Vlad, The Impaler

Introduction
(Copyright © 2002 www.vladtheimpaler.com)


As you may well know, author Bram Stoker (1847-1912) based the title character of his 1897 novel Dracula on an actual human being, or should we say inhuman being.

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What is interesting to note, is that Stoker's vampire, while being loosely based on Vlad the Impaler, is nowhere near as threatening, nor as sadistic.
Stoker's Dracula is a mysterious, somewhat sensual character who kills and feeds to survive, much like any being in nature. In fact, as much as there is reference to the evil of Dracula, it can be reasoned that all of his actions were motivated by survival.
Vlad the Impaler, on the other hand, killed not to feed, but to revel in his own power, and just for the sheer pleasure of seeing the suffering of his numerous victims.

[...]

Vlad the Impaler wasn't a "real" vampire, but he probably caused more rivers of blood to flow than any other tyrant in the history of the world.

History

Detailed history and the most accurate facts about Vlad's life can be found on the following links if you care to take a look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_Tepes

http://www.vladtheimpaler.com/vlad_the_impaler_bio_001.htm

The Impalement
(in Wikipedia)

Impalement is an act of torture and/or execution whereby the victim is pierced by a long stake.

The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or possibly through the mouth.

The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the victim hanging to die.

In some forms of impalement, the stake would be inserted so as to avoid immediate death, and would function as a plug to prevent blood loss — thus extending the victim's agony for many hours.

One way to achieve this gradual death is to insert the stake through the rectum deep into the body of the victim until it left the body near the right shoulder, thus avoiding damaging the heart.

Reputation
(in Wikipedia)

More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his inhuman cruelty.

Impalement was Dracula's preferred method of torture and execution. [...]

Dracula usually had a horse attached to each of the victim's legs an a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock.
Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mother's chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake. [...]

Dracula often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles in the outskirts of a city that was his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. [...]

Thousands were often impaled at a single time. [...]

The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hell's (sic) tools: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals and boiling alive. [...]

Lycantrophy

Psychological Aspect:

1.) A patient reports in a moment of clarity or looking back the he sometimes feels as an animal or has felt like one.
2.) A patient behaves in a manner that resembles animal behaviour, for example crying, grumbling or creeping.

My Article:

Under the terms of clinical Lycanthropy it is essentially a person going through a state of behavior that causes them to act like or think they are animals, a brain scan was conducted on a few people and it was shown that parts of the brain produced unusual activity and the subjects in question reported their bodies were changing shape and that there belief of these incidents were very genuine in their mind.

It's also been noted that body shape distortions are not unknown in mental and neurological illness but it is however a mystery as to why people do not report their body feels like it's changing in odd ways but rather they profess that they are indeed changing into a specific animal. Typically lycanthropy has been thought of a human changing to wolf but it appears that only a minority of lycanthropy cases are in relevance to canine (more prominent in Northern Asia & Europe,) and that there are cases of people proclaiming to be changing into horses, cats (England,) birds, hyenas (Africa,) tigers (southern Asia & Japan) and more. It has also been noted that in early 2004 there is a list of over thirty published cases of lycanthropy.

There should be no real surprise that such a syndrome is present in modern society because many cultures all over the world in their early states of development there was rituals & myths that had strong notions of spiritual connections, reincarnation, transformation, and other relations with animals and perhaps it is in our world of psychoanalysis that we dismiss the possibilities of our connection with nature and our primal instincts. There have also been cases of 'feral children' that depict children actually being brought up by animals and many have been reliably documented in modern times, there is also a psychiatrist by the name of Lucien Malson whom collected over fifty cases of lycanthropy in his book "Wolf Children and the Problem of Human Nature" which was published in 1964 and notions beliefs about lycanthropy may branch from some unusual maternal relationship between humans and animals.

©Erych Dietrich Müller

Vampire or Vampyre?

The word Vampire (Vampir, Vampyre) has oblique origins, but researchers and scholars for the most part agree that it can be traced to the Slavic Tongue. There have been continuos debates however, as to its etymological sources. The word may have come from the Lithuanian wempti ("to drink"), or from the root pi ("to drink"), with the prefix va or av. Other suggested roots have included the Turkish uber ("witch"), and the Serbo-Croation pirati ("to blow"). Associated forms developed from the Serbo-Croation term, such as Vampir, Upyr in the Russian, Upior in the Polish, and Upir in the Byelorussian. Some scholars prefer the concept that upir is older than vampir, an eastern Slavic name that spread westward into the Balkans, where it was adopted by the southern Slavs and received vigorous circulation. The word vampire (or vampyre) arrived in the English language with two 1732 publications: the March translation of a report by the investigators looking into the case of Arnold Paole of Meduegna and the May release of the article "Poltitical Vampires."

Vampyre is a variant spelling of vampire that endured into the nine-teenth century, and as you have witnesses through out the net, it is still exercised by many today. "Vampyre" is closely connected to the Latin Vampyrus, to john Polidori's title for his short story " The Vampyre" (1819), and to the works of experts of previous centuries, including Zopfus, Rohl, and Ranft. As the word Vampire came into more common usage with the translation of such Eastern European names as upior, upyr, vampir, and vapir into English, vampyre became less common.

Through out the Vampire Community, you will come across spelling variations of "vampire". Some feel that "vampyre"is superior to "vampire" because it has a more aristocratic flair with a dark, elder essence. Sometimes the simplistic reason for use of "vampyre" is the admiration of how it appears, nothing more. But often, I find that those who expend "vampyre" are dismissed as a real vampire, and looked upon as a role player. This assumption is made because many role players have adapted the spelling of "vampyre" when referencing to their characters of the game. Others flavor "vampire" over "vampyre" because it is more modern, or because it differentiates "vampyre"(immortalmyths) from "real vampires" (human blood & energy drinkers). Many writers prefer"vampyre"or"vampyr" for their literary creations, using it to differentiate their undead from either the fanciful cinematic variety or a more violent species of vampire. In the end, it is up to the individual of how they would like to interpret either spelling, since one meaning for either "vampire" or "vampyre" is not set in stone.

© Darkness Embraced

The Vampire of Melrose Abbey

Recorded in the Historia Rerum Anglicarum, published during the twelfth century, between the years of 1196-1198 , Author William of Newburgh (also know as William of Newbury) printed what was believed to be an account of an genuine vampire.

The legend begins with a priest who is not very steadfast with his vows to the church.
He was very negligent to his duties as a priest and dedicated most of his time to unceremonious activities. He had been bestowed with the nickname Hundeprest (translated Dog Priest) because of his adoration of hunting with horse and hound. Shortly after his death, he had attempted to enter the cloister at the Melrose Abbey on several occasions. Without much success, he wandered off in the countryside and even appeared a few times inside the chamber of a woman who had employed him while he was alive. It was said that he moaned and screeched obnoxiously at her. Causing her much alarm, she summoned a elder member of the Abbey to come right away.

The elder monk, one of his consociates, and two other men set out to investigate this report. They set up a watch that following night where the priest was buried. As the night grew colder, three of the men went to a nearby lodge to warm themselves up by a fire, as the elder monk stayed behind to keep watch. Shortly after the three men has left, the elder monk witnessed the priest arise from his grave attempting to approach him. At first, the elder monk was frozen with fear, but he soon gained enough courage to fight the dead priest with his ax, chasing the dead priest back to his grave. When the dead priest reached his grave, the ground completely opened up like a mouth and swallowed him. The grave returned to it’s natural state as though it had never been disturbed.

When the three men had returned from warming themselves, the elder monk told them of his encounter with the dead priest. They listened attentively and credulously to the elder monk and decided they would open the grave the very first thing in the morning as the elder monk had suggested. Upon opening the dead priests grave that morning, they found the dead priest lying in a pool of blood. The blood was coming from a wound that the elder monk had left upon him in his report of struggle with the corpse the night before. They quickly removed the body outside area of the monastery, burned it, and scattered the ashes into the wind.

© Larae of Darkness Embraced

Vampires in the modern ages

The title of this blog was taken from a book by the great Stephen King. It's called 'Salem's Lot.

These were the reviews in the edition I've read:

"One of the few horror writers who can truly make the flesh creep"
Sunday Express

"Not since Dickens has a writer had so many readers by the throat... King's imagination is vast... one of the great storytellers of our time"
Guardian

They said it and I totally agreed Here is the plot (also from my book):

"Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets.

One is an eleven-year-old boy. He never speaks but his eyes betray the indescribable horror he has witnessed.

The other is a man plagued by nightmares, a man who knows that soon he and the boy must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town where no one is human anymore..."

It's all great, from the characters to the story. And the ending sugests a trailing line to a possible sequel... That unfortunately was not to be written...

I think this is a less morbid story than the usual stories by the same author... But it is as terrifying as all the others...

Hell!! It's really a masterpiece in my opinion!

The reason why

Grrrreetings dearrrr fellows

I started this blog because I love all dark things related to vampires and the undead in general!

After a long time It's finally ready to hostel my posts

Many thanks to Carnacki for the encouragement

Hope it suits your tastes