Great Vampire The Great Vampires , or Yssgaroth , were a force of destruction in Gallifreyan legend and history that were unleashed into the universe during the Dark Times and fought by the Time Lord s in the Eternal War . Biology . The Yssgaroth could manifest in multiple forms , varying based on what species or individual was perceiving them . These included stems of bloody thorns , tearing flesh from whole worlds ; bleeding , eyeless lambs on divine thrones ; ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) huge winged snakes with horns , many eyes , and wet , dripping skin ; ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) clouds of smoke that would fill a planet ' s atmosphere and induce nuclear winter ; ( PROSE : " Predating the Predators " ) and blind , screaming abominations made of leather wings and shredded muscle . ( TV : " State of Decay " , PROSE : " The Book of the War " , " Predating the Predators " ) Some speculated that there was only one Yssgaroth , capable of splitting itself into smaller forms ; others believed that , rather than being alive , the Yssgaroth were areas of hostile anti - structure produced by the collision of the Spiral Politic with another universe , turned into monsters by the Great Houses ' and lesser species ' projections of their fears . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) The Vampires needed to steal energy from other sources to survive . Just one was extremely powerful and could drain a whole planet of energy . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) With their incredible hypnotic powers , the Vampires could enslave entire planetary populations . ( PROSE : " Predating the Predators " ) They also had extreme regenerative abilities , and they could survive numerous wounds . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Leela ' s vision was restored after she drank Great Vampire blood . ( AUDIO : " Annihilation " ) The only way to kill one was to stab them through the heart , usually with a steel bolt . More powerful Vampires needed to have their heart fully destroyed in order to kill them . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Yssgaroth biomass was able to hybridise and corrupt ordinary biomass by contact . This property was called the Yssgaroth " taint " . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) History . Because the story of the Yssgaroth was never recorded in the Matrix , there were varying accounts of their origin ; however , whether in one of Rassilon ' s early experiments creating black hole s ( PROSE : " The Pit " , " Interference " ) or during the anchoring of the thread , ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) all accounts agreed that they were accidentally released from their dimension by the Time Lord s . ( AUDIO : " Project : Twilight " ) At that instant , one Yssgaroth appeared on the Homeworld , at the site that would later be known as the caldera , as thousands of " servants of the Yssgaroth " began to tear their way into the continuum at many points throughout history . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Throughout the Dark Times , ( TV : " The Infinite Quest " ) the Vampires caused mass destruction and chaos throughout the cosmos . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Through their taint , they created the Mal ' akh , ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) the Saturnyn s , ( PROSE : " The Multi - Faceted War " ) and Earth ' s vampire s . ( PROSE : " Vampire Science " ) The First Doctor also speculated that the Sou ( ou ) shi were related to the Great Vampires . ( PROSE : " Venusian Lullaby " ) Richard Francis Burton hypothesized that the Great Houses obtained the ability of regeneration by intentionally modifying themselves with the Yssgaroth " taint " . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) One of the ROO texts revered by the Cult of Rassilon the Vampire recorded that Rassilon allowed himself to be bitten by a Great Vampire and was a vampire himself at the end of his life . ( PROSE : " Goth Opera " ) The ferocity and resilience of the Vampires made their defeat very difficult , even for the Time Lords . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) They waged the lengthy Eternal War to drive them back . ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) Since conventional weapons were virtually useless , Rassilon ordered the construction of bowship s to exploit the one weakness of the Vampires — their vulnerability to being impaled through the heart . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Though billions of people were killed and whole star system s were destroyed , ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) the Time Lords were finally able to push the Yssgaroth back into their own universe , and the outlets to their universe were blocked and reinforced by containment shells disguised as planet s , including Earth . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) During the war , entire worlds were turned into laboratories of cruelty where the Yssgaroth destroyed the bodies of the inhabitants until only their nervous systems remained , alive and in agony but without any hope of help . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Every thirteen local years , their servants on each world would round up a thirteenth of the population and ship them to the Vampires ' galactic headquarters in the Blood Citadel of Alukah , where they would be harvested for blood . ( PROSE : " Predating the Predators " ) These " fallen " world s were retro - annulled by the Great Houses at the end of the war . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Though the Time Lords were able to find and destroy all other Yssgaroth , the swarm leader was able to escape . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) This sole survivor hid in E - Space , using his great power to draw the ship Hydrax with him . He turned the three human s on this ship into vampire s to feed and serve him for a thousand years until the Time of Arising . As he rose from the ground , the Fourth Doctor used a scout ship from the Hydrax to pierce his heart , killing him . ( TV : " State of Decay " ) Since they had emerged at the beginning of history , the Yssgaroth taint remained in the fabric of the universe even after their defeat ; it couldn ' t be removed without unweaving time itself . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Some Yssgaroth survived and tried to reenter the universe . ( PROSE : " The Pit " ) One of Rassilon ' s titles was " Conqueror of Yssgaroth " . ( AUDIO : " Zagreus " ) His throne appeared to be made of the skeletons of giant bats . ( PROSE : " Christmas on a Rational Planet " ) When Professor Stahlman began the Inferno Project to drill into Earth ' s crust , the released ooze transformed exposed human s into Primord s ; ( PROSE : " Inferno " ) a similar effect was observed among the Wyrm Callers when the Wyrm was released after something impacted Earth and destroyed the dinosaur s . ( AUDIO : " The Adolescence of Time " ) After plugging the last hole to the Yssgaroth ' s universe with an artificial planet , the Engineer murmured to himself that he hoped no one would ever try drilling through to the core . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) During the Last Great Time War , the Time Lords , at the command of Cardinal Ollistra , released the Great Vampires from their universe to fight off a fleet of Dalek saucers . Despite the War Doctor ' s protests , Councilor Voltrix proceeded to open a rift , allowing them through . The memories of this event proved the Ninth Doctor ' s memories of the Time War were authentic . ( COMIC : " The Bidding War " ) The Cold could suck its target into another universe , where it would be destroyed by the inhabitants . Those creatures sought to enter the universe through the Cold , attacking it with their gigantic black wings , enormous clawed hands , and huge teeth . One ' s face was the size of a Drashig . ( PROSE : " Interference " ) Jendrickenses speculated that the Yssgaroth would be able to return through the Grandfather ' s Maw . ( PROSE : " The Brakespeare Voyage " ) An alternate perspective . In a TARDIS projection during the Eighth Doctor ' s infection with anti - time , the head of the Arcalian Chapter House s , Provost Lord Tepesh , revealed himself as a Great Vampire in disguise , even saying he was a direct descendant of the King Vampire . Tepesh claimed the Great Vampires were a peaceful lot , content to drink the blood of non - sentient , genetically bred cattle , until Rassilon showed up , declared the Vampires should not be allowed to exist , and began a 500 - year war of extermination . ( AUDIO : " Zagreus " ) Alternate timeline . During one of Romana II ' s , Leela ' s and Narvin ' s trips to alternative Gallifrey s , they visited one where Rassilon was killed by the Great Vampires after completing the transduction barrier . The Vampires then darkened the barrier to block out all light so they might live safely on Gallifrey . Over the next millennia the vampires gradually took over the True Lord s , until the battle between the vampire Lord Prydon and the True Lady Magestrix Borusa . During this battle , with Leela ' s help , Narvin and Romana helped Borusa and recaptured the ransduction barrier , increasing the light levels allowed to pass through and destroying the Vampires . ( AUDIO : " Annihilation " )