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Are there Vampires at all?
DarKnight19
Member Posts: 31
I want to know more about the vampire, I am drowning in it....does it really exist?
Comments
Go abd google it if you want to know more, guess youll get most from the moives or comics. And apparently, it's non-existent.
well you shattered my dream...lol
Sure...
The idea of vampires is based on this guy named Vlad the Impaler. He was a tyrant that used to torture thousands of people by impaling them on a stake. Supposedly he drank their blood as well.
A novelist named Bram Stoker just thought Vlad would make for a good creature for his book called "Dracula".
No, that's just the name of the character.
The act of Vampirism is actually based on Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Bram Stoker did quite a bit of research and developed Dracula based on quite a few historical figures, but Elizabeth Bathory was the one who he took the most inpsiration from.
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Vlad came like 100 years before Bathory. He was the first to be widely thought of to be a vampire. Even before then people were claiming that undead were rising and drinking people's blood..dunno an explanation for that heh.
Dracula didn't start vampirism but he sure did widely popularize it. All that I've read and seen have indicated the exact opposite of what you're saying. Where'd you get your info from on Elizabeth Bathory = True Dracula and not Vlad...the Impaler?
It's true... I've seen them! They sparkle in the light like diamonds...
/camp
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No one thought Vlad was a Vampire, in fact to his own people he was considered a hero of sorts. He did away with a lot of the Nobility who weren't very well liked by the people anyways and he kept the invading Turks at bay. When he became the ruler the first thing he did was have a huge 3 day party for all of the Nobility that had opposed him and a lot of them were involved with the assasination of his father. After the 3 days he had them all impaled alive in front of his castle. He also defeated the invading Turks several times and left their impaled bodies along the border as a warning. He was a brutal bastard when he needed to be but he was loved by the people he ruled. He wasn't connected to Vampires until Bram Stroker named his main character, Dracula after him. (Dracula by the way means 'Son of the Dragon' and it was his court name. His actual name was Vlad Tepes.)
The origins of the Vampire is believed to be from the Dark Ages and the time of the great plagues. At that time they didn't have the best doctors and a lot of people were pronounced dead long before their time. These people were buried alive in mass 'plague tombs' and when they awoke if they managed to get out they were consided to be 'walking dead'. This is about the same time Vampire folklore started to apear in written texts so it isn't hard to deduce that the plagues of the Dark Ages gave birth to the Vampire myths.
Bren
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Who was the first real life person to be widely thought of as being a vampire then? I mean there are lesser known people before Vlad, but I used the term, "widely". He might not have been known as one during his time but after Bram Stoker made his book connections were made.
Just like with ...say Ricky Martin. During his peak popularity millions of women wanted to live la vida loca with him. Later on lots of whispers here and there suggested that maybe he's gay because he was never seen him dating a woman before....or because his shirt is too tight.....or (insert whatever). Well, anyway he is gay but my point is people can be persuaded to believe anything and um the book "Dracula" did convince many theorists/vampire fanatics that Vlad was in fact a vampire....yeeeeah
Dracula was a work of pure fiction that was written and promoted by it's author as a work of pure fiction. Bram Stroker's book wasn't even published until 1897... just over a hundred years ago. The Countess Bathory was considered a Vampire during her life time in the 16th century. She kidnaped, killed and bathed in the blood of hundreds of young women. She was 10 times the monster Vlad Tepes was. Vlad was not even associated with vampirism until 1897 when Stroker published his book. Maybe... just maybe you should read up a little about the actual history of these people before you come here spouting nonsense. No one with half a brain ever thought Vlad Tepes was a Vampire... before or after Stroker's book was published. The only two things in the book that had anything historically acurate about them were the name(Dracula) and the location(Transylvania)... everything else was pure fantasy and anyone who knew anything about actual history knew this already.
Bren
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So killing and bathing in blood is 10 times more of a monster than someone who impaled and ....drank blood? I dunno about that
Oh ya...while you're busy cutting and pasting stuff from google Bren also research historical vampires and get back to me.
He never historically drank blood. That was made up by Stroker in 1897. The only people he impaled mainly were the Ottoman Turks and if you knew anything about actual history you'd know they weren't exactly the 'good guys'... they were an invading force that he had to defend his homeland from (He was the first leader to successfully do this by the way). Impaling them was a very nasty way of keeping them out. The only time he really crossed the line was when he impaled the Nobility but they weren't exactly the 'good guys' either. It's very easy to look back today and see his acts as barbarous but he lived in a very barbaric time.
Everything Elizabeth Bathory did is historically acurate. She was a 16th century Countess that used her position of nobility to lure hundreds of young women to their deaths. She would bleed them out while they were still alive because she thought bathing in the fresh warm blood would keep her young and beautiful. Her vanity cost hundreds of women their lives. This is historically proven and not some Victorian writer's fantasy.
Learn some history and come back to try again please.
Bren
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None of this is 'cut and pasted' from Google or anywhere else. I know this stuff because i actually studied world history quite extensively in college. I also studied world literature so I know fact from fiction. Maybe you should read some of that Google stuff you refer to as it may prepare you better for this conversation.
Bren
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Heh he said...Stroker...wow slips of the tongue (or..fingers). Close out the vampire porn page please.
Anyway I chose to keep the blood legends of both historical figures in my last statement because no one can prove/disprove either. Bring a big brother style video feed of what Vlad did every day or at the very least bring whoever supposedly started that legend and get him to recant it to prove that he did not.
Good or bad.....a murder isn't less of a murder because of these qualities. Elizabeth was 10 times more insane than Vlad but when it comes down to their actual murders/murder count Vlad caused a lot more death/mayhem. I guess you can argue that he became a monster to kill monsters......kind of like Jason Vorhees in a way. I mean Jason doesn't really want to kill those people but those freakin teenagers keep having sex and smoking weed in his backyard. Gotta do what you gotta do.
lol I forgot this thread was here. But, Bren is completely right on every account.
Vlad was actually fairly tame compared to some other historical leaders. Such as Phalaris. Vlad was merely an authoritarian. He took pleasure in the things he did, but he didn't do them for the sheer pleasure of it.
But, back before TV and Radio, watching people die was the thing to do for pretty much all of history. This even goes on into the British Imperial Age and Early American history. Even today, we are fascinated by these historical monsters, serial killers, and horror movies.
The main reason Vlad was thought of as a monster to people outside his kingdom, was that he would punish everyone the same. Regardless of who they were or where they came from. Which, was a big No-No back then.
Look at Bathory for instance. She was absolutely a monster and her own people even saw her as a monster. However, when she was finally punished for killing over 600 women, she wasn't killed, she wasn't tortured, she was locked in a tower for the rest of her life, becuase nobility and royalty weren't treated like the common man. If she was a commoner, she probably would have been flayed alive, after watching her entire family bloodline being flayed alive.
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Read Bram Stoker's Dracula.
So... you think Vlad personally killed and impaled all of those Turks? He would have been a very busy guy. No, his army did that under his orders. Countess Bathory was personally involved in every one of the murders she was eventually accused of. Vlad killed enemies of his country, 99% of which were invaders to his lands(the other 1% was the nobility he had impaled). Bathory killed hundreds of innocent young women... mostly between the ages of 13-18 as she considered them to be the most 'pure'. Vlad was a patriot and a hero of his people. Bathory was nothing but a monster pure and simple.
By your logic anyone who has ever taken up arms to defend their nation is a monster and possibly a vampire. I hope I'm not the only one here that sees just how twisted that logic is. Oh, and pointing out my one typo to try to shift attention away from how wrong you are is just lame. Nice try though... LOL
Bren
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Ill answer the touchy military subject with a question. Why do you think the military tries it best to desensitize soldiers?
I guess ill give you another question concerning bathory. She obviously had mental problems. Was she fully aware of what she was doing? I don't think she had a full psychological evaluation back then heh. This opens the door for another big debate. Should violent people with mental problems be held responsible for their crimes?
Well to answer your question about Bathory I'd have to say she knew exactly what she was doing and just didn't care. She was nobility and had absolute power over those she governed. This was during a time in history when great injustices were a daily occurance between nobility and the commoners. She just took it to the extreme. They say absolute power corrupts absolutely and I'd say the Countess Bathory is proof of that concept. Was she homicidal? Yes, but I think she knew exactly what she was doing and just didn't care for the simple reason that she could get away with it without accountability.
The only reason she was finally brought to some kind of justice was because she eventually crossed the line even nobility of the time shouldn't cross. She bled out a young nobelwoman and the other nobility finally felt she should be stopped. If she had of stuck to bleeding out peasants they probably would have let her continue for years. She was imprisoned in a tower of her own castle for the rest of her life. She was essentially 'Sent to her room'. lol
Bren
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The most famous vampire of all times was Count Dracula, who was famous for his fight for freedom against invaders of his people, but the novel "Bram Stoker's Dracula" from 1897 played a very important role in his legend as a well known vampire. In the novel, as well in the movie, Dracula is on a quest to be eternally reunited with the one woman he loves. He travels from Transylvania to London to find the young woman who is the double of the love he lost many centuries earlier. Many say that this is the birth of the legend of the modern idea of Count Dracula, however it is not so much a vampire legend as it is a love story.
In contrast with the fictional Count Dracula, Elizabeth Bathory, also known as Countess Dracula, is one of the most feared vampire-esque figures in world history. She perpetrated incredible cruelties upon her servants and village girls in a massive castle on the mountaintop. Elizabeth was known for holding blood orgies and even bathing in the blood of virgins, for their supposed power to make you immortal. She became know to people as the castle of vampires and the hated 'Blood Countess', though she was frantic to find her own love.
Im thinking more about what could have begun those stories in the first place. We know there are conditions that make humans age ten times as fast as normal (Progeria), maybe there is a condition that make us age ten times slower? That could be a good way to start up a myth about immortals.
There are several cultures throughout history that involved cannibalism. A fair portion focused on the consumption of blood. Combine exxagerated tales of such tribes with the old Sumerian myths of undead warriors...
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
So how exactly does one go from beating ones brother to death and running off to marry Egyptian nobles, to being an undead hematophiliac?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway