Vampire fans have a rich vein of lore to draw from.
This succinct article serves as a primer for anyone still in this day and age somehow unfamiliar with the development over time of the vampire legend. The author states, correctly, that the true origins of the myth are unknown, and unknowable. It is not even possible to draw concrete lines at the demarcation points of the vampire’s evolution; at what point did it transition from restless, rotting corpse to suave, sexual predator? At what point did it acquire more of a motive than simply to drain the life forces of its family and neighbors or cause general mischief?
What is today fascination once comprised a real fear. We know this from the numerous graves that have been unearthed showing evidence of postmortem tampering done as an attempt to prevent the deceased from returning as a vampire to plague the living. Bricks shoved in mouths, iron rods driven through chests; the bones give a testament to the threat, albeit a largely imagined one, the dead posed to the living in earlier times. That the vampire has always been with us, climbing alongside humans up each step on the evolutionary ladder, haunting our nightmares, is evident. Nor is it going anywhere. It simply has put on a change of clothes.
