The true Dracula: Vlad the Impaler

If you didn't know it yet, Dracula once walked the earth, soils of Transylvania to be exact. Long before he became a blood-sucking aristocratic debonair who sucked the blood of just too many young beautiful women in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and in the many Dracula movies throughout the years; he was a warrior, king and yes, an aristocrat, perhaps a debonair, more importantly Dracula was human.

He never sucked blood like he did in Stoker's novel but whether or not he drank blood remained unanswered. He enjoyed the sight of blood squirting from someone's body that's for sure and his favorite punishment was impalement.

If you are to ask someone from Transylvania, they'd tell you upfront that Dracula was their hero. Dracula was a countrywide recognized national hero of his land who fought against the Turks all throughout his lifetime to protect his people.

The True Dracula was known by many names, he was Vlad Dracula, Vlad Tepes, and Vlad the Impaler. Vlad Dracula was born as the second child of Vlad Dracul in fortress of Sighisoara in Transylvania, late 1431.

Vlad Dacul, his father was a military leader and a member of the Order of the Dragon from where he got his name "Dracul" which meant the "Devil" or "Dragon".

Dracula, getting his name from his father was known as the "son of the devil", a name that he was proud of even when he was a child, for which he was constantly teased by others.

Vlad had the opportunity to taste life's luxuries at a very young age when his father took over the throne of Wallachia in 1436 but just after two years in the throne, Dracul betrayed the Order of the Dragon and formed a faction with the Turks, turning Dracula and his brother Radu to Sultan Murad as collaterals of his loyalty and to prove his assurance that he would never stage a strike against the Turks.

Following Dracul's betrayal of the Order of the Dragon and his faction with the Turks, John Hunyadi who was a close relative planned his assassination which was successfully realized in the winter of 1447.

When their father died, Sultan Murad II granted Dracula and Radu their freedom, Vlad grabbed it while Radu chose to remain.

Right after hearing about the assassination of his father, he was informed about the death of his elder brother Mircea, whose eyes were gouged-out and who was buried alive by the boyars of Tirgoviste. He promised revenge against Hunyadi and the boyars for these deaths though he was only a teenager at the time, and revenge he did!

With the help of Pasha Mustafa, Dracula staged an attack against the boyars for which he succeeded and took over the Throne for which he believed he was the rightful heir.

His rule was cut-short by Hunyadi's appointment of Vladislav II to the Throne but this was not for long...

In order for him to win Hunyadi's trust, he collaborated with the latter then later on tried to convince him that he was the rightful heir to the Throne but Hunyadi was hard to convince. Vlad got his sweet revenge for the death of his father by killing Hunyadi in 1456 and once again regained his Throne.

In 1569, he ordered the arrest of all the boyars, condemning those with good health to slavery, and the impalement of the old and the weak. Vlad's tyranny has begun! 20,000 people were impaled, mothers were forced to eat their own babies, many were skinned to death, hearts were driven out of live bodies, and even children were impaled.

He enjoyed impaling so much that it has become the official punishment of his kingdom. Rumors abound that he drank the blood of those he impaled.

His stature, tyranny and his fascination for blood is what made Bram Stoker name his vampire "Dracula". Though accounts of Jack the Rippers murder contributed to the story, the rest of Bram Stoker's vampire book was mainly Vlad Tepes and Transylvannia.

Not once in his life did Vlad Dracula turned into a bat or ever had a set of vampire teeth but yes, Vlad Dracula was a vampire, a real life vampire of his time. No one in history has ever impaled more people than he ever did.

"Happy Holloween 2010 everyone =[ "