Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Real Count Dracula

Contrary to popular belief, Count Dracula is not the guy to make blood sucking look sexy on a public media platform and nope he is not a cape donning prima donna with a brethern of sexy female vampires as his henchmen.

Count Dracul was born Vlad Tepes in 1431 in Translyvania. His forefathers were rulers of Walachia and Dracula came about as they belonged to a secret fraternity of Knights known as The Order of the Dragon or Dracul.

Dracula itself meant son of the Dragon or as some call him: the son of the Devil.

Vlad Tepes was held hostage for long periods during his youth by the Ottoman Empire. Upon his return, he was soon made the ruler of his lands. Vlad the Impaler was an exteremely violent man who liked war and enjoyed torturing his victims who are all prisoners of war.

The atrocities made by Vlad in the German stories include impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people human flesh (their friends or relatives), cutting off limbs, drowning and nailing of hats to the heads of people.

Impalement was Ţepeş's preferred method of torture and execution. His method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim's legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled, and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the anus and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mother's chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

Such was his attrocities that he was named Vlad the Impaler and later became the inspiration behind the Character of Count Dracula.

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