The majority of vampire myths feature a fiendish undead creature that drains every drop of its victim’s blood, but not all vampires are that monstrous, some are a smidge kinder. For example, the Albanian lugat chooses to take only a small amount of blood from their prey, leaving them weakened but alive. While not ideal it’s better than being dead, right?
The lugat may not kill its victims, but it would continue to feed off a single person for a period of days to weeks. The only big problem here is that the lugat’s bite could possibly leave a spiritual, or psychological, taint on the victim that would cause the person to develop a bloodlust of their own. The bloodlust they felt was by no means a murderous or overpowering thing; it was usually an erotic feeling. It is said that these folks infected by the lugat’s bite would become sanguinarians – real people that feel that they absolutely need to feed on blood in order to survive.
The lugat also has some classic vamp powers, like the ability shapeshift into multiple forms – such as a human man, a child, a cow, a stray dog and a few others. But unlike the vampires in stereotypes, the lugat does not have fangs, instead has very normal human teeth. When feeding it simply bites like anyone else would and then sucks blood from the wound.
Even though the lugat isn’t necessarily a deadly vampire, some may still want to kill it. Unfortunately this is easier said than done. The only creature that can kill this vampire is a wolf, but trying to force a wolf into a hunt so isn’t going to go well for you. Unlike the lugat, a wolf will kill your sorry ass if you try to make it do anything it doesn’t want to do.
If any sanguinarians are reading this, what do you think about this legend? Do you think it’s possible that your bloodlust was brought on and spread by this ancient vampire?
– Moonlight
