by Annalyn Andriyenko

Created on: October 13, 2009

The legends and myths of Dracula and vampires have been around for centuries, especially Dracula, who is a central figure in our entertainment. Showing through books, theatre films, artwork, even video games, he has always intrigued us with his lust for women and his sense of morphing into any shape at his own will. But of course every myth has a starting point, and Dracula's story had started in 1448, in a person named Vlad Tepes III, Prince of Wallachia, Romania.

Vlad was born in Transylvania at around 1431, being the son of Vlad Dracul, which means dracul means dragon, he had been known as Dracula, son of Dracul. By 1447, his father was assassinated by rebels who followed the Hungarian empire. With no one else to reign in Transylvania, since Vlad's older brother had also died, he took the throne at the age of seventeen. Since the Ottoman empire knew this wouldn't turn out as planned, the Sultan used Vlad merely as a decoy ruler, his reign was cut off very short.

After fleeing to Hungary, he had learned that his uncle had also been assassinated. Hungary decided to fight back against the Ottoman empire, invading the land of Serbia and drawing them back forcefully. While it proved successful, Vlad III took center stage once more as the monarch of Wallachia. Vlad tried to keep Wallachia an ever growing area, with rich population and agriculture, ignoring all the rebels threats and trite.

The most potent of Vlad III's tale is his style of execution, which had definitely came into the role of the Dracula vampire legend. He executed the rebels in a very unique and gruesome way, even for the period of time. Piercing their bodies on big heavy stakes, letting them bleed to death. As it may be hard to believe his victim count did come to a total of 50,000 to 100,000. Many accounts call him a sadist, as he felt relief knowing he killed those that opposed him.

Some other methods of torture from German and Hungarian accounts claim he loved not only impaling but skinning, roasting, burning, tearing limbs, and nailing people's bodies onto castle walls. These of course, gave him the nickname of Vlad the Impaler, as he was even to be believed eating a full course meal around his impaled victims.

He is seen a ruthless and even a somewhat insane character, there may be truth to most of it, and it did start the great Dracula legend. Vlad himself died on a mission in a battle against the Turks in 1476. It is said they took his head, showing evidence that they killed the great Vlad the Impaler. Although he had a quick end, he has been inspiration in the arts exceedingly.

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