Myths of the Undead

H

Hope

Guest
Original poster
Recently I've been doing a lot of research on the origins of the myths of Vampires. With all these Vampire shows and movies they are quite hard to ignore now a days. So it got me thinking why/how people came up with the Vampire. This is what I've found.

In medevil times people would come up with monsters and demons as a way to explain certain diseases and illnesses. I've found that Porphyria was a large cause to the creation of Vampires. Someone who had Porphyria could not be in the sunlight because they would start to blister. Thier body temperature would also drop to where thier skin was ice cold. It was even said that they craved blood. Doctors told them that drinking fresh blood would cure help with thier symptoms. TB was also a cause to the idea of Vampires for when someone had TB thier eyes would turn red and swell and they would bleed from the nose and mouth making it appear that they had been drinking blood.

It still amazes me how the people back then would justify what was happening to them. In my opinion, they only scared themselves worse and mutilated thier loved ones who had passed because of it. However, there are some who believe in Vampires still. There are underground covens all over the world. Maybe it's just me that finds this so interesting, but what do you guys think? Any theories you'd like to share?
 
Fun fact Ocha, she's an ancestor of mine. No. Bullshit.
 
I actually just saw the documentary with her in it.. soooo crazy!!
 
She makes Vlad seem perfectly sensible.
 
What gets me is the people who think they really ARE vampires.


Speaking of other undead, all that voodoo zombie stuff. Like dayum man. That stuff creeps me the hell out.

And then for Werewolves you have those people that have that genetic mutation where they are covered in that thick fur-like hair and they really do look like something that someone would call a Werewolf.
 
Vlad was perfectly sensible aside from buying small birds in his winter years and impaling them in his cell.

Aside from that, he was a honorable countryman. *salutes*
 
My favorite Vlad the Impaler story is when a noble came to his castle and complained about the stench of the rotting corpses around and Vlad (being the snobby nobleman he was) impaled him on the highest spike-thingy and asked him how the stench was from up there~