Dark Friday: The First Vampire

Only a vampire can create another vampire, so logic tells us that the history of vampires begins with a single vampire who created the others. Much like the chicken-and-the-egg argument, we had little insight into how the first vampire came about until recently. Logically, if there was no vampire to make the first vampire, how was the first vampire made?

The answer lies in the Scriptures of Delphi, specifically in the collection of writings known as "The Vampire Bible".

The first vampire started out as not a vampire at all, but as a human man named Ambrogio. He was an Italian-born adventurer who fate brought to Delphi, in Greece. You can read the full story here, but in a nutshell a series of blessings and curses transformed this young man into history's first vampire.

Specifically, it began with the sun god Apollo (Greek mythology), who in a fit of rage cursed Ambrogio so that his skin would burn should it ever touch sunlight again. Ambrogio's bad luck followed when he ended up gambling away his soul to Hades (Greek mythology), the god of the underworld. The next curse came via Apollo's sister Artemis (Greek mythology), the goddess of the moon and hunting, who made it so that Ambrogio's skin would burn if he touched silver.

The blessings came soon after when Artemis, taking pity on the poor young man, gave him the gift of immortality. He would carry his curses - his skin burning by sunlight or silver, but he would live forever in his current form. Not only that, but Artemis also gave him the speed and strength to become a hunter whose skills were second only to her own.

Blood-sucking (which, by the way, is called "hematophagy" in case you were curious) is also included in this "blessing". In the vampire origin story, Ambrogio hunts swans and uses their blood as ink to write love poems to his lady Selene. While this may be considered a little creepy by our standards, it wasn't all that unusual in ancient Greece to make do with what you hunted.

Dark Friday: Asasbonsam

Origin: Western Africa (Ashanti) 
Description: human looking vampires except that they have hooks instead of feet   and iron teeth. The Asasabonsam are tree dwelling vampires that live deep in the forest. They sit in the tops of trees with their legs dangling down which enables them to catch their victims with their hooked feet. They tend to bite their victims on the thumb.

Dark Friday: Vampire Hunters

The most widely known example of a vampire hunter is Abraham Van Helsing of the novel Dracula and in other works of fiction adapting or modifying that work. As far as movies are concerned, Cushing's Van Helsing is the prototype for all successful vampire slayers that followed him. He was quick to adapt, excellent at thinking on his feet in difficult situations, and relatively athletic.

• Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula and its various spin-off's and reproductions.
• Father Sandor (Andrew Kier) and Seth Gecko (George Clooney) in the From Dusk till Dawn movie
• Quincy Morris, Jonathan Harker, Dr. John Seward, and Arthur Holmwood assist Van Helsing in Dracula.
• Dr. Hesselius from J. Sheridan Le Fanus vampire story Carmilla.  
• Buffy Summers, Slayers and other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film and TV series.
• Father Callahan from Stephen Kings novel 'Salem's Lot and the Dark Tower series.
• Solomon Kane, a character appearing in many works by Robert E. Howard.
• The Belmont Clan and Adrian Farenheits Tepes a.k.a Alucard from the Castlevania series of video games. Almost all the main characters of Castlevania could be called vampire hunters.
• Blade, a vampire hunter featured by Marvel Comics and a trilogy of films of the same name. Blade is a Dhampir, a half-vampire.
• D, of the Japanese animation Vampire Hunter D, also a Dhampir.
• Donovan Baine, of the Darkstalkers series of video games, also a Dhampir
• Rayne from the video game series BloodRayne is a vampire hunter and also a dhampir
• Jack Crow, and his Team Crow from the book Vampires by John Steakly, later adapted by John Carpenter for his movie Vampires.
• Alucard (Dracula backwards) is a vampire from the Hellsing Organization, who, along with his servant, Seras Victoria, and (retired) old friend, Walter C. Dornes, hunt other vampires.
• Derek Bliss, from the movie Vampires: Los Muertos, also presented by John Carpenter as a pseudo sequel to the first movie.
• Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell)  from the Dracula: Prince of Darkness movie
• Anita Blake from the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, the Laurell K. Hamilton novel series.
• Gabriel Van Helsing from the movie Van Helsing. Van Helsing is a member of a large organization called the Knights of the Holy Order who protect mankind from an evil they 'have no idea even exists'.
• Alexander Anderson works for the Vatican's secret Iscariot Organization (AKA Section XIII), who act like the Hellsing Organization, but are more fundamental, and serve to fight for Chrisitanity, as opposed to Hellsing protecting the Commonwealth. Iscariot is more radical and fundamental exterminating any humans who ally themselves with the undead. Other members include their leader, Bishop (later Archibishop) Enrico Maxwell and other assassins, Heinkel Wolfe and Yumie Takagi.
• Edgar Frog, Alan Frog, and Sam Emerson from The Lost Boys movie.
• Geralt from Polish Hexer series. He hunts vampires and all other kinds of supernatural creatures.
• Robert Neville (Charleton Heston) from The Omega Man movie.
• Harry Keogh and others with E-Branch in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series
• Sam and Dean Winchester from the television series Supernatural
• Victoria Gardella from the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series of historical novels beginning with The Rest Falls Away.
• Sound-Man, the Green Knight, and numerous other superheroes in the SUPERFLUOUS comic book series by Bon Comics
• Abraham Whistler, Abigale Whistler and Hannibal King from the third film of the Blade Series, Blade: Trinity. Hannibal takes the form of an ex-vampire who was subsequently cured of his affliction and took up hunting out of a desire for revenge.
• Steve "Leopard" Leonard, from the Cirque Du Freak books. (By Darren Shan) 

Dark Friday: Trueblood Promo

Dark Friday: Psychic Vampires

Psychic vampires are living people who have the ability, consciously or unconsciously of draining life-energy (prana, chi, life-force …) rather than blood from others.


Whether this ability was developed through meditation, mentally altering drug usage, or inherited, it can be used by the Psychic Vampire to drain energy for its own use. 

In the words of Anton LaVey, the famous Satanist, "psychic vampires are individuals who drain others of vital energy". As consumers of energy rather than blood, psychic vampires, like their folklore counterparts, can be men or women, young or old.

Members of The Theosophical Society theorized two types of psychic vampires. 

• One was the 'astral vampire', described by  Henry Steele Olcott as undead but able to separate his astral body from his material body and leave the grave in search of blood or energy from the living, which he would gobble up and  send directly to the buried body in order to sustain its hold on life. 
• The other was the 'magnetic vampire', described by Franz Hartmann as a living 'psychic sponge' who absorbed the energy of those around her.

Dark Friday: 8 Reasons Not to Become a Vampire

1. No more garlic bread.
2. Blood diet causes the WORST morning breath.

3. Mortals all have read the morning paper before you.
4. Inability to see self in mirror makes grooming difficult.
5. Complete lack of tan causes people to mistake you for Bill Gates.
6. Pallid, pasty, emaciated appearance reminds many of 7-11 clerks.
7. Always have to pay full price at movie theatres (no matinees for you!)
8. Vampire job market limited to 24-hour drugstores and late-night pizza delivery people.

Dark Friday: Vampires and Sex

Of all the monsters of fiction, the only one primaly associated with sex is the vampire Nonetheless, the vampire of folklore was not a sexually attractive figure; he was a dead man who fed on blood, a monster about as attractive as a zombie. Bram Stoker changed all that with his novel, Dracula. Stoker used the vampire as a metaphor for the Victorian view of sex as innately dangerous. In Dracula, sex with the Count transformed women into seductive sirens and horrific baby killers – the opposite of the Victorian ideal of chaste and nurturing womanhood. Originally, only female vampires were especially beautiful. Lamias and other such spirit-like vampires were always ugly in their true form, but had the ability to shift their appearance to that of a beautiful maiden, in order to lure men to them.

Dark Friday: Stephanie Meyer

The Twilight book series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) by Stephanie Meyers has also become popular with movie-goers. Meyers admits that she did not research vampire mythology. Indeed, her vampires break tradition in several ways. For example, garlic, holy items, and sunlight do not harm them. Some critics praise the book for capturing teenage feelings of sexual tension and alienation.

Dark Friday: Literary Vampires vs. Hollywood Vampires

Hollywood and literary vampires typically deviate from folklore vampires. For example, Hollywood vampires are typically pale, aristocratic, very old, need their native soil, are supernaturally beautiful, and usually need to be bitten to become a vampire. In contrast, folklore vampires (before Bram Stoker) are usually peasants, recently dead, initially appear as shapeless “bags of blood,” do not need their native soil, and are often cremated with or without being staked.

Dark Friday: New Year's Vampire Poem

In the new year, complaints are born anew.

Dreams unearthed and brushed aside.

Just complaints, it's what I do,

Getting older,and growing up...

They're my wanton and petty lies.

Gabbing loud forgetfulness,

My dark and sunken eyes.

Damn my past and all the rest.

The future in disguise.

Always one more blood fueled quest

From my grave beneath the skies.

Richard Reich

Dark Friday: The Vampire's Christmas

Have a bloody great Christmas everyone!!

Dark Friday: Blood Drinkers of Egypt and India

According to the Egyptian text the Pert em Hru (Egyptian Book of the Dead), if the ka (one of the five parts of the soul) does not receive particular offerings, it ventures out of its tomb as a kha to find nourishment, which may include drinking the blood of the living. In addition, the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was known to drink blood. The ancient fanged goddess Kaliof India also had a powerful desire for blood.

Dark Friday: Top Ten Complaints of Modern Vampires

TOP 10 COMPLAINTS OF MODERN-DAY VAMPIRES
10. Grunge look makes it tough to tell living from undead.
9. Three words: Daylight Savings Time
8. Can’t enjoy a meal at BURGER KING without some redneck yelling, “Look…it’s Elvis!!”
7. After 45 years of Communist rule, it’s impossible to find clean, uncontaminated Transylvanian soil for bottom of coffin.
6. No bat is safe with Ozzy Ozbourne around.
5. All the crucifix-wearing Madonna clones make finding easy victims difficult.
4. No warm blood for miles around DC.
3. Buxom wenches of old have been replaced by aerobicized “hardbodies.”
2. Fat-free blood tastes like crap!
AND THE #1 COMPLAINT OF MODERN-DAY VAMPIRES:
1. Sick and tired of being mistaken for Keith Richards!

Dark Friday: Earliest Vampires

One of the earliest accounts of vampires is found in an ancient Sumerian and Babylonian myth dating to 4,000 B.C. which describes ekimmu or edimmu (one who is snatched away). The ekimmu is a type of uruku or utukku (a spirit or demon) who was not buried properly and has returned as a vengeful spirit to suck the life out of the living.

Dark Friday: Judas, a Vampire?

A somewhat obscure myth, folklore holds that vampires originated with Judas Iscariot, betrayer of Christ for 30 pieces of silver. When Judas tried to return the silver and could not, he cast it away as something hateful to himself. Because Judas had betrayed Christ to the Romans, he and his family were cursed. The Bible holds that Judas committed suicide because of his guilt; suicides in vampire folklore were very likely to come back as vampires, so this may have helped contribute to the belief that vampires originated with Judas.

Dark Friday: Camilla

Joseph Sheridan Le Fany’s gothic 1872 novella about a female vampire, “Carmilla,” is considered the prototype for female and lesbian vampires and greatly influenced Bram Stoker’s own Dracula. In the story, Carmilla is eventually discovered as a vampire and, true to folklore remedies, she is staked in her blood-filled coffin, beheaded, and cremated.

Dark Friday: Breaking Dawn Trailer

Release Date: 11/18/11

Dark Friday: Funny Vampire Quotes

"One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake."

— Jack Handy, 'Deep Thoughts'

"Lisa, vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos."

— Homer Simpson

"Oh, Lisa, you and your stories! 'Bart is a Vampire' ... 'Beer kills off brain cells' ... Now lets go back... to... that building... where bed and TV... is."

— Homer Simpson

"There will be hoards of vampire bats descending on Beverly Hills.... We'll see if they can find any real flesh to puncture. I don't know."

— Lucy Lawless, referencing the Hollywood premiere of 'Vampire Bats'

"I have never met a vampire personally, but I don't know what might happen tomorrow."

— Bela Lugosi

"I was particularly stunned by the casting of [Tom] Cruise, who is no more my Vampire LeStat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler."

— Anne Rice

"Following the Rumanian tradition, garlic is used in excess to keep the vampires away... Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defense."

— Calvin Trillin

Dark Friday: Gloglave

According to some legends, a vampire may engage in sex with his former wife, which often led to pregnancy. In fact, this belief may have provided a convenient explanation as to why a widow, who was supposed to be celibate, became pregnant. The resulting child was called a gloglave (pl. glog) in Bulgarian or vampirdzii in Turkish. Rather than being ostracized, the child was considered a hero who had powers to slay a vampire.

Dark Friday: How to Make a Vampire...say what?

Folklore vampires can become vampires not only through a bite, but also if they were once a werewolf, practiced sorcery, were excommunicated, committed suicide, were an illegitimate child of parents who were illegitimate, or were still born or died before baptism. In addition, anyone who has eaten the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf, was a seventh son, was the child of a pregnant woman who was looked upon by a vampire, was a nun who stepped over an unburied body, had teeth when they were born, or had a cat jump on their corpse before being buried could also turn into vampires.