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The real Dracula was absolutely vicious


Still Waters

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Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker for his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires.

Though Dracula may seem like a singular creation, Stoker in fact drew inspiration from a real-life man with an even more grotesque taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or - as he is better known - Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes), a name he earned for his favorite way of dispensing with his enemies.

http://www.nbcnews.c...ious-8C11505315

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Vlad was a very sadistic man. I don't see how someone could impale so many people like that and be even remotely sane.

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I've read several books about Vlad. He was held captive in Turkey for awhile in his youth and he did manage to hold out against the Ottoman Empire. The moors found him so repulsive, they turned around and retreated from his lands.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/vlad-the-impaler-real-dracula_n_4181948.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World

Edited by susieice
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Why can't we get a "Dracula" with some more Vlad thrown in? Perhaps restore some dignity to vampires on film!

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Vlad was a very sadistic man. I don't see how someone could impale so many people like that and be even remotely sane.

He was efficient and his realm was generally considered a safe place to live so long as you kept your nose clean.
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Wow, that's the first I've ever heard of Vlad. Thanks for shariing Still Waters!

Unfortunately, I am about to retire for the evening and must go to bed with the imbedded vision of 20,000 impaled bodies ....sounds like what one might encounter in Morder.

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Vlad was a very sadistic man. I don't see how someone could impale so many people like that and be even remotely sane.

Look what he went through in his life and the invasion he was facing... he may have been "slightly cruel" but he was a very good tactician (scare tactics count for something :whistle: )

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He was a nutbag, but he was very effective. He ran a safe country, he repelled an army vastly superior in terms of training, equipment and numbers - IIRC the first time ANYONE had managed to turn back the army of the Sultan.

I remember a story that basically sums up Vlad:

When he heard that a town nearby his castle didn't have anything to drink their well water with. he randomly grabbed a goblet from the castle and sent it down to the town with the instruction "then you can drink out of my cup" (I'm paraphrasing) and a nice caveat "if anyone takes the cup, they'll answer to me". He'd simply impale anyone who stole the cup.

He's a bloody (in both meanings of the term) lunatic who seemed to genuinely care about his people.

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Seriously, a psycho with a seemingly bizzare compassionate streak when it suited him, how has this not been made into a Game of Thrones type series?

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Seriously, a psycho with a seemingly bizzare compassionate streak when it suited him, how has this not been made into a Game of Thrones type series?

Because people obsess over the "vampire" bit.

Closest I can think of was in Da Vinci's Demons, not the most historically accurate of things, they avoided the "vampire" bit but still made him a supernatural psychopath and not just you regular Nutter.

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Vlad would have been all right as long as you didn't cross him.

Considering he was an absolute ruler, that wouldn't have been a hard thing to achieve.

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Vlad would have been all right as long as you didn't cross him.

Considering he was an absolute ruler, that wouldn't have been a hard thing to achieve.

Or didn't take your hat off inside (he once nailed a hat to someone' head because he said he forgot (or was it religious reason??)).

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Or didn't take your hat off inside (he once nailed a hat to someone' head because he said he forgot (or was it religious reason??)).

Kind of religious.

You see, these were two emissaries from the sultan, and they, naturally, wore turbans on their heads.

A turban, unlike a hat, is not supposed to be taken off and put back on on every entering/exiting and Vlad, the creative psychopath that he was, used that fashion difference to accuse Turks of having no manners and showing no due respect to Vlad and his court. He ordered their turbans nailed to their heads to give them a proper reason for keeping their headgear on while inside Christian house.

There’s that old superstition that wearing a hat on inside the house will invoke a death of a member of the family and now we see that there’s some truth in superstitions. Or there used to be some truth in them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Vertical Impalement was done by the turks (Ottoman) much more than Vladislav ever did.

Vladislav III Zmajevic or commonly Vlad Cepesh (Vlad Tepesh, Vlad the Impaller) was a Vlach (Vlash) duke who was following an Order of the Dragon who sought to defend against the ever-growing ottoman empire.

220px-Grb_Lazarevic.png

Vladislav was one of the twenty four knights in that order, symbolically so since his name, Drakul, means "Dragon".

The order had a purpose to kill sultan Murat I (Moo-rat) which happened at battle of Kosovo & Metohiya at 1389. year, which serbian knight Milos Obilic succeeded at, however his head was cut off and placed on a pole. The same happened to Vladislav, however his head was sent to Istanbul and also placed on a pole, as a symbol.

Anyway, there are several movies about him (historical) which are being as close as possible according to the historical evidences.

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What I know is Sultans had to go to Vlad many times because the public was really disturbed by his severe punishments and actions thus they turned to ottomans for help. Turks are not ottomans. ottomans were composed of many nationalities. Ottomans was an empire. Turk is a single nationality. they are not the same thing.

the link above ITSELF says "Whether these events turned Vlad III Dracula ("son of the dragon") into a ruthless killer is a matter of historical speculation." after mentioning ottoman torture. because a deep investigation would prove it wrong and probably even a student of history can do it. :)

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I agree with your points, however while you are correct that they had many people not from Turkey itself most of the Ottomans are Turks by definition since the "ottoman" derives from "Osman-iyye" (Osmanlije, Osman-lee-ye') a.k.a Osman I ('os-man) who was the founder of the empire and collected the tribes under his rulership and leadership.

220px-Ottoman_small_animation.gif

My country, for an example, was under the Osmanlije for roughly five hundred years and it's one of the important lessons in the history books for elementary school. Their army consisted of units such as yeniceri (yaa-nee-char-ee) which were serving the turkish leaders. They were the kidnapped children, usually christian one, converted to Islam and often as a test of their service, when they mature, they'd be sent to kill their own parents. Many songs were made for that.

As for Vladislav (I'm going to name him by original name) there's a portrayal that he ate breakfast while listening to the people who were impaled.

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Osman was turk yes, and the rulers of the empire identified themselves as turk that is true also. But the wives(especially the famous ones) of the sultans just like yeniceri (army) were NOT Turks.In the state administration also there were non turks. If the wives of the sultans are not turks and the state administration is not led only by turks you cant really say it is a turkish empire or they are turk. but yes sultans have chosen to identify themselves so because of their respect to Osman the founder.

it was such a big piece of land not everything could be done by Turks alone. Yeniceri army was the army that made that land that big. You cant make such a succesful army in the way you told it.

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Osman was turk yes, and the rulers of the empire identified themselves as turk that is true also. But the wives(especially the famous ones) of the sultans just like yeniceri (army) were NOT Turks.In the state administration also there were non turks. If the wives of the sultans are not turks and the state administration is not led only by turks you cant really say it is a turkish empire or they are turk. but yes sultans have chosen to identify themselves so because of their respect to Osman the founder.

it was such a big piece of land not everything could be done by Turks alone. Yeniceri army was the army that made that land that big. You cant make such a succesful army in the way you told it.

Janissary were only a part of Ottoman army. Sultan was a Turk by default, regardless where concubine that gave birth to him hailed from. Language of the Ottoman empire was Turkish and the state it morphed into is modern Turkey, populated by Turks.

There was genetic mixing of epic proportions, but everyone sucked into Ottoman empire was poturchen (made Turk) and their descendants remain Turks in Turkey until this day, they mostly don’t know their ancestors were stolen from Slavic lands.

Case not closed because there was no case, of course Ottoman and Turks are synonyms.

Can we go back to Romania and Vlad now?

Man was complete psycho, and I blame Turks who held him hostage as a boy for that. At least partially. You can’t screw up a man like that if he wasn’t a little sick from birth, but the situation was definitely not in favour of Vlad’s mental health.

There. In the memory of the Hospitalers from Vrana. Historians will understand.

Edited by Helen of Annoy
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