TEXT: © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Vampires
  A  H U N T E R ' S  G U I D E
  STEVE WHITE 
  MARK MCKENZIE-RAY
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Contents
  Introduction 
  4
  The SAU in Action 
  7
  European Vampires 
  11
  North American Vampires 
  25
  African Vampires 
  36
  Asian Vampires 
  50
  South American Vampires 
  63
  Conclusion 
  73
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  4
  Introduction
  From the highly regarded classic to the downright ridiculous, vampire stories 
  have fascinated humanity for centuries. But is there more to these narratives 
  than poetic license? Similarities in the depiction of the creatures and their 
  behavior within these texts is clearly evident, and real-world reports of 
  vampire-related events have contributed to the cultural history of almost every 
  continent in the world, be it through oral retelling or actual documentation.
  There has been little respect for studies into the existence of vampires, 
  a creature that is long considered to have been a product of superstition, 
  given life by the whispers of legend and folklore. The authors of this guide 
  are great admirers of vampires and have spent many nights researching and 
  documenting vampire species from around the globe. In fact, it was during our 
  own separate lines of research that we ﬁrst crossed paths. From the moment 
  we began debating Séan Manchester’s theories put forward for the case of the 
  Highgate vampire incidents from the 1970s, we knew we had found a kindred 
  spirit in one another.
  In 2009, our work attracted the attention of the United Nations 
  Educational, Scientiﬁc & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – a United 
  Nations agency that sponsors programs in arts, communication and culture. 
  UNESCO had been playing close attention to our research as we delved 
  headﬁrst into the vampire underworld. We saw the worst the species had to 
  oﬀer during our time behind the front lines. We wanted to understand the 
  creatures better: where do they come from? What is their motivation? Are they 
  merely victims of scapegoating? The information our research has uncovered 
  is both fascinating and alarming.
  During our work with UNESCO, the organization was able to conﬁrm one 
  startling piece of information that the authors had long suspected: hunters the 
  world over have been independently ﬁghting vampires for millennia. Until 
  now, their activities had stayed mostly hidden and the vampire threat was 
  kept relatively under control. But now the underworld is a hive of activity as 
  the “undead” prepare to assemble their forces and rise up against humanity.
  UNESCO is reacting by aggressively stepping up the recruitment and 
  training of its own counter-units. Vampire hunters are being deployed across 
  the globe to ﬁght the massing hordes of vampires. Dubbed SAU (Special 
  Action Units), these groups are using every piece of information at their 
  disposal to neutralize the growing threat.
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  5
  What we have compiled is a handbook of sorts: a basic background to 
  the vampires, drawing on information that we have gathered through our 
  research and ﬁrst-hand experience with these deadly and uncompromising 
  creatures. Within these pages, you will ﬁnd explanations of a number of 
  vampires in areas across ﬁve continents: Europe, North America, Africa, 
  Asia and South America. We have focused our content on a select number of 
  vampire subspecies – those that present the biggest threats to humanity now 
  and in the foreseeable future – within the three principal classes of vampire: 
  haemophages (blood drinkers), psychics, and a combination of the two.
  Studying our targets’ origins will allow a greater understanding of their 
  behavior and motivations. We reach far back into prehistory, beyond even 
  the ﬁrst recorded mention of the creatures in the Russian Primary Chronicle 
  (1047), a historical text that features a Novogorodian priest known as Upyr’ 
  Strigoi, the classic European 
  vampires, are extremely difficult 
  to photograph. Not only do 
  they generally not want their 
  pictures taken, but their images 
  seem to slide off film in a way 
  not completely understood 
  to science. This situation has 
  somewhat improved with the 
  rise of digital photography, 
  but authentic photographs of 
  vampires remain a rarity.
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  6
  Likhij (Wicked Vampire). Though the Slavic origin of the “vampire” has 
  established Europe as a hotbed of vampiric activity for more than a thousand 
  years, our research proves that the reach of the vampire is far greater than we 
  could have ever imagined.
  No guide to vampire hunting would be complete without an analysis of 
  the methods used to destroy the enemy. As each vampire has evolved in its 
  surroundings, hunters have retaliated by adapting their skills and techniques 
  to take on the threats in their locale. The comprehensive examination of each 
  hunter, from their humble beginnings to their current practices and successes, 
  is told with a view to inform. Today’s vampire hunters should look to the 
  styles that follow to inﬂuence their own methods as they prepare to ﬁght 
  every type of vampire, as more and more species migrate from their native 
  countries to integrate themselves into foreign covens. A new, global empire is 
  on the horizon, one that will threaten the existence of the human species as 
  we know it.
  Our studies have been prepared to arm any potential vampire hunter with 
  the knowledge required to support their training and become skilled in their 
  profession. Forget everything you thought you knew about vampires – your 
  education starts right here.
  A still from the 1922 silent film, 
  Nosferatu. After a legal battle 
  involving the Bram Stoker estate, 
  all copies of the film were ordered 
  destroyed by the German courts. 
  Thankfully one copy survived this 
  purge. Many have interpreted the 
  incident as an effort by European 
  vampires to suppress knowledge 
  of their existence. (Pictorial Press 
  Ltd / Alamy)
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  7
  THE SAU IN ACTION
  At dusk on the evening of September 13, 1995, an unusual religious service 
  was held in the chapel of the UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection 
  Force) base at Divilji Barracks, in Split, Croatia. Operation Deliberate Force, 
  the UN’s belated response to the siege of Sarajevo and the atrocities being 
  committed by Serb forces in Bosnia, was two days old.
  Gathered in the chapel were a dozen men and women from as many 
  nations; the Catholic priest now blessing them had heard their confessions 
  and was now saying Mass for the group who, to any outsider, might have 
  looked like Special Forces operatives or private security contractors. They had 
  no deﬁnitive uniform, other than that they all wore black and cruciﬁxes hung 
  around their necks. Piled by the door were their UN-issue blue helmets and 
  their weapons: automatic shotguns and high-powered assault riﬂes, all low-
  velocity types. Clearly, whatever ammunition they ﬁred was intended to stay 
  in the target. Each gun carried a torch, at ﬁrst glance apparently white light or 
  infrared, but all actually ultra-violet.
  Closer inspection would also have revealed that the body armor they wore 
  was acid-etched with Biblical inscriptions in Latin and Serbo-Croat, and 
  religious iconography was subtly worked into the metal and ceramics. Their 
  weapons also held unusual ammunition. The shotgun rounds ﬁred ﬂechettes 
  of consecrated, carbonized wood or ball-bearings of silver, also blessed. The 
  assault riﬂes, all 7.62mm caliber, used silver or carbon graphite slugs converted 
  to illegal dum-dums.
  Just after midnight, the team of the innocuously named First Special 
  Action Unit climbed aboard two British Army Lynx helicopters, part of the 
  Heli Ops ﬂight based at Split. It could have been carrying an SAS unit out on 
  a night insertion, and was a pretty regular sight at Split. The blue UN helmets 
  were still in the chapel when the Lynx took oﬀ and headed oﬀ into the dark. 
  Air attacks were under way across Bosnia, and the Lynx ﬂight was just two 
  aircraft amongst dozens on the move that night.
  They headed towards the Dinaric Alps that ran next to the Adriatic Sea, 
  along the Croatian coast. Flying just above the treetops, the Lynx ﬂight was 
  heading towards a hidden cave deep within the rugged mountain chain.
  The 1st SAU’s (nicknamed “saw”) mission had begun the week before – 
  the actual dates and times remain largely classiﬁed. The unit had inserted 
  itself into the UNPROFOR base with ease. Many nations had contingents at 
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  8
  the base and new faces came 
  and went with monotonous 
  frequency. 
  There 
  was 
  a 
  veritable bazar of uniform 
  types. It was easy for those 
  on missions of questionable 
  veracity to come and go. The 
  SAU’s mission was one known 
  to very few select members of 
  the UN mission and NATO 
  high command, and a few 
  government oﬃcials. The unit 
  received the most classiﬁed 
  intelligence but also had access to the very latest reconnaissance imagery from 
  across the war-torn region. But it also drew information from all manner of 
  sources. The unit looked at raw news footage and reports from journalists 
  throughout the war zone, from Special Forces patrols, UN inspectors and 
  aerial reconnaissance interpretation units. They even interviewed prisoners of 
  war and defectors. And if anyone asked why – and they rarely did – they were 
  gathering evidence for war crimes tribunals.
  But their real target was something far more deadly, the Strigoi.
  Centuries of hunters had made the Strigoi rare in their home territories. 
  However, the breakup of Yugoslavia changed that. As Croatia, Serbia and 
  Bosnia fractured and the specter of ethnic cleansing fell upon the region, 
  reports began to emerge of renewed activity by the Strigoi. No longer capable 
  of lording it over terriﬁed peasantry, their castles had long since fallen to 
  ruin and their mausoleums had been destroyed by terriﬁed locals. Their lairs 
  remained undetected, but as the situation in the Balkans degenerated, rumors 
  began to circulate that not all of the killing could be attributed to the work 
  of frenzied paramilitaries or genocidal militias killing unfortunate Muslims. 
  It seems the Strigoi initially tried to cover up their activities by burning their 
  victims, but UN pathologists exhuming a grave in northern Bosnia found the 
  dead to be exsanguinated. The report was initially attributed to some kind of 
  ritualistic behavior by a guerrilla unit and largely ignored, but it piqued the 
  interest of regional vampire hunters. Word spread throughout the hunting 
  community and oﬃcials at the UN began investigating in earnest.
  As the situation around Sarajevo worsened in the summer of 1995, the 
  ﬁrst real signs of Strigoi activity appeared (and were subsequently classiﬁed 
  and obfuscated). Mass killings hinted that the vampires, after decades – 
  even centuries – of isolation and near-extinction, and with so much real 
  killing going on to hide their own appetites, found themselves like foxes in 
  a hencoop. They killed without restraint. A UN vehicle patrol near Tuzla in 
  August 1995 found a busload of women and children killed. There was no 
  This shot of unmarked Black 
  Hawk helicopters is thought to be 
  the only photographic evidence 
  of SAU activity in Bosnia. (US 
  Department of Defense)
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  9
  attempt to hide the bodies, which had clearly been exsanguinated. There was 
  nothing organized in the butchery, nothing to suggest an execution. It was 
  enough to bring real fear to the locals, while the UN troops (from Holland) 
  were immediately transferred out of the region to stop any rumors spreading. 
  UN special pathologists arrived on the scene the following night and treated 
  the bodies of the dead (using decapitation and cardiac puncture), which were 
  then cremated.
  The Strigoi’s lack of ﬁnesse eventually gave them away. A shepherd boy had 
  discovered what appeared to be a new cave system high in the Dinaric Alps. 
  He also reported seeing large, red-furred bats. A UNESCO science team, 
  ignoring the situation in the region, decided to investigate, hoping the boy 
  might have discovered caves similar to the Movile system in Romania, with its 
  unique groundwater ecosystem.
  Two days after arriving at the 
  caves, and after some exciting 
  initial ﬁnds, the team reported 
  seeing a beautiful, red-haired 
  woman watching them from the 
  cave. That night, the boy guide 
  vanished. By the following day, 
  contact with the team had ceased. 
  The general conclusion was that 
  they had been kidnapped, or 
  worse.
  In Split, the SAU followed 
  the reports with interest. Under 
  the guise of investigating the 
  disappearance, the SAU launched 
  their mission of September 13.
  After rappelling into the 
  ravine from the helicopters, the 
  team used night-vision goggles 
  (NVGs) to negotiate their way 
  to the cave entrance. There was 
  a strong smell of ammonia. 
  Prepared for such an eventuality, 
  they put on gas masks and 
  entered the cave.
  Deep inside, they discovered 
  a massive bat colony. The 
  conditions 
  could 
  only 
  be 
  described 
  as 
  hellish. 
  Huge 
  dunes of guano (which rained 
  A photographic reconstruction of 
  one of the Strigoi encountered by 
  SAU agents during their mission of 
  September 13, 1995.
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  10
  down constantly from the roosting bats in the cave roof) were covered in a 
  seething mass of cockroaches and other bugs. The smell was appalling and 
  the constant ﬂittering of the bats cluttered the NVGs, drawing light from the 
  bioluminescence emanating from the rotting dung.
  Struggling up the guano dunes and further into the caves, the SAU had 
  their ﬁrst inclination of something amiss when one of the team spotted a 
  large, red-furred bat overhead. When it was hit by a beam of UV torchlight, 
  it emitted an incredibly high-pitched scream.
  Shortly after, the SAU was attacked.
  Corroborated reports tell us what happened in those caves. Harpy-like 
  Strigoaică (female Strogoi) descended out of nowhere, and in seconds at least 
  two SAU members were dead. The roar of gunﬁre echoing around the caves 
  stirred up the bats, who took to the air in a whirlwind of wings. Chaos ensued 
  and the team were forced to retire, but not before at least two Strigoaică were 
  hit by ﬁre. One lay screaming and ﬂapping, her wing shredded by a ﬂechette 
  round. One of the team shot her in the chest and throat with silver shotgun 
  rounds. A second was blasted out of the air by a shot to the chest, which 
  vaporized under a storm of wooden darts.
  In disarray, the team made it out of the cave, but ﬁve were dead and three 
  were injured – one by friendly ﬁre, hit in the shoulder by silver shotgun pellets. 
  The others were scratched but none bitten.
  Evacuated by the helicopters, the survivors called down ﬁre from an orbiting 
  AC-130H Spectre gunship operating with the 16th Special Operations 
  Group out of Brindisi. Cannon ﬁre collapsed the entrance of the cave but it 
  remains unknown if any of the Strigoi escaped. To be certain that the entrance 
  remained properly sealed, two Tomahawk cruise missiles were ﬁred from the 
  guided-missile cruiser, the USS Normandy, into the cave entrance, their huge 
  1,000lb warheads bringing the cave and surrounding ravine crashing down.
  The hunt was now on for any Strigoi who may have ﬂed the battle, while 
  the SAU retired to lick its wounds.
  The USS Normandy, which 
  fired the final shots (a pair of 
  Tomahawk cruise missiles) during 
  the September 13, 1995 mission. 
  (US Department of Defense)
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  11
  European Vampires
  Early History of the Strigoi
  The fear of returning from the dead dates back to prehistory, and if there 
  was ever a geographical center for that fear, it was Europe. In an Iron Age 
  site in Bavaria, a violently killed woman was buried beneath a large stone, 
  presumably to keep her from rising from her grave.
  Ancient Greece was an early home of the vampire legend. Empusa was 
  the demonic daughter of the goddess Hecate, herself often associated with 
  witchcraft, magic and crossroads. Empusa drank the blood of men she 
  seduced as a beautiful young woman. Another goddess, 
  Lamia, drained young children in revenge for the killing 
  of her own infants by Zeus’ wife, Hera, after the latter 
  discovered Lamia’s aﬀair with her husband.
  Despite their apparently unnatural origins, the ﬁrst 
  vampires were still limited by certain laws of nature. As 
  a “top predator,” their numbers remained small and they 
  were limited by slow reproductive rates, whether via 
  actually breeding or by the “turning” of victims. Even 
  so, around the Carpathians and eastern Alps, vampires 
  became an increasing hazard for the local population.
  It was in the ﬁrst few centuries AD, and largely 
  through the Christianization of the region, that the 
  ﬁrst countermeasures were developed against these ﬁrst 
  “true” vampires, now known as the Strigoi. Hunters 
  used to dealing with wolves and bears reﬁned methods 
  to kill vampires that were initially fairly straightforward: 
  beheading, burning and staking, often all three.
  However, with the region’s population becoming 
  more ﬁrmly Christian in the following centuries, it 
  seems the ﬁrst amuletic defences started to become 
  common. Studies indicate that this use of religious 
  symbols to ward oﬀ vampires may have arisen 
  as a result of local Christians being turned 
  into vampires. Devoted in their beliefs, it is 
  possible that these victims felt themselves 
  cursed or demonized, and as such vulnerable 
  other goddess, 
  for the killing 
  fter the latter 
  gins, the ﬁrst 
  of nature. As
  small and they 
  , whether via 
  victims. Even 
  Alps, vampires 
  opulation.
  , and largely 
  gion, that the 
  nst these ﬁrst 
  goi. Hunters 
  ned methods 
  aightforward: 
  hree.
  becoming 
  nturies, it
  o become 
  religious
  arisen 
  ned 
  is 
  es 
  le 
  An Albanian Shtriga, a variety 
  of Strigoi that dispels the myth 
  that all vampires are beautiful. 
  (Reconstruction by Hauke Kock)
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  12
  to Christian symbols such as the cross and holy water. These beliefs could have 
  been psychosomatically very powerful, to the extent that they took on actual 
  physical manifestations, and if the vampires’ beliefs were powerful enough 
  it was passed on culturally within the colony. As such, a psychological belief 
  became an instinctive one, possibly passed on at an almost genetic level.
  It was also during the 5th and 6th centuries that the ﬁrst warrior priests 
  appeared. They were trained in local monasteries, but as boys were already 
  well versed in the art of hunting wolves and bears, and with a deep-rooted 
  familiarity with the surrounding landscape. As such, they knew the likely 
  TYPES OF STRIGOI
  Like many top predators, the Strigoi have cultures 
  adapted to specialist prey. This has led to the rise in a 
  belief that there are a number of diﬀerent European 
  vampire types. Actually, they are all now believed to be 
  the same species of the Strigoi vampire, and are found 
  throughout Europe.
  Pijavica: a Strigoi particular to the Balkans and Czech 
  Republic, said to be a vampire created by the incestuous 
  union of mother and son, and limiting their prey to 
  family members. (The incestuous union could actually 
  be a case of vampirism interpreted as a sexual act.)
  Shtriga: An Albanian variation that lacks the usual 
  beautiful female appearance and is instead hideous or 
  demonic, or like an ancient crone. However, they still 
  favor the blood of infants. Reports claim that a Shtriga 
  can prevent the turning of her victim by spitting in their 
  mouth. This has been interpreted as a possible natural 
  “antivenom” contained within the Shtriga, and eﬀorts 
  are under way by SAU to capture one of these particular 
  specimens. They are thought to be vulnerable to garlic 
  and pig-bone crosses.
  Vjesci: A Polish species recognized by a caul (lump) 
  on their forehead. Removal of the lump on the seventh 
  birthday of the victim prevents “turning” (a signiﬁcant 
  date similar to the life cycle of the cambion, a product of 
  human/vampire procreation). It is reported that they are 
  susceptible to religious icons.
  Mullo (Muli = male; Mulo = female): Romany/gypsy 
  variation; considered a person to have died of wrongful 
  or unnatural causes, or for whom the correct funeral 
  rites were not observed. They have a propensity for 
  poltergeist-like behavior, often vindictive or vengeful. 
  This behavior is often focused around family members 
  or those whom the Mullo had a particular grievance 
  against in life.
  They also seem to be aﬄicted with a physical 
  abnormality that varies from individual to individual (a 
  clawed foot or hand, the beginnings of a tail) and are often 
  of hideous appearance. A possible explanation for this is 
  that the transformation to a “true” vampire has failed or 
  been interrupted, perhaps due to some genetic trait or 
  medical condition. It is interesting to note that Mullo 
  rise any time between 40 days and ﬁve years after death, 
  which, compared to other Strigoi that rise within hours, 
  indicates some abnormality in the transformation process.
  However, the Mullo does retain a relatively “human” 
  state and, as such, they are unable to sire new Mullo 
  but can impregnate human females, resulting in hybrid 
  oﬀspring known as Dhampirs. 
  This incomplete transformation might also explain 
  the Mullo’s attachment to its family and memory of its 
  previous existence.
  Romany methods of disposal are variations on regular 
  methods: metal pins or needles inserted into the heart, 
  mouth, eyes, ears and between the ﬁngers, and hawthorn 
  stakes driven into the legs.
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  13
  hideouts of vampires, be it a cave system or an abandoned farmstead, and 
  how to track them to their lair. For the ﬁrst time since prehistory, humanity 
  was taking the ﬁght to the vampires that they had named the Strigoi.
  Despite this, the warrior priests were few and far between. It was also a 
  diﬃcult region in which to hunt, a wilderness of high mountains and deep 
  forests, with a multitude of hiding places from which the Strigoi could strike. 
  Because of this, in their Eastern European homelands the vampires went 
  largely unchallenged throughout their early history.
  The Middle Ages
  It was not until the time of the First Crusade that any organized defense 
  against the Strigoi and their kin ﬁrst appeared.
  Following the call of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in France 
  in November 1095, the First Crusade gathered largely under the auspices of 
  saving the Byzantine Empire from the apparent threat of a Muslim invasion. 
  While the armies of Europe gathered their forces, a rather less disciplined 
  and rag-tag Crusade took up Urban’s call and set oﬀ for the Holy Land. With 
  few knights amongst its ranks, the army was largely composed of poor and 
  illiterate peasants, many hoping for a new life and wealth in the east.
  In August 1096, the “People’s Crusade” as it was known, swept through 
  Eastern Europe like a locust plague. Poorly equipped and hungry, these 
  “crusaders” sacked any town that could not resist them, be it Christian or not, 
  even doing battle with Hungarian forces when they began to starve.
  The People’s Crusade was an unexpected boon for the Strigoi. The poorly 
  armed, disorganized, ignorant peasants provided rich picking for the vampires 
  as they passed through the region. Lost and hungry groups of travelers 
  blundered into the Carpathians and were quickly annihilated, swelling the 
  number of Strigoi and making them conﬁdent enough to leave their usual 
  hunting grounds to haunt the peasant crusaders, picking oﬀ stragglers and 
  the weak.
  The People’s Crusade reached Constantinople, 
  the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in late 
  August and immediately caused enough trouble 
  that the city closed its gates to the peasants. They 
  were, however, quickly oﬀered boats across the 
  Bosporus into the Levant, where they were very 
  soon massacred by local Muslim forces.
  Blood Libel
  The preaching of the Crusade had a horriﬁc 
  impact on European Jews, who many Christians 
  saw as equally the enemies of Christ as the 
  Muslims. By the end of 1095, pogroms had 
  Although there are very few 
  written records of vampires from 
  the Middle Ages, depictions of 
  them can be found in artwork and 
  sculptures, such as this grotesque 
  from a Spanish cathedral. (PD)
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  14
  begun in France and Germany, even though violence against the Jews was 
  never sanctioned by the Christian leadership, which was much more intent 
  on converting them.
  However, a few monastic scholars began to link Jews to vampires. This 
  seems to have resulted from the fantastical belief that the Jews used the blood 
  of Christian children in such ceremonies as the baking of matza ﬂatbread for 
  Passover, and in the resurrection of golems, animated ﬁgures usually made 
  of clay or stone. That the Torah absolutely forbids murder was completely 
  ignored amidst the widespread anti-Semitism of the time, and the twin themes 
  of blood and resurrection of the inanimate were to prove very dangerous for 
  the Jews of Eastern Europe.
  The ﬁrst milites Christi (“soldiers of Christ”) entered the region at the end of 
  the 11th century. Many were educated monks and listened to the local stories of 
  vampires with interest, immediately recognizing (with their own skewed vision) 
  the hand of Satan at work. To them, the Strigoi were nothing less than demons 
  from hell and, interested in seeing the vampires for themselves, they organized 
  the ﬁrst vampire pogroms, or anti-vampire uprisings. The newly conﬁdent 
  Strigoi were suddenly confronted with righteous, well-equipped and conﬁdent 
  knights, many battle-hardened from years of ﬁghting in Europe. Despite their 
  natural attributes, the vampires were driven back into the mountains and forests, 
  and vanished back underground into their caves and sarcophagi.
  Amongst the more scholarly milites Christi, the link between Jews and Strigoi 
  was hardening. A thesis on the matter, which also sought to establish a similar 
  link with Muslim beliefs, was circulated amongst the knights. They used it to 
  ignore the Christian bishops who called for conversion and set about massacring 
  Jewish populations and destroying synagogues. The Vatican archive also includes 
  reports of knights searching synagogue cellars for vampire lairs. They were of 
  course disappointed to ﬁnd none, but merely used this as evidence that the local 
  rabbis had warned the Strigoi of their coming, or even hidden them. Many of the 
  Jews were subsequently tortured to glean the “truth” of the matter.
  Fortunately, the rise of dedicated vampire hunters at the start of the 12th 
  century discredited the blood libel link of Jews to Strigoi. However, this 
  proved a Pyrrhic victory when seen in the context of the overwhelming anti-
  Semitism sweeping Europe at the time (and that would continue to do so in 
  the coming centuries).
  The Malthusian Dilemma
  The Strigoi and humanity reached something of an impasse during the 12th 
  and 13th centuries. The vampires restricted themselves to the shadows amidst 
  the wilderness of Eastern Europe, their numbers stabilizing while they held 
  sway over the peasant populations scratching out a living as sheep farmers on 
  the surrounding hills and forests. As time passed, the theological nature of 
  defense against the Strigoi solidiﬁed and the ﬁrst “vampires” began to hold 
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  15
  Although the depiction of 
  the vampire as a skeleton 
  is inaccurate, this drawing 
  demonstrates two effective 
  methods of vampire elimination, 
  staking and fire. (Mary Evans 
  Picture Library / Alamy)
  court in (ironically) abandoned monasteries and castles.
  Meanwhile, the milites Christi were busy elsewhere battling Saracens and 
  Cathars. They even, in some cases, turned on their own, when at the start of 
  the 14th century the Knights Templar were destroyed by Philip IV of France, 
  eager to get his hands on their treasury.
  By the middle of the 14th century, Europe’s human population had reached 
  a point where the number of people now outstripped available resources – a 
  Malthusian dilemma. A series of harsh summers and terrible winters in the 
  early decades of the 1300s triggered crop failures and starvation. This caused 
  a backlash of wars, social unrest and the rise of apocalyptic superstition. This 
  culminated in the Black Death.
  Arriving with the Mongols during their advance west from the steppes of 
  the Gobi Desert, bubonic plague spread from Italy to the 
  north of England in just over 1,000 days. Human 
  populations, weakened by perennial hunger, 
  proved highly vulnerable to the plague. 
  Twenty-ﬁve million people perished, up 
  to 60 percent of Europe’s population.
  It was only natural for many to 
  believe that the end of days had 
  arrived and hardly surprising that 
  many, seeking scapegoats, turned 
  on the Jews in a bloody wave of 
  pogroms.
  For the Strigoi, the collapse 
  of social order around them 
  left the survivors wide open to 
  attack. Immune to the plague 
  virus, they once more left the 
  forests 
  and 
  mountains 
  and 
  descended on villages and towns 
  in unprecedented numbers. For 
  the people struggling to survive 
  the horrors of the plague and 
  coming to terms with the sense of 
  abandonment by God, the arrival 
  of the vampires must have seemed 
  to have been the ﬁnal, sure sign 
  that the end was indeed nigh.
  The Strigoi reclaimed many 
  of their old hunting grounds, 
  and for about a century, they 
  seemed invulnerable. Colonies 
  y
  y)
  ring their advance west
  o
  t e steppes o
  spread from Italy to the 
  00 days. Human 
  nial hunger, 
  e plague. 
  ed, up 
  ion.
  to 
  d 
  t 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  16
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  17
  established themselves throughout the Carpathian region, dominating the 
  surrounding areas and even triggering the supplying of sacriﬁces to certain 
  Strigoi mort (male Strigoi) to ward oﬀ their worst excesses.
  However, the Strigoi had overextended themselves. By the start of the 15th 
  century, the crash in the human population had begun to have a marked 
  impact on the vampires, whose own numbers had begun to collapse as 
  they exhausted their supply of “livestock.” The few travelers that braved the 
  wilderness regions of Eastern Europe reported abandoned villages, towns with 
  a few hardy but perpetually terriﬁed locals who never moved at night, and the 
  sound of terrifying battles emanating from high Alpine forests and distant 
  ravines. The latter is believed to have been territorial wars between vampire 
  colonies as many were displaced when their food supplies became exhausted 
  and they were forced into the territory of a neighboring clan. The result, in 
  any case, was that the Strigoi found themselves victims of their own success.
  The Inquisition
  In 1478, the Spanish formed their infamous Inquisition to maintain Christian 
  (Catholic) orthodoxy in the face of increasing heretical forces. By now, the 
  usual suspects – Jews, Muslims and Cathars – had been joined by Protestants. 
  There was also a growing anxiety concerning witchcraft and devil worship 
  throughout a Europe that was still recovering from the bacterial carnage of 
  the Black Death. The result was that the milites Christi began to organize 
  once more, in one form or another, feeding the mounting hysteria that was 
  to sweep through all parts of Europe. This led ultimately to the auto-da-fé 
  and witch trials that killed so many, as warrior knights and judges took their 
  responsibilities far beyond their original intentions.
  In the light of these developments, in 1520 a papal bull led to the organization 
  of the ﬁrst Vatican-sanctioned inquisition into the threat posed by vampires. 
  This was a minor bureaucratic and administrative event, overshadowed as it 
  was by the coming hundred years of religious wars about to rend Europe, but 
  for the Strigoi it was like the coming of their own Black Death.
  Initially, milites Christi soldier-scholars combed reports of vampire activity 
  simply to prove the threat existed. However, when this proved inconclusive 
  and largely apocryphal, a punitive expedition into the Carpathian region was 
  mounted in 1528.
  By this point, the Strigoi population was a pale shadow of its former self, 
  and the few local human populations were by now tough and well versed in 
  combating the vampire menace. Their amuletic defenses were also well and 
  truly developed, and the Vatican milites Christi were only too happy to use 
  such tried and tested methods.
  However, as the locals were content to tough it out in the shadow of the 
  vampires, so the surviving vampires had made it through very diﬃcult times 
  and learned a few tricks of their own. Many were centuries old and had long 
  (Opposite) A depiction of the 
  famous vampire hunter, Pieter 
  Van Sloan, who many credit as 
  the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s 
  character Abraham Van Helsing. 
  Van Sloan operated all over the 
  European mainland in the second 
  half of the 19th century, before 
  disappearing in Bavaria in 1882.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  18
  abandoned any fear of religious or hallowed weapons. As such, when the 
  milites Christi ascended into the Carpathians seeking to engage the vampires, 
  the ﬁrst battles proved inconclusive and set a precedent that was to remain 
  largely unchanged into modern times. The numbers of Strigoi were held in 
  check by the organized forces dedicated to their destruction; meanwhile, the 
  older vampires, hardened by decades, even centuries, of battling for their very 
  survival were very hard to kill, and remained locally powerful.
  A status quo developed, and from their lairs, manmade or otherwise, these 
  vampires passed into legend – or across the Atlantic, as some of the more 
  wealthy and powerful Strigoi mort sought new and safer hunting grounds.
  Yet the vampire myth continued to permeate history, even outliving the 
  Renaissance and the Enlightenment, when many superstitions and folklores 
  were refuted. But still the Strigoi lingered on, especially in Eastern Europe, 
  where the sparse and largely illiterate population made easy prey for venerable 
  and wily vampires. It was only in the 19th century, as the region developed 
  and populations swelled, that the Strigoi found themselves once more being 
  burned out of their ancestral resting places. Ironically, in Western Europe, this 
  was the period when, largely as a result of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire 
  took on its romantic, mystical allure.
  At this point, it is probably worth pointing out that the inspiration for 
  Stoker’s Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, was nothing but a man. He masqueraded 
  as a vampire, but was probably nothing more than a megalomaniacal sadist 
  who was clinically psychotic and used the legends and myths of the vampire 
  to heighten a reputation built on fear. But 
  to the Strigoi, nailing hats to heads 
  and impaling prisoners was seen 
  as laughable, the actions of a 
  child burning ants with a 
  magnifying glass.
  Strigoi Field 
  Guide
  The Strigoi are the classical 
  European 
  haemophage, 
  the 
  creature that most people in Western 
  society think of when they hear the 
  term “vampire.” Sometimes identiﬁed 
  by the classical form “vampire,” they 
  are (or were) particularly numerous in 
  Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but 
  nests or covens can be found in most 
  countries. In the overpopulated 
  21st century, small communities 
  18
  as a vampire, but was probably nothing more than a
  who was clinically psychotic and used the legends and
  to heighten a reputa
  to the Strigo
  and impa
  as laugha
  child b
  magn
  St
  Gu
  The S
  European
  creature that m
  society think o
  term “vampire.”
  by the classical
  are (or were) pa
  Eastern Europ
  nests or coven
  countries. In
  21st centur
  Since Shtriga vampires are 
  thought to have some kind of 
  vampiric antivenom glands in 
  their throat or mouth, there is 
  currently a large bounty on their 
  heads. (Reconstruction by Hauke 
  Kock)
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  19
  ﬁnd it easy to hide in the anonymity and multiculturalism of major cities and 
  amongst the mass migrations of urban populations. This hiding in plain sight 
  conversely makes them very hard to track and hunt.
  Strigoi can be identiﬁed by their pale, white, almost translucent skin 
  and red-rimmed eyes. They are almost always “beautiful” or “handsome” in 
  appearance. They are also mostly female (known as Strigoaică). They are often 
  thought to be witches, or stryge (French for “bird-woman”). The confusion 
  seems to have arisen from the Strigoaică’s ability to transform into large bats. 
  Some are also able to transform into wolves. They are also famous for their 
  long red hair, giving their human forms a striking beauty, useful in luring 
  eager young men to their death (although they prefer children). Finally, they 
  can “turn” or “sire” victims, creating new Strigoi by passing on their own 
  blood to the victim, who takes on an undead state post-mortem.
  The male Strigoi (Strigoi mort) are more powerful, almost demonic in their 
  capabilities. They have a mesmerizing allure and, while the fact that this is 
  somehow psychic has already been mentioned, research hints at a powerful 
  pheromone as the source of this. This magnetism is often seen in psychosexual 
  terms, a lust not just for blood but also for sex. The Strigoi mort is often 
  portrayed as having a particular desire for young women, but it could be rather 
  more prosaic than that; the sexually immature young are simply easier and 
  more suggestible as prey. Male Strigoi are generally very strong and very fast.
  Though it is rare, some vampires are turned while still children. These 
  child vampires or Ustrel have a propensity for killing livestock, but this is now 
  thought to be merely practice; it is also easier to hide an attack on a cow or pig 
  by blaming bear or wolf attack. As it becomes more skilled, the Ustrel begins 
  taking human prey. However, even amongst Strigoi, the turning of children is 
  seen as cruel and generally avoided.
  All Strigoi, male, female or children, are 
  more vulnerable in their ﬁrst 30 years 
  as a vampire. During this time, they 
  cannot stand sunlight, must sleep on 
  a bed of their native soil and are only 
  marginally faster and stronger than 
  humans. However, around the age of 
  30, Strigoi develop into Kukudhi, 
  their adulthood. With this age 
  comes 
  strength, 
  exaggerated 
  reﬂexes, 
  and 
  fully 
  developed 
  vampiric 
  powers 
  including 
  mesmerism, psychokinesis, telepathy, a 
  resistance to amuletic attack, and 
  zoomutation, especially into 
  bat, wolf or dog-like forms.
  or children, are 
  rst 30 years 
  time, they 
  sleep on 
  are only 
  ger than 
  he age of 
  dhi, 
  age 
  ted
  oped 
  luding 
  epathy, a 
  and 
  o 
  For most of European history, 
  hunters have relied on religious 
  amuletic defenses and wooden 
  stakes to take down vampires. 
  Today, their weapons are much 
  more hi-tech.
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  20
  Siring
  The creation of a new Strigoi is called “siring” or “turning” and requires blood 
  transfusions between both parties, the most signiﬁcant being ingestion of the 
  sire’s blood by the victim (although “sire” is generally a masculine term, here 
  it refers to both male and female).
  After this event, the victim’s body suﬀers a catastrophic shutdown of all 
  major functions, leading ultimately to a comatose state that could easily be 
  perceived as death. In this state of medical hibernation, the vampiric vector 
  (possibly a virus delivered by the Strigoi’s fangs, although this has yet to be 
  isolated) begins its radical restructuring of the victim’s major organs and 
  systems down to a genetic level. The skin becomes little more than a chrysalis 
  or pupae, the organs degenerating to a pulp or liquid as they reorganize.
  Strigoi rise quickly after being turned, sometimes within just a few 
  hours, but usually within a day. This takes an enormous amount of energy, 
  which is why new Strigoi awake from this comatose state ravenous and 
  quick to make easy kills, although they are often clumsy and obviously 
  inexperienced. As such, the sire is usually on hand to help the new vampire 
  through the diﬃcult transition period, the changes being not only physical 
  and behavioral, but psychological as well. This combination makes new 
  vampires very vulnerable.
  Reproduction
  The Strigoi generally procreate by turning human adults. However, the 
  Romanian vampire known as the Morai (Moroaică is the female) raises 
  interesting questions about Strigoi reproduction. Traditionally more closely 
  related to werewolves and lycanthropy, recent studies indicate Morai 
  are actually the children of two Strigoi. By and large, Strigoi are sterile; 
  conception is a rare event. Culturally, the Strigoi see such oﬀspring as 
  abominations; they are unusual in being “mortal,” i.e. they have the same 
  lifespan as a normal human.
  Moreover, the blood of Morai is much sought after by Strigoi for its 
  apparent potency, and even without their “mortal” lifespans, few Morai survive 
  to anything like adulthood. (They also make ﬁne bait for SAU ambushes.)
  Morai are also said to be vulnerable to wolf attack and tame wolves are 
  often used to hunt these unfortunate vampires.
  Strigoi Vulnerabilities and Termination
  Prior to developing into a Kukudhi, a Strigoi is required to sleep in native soil, 
  either in its original coﬃn or in a vessel ﬁlled with the necessary earth, during 
  the hours of daylight. This limits their movements and, if the location of their 
  resting place can be determined, makes them vulnerable to ambush. More 
  experienced Strigoi will have cached native soil in various locations to broaden 
  the scope of their movements.
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  21
  Like any top predator, after a good meal Strigoi can become listless and 
  slow-moving; caught in the open, away from their resting place, they are far 
  easier to engage.
  The Strigoi can, if particularly adept, try and blend in with human society; 
  however, they are required consciously to breathe and blink, both habits 
  which would be subconsciously noted by people if absent. The vampire’s skin 
  is also naturally cool, even cold, to the touch; they can also appear cyanotic as 
  a result of the lack of blood supply to the skin (which, as mentioned above, 
  is usually pale, even translucent). All these visual and tactile cues can give the 
  hunting Strigoi away.
  The principal methods of Strigoi dispatch are the complete immolation 
  of the Strigoi’s body, dismemberment and decapitation, and ﬁnally staking 
  through the heart. For creating a stake, hawthorn is the most popular 
  wood, probably for entirely superstitious reasons; otherwise iron or silver 
  work best. These two metals seem to react toxically with vampire blood. 
  A scientiﬁc reason may lie in the iron ion that forms the heme group in 
  haemoglobin. Vampire blood in types such as the Strigoi has undergone 
  mutations, probably as a result of the vampire vector and its mutagens, and 
  the catastrophic addition of iron or silver into the Strigoi’s body may trigger 
  a cascade eﬀect or cytokine storm, a massive overreaction of the vampire’s 
  immune system.
  Romanian hunters demonstrating 
  that there is no such thing 
  as overkill when dealing with 
  the undead. Note the size of 
  hammer that was presumably 
  used to drive the stake into the 
  heart. Driving wood through a 
  human chest is harder than most 
  people realize. (Historical image 
  collection by Bildagentur-online 
  / Alamy)
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  22
  Sunlight or ultraviolet light are also potent weapons against Strigoi, as 
  light sensitivity is seen in extremis as porphyria in the Strigoi, where it can 
  cause blistering, scarring and vomiting, and ultimately destruction.
  Finally, some Strigoi are vulnerable to amuletic attack. This is most 
  common amongst the older vampires, who shy away from and can even be 
  harmed by the touch of religious weaponry and icons, such as crosses and holy 
  water. Researchers have yet to ascertain why this would be so, but it is generally 
  thought that centuries of psychosomatic belief have rendered the older Strigoi 
  physically vulnerable to such methods as blessed stones or incense pushed into 
  the oriﬁces of the vampire’s body, crosses of garlic or holy water placed on the 
  sleeping vampire, or fumigating the grave with cannabis.
  These methods are not to be relied on in combat; the surest way to destroy 
  a Strigoi is to use the ﬁrst four methods. However, SAU units retain strong 
  superstitious and theological beliefs, and all their weapons and ammunition 
  are blessed and consecrated.
  Non-Haemophagic Vampires and 
  Human/Vampire Hybrids
  The primary forms of European non-haemophagic vampires (non-blood 
  drinkers) are the incubus, and the female form, the succubus. Their primary 
  form of parasitism is the practice of sex as a method of feeding through the use 
  of heat and energy generated by sexual arousal. This is harvested by the vampire.
  This method of feeding also seems to provide an opportunity for the incubus 
  and succubus to procreate. Their success 
  rate is generally low but this may explain 
  their compulsive need to copulate.
  The incubus is more demonic 
  than vampiric, seducing women 
  through various means. Visually 
  and behaviorally, they are largely 
  indistinguishable 
  from 
  humans. 
  The demonic portrayals of them 
  are usually dream representations 
  and do not reﬂect their usually very 
  handsome 
  outward 
  appearance. 
  Their methods of seduction may be 
  pheromonal but may also be simple 
  sexual attraction. The victims are not 
  exsanguinated but drained of energy 
  via intercourse. Some succumb to 
  exhaustion as a result of these sexual 
  attacks, although the term “attack” 
  Like most depictions of incubi, 
  this drawing shows a demonic 
  creature tormenting his victim. In 
  reality, these creatures appear 
  as very handsome humans and 
  most of their victims are willing 
  participants. (PD)
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  23
  may be misleading, as many victims willingly participate and can even 
  become addicted.
  The succubus seduces males for their energy and “seed.” The attacks can 
  take place over a considerable period, weeks, even months, and can be brutal; 
  the sexual organs of a succubus are often icy cold and exude noxious ﬂuids.
  During coitus, the generally beautiful vampire may exhibit animalistic 
  features such as bird-like feet or a reptilian tail, perhaps as a result of the loss of 
  control by the succubus. As with incubi, many victims exhibit exhaustion but 
  are willing, if confused, quarries. Death can be through nervous exhaustion, 
  shock or heart failure; as such, many deaths can be hidden as natural causes. 
  Victims can only be determined via long-term assessment.
  Vulnerabilities and Termination
  Incubi and succubi vary in their reaction to religious symbols and icons; it 
  may be largely down to the individual and its upbringing. Many have been 
  found to be immune to amuletic attack, and then it is a matter of conventional 
  means (ﬁre, dismemberment/decapitation, staking, sunlight or UV light).
  Hybrid Offspring
  The result of incubus/human precreation is known as a cambion. Initially they 
  are believed to be stillborn, as they have no heartbeat or pulse at birth. However, 
  at around the age of seven, the cambion manifests itself into an apparently 
  human child. Before then, it relies on the overpowering maternal instinct of 
  the mother to keep it “alive.” Cuckolding the mother like this is often done at 
  the expense of other children, who may end up as the cambion’s ﬁrst victims.
  DHAMPIR HUNTERS
  The best-known type of human/vampire hybrid is the 
  Dhampir (Dhampiresa is the female), usually the result 
  of a coupling between a human female and a Mullo. They 
  are largely beholden to genetics as to which traits are 
  dominant, but they form roughly two divisions. Division 
  1 consists of long-lived “immortals” with photophobia 
  and zoomutation, but are non-haemophagic. Division 2 
  deﬁnes short-lived “humans” with exaggerated features, 
  dark hair and pronounced canines. They can eat normal 
  food but are generally haemophagic, which provides 
  strength and speed but makes them hyper-metabolic. This 
  might explain their short lives; they literally burn out.
  Dhampirs of both sexes are often the most eﬀective 
  vampire hunters, something that has become a tradition 
  dating back centuries. Types from both divisions have 
  joined European SAUs, and with their heightened senses 
  and physical abilities, have proved skilled trackers and 
  hunters, the result of which is that they are particularly 
  hated by the Strigoi and their kin.
  These Dhampir are often tragic ﬁgures. Vampires 
  will hunt and kill anyone remotely related to them 
  by blood or friendship, resulting in some of the worst 
  atrocities carried out by the Strigoi. As such, they usually 
  choose to live lonely lives, without families or romantic 
  relationships. However, the formation of the SAUs did 
  give the Dhampirs hope of forming close bonds within 
  the units, not unlike those seen amongst elite Special 
  Forces formations.
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  24
  However, as it does not rely on milk, the father or a suitable “nanny” can 
  raise it. On maturing, the resulting children are often beautiful, very intelligent 
  and extremely manipulative. They lack empathy and display psychotic traits 
  but also know how to confuse and obfuscate their true natures; they will eat 
  normal food, but are often bulimic. They are also sexually provocative and 
  promiscuous from a young age, especially as the males develop into adult 
  incubi.
  UNESCO studies into vampire evolution indicate that the incubus could 
  represent an ancestral form of vampire. However, the succubus/human 
  hybrid resulted in what appear to be the ﬁrst “true” European vampires, with 
  previously inert traits such as zoomutation and haemophagy activated.
  This drawing of a succubus attack 
  is probably a somewhat accurate 
  depiction. (Mary Evans)
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  25
  North American 
  Vampires
  North America as a whole seems to have been largely free of vampirism until 
  the arrival of Europeans. Humans have been in North America for 12,000 
  years or more and the indigenous population has developed a rich mythology, 
  yet there is little that could be interpreted as pertaining to vampires. Various 
  tribes do tell of “mosquito men,” a humanoid version of the insect that 
  stealthily sucks out the brains of its victims through a proboscis, but there 
  seems to be no truth to the legends. Another possibility is the Wendigo 
  (sometimes written as Windigo). Most closely associated with the Algonquin 
  Indian peoples of North America’s northeastern coastline and forests, it is 
  said to be a monster transformed from human form, or a spirit possessing a 
  human host. Its transformation is said to be the result of the sin of consuming 
  human ﬂesh. In fact it seems to be an Indian parable against the dangers 
  of cannibalism, and several Native American nations have variations of the 
  Wendigo, including the Ojibwa, Cree, Innu, Abenake and Micmac.
  While some claim the Wendigo were giants, many descriptions of the 
  monster do seem strikingly familiar to the vampire hunter: they are said to be 
  skeletally emaciated with deathly pale and decayed-looking skin, cold, dead 
  hearts but bright eyes, and to be insatiably greedy for ﬂesh.
  Still, taken as a whole, it is clear that Indian mythology is far more 
  redolent with warnings against the dangers of cannibalism than the threat 
  of vampirism. It does indeed seem that the true vampires arrived in North 
  America with European colonists.
  Armageddon Time
  The notion of Satan abroad upon the face of the earth had been preached 
  since the 15th century in Europe and led to the generally held belief that 
  supernatural evil was ever-present and part and parcel of daily life. With 
  plague and war epidemic across the continent, there was also a mounting 
  sense of impending Armageddon in both a very literal and also a theological 
  sense.
  One of the results of this growing apocalyptic terror was the fueling of 
  religious hysteria, triggering waves of persecution of anything from witches 
  to Jews to midwives. The vampires of Europe were also obvious targets and, 
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  26
  despite their physical prowess, fell victim to blood-soaked pogroms. Not only 
  were they justiﬁably blamed for being inherently evil, as well as child stealers 
  and seducers of maidens, but also as the less justiﬁable cause of crop failures, 
  pandemics and political intrigue.
  Of course, religious persecution extended far and wide, and when Puritan 
  Europeans were victimized, they sometimes took charters across the Atlantic 
  to the wide-open spaces of the North American Eden. Naturally, vampires 
  secreted themselves amongst them (there are no records of how many) to 
  escape the stakes, ﬁres and crosses.
  Evidence is sparse and most of what we know from the time is largely 
  the result of speculation, but it seems that it was the older, more wily and 
  venerable Strigoi who hid in plain sight amongst the Puritans. Some non-
  haemophagic types may well have been amongst them: incubi and succubi, 
  those who could tolerate the sun and were resistant to amuletic attack. They 
  could also have feigned seasickness to keep themselves hidden below decks, 
  beyond suspicion during the long crossing, and even fed on rats if need be.
  Their new homes were far from the fairytale castles and aristocratic 
  mausoleums of Europe. They were also surrounded by dogmatic, suspicious, 
  paranoid and belligerently pious Europeans who practiced the most extreme 
  Calvinism, people who believed that to deny the existence of the supernatural 
  was to deny the existence of angels and therefore of God. This was a certain 
  way to guarantee a one-way trip to the stake.
  A rather fanciful depiction of 
  events during the Salem witch 
  trials. The connection between 
  the trials and vampires is still 
  a hotly debated topic amongst 
  academics. (PD)
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  27
  As such, these vampires had to proceed with extreme caution. Inquisition 
  investigations indicate that often vampires portrayed themselves as the most 
  austere and frugal of zealots, eating lightly and living simple lives. They were 
  usually single, instead claiming to devote themselves to their one true love, 
  the worship of God. Ironically they were often seen as the most virtuous of 
  the colonists.
  While it was dangerous to feed within such conﬁned and familiar quarters, 
  there was a ready supply of victims awaiting their arrival in the form of the 
  indigenous population. And if things went wrong, they could kill their Puritan 
  hosts and blame it on the local Indians.
  The power struggles between English, French and Dutch settlers, and the 
  various Native American nations on the Atlantic coast, resulted in massacres 
  and atrocities by all sides. This was a “happy time” for the vampires, who 
  could move freely, often acting as scouts, trappers or hunters, while killing at 
  will, with little suspicion falling on them or concern about the likelihood of 
  supernatural agents at work. They could also begin “turning” individuals and 
  building their numbers.
  The Crucible
  There are no records of vampires being killed during this tumultuous period; 
  equally there are no conclusive victims of haemophagy. However, alleged 
  witches were being executed as early as 1647. Minister Cotton Mathers 
  wrote, in his 1689 book on witchcraft, of children being possessed by spells 
  around what was to become the evil eye of the witchcraft maelstrom: Salem, 
  Massachusetts.
  Much of the carnage that followed seems to have been nothing more than 
  mass hysteria stoked by the settling of old family scores. In such a tinderbox 
  environment, it only took a disgruntled neighbor accusing the wife of another 
  for the fuse to be lit. And in such a pious atmosphere, the men whose duty 
  it was to uphold the scrupulous morality of the colonies could not ignore 
  accusations of supernatural devilry.
  As such, whether the ﬁrst cases were secular malice hidden beneath 
  religious zeal or not, it touched oﬀ an inferno. By the end of 1692,  
  20 people were dead, mainly women, executed for various witchcraft-related 
  crimes.
  Whilst historically interesting, the Salem witch trials would seem to have 
  little bearing on the matter at hand, were it not for one factor: all the initial 
  victims of the supposed witchcraft were young women, as young as nine and as 
  old as 12. Their hysteria has been attributed to anything from pathological fear 
  of Indian attack to ergot poisoning. However, many of these girls would have 
  been entering puberty and would have been easy prey for a stealthy incubus. 
  The evidence is entirely circumstantial, but remains a curious footnote in the 
  development of vampirism in North America.
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  28
  The Gilded Age
  As the European settlers expanded in number and slowly started pushing west, 
  on the American eastern seaboard new hunting grounds were springing up for 
  the vampires and non-haemophagic predators. Early cities such as New York, 
  Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia contained sprawling slums lacking the 
  most basic law enforcement and rife with crime. Murder and death by illness 
  were everyday occurrences and an experienced and stealthy vampire could 
  easily ﬁnd prey.
  Again, there is little in the way of all but the most circumstantial of evidence 
  to track the activities of vampires. However, Vatican records show vampire 
  hunters were dispatched to the New World in the early 19th century to follow 
  up on the witch-hunting hysteria, but also to look into a number of unusual 
  deaths reported by trappers in and around Minnesota that were attributed 
  to wolf attack. While wolves maintained a dreadfully savage reputation until 
  well into the 20th century, Vatican vampire hunters were wily and astute 
  enough to know wolves rarely, if ever, killed 
  humans. More to the point, the attacks 
  were of such notable violence that reports of 
  them made their way across the Atlantic and 
  into the hands of the Inquisition. However, 
  the hunters were unable to ascertain the 
  true nature of the attacks and further 
  exploration of the region by the inquisitors 
  found no evidence to support the presence 
  of vampires.
  Meanwhile, a new wave of immigrants 
  began enjoying the fruits of the burgeoning 
  United States of America. Charles Dudley 
  Warner and Mark Twain coined the term 
  “the Gilded Age” to describe, in barbed 
  satire, the chronic polarizing of American 
  society. While most American citizens 
  scratched out a living below the poverty 
  line, an elite hierarchy were embracing the 
  sociological thinking of British philosopher 
  Herbert Spencer. It was he who coined the 
  term “survival of the ﬁttest” while describing 
  Darwin’s treatise on evolution, On the 
  Origin of Species. His social Darwinism 
  was seized upon by a new generation of 
  steel magnates and business entrepreneurs 
  who took a very literal view of the theory 
  of evolution in industrial terms. They set 
  Unlike Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the 
  1872 vampire novel, Carmilla, 
  by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, is 
  thought by many to be based 
  upon real events. (PD)
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  about using Spencer’s philosophy to ruthlessly exploit the environment and 
  their employees, justifying their worst excesses as proof of their “evolutionary” 
  success.
  Naturally, the Old World vampires of Europe were very much at home. 
  A number of them, mainly those who were centuries old, had amassed 
  considerable fortunes by the time they arrived in the USA. Most were ﬂeeing 
  the increasingly sophisticated and organized vampire hunters and, with little 
  experience of vampirism, Americans seemed easy prey.
  Easily able to bribe their way ashore and into relative comfort, these new 
  arrivals quickly set themselves up as rich business tycoons, investing old wealth 
  in new industries: steel, railways, communications.
  While wealth allows a certain amount of eccentricity to explain odd 
  behavior, these New World vampires set about developing strategies to 
  integrate into American society that remain eﬀective even today. They 
  began the practice of using human proxies, humans surgically modiﬁed to 
  look like the vampire, to allow them to be seen under any circumstances, 
  in daylight and at social functions. But, where possible, the vampires 
  remained shadowy ﬁgures even as they fully embraced the tenants of social 
  Darwinism. This provided not just cheap labor but ready supplies of easily 
  disposable food.
  Vampires Today
  Having accumulated considerable fortunes, it is easy for the New World 
  vampires to use money and their own innate powers to control considerable 
  material holdings from deep in the shadows. Many vanish into highly 
  secure underground worlds that are very diﬃcult for the vampire hunters to 
  Another drawing from Carmilla, the 
  first story to note that even female 
  vampires seem generally more 
  interested in female victims. (PD)
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  penetrate. Even identifying the vampires amongst the industrial elite requires 
  a total change of approach, one that embraces psychology and criminology 
  to spot tell-tale behavior patterns. Assessing for psychopathy and narcissistic 
  personality disorders is one avenue of pursuit. Another is studying certain 
  areas of criminality. Wily and cunning, these vampires are rarely clumsy or 
  stupid enough to leave any overt sign of their activities behind, but to keep 
  themselves well fed, and with plenty of money at their disposal, some have 
  invested in human traﬃcking, prostitution and even slavery. Wealth has also 
  made it very easy for them to dispose of their victims. Unlike the vampires of 
  popular culture, they do not gather in covens of leather and silk-clad Goths 
  drinking only the ﬁnest blood from champagne goblets, or in bordellos 
  that cater to very speciﬁc tastes. They would never be so crass or blatant. 
  Instead, they glide eﬀortlessly through boardrooms and exclusive, isolated and 
  luxurious resorts, invisible to the populace at large.
  However, the rise of the Internet and global, instantly accessible 
  communication has proved disastrous for the New World vampire. Operations 
  by SAU in the Old World, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, showed that the 
  mass of information being generated by news outlets and intelligence sources 
  worldwide makes it much harder for the vampires to obscure their tracks. This 
  has ﬁnally allowed UNESCO and the SAU to begin actively pursuing and 
  eliminating the New World vampires who have for so long escaped eradication.
  These eﬀorts were given an unexpected boost by the terrorist attacks 
  of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent passing of the Patriot Act the 
  following month. This legislation allows for the indeﬁnite detaining of 
  suspects, the searching of homes and businesses without consent, the use 
  of roving wiretaps, and the searching of ﬁnancial, phone, library and email 
  records without a court order.
  VAMPCAM 
  In May 2009, a group of four vampire fanatics  – all 
  in their late teens – from Detroit, Michigan, decided 
  to embark on a reality series to document vampires. 
  Dubbed VampCam, this short-lived show was ﬁlmed 
  over three consecutive weekends. The enthusiastic 
  youngsters would go out into the night and search for 
  vampire activity to ﬁlm and upload to their website.
  The youngsters successfully managed to record genuine 
  vampire action on three occasions. Filmed at night near 
  the downtown Detroit area, the 40- and 50-second clips 
  showed groups of vampires engaged in feeding frenzies.
  The website was taken down shortly after the third 
  video was posted, which showed the young cameraman 
  being mauled to death by the vampires he was ﬁlming. 
  The FBI reportedly took the site down, pending an 
  investigation, though no further information has ever 
  been released. Naturally, all reference to the site has been 
  removed and the three surviving youngsters have not 
  been seen or heard from since. Though rumors suggest 
  that they entered witness protection, the reality is likely 
  to be far more sinister. All that remains of VampCam is 
  a single still from the action that evening, grabbed from 
  the site seconds before it was shut down.
  (Opposite) The single, surviving 
  still from VampCam.
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  Other informational areas that help in the detection of vampires include:
  �� Tracking missing persons: looking for patterns not just over months or 
  years, but decades.
  �� Law enforcement websites: monitoring these can expose unusual 
  murders or crimes e.g. hospital or blood bank break-ins.
  �� The in-depth study of ﬁscal records, using specially trained accountants 
  to monitor the movement of money and to look for unusual spending patterns.
  The Special Action Unit Expansion
  The global “war on terror” has provided a massive cash injection for many 
  shady and covert organizations, and some of that money has found its way 
  to SAU. This has allowed the building of a new infrastructure that provided 
  a serious increase in the capabilities of the organization. New interrogation 
  facilities were built. While much of the information regarding these “black 
  sites” remains understandably classiﬁed, it can be revealed that the holding 
  cells are circular and built from treated stainless-steal and ceramic composites 
  that are largely indestructible, and equipped with batteries of strong ultraviolet 
  lamps. The SAU operators use modiﬁed bomb disposal suits, acid-etched with 
  religious iconography and featuring embedded amulets.
  SAU is also believed to have its own ﬂeet of specially equipped aircraft used 
  for extraordinary rendition to these facilities, which are located worldwide. 
  It is understood these bases and aircraft have already been put to use by 
  SAU for the interrogation of High Value Targets (HVR). The unit has also 
  received training from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), a highly 
  classiﬁed US military program originally set up covertly to remove or rescue 
  A CH-47 Chinook taking part in 
  SAU operations. (US Department 
  of Defense)
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  US military personnel from “denied” areas – enemy territory. JPRA also runs a 
  program called SERE: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. It was originally 
  intended to prepare the likes of US ﬁghter pilots or Special Forces teams for 
  the eventuality of falling into enemy hands and being tortured by putting 
  them through a grueling training program. To this end, JPRA has amassed 
  what might be considered the deﬁnitive library on physical and psychological 
  torture techniques. Following the 9/11 attack, the US government asked 
  JPRA to “reverse engineer” the methods studied so they could be used against 
  terrorist suspects. The resulting interrogation manual was adapted by SAU, 
  aided by JPRA operatives and SERE instructors, for use against vampires, in 
  the hope of exposing their network of fellow haemophages and also to seize 
  their assets, the money from which was ploughed back into the SAU.
  It is, however, a time-consuming process. Eﬀective interrogation does not 
  rely on “medieval” techniques such as beatings and stress positions, but on 
  the intelligent use of coercive pressure that is diﬃcult to endure. The standard 
  techniques are in many ways redundant when dealing with vampires, especially 
  ones as resilient as Old World vampires, but these methods can be adapted. 
  If a vampire is found to be susceptible to amuletic attack, the use of religious 
  icons such as crosses can be used as part of the interrogation. However, the 
  most eﬀective methods still remain the development of a rapport with the 
  HVR, winning their trust through the applied use of psychological threat 
  and more subtle physical attacks such as “cold turkey” – the removal of their 
  food source, which has a similar eﬀect on vampires as does the removal of 
  drugs from an addict. These are far more eﬀective approaches than using a 
  magnifying glass to burn a vampire with directed sunlight; such physical abuse 
  tends just to stiﬀen their resolve. As such, SAU interrogators are required to be 
  intellectually and psychologically robust.
  MISTER X
  Following 9/11, the SAU decided to make use of the sudden ﬂood of 
  intelligence data and resources available to them to try and land their ﬁrst US 
  target, nicknamed rather sardonically as “Mister X.”
  The SAU seconded selected members of the FBI’s infamous Behavioral 
  Science unit and the JPRA for a long-term black op to eliminate Mister X. 
  Using FBI undercover agents, the SAU planted a number of individuals in a 
  human traﬃcking organization. Its operatives had been tracking an individual 
  they believed was a buyer for a possible vampire with a taste for the “mother 
  country.” While sporadically acquiring a number of young women as livestock 
  from across the globe, the number bought from Eastern Europe remained 
  high – high enough to draw interest from SAU. An FBI agent was able to 
  develop a relationship with the buyer, and while the latter revealed little, 
  the agent was able to garner enough intelligence to convince SAU that their 
  hunch had been right.
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  Intelligence gathering began on Mister X himself. Due to the vampire’s 
  experience and obvious intellect, this had to be very long-term and subtle. 
  The “sting” required a great deal of time and money to be spent. Agents 
  from the FBI and SAU were set up as executives in a number of technology 
  and communications companies. As many of these were formed following 
  the dot.com bonanza, the agents were able to develop solid résumés, and 
  as the dot.com bubble waxed and waned, the agents moved freely through 
  various boardrooms without drawing attention to themselves. These were 
  sleeper agents in the truest sense, developing new lives that could withstand 
  the most intensive scrutiny.
  A number of agents were used in the hope that one would be able to 
  get close enough to Mister X. This “scattergun” approach ﬁnally paid oﬀ 
  when one of the “executives” was hired by the vampire’s company. Working 
  up through the ranks, the agent ﬁnally gained a position within X’s inner 
  circle and began gleaning the intelligence necessary to look at rendering 
  the vampire.
  THE PSYCHOPATH TEST
  One recent addition to the SAU armory has been the 
  Hare Psychopathy Test, developed in the 1970s to study 
  personality traits in perceived psychopaths. The clinical 
  markers derived from the test’s questions were studied 
  by vampire experts in the US as a possible method of 
  identifying vampires. Such is the confusion between 
  psychopathic, sociopathic, antisocial, narcissistic and 
  histrionic personality disorders that singling out a 
  vampire takes an expert eye, and SAU operatives now 
  include a number of brilliant behavioral analysts and 
  proﬁlers, and forensic psychiatrists, some recruited from 
  law enforcement agencies around the world.
  In layman’s terms, there are a number of markers to 
  look for, although the diﬀerences between vampire and 
  psychopath are subtle:
  ��
  They are charming, charismatic, conﬁdent and 
  self-assured.
  ��
  Shrewd, 
  sly, 
  deceptive, 
  manipulative, 
  unscrupulous and dishonest.
  ��
  Lack empathy, feeling no concern for those in 
  grief or suﬀering loss, although they can “play 
  act” at being sympathetic; mimicry of other 
  human emotional behaviors is another trait.
  ��
  While outwardly gregarious, they actually lack 
  any warmth towards others.
  ��
  They are rarely in any kind of long-term 
  relationship and tend to live what could be termed 
  nomadic existences, remaining independent. 
  Should they be capable of sexual relationships, 
  these tend to be very transitory. However, ﬁnding 
  sexual partners is easy, as they are coercive and 
  enticing.
  ��
  Unscrupulous in exploiting an individual’s or 
  society’s weak spots.
  ��
  Usually associate only with a very deﬁned 
  peer group, usually of similar status or role 
  (industrialists, businessmen, etc.).
  ��
  Rarely, if ever, ill and generally have no records of 
  injuries (US vampires have been known to fake 
  records to throw investigators and hunters oﬀ 
  their trail).
  ��
  Usually physically attractive but reclusive or 
  faking a “rich and shameless” lifestyle through use 
  of proxies or doubles.
  (Opposite) A custom-built, SAU 
  imprisonment and interrogation 
  chamber. Even in such a secure 
  facility, heavily armored suits are 
  still required for all interactions 
  with captured vampires.
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  A JPRA/SAU team was put on standby. An aircraft was kept fueled, crewed 
  and on 24-hour alert at a military airport close to the city where Mister X was 
  based. The problem was that the vampire rarely left his penthouse that was 
  actually underneath his oﬃces, making intelligence gathering on its layout 
  and ﬁnal ingress into the building very diﬃcult.
  The capture team had a stroke of luck when the FBI agents learned the 
  date and whereabouts of a delivery from the traﬃckers. In a very carefully 
  orchestrated operation, the trucks delivering the young women were 
  intercepted and the original victims skillfully replaced with an entirely female 
  contingent of FBI agents, specially trained by JPRA. Using various weapons 
  and equipment carefully secreted about their persons, they were able to aﬀect 
  an escape from their holding pens, timing it in late afternoon when studies 
  had shown the vampire to be at his weakest.
  At the ﬁrst sign of trouble, Mister X bolted for an underground escape route 
  that took him into a network of storm drains. Anticipating this, the capture 
  team had the tunnels covered. Using a number of specialized weapons, the 
  SAU and JPRA operatives were able to secure Mister X, although a number of 
  individuals were injured or killed. Using a helicopter to take the immobilized 
  vampire to the military airport, X was quickly airborne and taken to a “black 
  site” in a North African country and questioned on his knowledge of other 
  vampires. He was subsequently terminated and his assets dissolved and 
  disbursed. A cover story alluded to Mister X’s sudden death due to medical 
  problems. 
  This blurry, night-vision 
  photograph is the best image to 
  have reached the public from the 
  raid that captured “Mister X.” (US 
  Department of Defense)
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  African Vampires
  A Vampire by Any Other Name
  The Ghanaian Asanbosam is one of several vampire species whose evolutionary 
  paths can be traced back to the bat.[1] Most are quick to assume that the 
  vampire bat is the natural forefather of the Asanbosam, but its origins are, in 
  fact, closer to home.
  The vampire bat belongs to the microbat (Microchiroptera) family and 
  is native to the regions of Central and South America – the home of the 
  Chupacabra, whose origins are deeply rooted in evolution (see the chapter 
  on South America). However, the Asanbosam is considered to be a subspecies 
  of the megabat (Megachiroptera) family, which can be found among the 
  forests of Africa. It was once thought that the micro- and megabats shared a 
  common ancestor, but they have two very distinct evolutionary chains. Unlike 
  the microbats, who evolved from small, shrew-like insectivores, megabats 
  developed from something far more human: primates.
  Asanbosam Spotting
  At an average height of 2m and with incredible muscle mass, an Asanbosam 
  strikes an impressive ﬁgure. Taller than most men, it has evolved quickly to 
  survive in the forests of Ghana. The creature started life smaller than it appears 
  now. As a megabat subspecies, its original diet consisted largely of fruit and 
  nectar, but this would not have been enough to sustain the Asanbosam’s 
  physique that we see today.
  Like other primates, the Asanbosam are curious animals. In an eﬀort to 
  supplement the paltry diet provided by the ﬂowers and plants of the forest, 
  they turned to other sources in their immediate vicinity. Once the vampires 
  had sunk their teeth into the forest fauna, they quickly developed a taste 
  for blood; a small drop was all it took to trigger a reaction in their minds, 
  sending them into a frenzied state. The taste of blood ignited the impatient, 
  angry and territorial behavior that had remained dormant for much of its 
  early life.
  Driven by bloodlust, the Asanbosam craved a new food supply. Such 
  was their need to ingest blood and protein that they had no choice but to 
  look at other ways to catch prey. They did not have to search far; the trees 
  were teeming with wildlife, from birds to snakes, and even monkeys. The 
  Asanbosam would eat anything they could sink their teeth into. Seeing the 
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  animals ﬂee only fueled their salivating. They became transﬁxed by the “easy 
  prey” that surrounded them, and it was during their pursuit of other food 
  sources that the Asanbosam began to develop their hunting skills.
  One of the most largely reported features of the creature is its hooked feet. 
  Descriptions of these “hooks” vary, from large-scale ﬁshing hooks to slightly 
  curved human-like feet. The latter is closest to the reality. As a result of their 
  evolution in the Ghanaian forests, the Asanbosam have developed a natural 
  balancing ability, and they use the incredibly powerful muscles in their legs 
  and feet to distribute their weight evenly.
  Despite their imposing grandeur and gruﬀ exterior, Asanbosam are 
  relatively nervous on the ﬂoors of the forest, understandably so, having spent 
  their evolution living entirely among the trees of Ghana’s forests. Taking 
  the lead from their bat kindred, the Asanbosam learned to dangle upside 
  down from overhanging branches using their hooked feet and unparalleled 
  balancing ability. Consequently, they are able to scoop up any prey that 
  scuttles below. They also possess a prehensile tail, which is crucial to their 
  balance when moving through the trees or hanging down from them. An 
  Asanbosam can use its tail as a distraction for prey, and exercises it much like 
  a snake charmer.
  A reconstruction of an 
  Asanbosam made from a partially 
  dismembered corpse recovered in 
  2007. (Reconstruction by Hauke 
  Kock)
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  An Asanbosam’s body is lean and incredibly toned, and the musculature 
  of the creature is a sight to behold. Suspended upside down, an Asanbosam 
  would need to be able to use its core stability to maintain its static and 
  composed posture. They are able to stretch their long, lithe bodies, so that 
  even from a great height they can reach smaller animals passing below, and use 
  their incredible upper-body strength to drag prey into the trees to be eaten.
  The Asanbosam use their prehensile feet as hands. Should the situation call 
  for it, the creature can reverse its position and hang from trees using its hands, 
  thereby leaving its feet free to grab prey from underneath. The Asanbosam’s 
  dark skin tone allows them to remain camouﬂaged in their surroundings, and 
  keen eyesight ensures that they can peer through the dense, dark forests by 
  day or by night.
  Having evolved into vicious hunters, the Asanbosam use their claws and 
  teeth to tear into their prey, ripping open the skin and shredding through 
  muscle, bone and cartilage. In true, classic vampire style, they tend to aim for 
  the neck ﬁrst to ensure a quick death. Oral stories have described the vampire’s 
  teeth and claws as resembling iron, but there is nothing in the physiology 
  or evolution of the Asanbosam that would indicate the presence of such a 
  material.
  The flying fox, a subspecies of 
  the mega bat, is the largest bat in 
  the world and a likely candidate 
  for being the ancestor of the 
  Asanbosam. (PD)
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  Over time, the Asanbosam moved to target larger mammals that would 
  scurry through the forest, oblivious to the fate that awaited them. Animals 
  such as buﬀalo, red river hogs and the yellow-backed duiker were popular 
  choices. But still, the hunger of the Asanbosam was not satisﬁed, and in the 
  16th century hunters returning from the forests began to tell stories of forest 
  elephants mauled to death by unknown, evil forest spirits. Was this a sign that 
  the vampires had begun to venture onto the forest ﬂoor? After all, it would be 
  extremely cumbersome to drag a 6-ton elephant into the forest trees. So what 
  caused the Asanbosam to make this giant leap?
  Territory Wars
  Between AD 1000 and 1400, the earliest towns built by the Akans (an ethnic 
  group native to Ghana and consisting of several tribes) began to emerge. 
  Their villages that populated the region were becoming bigger and brought 
  more people into contact with the forests. Before this “urbanization,” human-
  Asanbosam encounters had been rare, as the Asanbosam lived deep enough in 
  the forests to avoid discovery by the Akans. But with the population gradually 
  building, the Akans needed to go further into the forests to ﬁnd the food they 
  needed to provide for their people. As a result, Asanbosam sightings became 
  more frequent, and the mythology of the creature was introduced into the oral 
  traditions of the Akan people.
  Deforestation in Ghana had been a problem as far back as 450 BC, when 
  the ancient Greek historian Herodotus documented losses of forest resources 
  in sub-Saharan Africa. During the late 15th and 16th centuries AD, when 
  Europeans arrived in the country, the economy of Ghana shifted from 
  one that relied primarily on hunting and gathering to one that focused on 
  agricultural produce. The traders imported crops that would adapt easily to 
  forest conditions, such as bananas, sorghum, and cassava from southeast Asia 
  and the New World.
  As farming expanded, the population of Ghana increased signiﬁcantly, 
  encouraging numbers of Akans to migrate across the country’s forests in the 
  search for good farmland. This land was not easy to come by, leading to a 
  signiﬁcant clearing of forest vegetation that has continued to this day. To put 
  this into perspective: at one point, around two-thirds of Ghana was covered 
  with tropical forest. Today, that stands at approximately 25 percent.
  Stories of Asanbosam attacks were quick to arrive in the 16th century and 
  became more prevalent in the following years. As forests were cut back to allow 
  for expansion of farming, the Asanbosam habitat grew smaller. Threatened by 
  the invasion, the creatures’ primal instinct was to attack.
  The Akans were not as easy to kill as the helpless antelope; they were 
  seasoned hunters. Formed of tribes of skilled warriors, the Akans had some 
  degree of ﬁghting techniques. Sadly, their skills were not enough to completely 
  overcome the Asanbosam. The might and power of the creatures were almost 
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  impossible to conquer, even for the Akan hunters. Survivors of Asanbosam 
  encounters were uncommon, and as the legends took on a life of their own, 
  it was diﬃcult for anyone to distinguish between what was fact and what was 
  ﬁction.
  The Ashanti
  Angry, threatened and starved, the Asanbosam took desperate measures. After 
  millennia spent in the trees, they had no choice but to be more active in 
  their eﬀorts to pursue their prey, human and animal alike. Following in the 
  footsteps of their primate forefathers, the Asanbosam mimicked the actions 
  they witnessed; they took their cues from the Akans, recognizing similarities 
  in the appearance and behavior. Driven by their human brothers to evolve 
  their hunting practices, the Asanbosam literally hit the ground running.
  The Ashanti, one of the tribes of the Akan, were the ﬁrst tribe of people to 
  react against the attacks of the Asanbosam in an organized way. As part of a rapid 
  and massive expansion of the Ashanti kingdom that began in the 1670s, tribal 
  chiefs decided that they had to act in order to combat the growing Asanbosam 
  problem. Meeting at a clandestine location in the city of Kumasi, the capital of 
  the Ashanti Empire, several prominent chiefs from diﬀerent districts decided 
  that hunters should be trained to speciﬁcally combat the Asanbosam.
  The Ashanti are famous for being a warlike people. With their armies 
  numbering anywhere between 200,000 and 500,000, they went on to 
  overcome neighboring states ruled by the Denkyira, Wassa, Fante and Bono 
  people from the mid-18th to the late 19th centuries. They even held their own 
  against the British Empire on four occasions during the Anglo-Ashanti wars. 
  The Ashanti region ultimately became one of the most powerful states in the 
  central forest zones.
  Ashanti war drums, which were 
  also historically used as part of 
  sacrifices to the Asanbosam. 
  (Mary Evans)
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  The Ashanti people follow the line of matrilineal descent: a mother’s clan is 
  seen as more important than the father’s, with oﬀspring inheriting a mother’s 
  ﬂesh and blood (mogya) and the property and/or titles that come with her side 
  of the family. From their father’s side, a child inherits the soul or spirit (okra).
  Consequently, potential hunters were chosen based on their genealogy, 
  looking speciﬁcally at the physicality of the women and the character and 
  personality of the men. Chiefs would have to scrutinize hundreds of potential 
  ﬁghters before they found someone suitable.
  Once a prospective vampire hunter was selected, the individual would 
  begin their training. The Ashanti had very little information to go on at this 
  point, and so they had to prepare for any situation. After examining the many 
  oral stories surrounding the Asanbosam, the chiefs understood that their unit 
  would have to be trained to skillfully navigate the branches of the forests to 
  give the hunters any chance at slaying a vampire.
  The hunters took to the bush with ease – after all, their ancestors had lived 
  as forest dwellers. They would train on the forest outskirts, bare-footed to 
  grip the branches that they ran along, and working to improve their balance. 
  Nutrition was also important, and vampire hunters made their bodies as lean 
  as possible to minimize their weight. It was important to seize any opportunity 
  to eliminate an Asanbosam in the maze of trees and branches. If a branch 
  snapped under the weight of a hunter, not only would he lose his opening, 
  but probably his life.
  The hunters became skilled in the use of a number of diﬀerent weapons. 
  Many would already be trained in the use of short spears and a small knife. 
  These were no ordinary weapons: both were tipped with gold, a metal that 
  the Ashanti held in high regard and an element for which the region would 
  become famous. The weapons were light and small in order to minimize weight 
  and allow for a greater ease of movement in the cramped forest conditions.
  As the hunters became more advanced, they learned to wield the hunga 
  munga, a weapon resembling a cross between a knife and a hatchet. This 
  lightweight weapon had a series of straight and curved blades, and its 
  composition meant that the blade would make contact with its target at any 
  angle when thrown.
  ASANBOSAM WORSHIP
  Not all chiefs believed in killing Asanbosam. Some 
  worshiped the creatures, believing that the Asanbosam 
  would prevent those who deiﬁed them from coming 
  to harm. These chiefs, protected by their bodyguards 
  (abrafor), would hold rituals that involved moving in 
  rhythmic fashion to the beat of giant drums adorned with 
  human skulls as a mark of sacriﬁce to the Asanbosam. 
  The abrafor would behead their brethren in ritualistic 
  practices to appease the gods, and the more skulls there 
  were on a drum, the more powerful the chiefs were 
  believed to be. Further sacriﬁcial rites included the use 
  of blood in certain celebrations.
  (Opposite) Many Asanbosam 
  hunters have discovered that the 
  best way to find the creature is to 
  follow its prey.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  44
  Every weapon, accessory and item of clothing was chosen with the greatest 
  precision. The Ashanti chiefs thought it essential that hunters were decorated 
  with powerfully enchanted totems to protect them against the supernatural 
  Asanbosam. In the face of the unknown, the chiefs turned to witch doctors 
  and the mystical powers of magic, or juju, to help the hunters in their crusade 
  against the vampires. This was dangerous territory, with the spiritual customs 
  as dark and mysterious as the perception of the Asanbosam.
  The most common crafters of juju were a cult of Muslim holy men called 
  marabouts, who traveled around Africa, dazzling the people of the continent 
  with their magic. The chiefs sought out good juju to combat the evil juju of 
  the Asanbosam. But there was more to this magic than verbal enchantments. 
  Marabouts were asked to provide the strongest totems possible, and hunters 
  would carry skulls and bones imbued with magical properties on a ring of 
  string, a sort of charm bracelet, which would oﬀer protection against the 
  Asanbosam.
  One of the most important artifacts, or fetishes, was a silver ring given to 
  each hunter to wear. Within these rings was a text bearing unknown scripture 
  provided by the marabouts. Over time, these rings were passed down from 
  hunter to hunter, and they took on a mythical and superstitious quality that 
  eventually made it taboo to try and read the scripture.
  Chiefs appealed to the best herbalist healers (odunsini) in the villages to 
  provide medical care and teach the hunters how to use the plants and ﬂowers 
  scattered throughout the forest to heal their wounds. Each village also had an 
  okomfo (a fetish priest or white wizard) who would become possessed 
  by deities and channel the godly power 
  to help ﬁght the evil lurking inside 
  Ghana’s rainforests.
  There was little in the way of 
  clothing. Hunters wore traditional 
  African war cloth, batakari, in colors 
  that would help them blend into their 
  surroundings. There were also hints of 
  red, yellow and orange. The hunters 
  were surrounded by death, and 
  they believed that warm colors that 
  represented ﬁre – a symbol of rebirth 
  and life – would help to protect the 
  hunters from the evil they were facing.
  Once training was over, and the 
  chiefs felt they had done all they 
  could, the hunters entered the forest. 
  From that point, they were on their 
  own.
  44
  eventually made it taboo to try and read the scripture.
  Chiefs appealed to the best herbalist healers (oduns
  provide medical care and teach the hunters how to use t
  scattered throughout the forest to heal their wounds. Ea
  okomfo (a fetish priest or white wizard) who wou
  by deities and cha
  to help ﬁght the
  Ghana’s rainforest
  There was li
  clothing. Hunte
  African war cloth
  that would help t
  surroundings. Th
  red, yellow and 
  were surrounde
  they believed th
  represented ﬁre –
  and life – would
  hunters from the
  Once trainin
  chiefs felt they
  could, the hunte
  From that point
  own.
  Asanbosam have evolved into 
  vicious killers with powerful jaws, 
  easily capable of tearing off a 
  man’s arm. (Reconstruction by 
  Hauke Kock)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  45
  The First Hunt
  The vampire hunters quickly learned that the Asanbosam were nothing like 
  they had ever faced before. Unlike the other, more supernatural vampires that 
  we have come to know, the Asanbosam were relatively easy to maim and kill, 
  providing the hunters could get close enough. Unluckily for the hunters, by 
  the time the Ashanti had sent their ﬁrst organized unit into the forests, the 
  vampires were literally foaming at their mouths; they would twitch at any 
  sound, smell or sight that could potentially lead to their next meal. A lot 
  of blood was shed during those ﬁrst raids, and the trained Ashanti vampire 
  hunters suﬀered heavy losses.
  Despite these early, unsuccessful raids, each new hunter-Asanbosam 
  encounter yielded at least some slight fragment of information on the 
  vampires. The hunters recognized that the Asanbosam were acutely aware of 
  their surroundings. The branches, twigs and leaves of the trees acted like the 
  threads of a spider’s web, with the vampires able to detect the slightest hint of 
  movement. However, they were easily distracted by their food, too absorbed 
  by the meal wandering across their path.
  Physical balance was such an essential part of the behavior of the Asanbosam 
  that the hunters quickly learned to incapacitate their targets by severing the 
  tail. Close-range attacks were rarely successful. Any hunter that survived a 
  melee with one of the creatures did so out of luck more than skill, particularly 
  if a ﬁght broke out in the trees. Knocking the vampires to the ground earned 
  the hunters an advantage; though the Asanbosam had begun to venture onto 
  the forest ﬂoors, they had not developed the conﬁdence that matched their 
  abilities in the trees, which hindered their ﬁghting skills.
  Yet the hunters found more than they bargained for during their patrols 
  of 
  the 
  Ghanaian 
  forests. They discovered 
  that 
  the 
  Asanbosam 
  were perhaps not the 
  malicious 
  vampires 
  that 
  they 
  had 
  been 
  portrayed as. Though 
  their loss of habitat 
  fueled their violent and 
  extreme behavior, there 
  was a more malevolent 
  presence pulling at the 
  strings. Another vampire 
  was sweeping across the 
  country, enacting terrible 
  and deadly deeds upon 
  innocent Ashanti.
  A hunga munga throwing knife. 
  Just one of the many odd 
  weapons developed in Africa 
  and adapted to hunting the 
  Asanbosam. (Brooklyn Museum)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  46
  Toil and Trouble
  Obayifo are a powerful and parasitic species, and like the Asanbosam, they are 
  not considered to be a “conventional” vampire. “Obayifo” is the name given 
  to a person who has two spirits – one neutral, the other evil – residing within 
  them. The vampire ﬁghts an eternal inner struggle to keep the malevolent 
  spirit from overcoming their mind and soul. Should an Obayifo become 
  overpowered by the evil spirit, the darker side of its personality emerges with 
  the ability to wield incredible magic. Though their behavior and appearance is 
  similar to the Western idea of a witch – for example, they gather round pots 
  known as kukuo to create powerful elixirs using the blood of their victims – 
  they are oﬃcially classed as vampires.
  An Obayifo can go undetected for years, as they integrate themselves into 
  communities without being noticed. Pro-vampire sociologists and historians 
  believe they do so to protect the villages they inhabit from evil spirits, as a sort 
  of okomfo.
  Their control over the magical arts led some to believe that they were good 
  magicians gone mad with power. Some of the blame was placed at the feet of 
  the marabouts, leading to a number of innocent men being falsely accused 
  and succumbing to a violent 
  death. Others thought that the 
  Obayifo were responsible for 
  summoning the Asanbosam, 
  who were considered to be dark 
  spirits, to scare away European 
  colonists in an eﬀort to protect 
  the land and the forests. They 
  were half-right.
  Obayifo are protectors of the 
  land. The spirits within them 
  are aligned to the ﬂow of energy 
  that runs through the earth 
  itself. With Ghana under threat 
  of deforestation, the Obayifo 
  sought to rid the region of its 
  oﬀenders. 
  Recognizing 
  the 
  susceptibility of the Asanbosam 
  mind in its blood-frenzied 
  state, the Obayifo were able to 
  manipulate the forest vampires 
  into doing their bidding.
  There are two ways to 
  identify an Obayifo. The ﬁrst 
  is by their “shifty eyes” (rapid 
  Ashanti Priests performing an 
  unknown blood ceremony. (Mary 
  Evans)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  47
  eye movement, or saccades), a result of their anxiety at being discovered at 
  any time as their eyes shift to survey the area. Secondly, Obayifo have an 
  obsession with food, particularly red meat, and they can be spotted prowling 
  around when a meal is being cooked. They are desperate to feed, and they 
  turn into ravenous animals in the presence of food, not unlike their forest 
  friends, the Asanbosam.
  While Obayifo are vampires in the strictest sense, they depend on other 
  sources of food to satisfy their hunger. As empathic vampires, they use their 
  psychic ability to feed oﬀ the telepathic waves of pain and misery that radiate 
  from the organisms that surround them. They have a particular taste for 
  children; the innocent nature gives a child’s blood and psychic vibrations 
  a reﬁned and untainted quality. A child’s melancholy is like nectar to the 
  Obayifo; they are so utterly intoxicated by the purity of their essence.
  One unexplainable revelation about the Obayifo is its ability to transform 
  into a ball of light in order to possess humans and animals. It is very easy to 
  tell when a possession has occurred, as light emanates from a number of areas, 
  including the armpits and anus. This method of possession has baﬄed the 
  scientiﬁc and paranormal communities. It is only employed by the Obayifo 
  in extreme circumstances, often in times of crisis, using a host body to escape 
  when the vampire has been discovered. Perhaps, in their urgency, an Obayifo 
  cannot focus its energy and is therefore unable to keep its power under control.
  There is no known way to exorcise the vampire from its victims. One must 
  simply wait until the Obayifo is ﬁnished with the possession. Unfortunately, 
  most victims don’t survive the experience, not because of the Obayifo itself, 
  but because the victim is normally killed by panicked villagers who are unsure 
  how to act when greeted with such a strange and mysterious sight.
  SASANBOSAM: THE TOURIST TRAP
  Ghana is littered with caves. Today, most function as 
  tourist attractions, but not all are as empty as they seem.
  During their evolution, the Asanbosam line 
  divided, creating an oﬀshoot vampire subspecies: the 
  Sasanbosam. In an evolutionary path not too dissimilar 
  from the bat, a genetic mutation led to the Sasanbosam’s 
  large ﬁngers to extend further to create a giant hand. 
  Living in the uppermost canopies of the rainforests, the 
  Sasanbosam would jump from branch to branch, using 
  the high launching points to take oﬀ. A thin membrane 
  of skin developed between their digits, creating wings 
  that would eventually reach a space of up to 6m (20ft).
  When competition for food in the forests increased, 
  the Sasanbosam took to the skies and ﬂew to the caves, 
  ﬁnding solace in the dark grottos. The Sasanbosam 
  shares many of the same traits as its Asanbosam cousins, 
  including a taste for blood, a tail, “hooked” feet, and an 
  aversion to moving along the ﬂoor. As a result, they use 
  their feet to grip onto cave ceilings and hang down.
  Tourists should beware when entering a cave. Though 
  many caverns are reportedly uninhabited and attacks are 
  infrequent, you can never be too sure of what is hanging 
  overhead. The Sasanbosam is not afraid to swoop into 
  a cave under the cover of darkness and await a meal, 
  particularly if it knows that meal will wander in so 
  unwittingly.
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  48
  Obayifo cannot stay in these orb forms for long. If they are unable to ﬁnd 
  a host, or if they have not fed, they will enter crop ﬁelds and suck out sap and 
  vital juices. Their ability to survive using a number of diﬀerent food sources, 
  coupled with their ultimate escape tactic, indicates that Obayifo deaths are 
  extremely rare.
  Obayifo are able to reverse their empathic feeding ability and use their 
  power to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses of those easily susceptible 
  to control. One such target was the Asanbosam, whose primitive minds are 
  easily manipulated. The Obayifo use a process that is similar to the glamor 
  technique employed by certain other vampire types. If an Obayifo is powerful 
  enough, they are able to control three or four Asanbosam at once, though this 
  amount of control will weaken the Obayifo.
  This ability to eﬀectively control minds allows the Obayifo to manipulate 
  the Asanbosam into terrorizing communities, inciting pain and misery, 
  thereby providing the Obayifo with a greater source of nourishment. Though 
  the vampire hunters had adapted quickly to hunting Asanbosam, the Obayifo 
  presented an altogether diﬀerent challenge.
  Magic Moments
  Although the Ashanti vampire hunters possessed a certain degree of juju 
  knowhow, and they were adorned with enchanted items for extra protection, 
  their skills lay in physical attack. The “magic” they wielded was simply not 
  strong enough to combat the power of the Obayifo. In response to the new 
  threat, the chiefs appealed to the village okomfo again, who recognized that it 
  would take a formidable force to overpower the dark magic of the Obayifo.
  After conversing with the gods, the okomfo discovered that only the 
  combined power of the religious spirit would dispel an Obayifo. Villages 
  consisted of close communities, and the Ashanti treated neighbors and friends 
  as family. The okomfo believed that the support of this cohesive unit – trusting, 
  respectful, selﬂess, and enriched with religious traditions – would infuse them 
  with enough power to defeat the antagonistic magic of the Obayifo.
  Fearful that the Obayifo would seek means of escape through possession 
  once confronted, the okomfo advised the villagers on spells and charms that 
  could be used to seal their homes. Uncooked meat was used to draw out the 
  Obayifo, like a dog. It was placed at the entrance to the village in an attempt 
  to draw the Obayifo as far away as possible from the living creatures it could 
  possess.
  Once distracted, it was essential to kill the Obayifo as quickly as possible. 
  The hunters tried ﬁrst to cut oﬀ the head, but were met with disastrous 
  consequences. The blood of the Obayifo was contaminated and burnt the 
  skin of whomever it touched. When it seeped into the ground below, the 
  surrounding land would grow infertile, and crops withered and wilted, leaving 
  a desert-like wasteland in its place.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  49
  To avoid blood being shed, it was necessary to strangle or drown an Obayifo. 
  With water in short supply and not wanting to contaminate the water that 
  the villagers had access to, strangulation became the most popular method. It 
  would require a team of hunters protected by the most powerful charms to take 
  down an Obayifo before it was able to use its powerful magic to escape.
  Ashanti vampire hunters have been protecting the nation of Ghana 
  from Asanbosam, Obayifo, and other so-called “supernatural” creatures for 
  more than 500 years. Thanks to their eﬀorts, Asanbosam attacks have fallen 
  dramatically, particularly since the beginning of the 20th century, helped by 
  the deforestation from which the country has suﬀered.
  Obayifo appearances have decreased, but this could simply be a result 
  of them becoming more skilled at integrating themselves into Ghana’s 
  communities. Sightings of traveling Obayifo have been reported in Togo, 
  Benin and Nigeria, and these countries have employed their own vampire-
  hunting units to tackle the threat.
  At the current rate of deforestation, Ghana could lose all its forests by 2040. 
  As the Asanbosam’s habitat continues to vanish, its numbers are decreasing. 
  Packed into such a small space, the vampires are becoming easier to take down, 
  especially with hundreds of years of 
  hunting experience against them. 
  Recent ﬁndings of dead Asanbosam 
  also show long claw marks and giant 
  bites on their bodies. Perhaps we are 
  witnessing a species turning on its kind 
  in order to survive, or the rise of a new, 
  stronger, more savage vampire species, 
  claiming Ghana’s forests for its own.
  It has been recently posited that 
  Asanbosam are simply misunderstood 
  creatures who reacted to the loss of 
  their habitat. After all, they peacefully 
  coexisted with humans until rates of 
  deforestation hit high levels. And what 
  of the Obayifo’s role as puppet master? 
  We may never truly know if the 
  Asansbosam’s actions were their own, 
  or the result of outside interference.
  [1] The Kingdom of Ashanti, the Gold Coast and 
  British Togoland adopted the legal name of “Ghana” 
  when the country became independent on March 
  6, 1957. Though the country’s borders and names 
  have changed throughout the course of history, we 
  will continue to refer to it as Ghana for the sake of 
  simplicity.
  An Ashanti Juju Man. These 
  magicians have played a large 
  role in supplying weapons and 
  magic to fight against both 
  Asanbosam and Obayifo. (Mary 
  Evans)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  50
  Asian Vampires
  Hopping Mad
  The Jiangshi (pronounced “chong-shee”) is the most notorious of the vampires 
  in Asia, though certainly not for reasons you might expect. Its body is stiﬀ 
  with rigor mortis, forcing it to move around by hopping, arms outstretched 
  like a zombie as it struggles to keep its balance.[1] The sight of one of these 
  creatures, dressed in Qing (pronounced “ching”) dynasty-style robes and 
  with a vacant-like expression, would not leave its victim cowering in fear but 
  doubled up with laughter.
  “Jiangshi” translates as “stiﬀ corpse,” a term that has only helped to blur the 
  classiﬁcation of this creature. Certain members of the vampire community 
  are loath to acknowledge that the Jiangshi is a vampire, preferring instead 
  to categorize it as a zombie, and it is easy to see why. The process of creating 
  a Jiangshi is not so far removed from the process of creating a zombie. 
  Moreover, its bumbling, stumbling movements, lack of self-awareness, and 
  apparent disinterest in anything other than food, have done much to fuel 
  the perception that there really isn’t much more to them. But like all good 
  vampires, the threat runs much deeper.
  The earliest stories of Jiangshi can be found in literature from the Qing 
  Dynasty, which ruled imperial China from 1644–1912. There were two seminal 
  texts from the era. The ﬁrst, Zi Bu Yu, was a collection of true supernatural 
  stories from writer Yuan Mei, and contained 30 Jiangshi narratives from the 
  period. The second came from writer Ji Xiaolan, who presented teachings on 
  Jiangshi folklore in his book Yuewei Caotang Biji. The two texts established 
  the groundwork for what the vampire hunters used to train and focus their 
  skills in order to combat the Jiangshi threat. Having an almost biblical status 
  among the students of Asian vampires, the information provided in the two 
  texts has not altered much from what we know today.
  Spiritual Metamorphosis
  The Qing-style Jiangshi is a relatively new breed of vampire, with sightings of 
  the current iteration springing up around China during the 1970s. Throughout 
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  51
  the Qing period, Jiangshi-sighting testimonials describe the vampires clothed 
  in attire from the previous ruling dynasty, the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). 
  The Jiangshi’s appearance is indicative of the length of time it takes for the 
  conversion from human to vampire to complete, a prolonged metamorphosis 
  that is heavily steeped in spiritualism.
  Xiaolan and Mei had opposing views on the transformation of human 
  to Jiangshi. Xiaolan alludes to chance and accident, such as the sound of 
  thunder shocking a Jiangshi awake, or the excitement of perceiving a living 
  person’s yang rousing the vampire from its slumber. Mei’s spiritualist theories 
  are much closer to modern thought. It is now accepted that Jiangshi are 
  created as a result of a particularly violent death, such as suicide, hanging, 
  or drowning, or, more commonly, an improper burial. China has a strong 
  tradition of honoring the dead, particularly with regards to one’s native 
  homeland and familial ties.
  The time taken for a human corpse to fully 
  convert into a Jiangshi varies, though 
  100 years is deemed to be the 
  minimum. However, the long 
  process ensures that the vampire 
  is given the best defense possible, 
  thereby making it near impossible 
  to destroy and one of nature’s most 
  eﬀective killing machines.
  The stimulus for creating a Jiangshi 
  is steeped in Taoist philosophical beliefs and 
  involves the polarity of two forces: light 
  and dark, yin and yang, or, in this case, the 
  hun and po. According to Taoist teachings, 
  every living human is believed to possess 
  a number of souls that remain balanced 
  and harmonious: three hun and seven po. 
  Hun are superior souls that appear at the 
  moment of birth. They are the yang of a 
  person, representing the life force or qi 
  (pronounced “chi”), and as such, they 
  are rational and virtuous. Po are inferior 
  souls that come into being at conception 
  of a human life. They embody a person’s 
  yin, the primal instincts and animalistic 
  nature, encouraging man to covet 
  material possessions and sex and inciting 
  aggression. In death, while the hun depart 
  for heaven, the po stay within the body.
  51
  ught. It is now accepted that Jiangshi are 
  rly violent death, such as suicide, hanging, 
  ly, an improper burial. China has a strong 
  particularly with regards to one’s native 
  corpse to fully 
  hough 
  he 
  g
  ost
  a Jiangshi
  ical beliefs and 
  forces: light 
  this case, the 
  st teachings, 
  to possess 
  balanced 
  seven po.
  ar at the 
  ang of a 
  ce or qi 
  h, they 
  inferior 
  ception 
  person’s 
  malistic 
  covet 
  inciting 
  n depart 
  body.
  Despite looking more like 
  a zombie than a traditional 
  vampire, the Jiangshi are 
  dangerous, empathic vampires. 
  (Reconstruction by Hauke Kock)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  52
  If a deceased body does not receive the proper burial rites, the po will initiate the 
  Jiangshi transformation process once the hun have departed. Normally, “feeding” 
  the body using sacriﬁcial oﬀerings that form part of the veneration of the dead 
  would preserve the corpse and keep the po in their rightful place. If this practice 
  is not observed, the corpse would eventually become consumed by the po, which 
  would animate it and command the body to leave the grave and wreak havoc.
  Jiangshi have been known to return to their familial home in search of 
  their loved ones, having never been laid to rest in the proper way. This rarely 
  ends well. Given the length of time it takes for the transformation process, the 
  inhabitants of the home are either several generations along or unrelated to 
  the vampire standing on their doorstep.
  Surviving witnesses claim to have seen Jiangshi sucking the blood out 
  of their victims, but this is certainly not the case. Western entertainment 
  depicting the traditional European, bloodsucking vampire has ﬂooded the 
  Chinese market, inﬂuencing the perception of vampires. While it may be true 
  that a Jiangshi encounter could result in some bloodshed, the vampire is not 
  a haemophage. Like the African Obayifo, it is a type of psychic vampire, and 
  instead targets a prey’s qi using empathic abilities.
  In traditional Chinese culture, it is believed that a person’s qi sustains them, 
  providing life and vitality. Roaming the earth as undead creatures caught between 
  the mortal realm and the next life, Jiangshi devour qi in order to anchor their 
  souls to our living realm. It is thought that with enough qi, a Jiangshi will be able 
  to revert to its human state, though a successful reversal has yet to be recorded.
  Jiangshi are almost blind, relying instead on their other senses to track 
  down their victims. They are able to detect and track prey by the energy 
  ﬂuctuations that are caused by human breathing. The vampire’s limited 
  movement means it depends on close-range techniques to incapacitate its 
  prey. It uses its breath as a weapon, expeling a putrid, rancid, green musk that 
  disorients and paralyzes the target. With the unlucky victim lying in its arms, 
  Jiangshi use a “death kiss” to suck the qi out, leaving their target devoid of any 
  life force and rendering them a corpse.
  The stiﬀness of a Jiangshi will lessen the longer they are out of the grave, 
  allowing them to have a greater degree of ﬂexibility and control over their 
  limbs, which will have horriﬁc results on a victim. If a Jiangshi feels threatened 
  or that it has exhausted all other methods of subduing its prey, it will not 
  hesitate to tear its target limb from limb.
  Bluntly put, for the untrained, the key to escaping from a Jiangshi is not 
  to get caught in the ﬁrst place. Once trapped in its vice-like grip, or knocked 
  out by the potent stench of its breath, it is unlikely you will live to tell the tale.
  Jiangshi Journeys
  The earliest surviving documentation on Jiangshi is recorded within Xiaolan’s 
  and Mei’s texts from the 18th century. Much of the literature on Eastern 
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  53
  vampires is believed to have been destroyed when the Shaolin Monastery that 
  housed them was lit on ﬁre by the warlord Shi Yousan in 1928. The ﬁre raged 
  for 40 days, destroying the temple and countless other sacred texts and martial 
  arts manuals, some of which were centuries old. All that remained were wall 
  frescoes painted with images of ﬁghting monks, and stone tablets that stated, 
  somewhat ironically, that the destruction of the temple was prohibited.
  The role of the Shaolin Monastery, built in AD 495–496 and nestled 
  among the Songshan mountain range in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and 
  its eponymous monks runs much deeper than simply being a library for old 
  vampiric texts. The Jiangshi have a long history with the Shaolin monks, who 
  helped in the transportation of Jiangshi bodies.
  The appropriate and honorable burial of a deceased family member held 
  great importance to the people of China. As such, penniless relatives who 
  could not aﬀord the expense of transporting the whole family to the gravesite 
  of their departed loved one would pay a smaller charge to a Taoist priest to 
  ferry the dead from one place to another. The priests would lead the Jiangshi 
  to their proper burial ground using magical talismans pinned to the heads of 
  Jiangshi to keep them under control, in a process known as “traveling a corpse 
  over a thousand li.” The journey would only be undertaken during the night, 
  and the priest would ring a bell to warn other people of their passing.
  Exerting control over larger numbers of Jiangshi would put the strain 
  on magic wielded by the Taoist priests. Consequently, there would be 
  occasions where priests would lose control of the hopping vampires. Driven 
  insane and unable to ﬁnd their way home, the creature would become wild 
  and unmanageable. In order to regain control, priests would have to use 
  more powerful magical talismans, but getting within close proximity of 
  the vampire was no easy feat. A Jiangshi’s strengths lie in its close-range 
  defensive and oﬀensive capabilities, making it impossible for Taoist priests 
  to get close enough to wield their spiritualist magic, leaving the Jiangshi to 
  roam free and cause chaos.
  The skills aﬀorded by meditation 
  and close-range kung fu techniques 
  made the Shaolin monks the 
  perfect solution to the problem, 
  and so they began to accompany 
  the priests on their journeys. Not 
  only could the monks protect 
  innocent people who were attacked 
  by wayward Jiangshi, they were also 
  able to defend the vampires from 
  bandits and thieves, and ensured 
  they were unharmed before arriving 
  at their ﬁnal destination.
  A graveyard in the Shaolin 
  Temple, which serves as a 
  silent testimony to the monk’s 
  continuing service to the dead.
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  54
  The Best Offense is a Good Defense
  The Shaolin Temple is famous for the profound knowledge and practice of all 
  aspects of martial arts taught therein since the 6th century. Bodhidharma, a 
  Buddhist monk from southern India and the man credited with introducing 
  Chan Buddhism to China, united body and soul in the practices of the Shaolin 
  monks and kick-started their physical training.
  According to The Records of Transmission of the Lamp (or Jing de zhuan 
  deng lu), Bodhidharma arrived in southern China around AD 520 and visited 
  the Shaolin Temple shortly after. He was initially rejected by the monks, and 
  so spent nine years meditating in a cave in the mountains. The monks were 
  so impressed by his devotion that they eventually invited him to enter the 
  temple.
  Bodhidharma transformed the monks’ lifestyle from one based exclusively 
  on the external arts – rituals and scripture translation – and balanced it with a 
  focus on internal development, deep meditation and natural living.
  A special transmission outside the scriptures.
   No dependence on words and letters.
   Direct pointing to the heart of mankind.
   Seeing into one’s nature,
   and attainment of Buddhahood.
  This statement, attributed to Bodhidharma, forms the basis of his teachings 
  to the monks at Shaolin. He began educating them about his version of 
  meditation, dhyana – the proper concentration of the mind. He found that 
  his students were too weak to sustain their stamina during the intense periods 
  WEAPON OF CHOICE
  While the martial arts have undergone many evolutions 
  over the centuries, the weaponry of the Shaolin vampire 
  hunter has remained largely untouched. Aside from the 
  hunter’s command of Shaolin martial arts, he has an 
  arsenal of oﬀensive weaponry at his disposal. Shaolin are 
  famous for their staﬀ-ﬁghting techniques. The staﬀ, or 
  gun, is known as the grandfather of weapons in Chinese 
  folklore. Like so many concepts in vampire hunting from 
  Asia, the staﬀ is a multipurpose implement, and can be 
  used in oﬀense, defense, and as a tool for other purposes. 
  As we have come to expect with vampire hunters the 
  world over, each weapon has been carefully considered 
  and only implemented if it had multiple beneﬁts.
  A sword carved from the peach tree has long been 
  used by hunters in China to battle Jiangshi because of 
  the powerful properties imbued within the wood, which 
  are believed to drive oﬀ evil spirits. Over the years, 
  hunters have added other weapons and accessories to 
  their armories. One popular item among certain hunters 
  is the conical hat. It is unlike other hats of its kind. 
  Carefully crafted to be more aerodynamic, hunters learn 
  how to throw the hats like they would a frisbee. The 
  silver-tipped, sharp edges, coupled with the incredible 
  speed of a spinning blade, are able to deal some degree 
  of damage in battle. Though it will not incapacitate the 
  Jiangshi, hunters will throw the hat as a diversionary 
  tactic. It takes incredible skill to know how to handle 
  the spinning hat, and its lack of dependency in battle is 
  a reason why other hunters may not choose to learn how 
  to master it.
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  55
  of meditation, and so introduced physical ﬁtness and martial arts into their 
  training in order to strengthen body as well as mind. Bodhidharma stressed 
  the importance of fusing these two practices together to create a whole, 
  perfect warrior. In doing so, the monks were able to harmonize their external 
  body strength with their internal mind strength, thereby invigorating the 
  fundamental life force, qi.
  Bodhidharma’s greatest contribution to what would serve as a Shaolin 
  vampire hunter’s most crucial technique almost one thousand years later was 
  qigong (chi gung), or “life energy cultivation.” The practice comprised three 
  elements: breathing, posture, and the mental focus of guiding qi through the 
  body, thereby emphasizing a calm state of mind. Bodhidharma believed that 
  the regulation of one’s breath would increase stamina and endurance and 
  allow the monks to become more capable at practicing advanced and diﬃcult 
  martial art techniques.
  Taoists held similar beliefs to those of the Buddhist teachings of qigong, and 
  the practice adopted by the Shaolin monks became a hybrid of Buddhism and 
  Taoism. As a result, they were able to access higher realms of awareness and 
  push themselves further than they had gone before. The training continued 
  to strengthen the monks, eventually becoming a necessity when bandits came 
  to rob from the temples. During the monks’ travels, they would teach, share 
  and develop their skills with those they encountered on the way, disseminating 
  diverse martial arts styles across the country and to the rest of Asia.
  Though the Shaolin monks had a history of remaining neutral in politics 
  and times of conﬂict, when they were called upon by the Taoist priests to help 
  VUNG FU
  The Shaolin vampire hunters settled on moves from three 
  animal styles – snake, monkey and the newly developed 
  praying mantis  – to form the vung fu style.
  The snake style uses coiling motions in the waist, legs 
  and upper body to create rippling eﬀects, and its yin 
  allows the user to penetrate even the most complicated 
  of defenses with expert precision. It also teaches balance 
  and patience, as the user waits for its prey to come within 
  range, and thus conserves energy.
  The ﬂexibility, agility and unpredictable nature of the 
  monkey style allows the user to evade danger by using 
  jumps, ﬂips and rolls. A cheekier style than the others, 
  it is used to taunt an opponent, drawing them closer 
  before attacking quickly with multiple hits.
  The praying mantis evolved independently of the 
  original ﬁve animal styles. It was created by Wang Lang, 
  one of 18 masters who, sometime in the 13th century, 
  were summoned to the Shaolin Temple to improve the 
  martial arts. The style comprises short-range moves 
  combined with fast and complex footwork to strike at 
  an opponent, with emphasis on the elbows and ﬁngers 
  to attack pressure points. Praying mantis ampliﬁes 
  speed, accentuating fast reﬂexes, and develops patience. 
  The knowledge of pressure points means that a user 
  can focus their qi to heal the body. Praying mantis uses 
  the footwork of the monkey style to form its deadly 
  technique.
  All three styles act together to produce quick, sharp 
  moves that can seemingly overcome any defense at close 
  range.
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  56
  with the transportation of Jiangshi, they had to act, if only to protect those 
  who were at harm. The Taoist qigong principles of harmony and balance are 
  essential teachings at Shaolin, and the rise of Jiangshi, with the overabundance 
  of po, was in direct opposition to what the monks believed. As such, specialist 
  units of Shaolin monks, created speciﬁcally for defending against the Jiangshi, 
  were trained at the temple.
  However, the Taoist priests soon learned that the Jiangshi were becoming 
  too unruly, and the task of transporting them (in some cases over hundreds of 
  miles) was not attractive, particularly when they were so at risk. Consequently, 
  control over Jiangshi diminished and the vampire problem began to spread. 
  It was no longer enough for the monks to be defensive ﬁghters. They had to 
  switch to an oﬀensive strategy. They had to become hunters.
  The Shaolin breathing techniques taught by Bodhidharma were vital in the 
  ﬁght against the Jiangshi. Not only did they allow the hunters to focus their 
  internal energy and deliver maximum impact against their opponent, but by 
  controlling their breathing, the Shaolin vampire hunters were able to evade 
  detection from the Jiangshi, whose instincts are attuned to the distinct energy 
  left behind by a living person’s breath. The breathing technique also rendered 
  the Jiangshi’s poisonous breath, one of its greatest weapons, almost useless, as 
  the Shaolin vampire hunters were able to get closer to the vampires than anyone 
  else and remain unaﬀected by the noxious fumes.
  Bodhidharma’s 
  legacy 
  extends 
  beyond 
  the 
  meditative exercises he introduced at the Shaolin 
  Temple in the 6th century. He laid the foundation for 
  what would develop into the ﬁve animal styles of kung 
  fu – dragon, tiger, leopard, snake and crane – consisting 
  of roughly 172 moves that, in turn, would give birth 
  to many other styles of ﬁghting. Shaolin martial arts 
  were distributed and shared with other martial art 
  practitioners, becoming an amalgamation of diﬀerent 
  practices and beliefs.
  As the Jiangshi threat rose to prominence in 
  the 16th century, the Shaolin monks decided to 
  combine a number of diﬀerent animal styles to tackle 
  the unique oﬀensive and defensive abilities of their 
  opponents. Through a combination of observation and 
  consideration, they drew on several elements to create 
  a specialist vampire kung fu style, aﬀectionately named 
  by Westerners as “vung fu.”
  Though the vung fu was an eﬀective ﬁghting style, 
  it was not enough to execute a Jiangshi. The question 
  remained: how do you kill a seemingly indestructible 
  vampire?
  A representation of Bodhidharma, 
  the man credited with 
  introducing Chan Buddhism 
  to China. (SIHASAKPRACHUM / 
  Shutterstock.com)
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  57
  The Power of the Symbol
  The complicated process for disposing of a Jiangshi means that hunters need 
  to acquire an array of skills and teachings to overcome the vampire hordes. 
  In addition to their prowess in martial arts and weaponry, and learning how 
  to focus one’s qi, it is vital that a Jiangshi hunter is trained to wield Taoist 
  magic. This magic is more about faith than it is waving a wand. “Magic” is an 
  abstract term that has entered popular culture because it is a perplexing art 
  form that the uninitiated are unable to comprehend. Its true name is hidden 
  from us, likely destroyed in the devastation of the Shaolin Temple in the early 
  20th century.
  This magic is represented by fu, yellow strips of paper that have ancient 
  symbols written upon them. The use of these talismans dates back to the reign 
  of the Five Emperors of China between circa 2852–2205 BC. Their function 
  is not restricted to handling Jiangshi. They can also be used to repel evil of 
  all kinds and are able to enhance a particular ability or characteristic. It is the 
  spiritual process behind the creation of these talismans that gives them their 
  power.
  Fu must be written on yellow paper. The color brings clarity and 
  enlightenment to the spell, allowing it to work to maximum eﬀect. It also 
  helps the creator to focus their qi. A series of sacred symbols are written upon 
  each fu; the exact use of these symbols depends on the magic one is trying to 
  perform.
  Only when the inscriptions are made using the blood of a rooster do 
  they have any eﬀect. The reasons for this comes from a tradition in China 
  to use roosters to drive away evil spirits. As an animal that represents yang, 
  the rooster is also able to counter the abundance of yin that has consumed 
  the Jiangshi host. Blood is a constant factor in life and death, and the red 
  color signiﬁes luck. The blood is also used to represent 
  an oath to both rid the mortal plane of the Jiangshi and 
  to deliver the vampire to its resting place. Modern-day 
  tourists and Jiangshi-hunting enthusiasts must be wary of 
  talismans being sold to the public in the temples around 
  China. These are not eﬀective spells to use on vampires 
  and do not hold the same power of those created by 
  trained Jiangshi hunters or genuine Taoist priests.
  The talisman must be pinned to the head of 
  the Jiangshi, freezing the vampire in its tracks 
  and allowing it to be controlled by a bell. 
  Every ring of the bell forces the vampire 
  to hop. Once under the control of the 
  hunter, the Jiangshi must be led to its 
  home village, and magic is used to bind it to 
  its new gravesite.
  57
  tss. Ass an n an
  animal that represents yang, 
  abundance of yin that has consumed 
  factor in life and death, and the red 
  used to represent
  f the Jiangshi and 
  ace. Modern-day 
  ts must be wary of 
  e temples aroundd 
  use on vampirese  
  ose created by 
  oist priests.
  he head of f
  s tracks 
  bell.
  pire 
  the 
  its 
  d it to 
  To be fully effective, fu must be 
  written on yellow paper. Please 
  note that the symbols reproduced 
  here are representational and 
  should not be used in actual fu 
  construction. (Reconstruction by 
  Hauke Kock)
  (Overleaf) For reasons that have 
  never been adequately explained, 
  Hong Kong is a hotbed of Jiangshi 
  activity, receiving nearly ten 
  times the number of reported 
  attacks as would be expected for 
  a city of its size.
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  58
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  59
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  60
  The colors on a hunter’s costume – white, red, and blue-green – represent 
  concepts that counter a Jiangshi, acting as a defensive layer and helping the 
  hunter to focus their qi. White signiﬁes purity and mourning, red is happiness 
  and joy, and blue-green represents spring and vitality. These concepts oppose 
  those represented by the Jiangshi: fear, death, and suﬀering.
  There are a number of other defenses that can be used against a Jiangshi 
  that will pacify the creature for a short period of time. Throwing rice, seeds 
  or dried peas onto the ground will slow the vampire’s approach as it stops to 
  count the grains. If backed into a corner, a useful delaying tactic is to create a 
  circle of rice around yourself or the Jiangshi, which will hold the creature at 
  bay. While the rice has no actual physical or mystical power, the creature is 
  hardwired to stop and count the grains of rice.
  A hen’s egg can slow a Jiangshi (the egg represents new life and we have 
  already noted what eﬀect the chicken family has on the vampire) and loud 
  noises can scare away the vampire. Using a straw broom to literally sweep away 
  a Jiangshi is a common piece of advice that, strange as it may seem, does work. 
  The broom has no real signiﬁcance; however, it has been given symbolic value 
  as a result of its appearance in folklore tales, which are hundreds of years old. 
  The beliefs in these superstitions have given the broom the power to ward oﬀ 
  vampires. It is not the most eﬀective of defenses, but it has some intrinsic value 
  to the masses of Chinese citizens who possess one of these objects, oﬀering 
  assurance that they hold some sort of protection against the invasion of Jiangshi.
  The Jiangshi is a nocturnal being, and a “fresh” creature, recently risen from 
  its grave, can be killed by the sunlight, having yet to become strong enough 
  to withstand the rays. However, as the vampire becomes more powerful, the 
  sun’s eﬀect lessens, and it will become an inanimate, statue-like corpse in the 
  sunlight, reverting back 
  to its vampire state when 
  night returns. This is a 
  useful method for holding 
  a fully-developed Jiangshi 
  in place during the day, 
  though it will not kill it.
  As a Jiangshi spends 
  more 
  time 
  outside 
  of 
  the grave, it grows more 
  intelligent and evil. At the 
  peak of its evolution, a 
  Jiangshi can be identiﬁed 
  by its long, white hair and 
  eyebrows, increased speed, 
  greater ease of movement, 
  and ability to jump higher 
  Monks practice kung fu in this 
  ancient mural from the Shaolin 
  Temple. Eventually the monks 
  repurposed many of the elements 
  from different kung fu forms to 
  aid in the fight against vampires. 
  (Alamy)
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  61
  and longer distances. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen Jiangshi levitate and even 
  ﬂy, but it is merely their skill in jumping that creates this illusion of ﬂight.
  Decapitation, cremation and lightning are the only ways to completely 
  destroy a Jiangshi. The former is the preferred method among vampire hunters, 
  as it is also the simplest. It is diﬃcult to predict when and where lightning will 
  occur, and it is the reason why Jiangshi are so afraid of loud noises, as thunder 
  often indicates lightning. A drum is the most eﬀective tool for generating this 
  noise, and so many hunters choose to carry a small ganngu drum. Although 
  vampire hunters are able to choose a less violent path to lay a Jiangshi to rest 
  – using Taoist magic, a hunter could lead a Jiangshi to its familial home and 
  inter the vampire using the proper burial rites – due to the eﬀort and time it 
  would take to perform this method, it was and still is very rarely undertaken.
  Weaponizing Emotions
  As the Shaolin vampire hunters became more skilled and experienced in 
  dealing with vampires, they would pass on their learnings to other parts of 
  the East, just as their predecessors did. Lines of communication became more 
  established and hunters from Japan and India told tales of vampires from their 
  native countries.
  A talent that is often associated with the vampire is a mystical allure that 
  it uses to ensnare its victims. Popular vampiric ﬁction relates virginal fantasies 
  of suave, sophisticated and desirable vampires that seductively swoop in to 
  corrupt the purity and innocence of a young woman. In reality, this technique 
  – known as glamoring – is less ampliﬁed, but compelling nonetheless. The 
  powerful persuasive technique allows vampires to delve deep into the human 
  psyche and prey on victims’ emotions. In actuality, vampires are using a type 
  of low-level psychic control, or extrasensory perception, to project an illusion 
  into the minds of victims.
  The ability to shapeshift is common among descriptions of vampire 
  encounters in Asia. Popularly, Jiangshi choose to present themselves as wolves 
  when projecting shapeshifting images of themselves. Although vampires are 
  traditionally linked to bats, the ﬂying mammal is revered in China, and its 
  Chinese translation – fu – is a homophone for the word for good fortune. The 
  bat has represented luck and good fortune for centuries, and so it does not 
  carry the same negative connotations as it does elsewhere. Psychic vampires 
  such as these want to feed oﬀ extreme and raw human emotion.
  Vampires are highly sexualized creatures. Where Jiangshi attacks are 
  concerned, women are more at risk than men. Driven by their strong sexual 
  desire, Jiangshi will gravitate towards female victims for sexual pleasure before 
  attempting to ingest their qi. This is a result of the po’s eﬀect on the Jiangshi. 
  The sexual desire is extended to other vampire types in the East, such as the 
  Indian Rakshasa and the Filipino Aswang, who present themselves as beautiful 
  women to attract lustful and unsuspecting men.
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  62
  The Aswang is a particularly ferocious creature, and is able to roam day 
  and night to ﬁnd prey. It favors the blood of children and seems to transform 
  itself into an animal, such as a dog, cat or bird, to entice young victims. When 
  it has taken its prey, it might replace the body with a corpse or a doppelganger 
  that it has crafted.
  Humans in Japan must be especially careful, as the native Gaki vampire 
  chooses to impersonate living people, appearing as a loved one to evoke powerful 
  feelings. These vampires are perhaps even more deadly, preying not on fear, but 
  the love – and, in some cases, sexual desire – of their prey to trap their victim.
  Vampire hunters in Asian countries are specially trained to deal with this 
  psychic interference by focusing their qi and clearing their minds of emotion. 
  They must be unwavering in their determination and aims, and they cannot 
  let the allure of the vampire’s illusion and attempted penetration of their 
  psyche distract them from the task at hand.
  To this day, the Shaolin vampire hunters remain a highly specialist unit 
  of vampire killer. No other hunting group in the world can match their skill, 
  focus and discipline. While they have tried to disseminate their teachings 
  across the continent of Asia, too few people are 
  able successfully to commit to the training and 
  achieve the level of proﬁciency that is required, 
  and this breed of vampire hunter is still too 
  scarce.
  Though the hunters in China are managing to 
  curb the spread of Qing-Dynasty Jiangshi across 
  the country, no amount of Shaolin skill or Taoist 
  magic is able to stem the spiritual transformation 
  process, and Jiangshi continue to rise.
  As transportation has developed, particularly 
  during the 1900s, more and more Chinese citizens 
  have moved out of the country and spread out 
  across the globe. If these people are not properly 
  honored in death, we may bear witness to the 
  rise of a new wave of 20th-century-style Jiangshi 
  in communities that are completely unqualiﬁed 
  to deal with the threat. It is imperative that the 
  Shaolin vampire hunters act now to impart their 
  expertise on an international level to prepare us for 
  the future. Time is against us, and the survival of 
  the deadly Jiangshi seems inevitable.
  Who’s laughing now?
  [1] Other accepted variations of Jiangshi include kyong-shi (Japanese), 
  geungshi (Cantonese) and gangshi (Korean).
  A statue of an Indian Rakshasa. 
  Experts are still arguing whether 
  this creature should be classified 
  as a vampire or a demon. (J 
  Marshall - Tribaleye Images / 
  Alamy)
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  63
  South American 
  Vampires
  A Brief History
  The evolution of vampirism in South America stems back to the Ice Age and, unlike 
  most other continents, has little that relates to the preternatural or paranormal. It 
  is, in fact, tied closely to vampire bats and the migration of megafauna.
  Vampire bats have been closely associated with their vampire namesakes for 
  centuries and have become increasingly common as a result of the vast herds of 
  livestock they feed on in North and South America. The oldest fossil vampire bat 
  dates back around three million years, to the Upper Pliocene Period of Florida, 
  and many fossil species are much larger than 
  their modern relatives. Desmodus draculae 
  is a quarter larger than the extant common 
  vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, and some 
  fossils are associated with the animals they 
  were presumably feeding on, such as rhino-
  sized ground sloths found in Brazil complete 
  with bat remains.
  During the last Ice Age, which ended 
  some 12,000 years ago, the formation of 
  massive polar ice caps resulted in a drop in sea 
  levels that led to the formation of numerous 
  land bridges, including the Isthmus of 
  Panama. This allowed animal populations to 
  migrate between the continents; in the case 
  of South America, a number of mammal 
  groups arrived, including elephants, camels, 
  horses and big cats, known collectively as 
  megafauna. Naturally, they brought their 
  parasites with them, including vampire bats.
  There were a number of physically large 
  animal groups already in South America, so 
  the bats soon made themselves at home. At 
  this point in their evolution, one lineage of 
  vampire bats chose a diﬀerent path to their 
  This ancient statue of a bat-god 
  hints at the long relationship 
  between the Chupacabra and 
  the early Mesoamericans. (age 
  fotostock / Alamy)
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  64
  contemporaries that would lead to their ultimate expression in what is known 
  to vampire hunters and cryptozoologists around the world as the Chupacabra.
  The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is riddled with a system of around 6,000 
  caves and sinkholes known as cenotes, the largest of which is 200ft across 
  and 100ft deep. These are the result of millions of years of dissolution of 
  the limestone bedrock that makes up the Yucatán, leading to the formation 
  of vast underground aquifers. The water in these cenotes has allowed rich, 
  fertile jungles to grow and provided a home for the invading megafauna. The 
  vampire bats took up residence in the many sinkholes and caves permeating 
  the region, and it was here that they began to adapt to their new environment.
  Already larger than contemporary vampire bats, the Chupacabra lineage 
  also changed its hunting style. Many animals would come to the cenotes to 
  drink at night, so the vampires found they no longer needed to ﬂy the distances 
  required of their relatives. Not surprisingly, they also undertook a rather radical 
  behavioral change, becoming swimmers (probably by accident). Considering 
  the prevalence of water in their chosen environment, this was a logical step, as 
  was the development of their climbing abilities. Bats have always been good 
  climbers, scrabbling around on rock faces, but the Chupacabra took it a stage 
  further. Muscle groups designed for ﬂying and climbing grew in strength, and 
  wings designed for ﬂying adapted to swimming. They could still ﬂy, but it 
  became less important – usually just a method of migrating from one cenote 
  to another.
  Spending so much time in the water and living in a generally benign 
  climate resulted in the Chupacabra swapping fur for a ﬁne layer of down, 
  giving them an almost albino-like appearance.
  Another, rather unpleasant, adaptation was using ammonia as a largely 
  defensive weapon. Ammonia is a waste by-product of digesting blood; when 
  attacked, the Chupacabra has been known to spray 
  foul-smelling faecal ammonia, which is similar to 
  being violently dosed with smelling salts.
  As such, by the end of the last Ice Age, they 
  were radically diﬀerent from their small, ﬂittering 
  ancestral forms, and were given the scientiﬁc name 
  Megalodesmodus cenotesensis – the “giant vampire 
  bat of the cenotes.”
  However, the end of the Ice Age heralded the 
  catastrophic mass extinction of the American 
  megafauna, depriving the Chupacabra of its 
  principal prey. Massive environmental change was 
  no doubt instrumental in the destruction of the 
  megafauna, but there is a great deal of suspicion 
  levelled at Homo sapiens, who had ﬁrst arrived in 
  the Americas about 21,000 years ago. Hunting 
  Desmodus rotundus, more 
  commonly known as the vampire 
  bat, is the ancient ancestor of 
  the Chupacabra. (Alessandro 
  Catenazz)
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  65
  cultures, using advanced ﬂint spearheads, were hunting even the largest 
  mammoths at this time, and may have contributed to their downfall.
  Mesoamerican Religion
  Nothing remains historically (or prehistorically) of the ﬁrst interactions 
  between early Americans and the Chupacabra, but around 7,000 years ago 
  humans began to settle in Central America as farmers. We can only surmise 
  on the impact the Chupacabra had on the belief systems of the earliest known 
  Mesoamericans, such as the Olmecs, going back to around 1200 BC. All their 
  religions are based on blood and water, often one symbolically representing 
  the other.
  For the Mayans, the northernmost part of their empire was the Yucatán 
  Peninsula. It was they who probably ﬁrst encountered the Chupacabra, using 
  as they did the cenotes to water their crops. This required farmers and workers 
  to go into the caves, where they almost certainly fell victim to the vampires. 
  The cenotes were additionally seen as entrances to the Mayan underworld of 
  the dead, a place also associated with bats. According 
  to Mayan religion, the bats gave oﬀ terrible 
  shrieks – possibly an interpretation of the 
  Chupacabra’s high-pitched sonar it uses to 
  navigate in the enclosed caves and also 
  under water. Similarly, two lords 
  of the Mayan Underworld, 
  House Corner and Blood 
  Gatherer, were blood drinkers, 
  attacking the neck and other 
  vulnerable areas of the poor souls 
  traveling through this Mesoamerican hell.
  At some point in their history, Mayans 
  began making blood sacriﬁces in the 
  cenotes, as well as gathering water 
  from them. These oﬀerings may 
  have started as a way of distracting 
  or placating the Chupacabras, 
  but soon the vampires became 
  deiﬁed and the oﬀering ritualized, 
  the Mayans decapitating their 
  victims. Chupacabra attacks rarely 
  managed this, but their attacks 
  were focused around the face and 
  neck, so it is not too surprising 
  that the Mayans would focus on 
  the same areas.
  65
  water their crops. This required farmers and workers 
  e they almost certainly fell victim to the vampires. 
  ally seen as entrances to the Mayan underworld of 
  ciated with bats. According 
  bats gave oﬀ terrible 
  erpretation of the 
  d sonar it uses to 
  aves and also 
  wo lords 
  orld, 
  ood 
  kers, 
  other 
  poor souls 
  oamerican hell.
  story, Mayans 
  ﬁces in the 
  ring water
  rings may 
  distracting 
  pacabras,
  became 
  ualized, 
  g their
  ks rarely 
  attacks 
  faafaace and 
  rprising 
  ocus on 
  An adult male Chupacabra, drawn 
  from the only specimen known 
  to have been captured alive, 
  currently believed to be housed 
  somewhere in New Mexico. 
  (Reconstruction by Hauke Kock)
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  66
  Much of surviving Mayan writing interweaves history and mythology, 
  making it diﬃcult for vampire scholars to determine the facts, but there is 
  clearly a link between blood and water. The Mesoamericans even used ﬁsh 
  bones to let blood in as a form of autosacriﬁce. The moment of death was 
  compared to the sensation of sinking into water; for those sacriﬁced to the 
  cenotes, this would have been a very literal interpretation. Seashells, ﬁsh and 
  water lilies often adorn representations of the Mayan underworld, Xibalba.
  The Chupacabras themselves seem to have been mainly located in the 
  northwest of the Yucatán Peninsula, in what the Mayans called The Land of 
  Deer and Turkey, a region thick with swamps and marshes, where the locals grew 
  cacao and where, no doubt, many of the farmers fell victim to vampire attacks.
  The Aztecs, whose empire was even more powerful but further north, took 
  the symbolism of blood and water even further. The rain gods were fed blood 
  by the shooting of arrows into human sacriﬁces, the blood then drizzled onto 
  the ground to encourage fertility and plentiful rain. One of their principal 
  gods, Quetzalcoatl, was revered as a dragon-like feathered serpent and was 
  associated with storms, wind, and blood sacriﬁce. Vampire scholars have 
  speculated (and again, there is no evidence 
  one way or the other) that Chupacabras are 
  not unlike small dragons; it also may be no 
  coincidence that they often use storms to 
  cover their attacks, their senses unimpeded 
  by rain and thunder.
  Another Aztec deity was Mictlantecuhtli, 
  the ruler of the Atzec underworld, Mictlan. 
  He was believed to have huge, dead eyes 
  and a horrible grin, large clawed hands, was 
  desperately skinny and had lost half of his 
  ﬂesh. Worship of Mictlantecuhtli was more 
  usually associated with cannibalism and 
  the Aztec underworld more closely related 
  to dogs, but the description and images 
  of the underworld ruler could quite easily 
  have been modeled on a Chupacabra. The 
  wonderfully bizarre headdresses of Aztec 
  royalty and oﬃcials also seem to mimic in 
  some ways the strange nasal folds and ears of 
  the vampires.
  Whether the Aztecs had direct contact 
  with the Chupacabras is unknown; much of 
  their religion was derived from that of earlier 
  Mesoamericans, including the Mayans, so 
  the links to bloodletting may be entirely 
  An Aztec blood-sacrifice. The 
  connection between ancient 
  Mesoamerican religion, blood-
  sacrifice, and the Chupacabra 
  is a slowly expanding field of 
  research. (North Wind Picture 
  Archives / Alamy)
  (Opposite) Many South American 
  hunters who specialize in 
  fighting Chupacabras still employ 
  traditional methods and modes of 
  dress on their hunts.
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  67
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  68
  coincidental. However, there is evidence that the Chupacabra population 
  was already spreading north up into what is now Mexico during the “classic” 
  period of Mesoamerican history. This was no doubt the result of increased 
  food availability, either as a result of blood sacriﬁces being made directly 
  to them or by increased amounts of prey, in the form of humans. Inferred 
  evidence also indicates they spread south out of the Yucatán in the 9th century, 
  descending into the lowlands at a time when many Mayan city states there 
  were collapsing. The human population is reckoned to have dropped a third 
  during the course of that century, possibly as a result of intense farming and 
  overpopulation, triggering an environmental disaster. This instigated a period 
  of open war between the cities as they struggled to survive, battling for land 
  and for prisoners to be oﬀered as blood sacriﬁces to gods the Mayans believed 
  were now displeased.
  The impact on Chupacabra numbers can only be guessed. Never 
  particularly numerous and built for stealth, they also moved solely at night, 
  while many of their attacks may have been mistaken for the work of jaguars or 
  pumas, or even the much smaller vampire bats. As such, a census of numbers 
  and distribution is impossible to create. What is left is guesswork, mostly 
  garnered from reports drafted by the Spanish Conquistadors, who arrived in 
  Central America in 1519, shattering the world of the Mesoamericans forever.
  Blood and Steel
  To many Aztecs, Hernán Cortés seemed like Quetzalcoatl himself, whose 
  return had been foretold in Aztec legend. Wearing metal armor and astride 
  the ﬁrst horses to enter South America since the end of the Ice Age, he and his 
  companions must have seemed godlike, but the Spaniards (actually Castilians) 
  were after gold and slaves while spreading Catholicism, the two often going 
  hand in hand. After attempts at diplomacy, appeasement and witchcraft failed 
  to placate the erstwhile invaders, Aztec emperor, Montezuma, decided they 
  had to be stopped by force.
  The Aztec elite ﬁghters were the Eagle and Jaguar warriors, who could only 
  adorn themselves as their namesakes after proving their fearlessness in battle. 
  However, Mesoamerican warfare was usually less about killing and more 
  about the taking of prisoners to feed the voracious appetites of the human-
  sacriﬁcing priests. As such, when they ﬁrst came up against the cannons and 
  small arms, swords and armor of the Conquistadors, they stood very little 
  chance. The Castilians were further aided by treachery and smallpox, and 
  soon the Aztec empire had been brought to its knees.
  The end of the Mayans was not so easy. Politically and socially, they were 
  more diverse, with no godhead such as Montezuma to be removed, thereby 
  undermining the nation. The Mayans fought a guerrilla war in thick jungle 
  from 1518 until the last pocket of resistance was crushed in 1697, while 
  across Central America a terrifying combination of drought and outbreaks of 
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  69
  European diseases such as typhus, inﬂuenza and most infamously, smallpox, 
  wiped out almost 80 percent of the region’s population.
  This was equally disastrous for the Chupacabras, whose reliance on blood 
  sacriﬁce meant their primary food source was gone, while the drought drove 
  them deep underground.
  Then, around 1523, the Conquistadors arrived on the Yucatán, and with 
  them the Catholic clergy who saw to their administrative as well as spiritual 
  needs, and Hispanicized Europeans. The latter were from areas familiar with 
  vampirism in its truer forms and what many of the Conquistadors saw as 
  blood-soaked idolatry these Europeans saw as vampire attack. The decision 
  was taken to clean out the threat.
  Wily and pragmatic, the invaders were never averse to the hiring of defeated 
  locals to join their army as auxiliaries, and a number of the surviving Aztec 
  elite, perhaps equally pragmatic and realistic, were formed up into units that 
  were sent into the cenotes, nicknamed Mictlans after the Aztec underworld.
  Records are spotty about what happened next. Much information was lost 
  due to deliberate misinformation by the Conquistadors in documents being 
  sent back to the royal courts as part of an ongoing campaign to fox Spain’s 
  colonial competitor, Portugal. Moreover, what information did make it back 
  to the Inquisition was often disregarded as the work of perfectly natural 
  predators such as jaguars and, as mentioned previously, vampire bats.
  However, there were certain documents that made their way to the Vatican 
  via spies and informants, some of which caused concern and led to the clergy 
  operating alongside the Conquistadors to take on the role of the Inquisition 
  and hunt down this new vampire menace.
  Expeditions utilizing auxiliary 
  warriors, especially Aztec and 
  Mayan forces, and led by the 
  Hispanicized Europeans, both 
  soldiers and priests, descended 
  into the cenotes. These ﬁrst 
  missions 
  were 
  disasters. 
  Religious icons and symbols were 
  a matter of supreme indiﬀerence 
  to the Chupacabras and when 
  the Conquistadors tried burning 
  out the vampires they simply 
  ﬂed into the water. Some of 
  the expeditions became lost 
  or disorientated and ended 
  up ﬁnding themselves prey to 
  the hungry Chupacabras, already 
  culturally adapted to the hunting of humans.
  69
  g
  ,
  s often disregarded as the work of perfectly natural 
  ars and, as mentioned previously, vampire bats.
  e certain documents that made their way to the Vatican 
  ts, some of which caused concern and led to the clergy 
  e Conquistadors to take on the role of the Inquisition 
  w vampire menace.
  ing auxiliary 
  Aztec and 
  ed by the 
  ans, both 
  escended
  ese ﬁrst
  isasters. 
  ymbols were 
  indiﬀerence 
  and when 
  ied burning 
  ey simply 
  Some of 
  ame lost
  d ended 
  es prey to 
  abras, already 
  he hunting of humans.
  Female Chupacabras are 
  smaller and have slightly larger 
  ears but are just as vicious. 
  (Reconstruction by Hauke Kock)
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  70
  However, a few of the vampires were killed and the academics amongst the 
  clergy had a chance to take a look at the perceived threat. It became clear that 
  these were nothing like the vampires encountered by some of the expedition 
  members in Europe. While adapting to a life underground had given them a 
  certain photosensitivity, the Chupacabras were not in any way vulnerable to 
  sunlight like European vampires. This, and the failure of Christian weapons, 
  led the expedition leaders to conclude that these were just highly evolved 
  vermin, more harmful than a man-eating jaguar, but clearly no longer 
  requiring the resources of the Inquisition and clergy. As such, the destruction 
  of the Chupacabra lairs was made a military matter.
  The ﬁrst thing the Conquistadors did was bring in Molossers, tough war 
  dogs that had terriﬁed the Mesoamericans in battle. The ammonia stench of the 
  vampires was easy enough for humans to follow, but the dogs could smell the 
  lairs even amidst the mélange of smells generated by the sweltering rainforest.
  They also brought boats into the cenotes. Using ﬁre to drive the Chupacabras 
  into the water, they would then be lanced by native warriors, proﬁcient with 
  atlatls, spear-throwers that could accurately cast javelins a great distance.
  Sometimes, the Chupacabras could be coaxed above ground with staked-
  out bait, such as a goat, donkey, or occasionally, harking back to the religious 
  belief of the Mesoamericans, a child. The hungry vampires would risk exposure 
  above ground at the possibility of an easy meal, and paid for it with their lives.
  Conquistadors torture an Aztec. 
  Such torture was used to reveal 
  the location of many Chupacabra 
  groups. (The Art Archive / Alamy)
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  71
  Gone North
  The Conquistador extermination program lasted barely a year, but was 
  eﬀective enough to wipe out the Chupacabras of the Yucatán. By 1524, 
  the Spaniards were establishing themselves across the peninsula and the 
  few remaining Chupacabras seemed to have scattered into the southern 
  lowlands before turning northwest and migrating slowly up the Isthmus 
  of Panama.
  Studies by UNESCO indicate they were surprisingly adaptable and 
  resilient. There were plenty of jungles and waterways for them to disappear 
  into, but there was a lack of large prey. As such, they were drawn to human 
  settlements, feeding on livestock and the occasional unlucky human; it also 
  seems they became scavengers, an easy way to ﬁnd food at a time when 
  disease was devastating the indigenous populations of the region. Few in 
  number, and with few humans to notice, the Chupacabras’ passage north 
  went largely unobserved.
  Their fortunes changed when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out in 
  search of gold in southern North America, bringing with him herds of cattle. 
  Some of the vampires shadowed the expedition through the deserts of the 
  region, living oﬀ the blood of the occasional stray, eating the dead and taking 
  the occasional live human victim.
  The sparsely populated regions of Central and southern North America 
  allowed the Chupacabra populations to establish new bridgeheads. The 
  rugged, mountainous terrain, limestone cave systems, empty deserts, and thick 
  forest all provided havens, and as cattle farming took a hold in the region, 
  the vampires found new prey. Even so, these were tough environments and 
  their numbers were never able to swell to anything like those of the Yucatán. 
  They disappeared from sight and, as such, the Yucatán vampires more or less 
  vanished into myth and legend.
  How far north they traveled has become a matter of debate. UNESCO 
  vampire units were on hand during the cattle mutilation scares of the 1970s. 
  Some of these took place as far north as South Dakota. Evidence of Chupacabra 
  involvement is circumstantial, but the report of strange medicinal smells 
  around the carcasses of the victims could indicate the presence of ammonia. 
  There were also reports of unusual footprints around the bodies, not unlike 
  suction cups. Chupacabra are “knuckle walkers” and could quite easily account 
  for these unusual punch holes in the ground. Perhaps most signiﬁcant was the 
  complete exsanguination of many of the animals involved, and the apparent 
  application of an anticoagulant to expedite this. Like their ancestral bat forms, 
  Chupacabras possess a natural anticoagulant in their saliva.
  The causes of many of these cattle mutilations (which also involve horses 
  and other livestock) remain the source of much conjecture and conspiracy 
  theories, but UNESCO, in a report in 1985, did conclude that there was 
  strong evidence in some cases of vampirism by Megalodesmodus.
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  72
  Much stronger evidence of Chupacabra attacks came from their old 
  hunting ground in Central America and led ultimately to the informal term 
  for the species. In 1995, a number of sheep were killed, and exsanguinated, 
  in Puerto Rico. Soon after came reports of the cryptid that became known as 
  the Chupacabra, the “goat sucker.” The early descriptions immediately drew 
  the interest of UNESCO’s vampire unit. While there was no doubt some 
  hysteria and sensationalism was involved in many of the sightings, there was 
  enough solid evidence to support a sudden rise in the threat level posed by the 
  vampire. Many of the reports of strange, naked-skinned animals with bizarre 
  limb proportions were attributed to dogs or coyotes with Sarcoptes scabiei, 
  better known as itch mites, which cause fur loss and unpleasant and unsightly 
  rashes. In serious cases, the infected animal can look almost naked.
  A number of reported Chupacabra specimens happened to have been 
  eaten by vultures or such, or have turned out to indeed be coyotes. Two were 
  allegedly shot by animal control oﬃcers in Hood County in 2010, but nothing 
  further was heard about these and they have been secured by UNESCO.
  Sightings of the vampire have occurred as far north as Maine, but are 
  centered mainly in the southern USA and northern Mexico. However, there 
  is now increasing evidence of a Chupacabra presence in major cities, using 
  the new underground network generated by sewers and storm drains. How 
  long they have been there is unknown, but they so far do not constitute an 
  infestation. UNESCO vampirism oﬃcials have been conducting investigations 
  (often posing as sewer workers or even vagrants) to assess the extent of the 
  problem, but many of the cities suspected of harboring Chupacabras have 
  hundreds of miles of tunnels that are many centuries old, and the cities are 
  teeming with plentiful food supplies (including many people whose presence 
  won’t be missed, like vagrants, runaways, addicts and criminals). Cities where 
  a presence has been positively identiﬁed include Los Angeles, New York 
  (speciﬁcally Manhattan), Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Mexico City and Tijuana.
  However, the presence of Chupacabras remains a low priority for UNESCO 
  and the SAU units. As the vampires do not pass on the condition as Strigoi 
  do, they are considered a minor threat, at least for now. But the true size of 
  the problem remains to be seen and will only become clear on completion 
  of the UNESCO survey. In the meantime, there are many in SAU who feel 
  prevention is better than cure, and already expeditions have been mounted 
  into the sewers of New York, Chicago and Mexico City to develop tactics 
  in eliminating any possible future threat. Many of these are modeled on the 
  Conquistadors and their Mesoamerican vassals.
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  73
  CONCLUSION
  The Vampire Wars
  Thanks in part to the activities of the North American vampire, species of 
  vampire are no longer conﬁned to the areas they had inhabited for millennia. 
  With Europe traditionally considered the epicenter of vampire activity, who 
  would suspect the central power base to be relocated to a region with so little 
  vampire history?
  The enormous fortunes that the Old World vampires of Europe brought 
  with them when they immigrated to North America were invested in steel, 
  the railway and communications. With a powerful hold on these commercial 
  areas, the North American vampires have not only become wealthy, they 
  have also been able to open the lines of communication and transportation, 
  leading to a proliﬁc dissemination and 
  networking of the vampire species.
  With clear and established lines 
  of communication and leadership 
  – and with very little opposition 
  – the immigrant North American 
  vampires are leading the oﬀensive 
  against humanity. Vampires have been 
  spreading across the globe for decades, 
  particularly to North America where a 
  lack of true vampire history has resulted 
  in little skill and demand for hunting. 
  Consequently, the congregations of 
  species that have gathered there have 
  been allowed to breed unheeded and in 
  relative peace.
  But these New World vampires are 
  not relying solely on their wealth and 
  power to attract other vampire covens 
  to build up their empire. There are 
  those species that possess a limited and 
  primal intelligence, who do not have 
  the mental capacity to be driven by 
  such materialistic reward. As such, it is 
  This gruesome sketch serves 
  as a reminder that, at their most 
  basic, vampires are animalistic 
  predators who view the mass 
  of humanity as little more than 
  cattle. (Bridgeman Art Library)
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  74
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  76
  believed that the North American vampire leaders are exploiting the psychic 
  and empathic abilities showcased by the Chinese Jiangshi and the African 
  Obayifo to inﬂuence other, more susceptible vampires into joining their ranks.
  There is evidence, for example, that the South American Chupacabra 
  is penetrating the major cities across the North American continent. This 
  behavior is not consistent with historical records of the Chupacabra – they 
  have never been known to approach such densely populated and modern areas, 
  and yet the evidence that more and more of their number are driving further 
  north is increasing month on month. Inhabiting the maze of sewers beneath 
  these metropolises, it is suspected that the Chupacabras are answering the 
  call of their “masters,” vampires who are thought to be using a combination 
  of low-level psychic resonance and echolocation to summon their brethren. 
  Moreover, with numbers of Chupacabra having plummeted in recent years, 
  could the North American vampire be trying to propagate the species? It 
  seems the vampires are using whatever they have at their disposal in order to 
  build their forces.
  From the Vatican to UNESCO
  For more than 500 years, the Vatican led the ﬁght against vampires in Europe. 
  It was they who took on the formalized and organized hunting of vampires, 
  with their ﬁrst oﬃcially sanctioned engagement with the Strigoi taking place 
  in 1520, though the task forces to counter the threat had been in the works 
  long before that. In the early centuries AD, warrior priests had trained in the 
  local monasteries. But over time, as the threats worsened, these young hunters 
  The Vatican library, home of the 
  famous “Z Collection,” one of the 
  world’s largest repositories for 
  knowledge about the undead, 
  including vampires. (Francesco 
  Dazzi / Shutterstock.com)
  (Previous) There is no doubt that 
  vampires are now more organized 
  than ever before. There will likely 
  come a day when all vampire 
  hunters around the world will be 
  called together to fight in defense 
  of humanity.
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  77
  that were working alone to destroy the enemy in their respective European 
  communities became less eﬀective.
  Consequently, the Vatican acted to bring together resources from across 
  the continent to better organize the attacks on the vampires, a move that 
  would be mirrored some 500 years later.
  Due to the proliferation of new, previously unknown species of vampires 
  appearing in diﬀerent countries and continents, the Vatican-sanctioned 
  teams were unable to keep up with their oﬀensive. They recognized that the 
  traditional weapons and tactics used by the European hunters were not enough 
  to tackle the various threats. Subsequently, UNESCO assumed responsibility 
  for dealing with the vampire menace on a global scale. Just as the Vatican 
  brought together the hunters from across Europe, UNESCO has been able to 
  do the same on an international level.
  UNESCO was founded shortly after the end of World War II, on 
  November 16, 1945. It aims to encourage collaboration between nations 
  through education, science and culture, in order to establish a peaceful world 
  order. As part of the United Nations, the organization is able to bring all the 
  relevant national parties together in relative privacy, averting the gaze from 
  those prying eyes that would incite mass panic.
  As UNESCO aimed to amass the specialist knowledge and skills from 
  each area of the globe in order to inform and educate other hunters, they 
  employed new teams, dubbed Special Action Units (SAU). The SAUs sought 
  to understand everything possible about the vampires in order to counter any 
  possible threat.
  The UNESCO world headquarters 
  in Paris, the center for antivampire 
  activities in the modern world. 
  (Simon Tranter Photography / 
  Alamy)
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  78
  For example, vampires like the Jiangshi have the potential to emerge almost 
  anywhere on Earth. Therefore, it is vital for the Shaolin vampire hunters to 
  share their knowledge of the spiritualist side of hunting, which far exceeds 
  that of any other hunter in the world.
  Furthermore, the skills of the Ghanaian hunter and his African 
  brothers are crucial learnings in the North American urban jungles that are  
  currently witnessing vampire uprisings. These new North American opponents 
  may diﬀer from the forest-based threats, such as the Asanbosam, but the African 
  hunters are able to use their abilities to reach places other hunters cannot. They 
  can exercise these talents, which resemble the art of parkour (a modern-day 
  version of the skills developed by the hunters hundreds of years ago in the 
  African forests), itself developed from 
  military obstacle course training.
  As such, training camps are 
  currently being established at key 
  locations across the world, where 
  vital individuals from all continents 
  are pulling together to impart their 
  skills and knowledge and plan their 
  assault. In addition, the work between 
  these new inquisitors and several 
  highly classiﬁed US military units in 
  the late 1990s and early 2000s has 
  helped to prepare them for combat in 
  the ﬁeld. Those relationships between 
  UNESCO and North America are 
  proving vital as we move closer to all-
  out war with the vampires.
  Faith is the connecting thread 
  throughout this guide. The religious 
  traditions have always been a part of 
  the counter-vampire culture, no matter 
  the country of origin. Every task force 
  is laced with religious iconography 
  and a symbolic belief that has helped 
  them to overcome their opponents. 
  It seems that even before UNESCO 
  stepped in, the hunters were writing 
  chapters from the same book. Now it 
  is up to UNESCO to ensure that they 
  complete the story – to create the most 
  successful and eﬃcient antivampire 
  units the world has ever seen.
  A rare photograph of Telsa Dane, 
  “The Louisiana Vampire.” Telsa 
  disappeared from her Baton 
  Rouge mental hospital in 2008 
  before experts could determine 
  the true nature of her apparent 
  vampirism.
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  79
  A New Age Dawns
  The translation of traditional hunting tactics and vampire knowledge from 
  the Old World sites in Europe, Asia and Africa to those hunters stationed 
  in the New World areas would be an impossible task without the latest 
  advancements in communication. Now, the few vampire hunters that exist 
  in North America are looking to assimilate knowledge and skills from their 
  transatlantic kin.
  In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO embarked on a plan to address the 
  imbalance in global communication. Establishing a set of communication 
  channels where media would ﬂow freely, UNESCO is in a better position to 
  identify vampire communications. In addition, with new recommendations 
  in place, UNESCO is able to encourage and nurture cross-communication of 
  the vampire hunting techniques, allowing the knowledge to cross-pollinate 
  around the globe.
  Like the vampires, hunters have worked independently of each other 
  for centuries, in most cases taking a reactive approach to hunting by 
  simply repelling more immediate 
  and localized threats. Now that the 
  vampires’ power base has shifted from 
  Europe to North America, and as the 
  vampire groups evolve from unruly 
  sects to organized armies, so must 
  the hunters move to the source of the 
  upcoming conﬂicts and become more 
  proactive in their attacks.
  As we continue into the 21st 
  century, the art of war is changing. 
  Technology is aﬀecting the global 
  landscape, and so the hunters must 
  learn to adapt and develop their skills 
  to meet the new demands. Medieval 
  techniques need to be communicated, 
  embraced and brought up to date so 
  that today’s hunters have the potential 
  to overpower the resilient vampires of 
  the Old World.
  Vampires have carried out a 
  number of criminal activities to 
  fund their ever-expanding empire 
  and secure their grip on North 
  America. 
  Human 
  traﬃcking, 
  prostitution, drugs – these activities 
  were conveniently overlooked by law 
  Modern hunters must be ready to 
  combat any variety of vampire. 
  This is most true for hunters in 
  Asia, who have lately seen a large 
  influx of European or American 
  Strigoi.
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  80
  enforcement, with any investigation immediately stalled as a result of random 
  killings or the timely intervention of corrupt cops. But now these movements 
  are being caught on camera.
  Technological improvements in communication are not only helping both 
  vampire and hunter factions to amass, they are transforming the once-secret 
  war into a public broadcast. With the explosion of camera phones and social 
  media (not to mention the ever-growing presence of mass media) the vampires’ 
  clandestine operations are now being uncovered for the world to see.
  Spurred on by the suggestion that vampires do indeed exist, thrill-
  seeking, naïve youngsters are taking it upon themselves to hunt down and 
  document vampire activity, and various social media channels and blogs are 
  dedicated to the pursuit of evidence. Despite the number of fatal injuries and 
  killings resulting from these intrusions, delusional youths and documentary 
  ﬁlmmakers continue to take to the streets in order to penetrate the underbelly 
  of the vampire underworld and capture the next great vampire selﬁe.
  Authorities in those countries where this documentation is being published 
  are forced by wealthy and powerful pro-vampire supporters to conceal any 
  vampire activity that appears online in an eﬀort to shield their movements. 
  Vampires have surveillance all over the global communications network, 
  pulling down information from the Internet as soon as it goes up. Though 
  they act as quickly as possible, will they be able to keep up with the pace 
  of this fast-moving technological world before the secret is well and truly 
  out? And will the transmission of all this easily accessible information help or 
  hinder the vampire hunting community? It is too soon to tell.
  The changing face of the human-vampire war does not simply represent a 
  shift to the technological: as the vampires and the hunters come together in 
  their respective groups to build and train their forces, the hunters are blending 
  the spiritual, psychological and intellectual elements together. Confronted 
  with this ever-changing landscape, the importance of the guide you hold in 
  your hands has never been greater.
  We are entering a new age of vampire hunting. As the Old World and the 
  New World unite, the spiritual experience of being a hunter is aligning with 
  the approaches of the modern world. It is imperative that we act now and 
  prepare ourselves for what is to come, for the sake of the human race.
  Have you got what it takes?
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Deluxe Hardback Edition
  P R E S E N T S
  ADVENTURES
  OSPREY
  www.ospreyadventuresbooks.com
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Osprey Publishing,
  Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 0PH, UK
  44–02 23rd St, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY 11101, USA
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  A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library
  Print ISBN: 978 1 4728 0424 2
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