The story of Adrian Farenheights Tepes. Written by my own hand beginning March 03, 1808.
Do your demons,
do they ever let you go?
When you've tried-do they hide-deep inside
is it someone that you know?
You're just a picture.
Just an image caught in time.
We're a lie-you and I,
we're words without a rhyme.
There's no sign of the morning coming,
you've been left on your own,
like a rainbow in the dark-
"Rainbow in the Dark"-Ronnie James Dio
Family HistoryMy family is Romanian and has been for centuries, and so that legacy continued with me when I entered the world on September 27, 1478, as the unusual union between Prince Vlad Tepes III and Lisa Romoff. Vlad Tepes, my father, is commonly known and feared as the vampire Dracula, but he was not always that way.
Father was born into this world in the year 1431, and his birth was no different than the birth of my two sons. Yet in 1462 a transformation took place that would alter his world forever.
1462 was a horrible year in Romanian history. The country (or the country that would eventually come to be known as Romania) was under constant threat by the Turks, who wanted to destroy Christendom and establish Islam as the new doctrine of the land. My father was the prince of the Romanian province Wallachia. He was a moderately tall man for his era with broad shoulders, dark eyes, and long flowing dark hair. He was loyal to the Orthodox Church, but he was even more loyal to his country, and Father was not going to stand by and allow the Turks to destroy the faith and culture of his Romanian people.
Father faced the Turks in a fierce battle, and succeeded in repelling them from Romania's shores through the use of torture. When the Sultan's troops arrived they were horrified at the sight of their fellow comrades impaled on large stakes in the forest. This event in our country's history has come be known as the forest of the impaled. Despite the brutality of Father's tactic he was greeted with shouts of acclamation for defending not only the Christian faith, but also the country. Nevertheless, the praise he received for his victory would eventually turn to personal sorrow.
While Father was away fighting the Turks someone shot an arrow into Castle Poneria (now Castle Dracula). At the end of this arrow was a false message that stated Father had been killed on the battlefield. No one knows who shot the arrow; or if the individual who shot the arrow was the victim of receiving false information, or was trying to create chaos within the walls of the Castle. Whatever the intention, the message reached Father's wife (I do not know what her name was), and assuming that the message was authentic she flung herself from the Castle tower into the river Agnes below. She either hit her head on a rock, or landed in water that was too shallow. Regardless of how she landed, she was dead. (I have never lost a wife, and do not ever intend on losing Maria, so I do not intend to try and understand how Father felt.)
Her body was fished from the river and placed in an open casket inside the Castle chapel. The priests, who the bishop allowed to serve inside the Castle, tried their best to comfort Father, but the moment he asked them about funeral arrangements their reply was one that would change his life forever.
The priests told Father that she was not allowed to receive a funeral Mass or a burial in the churchyard. According to the priests, his wife was in Hell. By committing suicide she destroyed the life of her soul and insulted God in the process. Needless to say, Father was not happy about this at all. He cursed God as being nothing but a cruel, unloving God; and cursed those who fed off Him. The priests attempted to calm Father down and explain to him the Christian teaching on such matters, but he wanted none of it. He responded to the priests' defense of Christian doctrine by piercing the image of the crucifix above the chapel altar with his sword, and ordered all of them barred from the Castle. No priest ever entered the Castle again. At least not while Father was alive…or whatever you want to call his later state of life.
Even today when I think about this story that I remember hearing about so long ago from my mother I still believe that Father had every right in the world to be angry at those priests. Those priests had no right to tell Father that his wife was burning in Hell! The Jesus that is talked about in the Bible preaches a message of not judging others. The priests in Father's court seemed to forget that teaching of Jesus. Still, I do not justify Father's actions against God or the Church. Father had every right to be upset at those particular priests, but I don't find God at fault for what happened. I actually explained this point of view to my brother-in-law, Father Richter Belmont, shortly before my oldest son, Lysander's, baptism. Richter cast me a sharp glare when he first heard my position-to the point where I believed he wasn't going to baptize my son-but once I explained the other aspect of my statement he said, "Well, I agree with you Adrian. Those priests should've considered the fact that she might've made a private confession directly to God before her passing, but that still does not excuse your father's actions." And I couldn't agree more. From that day on Father viewed himself to be at war with God, and would do anything to defy God's will. It was somewhere around this time that he discovered the ancient legend of vampires.
Vampirism did not start with Father. The legend of vampires has been in existence for centuries; probably for almost as long as mankind has walked the earth there had been stories of vampires in almost every culture. Regardless of the culture, the philosophy behind vampirism is essentially the same. Vampirism centers on the idea that by drinking the blood of the living a person can sustain his or her own life to the point where they can escape death. To Father this philosophy was perfect. If he couldn't defeat God in life, he could do so from beyond the grave. I can just imagine the sickness my father's servants felt when they presented him with a goblet that contained the blood of an impaled victim.
Obviously the idea worked, because I was born in the year 1478 and Father was killed in battle in the year 1476. Legend has it that shortly after Father's death he met the Devil, who gave him what he wanted. If this legend is true it was never spoken around me. Of course, I did not understand what my father was until I was a teenager. I would, however, be willing to believe that all the power my father received was a gift from the Devil. And although he was blessed with newfound powers, he also discovered the difficulties to being a creature of darkness.
One of his difficulties was a weakness to sunlight. Some beliefs describe vampires as being destroyed by sunlight. This is not exactly the case. My father, as legend has it, was the only vampire in the world at the time he re-entered the land of the living. Therefore, Father was an extremely powerful vampire. Sunlight would not destroy him, but it would weaken his powers. Younger vampires, while not being destroyed by sunlight, become so weak to it that a vampire hunter can easily slay them.
Father also was unable to cast his eyes upon a religious image (although, according to legend, he couldn't stand to do so during his breathing days). Why are vampires repelled by religious images? As I understand it, when a vampire views a religious image he or she sees more than what we see. For example, if a vampire sees an icon of Christ they see more than just a picture of Jesus. They see the image of Christ Himself repelling them away. And if a vampire is within the vicinity of the Eucharist the results are absolutely deadly.
When it comes to my mother's family I know very little. She was born in the year 1456 to John and Anne Romoff, but I know very little about her parents. I met them once in my life, and it was not a pleasant experience. How my mother and father met is another mystery I have not been able to solve. I remember asking my mother about it once, but it has been such a long time that I cannot remember everything that she told me. What I do remember is Mother telling me that she met Father by accident, which seems to be how a lot of relationships start. Regardless of how the two met, Mother had the ability to bring out the humanity in Father. Perhaps it is possible that if their relationship could have continued for another couple of years the vampire Dracula would have never been known except for a few people in the Castle's inner circle.