Vlad III

### Aliases

Dracula, Vlad Tepes, Vlad III Țepeș, Vlad III Drăculești, Vladislav III, Vlad Dracula, Vlad the Implaler, Lord Impaler, Vlad III Drăculea, Vlad Drăculea, Dragulya, Drakulya, Eusebius Drakul, Voivode Dracula, Vlad Dracul, Kazikli Bey, Prince of Wallachia, True Lord of Romania, King of all Vampires, Vampire of God, Mad King, Shield of Christianity, Defender of Christendom, Impaler Lord

### Affiliation

Order of the Dragon, Heaven, Wallachia, Romania

## Relatives

### Offspring

Mihnea cel Rău, Zaleska, Vlad IV Dracula, Radu, Mihail

**Vlad III** was the holy king of Wallachia of Romania, born at 1431 by Vlad II Dracul, who became a vampire under the authority of God.

## Overview

During his time as Vlad Tepes, his father was called "Dracul," meaning "dragon" or "devil" in Romanian because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

In Romanian, the name Dracula means son of Dracul. Because of that, Vlad was called the son of the dragon or son of the devil when he was young. This might be the reason that he is believed to be a vampire by scholars.

He was known as the Impaler due to the brutal ways he punished his enemies.

## History

### Slaughter for the Throne

Vlad lived during the time when Transylvania was at war with the Ottoman Turks and the Austrian Hapsburgs. He was imprisoned as soon as he was discovered, his father was killed, and his older brother was blinded and buried alive. Vlad suffered imprisonment first at the hands of the Turks, then the Hungarians.

Vlad ruled Wallachia and Transylvania for 28 years, from 1448 to 1476. He lost his throne twice but reclaimed them both times, once by battling against his brother Radu. While he was praised for defending Christianity by the Vatican, he was also criticized for his brutality and methods of torture, one of which was to impale offenders and leave them on the road to die. As a warning of disobedience, the bodies would remain on the road for vultures and crows.

### A Devil on Earth

In an attempt to prevent war, Dracula killed thousands of his own people. This method proved to be effective as it stopped the Ottoman army in their tracks. The army, upon seeing thousands of bodies impaled on the banks of the Danube River, instantly returned to their emperor and reported what they saw, insisting that whoever killed them was the Devil.

In one battle, Vlad impaled all the people he could find in the mountains he fled to, effectively stopping the Turkish army because the sultan, who was known for his brutal torture methods, couldn’t withstand the stink of decaying bodies. Another time, Vlad calmly ate his lunch among hundreds of dead or dying people. In fact, it is rumored that he dipped his bread in blood.

### Birth of Dracula

In December 1476, Vlad was killed while fighting the Turks by having his head cut off. His dead body was displayed in Constantinople as a sign of victory. Before his death, Satan appeared before him and offered him power in exchange for his soul.

However, Satan did not truly realize the amount of faith that Vlad had for the Abrahamic God. As so, he was surprised when Vlad refused the deal due to his loyalty to God even in death, his refusal to be a pawn of the Devil and his dignity as a king. In righteous fury, Vlad declared that Satan will always be his enemy and attacked him in this limbo. While ruthless and relentless in his attacks, Vlad stood no chance compared to Satan who still was intrigued in him. Satan forced his will over Vlad by making him drink the Devil's blood just as he was executed by beheading.

### Aftermath

After becoming a vampire, Vlad was stuck in an endless existence, having no purpose and no home. He observed many historical events until Lucifer found him and imprisoned him within his own castle. Dracula was considered to be perhaps the most dangerous and powerful vampire in all of existence due to his power and rage, being greatly feared by many supernatural hunters.

However, light had shined in his undead life when the True Archangel of Death Azrael appeared before him in peace. The Angel explains that Vlad was intended to become a vampire so that other vampires didn't enslave humanity. Finding out his purpose in undeath, Vlad went back to his new castle before going out to find the other vampiric nobles. Unknowingly, he was watched by Carmilla who was sent by the Vampire God Maacah to observe him.

## Myths and Legends

This word became Anglicized to "Dracula" and Bram Stoker used this form as the eponymous title for his 1897 Gothic novel and its main antagonist, Count Dracula. Although both the real Vlad and the fictional Dracula originated in Romania, it is to be noted that their specific ethnicities and default languages differed: Vlad the Impaler was ethnically Vlach and spoke Romanian during his time, while Dracula was depicted as being Szekely, a Hungarian-speaking ethnic group still in existence in the current day.

## Trivia

* The name Dracula has been used constantly for leaders of vampires or powerful figures in Vampire history.
	+ For example, another vampire known as Count Dracula had terrorized humanity before being killed by Quincey Morris and Abraham Van Helsing.
* Vlad loathes the novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, which he considered had ruined his reputation even though it wasn't meant for him.
	+ The saints of Heaven, along with Solomon, once had to chain him down to make sure he not going to slaughter the writer and his entire family.
* The human Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco is a flamboyant German socialite who achieved fame through a claim of adopted lineage from Vlad III.