Vampiri

Mystery at its most promising

Mmmh, a warning to the faint of heart. I’d like to share a fascination of mine and what comes next is either going to be mind-blowing or a fruitless read. I guess that’s the fun of it, the mystery behind the outcome and what feelings it will invoke. I think it’s time we took a trip back to the days of old, yonder long before the inception of electricity. When it was considered ludicrous to sit indoors day and night. When man, lad or lady lived by the sweat of his brow tilling the land under the scorching sun or braving the biting winter cold hunting for game. I know I know no one still speaks like that. But surely it beats “Once upon a time…” 😀 How? You ask. I don’t seem to have a time machine lying around so I guess we could fall back to something we all do possess. Human imagination. Albert Einstein once said “Logic will take you from point A to point B; but imagination will take you everywhere.” And the man was brilliant so you’re in safe hands.

A story is told of Vlad Tepes, third of his name. Whose title was Dracula. He was a prince to a small but formidable kingdom based in Transylvania. A ferocious warrior in his youth having slain more foes on the battle field than any other. He earned the title Vlad the Impaler, lets not get into the gory details of what that entails. The grim reaper of his domain. But like all men, we are destined to fall prey to love with all her wiles. He found his beloved who tamed the beast inside. Don’t get your hopes up, there was no happy ever after. A tyrant king laid claim to our hero’s home. He demanded our hero’s son alongside the rest of the kingdom. Looks familiar yea, a movie you should have watched by now. The long and short of it is, Vlad was forced to make a deal with the embodiment of evil. He would become quite literally a superhero; swift as the wind, mighty as the ocean, immortal. Everything he needed to be in exchange of his humanity. Just three days he was told and his curse, a craving for human blood would be lifted. Life is never that easy, he failed. His woman was slain and it is with her dying life blood in his throat he rose undead as the first of a new species of predator. The first vampire. Romantic don’t you think.

Enough of that hogwash, let us approach this from an entirely scientific point of view. Some tend to think that just as man evolved from the Neanderthal man, the process of evolution is far from over. Homo sapiens was smarter and better suited to survive his predecessor. Theory of evolution 101. Well we might just be about to receive the boot too. There is a creature, easily mistaken for human save for the fact that it does not breath and has no pulse. Fast enough to dodge bullets, impervious to harm, much smarter than we ever could be, greater strength, enhanced sight and smell. The Homo nosferatu vampiri or homonus nocturni is that which dwells in the dark places. Other adaptations are terms such as the strogoi. It is a master predator and like turkey on Thanksgiving we are its prey. I would root for the average human but I’ve been to the gym and it’s usually empty. We don’t stand a fighting chance. Like Adam this scurge had to start somewhere. The primordial vampire has been known by many names. Dagon, Son of the dragon, Son of the devil, but most recently Dracula. “Drake” for short hehe. For a lack of haemoglobin in their blood, they feed on blood to survive and can’t seem to stand direct sunlight. These seem to be the only weaknesses. Although research material is scanty because we are its food. How many times does a well prepared meal survive a chance encounter with you for instance.

Just so that no one feels left out, their is also a rumoured origin story adapted from the Bible. Judas Ischariot was paid 30 silver coins to betray the son of God. In the end Christ hang on the cross as a direct consequence of his actions. It is well recorded somewhere in the good book that out of remorse for his actions and contempt for his miserable existence, he hung himself. Well the story continues. As the sun set and its last rays were lost to us, darkness consumed the land with the falling of night. The life was drained from his body but the rope snapped. With the darkness a new creature rose. His soul was cursed and his punishment was to roam the earth and live with his guilt. The devil gave him the ability to spread his affliction; by draining the blood of his victims, their souls too were forfeit. Vampires are deathly afraid of silver, a reminder of how cheaply Judas was bought. Crucifixes and the sign on the cross do them harm, because the traitor is reminded of his master’s fate. Death will be his absolution.

We all have that one thing that is so interesting to us it makes us weird. Well Dracula and his elk, so said Vampires are mine. There’s much more and my collection of origin stories is still growing. Rather than hide that which makes us different, I move to embrace it. A time will come to put away childish things and we are often up to the task. Imagination and great works of fiction are indeed a child’s delight but they serve primarily as an escape for all ages from morbid reality. As a parting note I have to say vampires shouldn’t be depicted as friendly, that’s just science.