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Anyone conversant in vampire lore knows of Bram Stoker's infamous monster Dracula, but not everyone is aware that the infamous Count is based on a real life monster- Vlad Tepes Dracula, a bloodthirsty fifteenth century ruler of Wallachia (now Romania).



"Dracula" in Romanian means literally, son of the Dragon. Vladislavs "Tepes" Dracula was born in 1431- the year Joan of Arc was burned at the stake- in Sighisoara, Romania, in a modest stone house that still stands today. His father and namesake Vlad Dracul was the governor of Transylvania, a Knight of the Order of the Dragon, from which he took the name "Dracul." The Order of the Dragon was a Catholic chivalric order similar to the Knights Hospitaller, whose mission was defending Christianity against the Turks.



Ironically, the emblem of the order symbolized the defeat of the dragon at the hands of St. George- but while the elder Dracul was a dragon-slayer, the son was destined to become the dragon.



Young Vlad was raised in Wallachia, educated, and trained to become a knight like his father. Unfortunately, politics would soon intervene, and turn his life upside down. The Turks over-ran Constantinople and became a serious threat to the elder Vlad's kingdom. The elder Dracul decided that under the circumstances, the best course of action would be to throw in his lot with the Turks. He offered an alliance, and his sons as surety. At the tender age of eleven, the youthful Vlad was sent along with his younger brother to live in virtual exile with the Turkish Sultan as a guarantee of his father's goodwill. The boy and his brother Radu became prisoners, confined for four years under strict house arrest. Vlad came of age a bitter, untrusting young man.



Scarcely four years later, Vlad senior found himself in a difficult position, when he was called to fight Turkish invaders- he was forced to make to choose between fulfilling his sworn duty as a Knight- allowing his sons to die- or to save the lives of his young sons and incur the wrath of the Church, which might leave him to the mercy of his many enemies. Faced with such a difficult decision, Vlad chose to do neither, instead opting to send his eldest son in his place. The Christian army was defeated, and in the end, both Vlad and his son were assasinated-tortured and buried alive by anti-Turkish subjects.



Vlad returned home immediately to seek vengeance, and with the aid of the Turkish cavalry, took his father's throne- a rule that was to last only weeks. Over the next seven years, he plotted to regain Wallachia from his father's enemies, and in 1456, he succeeded- and thus began one of the cruelest and bloodiest reigns in the history of Europe.



The first of Dracula's many infamous cruelties was an act of revenge. He invited the local families who had supported his father's murderers to a feast, where they were promptly arrested. Many he impaled on stakes, a punishment that became his hallmark and earned him the name "Tepes" or Tepesh- impaler.



The remainder of the prisoners were sent on a forced march and made to build a fortress, a task few survived.



Vlad quickly became known for his swift and brutal punishments, meted out even for minor crimes. His favorite punishment for lawbreakers was impalement, but he also employed burning, dismemberment, and other cruelties. He loathed the dishonest, beggars, and people who could not or would not work. On one infamous occasion, he sent out an invitation to the beggars of Wallachia to attend a great feast. When his guests arrived and were seated, he ordered the doors locked, and building was then burned to the ground, leaving no survivors. In Germany, pamphlets describing his atrocities began to circulate, along with rumors of blood drinking and worse.





Many other stories of Vlad's unusual moral code circulated. He prized honesty above all and devised many tests of the virtue for his citizens. A favorite trick was to leave valuables to tempt thieves, who wouldbe immediately and cruelly punished. Word quickly spread, however, and fear of his punishments became so great that it is rumored a golden cup placed within easy reach in a public square was never touched!



Relations with the Turks eventully grew strained, and after a series of raids and other insults, the Turks declared war. Though his armies were vastly outnumbered, Dracula nevertheless employed every psychological and guerilla tactic he could dream up- poisoning water supplies, engaging in sneak attacks, even employing a crude form of germ warfare- and finally, he impaled some twenty thousand Turks, a scene so grisly it caused the Turkish sultan to retreat. However, the Turkish army soon returned in force- led by Vlad's own brother, Radu.



When the Turks reached his mountain fortress, Vlad was able to escape to Transylvania, aided by villagers. His wife was not so fortunate- according to legend, she threw herself from the battlements to avoid capture. He sought help from the King of hungary, who instead had him imprisoned on false charges. Later, with the King's aid, he became the Prince of Wallachia (how, nobody knows) and was assassinated less than a year later. In total, his reign lasted just six years. He is regarded as a hero to this day in Romania.







Stone bust of Dracula in Sigisora







Seal of the order of the Dragon







Dracula himself

The word witch comes is derived from the old English words wicce meaning wise one and wicca, meaning healer. The witch was considered a wise-woman who lived in harmony with nature and the seasons. They were skilled in the use of herbs and were often called upon to cure the ill.

The witch had many special items, many used in rituals. The Athame was the witch's personal steel knife used in many rituals. It was believed to have magical properties. The knife itself was double-edged had often had a black handle.



The broomstick was symbolic of magical powers. Its real purpose? To cleanse the area where magical rituals were performed. So how did the belief arise that witches rode broomsticks through the air?



On All Hallow's Eve, witches would often anoint themselves with a "magical" ointment. The ointment made the skin tingle and gave the illusion of being very light, perpetuating the belief that they could fly. A witch walking through the woods on her way to the festival would often use the broom as a means to help jump over a brook or stream. Hence, they were believed to be flying.



Of course, we've all seen witches standing over bubbling cauldrons and drinking from large chalices in the movies. The cauldron was a pot used for concocting magical potions and for scrying (looking into the future on the water's surface). The chalice was believed to be a receptacle of spiritual forces.



The wands that many witches carried, were made of hazel wood, crystal, carved ivory or ebony, silver or gold. It was believed that these wands were extensions of the life force of the witch herself.



Halloween is one of the four highest holidays in the pagan celebrations and is often considered the greatest of the four, sometimes called the Great Sabbath. It is a time to observe the supernatural powers of this world and otherworlds and ponder the mysteries that lie in both.

During middle ages, especially from 15th to 17th century, Europe was under the dark shadow of ignorance and superstitions. Towns were underdeveloped and people lived near woods. The fear of wolves was like a nightmare. Their attacks were so frequent and atrocious in nature that people even feared to travel from one place to another. Every morning, countryside people would find half-eaten human limbs scattered on their fields.



The first recorded Werewolf sighting took place around the countryside of German town Colongne and Bedburg in 1591. An age-old pamphlet describes those shivering moments vividly. Few people cornered a large wolf and set their dogs upon it. They started to pierce it with sharp sticks and spears. Surprisingly the ferocious wolf did not run away or tried to protect itself, rather it stood up and turned out to be a middle-aged man he was Peter Stubbe from the same village.



Stubbe was put on a torture wheel where he confessed sixteen murders including two pregnant women and thirteen children. The history behind his downfall was rather bizarre. He had started to practice sorcery when he was only 12 and was so obsessed with it that even tried to make a pact with the Devil. Wearing a magic girdle he started to attack his enemies, real or imaginary. After several months, he would take the guise of a wolf and continued with his evil acts with more brutality. In the wolf form he used to tear up victims’ throats and suck warm blood from veins. Gradually his thirst for blood grew and he roamed around fields in search of prey.







The savagery of his crimes was beyond imagination. The trial record motioned few of them. Once two men and a woman were walking along a road that went through the forest Stubbe used to hide in. He called one of them into the forest. When the man did not return for a long time the second one followed his trail and also disappeared into the forest. When both the man didn't return for a long time the woman ran for her life. Later, two mangled male corpses were recovered from the forest, but the woman’s body never reappeared. It was believed that Stubbe had devoured it all. Young girls playing together or milking the cows in the fields were his frequent victims. He used to chase them like a hound, catch the slowest one, rape and kill her. Then he would drink hot blood and eat tender flesh from her body. However; the most gruesome sin he committed was upon his own son. He took him to a nearby forest, cracked the poor child’s skull open and ate brain from it.



No punishment could match the magnitude of Stubbe’s crime. His flesh was pulled off with red-hot pincer, his arms and legs were broken and he was finally decapitated. His carcass was burned to ashes.



The Magistrate of Bedburg built a grim monument remembering the ghastly incident. Workmen put the torture wheel atop a tall pole with Stubbe’s head above it structured with the likeliness of a wolf. Sixteen pieces of yard long wood cuts were hung from the rim of the wheel commemorating poor souls of the victims. The words of Stubbe’s trial and execution spread across the lands in no time. His brutality, atrocity and savagery were beyond human comprehension and was readily related with the behavior of a wolf. People started to believe that such individuals with the shadow of wolves were living among them. They named them Werewolves.

The most ancient images of the vampire were the dark aspect of the goddess, the crone and her “wise blood.” Medusa Gorgon, the serpent goddess, represented female wisdom, the Destroyer aspect of the Goddess Athene.

The Countess Bathory was imprisoned in her own castle, having been found guilty of the deaths of up to 650 young servant women who were entrusted to her care. The legend is that she bathed in their blood to maintain her youth and beauty. She died in 1610, and inspired myriad vampire tales and movies, including Hammer's Countess Dracula, starring Ingrid Pitt. The artists of the Romantic period celebrated ancient images of fatal beauty, the blood-thirsty goddesses who evolved into our modern vampire. This painting, “Astarte Syriaca” by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, is the romanticized image of the Babylonian goddess who was the “bringer of death and decay.”

This girl could have been my life, my wife...my everything. I wanted to spend eternity with her and it took all my will power not to bite her. But I was strong and I loved her so much that I did not want to curse her as I was. I stayed with for as long as life would let me, never telling her my horrible secret. Then oneday she got old and horribly sick. As she lay on her death bed she looked to me and said. ''Why is it that I age and you stay as young and beautiful as the day I met you.'' I could not tell her, but I simply left before she died. I could not stay in the town with her as she shriveled in aggonizing pain, but oneday the pain would end. If I had bitten her the pain would have lasted forever.

After I forced myself to believe I could not return home due to my situation I fled to a nearby town in Alaska. All I wanted to do was die, but I couldn't. I started craving blood like a maniac and started out killing 2 to 3 people a day. I was a monster driven by the smell of living blood. After many years of practically not understanding what had become of me I began to control the beast that beat within my chest. I was a grown man forced to live in an eternity in the body of a 17 year old. Years later I did something no vampire should ever do...I fell in love with a young mistress in Barrow Alaska. She and her father were dog shaffers. She was beautiful, stunning, marvelous in every way, but she was also human.

I am Lucius Paris if you do not yet know. I am son of Granger Paris...once a blacksmith in the west of Alaska. When I was 17 I was sent on an errand that I did not return from. I was sent by my father to the West, in search of medicine...you see my mother had fallen ill. On my journey to lands I had never walked darkness fell upon me. I met Nillmon Beckory, the devil that cursed me at a young age. From here I was unworthy to return home. I have not seen my father since the 1800's and because of this I have forgotten certain things about myself. I can not remember my exsact birthdate or even my mother's full name. This vampireism is a cursed damned upon unlucky souls. I am one such person who fell into the clutches of Satan himself.