The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Who Can I Trust?
06:02 Sep 26 2005
Times Read: 914

Who Can I Trust?"



It's only common sense for a vampyre in awakening to seek an explanation of what is happening. In the 1950s, the few who actually accepted the fact that they were vampyres went to libraries, made thorough researches on the subject with the resources that were available to them at the time. Today, with the popularity of the Internet at an all-time high, and the fact that it is so easily accessible, many vampyres will look for help and support on the Web.



This situation has its pros and cons. For instance, one of the advantages of having the Internet as a resource for support is the fact that it is accessible to virtually anyone (no pun intended ;)). Also, it is anonymous compared to having to rent the “Psychic Vampire Codex” at a library. The Web also has the advantage to bring people together, with the evolution of the E-Mail technology, as well as message boards and meet-up websites scattered and spread across the entire global network.



But, the Internet has some major disadvantages. For instance, it's now a known fact that everybody can actually make a website, whether they have HTML knowledge or not, or even any knowledge of the subject that their website is all about or not. This makes personal websites a risky zone for editorialism, if this is what you are trying to avoid.



“I just awakened. Who Can I Trust?” has been the motto of the creators of the Black Veil, also known as the 13 rules of community, a volunteer code of ethics for vampyres. The motto in itself is quite contradictory. While the Black Veil itself is self-described at a volunteer act of commitment to ideals and etiquette, it implies the Black Veil should be trusted by all awakening vampyres. However, it is one's choice to adhere or not to adhere to the principles and ideals cited within the Black Veil.



That is just an example of all aberrations you can find when it comes to vampyrism on the Internet.



So, who can you trust? The answer is not really an answer. It's more of a series of tips and advice you may want to use when it comes to separating truth from half-truths and plain lies:



1- Diversify your sources of information.



Many people tend to only listen to one or two people within the community, and accept everything they say as holy prophecies. It is not a good way to learn about vampyrism, since the people who are “teaching” could well be manipulative and speak in the name of the community to teach things that would only benefit them. Find people, whether it be on the Internet, in real life, or vampyre pen pals of any kind, many people and make sure you aren't only limited to one point of view on the subject at hand.



2- Diversify your ways of gaining knowledge and use different Medias.



The Internet, while being a tremendous database of information, does not always contain what we would seek in a quest for information. This is why one should not limit him or herself to only one media of information. Go to the library, rent books on the subject. If renting those kinds of books make you uncomfortable, you can ask one of your friends to rent it for you, or you can read it there and simply not buy it or show that you have been reading such books. There are plenty of medias of information filled with utterly relevant information about our lifestyle and our ways, you simply have to find them.



3- Adras and Mentors are good. But not that good.



If you have an Adra, or a Mentor, you might be very much tempted to blindly follow his or her teachings, while asking no real questions or never questioning the authority he or she represents. Of course, there is a limit to questioning authority, and you have to keep in mind that you still owe him or her an unconditional respect, but the knowledge you are fed through you Mentor or your Adra has to be filtered with lapses of reason and rationality. Most Mentors and Adras will understand that you may question what they teach you, some of them will put it as an objective in your relationship. Always remember that, even with the impressive amount of knowledge that your Mentor or your Adra may possess, he or she is still only one vampyric being, and only one in billions.



4- Use common sense.



Surprisingly enough, most of the time, using common sense is the most difficult part in the process of filtering knowledge. You have to understand that even if rationality is not always seemingly present in vampyrism, there is still some logic followed by leaders and members of the Community. Learn to recognize the intent of teachers, Adras, Mentors, leaders, elders that is spread by their very teachings.



Finally, if you try to adapt some daily guidelines from those four instructions, you should be able to detect teaching flaws much easier, not only in vampyrism, but also in every aspect of life. Good luck and may your quests for knowledge bring you great inner adventures, new friends and much more!





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Copyright 2004-2005 © Vampire-Awakening.com

04:35 Sep 23 2005
Times Read: 933

The Highgate Vampire

















“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, the president of the Vampire Research Society knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire which is probably the most remarkable contemporary account of vampiric activity and infestation ~ and cure. Can such things as vampires really exist? The evidence seems to be overwhelming and the author [of The Highgate Vampire] is to be congratulated on his knowledgeable and lucid account of the case which is likely to become one of the classic works on this interesting and mystifying subject.”



~ Peter Underwood, President, The Ghost Club Society, UK.













Two seemingly unconnected incidents occurred within weeks of one another in early 1967. The first involved two 16-year-old convent girls who were walking home at night after having visited friends in Highgate Village. Their return journey took them down Swains Lane past the cemetery. They could not believe their eyes as they passed the graveyard’s north gate at the top of the lane, for in front of them bodies appeared to be emerging from their tombs. One of these schoolgirls later suffered nightly visitations and blood loss. The second incident, some weeks later, involved an engaged couple who were walking down the same lane. Suddenly the female shrieked as she glimpsed something hideous hovering behind the gate’s iron railings. Then her fiancé saw it. They both stood frozen to the ground as the spectre held them in thrall. Its face bore an expression of basilisk horror. Soon others sighted the same phenomenon as it hovered along the path behind the gate where gravestones are visible either side until consumed in darkness. Before long people were talking in hushed tones about the rumoured haunting in local pubs. Some who actually witnessed the spectral figure wrote to their local newspaper to share their experience. Discovery was made of animal carcasses drained of blood. They had been so exsanguinated that a forensic sample could not be found. It was only a matter of time before a person was found in the cemetery in a pool of blood. This victim died of wounds to the throat. The police made every attempt to cover-up the vampiristic nature of the death. Seán Manchester informed the public on 27 February 1970 that the cause was most probably a vampire. He appeared on television on 13 March 1970 and repeated his theory. The VRS, whose specialist unit within a larger investigatory organisation (now defunct) had opened the case twelve months earlier, established a history of similar hauntings that went back to before the graveyard existed. A suspected tomb was located and a spoken exorcism performed. This proved to be ineffective.









The hauntings and animal deaths continued. Indeed, they multiplied. By now all sorts of people were jumping on the vampire bandwagon; including film-makers and rock musicians. Most were frightened off. Some who interloped became fascinated by the black arts with disastrous consequences. Meanwhile, serious researchers considered the possibility that a nest of vampires might be active in the area. Yet there seemed to be one principal source which the media had already dubbed a “King Vampire of the Undead.”











Seán Manchester led the thirteen year investigation from beginning to end. There was indeed more than one vampire for the VRS to confront. However, in early 1974 he tracked the principal source of the contamination, known as the Highgate Vampire, to a neo-Gothic mansion on the Highgate borders. Here he employed the ancient and approved remedy. No vampire has been sighted in or near Highgate Cemetery and its environs since that time. The exorcised remains of the Highgate Vampire appear on the next page.









A full account ~ with photographs from the case file ~ is uniquely provided in The Highgate Vampire written by the VRS president. This is a quality hardcover edition with illustrations throughout. Another book, though presented as a novel, but based on some real incidents, is Carmel. A generously illustrated large format paperback, this book offers the wider picture as actual experience mingles with a familiar history. Much can be revealed in the guise of a novel, of course, that could not otherwise be told. The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook also revisits Highgate in some of its chapters; while exposing many of the false attributions made by certain journalists, authors and even academics ~ some of whom were too young to remember the events at the time, much less have any part in them. Archive recordings that include the voices of very early witnesses include The Highgate Vampire cassette. Details plus ordering information for books and cassettes may be obtained by clicking on each of the titles.







“There is no doubt that … The Highgate Vampire is an A1 classic. This book will certainly be read in a hundred years time, two hundred years time, three hundred years time ~ in short, for as long as mankind is interested in the supernatural. It has the most genuine power to grip. Once you have started to read it, it is virtually impossible to put it down.”



~ Lyndall Mack (aka Jennie Gray), Udolpho magazine, UK.







“The Highgate Vampire is a most interesting and useful addition to the literature on the subject.”



~ Reverend Basil Youdell, Literary Editor, Orthodox News, UK.







“If you want to read a good book on the subject which is very well done, then read The Highgate Vampire.”



~ Dale Kaczmarek, President, The Ghost Research Society, USA.







“Seán Manchester is to be congratulated on this fine piece of research work which I confess to enjoying to the extreme.”



~ Dr Devendra P Varma, Professor of English Literature, Dalhousie University, Canada.







“I found the book fascinating in its subject matter and magnificent in the quality of its prose. Seán Manchester’s literary style is refreshingly reminiscent of the Gothic genre.”



~ Paul Spencer Vickers, Department of English Literature, University College London, UK.







“Reading The Highgate Vampire was a fascinating experience. I found myself eager to turn each page as the momentum kept building with each new chapter.”



~ Vincent Hillyer, arcanologist and author of Vampires, USA.







“Superb.”



~ Editor of Vampires, Dracula, Werewolves, Delectus Books, UK.













Post your comments and questions on the message board at: http://groups.msn.com/TheCrossandTheStake



















Highgate Cemetery’s eerie north gate in Swains Lane at the time of the vampire panics of early 1970.



Highgate Vampire Picture Gallery









(Left): Discovery of the vampire tomb in 1970. (Right): The exorcised remains prior to cremation in 1974.







“We would like to exorcise the vampire by the traditional and approved manner ~ drive a stake through its heart with one blow just after dawn …, chop off the head with a gravedigger’s shovel, and burn what remains.”



~ Seán Manchester, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 27 February 1970.













Elizabeth, the convent schoolgirl who months later fell victim to nocturnal visitations from the vampire.







“A series of nightmares … began to plague Elizabeth; all with one thing in common: something evil was trying to come in through her bedroom window at night. She could see the face clearly: it was deathly pale. Just like the faces of the corpses leaving their graves. … She was extremely quiet and barely spoke at all that evening. As she sat, seemingly exhausted, … I noticed for the first time the marks on the side of her neck. … They were two inflamed mounds on the skin, the centre of each bearing a tiny hole.”







“We did not succeed in destroying the evil … soon enough. Her blood was tainted by that demonic thing which drew her to Highgate Cemetery. … This grave cannot contain Lusia in its confines whilst malevolent forces refuse her rest. She was never truly dead. A solitary figure swathed in a white shroud, her face the colour of marble save for her lips … wanders this place after dusk. Her cry, like the howl of a wolf, disturbs my sleep. At night I know she is out there.”













“There was Lusia, her face composed as if in a deep trance, slowly walking along the side of the church … [until] she reached the rear of the church’s old broken railings, beyond which lay the cemetery. Gliding, then almost pouncing feline-like, she entered the graveyard and began to dissolve in its darkness. … A grey veil seemed to obscure my view as I strained to see in the inky darkness of the catacombs what she was doing. The haze cleared … I produced a large silver cross and threw it so that it landed … [near] … Lusia. … She gasped and collapsed on the ground.”



~ The Highgate Vampire









The haunted icy path that runs from the north gate to the catacombs and also vampire tomb at the centre of Highgate Cemetery.







This picture is considered by some to have captured the dark countenance of an unearthly presence in its far right corner. Amid the inky darkness, right of the tomb mounted by a stone cross, the image of a deathly face can be perceived. The spectral face, first identified by Ayla Kabowski, is oblivious to the camera’s flash ~ yet eerily it appears.













(Left) The Highgate Vampire at the moment of exorcism. (Right) The vampire tomb after it had been bricked-up and sealed.







THE VAMPIRE DECOMPOSED RAPIDLY AFTER THE FIRST STRIKE OF EXORCISM, PRIOR TO INCINERATION, AT WHICH TIME WAS CAPTURE ON FILM ONLY POSSIBLE. AN ASSISTANT TOOK SEVERAL 35mm FRAMES OF FILM WITH A CAMERA DURING THIS DISSOLUTION. THESE FRAMES WERE EXAMINED AND RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC ON THREE TELEVISION PROGRAMMES DEALING WITH THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE CASE IN 1990.









Aspect from the vampire tomb ~ the Egyptian-style avenue approach in Highgate Cemetery as it appeared circa 1970.















Lusia









“All these things happen, and the eyes of ordinary men do not see them.”



~ Michael Sendivogius (17th Century)













Click on book for ordering information.











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What are vampires?
04:45 Sep 17 2005
Times Read: 955

What are vampires?

Above anything else they are a mystery; Myths, ledgends, fokelore, unknown knowledge, untold stories. But they do exist... walking among us. In each of us, we have to discover our own definition of what a vampire is, and hopefully I will provide enough information for you to make an educated decision. Throughout my studies, knowledge, and experiences, there have always been various types of vampires. We are most familar with what Hollywood has protrayed and betrayed as the Dark Classic vampire. We have grown to love him and hate him at the same time. But through research we find out that the dark classic vampire is nothing more than a collection of inspired attention getting creations. I will not repeat the numerous amounts of information of the various ledgends, myths, the people behind the vampire stories. There are plenty of books and information on that. What I would like to share with you is a consolidation of the various types of vampires in existance today. So they say they are, will you question it?





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First off, I would like to go through an overview of what most consider for sure a vampire trait, the act of feeding off another animal's life force in the forms of blood, life fluiuds, energy, or souls. And I will share in detail the various methods and types of animals fed upon. The next distinction is between those that live 100 years or less and those that are capable of living beyond that particular age barrier. This is where the main arguments take place between the two. Another atribute is that those that consider themselves undead vampires and there are some that consider themselves living vampires. But then again we are dealing with terms that are different among each other. What does one consider undead? what do those that are Undead vampires consider undead to mean? Well, unfortunately I do not have those answers for you at the moment. But, I am sure the vary as much as snowflakes do.





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Now, I have come across a web site that deals in the explaination of the elder vampires, being the ones that live beyond the elder lifespan of a normal human, usually from 200 to 2,000 years of age. And you can find the information they have come up with at their site. They have broken down the elder vampires into two catagories (those that partake blood and those that feed on the life force) the blood catagory is broken down into two groups then for some sub groups. Also they have added another group which the consider half-breeds. It is a very informative site based out of New York.

Vampiric Studies Homepage







Elder vampires

Blood feeders

Classicals (brought over)

Inheritors (born)

Class one (shorter life span)

Class two (longer life span)

Lifeforce/Energy feeders

Psychic Vampires

Sexual Vampires

Symbiotics

Nightbreeds (crossbreeds)





It is a very good site for information on these types of vampires and I would suggest visiting the site for more complete and detailed information on their version of vampires...





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Now for the Generation Vampires, being that they are todays generation of vampires. There are numerous facets to these types of vampires, ranging from purely blood feeding to purely energy feeding vampires, and a whole array of those that feed on both. And I shall provide links to those sites I feel provide the best information on the topic I am covering at the time.



Through discussions among the Real Vampirism Community, I have come with a understandable organization of the vampirism community (yes, this is my personal information). I categorized the vampires by their feeding actions and should not be considers terms or labels. It is based on the fact, that our term for vampires is a person that FEEDS (the need to sustain the body) from a living source, particularly people or animals. First I will provide a breakdown then go into detail of what I believe these categories to be, and hopefully through understanding might make another classification agreeable to those of us within the community.

Source - Blood

Blood Feeders (BF's)

Blood Feeders with psychic abilities (BFPA's)

Blood Drinkers (BD's)(Not a vampire but part of the community)

Blood fetists

Source - Energy

Psychic Feeders (PF's)

Psychic Manipulators (PM's)

Source - Energy/Blood

Blood and Psychic Feeders (BPF's)

Psychic Manipulators with blood feeding/drinking tendacies (PMBF's)

Blood Feeders with psychic manipulation tendacies (BFPM's)



Hopefully I will provide an even more concise outline...



Blood Feeders

- gives a more precise understanding of the type of vampire the vampire community is speaking of by the action thereof. These individuals have the need to sustain their bodies with the ingestion of blood, wheather it be human or animal. They do not possess the special abilities as thought in novels and movies. They are normal in most aspect to that of people, only baring some traits known through the vampire community. The site listed below provides wonderful information on these types of vampires, traits, information, and even a support group and message board open for discussion...





Sanguinarius' Vampire Support Page





This is a very good site overall... providing information for those that have the need to feed off blood, terminology on the vampirism, and a message board open for discussions all of types of vampirism... it is a good community...





Bloodletting Advice





Bloodsports





Blood feeders with psychic abilities

- These individuals are like regular blood feeders but they possess varants of psychic abilities. I have not come across a site specifically for these types of vampires.





Blood Drinkers

- Although not consider vampire in the vampire community, however they do face a lot of the problems in dealing with ingestations of blood and find support among the vampire community. There has been some concern as to the differences between blood drinking and blood fetishism. Blood fetists obtain sexual, intimate or other forms of pleasure from ingesting blood, wheather it be drinking or licking. Blood drinkers can received a varity of interests from drinking blood.





Psychic Feeders

- These individuals feed off the energies of others in order to sustain their own. They have no psychic ability beyond the feeding.





Psychic Manipulators

- These individuals are considered the more powerful psychic vampires. Not only can they take, feed, drain, they can manipulate that energy and weild it to their own psychic abilities.





Blood and Psychic Feeders

- Individuals that feed on both blood and energy. But do not possess any psychic abilites other thna from feeding.





Psychic Manipulators with blood feeding/drinking tendacies

- Individuals that primarly manipulate and feed off energy, but have desire or need to partake in blood feeding or drinking. It has been said on several occasions that blood might be a source of pranic energy.





Blood Feeders with Psychic manipulation tendacies

- Individuals that are primarily blood feeders but also have the ability of those that are Psychic manipulators...

Real Vampire Issues Club

Still underconstruction



If you think your real vampire site would help out those in search of real vampire knowledge, Email us and we might put you on this page.





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Witin this internet community are groups providing understanding, support, education, and information for vampires and non-vampires alike... Here are some links;

The Vampire Information and Education Website (V.I.E.W.) Support Group



The Coven An all around vampire site, including lifestylers.





Are you are Real Vampire? Take a Survey temporarily down

The Awakenings - Vampire Webrings



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But for now I am done

Vampire as Path to Meaning Or What Does It All Mean?
04:34 Sep 17 2005
Times Read: 957

Vampire as Path to Meaning

Or What Does It All Mean?







THE VAMPIRE is a myth. Now hold on a minute! Don't just stop reading! At least ask yourself what you think I mean. Okay, so what do I mean by myth? The word myth is Greek in origin, mythos, meaning: Word, speech, story and legend. Confused yet? I was. Try this:



"Parts of mythology are religious, parts of mythology are historical, parts of mythology are poetical, but mythology as a whole is neither religion, or history, nor philosophy, nor poetry. It comprehends all these together under that peculiar form of expression which is natural and intelligible at a certain stage, or at certain recurring stages in the development of thought and speech, but which, after becoming traditional, becomes frequently unnatural and unintelligible." --Max Muller*



Whew, that's a lot of ideas all at once. What does Mr. Muller mean by all this? Well, let's take it apart and look at it. He says that mythology has parts; religion, history and poetry. Mythology takes all these parts, and then weaves an idea out into a story form or legend. It's like mixing ingredients together, and ending up with a cake that we eat. What's missing from this cake picture? The baking process, the ingredients have to be baked in order to end up with the cake. How does this process work? Well, most simply, the ingredients are heated, and that heat breaks them down and joins them together. The same process goes into mythology. What we see, hear, touch, taste and smell, all that goes into our heads, where we think about them (or don't think about them), and all that then 'bakes' in our minds and eventually becomes our beliefs. If the ancient authors of myths knew how baking worked like modern scientists do, then they would probably agree. Ever heard the phrase: "That's a half-baked idea."? See, I'm not saying anything new here.



Let's look at the mysterious 'something' our minds have baked up, what is it? It's a belief. Often our beliefs are unexplainable, or difficult for others to understand. A belief is often something that's easier to show than to tell. Myth is a way of showing what we have learned. The keyword is learned, the past tense of learning. Learning is a process, and something you learned is a product. And this is exactly what Muller touches on at the end of his statement, to refresh your memory, "[mythology which] after becoming traditional, becomes frequently unnatural and unintelligible."



Let's look closely at what he means there. After a myth becomes tradition, something taken for granted, then the myth becomes misunderstood or unintelligible. The myth dies. This may be because we no longer question a myth, because we just follow along, do the ritual, and then end up hating it, because we don't understand why we don't get it, and that makes us feel inferior. Or even worse, we think we do understand it, and we know the truth of it, and that this truth must be The Truth, and then go about trying to force The Truth onto other people. Do either of these sound familiar? I bet they do, because again I'm not saying anything new here. The point is this: Myths are dead the moment they are accepted without questions. The allegorical myths or fables are absurd for the reason of getting you to question. If you accept without question you've missed the point of myth, and indeed of life. And when you demand others to accept without question you commit a great crime.



If these words upset you, then I have achieved my first goal in presenting all this to you. What's my point? Please, read on, but do so only if you want to find out. Becoming upset means you are entering the stage prior to asking questions. This is a good thing, because it leads to learning. But, here comes the second problem of this situation. You ask me questions: "What do you mean? Explain yourself." If I was given the time to explain myself to everyone who wants to know what I mean -- I'd become immortal. Think about that one for a moment, read it again if you have to. Okay, the point I'm getting to is don't ask me questions about what I mean. Ask yourself questions about what I say, and find out for yourself what my words mean to you.



This is the essential truth behind why myths are told. Myths are not meant to be taken as The Truth, but each one has in it, somewhere, A Truth, and what that truth means is different for each person.



This is what I meant when I said the vampire is a myth. The vampire myth has a truth in it. But let's not mistake the absurd for reality, and reality for the absurd. Sure, vampires are part history, part religion, part philosophy, and part poetic imagery, but it's not one or the other. It's all of those put together and 'baked' in our own minds. There are as many vampires as there are people who believe in them, because they reside in our minds and are very close and personal there. Believing in vampires is a way of seeing the world, or what one has learned from the world, or what our thoughts and beliefs of what we take in from our five senses has taught about the world. In other words, there are very real reasons to see vampires everywhere. There are also very real reasons for becoming a vampire yourself.



But the point I want to get at is that it's very easy to get stuck in a myth and not question it. The closer that myth is, the more personally you believe it, the less likely you are to question it and to change. Ah, yes, and the vampire myth addresses change, doesn't it? Among other things. Let me explain how I've arrived at where I am now very briefly. Keep in mind that I don't know The Truth, only a truth that may or may not be helpful to you.



I started by with believing thoroughly in vampires, that they were real and someday they would come and make me one of them, and I would live forever like they do. I did not question this, I didn't need to -- or so I thought. Then in my search for real vampires I ran across books with people asking why people would want to become vampires. Why became a very important question to me. I started asking myself this, and then I started asking others. Why lead to other questions, like what is a vampire, what does it mean, etc. I constantly asked. Then one day I found the deep unexplored cavern of my personal view of the vampire. What's down there? I wondered. I went spelunking to find out.



I constantly wondered the meaning of what I found, I kept going. I didn't stop when I found what vampires meant to me. I kept going, asking the meaning of every myth I found, of every religion and or philosophy. I looked at it all, considered, thought over, and wrestled with every thought, word, idea and concept. When I didn't understand a word I'd look it up. I'd pull it out and look at it's roots, where it came from and how it's meaning has changed over time. And suddenly I wasn't in the cavern anymore, I was standing in bright sunshine, wide awake and alone with the thought that change is the only constant. And that the reason I first went to the vampire was because I was afraid of change. And now that I knew what change was, and what it means to me, I saw there was nothing to be scared of. I'm no longer afraid and I continue to seek truths.



So here's my final question to you: What are you afraid of? Don't tell me the answer, because you should know the answer for yourself, not me. Go. Ask yourself questions, take no lies, and you will continuely find truths. It's not a short or easy path, nor are there imediate rewards, but then what thing of value have half-baked ideas gotten you? Cake that tastes and feels wrong.







Suggested Vampire Books:

Dresser, Norine. American Vampires; Fans, Victims and Practitioners. Vintage, 1989.

Guiley, Rosemary E. Vampires Among Us. Pocket, 1991.

Guin, Jeff and Andy Griser. Something in the Blood. Summit Publishing Group, 1996.

Riccardo, Martin V. Liquid Dreams of Vampires. Llewellyn Publications, 1997.

Anything that makes you think and ask questions...

Dogs
01:43 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 985

Dogs

With their prodigious strength and advanced senses, vampires and zombies had distinct advantages over the humans. Fortunately, we humans always had an ace up our sleeve: dogs.



A dog drags a dead zombie

out of the brush

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of dogs in controlling vampires and zombies. Their acute sense of smell not only allowed them to sniff out vampire and zombie hiding places, but also enabled them to give people plenty of advance warning of an attack.



Dogs were used in vampire control as far back as 2000 BC, when rulers of the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor were said to keep vampire-fighting dogs "as large and fierce as lions." Although many dog breeders attempted to create a dog that was effective against both vampires and zombies, most breeders found it best to breed different dogs for different nemeses. Thus, large, powerful dogs were bred for zombie control, while vampire-fighting dogs tended to be from faster and more agile varieties. Many of these breeds developed by different countries for undead control are still popular today, such as the Tosa-Inu of Japan and the Tibetan Mastiff from China. German Shepherds were one of the few dogs often used against both vampires and zombies.





The Doberman Pinscher,

vampire hunter supreme

In 1863, German authorities, dissatisfied with existing breeds of vampire-hunting dogs, contracted with dog breeder Louis Doberman to create a breed of dog expressly for fighting vampires. Doberman's initial attempts to breed Rottweilers with terriers and shepherd dogs were unsatisfactory, but when he added greyhound blood into the mix for speed, the Doberman Pinscher was born. With its unique blend of speed, ferocity and intelligence, the Doberman became the gold standard in vampire control.



Vampires and zombies reacted differently to dogs. Vampires generally tried to flee, using their athleticism and leaping ability to outpace the dogs. Zombies, on the other hand, would stand and fight. While zombies had no answer for dogs, vampires took to fighting fire with fire by breeding their own dogs for protection. Several well-known breeds of today were actually created by vampires. An example of this is the Rhodesian Ridgeback, which a South African vampire pack created by breeding a native shepherd dog with Mastiffs imported by white settlers.



In the United States, the FVZA used dogs on an informal basis for decades before the official establishment of the K-9 division in 1925. The Agency's vampire-fighting breed of choice was the Doberman, while Rottweilers and Mastiffs were used against zombies. At the training facility in Kentucky, trainers used clothing taken off vampires and zombies to acclimate the dogs to the smell of the undead. Doberman training focused on pursuit and capture, while Mastiffs and Rottweilers training focused on in-close fighting.



Dogs selected for FVZA K-9 training would be sent home as puppies to live with the agent assigned to them. This allowed a bond to develop. Training commenced when the dog reached 10 months of age and lasted two months. In zombie raids, larger packs of dogs were used to surround and hem in the zombies. Vampire-fighting dogs were trained to flush vampires into areas where they could be destroyed by agents. The job had its obvious dangers. Dogs bitten by zombies or vampires had to be put down. Otherwise, the viruses would turn them rabid (contrary to popular myth, there is no such thing as a vampire-dog).





The Jocko memorial

in Chicago

One of the most heralded dogs in FVZA history was Jocko, a mutt who served in the Chicago Bureau. Jocko was adopted as a stray pup by agent Paul McDermott. Though not of a vampire-fighting breed, Jocko showed such a natural facility for vampire-hunting that he was put on the force. The dog went on to serve with distinction for eight years. On January 23, 1934, just a few days before his retirement, Jocko chased down a vampire trying to flee with a child. The brave animal locked on to the vampire's lower leg, forcing the vampire to release the child unharmed. But when other vampire pack members rushed him, Jocko sustained a bite and had to be put down. Over a million people braved frigid weather to attend the dog's funeral.

The Vampires of Studio 54
01:41 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 986

The Vampires of Studio 54

Although vampire hoaxes have probably been around as long as vampires, incidences exploded after the FVZA was disbanded in 1975. Pranksters seeking fame, attention, or just a few laughs took advantage of the lack of official oversight to frighten and terrorize the populace. While there were many convincing hoaxes in the latter half of the Seventies, none had as big an audience as that for the vampires of Studio 54.



Cutting the rug

at Studio 54

New York in the summer of 1977 was a city on edge. The Son of Sam killer was gunning people down in their cars, and a blackout on July 13th had paralyzed the city and sent looters running amok in the streets. Amid this atmosphere of fear and paranoia arose reports that a pack of vampires were preying on the young and the hip at Studio 54, the city's most popular discotheque. The rumor was that "54" owner Steve Rubell kept the vampires in a basement crypt and allowed them access to the clubgoers in exchange for a promise of immortality for himself. Though a couple of young men had disappeared after a night at Studio 54, most people discounted the rumors as the stuff of urban legend, and the disco remained popular.



One Studio 54 regular was not so quick to dismiss the story: Geraldo Rivera, a brash young reporter for ABC-TV. Rivera was looking to make a name for himself and thought that breaking the vampire story would be a sure way to put him on the map. His sources for the story were a group of disgruntled former Studio 54 employees. All claimed they were fired by Rubell when they refused to keep quiet about the vampires. One Sunday afternoon, former 54 bartender Francisco Birney snuck Rivera through a back entrance into the Studio 54 basement and showed him a mysterious locked vault where he claimed that the vampires slept during the day.



Rivera pitched the story to his superiors at ABC; they were wary and suggested he find an expert who could give the story credibility. Damien Gould fit the bill. Gould was a respected, thirty-year FVZA vet who had fallen on hard times and needed the cash promised by Rivera and ABC.



Rivera talked his bosses into making the crypt-opening a one-hour live special. The show was hyped as the first assault on vampires ever carried on live television, although the location of the assault was kept undisclosed so as not to tip off Rubell and Studio 54 management. The cryptic marketing campaign intrigued the nation, and on the night of September 4, 1977, approximately 40 million Americans sat down in front of their TV sets to watch host David Hartman introduce the special with the words "we're about to do something that has never been done before."





Rivera prepares to enter the crypt

After a taped introduction featuring interviews from the former Studio 54 employees, the show went to a live shot of Rivera in a van parked behind the disco. The cameras followed him, Gould and Francisco Birney into the basement, where Birney unlocked the vault. Inside the dark, cramped space lay two dusty coffins. The television audience held its collective breath as Rivera pried open one of the coffins and the camera captured the image of a what appeared to be a male vampire at rest. Suddenly, the vampire's eyes snapped open and, as the camera rolled, he leaped out of the coffin and attacked Rivera. A melee ensued. When the dust settled, Rivera had a broken nose and Damien Gould had his burly arms wrapped around the alleged vampire: former 54 doorman Robert Mendez, complete with blue makeup and plastic fangs. Rivera promised "to get to the bottom of this" as the live shot cut back to the studio and a flummoxed David Hartman.





Rivera a day

after battling

the "vampires"

In all, five former Studio 54 employees were involved in the hoax. They admitted that they had hatched the scheme in the hopes of bringing bad publicity to Rubell and Studio 54. It was only after they got Rivera involved did they begin to see an opportunity to get what 54 patron Andy Warhol might have called "their 15 minutes of fame."



Studio 54 was eventually brought down, but it was the tax man, not vampires, who did the job. As for Rivera, although his reputation took a hit and he became something of a laughingstock, he survived the embarrassment and continued his career in television. Agent Gould was not so lucky: humiliated, he sank into a pit of drinking and despair and died in a rooming house far from the bright lights of Studio 54.

The Lazo Disaster
00:44 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 985

The Lazo Disaster



Lazo, Soviet Union

After the development of the vampire vaccine, the United States and the Soviet Union began pouring enormous resources into vampire research. The stakes were great, as it was thought that the keys to immortality lay in vampire DNA. The Soviets based their research at a secret lab outside the small village of Lazo in Siberia. Unbeknownst to the Americans, they made significant progress in the lab and in 1967, under a veil of utmost secrecy, they began animal trials, using chimpanzees as the test subjects.

Sometime in mid-February, disaster struck at the lab when an infected chimpanzee bit a technician. The unfortunate man was vaccinated, but the experimentally-altered virus he was infected with proved to be immune to the vaccine. As a blizzard descended on the village, cutting off communication with the outside world, the technician came to life and ran amok, biting everyone in the lab. The scientific team, transformed into vampires, left the lab and went to the village to hunt. By the time the storm cleared, the entire town of Lazo was infected.





Lazo after the blast

Faced with an uncontrollable vampire plague, Russian President Leonid Brezhnev was forced to take extreme measures. So, on a bright winter day, a transport rolled into Lazo and left a nuclear weapon in the middle of the town square, while the vampires slept. Once the team was safely out of range, they detonated the bomb.





Premier Brezhnev

explains the disaster

to the Politburo

American officials detected the explosion via satellite and launched an inquiry. The Russians claimed accidental detonation, but American intelligence knew that there were no nuclear installations in that part of the country. The mystery ended in the Summer of '68, when one of the soldiers who had planted the bomb defected to West Germany and told the whole story. The 750 people of Lazo were among the last casualties of the war on vampires.



The mishap created a backlash against vampire research in the United States and thoughout the world. On October 14th, 1970, President Nixon signed into law the Muskie-Fineman Act, halting research on vampire blood. It would be 16 years before the ban was overturned, and vampire blood research began anew, with rigorous safety provisions in place to avoid a repeat of the Lazo Disaster.

The Order of the Broken Cross
00:42 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 986

The Order of the Broken Cross



Broken cross brand on

forearm of dead vampire

In 1935, an FVZA Assault Team encountered fierce resistance while conducting an attack on a warehouse on the outskirts of Dallas. The vampires they encountered were unusually well organized and seemed to know the assault team's every move before it was made. It took the team two full days to finish off the vampires, after which they made a chilling discovery: each of the dead vampires had a brand burned onto its forearm. While the chicken scratch might have meant little to the average person, it was bad news for the FVZA. The three-pronged symbol represented the broken cross, symbol of a paramilitary vampire organization that was to have devastating effects on the FVZA for the next several decades.

The Order of the Broken Cross considered themselves descendants of Quadilla, the great vampire general who besieged Rome in the Ninth Century. A vampire named Logan Mulvey resurrected the Order in 1935, at a time when the FVZA was making serious inroads into the U.S. vampire population. Mulvey and his associates knew their days were numbered unless they organized an effective counterattack against the Agency.





Initiation into the Order

took place behind an

oversized broken cross

Ironically, the Order coopted FVZA techniques and philosophies in their own training regimen. They practiced martial arts diligently and acquired expertise in a vast array of weapons. New members were indoctrinated in a solemn ceremony, at which time they were branded on the forearm. Members of the Order maintained a sort of "Underground Railroad" consisting of hideouts across the country, so that they were never far from shelter come sunrise.



Striking back at the FVZA was a major part of the Order's agenda. They acquired names and personal information on agents and conducted a campaign of intimidation that knew no bounds. On one occasion, they impaled the severed head of an agent onto a traffic pole outside the Boston office. And if they couldn't get to the agents, then they attacked family members. The strategy proved to be brutally effective, as a number of agents left the force rather than endanger their families. The Second World War, which siphoned away a number of experienced agents, further emboldened the Order.



The Order reached its zenith around 1946, with an estimated 50,000 members worldwide, then began a slow decline. Increased FVZA enrollment was the biggest factor in turning the tide. It took the Agency several more years and many more lives to finish the job, but by the beginning of the 1960s the Order had returned to the halls of infamy, where it remains today.







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The FVZA Goes Undercover
00:40 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 987

The FVZA Goes Undercover

In the early days of its existence, the FVZA's mode of operation was not unlike that of the police force. FVZA Agents were a visible presence in the community, and FVZA offices were open to anyone wishing to report an attack, sighting or missing person. When agents destroyed vampires and zombies, they did their best to identify the victims and return their remains to the family for a proper burial. People generally accepted this with stoicism. But in the first half of the 20th Century, attitudes began to change, perhaps reflecting a growing distrust of the federal government. More and more people who lost loved ones to vampirism or zombieism refused to accept that extermination was the only option. The sensational Ray LeDoux trial of 1923 was only one of a growing number of lawsuits challenging the FVZA Powers of Termination, also known as the Right to Kill.



Central to the dilemma facing lawmakers was the question, what exactly were vampires and zombies? Were they merely human beings with diseases? And if so, didn't they deserve hospitalization and rehabilitation? After refusing to rule on the issue for a number of years, the Supreme Court finally agreed in 1935 to hear the case of a New Jersey couple whose son had turned into a vampire and was destroyed by FVZA agents. In a 5-4 vote, the Court deemed that vampirism was a disease and that vampires were entitled to the same rights as any U.S. citizen. Shortly thereafter, the Court issued a similar ruling on the issue of zombieism. An avalanche of lawsuits followed, crippling the FVZA.





FDR signs the Emergency

Relief Act, as FVZA

Directors Louis Huffman (r)

and Anton Bowers look on

Fortunately, recently-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood the importance of the FVZA. The President was dealing with a depression at home and a world on the brink of war and knew he could not afford to have vampire and zombie outbreaks added to the mix. In December of 1936, Roosevelt brought FVZA leaders to Warm Springs, Arkansas, to hammer out an arrangement by which the Agency could continue to function. The resultant plan, known as the Emergency Relief Act, brought major changes to the FVZA. The Agency would henceforth operate undercover so as not to attract public attention. A new communication pipeline was set up that allowed law enforcement agencies to pass reports of vampire and zombie activity on to Agents. The FVZA moved its operations into nondescript buildings and discontinued its policy of notifying the families of exterminated vampires and zombies. Those exterminated simply joined the rolls of the missing. To facilitate the FVZA's shift to deep cover, the government began a systematic removal of the Agency from public records.



The new system was very much a work in progress and didn't always function perfectly, but over time the FVZA adapted so well to its undercover role that, for many, the Agency became nothing more than an "urban legend."



The irony of the Emergency Relief Act is that the U.S. government ultimately exploited it in order to conduct research on vampire and zombie DNA in secret. To this day, many in the government deny such research is taking place. How can there be such research, they ask, if there never were vampires or zombies to begin with? When asked once about whether he supported construction of an FVZA memorial in Washington, Senator Trent Lott scoffed, "sure, we can put it right next to the one for Santa Claus!" (Editor's note: Mr. Lott represents Mississippi, a state where over 100 FVZA Agents lost their lives fighting the undead).

The Goessman Institute
00:39 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 987

The Goessman Institute



Dr. Kristof Goessman

Much of what we know about vampires and zombies today owes itself to the work of Swiss scientist Kristof Goessman. Dr. Goessman was an inventor who made a fortune patenting a process for freeze-drying coffee. But the undead were his real obsession, and in 1930 he established the Goessman Institute for Vampire and Zombie Studies in a castle he had purchased high above the Swiss village of Greifensee.

Over the next seven years, Dr. Goessman acquired a steady supply of vampires and zombies from European bounty hunters and spent countless hours observing them. Oblivious to danger, he measured their strength and endurance and tested their tolerance to sunlight, noise and poisons. Though some would consider his research cruel, Dr. Goessman amassed a wealth of data and published much of it in the 1935 book Among Vampires and Zombies. The book created a sensation worldwide and did much to debunk stereotypes and superstitions associated with the undead.





Goessman Castle

as it appears today

Dr. Goessman's neighbors in the village of Greifensee got used to the trucks, carriages and horse carts arriving at the castle at all hours of the night, and they even grew to accept the inhuman groans and cries coming from the dungeon laboratory. But their tolerance had a limit. One summer night in 1937, an escaped vampire broke into a home and fed on a young woman. After chasing the vampire away with torches, the enraged villagers marched up to Goessman's castle and set fire to it. The fire spread quickly and, by the first light of dawn, everyone inside was dead. Goessman's remains were found in the lab. A cursory autopsy indicated he had been mauled by a vampire and was probably dead before he was immolated.



Once they captured the wayward vampire, criminal investigators were able to piece together the incident. Apparently, this particularly articulate vampire tricked one of Goessman's assistants into letting it go by promising him untold riches. Once freed, the vampire killed the assistant and attacked Goessman before heading down to the village.



Fortunately, many of Goessman's notebooks were rescued from the fire, including one that laid the groundwork for the vaccine research done at the Santa Rosa Institute in the 1940s and 50s. Among Goessman's important discoveries was that, in the absence of food, both vampires and zombies were capable of entering a dormant phase during which their pulse rate and metabolism would slow. This allowed them to survive without food for weeks longer than previously thought. Goessman also discovered that aggression was an essential part of the makeup of vampires, and that simply feeding them blood was not enough to keep them healthy. Perhaps because of his unusual methods and macabre demise, Dr. Kristof Goessman has never received the respect accorded to scientists like Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur. But the fact remains, the good doctor saved untold lives by hastening the discovery of the vaccine.

Vampire Population Hits One Million
00:38 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 988

Vampire Population Hits One Million



Public Health Notice,

Chicago 1908

At the turn of the Nineteenth Century, a growing, increasingly urban population, along with rising immigration, contributed to a spike in vampire numbers. In a widely-published 1905 vampire study, FVZA scientists estimated the worldwide vampire population at one million.

The vampire population boom forced world leaders to take drastic measures to try and slow the spread of the plague. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt ordered a curfew in every city and town in the country. At dusk across the land, curfew sirens rang out as children ran in from their play and cities fell dark. The curfew was economically devastating for restaurants, theaters, bars and nightclubs, and led to a mini-Depression. President Roosevelt also authorized an emergency vampire relief fund, with most of the money going to the FVZA to hire more people and upgrade their equipment. In addition, every branch of the Armed Forces was called into service to help the Agency.





London's Battersea Station,

the end of the line for

thousands of vampires

Large cities were hardest hit by the vampire explosion. Early each morning in London, boatmen would make their way west along the fog-shrouded Thames, stopping at various wharfs to pick up vampires that had been destroyed the night before. The sight of a withered old boatman slipping silently through the fog, his boat heaped with vampire corpses, was one of the indelible impressions of the day. Eventually, the vampire corpses would be brought to the Battersea power station for incineration. At its peak, Battersea station was burning over one-hundred vampires a day.





Bombay's Old Quarter

before it was burned

to the ground

Other cities took more dramatic steps to combat the rise in vampirism. In Bombay, India, the city's old quarter, with its narrow streets and numerous homeless people, had become a a breeding ground for vampires. When extermination efforts by British troops did little to stem the problem, the Viceroy ordered the area burned to the ground. Thousands were displaced, and a precious historical neighborhood was gone forever. Not surprisingly, vampire fighting became a valued trade: mercenary vampire fighters roamed the globe, demanding top fees for their services.





NY Times

Headline, 1905



FVZA Agents take down

a "curfew-buster"

While vampires took thousands of victims between 1900 and 1910, their psychological toll on the public may have been even worse. Innocent people were gunned down as panic and paranoia reigned. Some enterprising Americans tried to leaven the stress by opening illegal bars and clubs known as "Curfew-Busters." The locations of these establishments changed often to keep away from the prying eyes of the FVZA.



In general, attempts to skirt the law were the exception and not the rule. Most people in the U.S. honored the curfew, forcing blood-starved vampires to become more brazen, and in the process, more vulnerable. After reaching a peak in 1905, the vampire population stabilized somewhat, before growing again through the Great Depression and the war, until science trotted out its greatest weapon: the vampire vaccine.

The Vampire Rights Movement
00:36 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 989

The Vampire Rights Movement

In the summer of 1891, young painter Lucien Steketee arrived in Paris from a small village in Brittany to find a city energized by bold artists breaking free of the confines of Impressionism. Even in a place crowded with painters, the young Breton quickly stood out. Tall and handsome, student of Monet's, friend to Pissaro and Cezanne, he cut a dashing figure in the City of Light.

Like fellow painter Toulouse-Lautrec, Steketee's preferred subject was the nightlife around his atelier in Montmartre. He painted prostitutes, dancing girls, beggars...and vampires.

Paris' eerie

catacombs

While other artists had painted vampires from memory, Steketee was the first to have them sit for portraits. Despite the danger, Steketee painted over a dozen vampire portraits, and with each one his sense of ease grew. In July of 1892, a vampire suggested to him that Paris' underground catacombs, with their stacks of skulls and bones, would be a more atmospheric backdrop for the portrait; Steketee foolishly followed him there and was set upon by a hunting pack.



Two days later, a local vampire patrol discovered Steketee about to sink his teeth into a young woman.

Moulin Rouge

He fled to the nearby Moulin Rouge nightclub and barricaded himself on the third floor. A mob formed outside and began chanting for the vampire's head. In desperation, Steketee stepped out onto the balcony and made an impassioned plea for his life. So persuasive was he that the mob spared him and allowed the gendarmes to take him away to jail.









Steketee in an

1890 self-portrait

Steketee had found his calling. Writing feverishly in his dim prison cell, he advanced the radical notion that vampires should be treated like the sick people they were, and hospitalized rather than destroyed. Steketee's broadsides were distributed by his artist friends and created a sensation in Paris. Key to his growing support was his claim that he could live without blood. "Controlling bloodlust," he wrote, "is a matter of discipline and faith." He held himself up as proof, and the public bought it.





With public sentiment on his side, Steketee was released into the care of Madame Mauriello, a wealthy widower and devoted follower. She set him up in her Tuileries mansion, where he continued his crusade, speaking to huge crowds and winning support from politicians and religious leaders.



But away from the spotlight, Steketee was hunting, with the help of Madame Mauriello. Each night, she would prowl the streets of Paris looking for young women to lure back to her mansion under the auspices of posing for a famous artist. Once there, the women would be plied with wine until Steketee emerged, fangs flashing. He kept the "newly converted" in his service as a sort of harem.





Mme. Mauriello's mansion

the day after the fire

The arrangement was shortlived. Early on the morning of December 12th, 1892, a terrified girl arrived in the police station claiming that she had narrowly escaped the clutches of a vampire. Police officers followed her back to the Mauriello mansion and discovered the pack. Word spread, and for the second time in his life, Lucien Steketee found himself hiding out from an angry mob. But this time, there was no escape: the mob burned the mansion to the ground, with Steketee, Mme. Mauriello and the young vampires inside.



Steketee's body was never found, leading to speculation that he had escaped; a suspicion strengthened during World War II, when several members of the French Resistance reported seeing a man resembling Steketee prowling the sewers. To this day, he is said to emerge from underground on the anniversary of his death to claim a victim. Which is why, before nightfall on December 12th, suspicious Parisians hang garlic and crosses over their doorways.

Fort Blood
00:35 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 990

Fort Blood



The North-West Mounted Police,

Special Division, a.k.a. the Specials

At about the same time that the FVZA was being organized here in the United States, our neighbors to the north were coming to grips with their own vampire problems. For about 200 years, the huge swath of land in the western half of Canada was controlled by the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company. The powerful Company was able to keep any vampire outbreaks in check with their own security force. But when the Canadian Confederation Act of 1867 brought the western lands under Canada's control, the Hudson's Bay Company pulled out, leaving the region in a state of disorder. A motley crew of outlaws began moving into the region, and in those days, whenever outlaws congregated, vampirism was sure to follow.

The opportunistic outlaws were mostly Americans who saw money to be made setting up illegal whiskey-trading camps in the region. These scofflaws would trade whiskey with Indians in return for buffalo furs and horses, and the success of their operations sometimes enabled their crude encampments to grow into rowdy towns rife with gunfights and prostitution. Vampirism inevitably took hold, driving out the transients and leaving the Indians to deal with the problem.





Inside Fort Blood

There was one whiskey-trading camp that eclipsed all others in debauchery and lawlessness. The camp, which would come to be known as Fort Blood, was the provenance of the Gallatin Gang, a group of low-lifes who had escaped from a Montana prison before making their way to the Great White North and establishing a successful whiskey business. Even by the standards of whiskey camps, Fort Blood was a den of iniquity. With all the prostitutes and transients, it was inevitable that a vampire plague arrived, and when it did, the Gallatin Gang hit upon a novel solution to the problem. Rather than leave town, the Gang struck up an agreement with the vampires in which they would lure Indians to the camp with the promise of whiskey, and then set the vampires on them. In return for providing blood for the vampires, the Fort Blood outlaws were able to keep and sell whatever buffalo hides and horses they took from the Indians. By the early 1870s, Fort Blood had grown into a formidable problem, paralyzing regional trade and settlement and poisoning sensitive relations between the local Indian tribes and the new Canadian government. Now that Canada was responsible for this land, it was clear that Fort Blood had to go.



In 1873, a freshly-minted force of 250 Canadian Mounted Police, or Mounties, traveled west with orders to destroy Fort Blood. But the Gallatin Gang received word of the impending attack and was ready when the Mounties arrived. The Gang repulsed the attack and then, as night fell, unleashed the vampires. All 250 Mounties were killed. The defeat was a stinging rebuke to the newly formed government, and proof that Canada needed a specialized force to fight vampirism in the west.



In 1874, a bill was passed creating the the North-West Mounted Police, Special Division, or the "Specials," for short. 400 men were recruited and trained in vampire combat, and in July of 1874, they left their compound at Fort Manitoba for the long trek west. With 300 horses, 73 wagons and 142 heads of cattle in tow, the Specials followed the Boundary Trail west and made camp at a bend in the Milk River not far from Fort Blood.





The Specials in control

Rather than conduct a frontal assault on the fort, the Specials took a more stealthy approach. A small battalion slipped into the fort posing as Indians and, once inside, killed the Gallatin Gang. They then let the rest of the Specials in to finish off the sleeping vampires. By the next morning, Fort Blood was nothing more than a smoldering pile of ash.



For the next several years, the Specials marched from outpost to outpost, slaying vampires and restoring order to the region. Trade and settlement gradually returned to normal, and relations with the Indians improved. However, the frontier nature of the west ensured that the Specials remained busy, especially during the periods from 1882 to 1885, when the railroad was under construction, and 1896 to 1899, during the Klondike Gold Rush. Like the FVZA, the Specials were often pulled away to fight wars on foreign soil, but they still managed to keep a lid on any vampire or zombie outbreaks in their homeland. In 1973, the Specials celebrated their centennial with a ceremony during which they received medals from Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly thereafter, they were disbanded.

Haussman's Children
00:31 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 991

Haussman's Children

The first half of the Nineteenth Century saw a population explosion in European cities. The rural poor and dispossessed flooded urban centers looking for work, and in the process created overcrowded slums rife with disease, crime...and vampirism. All across Europe, vampires found good hunting and ample hiding places in medieval-era neighborhoods, with their tumbledown dwellings, narrow streets and alleyways. Every major European city had a concentration of vampires: the East End of London, Lisbon's Alfama, Warsaw's Old Town. In Paris, so many vampires haunted the neighborhood north of the Louvre that it became known as the Vampire Quarter.



Baron Haussman

European leaders tried a variety of measures to try and control vampire numbers, including hiring more vampire-fighters and instituting strict curfews. But the number of attacks continued to climb. In 1850, Baron Georges Haussman, Paris' top city planner, offered a radical suggestion: instead of trying to kill the vampires, why not eliminate their habitat? Haussman envisioned a radical reconstruction of Paris, with broad boulevards, spacious squares and a modern sewer system (it was still common belief that poor sanitation contributed to vampirism).



Haussman's plan won approval from French Emperor (and Napoleon grandson) Louis Napoleon and, in 1853, work crews began tearing down the Vampire Quarter, building by building. As crowds of onlookers watched, vampires scurried from collapsing buildings, shrieking and shielding their eyes from the sun, only to be methodically destroyed by special legions of the French Army. In one church, more than 50 vampires were flushed from the crypt. While some French, like writer Emile Zola, protested the widespread destruction of architectural treasures and the lack of interim housing for the homeless, the project did seem to be succeeding in slowing the rate of vampire attacks.





In Paris, aging tenements were torn down (l)

to make room for the Paris Opera (r)

Within 20 years, Haussman had transformed the the old rabbit warrens of the Vampire Quarter into posh neighborhoods with grand boulevards radiating from large squares like the Place de l'Opera. Haussman was celebrated as a genius and European cities raced to follow his lead. From Lisbon to Prague, broad boulevards and wide squares become de rigeur.





"What Vampire Problem?"

In this sardonic 1913 French illustration,

a lone vampire prowls the sewers of Paris,

unbeknownst to the passersby above



However, the canonization of Haussman proved to be premature. After dropping for a short time, vampire attacks in Paris rose to their highest levels ever. To make matters worse, the attacks were no longer confined to Paris' slums. Vampires attacked the well-heeled of the Tuileries, they preyed on students across the river in the Latin Quarter. The great irony of Haussman's work was that, while he had driven vampires from their old haunts, in building Paris' extensive sewer system he had provided them with the perfect place to hide.



For the next 50 years, these vampires, known in Paris as "Haussman's Children," made their home in the sewers, emerging at night for hunting. For a short time, the French stationed troops there, but had to pull out due to high rates of desertion. During World War II, French resistance fighters hiding from the Nazis in the sewers encountered vampires in 19th-Century dress. The development of the vampire vaccine, along with more sophisticated vampire-fighting technology, eradicated vampires in Europe by the mid-1960s. However, in 1971, a rash of vampire attacks along the river Seine paralyzed Paris. French authorities, working with the assistance of the FVZA, tracked a lone vampire into the sewers. The vampire was cornered near the Place des Vosges, and perhaps the last of "Haussman's children" was destroyed.







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Mystery of Mungo Park
00:29 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 991

The Mystery of Mungo Park

As the Eighteenth Century drew to a close, European explorers turned their gaze toward one of the world's last great unexplored regions: the heart of Africa. Though colonizing Europeans had been visiting coastal villages and establishing forts in Africa for over 300 years, little was known of the interior of the Dark Continent. Prior exploration attempts had been undone by disease, hostile tribes and large swaths of dense, unmapped jungle. But these obstacles only whetted the appetites of European explorers hoping to become the first white men to ford the River Niger, look upon the legendary city of Timbuktu, or walk the streets of Tellem, a city on the Niger said to be built entirely of gold.



Mungo Park

One such intrepid soul was Mungo Park, a Scottish physician who had been bitten by the exploring bug while in his twenties. In 1795, Park, with the support of England's Africa Society, set off in search of the Niger and the fabled city of Tellem. Park and his team of 30 men sailed down the east coast of Africa to the mouth of the River Gambia, where the English had established a fort. After a trip down the Gambia and an overland trek through dense jungle, the team reached the Niger. By then, however, Park had run out of money and was forced to return to England without finding Tellem.



Park spent the next decade raising funds and organizing a team for a second expedition to Tellem. Finally, in 1805, the Scotsmen embarked from England, fully confident in his mission's success. Park and his team returned to the Niger, where they piled into canoes and paddled south in search of Tellem. None of them were ever heard from again.





A 1795 map shows

Park's route up the

Gambia to the Niger

Park's disappearance was big news back in England, where the public had developed a fascination with explorations in Africa. A rescue mission was quickly put together under the direction of Africa Society director Joseph Langley. Langley and his team traced Park's route, sailing up the Gambia and crossing the jungle to get to the Niger. At the end of the second day on the river, the team paddled around a bend and laid eyes on the legendary city of Tellem.

The village of Tellem

in a 1930 photo

In his 1808 account of the mission, Dark River, Langley recalls his team's disappointment upon finding that, far from being a city of gold, Tellem was a small village constructed of mud. As the team drifted closer, they saw dozens of Africans emerging from their homes and walking towards them with a peculiar, stiff-legged gait. In his account of the trip, Langley remembers being initially heartened by the sight of the villagers: "They wore brightly-colored garments and the broadest of smiles." But as he got closer, Langley realized that what he had mistaken for smiles were actually the grimaces of flesh-hungry zombies: the entire village had been transformed. Langley ordered an immediate retreat, but the canoes became swamped in the rapids. As the voracious zombies waded into the river, Langley was swept into the current and carried several miles downriver. He eventually reached a friendly village; the villagers took him to the mouth of the Niger, where he was picked up by a British ship.





Sir Joseph Langley

Though Langley had gone further into Africa than any white man before him, he found himself the subject of scorn upon his return to London, where his zombie story was derided as a self-serving excuse for a failure in leadership. However, later accounts from the Asante tribes of East Africa lent support to Langley's account. Denkyira, the Asante king, informed the English garrison in Gambia that he had led a raid on Tellem and destroyed many zombies, including several white men. The king presented the garrison commander with the clothes and personal effects of these men. Among the items was Park's diary, with its ominous last entry: "Tomorrow, we should reach Tellem, a city that has haunted my dreams since I was a child. I cannot sleep for the excitement."

Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bucket of Blood
00:28 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 992

Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bucket of Blood



"I personally saw him...rip the

heart from one man's chest..."

"The black ship appeared so suddenly beside us, it was as if the fog itself had given it form. Within moments, our deck was swarming with men of the most ghastly countenance. All were gifted swordsmen, impervious to our bullets. In the midst of this maelstrom came the largest man I have ever laid eyes on. I personally saw him cut down three men with one swing of his sword, then reach down, rip the heart from one man's chest and tear his fangs into it with a zeal I can only describe as religious."

So wrote Jacob Hensleigh, a sailor discovered by the British Navy clinging to a piece of driftwood in the Mediterranean Sea. As the only survivor of one of the last attacks by the legendary vampire-pirate Redbeard, Hensleigh was indeed a lucky man: between the years 1795 and 1797, Redbeard and his crew killed an estimated 500 sailors and paralyzed shipping on the Mediterranean.



Redbeard was born James Wyatt around 1778 in London, England. As a boy, he would spend hours hanging around the docks of east London and dreaming of the day when he would first set sail. That day came for him at age 15, when he joined the crew of a merchant vessel. Always a quick study, Wyatt rose swiftly through the ranks, and by age 25 he was the captain of his own ship, a beat-up sloop he sardonically called the Carcass. When England declared war on France in 1793, Wyatt had the Carcass retooled for battle and offered his services as a privateer for the Royal Navy. His job was to board and plunder any ships carrying supplies between France and her ally, Spain. The barrel-chested, six-foot-five-inch Wyatt proved to be a natural leader and his crew became such efficient plunderers that Napoleon himself put a bounty on their head. But Wyatt's days of service to the English crown came to an end in the summer of 1795, when he was bitten by a vampire outside a waterfront pub in Gibraltar. Wyatt quickly spread the virus to his crew and soon the Carcass was sailing under the direction of about 50 bloodthirsty vampires.



Although the transition from sailor to vampire-pirate presented real difficulties for most, James Wyatt was different. Besides possessing an unusually sharp learning curve, Wyatt knew the Mediterranean coast like an old friend. By the fall of 1795, he had set himself up in a ruined castle set in the shoulders of a protected harbor along the Algerian coast in north Africa. It was there that he adopted the name Redbeard and set about building an empire of piracy and vampirism.





Redbeard sailed under

a blood-red Jolly Roger

Each night, the Carcass would set sail from the castle flying a blood-red Jolly Roger from its mast. Exploiting their night vision, Redbeard and his crew would identify a ship, slip up alongside it and board while most of the sailors were still sleeping. The crew of a single ship could supply enough blood to feed Redbeard's vampires for a month. Those unfortunate crew members who weren't bitten right away would be taken back to the castle and imprisoned in the dungeon to await a grisly fate.



More than his skills as a sailor, it was Redbeard's appreciation for politics that explained his relative longevity. In return for their protection, Redbeard paid off local Algerian caliphs with the booty from the ships he raided. He gradually expanded his force, adding only the strongest, most capable sailors. Within a year, Redbeard's pirate empire had grown to include about 250 vampire-sailors and a fleet of five ships. Throughout 1796, his raids grew more and more devastating, and all of Europe started feeling the effects. Shortages in food were reported as cargo failed to meet its destination, or else arrived late because so many crews refused to sail at night.



In early 1797, Redbeard and his men scored their biggest coup yet when they took control of a 74-gun frigate belonging to the British Navy. The firepower of the captured frigate made Redbeard even more dangerous, and King George III of England was forced to take action. He decided to send a fleet of warships to the Mediterranean under the direction of the young commodore Horatio Nelson with instructions to bring back the head of Redbeard.





Nelson's ships besiege

the pirate hideout

In early June, a dozen warships under the command of Nelson sailed around the head of the Iberian peninsula and into the Mediterranean. For six weeks, the fleet searched in vain for Redbeard along the north African coast. Finally, on July 12, they plucked the terrified Jacob Hensleigh from the waters and knew they were close. A day later, the fleet boarded a ship and found it littered with bloodless, dismembered body parts. The next night, the fleet came across Redbeard's army in the midst of an attack on a fishing boat. They surrounded the vampire ships and a brutal battle ensued, during which Nelson took a bullet to the arm. The English lost three ships and scores of men in the battle, but they fought on, knowing that time was on their side. With dawn starting to lighten the eastern horizon, Redbeard was forced to pull back and make for safe harbor. The English fleet followed him all the way to the castle and began several hours of relentless bombardment. That afternoon, 500 troops went ashore to finish the job. Redbeard and a few of his closest associates retreated to the dungeon, where, despite being vastly outnumbered, they put up a ferocious fight. In all, it took three days to secure the castle. The troops then freed several dozen prisoners and burned the vampire compound to the ground.





An ignominious journey

back to London

When Nelson's men returned with Redbeard's head, Nelson had them hang it from the bowsprit at the front of the ship for the journey back to England. As they triumphantly made their way up the Thames to London, huge crowds gathered along the riverbanks to watch. Nelson presented Redbeard's head to King George III, who had it placed on a stake on London Bridge, not far from where a boy named James Wyatt had first gazed east and dreamed of a life at sea.

The Ship of the Dead
00:24 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 992

The Ship of the Dead



Portsmouth in 1607

The voyage of the British merchant ship Cormorant from Portsmouth, England, to the Caribbean island of Nevis had special meaning for Andrew Oglethorpe. After ten years as a sailor, Oglethorpe had decided to call it quits and live out his days as a fisherman in the British West Indies. And so, on June 15, 1607, the night before his last voyage, Oglethorpe set up shop in a Portsmouth pub and drank to his good fortune.

It wasn't to last. As Oglethorpe staggered toward the docks an hour or so before dawn, a prostitute called to him from the shadows. Inebriated, and facing three months at sea with no female companionship, Oglethorpe eagerly followed her into a dark alley, ignoring the old seafarer's maxim: harlot for hire, might be vampire. No sooner had they found a private spot than the prostitute sunk her fangs into him, and Andrew Oglethorpe's dream of a life of tropical ease was over before it started.



Like many victims of vampirism, Oglethorpe chose to deny what had happened. He boarded the Cormorant and assumed his duties as the ship left port under the direction of Captain Horatio Wheeler. By nightfall, Oglethorpe was in sick bay with a fever and chills. As Oglethorpe's wounds were not easily visible, the ship surgeon probably confused his symptoms with one of the more common ailments of the day. Eventually, Oglethorpe slipped into a vampiric coma; he was being prepared for burial at sea when he came back to life.





Captain Horatio Wheeler

The fate of the crew would have been left to the imagination had Captain Wheeler not been an assiduous journal-keeper. Entries in his log became increasingly ominous as the journey progressed.



August 24th: "For the past three days, we have been sailing through a storm, which has prevented us from continuing a sweep of the ship designed to root out any remaining vampires. Thus far, we have captured and thrown overboard three crew members who were showing signs of the dread disease."



September 14th: "The vampires have barricaded themselves in the hold and, despite my entreaties, none of my crew dares go down there to dispatch them. Our nerves are frayed, as none of us have slept for two weeks. Last night, a man leaped off the boat rather than face another night of this torment."



September 16th: "They are at my door now. There is no hope. I can only pray that God dash this accursed ship against the rocks, lest it deliver its hellish cargo upon some innocent shores."





The Cormorant

brought vampirism

to the New World

The captain's wishes would not be met. On the night of September 20th, Cormorant cruised into the harbor of the small Caribbean island of Nevis with Captain Wheeler, now a vampire, at the helm. Native islanders paddled out on canoes to greet the ship, unaware of the awful surprise waiting on board.



From this one ship, the vampire virus would spread rapidly across the Caribbean and the New World. The disaster prompted an overhaul of shipping procedures. Henceforth, all sailors were given thorough physical examinations before boarding.

00:22 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 993

During the Middle Ages, the scientific study of vampirism was tangled up in religious notions of good versus evil. Vampires were the Devil's foot soldiers, and victims of vampirism were thought to have had some sort of moral failing which left them vulnerable to attack. The large number of prostitute-victims was held up as proof of this. The church, at perhaps the zenith of its power, had a vested interest in keeping this notion afloat, as nervous worshipers tended to spend more time in church and give more money. But the dawn of the Renaissance gave rise to a number of visionary scientists who, at their own peril, began to question previous assumptions about vampirism. And one of them, an Italian named Ludovico Fatinelli, paid for it with his life.



Ludovico Fatinelli

Fatinelli was a native of Florence whose father was employed in the relatively new profession of making eyeglasses. The young Fatinelli took an interest in his father's trade and made his own magnifying glasses to study the world around him. As his lenses got more sophisticated, he was able to discern a world previously unknown to science. His notes from a look at a sample of water from the Arno River capture the excitement of discovery: "I then saw, with great wonder, that in the water were very many little animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The animalcules were in great number, and oft times spun around like a tail." Fatinelli had taken the first recorded look at bacteria.



The young Florentine went on to study medicine at the University of Padua, where one of his teachers was the great scientist and philosopher Galileo Gallilei. While there, Fatinelli, through the use of increasingly more sophisticated microscopes, discovered that "animalcules" also appeared to live in human tissue. From these observations, the young scientist developed the radical theory that it was these microscopic entities, not moral failures, that were the real source of vampirism. Experiments on animals seemed to bolster his hypothesis, and he set to work on a treatise that would summarize his findings and, he hoped, establish his reputation as a great scientist.





The trial of Fatinelli

In Januay, 1616, Fatinelli published his findings under the title, Treatise on Vampires. Alas, his timing couldn't have been worse. Pope Paul V, worried about the rise of Protestantism, had been taking a hard line against any new interpretation of church dogma and decided to make Fatinelli an example. The young man was brought up for the Inquisition, and when he refused to recant the conclusions in his treatise, he was charged with heresy and brought to trial. Though a simple recantation probably could have gotten him off the hook, Fatinelli stood behind his findings. Judgment was swift: the verdict was guilty, the sentence, death.





Florence's Piazza

Signoria the morning

of Fatinelli's execution

On April 23, 1616, a huge crowd gathered in Florence's Piazza Signoria to witness the execution. Fatinelli was tied to a pole atop a pile of logs, which were then set ablaze. The fire ate through the rope securing Fatinelli to the pole, and his left arm flew up in the air. A shriek went through the crowd; many fainted, thinking that the Devil was passing a curse from Fatinelli's body onto them. But the man on the pyre was only flesh and blood. Once the spectacle was over, one of the most important scientists of the time was ignominiously heaved into a pauper's grave, where the church hoped he would be forgotten forever.





It was not to be. Though Fatinelli was gone, his research lived on. For years after his death, illicit copies of his banned treatise made their way through Europe's scientific communities and helped pave the way for important work by scientists like the Englishman Edward Jenner, who created the first vaccine in 1795. Fatinelli had indeed been far ahead of his time: too far ahead, for the church's comfort.

Simonetta and Giuliano
00:21 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 994

Simonetta and Giuliano

Simonetta Vespucci was said to be the most beautiful woman in all of Renaissance Florence. Born in 1453, the niece of explorer Amerigo Vespucci seemed to cast a spell on the leading men of Florentine society.

Simonetta and Giuliano

served as models for

Botticelli's Mars and Venus

After meeting her, the great painter Botticelli painted no one else for the rest of his life (she served as a model for all of his Madonnas and Venuses). Brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici of the Florentine ruling family fell in love with her and tried to outdo each other in displays of affection. The more practical Lorenzo, occupied with affairs of state, eventually lost Simonetta to his more romantic brother. In celebration, Giuliano held a jousting tournament and dedicated it to his 23-year-old fiance.

Shortly thereafter, Simonetta became sick with consumption (tuberculosis) and the prognosis was grim. A distraught Giuliano, unwilling to lose his beloved, decided that keeping Simonetta alive as a vampire was better than letting her die. He summoned Dominic Salcedo, the city's foremost vampire hunter, and gave him a top secret mission: capture a vampire and bring it back to the palace. Salcedo, unwilling to disobey one of the city's most powerful men, complied and, the following night, an unfortunate vampire was brought to the room in the palace where Simonetta lay dying. The vampire bit her and was then destroyed. Within two days, Simonetta herself had turned.





Simonetta jumped to

her death from the tower

of the Palazzo Vecchio

Though Giuliano must have been shocked when he first saw Simonetta, with her black eyes and ghastly color, he was pleased to discover that she recognized him and remembered their life together. Like many a hopeless romantic, Giuliano mistakenly decided that the love Simonetta had for him would trump any bloodlust she felt. And so when she beckoned him with kind words, he eagerly went to her, and was bitten. That night, Lorenzo de Medici discovered his brother in the throes of transformation, with telltale wounds on his neck. For a second time, Dominic Salcedo was summoned. Salcedo and his team searched the enormous palace for Simonetta, eventually finding her in the bell tower. Cornered, Simonetta jumped to her death on the plaza below, the same plaza where, only weeks earlier, hundreds had jousted in her honor. Per his request, Giuliano was buried at her feet.





Giuliano and Simonetta

in the Botticelli portrait

done after their deaths

A heartbroken Botticelli made one more painting of the ill-fated couple, using their death masks for models. In the picture, Giuliano faces the pale, shadowy Simonetta before an open window, a well-known symbol of death. The dove perched on the dead branch in the lower left of the painting is rich with symbolism. Doves mate for life and, according to Renaissance lore, will perch only on dead branches after their mates have died.













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00:18 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 995

Rome is Saved

The decline of the Roman Empire left Europe in a turbulent state. In an absence of any central authority, the countryside was overrun by a series of vampire armies, each more terrifying than the last. The armies, generally consisting of between 50 and 100 vampires, would swoop into towns on horseback in the dead of night, howling with bloodlust. The only saving grace for the people of Europe was the limited range of these armies, as it was difficult for them to stray far from their daylight havens. But in the Ninth Century, a charismatic leader named Quadilla united a number of vampire armies into a mobile, fearsome fighting force that had many in Europe believing the end of the world was nigh.



Quadilla

Quadilla grew up riding horses and tending goats and sheep on a farm near the Po River in northern Italy. His bucolic upbringing came to an abrupt end at age 16, when a corrupt local priest confiscated his family's property. The evicted family had the distinct misfortune of settling in a gypsy camp shortly before it was set upon by a small vampire army. Quadilla's parents were killed; he was bitten, then taken away to join the army.



Quadilla quickly distinguished himself as a great horseman and fearless warrior whose ambitions outpaced the limited scope of his precursors. Quadilla envisioned himself as the leader of a vampire empire stretching from Gibraltar to the Danube. With his great skills as an orator, Quadilla was able to convince local vampire armies to join his cause. After winning important victories against the Lombards, the army began a slow, inexorable march down the Italian peninsula toward Quadilla's ultimate goal: the papal leadership in Rome.



Quadilla's offensive was greatly aided by the Italian topography. Each night, he would raid a village for blood, then take shelter in the numerous caves of the Apennine Mountains. Remindful of the corrupt priest who took his boyhood home, Quadilla saved special cruelty for houses of worship. He plundered monasteries and left the heads of priests impaled on stakes outside the churches. These horrific displays convinced many that Quadilla was the Devil himself, and that the advances of his army represented the end of the world prophesied in the bible.





Charlemagne

In December of 772, Quadilla's army took Siena, leaving it only 150 miles from Rome. As the Italian capital swelled with refugees, the stories of Quadilla took on an outsized, mythological scale. Eyewitnesses told of a ten-foot-tall, fire-breathing man with horns, cloven hoofs and a tail. While none of these stories were true, they surely unnerved Pope Hadrian II. The Pope, facing desertions in his own army, sent envoys to the Frankish Kingdom of the north to ask the young king Charlemagne for help.



Though Charlemagne had come to power only two years earlier, at age 29, the six-foot-six-inch King of the Franks already had ambitions to match his towering frame. He wanted nothing less than to rule Europe, and he knew that having the imprimatur of the Pope would help him greatly in his quest. He told the papal envoys that he would take his men into Italy as soon as the snows melted.



In the spring of 773, Charlemagne led his army across the Alps into Italy. He followed the coast south and made camp along the Tiber River north of Rome, not far from the site of Quadilla's most recent assault. Charlemagne had planned to use the camp as a base from which to conduct sorties into the mountains, but Quadilla had different ideas. That night, the vampire army attacked the camp and inflicted heavy losses on Charlemagne's army before retreating back to their caves.





Charlemagne slays

Quadilla (from

illuminated manuscript)

As the day dawned, Charlemagne surveyed the wreckage of his camp and realized he could not fight the vampires by conventional means. After breaking his army up into smaller groups and setting them in defensive positions in the hills, he sent his most experienced vampire hunters into the mountains to conduct reconnaissance. That night, the men located the vampire cave network, and as soon as the sun came up, Charlemagne led his army there. Rather than send his men stumbling blindly into the dark caves, Charlemagne had them heap timber onto modified horse carts, light the pile on fire and roll the carts into the caves. The plan worked beautifully: vampires were smoked out into the light and beheaded by the hundreds.



Working from cave to cave, it took four days for Charlemagne's army to kill the last of the vampires. Quadilla himself fought gallantly; though effectively rendered blind by the bright sun, he killed over 20 soldiers before Charlemagne dispatched him with a blow from his sword.





Charlemagne's fire cart, seen in this

medieval illustration, outlived him

by almost 1000 years

On Christmas Day, 773, a grateful Pope crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in the city he had saved. During Charlemagne's 47-year reign, Europe enjoyed a relative respite from vampire armies. The fire carts Charlemagne had improvised lasted even longer; they were employed against vampires well into the Eighteenth Century.



In 1974, a team of Italian archaeologists discovered a huge cache of artifacts in caves near the Tiber. Among the finds were armor and weapons bearing the broken cross symbol peculiar to Quadilla's army. A museum was built nearby to house the relics and honor the men who saved the seat of Christianity from a grisly fate.

Longinus: Vampire Emperor
00:16 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 996






Longinus in

Herculean garb

During the early days of the Roman Empire, vampires were hunted and destroyed by an elite squad of the Legion. The Roman ability to control vampires was widely respected and made it easier for them to colonize farflung nations. Captured vampires were brought to the the Coliseum in Rome, where they fought lions, tigers and Christians in nighttime battles.

A frequent spectator at these contests was the young Emperor Longinus, who began his reign in AD 68 at the age of 17. Longinus' favorite was Brittanicus, who was captured in England in AD 65 and had developed a formidable record as a vampire-gladiator. Against the advice of his Praetorian bodyguards, Longinus had Brittanicus installed in a lavish suite inside the palace. One night, Longinus paid his guest a visit and the inevitable happened: Longinus was bitten and became Rome's first vampire emperor.





Frieze (detail): The

Slaughter of the Vampires

The vampire emperor's short reign over Rome was disastrous. The Praetorian Guards who had defended Longinus were expelled from the Palace, and vampires became protected throughout the Empire. Longinus and Brittanicus led other vampires on nightly hunting parties through the streets of Rome. Vampirism, which had previously been contained within Rome, exploded.



Facing a dire future, the expelled Praetorian Guards took it upon themselves to save the Empire. On a warm summer morning in AD 69, about a dozen Praetorians burst into the palace. The vampires, drowsy and bloated from the previous night's feast, were easy pickings and the Praetorians methodically dispatched them, saving Longinus for last. He was decapitated, and his head was stuck on a pole outside the city gates as a warning to any vampires who might want to venture into Rome.

Report Number: 322
00:13 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 997






An early view of

San Francisco's Chinatown

Background: The California Gold Rush that kicked off in 1849 brought a flood of fortune seekers to the state, including many from faraway China. Lured by unscrupulous speculators, the Chinese made the long journey to California only to discover that the hills of gold they had been promised were tapped out. By 1876, over 100,000 Chinese had emigrated to the Golden State, with most settling in San Francisco. Absent any gold to hang their hopes on, the Chinese found work in the railroad and garment industries. Their resourcefulness made them the target of resentment from unemployed locals. Embattled, subject to unfair taxes and inequitable laws, the Chinese did what so many other immigrant groups had done before them: they turned inward. San Francisco's Chinatown became an insular community with its own language and customs and a deep suspicion of outsiders.

Incident: On December 15, 1879, a policeman happened upon a vampire feeding on a prostitute along San Francisco's waterfront. The cop chased the vampire off, but it was too late for the woman. Before expiring, she told the cop that her attacker was Chinese. In the next two months, attacks occurred in several neighborhoods bordering Chinatown, including Jackson Square, Fisherman's Wharf and Nob Hill. Each time, witnesses reported that the vampires appeared to be Chinese. Word of the attacks spread and fueled an already strong anti-Chinese sentiment in the city. Among the outrageous rumors circulating was a story that the Chinese were harboring vampires in Chinatown as part of a plot to destroy the white population. On February 20, an angry, torch-wielding mob marched on Chinatown. Only quick action by the San Francisco police prevented a catastrophe.





FVZA Agent

Jim Belmore

Investigation: The hysteria put tremendous pressure on Jim Belmore, head of the FVZA's San Francisco office. Belmore, a Civil War veteran, had moved west to open the San Francisco office only two years earlier, and now found himself caught in between an angry public and an impenetrable society. Belmore suspected that the origin of the plague rested somewhere in one of Chinatown's many opium dens. Opium dens were secret establishments where men would gather to smoke black opium paste and fall into a blissful stupor. Belmore's attempts to conduct sweeps and stakeouts of the dens were hampered by Chinese organized crime gangs known as Tongs. The Tongs operated the opium dens, along with brothels and gambling parlors, and they didn't want any law enforcement snooping around their domain. Belmore needed someone who could help him gain access to the Byzantine world of Chinatown. He needed someone on the inside.



Up to that point, San Francisco city leadership had been hesitant to hire Chinese for federal jobs. But when Belmore threatened to quit, the mayor allocated money for him to hire one new agent, and Jin Don Song became the first Asian-American member of the FVZA. Jin Don was an ambitious young man who had made Belmore's acquaintance while serving as a runner/errand boy at the FVZA office. He grew up in Chinatown and knew its geography and people. After an abbreviated training program, Jin Don was inducted into the agency, and he quickly was able to discern that the vampire plague was probably originating from the vast network of underground opium dens off of Stout's Alley near Washington Street.





A Chinese vampire prepares

to prey on two opium smokers

Several nights of stakeouts confirmed Jin Don's theory, and on the morning of March 16, an FVZA battalion headed by Belmore and Jin Don walked down a flight of stairs hidden behind a laundromat and entered the underground opium den complex. There, they found a baffling maze of dimly lit passageways and small rooms. In one of those rooms, the FVZA team came upon what appeared to be three opium addicts in a state of sedation. But when the team moved closer, the opium smokers began hissing and flashing their fangs. The team destroyed the vampires with surprising ease. And so it was, in room after room: drug-addled vampires serving as easy pickings for the FVZA team. But the clamor and noise gave the less narcotized vampires fair warning, and they were able to ambush the team inside one of the larger rooms. Jin Don Song was bitten but still managed to lead his comrades to one of the street exits. As there was not yet a vaccine, he had to be euthanized.



Although Agent Belmore was devastated by the loss of his friend, he didn't let his emotions cause him to make hasty decisions. Over the course of the afternoon, Belmore had the underground complex sealed off and the surrounding neighborhood evacuated. With the help of the fire and police departments, his team pumped smoke into the complex. Within minutes, scores of vampires staggered out into Stout's Alley and were destroyed. Once the smoke had cleared, Belmore led his team on another underground sweep. In all, almost 100 vampires were wiped out. The team stayed in the area for another week, during which they destroyed another 50 vampires. By the time they left, Chinatown was secure and the grateful residents presented Belmore with a valuable jade scepter.



Post Mortems: On April 3, 1880, Jin Don Song was given a burial with full military honors. Although discrimination and persecution against the Chinese continued in San Francisco, Jin Don Song's heroism went a long way to improving relations and making whites recognize the Chinese as part of the community. Jim Belmore went on to serve as San Francisco director until his retirement in 1900. By then, there were 25 Chinese-American agents in the San Francisco office.



Comments from Dr. Pecos: In the opium dens of Chinatown, vampires found an almost ideal situation. They were out of the sunlight, had a steady supply of fresh blood and plenty of places to hide. However, the opium-laced blood they were drinking caused them to become lethargic and dulled their sharp senses. Normal vampires would never allow agents to enter their lair with such ease.



This early case had a number of unusual aspects, not the least of which was the discovery that vampires, like humans, can develop a taste for drugs. Modern vampire hunters witnessed this phenomenon many times; urban vampires often displayed a preference for the blood of alcoholics or drug addicts. This case is also a good example of how the fight against vampirism often led to social reform. Here, the plague resulted in a crackdown on opium dens. Finally, the case of the opium vampires should be remembered for the courage of Jin Don Song and the principled stand taken by Jim Belmore.







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info on vampires
00:10 Sep 11 2005
Times Read: 998










The Science of Vampires

Part I

In 1616, Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli published his Treatise on Vampires, in which he speculated that vampirism was caused by a microscopic pathogen. He was burned at the stake for heresy. Fortunately, science plowed ahead, undeterred. The information included in this section is the result of the work of countless dedicated men and women.



The Virus



HVV source:

the bat flea

Xenopsylla cheopsis



HVV carrier:

Vampire bat

The source of vampirism is the Human Vampiric Virus (HVV). Like Rabies, HVV belongs to the order Mononegavirales, viruses with a nonsegmented, negative-stranded RNA genome. Viruses in this group have a distinct bullet shape. The virus' natural host is a flea commonly found on cave-dwelling bats, especially the vampire bat. In the most common scenario, a bat which has been bitten by the flea passes the virus on to livestock and humans through a bite.

While in theory HVV infection is possible through any exchange of bodily fluids, transmission occurs through the bite of an infected person in virtually every case.









Stages of the Disease





Electron micrograph of HVV (left);

The virus budding off an infected cell (right)

Stage One: Infection. Within hours of being bit, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. These symptoms can be easily confused with more common viral infections, although the presence of bite marks on the body is usually enough to confirm the diagnosis. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours, during which the vaccine is 100 percent effective.









In 1800 France, an infected

woman is given a transfusion of

goat's blood, a desperate, futile

measure to ward off the disease

Stage Two: Vampiric Coma. Within 24 hours of being bit, the victim will slip into a Vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in Vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampire sleep in coffins. While it is commonly thought that anyone infected with HVV turns into a vampire, in fact only a small percentage of people survive Vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their Vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive Vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset. The vaccine is 50 percent effective when administered during Stage Two of the infection: the longer the victim has been in the coma, the less effective the vaccine.





During vampire epidemics,

many victims were buried while

still in a Vampiric coma

Stage Three: Transformation. A bite victim who survives the coma wills awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation. The vaccine is of no use at this point.











The Science of Vampires - Part II

Vampire Biology

A person who comes out of a Vampiric coma fully transformed will have undergone a number of major physiological changes affecting the various systems of the body. The information included below is only an overview; for a more detailed account, try two classic texts: Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Vampire and Vesalius' Five Books on the Structure of the Vampire Body.



Brain/Nervous System

A vampire's nervous system is similar to humans and has proven to be their "achilles heel." Injuries to the spinal cord and brain can devastating for vampires. While a vampire's spinal cord and nerves work as before transformation, a numbers of changes take place in the brain, and that altered brain chemistry goes a long way toward understanding vampire behavior.







Normal brain (left) shows serotonin activity;

vampire brain (right) shows none

serotonin: vampires have much lower levels of this neurotransmitter. In humans, low levels of serotonin trigger aggression and risky behavior. A study of murderers on death row revealed low levels of serotonin in their brains.



dopamine: another neurotransmitter, dopamine induces feelings of well-being. In vampires, it is released during feeding and has a narcotic-like effect. Neural pathways activated in vampires during feeding are much like those found in addicts when using drugs.



circadian rhythms chemical changes in the brain that helps us "rise and shine" with the morning light are reversed in vampires.



Sense Organs

Powerful sense organs gave vampires an advantage both in hunting and eluding capture. Sneaking up on them virtually impossible, as they are aware of your presence long before you are aware of theirs.





Normal eye (left); Vampire eye (right)

sight: in vampires, the iris in each eye becomes hyper dilated, giving them what appear to be black eyes. While this iris dilation gives vampires excellent night vision, it renders them effectively blind in daylight. In addition, vampires suffer inflammation of the sclera, making the whites of their eyes appear red.



smell/hearing: both senses are extremely acute, as vampires have double the receptor cells in their noses and ears compared to humans. In fact, vampires usually smell or hear a person coming long before they see one.





Hair, skin, teeth, fingernails

Part of the terror of encountering a vampire stems from dramatic changes to their outer appearance. Some of these changes are functional, while others remain a mystery.







The upper (l) and lower (r) eyeteeth

experience rapid growth

Teeth: during vampiric coma, the upper and lower eyeteeth experience growth. Additional enamel is deposited on the crown of the tooth. Vampires will file the teeth to make them sharper for easier feeding.

Hair: vampires lose all their bodily hair within ten years of transformation (except for the tiny hairs in their ears, known as cilia).



Skin: a newly-transformed vampire has a sickly, pale yellow skin tone that turns to blue over the next few days. In time, the skin becomes more and more translucent, and a fine network of veins become visible under the skin.



Fingernails: vampire fingernails thicken and grow at a rapid rate. Vampires will file their nails to a point, which helps them in grabbing victims.

Circulatory System

The most profound differences between humans and vampires are found in the circulatory system. These differences enable vampires to survive massive trauma that would kill a human being.





Blood: vampire blood is called ichor (pr. ik-er). Modifications to hemoglobin in the blood cells makes vampire blood appear black.



the Heart: vampire blood is pumped via the contraction of skeletal muscle rather than the heart, which eventually atrophies from disuse.



adrenaline: this "emergency hormone," which normally kicks in during "fight or flight" situations, is found in consistently large amounts in vampire blood. The presence of adrenaline, along with changes in muscle, bone and connective tissue, account for vampire's extraordinary strength, speed and aggressiveness.





Seen through night vision,

a vampire attacks its prey

Body Temperature

A vampire's core body temperature is only about 60 degrees, compared to over 98 degrees for humans. This marked difference proved to be a great help for modern vampire fighters, as it made vampires easily distinguishable from humans when viewed through heat-sensitive infrared imagery (note the difference between the vampire and human in the picture at right).



Muscular/Skeletal System

Adaptations in their skeletal and muscular systems give vampires significant advantages over humans.





Muscles/Connective Tissue: about 90% of vampire muscles are of the fast-twitch variety (compared to 50% for the average human). Fast-twitch muscles enable short bursts of maximal force, ideal when hunting prey. Also, vampire ligaments and tendons thicken in response to the workload imposed upon them by the muscles.

Skeletal system: vampire bones thicken, an adaptation necessary to support their newly-powerful muscles.



Aging and Life Expectancy

While no vampire on record has ever died of natural causes, vampires do undergo an aging process, just not in the same way as humans. Vampires do not age on a molecular/genetic level, but their life of hunting and eluding capture creates tremendous wear and tear in the form of injuries to bones and tissue.





A 125-year old vampire

photographed in Spain, 1901

Note the curved spine and

lack of hair

Because they presented such a danger to society, most vampires were destroyed long before the outer limits of their life span were determined. Ancient history offers some clues, however. In Ancient China, there was said to be one vampire in the emperor's court through the entire (eastern) Zhou Dynasty, which would put his age at 550. More accurate modern records have certified vampires of over 200 years old.



Contrary to the opinions of many theologians, vampiric longevity is not the result of some pact with the devil, but rather an ability to ward off the DNA damage that occurs during cell division in normal humans. Specifically, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes known as telomers get chewed up over time in humans, but not in vampires.



Though their DNA may have the ability to resist aging, a vampire's appearance will change dramatically over time. Vampires lose all of their hair within 10 years of transformation. Over time, a vampire's fat stores shrink away and its skin becomes thinner and more transparent, giving it a withered, dried appearance. Aging also leaves vampires with a pronounced curvature of the spine.



Despite their rather feeble appearance, older vampires are still extremely powerful and agile. Many a vampire hunter has made the mistake of underestimating them.

Vampire Deaths
07:03 Sep 08 2005
Times Read: 1,007

Vampire Deaths



Date:

august 1999

Location:

Suffolk, England

Type:

Homo wampyrus draco

Sex:

Male

Cause of death:

Prolonged exposure to sunlight

Case notes: This unfortunate individual was found in the back garden of a terraced house in Suffolk. He had been wrapped in fencing wire to restrain him then his arms had been pinned to the soil with bamboo stakes inserted between the radius and ulna bones of the forearm. The attackers then impaled the hapless Vampire through the throat with a garden fork thus pinning his head to the ground and severing his vocal chords. The Vampire did not die from this treatment as a human might due to the Vampire's superior clotting and healing capabilities.

It seems that the restraining wire was then removed and the Victim was left to cook in the sun.

Wampyrus draco has a moderate intolerance to sunlight but prolonged exposure of this kind is fatal after around nine hours of bright sun.

The vampire would have been conscious for about the first few hours of this during which his skin would have first blistered then flaked and blackened, peeling away to expose the raw flesh and fat below which would in turn slowly burn.

Death most likely occurred as the sunlight entered the brain through the eye sockets as the eyes were boiled away causing at first fits, then unconsciousness and finally brain death. The body would have continued to smoulder for a further hour or so as the tissues died and ceased metabolic action.

The individuals who perpetrated this execution have to this day never been caught although as yet no other Vampires have been put to death in this way in the local area leading me to believe that was either a one off chance encounter or, on a more sinister note that it was a contract killing paid for by one of the many misinformed Anti-Vampire groups.



conclusion: MURDER











Date:

march 2000

Location:

Brittany, France

Type:

Homo wampyrus chiroptera

Sex:

Male

Cause of death:

Decapitation

Case notes: I don't often get the chance to see Wampyrus chiroptera and I was very surprised to find one in France. The 'bat' Vampires do travel outside their home regions but it is rare. This particular Vampire solved that mystery for me by having kept a comprehensive diary as a human up to the point he went on holiday to New Zealand where no doubt he contracted Vampirism from a native of that island. The progression of the change into Wampyrus chiroptera is well under way although not yet complete in this individual. (Click on The Change in the main menu for a full description of the journey from human to Vampire) For reasons unknown it seems he was attacked during the day in his flat and forced to stand by a window in full sunlight. The half of his face that was exposed is raw and bloody with the effect of the light. Chiroptera Vampires are more sensitive to light that any other type of Vampire and will blister badly after only a few seconds of exposure. I estimate that this unfortunate individual was forced to endure the full power of the sun for around ten minutes. This may have been to enable his attackers to confirm his status as a Vampire as the outward signs has barely begun to manifest this early on in the change. After being satisfied that he was indeed a Vampire, his attackers then cut off his head with what appears to have been a machette and left the head in his bath. The machette was also used to split open the back of the victim's skull exposing his brain and was most likely the cause of death. The attackers have disposed of the body elsewhere as there is no sign of it in the victim's flat other than a pool of blood at the scene of decaptitation.



conclusion: MURDER











Date:

december 1999

Location:

Bazillia, Brazil

Type:

Homo wampyrus sauria

Sex:

Female

Cause of death:

Asphyxiation caused by anaphylactic shock

Case notes: Firstly let me apologize for the lack of photographs for this case.

It was the family's express wish that I do not publish the photographs taken during investigation of this Vampire's death. (yes, even Vampires can have family.) Wampyrus sauria is the most social Vampire of all the species and types and often has a great many friends in both the human and Vampire sectors of society. Some go as far as marrying humans and having children (who are not always Vampires themselves, see the page entitled 'The Change') However, all this social amiability has a price. As explained on the page entitled 'Truth & lies, Vampires are very very long lived. This means that they will out-live any human friends they make. Their spouses, children and even grandchildren grow old and die seemingly before their eyes. After this has happened several times many Vampires, particularly Wampyrus sauria because of their social nature, become increasingly depressed and eventually seek oblivion. Most use mundane methods such as carbon monoxide poisoning, walking in front of a bus or a shotgun to choose this but occasionally one will choose to end it all in a traditionally 'Vampire' way.

This is such an individual. The unhappy woman's husband had recently died of old age at 89 and she had used the following three weeks to ensure that her daughter (now looking rather older than the Vampire herself) and other family were financially secure and an able to survive without her. she had sold all her assets and used the money to set up various trust funds for her grand children and great grandchildren. Then she had written a long letter of apology to all those she was leaving behind.

Using a hypodermic needle she injected into her neck a fatal dose of oil of garlic and died shortly after of asphyxiation as the allergic reaction made her bronchial passages inflamed and blocked her airways. Her tongue also swelled, filling her mouth and adding to the blockage.

Within four minutes of administering the injection, she died.



conclusion: SUICIDE

info
06:51 Sep 08 2005
Times Read: 1,009




According to the classical definition that reigned in the middle-age, a vampyre is an animated corpse that survives by drinking the blood of the living. It also has a demonic nature and is a servant of Satan, dedicated to spreading its evil throughout the world.



In the Chapter 18 of “Dracula” from Bram Stoker, we found an interesting description from Professor Van Helsing



The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is stronger; and being stronger, yet have more power to work evil. This vampyre which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination of the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat - the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown. .



But to fail here, is not mere life or death. It is that we became as him; “Take it, then, that the vampyre, and the belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base”. For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that men have been. In old Greece, in old Rome; he flourish in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chernosese; and in China, so far from us in all ways, there even he is, and the peoples fear him at this day. He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar. So far, then, we have all we may act upon; and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own unhappy experience. The vampire lives on, and cannot die by mere passing of time; he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. But he cannot flourish without his diet;



In the records are such words as 'stregoica' - witch, 'ordog,' and 'pokol' - Satan and hell; and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as 'wampyr,' which we all understand too well. There have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good; in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest.











Vampyres don't exist- LIE



Ask any given number of people whether they believe in vampyres and the overwhelming response will be in the negative. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is fear. Not the fear of the common man for Vampyres but quite the reverse. As we are all quite aware humans are prone to mass hysteria and violence against anything they cannot understand. Because of this, Vampyres over the millenia, have feared the human race and what it may do if the existence of Homo wampyrus were confirmed as scientific fact. Vampires therefore keep themselves well hidden and do all they can to propagate the Vampire as a myth and Hollywood invention. One classic example is the popular fantasy role-playing game by White Wolf, Vampire: The Masquerade. This game describes a rich history of Vampyre 'clans', each with it's own back story and complex interactive culture; all presented as a made-up gaming environment. In reality, the book is based on fact with only some embellishments to make it 'more exciting'.

The second reason is connected closely with the first. Remember, Vampyres are people too which means any survey will include a proportion of Vampyre participants who will naturally vote 'no' in order to discourage belief.







Vampyres are evil- LIE



Most Vampyres were human once and therefore have the same capacity for good and evil as any member of the human race.

There are evil vampires of course, just as there are evil humans but Vampires are also as capable of as much good as humans.

Vampyres are often portrayed as evil because of the nature of their food but Vampyre drinking blood is no more evil than a lioness tearing a zebra to pieces for to feed her cubs.

In today's society, most Vampyres discreetly advertise for willing 'donors' or purchase from blood banks in those countries that allow it, therefore avoiding the need for any stereotypical neck biting.







Vampyres only feed on blood- LIE



Haemavorous Vampyres, those that feed on blood, are by far the most fascinating and varied, however there is another kind that feeds on the life-force generated by every living thing and especially humans. Most of these Vampyres, known as Psychic Vampires are outwardly indistinguishable from humans and many do not share other Vampire weaknesses like aversion to sunlight of garlic. Many Psychic Vampires feed on the life-force or 'psychic energy' of those around them without ever knowing that they are doing so and remain blissfully unaware of their true nature.

This web site mainly deals with the haemavorous types but further reading on intentional and unintentional psychic Vampyres is available in a book entitled 'Vampires: The Occult Truth' by Konstantinos and published by Llewellyn







Vampyres can shape-shift- TRUTH



The shape-shifting capabilities attributed to Vampyres by popular fiction and the movies have some basis in fact. For most Vampyres shape-shifting skills are limited to the extension of fangs, claws or a lengthening of the ears. However there are some individuals, particularly amongst older members of the Wampyrus chiroptera group who have advanced abilities in shape-shifting. They are able to affect a transformation all the way into a huge bat-like creature which, while unable to perform actual powered flight, is capable of gliding over long distances in the manner of a hang-glider.

The transformation takes a huge toll on the Vampyre's energy levels and can take upwards of twelve extremely painful hours to perform. Because of these limitations the shape-shifting Vampyre rarely uses it's talent during it's usual feeding routine.







Vampyres are only active at night- LIE



It is true that the Vampyre condition makes them extremely and painfully sensitive to sunlight, or more precisely ultra-violet radiation. However this does not mean they cannot move about during the daylight hours. Humans have evolved as diurnal (daytime) animals but, despite poor night vision and a strong urge to sleep, we still spend a great deal of our night-times fully active. The same is true for Vampyres in reverse. As long as the Vampyre takes care not to expose his or her self to full on sunlight they are quite capable of acting out a life style approximating that of their human neighbours. Given a choice, most Vampyres would choose to sleep during the day and use the night-time hours to feed and socialise but this is in no way a rule. For most Vampyres it's a matter of choice and factor 40 sunblock!







Vampyres are repelled or hurt by garlic- TRUTH



In fact most haemavorous Vampyres are allergic or at least sensitive to the entire allium family which includes onions, chives, leeks, shallots and of course garlic. The degree of reaction varies from individual to individual but it is with garlic that the problem lies. Garlic contains a chemical which causes constriction of the throat and larynx leading to breathlessness and in extreme cases death through asphyxiation.







Vampyres are immortal- LIE



Although almost true in the sense that they live to a very old age. Vampyres can, of course be killed in all the same ways that a humman can with the exception of resistance to some poisons. The misconception that vampyres can not be killed by conventional means may stem from their greater pain threshold, their considerable strength and the fact that their blood clots much faster and wounds knit at an accelarated rate.

A bullet in the chest (missing the heart) will often kill a human just from the shock and blood loss, whereas a Vampyre would be able to keep going whilst the wound is sealed with a clot to prevent bleeding to death.

Vampyres are also much less susceptable to desease than humans with even HIV unable to get a hold on the Vampyre immune system.

The oldest Vampyre that I an aware of was 'turned' at the age of 26 in what is now Thailand in approximatley 345bc. She killed herself in 1973 having spent well over two thousand years alive.

Apart from accidents, the most common cause of Vampyre mortality is suicide. It takes a strong will to watch all those around you grow old and die, over and over again.

The mechinism that allows Vampyres to have virtual immortality







Vampyres are dead (or undead)- LIE



The misconception that Vampyres are the dead somehow brought back to life stems from two places. First, one of the early symptoms of the onset of Vampirism is a prolonged state of catatonia or hibernation. In the past, this state with it's cooling of the body and slowing of the heart to less than five beats per minute was often mistaken for death and the 'corpse' duly buried. Upon awakening, the Vampyre finds to his horror that he has been buried alive and proceeds to dig himself out. Naturally the Vampyre's friends and family think he has come back from the dead.

Secondly, and more relevant to modern times is the fact that when a human succumbs to Vampirism, he or she withdraws from his or her previous life and hides or moves away, often without a word to friends or reletives. After some years the family and friends of the missing person assume that they are dead.

Years later curiosity overcomes the Vampyre and he or she seeks out old aquaintances who are startled to find that not only is their dear departed still alive, but they appear to be no older than when they went missing all those years ago.







Vampyres sleep in coffins- LIE



Why would they? Coffins make very uncomfortable beds.

As explained above, Vampyres are not dead or Undead. The coffin fixation is purely an invention of folk law and novelists. These days some Vampyres make a point of having a coffin shaped coffee table or something of that sort as a kind of 'in joke' with their friends. The coffin is very much the 'flying ducks' of the Vampyre community. Kitch, tastless but fun







Vampyres have super strength- TRUTH



Vampyres enjoy a more efficient metabolism than most humans. Because of this, their bodies are able to perform more efficiently too.

Most Vampyre's strength is no more than any human could achieve, the difference is that a Vampyre has this strength without effort of training whereas a human would have to spend long, hard and regular hours in the gym to achieve the same results.

Some Vampyres are able to use a degree of shape-shifing skill to adjust bone pivot points, muscle attachment ratios and tendon strengths to obtain powers beyound that which is achievable by their original bodies, however,this is rarely worth the effort and pain to perform.



Vampyres cast no reflection- LIE



Even Vampyres cannot change the laws of physics! However, some Vampyres, particularly the Nosferatu group, are able to affect the human mind to some degree.

This enables them to alter a human's perception and effectivly 'become invisible' to them at will.







Vampyres fear religious symbols- LIE



Vampirism has been around since the dawn of man, long before the birth of even the oldest surviving organised religion. Christian crosses and other religious icons hold no fear for Vampyres, after all a cross is only a symbol of faith and not the faith in it's self. However, if the human who is brandishing the cross is sufficiently strong in their faith, if the belief in the icon's abilty to repel the Vampyre is absolute, then the Vampyre can feel this in the human's psyche. Most vampyres find this strong mental conviction unpleasant and will leave in search of less fervant prey. The human, of course, believes it is the cross that has repelled the Vampyre and as a result their faith is strengthened further.

Although most Vampyres have little time or interest for religion, some use religion as a smokescreen in order to appear more human and so fit more succesfully into human society.

Lycan Info
06:45 Sep 08 2005
Times Read: 1,012

Lycan Info



Order I: What is the word lycan mean?

Order II: What is otherkin?

Order III: What does a lycan entail?

Order IV: What are Totem Spirits

Order V: What are the four types of shifting

Order VI: The Awakening of Lycans

Order VII: Manifestation of Lycans

Order VIII: How do Zoans communicate with the host

Order IX: Furries Vs Weres

Order X: A little bit of Demonology



Foreword:

I shall refer to the subjects with in this text as "Lycanthropes, Lycans, Werewolves" But I also mean to say Otherkin at the same time, this saves on length of this text. Thank you for understanding this.



Order I:

The word, Lycan, Derived from Lycos, meaning wolf. Anthrope, Meaning of man,man, human. Together these words are said to be Wolfman or werewolf. Zoanthropes Zoan meaning of all animals and anthrope, Were Animals. Another word you should know of is Therianthropy. Therianthropy is basically another way of saying Zoanthropy



Order II:

Otherkin. This word describes the rest of the Zoanthropic community. In this sense, If you are a werewolf, a Were cat, for example would be otherkin. Otherkin in the big picture means "Other family" since animals are all one big happy order.



Order III:

A Lycan or Zoan is a human body that is a symbiotic host to other animal spirits/demons that inhabit the body for an unique purpose. Most spirits are guides to the host and help the spirit barrier make the proper decisions in his/her life on the journey that they so choose to take. A lycan can possess spiritual energy enhancement with in the aura and biorhythm of the human soul. Bonding is much more powerful, enhanced, and more swift than a normal human.



The senses of a zoan also may be adequately augmented a bit. And sensory perception will be quite powerful at times. Moon phases may cause the spirit(s) to manifest themselves in different augmented behaviors.



Order IV:

Totem spirits are mostly of the belief of the Indians of north America. There are other origins of this type of manifestation dealing with spiritual entities living with in a human host. The totem spirit is assigned to a person at birth and will teach and guide that subject until their corruption or death.



These spirits are very gentle and wise, they do not cause burdens or curses as some people would say. They are there to watch over you and protect you. Aggressive dominant spirits may be harder to control in the urges and must be worked with immediately after awakening (See below).



Order V:

The four types of shifting. Shifting is a complicated matter. Some are real some are false in my opinion. They are: Mental Shift, Physical Shift, Spirit Shift, Planal Shift.



Mental: One who mentally shifts experiences a transformation of the body into animal body parts growing out the regular human body parts. This can only be seen and felt by the Zoan that is experiencing this. Mental shifts can be mild to extremely intense, possibly covering the whole body.



Physical: This is where I draw the line between reality and falsity. You may believe what you wish but I do not believe in this power. A physical shifter is one who can change their bodies into another species of animal.



Spiritual: This is where an animal spirit changes a human host into an Therianthrope (see Order I). Spirit shifters are the most common of the 4 and the most realistic and closest form of being a Zoanthrope.



Planal: This refers to one who has been able to shift into an animal or other being with in the Astral Plane or other planes for that matter. In dream states of meditative out of body states the subject can travel into a plane and shift and be free of their human bodies.



Order VI:

Awakenings are very special times, almost like birth days of the spirit itself. Animal Spirits awaken at a young age about the same time puberty happens. The spirit finds that you are mature to begin guidance and comes into play. If for some reason you aren't ready the spirit will wait until you are. This is rare but happens. Some don't awaken until they are 30 years of age.



When you awaken you are most likely to understand this in four concepts. Meditative Vision, Dream, Occurrences, and occurrences. You can have a vision of a wolf or such trying to lead you to a destination. Or a dream about wolves and a wolf pack and some other instance of freedom. or or you can have an occurrence of a wolf in nature in real life come and show you its friendship or even see the spirit itself with out dream or vision. and you may have deeply thought revelations of who you really are. Sometimes there is a mixture of the four.



Order VII:

Lycanthropes, among otherkin in general manifest themselves. There are many different ways that I have known Lycans to be.



a. Visionaries

b. Alphas

c. Subordinates

d. Furries (a mixture of were and the furry fandom)

e. Loners

f. Witness's

g. Abominations

h. Polyshift

i. Guardians

j. Corrupted



To explain in detail:



A. Visionaries:

A visionary is one who sets out on a quest to better the lycan kind. They have a mission of a specific task or tasks. They are most likely leaders maybe even Alphas or Lonewolves, and/or Elders.



B. Alphas:

An Alpha is the highest ranking wolf in an organized pack. These are true leaders and should be held with great respect. An Alpha has an important role in the community, gathering pack members into organizations to perform tasks with in the community by leading them properly and teaching his/her pack disciples the correct ways of the wolf and the pack. This structure keeps the community on its toes moving to the rhythm of the Lycan day and night.



C. Subordinates:

These are those who follow the alpha or betas with in the pack. They are the citizens of the city and help get things done in the pack and give the pack the reason for its existence. subordinates shall not be treated wrongly they are loyal and well loved as well as any other rank in the pack. These include Subordinates in general, and Omegas. Omegas are those in the pack that keep it stable, with love and playfulness, most are pups that seek maturity and are there with a purpose of giving the pack new spirit and new blood.



D. Furries:

Furries are usually (not always) people who enjoy Animal shift so much that they play it on the internet, stories artwork, and in real life with fur costumes. These people have a life style of the sort and are happy go lucky people. some furries are were's some aren't, In my expeditions I have found most of them aren't they just like to hang out that way.



E. Loners:

Loners (like lonewolves) are those who take no heading to the community and/or packs. They are on there own to find themselves and their ways. Loners can one day join the pack and become an alpha, or they can continue to be submissive. A loner is a special breed all to their own. The psychological makeup is different normally, than most lycans.



F. Witnesses:

These are those who are hidden behind the scenes posing or being another role with in these roles. (Mind you, that anyone in these roles can be more than one manifestation). A witness will see what happens with in the community and will learn the secrets of the good, the bad, and the ugly.



They will witness the coming events of good fortune for our kind or the horrible corrupted slaughter of our kindred. They see every moving moment weather it be bad or good. They see and feel things most don't understand. If you happen to meet one of these, be kind or face their Wrath for these are filled with emotions beyond any others.



G: Abominations:

These are very controversial were's. They have the ability to be both Werewolf and Vampire at the same time. They are polyshift in a way only the other is a demon/spirit of a vampiric nature. These aren't necessarily more powerful but they have the ability to take energy from other sources and feed on it better than lycans can. But that is also a weakness. All creatures are balanced, so are abominations.



H. Polyshift:

A polyshift is a multiple spirit inhabited human host. This person may have a wolf, a hyena, a whale, whatever it may may be. It isn't uncommon to have multiple spirits. But some say there are deities that watch over them that can be confused as spirits with in the body. So be careful.



I: Guardians:

Guardians are those who feel they are defending the earth against evil corrupted individuals both otherkin or human. Guardians must be especially careful how they act against or for any other creature on this planet. They are here to protect their kin from any uprisings that may be obstacles to the movement of the Were communities. Good judgment and guidance of the heart, will bring good quests to save us from those who wish to hurt us to an end.



J: Corrupted:

Those are disdained for being in this category beware. These are the unjust wrongful people of the lycan community they seek with malice to hurt the community or hurt other individuals that are only trying to understand themselves. They have gave up their spirits to being tainted. trapping the spirit inside the fowl body until it finally dies. These should be kept away from the community at all costs banned from the society of otherkin. They act with hate and malice instead of acceptance and love. After all these years of pain and torture to our wolven brothers in the wilderness the wolf has never hated man kind, only have been protective against those who hunt them. Hate is NOT an emotion of animals. Out of all the time I ever felt an aura of an animal I have never felt hate even when they are abused by owners.



Order VIII:

There is a metaphysical / paraphysical process that this works with. There are 3 components, the Flesh (mind included) The Soul and Spirit, and the Biorhythm and Aura of the human body. The spirit sends its signals into the aura, which then is converted by the Biorhythm with in the body into a form of energy that can be interpreted by the brain by E.S.P. (Extra Sensory Perception) Signaling. This is known as a M.S.C.P. (Metaphysical Signaling Conversion Process). Once this signal is handed down from the spirit to the brain. It is interpreted as thoughts with in the mind, or dreams, or visions. The thoughts are not like schizophrenia type voices. They are simple revelational thoughts that inspire you into the right path of life. They will also teach you as well. Most elder Lycans will learn a great deal from this method and become wise faster than the human host could ever get.



Order IX:

On the topic again about Furries and Weres. Most furries are not all Otherkin, a lot have the spirit but Furry fandom is not a spiritual belief it is a lifestyle. Furries can be anything in belief maybe no belief at all.



Order X:

Demonology is a touchy subject. Those who have demons inside them are very defined. For example, one who is an abomination could have both spirits entwined into one. Forming a demon entity. Demons are higher level muninal spirits that are made up of smaller ancient spirits rolled up into one higher level spirit. Munin is a term for ancient spirits acting as a collective to form a similar task. Demons manifest them selves as many things, very little is known about them. A lot of religious beliefs claim they know demons in specifics I'm not sure about any of these claims, that is out of the scope of our lexicon. Just remember what a demon is composed of and how it works with multiple spirits with in a body.

The Science of Vampires
22:52 Sep 04 2005
Times Read: 1,025




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The Science of Vampires

Part I

In 1616, Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli published his Treatise on Vampires, in which he speculated that vampirism was caused by a microscopic pathogen. He was burned at the stake for heresy. Fortunately, science plowed ahead, undeterred. The information included in this section is the result of the work of countless dedicated men and women.



The Virus



HVV source:

the bat flea

Xenopsylla cheopsis



HVV carrier:

Vampire bat

The source of vampirism is the Human Vampiric Virus (HVV). Like Rabies, HVV belongs to the order Mononegavirales, viruses with a nonsegmented, negative-stranded RNA genome. Viruses in this group have a distinct bullet shape. The virus' natural host is a flea commonly found on cave-dwelling bats, especially the vampire bat. In the most common scenario, a bat which has been bitten by the flea passes the virus on to livestock and humans through a bite.

While in theory HVV infection is possible through any exchange of bodily fluids, transmission occurs through the bite of an infected person in virtually every case.









Stages of the Disease





Electron micrograph of HVV (left);

The virus budding off an infected cell (right)

Stage One: Infection. Within hours of being bitten, the victim develops a headache, fever, chills and other flu-like symptoms as the body tries to fight off the infection. These symptoms can be easily confused with more common viral infections, although the presence of bite marks on the body are usually enough to confirm the diagnosis. This stage generally lasts between six and twelve hours, during which the vaccine is 100 percent effective.









In 1800 France, an infected

woman is given a transfusion of

goat's blood, a desperate, futile

measure to ward off the disease

Stage Two: Vampiric Coma. Within 24 hours of being bitten, the victim will slip into a vampiric coma. During this phase, the pulse slows, breathing is shallow and the pupils are dilated. The large numbers of people mistakenly buried alive while in vampiric comas gave rise to the myth that vampires sleep in coffins. While it is commonly thought that anyone infected with HVV turns into a vampire, in fact only a small percentage of people survive vampiric comas. Generally, the young, the old and the feeble never come out of their vampiric comas and eventually die. The vast majority of people who survive vampiric comas are males between the ages of 18 to 35. Vampiric comas last about a day; the victim usually comes out of the coma the night after its onset. The vaccine is 50 percent effective when administered during Stage Two of the infection: the longer the victim has been in the coma, the less effective the vaccine.





During vampire epidemics,

many victims were buried while

still in a vampiric coma

Stage Three: Transformation. A bite victim who survives the coma will awaken fully transformed into a vampire. An acclimation period follows, characterized by confusion, despondency and paranoia. Most vampires begin to hunt within 24 hours of transformation. The vaccine is of no use at this point.

























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Family Trees
22:15 Sep 04 2005
Times Read: 1,028

Family Trees

basic Vampire geneticsVampires, on the whole, despite their erotic or romantic image, do not have much of a sexual urge.

There are of course exceptions just as there are variations in the sex drives of humans. But on the whole most Vampires aren't much interested in sex. However, this does not mean that they cannot produce children if they so wish.

Some Vampires, particularly those of the wampyrus sauria type, choose to marry and have children. Vampires can breed with other Vampires and with humans. Cross breeding with other types of Vampires almost invariably produces the 'default' type, wampyrus draco, even if neither parent is themselves a Draco Vampire.

Cross breeding a Vampire with a human produces an individual who is fully human, will never develop any vampiric traits or tendencies but carries the genes for vampirism.



Please note that this information has been highly simplified to Mendalian basics to illustrate the point.





Click a pairing





Vampire & Human



Carrier & Human



Carrier & Carrier



Carrier & Vampire



Vampire & Vampire +

+



+



+



+









Vampire + Human





All of the offspring are Human but carry the dormant recessive Vampire genes. The individuals will never become Vampires and most will not even have any signs of Vampire traits such as sensitivity to light or unusually high disease resistance. Back to the top





Carrier + Human





The offspring have a 50/50 chance of being either Human carriers of the dormant recessive Vampire gene or of being pure Human. Back to the top





Carrier + Carrier





The offspring have a 25% chance of being a Human, a 50% chance of being a carrier of the dormant recessive Vampire gene and a 25% chance of manifesting Vampirism at puberty. Back to the top





Vampire + Vampire





The offspring will all develop into Vampires, which kind of Vampire depends on ancestry & environment. Back to the top





Carrier + Vampire





The offspring have a 50/50 chance of being either Human carriers of the dormant recessive Vampire gene or of being Vampires