Vlad Dracula

**Vlad III,** commonly known as **Vlad the Impaler** (Romanian: *Vlad Țepeș [ˈvlad ˈtsepeʃ]*) or **Vlad Dracula** (*/ˈdrækjələ/*; Romanian: *Vlad Drăculea*) is a major character and an antagonist in the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of *Legacies*. He is a unique entity since he was born undead under extraordinary circumstance, becoming the only pureblood vampire in the world and one of the most powerful beings to have ever lived.

He is a member of the **Drăculești family** and thus a scion of the **House of Basarab**.

## Early history

Vlad III Dracula was born to Vlad II, Prince of Wallachia, and his wife Euphaxia of Moldavia. Born the heir to the Principality of Wallachia, Vlad's path into darkness was decided for him since before he was born. At the time, his father's realm was besieged by the rising Ottoman Empire and, unwilling to pay tribute to Muslims, Vlad II made begged the witches of a local Romani tribe to help make his future son powerful enough to destroy the Turks.

The witches used dark magic to empower the unborn prince, performed sacrifices and fed the mother with vampire blood in order to create a "dark champion". Their efforts culminated in the birth of Vlad, who was born an undead being with vast powers, far eclipsing those of any vampire. Instead of his mother's milk, the infant was fed human blood, which further strengthened the Dark Prince.

Vlad stopped aging upon reaching full maturity at about 41 years of age. He led multiple brutal campaigns against the Ottomans and even plotted to infiltrate Constantinople and slaughter all scions of the House of Osman, but eventually grew tired of "pretending to be human" and chose to abandon his people in favor of indulging his dark side.

He became legendary over the centuries as a ruthless and powerful, yet reclusive, vampire lord. He built a cult around himself, full of fanatically devoted servants who follow him through the centuries. In the late 19th century, he created a company named Wallachia Consolidated, as a way to better expand his influence in the human world.

During his early years, he had an encounter with Malivore, barely managing to flee the creature.

At some point in history, he became acquinted with the Mikaelsons and even befriended Klaus Mikaelson, whom he viewed as fascinating. Furthermore, he had several encounters with the Strix and developed a rivalry with the ancient vampire organization.

## Personality

Vlad is a centuries old vampire, born in a noble family of warlords and acts like it. He is aristocratic and very selective as to whom he feeds on. He often comes to others as being very sophisticated, but behind the veneer of nobility, Dracula is ruthless, cruel, tyranical and highly manipulative old vampire, who enjoys mind games. He feels the need to keep himself entertained throughout the centuries and indulges in various experiments and plots in order to "pass the time".

Despite his many negative traits, Dracula can be very respectful to those he deems his equals and hates cowardice. He believes that vampires who turn off their humanity are cowardly as they fear their own emotions, yet does not deride Hope Mikaelson for doing so, telling her that she may learn something from the whole experience. He loathes vampires who waste their lives doing nothing.

## Powers and abilities

Due to the unique circumstances of his birth and as the world's only Pureblood Vampire, Dracula possesses many common vampire abilities as well as many other unique abilities.

* **Super Strength:** Dracula has greater strength than a normal non-original vampire. During a clash with her, he was able to physically overpower Aurora de Martel, a vampire who is 1000 years old and thus almost twice his age.
* **Super Speed:** Being a vampire, Dracula is a lot faster than the finest human athlete. It is unknown whether his speed exceeds that of a normal vampire his age.
* **Super Senses:** He has extremely keen senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste that far exceed those of humans and werewolves. He can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far of buildings and on phones, though most vampires typically learn how to tune out most ambient noises when it's not necessary to hear them.
* **Super Agility:** He possesses super-human agility, such that Dracula can react quickly, jump very high, climb, and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion.
* **Super Durability:** He can take a great amount of physical damage without being slowed down. He is more durable than any non-Original vampire.
* **Healing Factor:** As a vampire, Dracula can heal extraordinarily fast from almost any injury. His healing factor is extraordinarily powerful, as he can regrow his own heart and reattach his head back to his body after decapitation. As long as there is even a piece of Dracula remaining, he can heal himself.
* **Immortality:** Dracula, just like any other vampire, has stopped aging completely. He does not normally get sick, grow old or die, unless killed. Unlike other vampires, he was born undead and thus aged at the same rate as any normal human being until he stopped aging when he reached his 41st birthday. According to himself, Dracula is "very hard to kill", as his body has to be completely destroyed in order for him to truly die.
* **Toxic Bite:** Unlike other vampires, Dracula's bite is highly toxic to non-undead beings. Upon feeding on others, Dracula involuntary secretes a powerful toxin into his victim's bloodstream, which makes them sick and weak, destroying their immune system and eventually causing them to die, unless he feeds them his blood, which seems to be the only cure to his poison as other vampires' blood seems unable to heal his victims.
* **Mind Compulsion:** Just like any other vampire, Dracula is capable of mind controlling humans. Uniquely, he is able to control, even from a distance, creatures of the night - wolves, bats, crows, etc.
* **Shapeshifting:** Vlad can transform himself into a bat or a swarm of bats at will.
* **Daywalking:** Unlike Original and non-Original vampires, Dracula is not adversely affected by exposure to sunlight, although he still prefers to stay indoors in daytime for reasons unknown.
* **Telepathy:** As a vampire, he can control the dreams and subconscious of humans and younger, less experienced vampires. He can also cast illusions inside their minds. Unlike other vampires, upon drinking enough of the blood of others, Dracula can absorb their memories and learn their non-supernatural skills such as foreign languages, wood-carving, computer-usage, marksmanship, fencing, etc.
* **Weather Manipulation:** Dracula is capable of manipulating the weather patterns in his vicinity, causing the appearance of dense fogs, lightning storms, rainfalls, etc.
* **Resistance to magic:** Due to his unnatural existence, which some witches have described as "the bane of nature", Dracula can resist magic to a certain extent. While not immune to spellcraft, most witches find it extremely hard to directly target him with their spells.

## Weaknesses

* **Vervain:** Consuming vervain would prevent Dracula from compelling people. Over the centuries, he has been consuming tiny amounts of the herb in order to grow a tolerance to its harmful effects.
* **Invitation:** Just like any other vampire, Dracula needs to be invited into a private property in order to enter.
* **Wood:** A wooden stake through the heart would put Dracula down, but, unlike other non-Original Vampires, it can't permanently kill him. Should the stake be removed from his heart, Dracula will resurrect himself.
* **Complete destruction of body:** The only way to fully destroy Dracula for good would be to completely obliterate his body. Should even a piece of Dracula's corpse remain, he could restore himself.

## Relationships

* Dracula's Brides (wives/servants)
* R.M. Renfield (servant)
* Lizzie Saltzman (acquintances)
* Hope Mikaelson (acquintances; frenemies)
* James Westridge (servant; spy)