Vampire stories go back thousands of years in historical mythology and the earliest accounts of these creatures were described from many countries and many different appearances.
Vampiric foxes from japan to the Greek lamia who was described as having the upper body of a woman and lower body of a winged serpant.
The vampires that we are familiar with in this day and age are the movie vampires or the old Dracula tales by Bram stoker, whose hero or villian in the story originated from Romania.
Bram stoker is likely to have gotten his idea from the tales and stories that started to circulate in the 1700's in and around England, and before the 1700's little was known about vampires and the slaying of these supposed creatures of the night back in the slavic and european countries.

These mythical creatures suck the blood from their victims to survive and can only hunt and feed at night as sunlight will destroy them. Garlic and holy water are detterents to fight them and only a stake through the heart or sunlight and decapitation can destroy these creatures.

Although these somewhat fictional characters may make us laugh, there were actual cases of the deceased graves of relatives being dug up in some slavic countries for fear they were vampires. Cases of corpses rising in an upright positon when the coffin was opened and groans coming from these corpses were enough to convince lesser learned villagers from stking the corpse convinced it would rise and attack.
These actions however were the cause of air and body gasses escaping from the cadever causing it to sit up and make the groaning noises.

Also in olden times even the living were feared of being these vampire like creatures and the confusion was caused by a rare genetic disorder called porphyria .

The bodies of people with this condition cannot produce the correct amount of red blood called "heme." Supposedly this disorder could produce symptoms which ignorant people during the Dark Ages might have concluded to be a case of vampirism. Needless to say, people with this disease do not become vampires; the porphyria theory appears to be merely an attempt to explain the irrational beliefs of the ignorant.

Another disorder which could cause people in olden days to suspect a case of vampirism was extreme anemia. In this event, the patient is low on red blood cells and hemoglobin . Such a severe condition could make the patient's skin appear pale , clearly a sign of vampirism to the uninformed mind.

There very well may have been any number of other blood disorders or physical or mental ailments which produced some symptoms which the fearful in the past might have seen as signs of vampiric or demonic possession. One can imagine that any number of skin diseases or other disfigurements could cause primitive people to believe they had seen a vampire.

Wether you believe they are real or not ,today we have many different films,books and tv series on vampires and the fascination for these creatures of myth aren't easily going to go away(not that I want them to ).




:bat:

In my search on vampirism ,and why people may drink human blood, i came across this...thought it was relevant....

Vampires have a lot going for them. The eternal life thing is a big plus. And the wardrobe kicks ass. Super-powers, sleeping in, pointy teeth, sex appeal... Vampirism is a sexy thing, and the dismemberment of victims is strictly optional. Who wouldn't love it?

Now granted, it's not all fun and games. You lose out on sunlight and silver jewelry. People have a tendency to try to impale you with wooden stakes, cut off your head and burn you to bits. And the currently documented number of vampires proven to have eternal life is zero, so you could be drinking all that blood for nothing.

OK, now something else more serious...

Found this interesting site....

Human Living Vampires...
Human Living Vampires feel that they have a need, compulsion, or involuntary tendency to "feed" upon some substance or some kind of energy produced by other living things, primarily other people. HLV's fall into two main classes: those who experience blood-lust or blood-craving, and "psychic vampires" or "psi-vampires". There is considerable debate among these individuals as to whether they do or do not share "secondary symptoms" (such as sensitivity to sunlight) in common.....

read more at-
http://users.net1plus.com/vyrdolak/livevamps.htm

And, whether real vampires in the mythological sense (as in the dracula type stuff) really exist or not... myself, i dont tend to believe...

It's the same thing with warewolves, where rare genetic disorders, gives people a huge amount of facial and body hair.

Quote: stormtech
Vampires have a lot going for them. The eternal life thing is a big plus. And the wardrobe kicks ass. Super-powers, sleeping in, pointy teeth, sex appeal... Vampirism is a sexy thing, and the dismemberment of victims is strictly optional. Who wouldn't love it?
Actually, I wouldn't like eternal life. I'd get bored with 'life' eventually.

Stormtech

Yeah the wardrobe sleeping in pointy teeth and the sex appeal...*thinks of angel*Super powers... you know one wonders if a lifestyle change is in the offing here...

Oh and that site is good too.

eternal life would suck.. first yes u would get tired and bored of it .... secound when u would get tired and bored of it .. u wouldnt be able to kill urself so u can stop going through tourture.. u wouldnt becuase u would be immortal.....

Life is like a Wheel.... When it rains the rain freezes on top of some mountains.. eventually the frozen rain melts... causing it to flow down the mountian causing a river , then fish are in the river , then animals come to eat them , then its starts agian ... It rains , freezes , melts , More Water for the river , More fish , more animals...But when u r immortal u mess up the Life Wheel.. the Life Wheel would be ... be Born , Be a Kid , Age , Teenager , Adult , Old guy , Die ... But when u r immortal u mess it up .... becuase u cant age ... can be an old guy .. cant die .... there for causing u to mess it up for u .... well thats my oppinion..... :smoker:

These are my favorite vampies:

http://www-lib.usc.edu/~shoaf/vtshirts/countc01.jpg

http://www.freehomepages.com/munsters/famtree/grandpaftp.jpg

http://www.allposters.com/IMAGES/PEPH/BP1B1.jpg

Systematic Lupus may also account for some vampire myths...some but not all people with SLE are unable to go out into sunlight...they develop a severe blistering rash on any part exposed to the sun

Now That must of hurt i mean... it would really suck not to be able to be out side cuz of the sun ... dont yall think ?

yes..it does hurt...my mother has SLE but, thankfully, her photosensitivity is not severe...some people can not ever step into the light of day

I wouldn't mind... I like the dark. I could be a goth, except I'm not into death and all that jazz, and I'm too romantic and logical at the same time... But I like the dark. Some of my fondest memories were in the dark.

I have been to Transylvania .. (I was stationed in Germany) and it was a fun town... the castle (or more to the point what is left of it) is way up on a hillside and I do remember that the town folks were upset about the whole mess as the writer who had originally visited the place to look for writing material, gave the townsfolk the impression it was "just for personal research" .. Not to make them center for the "dark devils layer"

At the time, if they could have removed it from existence (the castle remains) they would not have hesitated to do so.. But a great deal of superstitions still abound there and most people did not want to "incur" the wrath of the devils child and be cursed....

Younger generation did not hold the same belief structures as do the elders, so they "liked" the castle and enjoyed the visitors more then the older generations do..:borg:

That town's history is bathed in blood and legend... The castle was originally built by Vlad Dracule's Father and when the son took over, he changed his name from Dracule (meaning dragon) to Dracula (meaning devils son or 'Son of the devil").. Hence the name "Count Dracula"...

He was better known to the towns people as Vladimir Dracule or simply Dracula (behind his back) .. Publicly called "Vlad the impaler" as the entire road leading to his castle was lined with impaled victims for crimes they may or may not have committed against him...

He was more the "devils child" then most will mention (when talking to a few townsfolk’s) ..

What I found interesting, was the many different versions of who this man was and what he was like.. He seemed to be very religious as he did donate a great deal of money to the local parish (for which they are still grateful for to this day long since his death) , but seemed to become more withdrawn and became a recluse.. And then his vicious side became more apparent in his later years for which his nickname was well earned (Vlad the impaler)

If you ever get to the castle remains however and decide to spend the night... Be in for an adventure you will not soon forget as there are more tails involving that then anything else he did when he was alive..

Thanks for the links storm and Hodge.

I've seen programmes and read about human vampires and it's very interesting that they crave blood to sometimes extreme and moderate extent .
SLE is also another factor too. All these different ilnesses would have been highly frightning to those in the past, who had no idea these medical symptoms existed, thus the poor unfortunates were branded vampires and killed through fear and superstition.
Bram stoker did take the stories of Vlad the impaler and used him as the evil unfortunate character in his book Dracula, and from then on his story has spawned books films etc.
Although in some cases vampirism to some may seem romantic, I wouldn't want to be one. The thought of taking innocent victims, living without sunlight and living forever(maybe) and I'm not keen on the taste of blood .
Just give me the romantic stories that come from Anne Rice and the Angel series, (although Lestat in The vampire chronicles is my favourite vampire) and I'm happy just to read about them, not to be one.

It is also my opinion... be well, my friend

-Lord Saber

I've been there too, since I was born in Romania. Unfortunately I was only arround 6 years old and I cant really remember that much. I heard a theory once that had to do with evolution and aliens and vampires , it goes that aliens came and sped up our evolution but some of us where trying to revolt against them so they made them 'vampires'... lol sounds like a long shot.. lol

Darla...I'm quite fond of the character of Armand in Ann Rice's books...darkly romantic;)

Hmmmmm!! He is a complex character and the difference between the film and the book, is that Anne Rice wrote his character as a (I think, not got book at hand) 16 year old and not the full grown Antonio Banderas in the film, although *phwaaarrrr* to The Armand in the film
He is (to me) dark and insecure of his place in the world, which makes him into the broody and vengefull vampire that he becomes when Lestat breaks up the coven.
Lestat on the other hand is the joker and humanist of the lot, he does things to see what happens never conforming, a rebel , a wild card and laughs at the figures in authority, causing chaos as he goes and most times things work out for the best, whatever he does.
I'm not saying it is entirely the right way to be, but it is the side of us that most keep hidden deep down and would love to throw caution to the wind..
In fantasy it's fun, but may not neccessarily work in reality.

But yeah, Armand would be a close favourite after marius.

LMAO! funny you should say that...I named my black cat after him!

I love Lestat...He's such a bad boy. But Marius is definately the best! I remember I started to read the Vampire Cronicles in like 6th grade. I was really freaked out too. But now the Vampire Cronicles are no more...and I need to catch up!

Nice Hodge, real nice!

OT- What a sad AV...

LOL Nice piccy Hodge 1.2.3.......
Ha ha ha ha ha.
I loved the count on sesame street.

Ms Spooky.. Marius is my second favourite.. the father figure and historian..love him.
Have you read Memnoch by Anne Rice??? Really good story. I could almost feel sorry for the Devil in the book. I said almost......