wasnt dracula based on vlad the impaler?
i think someone posted something like this a while ago. with a bunch of links
i could be wrong

Isn't strange how in the movies they have vampires biting women on the knecks and making it look so sensual! I remeber reading books about vampires slaughtering their victims. Now people who call themselves as vampires drink eachothers blood like it is some kind of foreplay. *yummy*

i thought the vampires were (in some cases/opinions) supposed to be very romantic, or suave.

yes that's how they're depicted, yet again; nothing like VLAD THE IMPALER

I wish I was a vampire for a while. Not Vlad though, he doesn't sound very friendly.

*yummy*

vlad wasnt

The history of Vlad Tepes sounds more like vengance.

He was beat up for fun on a regular basis by the Ottoman's, they killled his father, converted his younger gay brother to Islam, his older brother was blinded with hot iron stakes and buried alive, then they threw him on a throne and said "do as you are told". Then he re-took his own land, Wallachia, and started his reign that returned control to him. He then eliminated threats to his future, and the future of his country. The Sultan then returned, re-took the province and seated his rather feminine traitorous little brother in his place. In a final stand, he met the large Ottoman Empire with a small army and was defeated and killed. True he was rather strange the way he would torture smal animals in prison, but I really think this sort of life would very likely result in such a charachter. Dipping his bread in blood (if true) is probably pretty light in comparision to the personal attrocities he must have witnessed. Watching you own brother and father painfullly tortured to death right in front of you has to mess a person up somewhat.
He ws pushed pretty hard. He may have been evil, but I think it is the way he was treated that made him the man he was. From memory, I am pretty sure he put the economy back on it's feet too. I am also pretty sure he is remembered fondly by the townspeople as a tough but fair ruler. Merchants who cheated their customers were likely to find themselves mounted on a stake beside common thieves. Wouldn't you like to see some of today shonky operators live under this threat LOL.
Alot of this is from memory, eric raven can probably clean this info up a little. I just didn't think that like some (Hitler comes to mind) he was born evil, just people made him that way.

you're about right, what you experience shapes your personality and his childhood fits the classic serial killer profile, the big mistake was to make a cruel sadist ruler over everybody, he answered to nobody and lived out his perverted fantasies.

but you're wrong about something, he killed anybody he wanted, innocent babies/ children/ their mothers etc, he wasn't a fair ruler at all... the locals were just scared of him; hence no other crime and a successful economy.

as for being born evil, no i dont think you are... it's things you see and experience in the first 10 years of your life that screw you up. HITLER wasn't anywhere near as bad as VLAD THE IMPALER, it's just that HITLER started a major world war/ killed more people, but the level of sadism shown by VLAD was far greater than any other ruler, the web doesn't reveal VLAD's full crimes, you have to research far deeper.

e.g he used to:- kill babies, force their mothers to eat them, then kill the mother, force the husband to eat her and finally impale him, while watching this VLAD would be laughing his head off...... loads more too....but enough said.

VLAD is also heavyweight evil right now, so steer well clear...... because he cant possibly be anything else.

Isnt Dracula based on Vlad the Impaler? Though there was nothing about him which said he bit his enemies necks - just cut off thier heads and had the on spikes. Though I recall reading about a countess who used to bath in the blood of virgins...not sure if this was true or not. Can anyone confirm?

The main character of the fictional novel Dracula is based on Vlad Tempes. He was called Vlad the Impaler because impaling was on of his favorite forms of torture. And the Countess Elizabeth Bathory is the countess to whom you are referring. She believed that bathing in the blood of virgins made her skin look younger.

I thought all the stories were unsubstantiated, and thought to have been somewhat exagerrated to increase his fearful image to his enemies. I know he did some pretty disturbing things, but as I said, his childhood consisted of witnessing murder and violence. Bound to twist one somewhat. Do you have any links confirming which stories were true? I honestly thought it was a question that was not expected to be answered. I have not heard the mother eating baby story then her husband, not intending to be rude, but that story in particular sounds very Urban Legend. I cannot imagine being forced to eat your baby or wife, what's he going to do if you refuse? Kill you? What do you expect a man to do if he wants you to eat your family for his pleasure? I dunno, that particular story sounds a little far fetched. Personally, I can't imagine someone going throught with such a thing under any circumstance.
He did have to answer to the Ottoman empire didn't he? I beleive he was set as a figurehead for the empire to rule in thier place? Before the second, and last revolution he died in. He would allow promotion of the common folk into important positions, that maded him unpopular with the Boyars and other atristocracy that felt they earned the position by birthrght. I am quite sure he was very popular amongst the peasentry. The commoners make up the bulk of the population, so I believe he actually was well liked by the majority.
I would have to argue that Hitler would be a lesser evil. His surgeons did far more attrocious human experimentation considering chemical warfare, the animal interbreeding programs and human skin furniture. Impaling enemies who are trying to slaughter you and your countrymen is different to experimanting on a whole race and doing you very best to wipe them from the face of the earth, all the while chanting racial slogans and reading at night under a lampshade made from the skin of one of the inferior race. That is evil. I don't think Tepes had 6 million victims either, and his hatred was politically and personally motivated, not racial hate genocide.
The town to this day has a plaque commemorating his birth and statues of him? Hitler is being posthumously removed from honarary roles of citizenship in embarrasement for his racial genocide. I'd say the two are apples and oranges. Hitler is a true evil, born that way. Vlad Tepes was a man made construction.
He certainly will always have a place in history. Depending on where you stand, I think you may hear different things of the man. What do you mean steer clear? I just had to ask.

i had the hardback book by RADY FLORESCU/ RAYMOND MCNALLY, you'll have to read this to discover his true crimes.....no HITLER did not partake in sadistic pleasures, it actually sickened him; it was his subordinates that were the true sadists, yes HITLER knew what was going on; but this is nothing like VLAD who actually enjoyed sadism more than anything else in the world.............FACT.

HITLER'S hobbies were, walking his dog, watching old films, reading books... he was a bit of a loner..... yes he wanted to exterminate the JEWS, but turned a blind eye to the true horrors, he didn't want to know the details....HITLER was an insane dreamer, he dreamt about the perfect aerian race/ tutonic knights/ knights templars etc.... he was lost in a dream world of medeval knights/architecture and mein kampf , he was a dangerous romantic... yes he was actually a very romantic person but very shy of women.... he as we all know was also very spiteful/ jealous of the jews, he blamed them for loosing WW1 and also Germany's ecenomic recession afterwards

we're talking about personality here, neither STALIN, HITLER, GENGIS GHAN had this very high level of sadism that VLAD did; you can even argue that none of these were even ``true`` sadists..... BUT THEIR SUBORDINATES DEFINITELY WERE.

now Hitler's subordinates were all VLAD THE IMPALERS ( in a way), i hope you understand what i'm saying.....

HITLER was not in my opinion born evil, he became a crazed dictator because of the things that he experienced in the first 24 years of his life, a bloke like him today would be unemployed and on ``care in the community`` NHS supervision, but because of the political mess that germany was in, HITLER was able to rise to power

put it this way, i'd rather have a conversation with HITLER THAN VLAD, because HITLER would rant and rave at you, then stomp off in a sulk etc, but VLAD would kill you right were you're standing, because he did this many times..... he was a total psycho in conversation, totally unpredictable and very cruel/ threatening to look at, the POPE's envoy said this....``a man of cruel and terrible appearence``

he used to travel through villages on horseback with his entourage of bodyguards and if he stopped you and wanted to have a chat, you had to take great care how you answered his questions.... his questions would be loaded, he was playing a sick game with you...he used to say ``tell me, what do you think of me as a ruler ?``......oh dear!..... now VLAD murdered loads like this, he'd kill you for telling lies, killing you for telling the truth, OR GIVE YOU GOLD for telling the truth, it just depended upon his mood.... he was completely unpredictable.

now if you were back then, you wouldn't be able to get within 10foot of him, he would terrify you, a very evil/powerful looking person... and if he invited you to dinner be very careful, especially if he got a servant to erect a stake beside you.... yes, you've said something to upset him earlier on, now; he'll either let you go with gold as a gift, or impale you.... he said ``why have i erected this stake right beside you ?``..... but the embassador was clever, he flattered VLAD who in kind gave him gold and let him go.

While we're on the subject of sadists... I agree Hitler wasn't as sadistic as Vlad, but Vlad isn't the worst. In my opinion it is Donatien Alphonse-François de Sade, the man from where we take the word sadism. He was a French aristocrat in the late 1700's. I can't go into the details on this site, but I'll give you the gist of it. Sade was a sexual sadist who wrote violent graphic pornography novels (which are still considered that today) and who was arrested numerous times for violent assaults on women.

hi

i dont think that he ever killed anyone, he was locked up for insanity; he was more into S and M.... but i dont know much about him, that bloke GILLES DE RAIS was definitely far worst, now he's very close to VLAD in terms of pure evil.

we are a little off topic arent we but i've nothing new on 60 ft Anocondas; so there you go

She was real her name was Elizabeth Bathory