Have you ever heard about the Vampire Dracula? The origin of Dracula ties back to a novel written in 1897 by Bram Stroker, called Dracula. In the novel, he was a blood-thirsty vampire hunting humans. Although, the novel Bram wrote was inspired by a real life person; the real life Dracula. This man’s name was Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as: Vlad The Impaler.
Vlad Tepes (Vlad III) lived in Transylvania (modern day Romania) and was born in 1431. His father Vlad II Dracul ruled south of Transylvania in an area called Wallachia. The name Dracul came from The Order of the Dragon which acted as the military defense of Christian Europe. The nickname Dracula for Vlad III meant “son of Dracul” in Romanian and was given to him when he was inducted into The Order of the Dragon.
Vlad III was a savage ruler who used various torture techniques on his victims. He allegedly had 20,000+ victims impaled on the banks of Danube. This granted him a new nickname: Vlad Tepes, which in Romanian meant Vlad The Impaler. He enjoyed the process of torture, and the suffering of his enemies. Even to the point of using enemy blood as a sauce for his bread. He killed many people in the worst ways and gained an infamous reputation for it. He lost his Reign 3 times during his Reign of Terror, but was able to regain it every time. But on the 3rd success, he was murdered shortly after on the battlefield.
