, for Burial Number 4.
Bellantoni was interested in the grave even before the excavation began. It was one of only two stone crypts in the cemetery, and it was partially visible from the mine face.
Scraping away soil with flat-edged shovels, and then brushes and bamboo picks, the archaeologist and his team worked through several feet of earth before reaching the top of the crypt. When Bellantoni lifted the first of the large, flat rocks that formed the roof, he uncovered the remains of a red-painted coffin and a pair of skeletal feet. They lay, he remembers, “in perfect anatomical position.” But when he raised the next stone, Bellantoni saw that the rest of the individual “had been completely...rearranged.” The skeleton had been beheaded; skull and thighbones rested atop the ribs and vertebrae. “It looked like a skull-and-crossbones motif, a Jolly Roger. I’d never seen anything like it,” Bellantoni recalls.
Subsequent analysis showed that the beheading, along with other injuries, including rib fractures, occurred roughly five years after death. Somebody had also smashed the coffin.
The other skeletons in the gravel hillside were packaged for reburial, but not “J.B.,” as the 50ish male skeleton from the 1830s came to be called, because of the initials spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin lid. He was shipped to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Washington, D.C., for further study. Meanwhile, Bellantoni started networking. He invited archaeologists and historians to tour the excavation, soliciting theories. Simple vandalism seemed unlikely, as did robbery, because of the lack of valuables at the site.
Finally, one colleague asked: “Ever heard of the Jewett City vampires?”
In 1854, in neighboring Jewett City, Connecticut, townspeople had exhumed several corpses suspected to be vampires that were rising from their graves to kill the living. A few newspaper accounts of these events survived. Had the Griswold grave been desecrated for the same reason?
In the course of his far-flung research, Bellantoni placed a serendipitous phone call to Michael Bell, a Rhode Island folklorist, who had devoted much of the previous decade to studying New England vampire exhumations. The Griswold case occurred at roughly the same time as the other incidents Bell had investigated. And the setting was right: Griswold was rural, agrarian and bordering southern Rhode Island, where multiple exhumations had occurred. Many of the other “vampires,” like J.B., had been disinterred, grotesquely tampered with and reburied.
Historical Vampires
Vampires are a perennial favorite around Halloween, but they can be found year-round in movies and on television, in books and on blogs. The public's thirst for vampires seems as endless as vampires' thirst for blood. Modern writers of vampire fiction, including Stephenie Meyer, Anne Rice, Stephen King and countless others, have a rich vein of vampire lore to draw from. But where did the vampires come from?
The most famous vampire is, of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula, though those looking for a historical "real" Dracula often cite Romanian prince Vlad Tepes (1431-1476), after whom Stoker is said to have modeled some aspects of his Dracula character. The characterization of Tepes as a vampire, however, is a distinctly Western one; in Romania, he is viewed not as a blood-drinking sadist but as a national hero who defended his empire from the Ottoman Turks.
The vampires most people are familiar with (such as Dracula) are revenants — human corpses that are said to return from the grave to harm the living; these vampires have Slavic origins only a few hundred years old. But other, older, versions of the vampire were not thought to be human at all but instead supernatural, possibly demonic, entities that did not take human form.
Matthew Beresford, author of "From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth" (Reaktion, 2008), notes, "There are clear foundations for the vampire in the ancient world, and it is impossible to prove when the myth first arose. There are suggestions that the vampire was born out of sorcery in ancient Egypt, a demon summoned into this world from some other." There are many variations of vampires from around the world. There are Asian vampires, such as the Chinese jiangshi (pronounced chong-shee), evil spirits that attack people and drain their life energy; the blood-drinking Wrathful Deities that appear in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead," and many others.
Identifying vampires
While most people can name several elements of vampire lore, there are no firmly established characteristics. Some vampires are said to be able to turn into bats or wolves; others can't. Some are said not to cast a reflection, but others do. Holy water and sunlight are said to repel or kill some vampires, but not others. The one universal characteristic is the draining of a vital bodily fluid, typically blood. One of the reasons that vampires make such successful literary figures is that they have a rich and varied history and folklore. Writers can play with the "rules" while adding, subtracting or changing them to fit whatever story they have in mind.
Finding a vampire is not always easy: according to one Romanian legend you'll need a 7-year-old boy and a white horse. The boy should be dressed in white, placed upon the horse, and the pair set loose in a graveyard at midday. Watch the horse wander around, and whichever grave is nearest the horse when it finally stops is a vampire's grave — or it might just have something edible nearby; take your pick.
Interest and belief in revenants surged in the Middle Ages in Europe. Though in most modern stories the classic way to become a vampire is to be bitten by one, that is a relatively new twist. In his book "Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality" (Yale, 2008), folklorist Paul Barber noted that centuries ago, "Often potential revenants can be identified at birth, usually by some abnormality, some defect, as when a child is born with teeth. Similarly suspicious are children born with an extra nipple (in Romania, for example); with a lack of cartilage in the nose, or a split lower lip (in Russia) … When a child is born with a red caul, or amniotic membrane, covering its head, this was regarded throughout much of Europe as presumptive evidence that it is destined to return from the dead." Such minor deformities were looked upon as evil omens at the time.
The belief in vampires stems from superstition and mistaken assumptions about postmortem decay. The first recorded accounts of vampires follow a consistent pattern: Some unexplained misfortune would befall a person, family or town — perhaps a drought dried up crops, or an infectious disease struck. Before science could explain weather patterns and germ theory, any bad event for which there was not an obvious cause might be blamed on a vampire. Vampires were one easy answer to the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people.
Villagers combined their belief that something had cursed them with fear of the dead, and concluded that perhaps the recently deceased might be responsible, having come back from the graves with evil intent. Graves were unearthed, and surprised villagers often mistook ordinary decomposition processes for supernatural phenomenon. For example, though laypeople might assume that a body would decompose immediately, if the coffin is well sealed and buried in winter, putrefaction might be delayed by weeks or months; intestinal decomposition creates bloating which can force blood up into the mouth, making it look like a dead body has recently sucked blood. These processes are well understood by modern doctors and morticians, but in medieval Europe were taken as unmistakable signs that vampires were real and existed among them.
A skeleton buried in the cemetery of Vecchiano in Pisa showing a similar condition to the purported "Venetian vampire."
Credit: Antonio FornaciariView full size image
Vampire defense and protection
The best way to deal with vampires, of course, is to prevent them from coming back in the first place. A few centuries ago in Europe this was often accomplished by staking suspected vampires in their graves; the idea was to physically pin the vampire to the earth, and the chest was chosen because it's the trunk of the body. This tradition was later reflected in popular fiction depicting wooden stakes as dispatching vampires. There was no particular significance to using wood; according to folklore, vampires — like djinn (genies) and many other magical creatures — fear iron, so an iron bar would be even more effective than a wooden stake.
Other traditional methods of killing vampires include decapitation and stuffing the severed head's mouth with garlic or a brick. In fact, suspected vampire graves have been found with just such signs. According to a 2012 Live Science article, "The body of the woman was found in a mass grave on the Venetian island of Nuovo Lazzaretto. Suspecting that she might be a vampire, a common folk belief at the time, gravediggers shoved a rock into her skull to prevent her from chewing through her shroud and infecting others with the plague, said anthropologist Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence." Other researchers later challenged this interpretation, and suggested that the brick may not have been placed in the mouth after all, but instead was one of many bricks surrounding the body that merely fell there after burial. Whether that burial reflected an accused vampire or not, other graves are much clearer. In 2013, archaeologists in Bulgaria found two skeletons with iron rods through their chests; the pair are believed to have been accused vampires, according to an article in Archaeology magazine.
The skull of the "vampire of Venice," found in a mass grave with a brick stuck in its jaw.
Credit: Matteo BorriniView full size image
If your local villagers neglected to unearth and stake a suspected vampire and he or she has returned from the grave, there are steps you can take to protect yourself. The exact method varies around the world, but in some traditions the best way to stop a vampire is to carry a small bag of salt with you. If you are being chased, you need only to spill the salt on the ground behind you, at which point the vampire is obligated to stop and count each and every grain before continuing the pursuit. If you don't have salt handy, some say that any small granules will do, including birdseed or sand. Salt was often placed above and around doorways for the same reason.
Some traditions hold that vampires cannot enter a home unless formally invited in. This may have been an early form of the modern "stranger danger" warnings to children, a scary reminder against inviting unknown people into the house.
Credit: Ltshears | WikimediaView full size image
Real vampires
There are, of course, a few truly vampiric animals, including leeches, lampreys and vampire bats. And in all these cases the vampire's intent is to draw enough blood for sustenance, but not enough to kill the host.
But what about human vampires? There are certainly many self-identified vampires who participate in gothic-inspired subcultures. Some host vampire-themed book clubs or secret bloodletting rituals; others wear capes or get vampire-fang dental implants. It's all frightening and fun, but blood drinking is another matter entirely. The problem is that blood is toxic; because it is so rich in iron — and because the human body has difficulty excreting excess iron — anyone who consumes blood regularly runs a real risk of haemochromatosis (iron overdose), which can cause a wide variety of diseases and problems, including liver and nervous system damage.
In one form or another, vampires have been part of human culture and folklore in different forms for millennia, and the bloodsuckers show no signs of going away any time soon.
The most famous vampire is, of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula, though those looking for a historical "real" Dracula often cite Romanian prince Vlad Tepes (1431-1476), after whom Stoker is said to have modeled some aspects of his Dracula character. The characterization of Tepes as a vampire, however, is a distinctly Western one; in Romania, he is viewed not as a blood-drinking sadist but as a national hero who defended his empire from the Ottoman Turks.
The vampires most people are familiar with (such as Dracula) are revenants — human corpses that are said to return from the grave to harm the living; these vampires have Slavic origins only a few hundred years old. But other, older, versions of the vampire were not thought to be human at all but instead supernatural, possibly demonic, entities that did not take human form.
Matthew Beresford, author of "From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth" (Reaktion, 2008), notes, "There are clear foundations for the vampire in the ancient world, and it is impossible to prove when the myth first arose. There are suggestions that the vampire was born out of sorcery in ancient Egypt, a demon summoned into this world from some other." There are many variations of vampires from around the world. There are Asian vampires, such as the Chinese jiangshi (pronounced chong-shee), evil spirits that attack people and drain their life energy; the blood-drinking Wrathful Deities that appear in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead," and many others.
Identifying vampires
While most people can name several elements of vampire lore, there are no firmly established characteristics. Some vampires are said to be able to turn into bats or wolves; others can't. Some are said not to cast a reflection, but others do. Holy water and sunlight are said to repel or kill some vampires, but not others. The one universal characteristic is the draining of a vital bodily fluid, typically blood. One of the reasons that vampires make such successful literary figures is that they have a rich and varied history and folklore. Writers can play with the "rules" while adding, subtracting or changing them to fit whatever story they have in mind.
Finding a vampire is not always easy: according to one Romanian legend you'll need a 7-year-old boy and a white horse. The boy should be dressed in white, placed upon the horse, and the pair set loose in a graveyard at midday. Watch the horse wander around, and whichever grave is nearest the horse when it finally stops is a vampire's grave — or it might just have something edible nearby; take your pick.
Interest and belief in revenants surged in the Middle Ages in Europe. Though in most modern stories the classic way to become a vampire is to be bitten by one, that is a relatively new twist. In his book "Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality" (Yale, 2008), folklorist Paul Barber noted that centuries ago, "Often potential revenants can be identified at birth, usually by some abnormality, some defect, as when a child is born with teeth. Similarly suspicious are children born with an extra nipple (in Romania, for example); with a lack of cartilage in the nose, or a split lower lip (in Russia) … When a child is born with a red caul, or amniotic membrane, covering its head, this was regarded throughout much of Europe as presumptive evidence that it is destined to return from the dead." Such minor deformities were looked upon as evil omens at the time.
The belief in vampires stems from superstition and mistaken assumptions about postmortem decay. The first recorded accounts of vampires follow a consistent pattern: Some unexplained misfortune would befall a person, family or town — perhaps a drought dried up crops, or an infectious disease struck. Before science could explain weather patterns and germ theory, any bad event for which there was not an obvious cause might be blamed on a vampire. Vampires were one easy answer to the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people.
Villagers combined their belief that something had cursed them with fear of the dead, and concluded that perhaps the recently deceased might be responsible, having come back from the graves with evil intent. Graves were unearthed, and surprised villagers often mistook ordinary decomposition processes for supernatural phenomenon. For example, though laypeople might assume that a body would decompose immediately, if the coffin is well sealed and buried in winter, putrefaction might be delayed by weeks or months; intestinal decomposition creates bloating which can force blood up into the mouth, making it look like a dead body has recently sucked blood. These processes are well understood by modern doctors and morticians, but in medieval Europe were taken as unmistakable signs that vampires were real and existed among them.
A skeleton buried in the cemetery of Vecchiano in Pisa showing a similar condition to the purported "Venetian vampire."
Credit: Antonio FornaciariView full size image
Vampire defense and protection
The best way to deal with vampires, of course, is to prevent them from coming back in the first place. A few centuries ago in Europe this was often accomplished by staking suspected vampires in their graves; the idea was to physically pin the vampire to the earth, and the chest was chosen because it's the trunk of the body. This tradition was later reflected in popular fiction depicting wooden stakes as dispatching vampires. There was no particular significance to using wood; according to folklore, vampires — like djinn (genies) and many other magical creatures — fear iron, so an iron bar would be even more effective than a wooden stake.
Other traditional methods of killing vampires include decapitation and stuffing the severed head's mouth with garlic or a brick. In fact, suspected vampire graves have been found with just such signs. According to a 2012 Live Science article, "The body of the woman was found in a mass grave on the Venetian island of Nuovo Lazzaretto. Suspecting that she might be a vampire, a common folk belief at the time, gravediggers shoved a rock into her skull to prevent her from chewing through her shroud and infecting others with the plague, said anthropologist Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence." Other researchers later challenged this interpretation, and suggested that the brick may not have been placed in the mouth after all, but instead was one of many bricks surrounding the body that merely fell there after burial. Whether that burial reflected an accused vampire or not, other graves are much clearer. In 2013, archaeologists in Bulgaria found two skeletons with iron rods through their chests; the pair are believed to have been accused vampires, according to an article in Archaeology magazine.
The skull of the "vampire of Venice," found in a mass grave with a brick stuck in its jaw.
Credit: Matteo BorriniView full size image
If your local villagers neglected to unearth and stake a suspected vampire and he or she has returned from the grave, there are steps you can take to protect yourself. The exact method varies around the world, but in some traditions the best way to stop a vampire is to carry a small bag of salt with you. If you are being chased, you need only to spill the salt on the ground behind you, at which point the vampire is obligated to stop and count each and every grain before continuing the pursuit. If you don't have salt handy, some say that any small granules will do, including birdseed or sand. Salt was often placed above and around doorways for the same reason.
Some traditions hold that vampires cannot enter a home unless formally invited in. This may have been an early form of the modern "stranger danger" warnings to children, a scary reminder against inviting unknown people into the house.
Credit: Ltshears | WikimediaView full size image
Real vampires
There are, of course, a few truly vampiric animals, including leeches, lampreys and vampire bats. And in all these cases the vampire's intent is to draw enough blood for sustenance, but not enough to kill the host.
But what about human vampires? There are certainly many self-identified vampires who participate in gothic-inspired subcultures. Some host vampire-themed book clubs or secret bloodletting rituals; others wear capes or get vampire-fang dental implants. It's all frightening and fun, but blood drinking is another matter entirely. The problem is that blood is toxic; because it is so rich in iron — and because the human body has difficulty excreting excess iron — anyone who consumes blood regularly runs a real risk of haemochromatosis (iron overdose), which can cause a wide variety of diseases and problems, including liver and nervous system damage.
In one form or another, vampires have been part of human culture and folklore in different forms for millennia, and the bloodsuckers show no signs of going away any time soon.
Vampiric Virology (Vampirism as a virus)
Vampires are humans who have been infected with a complex, symbiotic virus that rewrites the genetic code of every nucleus in the body, resulting in countless alterations to their biological makeup. Changes in their brain chemistry and digestive system cause them to hunger for the blood of uninfected humans, and they will commit unspeakably violent acts to get it. They are also known for their enhanced physical capabilities, longevity and averse reaction to bright light and UV rays.
In 1616, Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli published his Treatise on Vampires, in which he speculated that vampirism was caused by a microscopic pathogen, as opposed to demonic possession and other such myths. Tragically, he was burned at the stake for heresy, but his research lived on to inspire countless dedicated men and women to bring you the information included on this page.
The Virus
The source of vampirism is the human vampirism virus (HVV). Like rabies, HVV has a distinct bullet shape and belongs to the order Mononegavirales—viruses with a nonsegmented, negative-stranded RNA genome. The virus' natural host is a flea commonly found on cave-dwelling bats—most notably the vampire bat. In the most common scenario, the flea bites a bat, which in-turn passes the virus on to humans and other mammals.
While most viruses are highly specific in what tissues they target, HVV is able to infect every living cell in the body, with the exception of red blood cells (which are replaced over time by the infected bone marrow). It's also much less destructive, as it can effectively transform tissues without killing them.
In theory, HVV infection is possible through any exchange of bodily fluids; however, transmission occurs through the bite of an infected person or animal in virtually every case. Thankfully, the virus isn't airborne.
Stage One: Infection. Within six to twelve hours of exposure, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms, as well as a drastic increase in metabolism and heart rate as the virus spreads throughout the body. These symptoms can be easily confused with more common infections, although the presence of bite marks is usually enough to confirm the diagnosis. This stage generally lasts another six to twelve hours, during which the vaccine is 99 percent effective. The victim should also be treated with fluids and antibiotics.
Stage Two: Coma.Within 24 hours of exposure, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. About 12 hours into this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. Thousands have been buried alive because of this. While it is commonly thought that anyone infected with HVV turns into a vampire, in fact only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, old and feeble never come out of their comas and eventually die, while the vast majority of survivors are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day, and usually end the night after their onset. The vaccine is roughly 50 percent effective when administered during Stage Two of the infection: the longer the victim has been in the coma, the less effective the vaccine.
Stage Three: Transformation. An HVV victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia, accompanied by the pain of dehydration and malnutrition. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation. The vaccine is of no use at this point, as all virus activity has gone dormant.
In 1616, Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli published his Treatise on Vampires, in which he speculated that vampirism was caused by a microscopic pathogen, as opposed to demonic possession and other such myths. Tragically, he was burned at the stake for heresy, but his research lived on to inspire countless dedicated men and women to bring you the information included on this page.
The Virus
The source of vampirism is the human vampirism virus (HVV). Like rabies, HVV has a distinct bullet shape and belongs to the order Mononegavirales—viruses with a nonsegmented, negative-stranded RNA genome. The virus' natural host is a flea commonly found on cave-dwelling bats—most notably the vampire bat. In the most common scenario, the flea bites a bat, which in-turn passes the virus on to humans and other mammals.
While most viruses are highly specific in what tissues they target, HVV is able to infect every living cell in the body, with the exception of red blood cells (which are replaced over time by the infected bone marrow). It's also much less destructive, as it can effectively transform tissues without killing them.
In theory, HVV infection is possible through any exchange of bodily fluids; however, transmission occurs through the bite of an infected person or animal in virtually every case. Thankfully, the virus isn't airborne.
Stage One: Infection. Within six to twelve hours of exposure, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms, as well as a drastic increase in metabolism and heart rate as the virus spreads throughout the body. These symptoms can be easily confused with more common infections, although the presence of bite marks is usually enough to confirm the diagnosis. This stage generally lasts another six to twelve hours, during which the vaccine is 99 percent effective. The victim should also be treated with fluids and antibiotics.
Stage Two: Coma.Within 24 hours of exposure, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. About 12 hours into this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. Thousands have been buried alive because of this. While it is commonly thought that anyone infected with HVV turns into a vampire, in fact only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, old and feeble never come out of their comas and eventually die, while the vast majority of survivors are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day, and usually end the night after their onset. The vaccine is roughly 50 percent effective when administered during Stage Two of the infection: the longer the victim has been in the coma, the less effective the vaccine.
Stage Three: Transformation. An HVV victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia, accompanied by the pain of dehydration and malnutrition. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation. The vaccine is of no use at this point, as all virus activity has gone dormant.
The First Vampire
Until recently, we didn't know a lot about the history of vampires.
Despite being one of the oldest and most prevalent creatures of world mythology, the origin of vampires has remained unknown for thousands of years. It wasn't until the Scriptures of Delphiwere found that we were given a glimpse into the early vampire history.
Making The First Vampire
Only a vampire can create another vampire, so logic tells us that the history of vampires begins with a single vampire who created the others. Much like the chicken-and-the-egg argument, we had little insight into how the first vampire came about until recently. Logically, if there was no vampire to make the first vampire, how was the first vampire made?
The answer lies in the Scriptures of Delphi, specifically in the collection of writings known as "The Vampire Bible".
The first vampire started out as not a vampire at all, but as a human man named Ambrogio. He was an Italian-born adventurer who fate brought to Delphi, in Greece. You can read the full story here, but in a nutshell a series of blessings and curses transformed this young man into history's first vampire.
Specifically, it began with the sun god Apollo (Greek mythology), who in a fit of rage cursed Ambrogio so that his skin would burn should it ever touch sunlight again. Ambrogio's bad luck followed when he ended up gambling away his soul to Hades (Greek mythology), the god of the underworld. The next curse came via Apollo's sister Artemis (Greek mythology), the goddess of the moon and hunting, who made it so that Ambrogio's skin would burn if he touched silver.
The blessings came soon after when Artemis, taking pity on the poor young man, gave him the gift of immortality. He would carry his curses - his skin burning by sunlight or silver, but he would live forever in his current form. Not only that, but Artemis also gave him the speed and strength to become a hunter whose skills were second only to her own.
Blood-sucking (which, by the way, is called "hematophagy" in case you were curious) is also included in this "blessing". In the vampire origin story, Ambrogio hunts swans and uses their blood as ink to write love poems to his lady Selene. While this may be considered a little creepy by our standards, it wasn't all that unusual in ancient Greece to make do with what you hunted.
Despite being one of the oldest and most prevalent creatures of world mythology, the origin of vampires has remained unknown for thousands of years. It wasn't until the Scriptures of Delphiwere found that we were given a glimpse into the early vampire history.
Making The First Vampire
Only a vampire can create another vampire, so logic tells us that the history of vampires begins with a single vampire who created the others. Much like the chicken-and-the-egg argument, we had little insight into how the first vampire came about until recently. Logically, if there was no vampire to make the first vampire, how was the first vampire made?
The answer lies in the Scriptures of Delphi, specifically in the collection of writings known as "The Vampire Bible".
The first vampire started out as not a vampire at all, but as a human man named Ambrogio. He was an Italian-born adventurer who fate brought to Delphi, in Greece. You can read the full story here, but in a nutshell a series of blessings and curses transformed this young man into history's first vampire.
Specifically, it began with the sun god Apollo (Greek mythology), who in a fit of rage cursed Ambrogio so that his skin would burn should it ever touch sunlight again. Ambrogio's bad luck followed when he ended up gambling away his soul to Hades (Greek mythology), the god of the underworld. The next curse came via Apollo's sister Artemis (Greek mythology), the goddess of the moon and hunting, who made it so that Ambrogio's skin would burn if he touched silver.
The blessings came soon after when Artemis, taking pity on the poor young man, gave him the gift of immortality. He would carry his curses - his skin burning by sunlight or silver, but he would live forever in his current form. Not only that, but Artemis also gave him the speed and strength to become a hunter whose skills were second only to her own.
Blood-sucking (which, by the way, is called "hematophagy" in case you were curious) is also included in this "blessing". In the vampire origin story, Ambrogio hunts swans and uses their blood as ink to write love poems to his lady Selene. While this may be considered a little creepy by our standards, it wasn't all that unusual in ancient Greece to make do with what you hunted.
You are more valuable than you think.
A well-known speaker started off his seminar holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it...?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.
Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.
You are special-Don't EVER forget it." If you do not pass this on, you may never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the hope that it may bring. Count your blessings, not your problems.
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it...?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.
Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.
You are special-Don't EVER forget it." If you do not pass this on, you may never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the hope that it may bring. Count your blessings, not your problems.
Vlad Tepes The Real Count Dracula and in the media
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Drăculești, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known, using his patronymic, as (Vlad) Drăculea or (Vlad) Dracula.
He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș, pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ]), and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania as well as other parts of Europe for his protection of the Romaniansboth north and south of the Danube. A significant number of Romanian common folk and remaining boyars (nobles) moved north of the Danube to Wallachia, recognized his leadership and settled there following his raids on the Ottomans.
As the cognomen "The Impaler" suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's last name.
Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires.
Though Dracula is a purely fictional creation, Stoker named his infamous character after a real person who happened to have a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler. The morbid nickname is a testament to the Wallachian prince's favorite way of dispensing with his enemies.
But other than having the same name, the two Draculas don't really have much in common, according to historians who have studied the link between Stoker's vampire count and Vlad III.
The Real Dracula
By most accounts, Vlad III was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern-day Romania. However, the link between Vlad the Impaler and Transylvania is tenuous, according to Florin Curta, a professor of medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida.
"[Stoker's] Dracula is linked to Transylvania, but the real, historic Dracula — Vlad III — never owned anything in Transylvania," Curta told Live Science. Bran Castle, a modern-day tourist attraction in Transylvania that is often referred to as Dracula's castle, was never the residence of the Wallachian prince, he added.
"Because the castle is in the mountains in this foggy area and it looks spooky, it's what one would expect of Dracula's castle," Curta said. "But he [Vlad III] never lived there. He never even stepped foot there."
Vlad III's father, Vlad II, did own a residence in Sighişoara, Transylvania, but it is not certain that Vlad III was born there, according to Curta. It's also possible, he said, that Vlad the Impaler was born in Târgovişte, which was at that time the royal seat of the principality of Wallachia, where his father was a "voivode," or ruler.
In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor, inducted the elder Vlad into a knightly order, the Order of the Dragon. This designation earned Vlad II a new surname: Dracul. The name came from the old Romanian word for dragon, "drac." His son, Vlad III, would later be known as the "son of Dracul" or, in old Romanian, Drăculea, hence Dracula. In modern Romanian, the word "drac" refers to another feared creature — the devil, Curta said.
The Order of the Dragon was devoted to a singular task: the defeat of the Turkish, or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II's (and later Vlad III's) home principality of Wallachia was frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian forces repulsed the invaders.
Years of captivity
When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along. But the meeting was actually a trap: All three were arrested and held hostage. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind.
"The sultan held Vlad and his brother as hostages to ensure that their father, Vlad II, behaved himself in the ongoing war between Turkey and Hungary," said Elizabeth Miller, a research historian and professor emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
Under the Ottomans, Vlad and his younger brother were tutored in science, philosophy and the arts. Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior, according to Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, former professors of history at Boston College, who wrote several books about Vlad III — as well as his alleged connection to Stoker's Dracula — in the 1970s and 1980s.
"They were treated reasonably well by the current standards of the time," Miller said. "Still, [captivity] irked Vlad, whereas his brother sort of acquiesced and went over on the Turkish side. But Vlad held enmity, and I think it was one of his motivating factors for fighting the Turks: to get even with them for having held him captive."
Vlad the Prince
While Vlad and Radu were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father was fighting to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia, a fight he would eventually lose. In 1447, Vlad II was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by local noblemen (boyars) and was killed in the swamps near Bălteni, half way between Târgovişte and Bucharest in present-day Romania. Vlad's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed alongside his father.
Not long after these harrowing events, in 1448, Vlad embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman governors of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria, according to Curta. Vlad also took advantage of the fact that Vladislav was absent at the time, having gone to the Balkans to fight the Ottomans for the governor of Hungary at the time, John Hunyadi.
Vlad won back his father's seat, but his time as ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was deposed after only two months, when Vladislav II returned and took back the throne of Wallachia with the assistance of Hunyadi, according to Curta.
Little is known about Vlad III's whereabouts between 1448 and 1456. But it is known that he switched sides in the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, giving up his ties with the Ottoman governors of the Danube cities and obtaining military support from King Ladislaus V of Hungary, who happened to dislike Vlad's rival — Vladislav II of Wallachia — according to Curta.
Vlad III’s political and military tack truly came to the forefront amid the fall of Constantinople in 1453. After the fall, the Ottomans were in a position to invade all of Europe. Vlad, who had already solidified his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed voivode of Wallachia in 1456. One of his first orders of business in his new role was to stop paying an annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan — a measure that had formerly ensured peace between Wallachia and the Ottomans.
Vlad the Impaler
To consolidate his power as voivode, Vlad needed to quell the incessant conflicts that had historically taken place between Wallachia's boyars. According to legends that circulated after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and — knowing they would challenge his authority — had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies impaled on spikes.
This is just one of many gruesome events that earned Vlad his posthumous nickname Vlad the Impaler. This story — and others like it — is documented in printed material from around the time of Vlad III's rule, according to Miller.
"In the 1460s and 1470s, just after the invention of the printing press, a lot of these stories about Vlad were circulating orally, and then they were put together by different individuals in pamphlets and printed," Miller said.
Whether or not these stories are wholly true or significantly embellished is debatable, Miller added. After all, many of those printing the pamphlets were hostile to Vlad III. But some of the pamphlets from this time tell almost the exact same gruesome stories about Vlad, leading Miller to believe that the tales are at least partially historically accurate. Some of these legends were also collected and published in a book, "The Tale of Dracula," in 1490, by a monk who presented Vlad III as a fierce, but just ruler.
Vlad is credited with impaling dozens of Saxon merchants in Kronstadt (present-day Braşov, Romania), who were once allied with the boyars, in 1456. Around the same time, a group of Ottoman envoys allegedly had an audience with Vlad but declined to remove their turbans, citing a religious custom. Commending them on their religious devotion, Vlad ensured that their turbans would forever remain on their heads by reportedly having the head coverings nailed to their skulls.
"After Mehmet II — the one who conquered Constantinople — invaded Wallachia in 1462, he actually was able to go all the way to Wallachia's capital city of Târgoviște but found it deserted. And in front of the capital he found the bodies of the Ottoman prisoners of war that Vlad had taken — all impaled," Curta said.
Vlad's victories over the invading Ottomans were celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe — even Pope Pius II was impressed.
"The reason he's a positive character in Romania is because he is reputed to have been a just, though a very harsh, ruler," Curta said.
Vlad's death
Not long after the impalement of Ottoman prisoners of war, in August 1462, Vlad was forced into exile in Hungary, unable to defeat his much more powerful adversary, Mehmet II. Vlad was imprisoned for a number of years during his exile, though during that same time he married and had two children.
Vlad's younger brother, Radu, who had sided with the Ottomans during the ongoing military campaigns, took over governance of Wallachia after his brother's imprisonment. But after Radu's death in 1475, local boyars, as well as the rulers of several nearby principalities, favored Vlad’s return to power.
In 1476, with the support of the voivode of Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (1457-1504), Vlad made one last effort to reclaim his seat as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole back the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, while marching to yet another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambushed, and Vlad was killed.
There is much controversy over the location of Vlad III's tomb. It is said he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. But recently, historians have questioned whether Vlad might actually be buried at the Monastery of Comana, between Bucharest and the Danube, which is close to the presumed location of the battle in which Vlad was killed, according to Curta.
One thing is for certain, however: unlike Stoker's Count Dracula, Vlad III most definitely did die. Only the harrowing tales of his years as ruler of Wallachia remain to haunt the modern world.
Vampire mythology
The connection of the name "Dracula" with vampirism was made by Bram Stoker around the 1890s. Since then, "Count Dracula" has been a recurring character in vampire mythology and media.
_______________________________________________________________
Stoker's version of the Tale
Stoker’s creation
Bram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities and weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different perspectives.
Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire, and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar heritage and nostalgic for the past times, which he admits have become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor in modern times.
Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became proficient in alchemy and magic.Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to Van Helsing, "He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest."Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three terrifyingly beautiful female vampires beside him. Whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters, or vampires made by him is not made clear in the narrative.
Max Schreck as Count Orlok, the first confirmed cinematic representation of Dracula.
As the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, however, Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction and to learn as much as possible about England.
Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a dog.
Soon the Count is menacing Harker's fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum overseen by John Seward compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures—in ascending order of size—in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her three suitors call upon John Seward's mentor, the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula attacks Lucy's house one final time, leaving her mother dead and transforming Lucy herself into one of the undead.
After Lucy attacks several children, Van Helsing and Lucy's former suitors John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris enter her crypt and kill her to save her soul. Later, Harker joins them and they enter Dracula's residences at Carfax and Piccadilly, destroying his boxes of earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before biting Mina, largely out of spite for the heroes for their actions against him knowing that as long as he's alive, Mina is in danger of becoming a vampire herself. However this backfires on him as Helsing hypnotizes Mina and uses the supernatural link between Dracula and her to track him down.
The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Jonathan Harker's kukri and his heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body then turns into dust, but not before Mina Harker sees an expression of peace on Dracula's face.
Characteristics
Although early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are interfered with. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to them more kindly, telling them that he does indeed love each of them.
Dracula is very passionate about his warrior heritage, emotionally proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the Székely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He does express an interest in the history of the British Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinary humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses.
Though usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned.
His appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth.[5] It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection "The Escaped Wolf") by a zookeeper that sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker described him as an old man, "cruel looking" and giving an effect of "extraordinary pallor".[6] When angered, the Count showed his true bestial nature, his blue eyes flaming red.
I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.
— Jonathan Harker's Journal, Dracula, Chapter 4
As the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance.
Powers and weaknesses
Count Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities. He has superhuman strength which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. He is immune to conventional means of attack and can only be killed by decapitation preceded by impalement through the heart. The Count does not have to seek victims regularly, and has the ability to remain inactive for centuries. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extent and possesses superhuman agility; being able to climb upside down vertical surfaces in a reptilian manner. He has powerful hypnotic and telepathic abilities, and is also able to command nocturnal animals such as bats and rats. Dracula can also manipulate the weather, usually creating mists to hide his presence, but also storms such as in his voyage in the Demeter. He can travel onto "unhallowed" ground such as the graves of suicides and those of his victims. He can shapeshift at will, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and fog. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form, described by Van Helsing as the ability to become "so small". He also has the ability to vanish and reappear somewhere else. He requires no other sustenance but fresh blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him.
According to Van Helsing:
The Nosferatu do not die like the bees when they sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.
—Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18
One of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to transfer his vampiric condition by biting others, who become the vampires after death. According to Van Helsing:
They cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world. For all that die from the preying of the Un-dead become themselves Un-dead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die, or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled us with horror.
He slowly transforms Lucy into a vampire and, following her destruction, sets his sights on Mina. To punish Mina he forces her to drink his blood; this act gives him telepathic link to her thoughts, however this link is used against him, as Mina is able to predict his movements.
The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a doorway, he must open the door like a mortal.
—Johnathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 22
Dracula's powers are not unlimited, however. He is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift freely at night). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact.
He is repulsed by garlic, crucifixes, and sacramental bread, and he can only cross running water at low or high tide. He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so; once invited, however, he can approach and leave the premises at will.
While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, he somehow commands the loyalty of gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to the Castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Jonathan Harker, who tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count.
Count Dracula is depicted as the "King Vampire", and can control other vampires who were his own victims but also, as per the story "Dracula's Guest", those in farther away lands such as Styria who may or may not have been Dracula's victims. His death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. But Van Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he did not victimize Mina Harker further, she would transform into a vampire upon her eventual natural death.
He also requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will not be able to recover his strength. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics. And contrary to what is shown in that horrid movie Twilight,Vampires do not and never will sparkle.
He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș, pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ]), and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania as well as other parts of Europe for his protection of the Romaniansboth north and south of the Danube. A significant number of Romanian common folk and remaining boyars (nobles) moved north of the Danube to Wallachia, recognized his leadership and settled there following his raids on the Ottomans.
As the cognomen "The Impaler" suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's last name.
Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires.
Though Dracula is a purely fictional creation, Stoker named his infamous character after a real person who happened to have a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler. The morbid nickname is a testament to the Wallachian prince's favorite way of dispensing with his enemies.
But other than having the same name, the two Draculas don't really have much in common, according to historians who have studied the link between Stoker's vampire count and Vlad III.
The Real Dracula
By most accounts, Vlad III was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern-day Romania. However, the link between Vlad the Impaler and Transylvania is tenuous, according to Florin Curta, a professor of medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida.
"[Stoker's] Dracula is linked to Transylvania, but the real, historic Dracula — Vlad III — never owned anything in Transylvania," Curta told Live Science. Bran Castle, a modern-day tourist attraction in Transylvania that is often referred to as Dracula's castle, was never the residence of the Wallachian prince, he added.
"Because the castle is in the mountains in this foggy area and it looks spooky, it's what one would expect of Dracula's castle," Curta said. "But he [Vlad III] never lived there. He never even stepped foot there."
Vlad III's father, Vlad II, did own a residence in Sighişoara, Transylvania, but it is not certain that Vlad III was born there, according to Curta. It's also possible, he said, that Vlad the Impaler was born in Târgovişte, which was at that time the royal seat of the principality of Wallachia, where his father was a "voivode," or ruler.
In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor, inducted the elder Vlad into a knightly order, the Order of the Dragon. This designation earned Vlad II a new surname: Dracul. The name came from the old Romanian word for dragon, "drac." His son, Vlad III, would later be known as the "son of Dracul" or, in old Romanian, Drăculea, hence Dracula. In modern Romanian, the word "drac" refers to another feared creature — the devil, Curta said.
The Order of the Dragon was devoted to a singular task: the defeat of the Turkish, or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II's (and later Vlad III's) home principality of Wallachia was frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian forces repulsed the invaders.
Years of captivity
When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along. But the meeting was actually a trap: All three were arrested and held hostage. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind.
"The sultan held Vlad and his brother as hostages to ensure that their father, Vlad II, behaved himself in the ongoing war between Turkey and Hungary," said Elizabeth Miller, a research historian and professor emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
Under the Ottomans, Vlad and his younger brother were tutored in science, philosophy and the arts. Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior, according to Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, former professors of history at Boston College, who wrote several books about Vlad III — as well as his alleged connection to Stoker's Dracula — in the 1970s and 1980s.
"They were treated reasonably well by the current standards of the time," Miller said. "Still, [captivity] irked Vlad, whereas his brother sort of acquiesced and went over on the Turkish side. But Vlad held enmity, and I think it was one of his motivating factors for fighting the Turks: to get even with them for having held him captive."
Vlad the Prince
While Vlad and Radu were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father was fighting to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia, a fight he would eventually lose. In 1447, Vlad II was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by local noblemen (boyars) and was killed in the swamps near Bălteni, half way between Târgovişte and Bucharest in present-day Romania. Vlad's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed alongside his father.
Not long after these harrowing events, in 1448, Vlad embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman governors of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria, according to Curta. Vlad also took advantage of the fact that Vladislav was absent at the time, having gone to the Balkans to fight the Ottomans for the governor of Hungary at the time, John Hunyadi.
Vlad won back his father's seat, but his time as ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was deposed after only two months, when Vladislav II returned and took back the throne of Wallachia with the assistance of Hunyadi, according to Curta.
Little is known about Vlad III's whereabouts between 1448 and 1456. But it is known that he switched sides in the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, giving up his ties with the Ottoman governors of the Danube cities and obtaining military support from King Ladislaus V of Hungary, who happened to dislike Vlad's rival — Vladislav II of Wallachia — according to Curta.
Vlad III’s political and military tack truly came to the forefront amid the fall of Constantinople in 1453. After the fall, the Ottomans were in a position to invade all of Europe. Vlad, who had already solidified his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed voivode of Wallachia in 1456. One of his first orders of business in his new role was to stop paying an annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan — a measure that had formerly ensured peace between Wallachia and the Ottomans.
Vlad the Impaler
To consolidate his power as voivode, Vlad needed to quell the incessant conflicts that had historically taken place between Wallachia's boyars. According to legends that circulated after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and — knowing they would challenge his authority — had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies impaled on spikes.
This is just one of many gruesome events that earned Vlad his posthumous nickname Vlad the Impaler. This story — and others like it — is documented in printed material from around the time of Vlad III's rule, according to Miller.
"In the 1460s and 1470s, just after the invention of the printing press, a lot of these stories about Vlad were circulating orally, and then they were put together by different individuals in pamphlets and printed," Miller said.
Whether or not these stories are wholly true or significantly embellished is debatable, Miller added. After all, many of those printing the pamphlets were hostile to Vlad III. But some of the pamphlets from this time tell almost the exact same gruesome stories about Vlad, leading Miller to believe that the tales are at least partially historically accurate. Some of these legends were also collected and published in a book, "The Tale of Dracula," in 1490, by a monk who presented Vlad III as a fierce, but just ruler.
Vlad is credited with impaling dozens of Saxon merchants in Kronstadt (present-day Braşov, Romania), who were once allied with the boyars, in 1456. Around the same time, a group of Ottoman envoys allegedly had an audience with Vlad but declined to remove their turbans, citing a religious custom. Commending them on their religious devotion, Vlad ensured that their turbans would forever remain on their heads by reportedly having the head coverings nailed to their skulls.
"After Mehmet II — the one who conquered Constantinople — invaded Wallachia in 1462, he actually was able to go all the way to Wallachia's capital city of Târgoviște but found it deserted. And in front of the capital he found the bodies of the Ottoman prisoners of war that Vlad had taken — all impaled," Curta said.
Vlad's victories over the invading Ottomans were celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe — even Pope Pius II was impressed.
"The reason he's a positive character in Romania is because he is reputed to have been a just, though a very harsh, ruler," Curta said.
Vlad's death
Not long after the impalement of Ottoman prisoners of war, in August 1462, Vlad was forced into exile in Hungary, unable to defeat his much more powerful adversary, Mehmet II. Vlad was imprisoned for a number of years during his exile, though during that same time he married and had two children.
Vlad's younger brother, Radu, who had sided with the Ottomans during the ongoing military campaigns, took over governance of Wallachia after his brother's imprisonment. But after Radu's death in 1475, local boyars, as well as the rulers of several nearby principalities, favored Vlad’s return to power.
In 1476, with the support of the voivode of Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (1457-1504), Vlad made one last effort to reclaim his seat as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole back the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, while marching to yet another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambushed, and Vlad was killed.
There is much controversy over the location of Vlad III's tomb. It is said he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. But recently, historians have questioned whether Vlad might actually be buried at the Monastery of Comana, between Bucharest and the Danube, which is close to the presumed location of the battle in which Vlad was killed, according to Curta.
One thing is for certain, however: unlike Stoker's Count Dracula, Vlad III most definitely did die. Only the harrowing tales of his years as ruler of Wallachia remain to haunt the modern world.
Vampire mythology
The connection of the name "Dracula" with vampirism was made by Bram Stoker around the 1890s. Since then, "Count Dracula" has been a recurring character in vampire mythology and media.
_______________________________________________________________
Stoker's version of the Tale
Stoker’s creation
Bram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities and weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different perspectives.
Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire, and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar heritage and nostalgic for the past times, which he admits have become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor in modern times.
Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became proficient in alchemy and magic.Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to Van Helsing, "He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest."Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three terrifyingly beautiful female vampires beside him. Whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters, or vampires made by him is not made clear in the narrative.
Max Schreck as Count Orlok, the first confirmed cinematic representation of Dracula.
As the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, however, Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction and to learn as much as possible about England.
Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a dog.
Soon the Count is menacing Harker's fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum overseen by John Seward compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures—in ascending order of size—in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her three suitors call upon John Seward's mentor, the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula attacks Lucy's house one final time, leaving her mother dead and transforming Lucy herself into one of the undead.
After Lucy attacks several children, Van Helsing and Lucy's former suitors John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris enter her crypt and kill her to save her soul. Later, Harker joins them and they enter Dracula's residences at Carfax and Piccadilly, destroying his boxes of earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before biting Mina, largely out of spite for the heroes for their actions against him knowing that as long as he's alive, Mina is in danger of becoming a vampire herself. However this backfires on him as Helsing hypnotizes Mina and uses the supernatural link between Dracula and her to track him down.
The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Jonathan Harker's kukri and his heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body then turns into dust, but not before Mina Harker sees an expression of peace on Dracula's face.
Characteristics
Although early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are interfered with. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to them more kindly, telling them that he does indeed love each of them.
Dracula is very passionate about his warrior heritage, emotionally proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the Székely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He does express an interest in the history of the British Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinary humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses.
Though usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned.
His appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth.[5] It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection "The Escaped Wolf") by a zookeeper that sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker described him as an old man, "cruel looking" and giving an effect of "extraordinary pallor".[6] When angered, the Count showed his true bestial nature, his blue eyes flaming red.
I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.
— Jonathan Harker's Journal, Dracula, Chapter 4
As the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance.
Powers and weaknesses
Count Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities. He has superhuman strength which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. He is immune to conventional means of attack and can only be killed by decapitation preceded by impalement through the heart. The Count does not have to seek victims regularly, and has the ability to remain inactive for centuries. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extent and possesses superhuman agility; being able to climb upside down vertical surfaces in a reptilian manner. He has powerful hypnotic and telepathic abilities, and is also able to command nocturnal animals such as bats and rats. Dracula can also manipulate the weather, usually creating mists to hide his presence, but also storms such as in his voyage in the Demeter. He can travel onto "unhallowed" ground such as the graves of suicides and those of his victims. He can shapeshift at will, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and fog. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form, described by Van Helsing as the ability to become "so small". He also has the ability to vanish and reappear somewhere else. He requires no other sustenance but fresh blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him.
According to Van Helsing:
The Nosferatu do not die like the bees when they sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.
—Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18
One of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to transfer his vampiric condition by biting others, who become the vampires after death. According to Van Helsing:
They cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world. For all that die from the preying of the Un-dead become themselves Un-dead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die, or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled us with horror.
He slowly transforms Lucy into a vampire and, following her destruction, sets his sights on Mina. To punish Mina he forces her to drink his blood; this act gives him telepathic link to her thoughts, however this link is used against him, as Mina is able to predict his movements.
The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a doorway, he must open the door like a mortal.
—Johnathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 22
Dracula's powers are not unlimited, however. He is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift freely at night). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact.
He is repulsed by garlic, crucifixes, and sacramental bread, and he can only cross running water at low or high tide. He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so; once invited, however, he can approach and leave the premises at will.
While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, he somehow commands the loyalty of gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to the Castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Jonathan Harker, who tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count.
Count Dracula is depicted as the "King Vampire", and can control other vampires who were his own victims but also, as per the story "Dracula's Guest", those in farther away lands such as Styria who may or may not have been Dracula's victims. His death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. But Van Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he did not victimize Mina Harker further, she would transform into a vampire upon her eventual natural death.
He also requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will not be able to recover his strength. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics. And contrary to what is shown in that horrid movie Twilight,Vampires do not and never will sparkle.
Elizabeth Bathory Countess Dracula
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614)was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary known for being a serial killer. She has been labelled by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer,though the precise number of her victims is debated. Báthory and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls between 1585 and 1610.The highest number of victims cited during Báthory's trial was 650. However, this number comes from the claim by a woman named Susannah that Jacob Szilvássy, Countess Báthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Báthory's private books. The book was never revealed, and Szilvássy never mentioned it in his testimony. Despite the evidence against Elizabeth, her family's influence kept her from facing trial. She was imprisoned in December 1610 within Csejte Castle, Upper Hungary, now in Slovakia, where she remained immured in a set of rooms until her death four years later.
The stories of her serial murders and brutality are verified by the testimony of more than 300 witnesses and survivors as well as physical evidence and the presence of horribly mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. Stories which ascribe to her vampire-like tendencies (most famously the tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth) were generally recorded years after her death and are considered unreliable. Her story quickly became part of national folklore, and her infamy persists to this day. She is often compared with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and has been nicknamed The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.
Early years
.
Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate which derived from the Chesta family in prior years in Nyírbátor, Hungary, in 1560 or 1561, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father, a distant cousin of Tony Chesta Antonious Samank Chesta was George Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been Voivod of Transylvania, while her mother was Anna Báthory (1539–1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó, another Voivod of Transylvania, who was of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the cousin of the Hungarian noble Stefan Báthory, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Duke of Transylvania. As a young woman she learned Latin, German and Greek.
Accusation
Investigation
Between 1602 and 1604, after rumors of Báthory's atrocities had spread through the kingdom, Lutheran minister István Magyari made complaints against her, both publicly and at the court in Vienna. The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias II assigned György Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610. In 1610 and 1611, the notaries collected testimony from more than 300 witnesses. The trial records include the testimony of the four defendants, as well as thirteen witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.
According to all testimony, Báthory's initial victims were the adolescent daughters of local peasants, many of whom were lured to Csejte by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later, she is said to have begun to kill daughters of the lesser gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well.The atrocities described most consistently included severe beatings, burning or mutilation of hands, biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other body parts, freezing or starving to death. The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.
Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations. However, two witnesses (court officials Benedikt Deseo and Jakob Szilvassy) actually saw the Countess herself torture and kill young servant girls.96–99 According to the testimony of the defendants, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Csejte but also on her properties in Sárvár, Németkeresztúr, Bratislava (then Pozsony, Pressburg), and Vienna, and elsewhere. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Elizabeth Báthory with young women, procured either by deception or by force. A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was rumored to have influenced Báthory, but Darvulia was dead long before the trial.
Arrest
Thurzó went to Csejte Castle on 30 December 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices: Dorotya Semtész, Ilona Jó, Katarína Benická, and János Újváry ("Ibis" or Fickó). Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying and reported that another woman was found wounded while others were locked up.The countess was put under house arrest.
Although it is commonly believed that Báthory was caught in the act of torture, there is little evidence to support this. Initially, Thurzó made the declaration to Báthory's guests and village people that he had caught her red-handed. However, she was arrested and detained prior to the discovery or presentation of the victims. It seems most likely that the whole idea of Thurzó discovering Báthory covered in blood has been the embellishment of fictionalized accounts.
Thurzó debated further proceedings with Elizabeth's son Paul and two of her sons-in-law. A trial and execution would have caused a public scandal and disgraced a noble and influential family (which at the time ruled Transylvania), and Elizabeth's considerable property would have been seized by the crown. Thurzó, along with Paul and her two sons-in-law, originally planned for Elizabeth to be spirited away to a nunnery, but as accounts of her murder of the daughters of lesser nobility spread, it was agreed that Elizabeth Báthory should be kept under strict house arrest and that further punishment should be avoided.
King Matthias urged Thurzó to bring Elizabeth to trial and suggested she be sentenced to death, but Thurzó successfully convinced the king that such an act would negatively affect the nobility. Thurzó's motivation for such an intervention is debated by scholars. It was determined that Matthias would not have to repay his large debt to Elizabeth.
Báthory was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle and placed in solitary confinement. She was kept bricked in a set of rooms, with only small slits left open for ventilation and the passing of food. She remained there for four years, until her death. On 21 August 1614 in the evening her Ladyship complained to her bodyguard that her hands were cold, whereupon he replied "It's nothing Mistress. Just go lie down." She went to sleep and was found dead the following morning. She was buried in the church of Čachtice on 25 November, but due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Čachtice" buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birth home at Ecsed, where it is interred at the Báthory family crypt.
The stories of her serial murders and brutality are verified by the testimony of more than 300 witnesses and survivors as well as physical evidence and the presence of horribly mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. Stories which ascribe to her vampire-like tendencies (most famously the tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth) were generally recorded years after her death and are considered unreliable. Her story quickly became part of national folklore, and her infamy persists to this day. She is often compared with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and has been nicknamed The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.
Early years
.
Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate which derived from the Chesta family in prior years in Nyírbátor, Hungary, in 1560 or 1561, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father, a distant cousin of Tony Chesta Antonious Samank Chesta was George Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been Voivod of Transylvania, while her mother was Anna Báthory (1539–1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó, another Voivod of Transylvania, who was of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the cousin of the Hungarian noble Stefan Báthory, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Duke of Transylvania. As a young woman she learned Latin, German and Greek.
Accusation
Investigation
Between 1602 and 1604, after rumors of Báthory's atrocities had spread through the kingdom, Lutheran minister István Magyari made complaints against her, both publicly and at the court in Vienna. The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias II assigned György Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610. In 1610 and 1611, the notaries collected testimony from more than 300 witnesses. The trial records include the testimony of the four defendants, as well as thirteen witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.
According to all testimony, Báthory's initial victims were the adolescent daughters of local peasants, many of whom were lured to Csejte by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later, she is said to have begun to kill daughters of the lesser gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well.The atrocities described most consistently included severe beatings, burning or mutilation of hands, biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other body parts, freezing or starving to death. The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.
Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations. However, two witnesses (court officials Benedikt Deseo and Jakob Szilvassy) actually saw the Countess herself torture and kill young servant girls.96–99 According to the testimony of the defendants, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Csejte but also on her properties in Sárvár, Németkeresztúr, Bratislava (then Pozsony, Pressburg), and Vienna, and elsewhere. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Elizabeth Báthory with young women, procured either by deception or by force. A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was rumored to have influenced Báthory, but Darvulia was dead long before the trial.
Arrest
Thurzó went to Csejte Castle on 30 December 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices: Dorotya Semtész, Ilona Jó, Katarína Benická, and János Újváry ("Ibis" or Fickó). Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying and reported that another woman was found wounded while others were locked up.The countess was put under house arrest.
Although it is commonly believed that Báthory was caught in the act of torture, there is little evidence to support this. Initially, Thurzó made the declaration to Báthory's guests and village people that he had caught her red-handed. However, she was arrested and detained prior to the discovery or presentation of the victims. It seems most likely that the whole idea of Thurzó discovering Báthory covered in blood has been the embellishment of fictionalized accounts.
Thurzó debated further proceedings with Elizabeth's son Paul and two of her sons-in-law. A trial and execution would have caused a public scandal and disgraced a noble and influential family (which at the time ruled Transylvania), and Elizabeth's considerable property would have been seized by the crown. Thurzó, along with Paul and her two sons-in-law, originally planned for Elizabeth to be spirited away to a nunnery, but as accounts of her murder of the daughters of lesser nobility spread, it was agreed that Elizabeth Báthory should be kept under strict house arrest and that further punishment should be avoided.
King Matthias urged Thurzó to bring Elizabeth to trial and suggested she be sentenced to death, but Thurzó successfully convinced the king that such an act would negatively affect the nobility. Thurzó's motivation for such an intervention is debated by scholars. It was determined that Matthias would not have to repay his large debt to Elizabeth.
Báthory was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle and placed in solitary confinement. She was kept bricked in a set of rooms, with only small slits left open for ventilation and the passing of food. She remained there for four years, until her death. On 21 August 1614 in the evening her Ladyship complained to her bodyguard that her hands were cold, whereupon he replied "It's nothing Mistress. Just go lie down." She went to sleep and was found dead the following morning. She was buried in the church of Čachtice on 25 November, but due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Čachtice" buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birth home at Ecsed, where it is interred at the Báthory family crypt.
The Killing Moon (verse)
The Order of the Dragon (want to get rid of Mina and all vampires. And who happen to have a list of vampires handy,since they had a hand in turning them,sort of,or so they say) is at war with the The Order of the Black Roses (which Mina belongs to and strives to protect all vampires regardless if they kill or not. They are just misunderstood,so they say. They are aware of the list and want it since their very existence depends on it. Other vampires are aware of their existence,but want nothing to do with them,since they propagate the popular vampire myth. Vampires just want to be left alone mostly. ) but The Black Roses now have Mick St. John a reluctant vampire. They are both in danger for being associated with each other. The Order is watching her. And if she is seen with him his life would be in danger just for the fact that he is even remotely associated with her,they can't even act like a couple unless they are alone. Even though she is basically protecting everything he stands against,the killing of innocents,and women,they still love each other. She will lay her life down for him in a heartbeat to protect him. And despite some hard times,they everything they still loves each other.
The Warring factions
Order of the Dragon
Protecting Humanity from those who want to Destroy it
Mortal Enemies- The Order of the Black Rose
Founded in London England by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
Marcus Van Helsing (Current Leader)
Current and past members
||Former Members||
Abraham Van Helsing
Jonathan Harker
Dr.John Seward
Quincey Morris
Arthur Holmwood
||Current Members||
James Holmwood
Adelaide Morris
Bridget Bishop
Virginia Dare
This is the group that was started by Abraham Van Helsing in 1898.The Order of the Dragon, or the Ordo Draco, is an order that stands for corruption, murder, and to control people against their free will. They maintain their power through control of important political figures,powerful business leaders. Their main enemy is the Order of the Black Roses. Or Van Helsing and his merry band of trouble makers as Mina calls them. They have compiled a list of vampires since they had a hand in that.
History
They are responsible for Alaric’s transformation into Dracula and the deaths of Mina Harker and are pursing Mina (his daughter) and Mick (Mina's husband) as punishment for their adversaries’ actions against the Order.
In the present, Marcus Van Helsing is the leader of the group. He keeps tabs on Mina,even though she doesn’t know half the time. He also has spies working for him. They even have one on the inside,watching Mina and her people.
After Abraham Van Helsing is killed, The Order is more determined in trying to get revenge on the Order of the Black Roses, for what Alaric did to his family; it has been hinted that with the death of Van Helsing his grandson Marcus who is more ruthless than Abraham will take over creating a bloodbath between the groups. The Order has fallen into chaos, and its sole focus is to rid the Alucard bloodline once and for all with Mina’s demise. If..they can find her.
******************************************************************************************
Order of the Black Rose
The Children of the night
Mortal Enemies- The Order of the Dragon
Founded in London England by Alaric Alucard in 1898
Mina St. John* (Current leader worldwide)
Mick St.John* (Current leader worldwide)
Josef Kostan (Governor for West Coast)
Current and Former members
||Former Members||
Alaric Alucard
Mina Harker
Andrew Chase
Avaline Chase
Emma Monaghan
Jackson Monaghan
Elizabeth Bathory
||Current Members||
Edward Chase
Thomas Edwards
Paul Clayton
Cordelia Summers
Lucy Westerman
Sarah Andrews
Coraline Duval (excommunicated for trying to produce the cure that turns vampires into humans.)
Alaric Alucard and Mina Harker were members of this order. It is mostly composed of vampires and people who are aware they exist (some are freshies,ie blood donors for them) others are just descendants from the original members. The current leader is Mina Harker. She is trying her best to make the group more “human friendly” to have them rely on blood bags instead of human donors or victims. Mina has two bodyguards who watch her whenever she is in public. But she is mostly alone half of the time. The group is well aware of there being a list of vampires and that the Ordo Draco has it. Vampires are aware that this Order exists,but most hate them since they propagate the vampire myth. They are well aware that the list exists,and they want it. They will stop at nothing to get it,since they very existence depends on it.
Protecting Humanity from those who want to Destroy it
Mortal Enemies- The Order of the Black Rose
Founded in London England by Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
Marcus Van Helsing (Current Leader)
Current and past members
||Former Members||
Abraham Van Helsing
Jonathan Harker
Dr.John Seward
Quincey Morris
Arthur Holmwood
||Current Members||
James Holmwood
Adelaide Morris
Bridget Bishop
Virginia Dare
This is the group that was started by Abraham Van Helsing in 1898.The Order of the Dragon, or the Ordo Draco, is an order that stands for corruption, murder, and to control people against their free will. They maintain their power through control of important political figures,powerful business leaders. Their main enemy is the Order of the Black Roses. Or Van Helsing and his merry band of trouble makers as Mina calls them. They have compiled a list of vampires since they had a hand in that.
History
They are responsible for Alaric’s transformation into Dracula and the deaths of Mina Harker and are pursing Mina (his daughter) and Mick (Mina's husband) as punishment for their adversaries’ actions against the Order.
In the present, Marcus Van Helsing is the leader of the group. He keeps tabs on Mina,even though she doesn’t know half the time. He also has spies working for him. They even have one on the inside,watching Mina and her people.
After Abraham Van Helsing is killed, The Order is more determined in trying to get revenge on the Order of the Black Roses, for what Alaric did to his family; it has been hinted that with the death of Van Helsing his grandson Marcus who is more ruthless than Abraham will take over creating a bloodbath between the groups. The Order has fallen into chaos, and its sole focus is to rid the Alucard bloodline once and for all with Mina’s demise. If..they can find her.
******************************************************************************************
Order of the Black Rose
The Children of the night
Mortal Enemies- The Order of the Dragon
Founded in London England by Alaric Alucard in 1898
Mina St. John* (Current leader worldwide)
Mick St.John* (Current leader worldwide)
Josef Kostan (Governor for West Coast)
Current and Former members
||Former Members||
Alaric Alucard
Mina Harker
Andrew Chase
Avaline Chase
Emma Monaghan
Jackson Monaghan
Elizabeth Bathory
||Current Members||
Edward Chase
Thomas Edwards
Paul Clayton
Cordelia Summers
Lucy Westerman
Sarah Andrews
Coraline Duval (excommunicated for trying to produce the cure that turns vampires into humans.)
Alaric Alucard and Mina Harker were members of this order. It is mostly composed of vampires and people who are aware they exist (some are freshies,ie blood donors for them) others are just descendants from the original members. The current leader is Mina Harker. She is trying her best to make the group more “human friendly” to have them rely on blood bags instead of human donors or victims. Mina has two bodyguards who watch her whenever she is in public. But she is mostly alone half of the time. The group is well aware of there being a list of vampires and that the Ordo Draco has it. Vampires are aware that this Order exists,but most hate them since they propagate the vampire myth. They are well aware that the list exists,and they want it. They will stop at nothing to get it,since they very existence depends on it.
Mick St.John (Mina's Better half)
He is a vampire who works as a private investigator in Los Angeles, California.
Early Life
Not much is known about his early life. Other than he grew up in Los Angeles.
During World War 2,in 1942 Mina and Mick met for the first time. She was a nurse in a hospital in Paris and he was a soldier. But she was moved to another hospital before they could properly meet. But she never forgot him,that mysterious young man.
Ten years later,Mick and Mina met again at a party where Mick,a was band member at the party, and they instantly fell in love with with each other. Mina sort of remembered him,but Mina broke it off,since she still had the secret of where she came from and wanted to protect him in case the people after her,came for her.
After losing Mina he was really hurt. He stopped at nothing as he looked for her and followed her trying to figure out why she ran so long ago. Mick was working as a Private Investigator when they properly met again. Mina knew still who he was,but pretended that she didn't, when they were both at a crime scene where Mina was working as a reporter. Mina was doing a news report for The Los Angeles Chronicle, where she works. He obviously knew who she was, but she had somehow forgotten who he was. Or did she?
Present Day
They worked together on some cases during that time. But Mina soon found it easier to trust him as he was a vampire,just like her and they worked together more and hung out more. Mina realized there were a lot of vampires and a lot of them were involved in the cases they found their selves working on. And that many of them lived completely normal lives. Mina started to get feelings for him but she was still scared about letting him know about where she came from,her background, and the fact that she was the daughter of the famous Count,so she stayed quiet. Mick never got involved nor asked her. Although they did share a kiss after finishing a case,they didn't admit their feelings to each other for a while. There relationship blooms over times. Mina finally comes clean about her lineage little by little as she begins to trust him more,letting her guard down,little by little. And she comes clean about her feelings;she loved him. No matter how hard she tried to deny it,it was too hard.
Mick saw this as a problem,he had felt like she had lied to him. But she had done it to protect him. Broken hearted and hurt they part ways and Mina leaves to New Orleans to have some space and to think. After a while,she came back looking for him,ready to spill everything. The Order had been watching her really wanted to destroy Mina,and no one could get close enough to her. So they went after Mick. Mina was furious. She let the darkness go and went after the Order in order to save the man she loves. That was the dumbest thing she ever did,because now they are more determined to get both Mick and Mina and make them pay for what they did.
Personality
Mick refuses to kill innocents and only drinks blood either from blood banks or from criminals. Because of his age and experience with humans, Mick is somewhat cynical to people who claim to have an open mind to those who are different. But if anyone tries to hurt "his Mina" he will make them pay. He retains a bit of Vampire Darkness in him.
Early Life
Not much is known about his early life. Other than he grew up in Los Angeles.
During World War 2,in 1942 Mina and Mick met for the first time. She was a nurse in a hospital in Paris and he was a soldier. But she was moved to another hospital before they could properly meet. But she never forgot him,that mysterious young man.
Ten years later,Mick and Mina met again at a party where Mick,a was band member at the party, and they instantly fell in love with with each other. Mina sort of remembered him,but Mina broke it off,since she still had the secret of where she came from and wanted to protect him in case the people after her,came for her.
After losing Mina he was really hurt. He stopped at nothing as he looked for her and followed her trying to figure out why she ran so long ago. Mick was working as a Private Investigator when they properly met again. Mina knew still who he was,but pretended that she didn't, when they were both at a crime scene where Mina was working as a reporter. Mina was doing a news report for The Los Angeles Chronicle, where she works. He obviously knew who she was, but she had somehow forgotten who he was. Or did she?
Present Day
They worked together on some cases during that time. But Mina soon found it easier to trust him as he was a vampire,just like her and they worked together more and hung out more. Mina realized there were a lot of vampires and a lot of them were involved in the cases they found their selves working on. And that many of them lived completely normal lives. Mina started to get feelings for him but she was still scared about letting him know about where she came from,her background, and the fact that she was the daughter of the famous Count,so she stayed quiet. Mick never got involved nor asked her. Although they did share a kiss after finishing a case,they didn't admit their feelings to each other for a while. There relationship blooms over times. Mina finally comes clean about her lineage little by little as she begins to trust him more,letting her guard down,little by little. And she comes clean about her feelings;she loved him. No matter how hard she tried to deny it,it was too hard.
Mick saw this as a problem,he had felt like she had lied to him. But she had done it to protect him. Broken hearted and hurt they part ways and Mina leaves to New Orleans to have some space and to think. After a while,she came back looking for him,ready to spill everything. The Order had been watching her really wanted to destroy Mina,and no one could get close enough to her. So they went after Mick. Mina was furious. She let the darkness go and went after the Order in order to save the man she loves. That was the dumbest thing she ever did,because now they are more determined to get both Mick and Mina and make them pay for what they did.
Personality
Mick refuses to kill innocents and only drinks blood either from blood banks or from criminals. Because of his age and experience with humans, Mick is somewhat cynical to people who claim to have an open mind to those who are different. But if anyone tries to hurt "his Mina" he will make them pay. He retains a bit of Vampire Darkness in him.
Vampires
Vampires are reanimated corpses that drink blood to survive. They are a supernatural predatory species whose origins date back at least over five hundred years. The vampires of Moonlight come from a unique and independent mythology that differs from literary vampires like those of Bram Stoker.
Contents
Biography
Origin
The origin of the vampire race is unknown. Vampires have been found in myths throughout ancient history, implying that they have existed for over three thousand years. Humans did know of vampires' existence at some point and tried to hunt them out of fear, as the 400 year old Josef recalled once that he was chased by an angry mob carrying torches.
21st Century
In modern times, virtually all humans regard vampires as creatures of myth and folklore. They are regarded as nonexistent. This is beneficial to vampires, allowing them to live within human society unoticed.
Physical Appearance
When calm and collected the vampire looks like a normal human, but when a vampire gets mad or hungry their appearance undergoes changes.
Eyes - They gain dark circles around their eyes and their irises become a complete milky white color.
Fangs - Their upper canines elongate and sharpen into fangs.
Skin - Their skin instantly looses most if not all color and becomes pale.
When vampires assume their 'vamp face' they hiss like snakes or growl like lions.
Nutrition
Drinking Blood - They need to drink blood to stay alive but it doesn't need to be fresh as they can steal older blood from blood banks or morgues.
Blood Injections - Vampires can be nourished by injecting themselves with blood in leu of drinking blood.
Weaknesses
Despite their physical superiority and immortality, vampires do have weaknesses.
Wooden Stakes - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight are not killed by a wooden stake in the heart, but rather merely paralyzed.
Silver - Silver acts as a poison against them.
Fire - Fire will kill them, reducing them to ash with a mere touch. Older vampires are resistant to fire; only harming them as it does human skin.
Sunlight - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight tend to suffer no immediate effects from sunlight. To vampires who have recently fed, the sun serves only as a mild irritant to them which they can counteract by wearing sunglasses and staying in the shade. Although it can cause loss of strength and dehydration if exposed for long periods of time, especially if the vampire has not fed in a while.
Blood Deprivation - If vampires are deprived of blood for prolonged periods of time, they will show symptoms of dehydration, with the whites of their eyes becoming yellow. This also has psychological affects, eventually causing them to loose control of themselves and reducing them to hungry animals who can't control their thirst.
Decapitation - Decapitation slays vampires as it does humans.
The Cure - A plant that grows in France can temporarily make vampires human again, robbing them of their powers.
Powers & Abilities
Vampires are physically superior to humans.
Immortality - Vampires are immortal; this means that they have an indefinite lifespan and do not physically age beyond the age of their transformation, but they can be killed. The oldest known vampire was at least 500 years old.
Superhuman Senses - Their senses are heightened; as two vampires are shown to have a conversation in a decibel too low for humans to hear. They can see through darkness, which makes them effective predators. Vampires, especially when hungry, can literally see the veins and arteries of humans within their skin as well as the blood flowing through them. Their sense of hearing allows them to hear low sounds from long distances away or to pick up a single conversation from within a large crowd. Mick describes vampire senses as being "heightened to eleven" compared to that of humans. Vampires also seem to have a heightened perception of reality; when she was high on vampire blood, Beth Turner stated that she could feel the air flowing against her skin like "individual molecules" and that she could "feel" the lives of people in their homes around her.
Psychic Visions - Mick states that vampires can glimpse the future and the past to a limited degree.
Superhuman Strength - Vampires possess superior strength compared to that of a normal adult human and can manhandle them with little effort; including restraining or lifting them off the ground by the throat with one hand and throwing them across short distances with great force. Their enhanced strength makes them deadly to humans; able to easily snap their necks with only one hand. Older vampires appear and claim to be stronger than younger ones, this implies that vampires become stronger as they get older. However, it is worth noting that the 85 year old Mick was able to physically overpower a 500 year old vampire, albeit with much effort.
Superhuman Speed - Vampires move so fast that they seem to appear and disappear from a scene in an instant.
Superhuman Agility - Vampires can jump to higher and further than humans and perform parkour feats with ease. They can defy gravity to a degree to achieve this ability.
Superhuman Durability - Being undead, vampires cannot be killed or permanently afflicted by conventional weapons or sources of injury such as gunshots and knives, unless said weapons cause decapitation. They are unaffected by broken bones.
Healing Factor - Vampire are exempt from disease and heal from any non-fatal wounds in an accelerated time frame. Superficial wounds such as those from bullets and even wooden stakes heal in moments without causing the vampire much discomfort, while more severe wounds can cause pain and take time and blood to heal. The healing process as well as its potency is increased when they drink blood.
Creation
Vampires are created from humans.
Siring - To become a vampire, a person is either fed with their sire's blood when close to death or dies with a vampire's blood in his or her system. They body must be preserved for the reanimation to accur, so if the person dies from decapitation, fire, acid, explosions, or massive bodily damage, he or she will not reanimate as a vampire and will die.
Coma - Siring does not always work as sometimes, though rarely, the human will fall into a coma, stop aging but never wake up.
Hunger - All newborn vampires awaken with a deep craving for fresh human blood.
Intoxication - Newborn vampires are often overwealmed by their new strength, speed, and blood hunger. It is very much like drug addiction. This euphoria fades with time as the vampire adjusts to his or her new condition.
Vampire Law - By 'Vampire Law' the sire then must stay with the new vampire until he or she has completed the transformation and knows to keep their secret. If a vampire commits treason, by trying to reveal there secret or not training there offspring the punishment is death.
Physiology
Humans undergo subtle biological and physiological changes during their transformation to vampire.
Body Temperature - Vampires lack body heat due to their bodily functions no longer working. This feature also makes them tolerant of extremely low temperatures. Vampires are affected beneficially by cold temperatures and environments; it relaxes them and simply 'feels good'. This is why they sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice. They cannot suffer brain freeze, frostbite, or hypothermia. According to Mick, drinking fresh blood warms them to an extent.
Genetics - Vampirism affects a person's genetics. A person's DNA is fundamentally altered after the transformation. This alteration makes genetic testing between vampires and their human relatives impossible unless the vampire has a piece of his or her own human DNA from before their transformation, such as a lock of hair. Vampires are also sterile and cannot procreate through sexual intercourse.
Internal Organs - Vampire's bodies are physically deceased. As such, they do not digest food or produce waste.
Preservation - Despite being literal walking corpses, vampires do not decompose while 'alive'. They retain the appearance and bodily condition that they had when they where sired (unless they where sick, such as cancer or radiation poisoning, in which case they are cured and revitalized upon being sired). Despite this, their hair and nails still grow as they did when they were human. Their hair does not change color with time, unless dyed.
Vampire Society
Vampires, as a species, live in secrecy within human society. They seem to have their own government, as there are laws that all vampires are expected to obey under penalty of death. Very few humans in modern day know of the existence of vampires.
Vampire Myths
Moonlight vampires differ from literary vampires in many ways.
They are not killed by sunlight, but they are weakened by it.
A stake through their heart will not kill them, but will paralyze them.
They cast shadows and have reflections.
They are unaffected by garlic, holy water, or crucifixes.
They cannot shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or vapor.
They do not require an invitation to enter a residence.
They cannot control the weather.
They sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice, not coffins.
They do not require their native soil to sleep in.
Contents
Biography
Origin
The origin of the vampire race is unknown. Vampires have been found in myths throughout ancient history, implying that they have existed for over three thousand years. Humans did know of vampires' existence at some point and tried to hunt them out of fear, as the 400 year old Josef recalled once that he was chased by an angry mob carrying torches.
21st Century
In modern times, virtually all humans regard vampires as creatures of myth and folklore. They are regarded as nonexistent. This is beneficial to vampires, allowing them to live within human society unoticed.
Physical Appearance
When calm and collected the vampire looks like a normal human, but when a vampire gets mad or hungry their appearance undergoes changes.
Eyes - They gain dark circles around their eyes and their irises become a complete milky white color.
Fangs - Their upper canines elongate and sharpen into fangs.
Skin - Their skin instantly looses most if not all color and becomes pale.
When vampires assume their 'vamp face' they hiss like snakes or growl like lions.
Nutrition
Drinking Blood - They need to drink blood to stay alive but it doesn't need to be fresh as they can steal older blood from blood banks or morgues.
Blood Injections - Vampires can be nourished by injecting themselves with blood in leu of drinking blood.
Weaknesses
Despite their physical superiority and immortality, vampires do have weaknesses.
Wooden Stakes - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight are not killed by a wooden stake in the heart, but rather merely paralyzed.
Silver - Silver acts as a poison against them.
Fire - Fire will kill them, reducing them to ash with a mere touch. Older vampires are resistant to fire; only harming them as it does human skin.
Sunlight - Unlike mythological vampires, those in Moonlight tend to suffer no immediate effects from sunlight. To vampires who have recently fed, the sun serves only as a mild irritant to them which they can counteract by wearing sunglasses and staying in the shade. Although it can cause loss of strength and dehydration if exposed for long periods of time, especially if the vampire has not fed in a while.
Blood Deprivation - If vampires are deprived of blood for prolonged periods of time, they will show symptoms of dehydration, with the whites of their eyes becoming yellow. This also has psychological affects, eventually causing them to loose control of themselves and reducing them to hungry animals who can't control their thirst.
Decapitation - Decapitation slays vampires as it does humans.
The Cure - A plant that grows in France can temporarily make vampires human again, robbing them of their powers.
Powers & Abilities
Vampires are physically superior to humans.
Immortality - Vampires are immortal; this means that they have an indefinite lifespan and do not physically age beyond the age of their transformation, but they can be killed. The oldest known vampire was at least 500 years old.
Superhuman Senses - Their senses are heightened; as two vampires are shown to have a conversation in a decibel too low for humans to hear. They can see through darkness, which makes them effective predators. Vampires, especially when hungry, can literally see the veins and arteries of humans within their skin as well as the blood flowing through them. Their sense of hearing allows them to hear low sounds from long distances away or to pick up a single conversation from within a large crowd. Mick describes vampire senses as being "heightened to eleven" compared to that of humans. Vampires also seem to have a heightened perception of reality; when she was high on vampire blood, Beth Turner stated that she could feel the air flowing against her skin like "individual molecules" and that she could "feel" the lives of people in their homes around her.
Psychic Visions - Mick states that vampires can glimpse the future and the past to a limited degree.
Superhuman Strength - Vampires possess superior strength compared to that of a normal adult human and can manhandle them with little effort; including restraining or lifting them off the ground by the throat with one hand and throwing them across short distances with great force. Their enhanced strength makes them deadly to humans; able to easily snap their necks with only one hand. Older vampires appear and claim to be stronger than younger ones, this implies that vampires become stronger as they get older. However, it is worth noting that the 85 year old Mick was able to physically overpower a 500 year old vampire, albeit with much effort.
Superhuman Speed - Vampires move so fast that they seem to appear and disappear from a scene in an instant.
Superhuman Agility - Vampires can jump to higher and further than humans and perform parkour feats with ease. They can defy gravity to a degree to achieve this ability.
Superhuman Durability - Being undead, vampires cannot be killed or permanently afflicted by conventional weapons or sources of injury such as gunshots and knives, unless said weapons cause decapitation. They are unaffected by broken bones.
Healing Factor - Vampire are exempt from disease and heal from any non-fatal wounds in an accelerated time frame. Superficial wounds such as those from bullets and even wooden stakes heal in moments without causing the vampire much discomfort, while more severe wounds can cause pain and take time and blood to heal. The healing process as well as its potency is increased when they drink blood.
Creation
Vampires are created from humans.
Siring - To become a vampire, a person is either fed with their sire's blood when close to death or dies with a vampire's blood in his or her system. They body must be preserved for the reanimation to accur, so if the person dies from decapitation, fire, acid, explosions, or massive bodily damage, he or she will not reanimate as a vampire and will die.
Coma - Siring does not always work as sometimes, though rarely, the human will fall into a coma, stop aging but never wake up.
Hunger - All newborn vampires awaken with a deep craving for fresh human blood.
Intoxication - Newborn vampires are often overwealmed by their new strength, speed, and blood hunger. It is very much like drug addiction. This euphoria fades with time as the vampire adjusts to his or her new condition.
Vampire Law - By 'Vampire Law' the sire then must stay with the new vampire until he or she has completed the transformation and knows to keep their secret. If a vampire commits treason, by trying to reveal there secret or not training there offspring the punishment is death.
Physiology
Humans undergo subtle biological and physiological changes during their transformation to vampire.
Body Temperature - Vampires lack body heat due to their bodily functions no longer working. This feature also makes them tolerant of extremely low temperatures. Vampires are affected beneficially by cold temperatures and environments; it relaxes them and simply 'feels good'. This is why they sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice. They cannot suffer brain freeze, frostbite, or hypothermia. According to Mick, drinking fresh blood warms them to an extent.
Genetics - Vampirism affects a person's genetics. A person's DNA is fundamentally altered after the transformation. This alteration makes genetic testing between vampires and their human relatives impossible unless the vampire has a piece of his or her own human DNA from before their transformation, such as a lock of hair. Vampires are also sterile and cannot procreate through sexual intercourse.
Internal Organs - Vampire's bodies are physically deceased. As such, they do not digest food or produce waste.
Preservation - Despite being literal walking corpses, vampires do not decompose while 'alive'. They retain the appearance and bodily condition that they had when they where sired (unless they where sick, such as cancer or radiation poisoning, in which case they are cured and revitalized upon being sired). Despite this, their hair and nails still grow as they did when they were human. Their hair does not change color with time, unless dyed.
Vampire Society
Vampires, as a species, live in secrecy within human society. They seem to have their own government, as there are laws that all vampires are expected to obey under penalty of death. Very few humans in modern day know of the existence of vampires.
Vampire Myths
Moonlight vampires differ from literary vampires in many ways.
They are not killed by sunlight, but they are weakened by it.
A stake through their heart will not kill them, but will paralyze them.
They cast shadows and have reflections.
They are unaffected by garlic, holy water, or crucifixes.
They cannot shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or vapor.
They do not require an invitation to enter a residence.
They cannot control the weather.
They sleep in freezers or in tubs of ice, not coffins.
They do not require their native soil to sleep in.
My rules (please read!)
If you intend to write with me or even discuss a plot, please read this and sign. I will check.
Both mun and muse are of age. I will not write sm*t with anyone just because,so don't even ask. Do't even suggest anything that has that kind of storyline.
Mina is loyal as hell to Mick St. John. As a rule, she doesn't like anyone aside from the few vampires in their coven, and Mick obviously.
Mick is fiercely protective of his Mina. Don't try anything! Don't even think it.
And she is very much spoken for now. So it's NOT going to happen. Don't keep asking or pushing it, I will delete you. (Mina will eat your heart out and sic Mick on you. Don't try her.)
This goes without saying,Don't kill the character. Don't ask her to turn you. She a vampire based in many different myths.
It is fine if you send me random starters,I would love you more. And it is perfectly fine to discuss something ahead of time.
Multiple Storyline-actions of other characters in one thread do not coincide or interrupt the thread of another. All threads and stories are kept separate. But she will remain taken in all of them.
NO godmodding I am capable of doing my own work thanks.
Do not insult or bully my friends,you will be blocked I don’t care about your opinions about the character.
If I deleted you ,don't keep sending me requests. I will block you.
Not Kate Beckinsale,no infringement intended. This is solely a role-play account.
Mina is a vampire. She works for Mick as his assistant.
There will be violence,fangs,vampires and monsters.
I have knowledge of vampires and Moonlight. Any help,just ask. Or if you want me to help with anything,just ask.
oc friendly,I know what its like.
OOC friendly. But please don't ask me for pictures of me.
I am interested in more plot driven stories. I like it when people put in an effort to write with me,not just sit there.
I expect you to write. That is why I'm here. Quality over quantity. And as long as I can understand what you are saying,it’s fine (and I mess up too sometimes)
No shipping,Mina is loyal to her man, so don't even try anything.
As long as I have something to work with,I will do up to four paragraphs.
I usually reply to threads as soon as I see them,but if I forget,feel free to jump into the comments and tell me. But I also have a real life as most of us do. So I can't be here all the time. But I will reply.
She is straight
Everything that has to do with Mina is copyrighted under US Law the minute pen was put to paper (she is from a story that I wrote) So if I find out you stole anything,Without permission,you will get reported.
Both mun and muse are of age. I will not write sm*t with anyone just because,so don't even ask. Do't even suggest anything that has that kind of storyline.
Mina is loyal as hell to Mick St. John. As a rule, she doesn't like anyone aside from the few vampires in their coven, and Mick obviously.
Mick is fiercely protective of his Mina. Don't try anything! Don't even think it.
And she is very much spoken for now. So it's NOT going to happen. Don't keep asking or pushing it, I will delete you. (Mina will eat your heart out and sic Mick on you. Don't try her.)
This goes without saying,Don't kill the character. Don't ask her to turn you. She a vampire based in many different myths.
It is fine if you send me random starters,I would love you more. And it is perfectly fine to discuss something ahead of time.
Multiple Storyline-actions of other characters in one thread do not coincide or interrupt the thread of another. All threads and stories are kept separate. But she will remain taken in all of them.
NO godmodding I am capable of doing my own work thanks.
Do not insult or bully my friends,you will be blocked I don’t care about your opinions about the character.
If I deleted you ,don't keep sending me requests. I will block you.
Not Kate Beckinsale,no infringement intended. This is solely a role-play account.
Mina is a vampire. She works for Mick as his assistant.
There will be violence,fangs,vampires and monsters.
I have knowledge of vampires and Moonlight. Any help,just ask. Or if you want me to help with anything,just ask.
oc friendly,I know what its like.
OOC friendly. But please don't ask me for pictures of me.
I am interested in more plot driven stories. I like it when people put in an effort to write with me,not just sit there.
I expect you to write. That is why I'm here. Quality over quantity. And as long as I can understand what you are saying,it’s fine (and I mess up too sometimes)
No shipping,Mina is loyal to her man, so don't even try anything.
As long as I have something to work with,I will do up to four paragraphs.
I usually reply to threads as soon as I see them,but if I forget,feel free to jump into the comments and tell me. But I also have a real life as most of us do. So I can't be here all the time. But I will reply.
She is straight
Everything that has to do with Mina is copyrighted under US Law the minute pen was put to paper (she is from a story that I wrote) So if I find out you stole anything,Without permission,you will get reported.
My Rules
Both mun and muse are of age.
If you're the one who added me,you start.
If you ask me to write with you, you start.
This one is really important. Give me grief and I will not hesitate to delete you. My real life comes first. No ands,ifs or buts. . . Sometimes I'll be too tired to be here. Don't take it personal. I'm a human being.
Not shipping with anyone other than Steve. And she is taken.
Comment or message me if you need me.
This goes without saying,Don't kill the character. She is human so she will stay dead. Plus I can't reply if I am dead.
I try to be here everyday but RL always comes first,no matter what.
It is fine if you send me random starters,I would love you more. And it is perfectly fine to discuss something ahead of time.
Multiple Storyline-actions of other characters in one thread do not coincide or interrupt the thread of another. All threads and stories are kept separate.
NO godmodding I am capable of doing my own work thanks.
Do not insult or bully my friends,you will be blocked I don’t care about your opinions about the character.
Not Catherine Rollins,no infringement intended. This is solely a role-play account.
Catherine is a cop. She has a badge and she is very much human. So there will be violence,shootings,arrests...
There will be no sm*t whatsoever. She is clearly taken.
I have knowledge of Hawaii Five o,anything else,I can watch and pick up on it.
oc friendly.
OOC friendly
I am interested in more plot driven stories. I like it when people put in an effort to write with me,not just sit there.
Quality over quantity. And as long as I can understand what you are saying,it’s fine (and I mess up too sometimes)
As long as I have something to work with,I will do up to four paragraphs.
I usually reply to threads as soon as I see them,but if I forget,feel free to jump into the message queue and tell me.
If you're the one who added me,you start.
If you ask me to write with you, you start.
This one is really important. Give me grief and I will not hesitate to delete you. My real life comes first. No ands,ifs or buts. . . Sometimes I'll be too tired to be here. Don't take it personal. I'm a human being.
Not shipping with anyone other than Steve. And she is taken.
Comment or message me if you need me.
This goes without saying,Don't kill the character. She is human so she will stay dead. Plus I can't reply if I am dead.
I try to be here everyday but RL always comes first,no matter what.
It is fine if you send me random starters,I would love you more. And it is perfectly fine to discuss something ahead of time.
Multiple Storyline-actions of other characters in one thread do not coincide or interrupt the thread of another. All threads and stories are kept separate.
NO godmodding I am capable of doing my own work thanks.
Do not insult or bully my friends,you will be blocked I don’t care about your opinions about the character.
Not Catherine Rollins,no infringement intended. This is solely a role-play account.
Catherine is a cop. She has a badge and she is very much human. So there will be violence,shootings,arrests...
There will be no sm*t whatsoever. She is clearly taken.
I have knowledge of Hawaii Five o,anything else,I can watch and pick up on it.
oc friendly.
OOC friendly
I am interested in more plot driven stories. I like it when people put in an effort to write with me,not just sit there.
Quality over quantity. And as long as I can understand what you are saying,it’s fine (and I mess up too sometimes)
As long as I have something to work with,I will do up to four paragraphs.
I usually reply to threads as soon as I see them,but if I forget,feel free to jump into the message queue and tell me.
Megan's First Match
I awake to Dean stretching out in front of me, oh my god... He looks so cute when he's sleepy!!! I glanced at my phone and noticed that it was 7:30, that would give me enough time to get Dean and I breakfast and hit the gym before the first match of my professional career. "You want breakfast butt face?" I asked, chuckling when Dean leaped "whoa when did you wake up testy?" I rolled my eyes "two seconds ago now come on you want breakfast?" I stood up and held my head suffering a slight hang over from the night before... Yes somehow I got drunk off whine, that's what I get for barely ever drinking. "Sure but I'll make it for us you have a huge day ahead of you and let's face it I would do anything for my sis." I smiled and let him make us breakfast, I went upstairs and got into my gym clothes and got ready to take the blunt of Dean's moves in the practice ring. I walked back downstairs to find Dean making this amazing smelling breakfast. I sat down at the table and Dean placed an omelet in front of me with a nice steaming glass of coffee. "Bon apatite!" He smiled and kissed my cheek and headed to make himself breakfast. I blushed and dug in, damn this boy could cook!! Dean and I finished up our breakfast and packed up for the gym. "Dean go easy on me... I'm scared...." We climbed in the car and buckle de up "of course I'll be easy on you, I don't want to beat the hell out of you, why are you scared... You know I'd never do anything to hurt you." I tried to hide my blush and Dean smirked "someone is a little Blushy today!" I shot him the stink eye and tried to enjoy the rest of the ride to the gym.
*******
We arrived at the gym and headed inside. I climbed inside the practice ring and Dean got in as well "you ready?" I nodded and held my breath. Dean locked up with me and I shoved him into the turn buckle. "Not bad Megan, what are you gonna do now that you've got me in your power?" I thought for a moment and hit a killer monkey flip, Dean sprung back up and smirked at me. "Very nice!" We went back and forth and I practiced taking my bumps and selling them.
********
We practiced up until lunch and reality was setting in, "Im less then 5 hours away from my first match.... I think I'm going to be sick...." Dean wrapped his arm around my waist. "You'll do fine.... I'm sure of it." Dean and I went off to lunch. I didn't eat anything since the sight of food made me sick. Dean and I headed to the venue for tonight's show and headed backstage. "Megan this is my former tag team partner Mr. Money in the bank Seth Rollins" I offered my hand for a shake "nice to meet you" Roman walked up "oh my shit you are fine!!" I giggled "I'm Megan, and I know your Roman. Nice to meet you" I finished my meet and greets and sat around backstage with my ring gear on my lap. The show started and I got into my ring gear and sat in my locker room. My match was later on in the show after Dean's match.
******
1.......2....... 3!!! "Here is your winner, Dean Ambrose!" The fans went wild and I waited in the holding area. Dean made his way backstage and I hugged him tight. "Congrats!!! Deany!!" He smiled and wrapped his strong arm around my waist "thanks Megan! Now you go out there and kick some ass!" I smiled, Nattie's theme to and Lilian starts her announcing. "The following divas contest is set for one fall. Introducing first from Calgary Alberta Canada, Natalia!!!" The fans erupted and Nattie smiled on the turnbuckle leaping off it. She's A Hottie by Toby Keith played "And her opponent, from Litchfield making her WWE Debut, Megan!!!" The fans were mixed as I made my way to the ring in my semi Dean inspired ring attire. I climbed into the ring and waited in my corner, my theme stopped and the ref rang the bell. Nattie and I locked up after shaking hands she backed me into the corner and threw me onto the mat.
*******
The match when 100 miles a minute and Nattie was still in control, but I had gotten a few bumps in to try to tear the queen of hearts down. She wouldn't budge and in the end I got locked in the sharp shooter and ended up tapping what seemed like instantly. Nattie's theme hit and Lilian stood up "here is your winner, Natalya!" The fans cheered and I remained laying in the middle of the ring, my legs and lower back aching. Nattie helped me up and smiled helping me out of the ring. I made my way backstage and Dean wrapped me in a hug, "good effort Megan, you did great!"I smiled and kissed him lightly. I was finally ready to tell Dean how I truly feel about him.
*******
We arrived at the gym and headed inside. I climbed inside the practice ring and Dean got in as well "you ready?" I nodded and held my breath. Dean locked up with me and I shoved him into the turn buckle. "Not bad Megan, what are you gonna do now that you've got me in your power?" I thought for a moment and hit a killer monkey flip, Dean sprung back up and smirked at me. "Very nice!" We went back and forth and I practiced taking my bumps and selling them.
********
We practiced up until lunch and reality was setting in, "Im less then 5 hours away from my first match.... I think I'm going to be sick...." Dean wrapped his arm around my waist. "You'll do fine.... I'm sure of it." Dean and I went off to lunch. I didn't eat anything since the sight of food made me sick. Dean and I headed to the venue for tonight's show and headed backstage. "Megan this is my former tag team partner Mr. Money in the bank Seth Rollins" I offered my hand for a shake "nice to meet you" Roman walked up "oh my shit you are fine!!" I giggled "I'm Megan, and I know your Roman. Nice to meet you" I finished my meet and greets and sat around backstage with my ring gear on my lap. The show started and I got into my ring gear and sat in my locker room. My match was later on in the show after Dean's match.
******
1.......2....... 3!!! "Here is your winner, Dean Ambrose!" The fans went wild and I waited in the holding area. Dean made his way backstage and I hugged him tight. "Congrats!!! Deany!!" He smiled and wrapped his strong arm around my waist "thanks Megan! Now you go out there and kick some ass!" I smiled, Nattie's theme to and Lilian starts her announcing. "The following divas contest is set for one fall. Introducing first from Calgary Alberta Canada, Natalia!!!" The fans erupted and Nattie smiled on the turnbuckle leaping off it. She's A Hottie by Toby Keith played "And her opponent, from Litchfield making her WWE Debut, Megan!!!" The fans were mixed as I made my way to the ring in my semi Dean inspired ring attire. I climbed into the ring and waited in my corner, my theme stopped and the ref rang the bell. Nattie and I locked up after shaking hands she backed me into the corner and threw me onto the mat.
*******
The match when 100 miles a minute and Nattie was still in control, but I had gotten a few bumps in to try to tear the queen of hearts down. She wouldn't budge and in the end I got locked in the sharp shooter and ended up tapping what seemed like instantly. Nattie's theme hit and Lilian stood up "here is your winner, Natalya!" The fans cheered and I remained laying in the middle of the ring, my legs and lower back aching. Nattie helped me up and smiled helping me out of the ring. I made my way backstage and Dean wrapped me in a hug, "good effort Megan, you did great!"I smiled and kissed him lightly. I was finally ready to tell Dean how I truly feel about him.