Vlad Drakul

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Vlad Drakul II, also known as Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, and Count Dracula, was a warlord from Transylvania and a member of the Knights of the Holy Order. He is (incorrectly) regarded as the father of vampires. His armies devastated Europe in the late 1400s. Dracula is considered the most powerful living vampire noble and his schemes tend to be of a comparable scope of carnage and threat to the world.

History of Vlad Drakul

Vlad was born in 1422 in Wallachia, what is present-day Romania. He was the heir of Vlad Dracul I, the Voivode of Wallachia. Vlad inherited this role and spent much of his youth travelling European and Ottoman courts. He was inducted into the Knights of the Holy Order as was custom for a young prince. When Vlad Drakul I passed, Vlad II inherited the title of Voivode.

In 1458 he was caught using dark sorcery to try and resurrect his wife who had died of the plague. The other Knights of the Holy Order chased him into the frozen mountains of Transylvania, only to lose him in a blizzard. They abandoned the quest, reasoning no one could survive atop the frozen mountains in winter.

Sensing his impending death, Vlad stared into the licking flames of a dwindling survival fire and contemplated eternity in Hell.

Instead of repenting, Vlad swore he'd defy God if he must, and screamed his rage and defiance from the mountaintop. The flames answered him, an ancient and malevolent force offering Vlad eternal life in exchange for his immortal soul.

Vlad was provided a phial of the blood of the vampire primogenitor, Drake. He became a Vampire Lord of incredible power, blessed with vampiric powers unseen in centuries as well as potent mystical abilities such as true shapeshifting, flight, and even controlling the weather. He took control of the grand Covens of Europe; those who resisted he destroyed, and those who submitted he brought to heel.

Defiant of the longstanding traditions of the Courts, Dracula turned thousands of soldiers and produced scores of progeny. Mercifully for the world, most of these aberrations did not possess even a fraction of the blood power of pure-blooded vampires. They still lent his armies vast strength; Vlad's legions conquered a great deal of territory between Budapest, Kiev, and the Aegean, up until 1462 AD.

His legions were repelled by the Ottomans at Istanbul; an alliance of European forces stopped them inside the borders of present-day Poland. Opposition from groups such as the Illuminati and from enemies such as Clan Akkaba checked Dracula's mystical forces. In 1462 several crushing defeats led to his lieutenants and elite progeny being destroyed, and his mortal soldiers were routed in the aftermath. Vlad himself was attacked and captured by an unknown Hunter. Though he was unable to kill Dracula, the Hunter ensnared him in a trap and bound the vampire lord in silver and steel chains. Vlad was delivered to the House of Corvinus in Hungary, where the descendants of Alexander Corvin interred Dracula in their deepest jail cells. Somewhat recklessly, Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary) released Vlad from his imprisonment in 1475 to stem the onslaught of the Ottoman Empire. Dracula quickly got out of control and once more an alliance of Hunters, holy men, and ancient enemies imprisoned him. The machinations of the ancient entity that empowered Dracula prevented him from dying, so a curse was woven into the spell to bind Dracula's soul to the soil of Transylvania. Only repose on Transylvanian soil could prolong his life. Missions, chapels, and holy orders were stationed all through Transylvania to discourage anyone from settling within a day's overland flight from the castle and to ward visitors away from his decrepit home. It would be some four centuries before the steadfast failed and the warnings were dismissed as mere myths.

In 1898, the legendary Mina Murray and the hunter known as van Helsing fought their way to Dracula's castle and were able to foil a plot to overtake a large part of Romania. They rescued Mina's future husband Jonathan Harker but were unable to recapture the former warlord. Dracula sent crates of soil from his castle ahead of him and set up crypts and mausoleums where he could safely rest while travelling. In London, Dracula attempted to repeat his scheme of engineering an army of vampiric servitors to destroy the city. A new coalition formed; The League banded together with the ancient En Sabah Nur and time-displaced heroes from the 21st century, and successfully defeated Dracula's hordes. In the process, the curse binding him to Transylvanian soil was broken. Newly alert, vigilantes from Clan Akkaba and the Holy See both set observation posts around Transylvania to keep a watchful eye on Dracula's home to alert the world if he rises again.

In 2016 Dracula once more successfully escaped Transylvania and made his way to New York.