Vampires : The Legends of the Undead Rulers

A Brief History of Vampirism:

Snap 1: Dracula's Castle in Transylvania

The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th century Southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published.

In most cases, "vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire".

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How the hell do they look?

Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open.

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A Few notable Vampire characteristics

Some vampires, such as those found in Transylvanian tales, were gaunt, pale, and had long fingernails, while those from Bulgaria only had one nostril, and Bavarian vampires slept with thumbs crossed and one eye open. Moravian vampires only attacked while naked, and those of Albanian folklore wore high-heeled shoes. As stories of vampires spread throughout the globe to the Americas and elsewhere, so did the varied and sometimes bizarre descriptions of them: Mexican vampires had a bare skull instead of a head. Brazilian vampires had furry feet and vampires from the Rocky Mountains only sucked blood with their noses and from the victim's ears.
Common attributes were sometimes described, such as red hair. Some were reported to be able to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths. From these various legends, works of literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the influences of historical bloodthirsty figures such as Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Bathory, and Vlad Ţepeş, the vampire developed into the modern stereotype.

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What the hell's a Vampire number?

What is special about the number 1395 ?
Well 1395 = 15 x 93
It is called a VAMPIRE number with fangs 15 and 93.
Another example is 1435 = 35 x 41 with the two fangs 35 and 41.
If you know the fangs, for example 30 and 51, its easy to find the vampire...
And how easy is it to spot a vampire hiding among innocent numbers?

For instance which among 2155, 2170 and 2187 is the vampire? Not that easy right? Ever try doing that with a vampire and you will be sucked dry before you are done with your calculations.

Vampire numbers have an even number of digits with their two fangs sharing half that number between them.
Some large vampire numbers have a spare pair of fangs...
125460 = 204 x 615 = 246 x 510
or even two spare pairs ...
13078260 = 1620 x 8073 = 1863 x 7020 = 2070 x 6318

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How are vampires made?

The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse which was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound which had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Church while they were alive.

Mostly vampire character spreads by biting. A bitten person was said to become a vampire within 24 to 48 hours from the time of bite. Also one other method is to make the person drink the blood of a vampire.

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Identification of Vampires:

• One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion — the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.
• Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.
• Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep.
• Most vampires are highly seductive in nature
• Vampires do not have any reflection. A simple test infront of a mirror can prove whether it is a vampire or not
  

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How do you get rid of them?

• Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore
• It was believed that wearing a crucifix or bringing the crucifix in contact with the vampire would leave burning marks on the vampire
• Exposing a vampire to sunlight would prove catastrophic for the vampire
• Running water can immobilize and weaken the vampire and constant contact with running water can destroy it
• Vampires are allergic to garlic and cannot stand the presence of garlic near them
• The ultimate way to destroy a vampire is to nail a blessed stick into the middle of its chest so as to pierce the heart (if it has one!)

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Other locations of vampire activity:

Asian:
Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia.

• India also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul. In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.
  
• Although vampires have appeared in Japanese Cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it was western in origin. However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.

Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines:

• Tagalog mandurugo ("blood-sucker") . The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.
  
• Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses off these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people.
• The Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklores to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.
• The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore
• A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, which she sucked the blood of children with. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off.
  
• Jiang Shi, sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body. One unusual feature of this vampire is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.

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What about plant vampires?

Yeah, sure. Ever heard of Dracula Vampira? Named for the resemblance of the flowers to a bat; from the old middle European vampir for vampire and Vampirus, a genus of bats.

Habit: Small to large; epiphytic and terrestrial; caespitose to shortly repent or ascending.

Culture: Cultivate in moist, intermediate to cool growing conditions with high humidity. Protect from direct, or bright indirect, sunlight. Species with a descending inflorescence require suspension in open baskets.

Distribution: Over 80 species are known from Central America and the northwestern Andes. A few are listed below. Limited in distribution to the forested, western slopes of Mt. Pichincha where it is locally abundant from 5,900 feet (1,800 m) to 7,200 feet (2,200 m)

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