Lord of Vampires
Prince of Darkness
Son of the Dragon
Vlad the Impaler
Note: Schassburg, Transylvania is now the modern city of Sighisoara, Romania.
Castle Dracula, Transylvania
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Like all vampires, Dracula is capable of transforming other living beings into vampires via an enzyme found in his saliva. After the victim has succumbed to death the enzyme replaces what was once blood and resurrects the body within a few days.
Those not killed by the bite are susceptible to mental commands over great distances for a limited time, and could be telepathically contacted but not controlled for the rest of their lives. Those transformed into vampires become the mental slaves of Dracula. He is also capable of controlling for limited periods of time those who he had not bitten but had made eye contact with for several seconds. The stronger the mind, the longer amount of time Dracula has to make eye contact.
Dracula is capable of transforming into other creatures such as a bat (including a human-sized bat), rat or wolf, as well as a fog-like mist, while retaining his normal intelligence.
Mystic knowledge enables an ability to summon inclement weather but the strain leaves Dracula in a weakened state.
Note: Dracula was mystically enhanced by the Darkholders, granting him immunity from items that typically could wound or kill vampires including wood, silver, garlic and religious artifacts (i.e. crucifix, Star of David, holy water).
Dracula is still dependent upon the blood of living creatures and vulnerable to sunlight and the full incantation of the Montesi Formula from the mystical book known as the Darkhold.
Aamshed
Abraham van Helsing
Baron Russoff
Cagliostro
Dr. Sun
Frank Drake
Hannibal King
Quincy Harker
Rachel van Helsing
Taj Nitai
Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1, 2, 3 & 4
Dr. Strange Vol. 2
Literary
Dracula (May, 1887)
Marvel Comics
Suspense #7 (March, 1951)
Note: Bram Stoker loosely connected his vampire character to a 15th Century Wallachia (modern Romania) prince named Voivode Dracula also know as Vlad Tepes who battled Turkish invaders moving into Christian Europe.
The name Dracula is translated as "son of the dragon." Voivode Dracula's father, Vlad, took the sire name Dracul when the Holy Roman Emperor knighted him into the Order of the Dragon, a group of noblemen who were charged with the defense of Christianity.
The name Vlad Tepes (pronounced Tse-pesh) is a local name of some pride which is translated as "Vlad the Impaler," a name bestowed upon him by Ottoman Turkish historians for having his enemies impaled upon pikes as a warning to further invaders.
Note: Although the credit of brining Dracula to Marvel Comics (then known as Atlas) is unknown writer Gerry Conway and artist Gene Colan are credited for integrating the character into the Marvel Universe.
As a show of loyalty, Dracul offered his sons Vlad and Radu to a Turkish leader. While in the care of the Turks, Radu died and Vlad fostered a hatred of humanity.
In the mid-15th Century Vlad Dracula escaped the Turks and claimed the throne of Wallachia. Dracula was shortly thereafter forced into exile. He would wander from nation to nation until settling into marriage to a woman he did not love a decade later. His daughter by this marriage would become the vampire known as Lilith.
Soon after the end of his marriage, Dracula would reclaim the throne of Wallachia and wage a bloody war with the Turks. His practice of impaling hordes of enemies gained him the name "Vlad the Impaler." During this time of war he married a second time, siring a son named Vlad Tepelus.
After years of battle with the Turks, Castle Dracula was captured by the warlord Turac. Learning that his wife had been raped by Turkish soldiers, Dracula attacked Turac, who mortally wounded him. Turac took his enemy to be healed by the gypsy Lianda, who was a vampire. She killed Dracula with her bite and he eventually rose as a vampire.
Dracula would later defeat the vampire Nimrod and succeed him as ruler of Earth's vampires. He would later enhance his own strength with the blood of Varnae, the lone survivor of the first group of vampires to exist on Earth, who were created by pre-Cataclysmic Atlantian sorcerers using the Darkhold, a primeval book of black magic.
Dracula would move throughout the world over the next six centuries facing defeat and resurrecting many times. It was not until the sorcerer Dr. Strange used the incantation known as the Montesi Formula from the mystical book known as the Darkhold that all vampires were destroyed including Dracula.