Libro Creaturae

[Nazheek]

Vampire
Many people appropriate the origin of the Vampire to Bram Stoker's Dracula, but what tends closer to truth is Dracula as a Strigoi.

Originating in European folklore, the story tends to be the same. A well preserved corpse rising from its grave to cause mischief upon their family. It is likely that these myths have mixed factual occurrences with word-of-mouth mutations in story. Most scholars agree early vampire sightings are cases of porphyria, a condition which can cause the urination of heme, receding gums, excess dental growth, and pain when exposed to sunlight. These symptoms can, in fact, be prevented by the consumption of heme... blood.

Perhaps then, pre-industrial peoples with such a disorder came to realize that feasting on blood reduces symptoms, and so they, in their quest to cure their ailment, become the very myth.

In rural Hessen, the home of my blood, the tales refer to a curse laid upon people who die without being given their last rites. They are doomed to awaken from the grace and can only be satiated by blood and by flesh.

In Scandinavia, the Old Norse referred to a similar caste of undeath as draugr. Whos willpower allows them a second life as a large, decayed corpse-man.

[hope]

Interesting post Nazheek, it's also in Romaanian mythology, strigoi are the troubled spirits of the dead rising from the
grave. Some strigoi can be living people with certain magical properties.