The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

How did vampires originate? Where did they come from?

The folkloric vampire:
In folklore, a vampire was an answer to unsolvable problems within culture. The vampire was seen as the cause of certain evils, accounted for the appearence of some extraordinary occurrences within the society, and was often cited as the end product of immoral behavior. Example; suicide, stillborn births, mental illness etc.

The literary vampire:
Underlying much of the modern vampire lore was the belief that vampires attacked humans, through that attack, drew victims into their world. Never telling where the vampire originated from or why, just going by their own beliefs and feelings as a human. To tell a tale to intrigue human minds.

The science fiction vampire:
A final option concerning the origin of vampires. Science fiction leans towards a alien form, comming to earth to escape a dying planet. A 2nd opinion , a disease (either in the form of germs or altered blood chemistry) provided a nonsupernatural explanation of the vampires existence. Disease explained the strange behavior ,from nocturnal exitence to the allergy of garlic to the blood lust.

In the end however, whatever the origin, the vampire was the bearer of it's condition to anyone it attacked, and the vampires bite was the most common way to spread vampirism.

So what I'm asking is if you had to pick one of three beliefs, which would you believe. Or input your own thoughts, opinions, or knowledge of the origins of the vampire, or as to why it has such a hold on so many art forms in our modern world.

there are several stories i have read besides anne rices that say the orgin came from sometime of spirit binding to a humen or possseing a humen... i really dont know which one i belive would be the origin...

My belief about the origins of the vampire is based on spirit and desire. A desire for life that surpassed what the world then knew. I believe a vampire was born out of need and spirit, melded together to spark its birth.
I believe in many things that I have not tasted nor touched. But once in a while we get a glimps of something that leaps out of myth and takes ahold and becomes our truths. Vampires are one of the mysteries that I have had a glimps of and believe in. ~Lady~

I think for some reason that the vampire was just a name that someone made up to insult or scare someone, much like how the devil and hell was made up to keep people in "check", no what i mean? You better be good cuz if you don't, the devil will get you, or you'll go to hell etc.
Maybe the vampire got started the same way and through time people were so intriqued with the vampire legend they started giving their meanings of what one "really" is. etc. That is pretty much what i believe.

Its hard to say...
Sometimes it seems to me just as a result of humen needs and wishes for unnormal life...

so why is when i hear the word vampire , i think of dracula?

You think of dracula because of Vlad Dracul the father of Vlad the impaler, the person who has been identified as Dracula.

Dracul is a romanian word interpreted as devil or dragon. The word dracula means son of devil or dragon.

Because of modernization everyone thinks Dracula immediaty when they here vampire. Not knowing excatly what the word means.

Anchient Jewish text holds the origins of the Vampire. I believe

There is a word for vampire all over the world and the definitions are not the same, nor is the word of course. I wouldn't doubt ancient so and so has their own meanings to what a vampire is. Everybody still has their own theories and opinions.

the ideals of being bitten turning you is a more recent construct into the legends largely attributed to writers in lord Byrons time
not only him....but numerous writers of the time.....before that the legends had more to do with a spirit possessing a dead body...and the moon played more part than blood......blood fed the beast...but the moon was it's source of power....and regeneration/recouperation

In regards to "dragonsage" the whole point of this thread is to share your theories and own opinions, that way we all may gain a better understanding into each others insights. It's not to say who is right or wrong, just opinions.

It is my belief that mutations could have caused such things and the local myths were what those that suffered the mutation followed as they was all they knew.

Cancer is a mutation who says such could not mutate into something that had other side effects besides death....

My guess

The first vampire was created when jealousy and covetous thoughts were first conceived in human society.

One man saw something they wanted and proceeded to suck the life from his neighbor, until his literal or figurative demise. At which time he inherited that which he was originally envious of and found much to his dissatisfaction, that it was no longer what he wanted. (The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence)

Sooo he continued to search, and devour, never finding that which he sought. The reason being that what he originally sought was no longer in his world. What he had wanted was another mans property or station in life etc. Once he made the step to finally kill for what he wanted, the act of murder changed his victim from a peer, to that a much more modest thing... an object. An object that could be manipulated and ultimately terminated; and once you hold the power of god in your hands its impossible to view humans as equals, and therefore anything they possess or care for is evermore beneath you.

Even still, there is a restlessness that cannot be shaken. It is called hope. Hope is what drives him to continue his search for contentment… for that ultimate satisfaction that he strove so hard for in the beginning; and which is promised to him when time ends and is redefined. I personally think his arrogance is so consuming that he actually thinks he can hasten Armageddon.

Perhaps a vampire can…

i was told of the story but it is different from yours it was about a man called count alucard that went around at night killing people and drinking there blood. one day he was cought and killed for it. they reversed his name to make it sound more terrafing and changed it to count dracula. he was berried but what was wierd was the killings continued but instead of people with the throuts cut there were two puncture marks on there neck so people went and dug up count alucard's grave to find his body missing and thats how it all started.

I have also heard and read many stories. I am very drawn to the Alucard theory, But I believe there to be a more religious backbone. Jesus did not take on the sins of mankind, he held them until striking a deal with Alucard for immortality, but cursing him with all of mankinds' sin, thus preventing Alucard from ever entering heaven, but unable to enter hell for the saintly business of sparing "the one God"s only son an eternity in purgatory.

eh, I wasnt quite finished, my com went stoopit 4 a sec. anyway. After the townfolk killed Alucard, since he was unable to enter heaven or hell, He rose again, but with this ongoing deal with Jesus, continued to take on every sin confessed to a priest, whether in the catholic church or other, and since the sheer magnitude of all that sinning from us dumb fricking mortals is simply too much, he began to transfer some of it to others through the blood fed to them from his veins, thus creating as many vampires as it takes to hold all of it. You do the math. 1 vampire to around every 600 years of sins by my count, maybe yours comes out differently. And now with this curse that they bear, they take their revenge on mortals by taking their blood, and assimilating it to themselves for eternal youth and vitality. I also believe that vampires are not completely unable to bear sunlight, but Alucard himself was slightly photosensitive, and passed this along through his blood, sort of like a shared pain, getting weaker with each new vampire. Power shared is power gained, but with it comes all the shared curses, i.e. photosensitvity, adema, allergies to certain things(some say silver, some say garlic, etc.)

Inside every myth there is a crenel of truth. It’s up to you to find it. In the case of vampires, every culture around the world has a myth. This means that cultures that don’t speak the same language, hold the same values, or and have very little in common share similar stories about very similar beings. I believe that there are several races of vampires, as there are humans.

I dig the theory put forth in Dracula 2000 film :D

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about and that.....oh wait never mind --that was faeries.

Interesting forum thread.

Actually the name alucard [dracula spelt backwards] came from a comic book by Dell publishing co back in 1962 which was discontinued after the first issue. later to be reissued in 1966 under a different name. If you would like more info on this comic please let me know..

nobody was saying who was right or wrong that i could see. that was an opinion ?

this is onne of many sites that have something close to the storys

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~vampire/vhist.html

There are so many stories one about lilith which has religious context to it Vlad theory there was one i came across In egyptian history soon as i remember it I will post it

so many theories but whose right whose wrong we'll never know so i say just enjoy being part of the mystery and don't worry about it

hmmm..should i ? but of course i should...

little known is the fact that vlads father was indeed the head of a house of "dragons" no not the story book folklore dragons with wings and scales but a house of believers that actually drank blood ..not by biting people but out of a glass ...the perpose was to ingest not the blood itself but the inate amounts of monoatomic elements that are present in blood ..by ingesting these elements it is said to unlock unused portions of the brain enableing these people to do great things..including extended life and the ability to cure oneself of any disease by the correction of dna strands.for those who have no or little knowlage of monoatomic elements heres a breif overview..take gold for instance when gold is heated to a cirtian temp"6100 degrees c. " it becomes a white powder the white powder is still the gold however it is broken down into single atoms at a high spin when in this state it can be ingested transfering some of its attributes on to the person who ingested it ..it is important for me to mention that this gold at this state posses the ability to levitate and even disapear from this plane of exsistance...before you think that this is bull do some research youll see....the term dracula derives from vlads fathers title of "drac" head dragon ..back to the point the vampire as we know it is a perversion of the truth and the facts brought about by the hundreds of years of religious influance...i would go into it further however i was asked to leave "god out of it" anyway there is a plethura of info on this subject depending on how far you are willing to go ...a good place to start is with the writer.."LAURENCE GARDNER" not only can you find alot of info about dragons , monoatomic elements, and a multitude of other things if you ever wondered why jesus out of all the other people in the world including his brothers and sisters was the "chosen one" you should read some of this writers works...

i just want to thank u all ...

Absoulutally beautiful. I thank all for the input so far in this thread. doesn't anyone else have any thoughts or theories as to why vampires exsist?

depends on what kind of vampire you believe in. If it's the anne rice type, prolly to balance out the human race. If for any other reason than that, i have no clue.