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00:16If you are a true history lover and you want to uncover the hidden truths of the past,
00:22if you are ready to open the darkest pages of history, then subscribe to Vault of Centuries.
00:28Here, we explore the stories that time tried to erase.
00:32We reveal forgotten legends, buried secrets, and the harsh truths that never made it into school books.
00:39We don't just tell history, we reveal it. Welcome to Vault of Centuries.
00:45We've all heard of Dracula, Fangs, and blood-sucking immortals.
00:48But what if I told you the vampire legend was born not in fiction, but in real human fear, disease, and death?
00:55The story of vampires is older than Bram Stoker's Dracula.
00:59It's rooted in ancient history, dark folklore, and even real scientific confusion.
01:05Let's uncover the shocking truth about the vampire myth,
01:08from medieval Europe to real medical conditions mistaken as vampirism.
01:14Long before Dracula was ever written in 1897.
01:18The idea of blood-drinking creatures already haunted human imagination across the ancient world.
01:24In fact, nearly every early civilization had its own version of the vampire,
01:29not always with fangs and cloaks, but always tied to fear, death, and the unexplained.
01:35Let's begin in Mesopotamia, around 4000 BCE, one of the earliest cradles of human civilization.
01:43Here, people feared a terrifying demon named Lamashtu.
01:46She wasn't just a monster, she was believed to drink blood,
01:52spread deadly diseases, and even attack mothers and newborns.
01:56To protect themselves, people wore special amulets and recited prayers.
02:02She's one of the oldest known figures resembling what we now call a vampire.
02:06Then came the ancient Greeks, who spoke of the Vrykulakas, corpses that didn't stay buried.
02:12These undead beings were said to rise from the grave and drink the blood of the living,
02:17especially at night.
02:19Unlike modern vampires, they were described as swollen, pale, and decomposing,
02:24and people believed that improper burial, or a sinful life, could cause a soul to return as one.
02:31Meanwhile, across the continent in ancient China, there was a creature called the Jiangxia,
02:36a stiff, popping corpse with glowing eyes and razor sharp nails.
02:40Instead of drinking blood, the Jiangxia would absorb the Qi, the life energy, from the living.
02:47They moved awkwardly, arms stretched forward, and were often the result of spiritual unrest or dark magic.
02:54Despite coming from different regions and beliefs, all these vampire-like myths share something in common.
03:00They were born from real fears, of disease outbreaks, sudden unexplained deaths, and the horrifying idea that the dead might not stay dead.
03:10These were not just stories.
03:13They were ancient attempts to explain the unexplainable.
03:17From the 14th to the 18th century, a dark fear gripped Europe.
03:21A fear so deep, it led to mass hysteria, grave robbing, and even executions.
03:27This was the age of the vampire panic.
03:31Across Eastern and Central Europe, people truly believed that vampires were rising from their graves, and causing death in the villages.
03:39Whenever deadly outbreaks struck, especially the Black Death, people searched for answers.
03:45And when science couldn't explain it, superstition did.
03:49They began to blame the dead.
03:52Bodies were dug up.
03:54And what they saw, terrified them.
03:57Some corpses appeared bloated, as if recently fed.
04:01Blood was seen trickling from their mouths.
04:04In some cases, hair and nails seemed longer than before, signs, they believed, of an undead creature still growing.
04:12But what they didn't know, is what we understand today.
04:16Modern science tells us that these were natural signs of decomposition.
04:20After death, gases build up in the body, causing it to swell.
04:25As the skin dries and shrinks, hair and nails appear to grow, but it's just an illusion.
04:32And that blood in the mouth?
04:34It's not feeding, it's just fluid leakage from internal decay.
04:38Still, to medieval villages, these were undeniable signs, that a vampire had returned.
04:45So they took action.
04:47Not with prayers, but with violence.
04:50They drove stakes through corpses, decapitated them, and burned their bodies to ash.
04:55These weren't just legends.
04:59These were real practices, documented in the historical records of places like Poland, Hungary, and Serbia.
05:06And in some regions, iron stakes were kept ready near graveyards, just in case a vampire returned.
05:13To us, this seems like horror fiction.
05:15But for them, it was survival.
05:19By the 15th century, in the dark forests of Eastern Europe, a real man walked the earth, more terrifying than any fictional vampire.
05:28His name was Vlad III of Wallachia, but history remembers him by another name.
05:34Vlad Dracula, the Impaler
05:36Born in 1431, in a region now known as Romania.
05:41Vlad was the son of Vlad II Dracul, a member of the Order of the Dragon.
05:45A Christian military order sworn to defend Europe from the invading Ottoman Empire.
05:51That's where the name Dracula comes from, it literally means, son of the dragon.
05:56But what Vlad would become, was far more terrifying.
06:00Vlad ruled Wallachia with an iron fist, and to protect his kingdom from enemies and traitors,
06:05he turned to fear.
06:07Not just political power, but psychological warfare.
06:11His method?
06:13Impalement.
06:14Vlad was said to have impaled over 20,000 people, Ottoman soldiers, local rivals, and even his own people.
06:23Their bodies left on massive stakes, stretching for miles outside his castles, a forest of the dead.
06:29To the people of Wallachia, he was a hero, protector who held off the mighty Ottoman Empire.
06:36In modern-day Romania, many still remember Vlad as a symbol of national pride.
06:41But to others, especially in Western Europe.
06:45Vlad was the devil incarnate, a cruel, merciless killer whose thirst for blood seemed inhuman.
06:51Centuries later, in 1897, Irish author Bram Stoker wrote a novel,
06:56a tale of an immortal vampire from Transylvania, and for inspiration, he borrowed a single name, Dracula.
07:04But make no mistake, the real Vlad the Impaler never drank blood.
07:08He wasn't a creature of the night.
07:11He was a man, made terrifying by history, and legend.
07:15Yet his cruelty, lit the spark that gave birth to one of the greatest horror icons of all time.
07:22As terrifying as vampire legends sound, science may actually explain how they began.
07:28Several rare medical conditions throughout history could easily have inspired these blood-drinking myths.
07:34Take porphyria for example, a rare genetic blood disorder.
07:39It causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight, painful blisters, facial disfigurement,
07:44and even gum recession that can make teeth appear fang-like.
07:48People suffering from porphyria often avoided daylight altogether, just like vampires.
07:54Then there's rabies, a viral infection that affects the brain.
07:58It can cause aggression, confusion, hallucinations, and an intense fear of water and light.
08:05Infected individuals might bite others, foam at the mouth, and avoid mirrors,
08:10all eerily similar to vampire behavior.
08:13And then comes catalepsy, a neurological condition where the body enters a trance-like state.
08:19Heartbeat and breathing slow down to almost nothing, and the person appears dead.
08:24In older times, without modern medicine, these individuals were sometimes buried alive.
08:31When graves were opened later.
08:34Claw marks inside coffins and twisted corpses led people to believe the dead had risen,
08:39the so-called undead.
08:41These medical mysteries, misunderstood for centuries, helped feed the vampire myth,
08:46turning fear into folklore, and illness into legend.
08:50Between 1725 and 1732, a wave of panic swept through parts of Eastern Europe,
08:56especially in Serbia, where entire villages believed that vampires were real.
09:02Two chilling cases ignited the fear, Peter Blagojevic and Arnold Pauli,
09:06both believed to have risen from their graves to haunt the living.
09:10Locals swore they had seen them walking at night, and blamed them for sudden deaths in their communities.
09:16The panic grew so intense, that it reached the attentions of the Austrian government and military.
09:21South America, soldiers and officials were sent terrifying forms.
09:25And what they found only fueled the hystereology.
09:27The Vetala is a spirit that's hewned from graves, and hanging upside down like a blood
09:32around the mouth or eyes the composed skin were discovered.
09:34In the Philippines, tales of the Ascua believed it was proof of vampirism.
09:38A horrifying female vampire that the corpses were staked through the heart and burned to stop the
09:43generation returning.
09:45In Africa, the ads takes the form of a firefly, entering home through cracks and windows by
09:50Austrian officers, confirming that vampires were taken seriously as a real threat.
09:55Thomas El Subacabra is said to drain the blood of livestock, a legend of crisis, a vampire
10:00epidemic that haunted Europe for nearly a decade.
10:02These stories may seem worlds apart, but they all point to the same truth,
10:06every culture has its own vampire, born from the universal fear of death, disease, and the unknown.
10:13Vampires weren't always romantic, beautiful immortals.
10:17The real vampire was a symbol of fear, fear of things we couldn't explain.
10:21What began as folklore, turned into mass hysteria, wrongful executions, and even medical misdiagnosis.
10:30In the end, the vampire is a reflection of us, our deepest fears, our imagination,
10:35and our desperate need to explain the unexplainable.
10:40If you enjoyed this journey into real vampire history, subscribe to Vault of Centuries for more
10:45hidden truths and stories the world forgot.
10:47Like, comment, and share, and let us know which legend we should uncover next.
11:18We'll see you guys in the next video.
11:18See you next time.
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