We'd all like to think that vampires are Gothic or Victorian, good looking, sexy people who lounge around all day in castles or mansions in some sort of secret society community atmosphere. I won't say that never happened in all the history of vampires, because I’m sure somewhere at some time there might have been. However, even then it wasn't a constant & it wasn't something that happened even 1% of the time.

Vampires, like any human or humanoid being, worked a job, had a home, had a life (married, single, even divorced in time periods & cultures that allowed it). Money spends no matter where they lived or when they lived. So if it meant coins, bartering, or paper money, they were working joes just like everyone else around them. No human or human-like being got a free ride just for being cool.

Vampires, Elves, Dwarves, Ogres, Trolls, Merfolk, etc. They all had their own abilities, just like humans have human-specific abilities, and they all lived amongst each other. Sure, there are certainly some areas that were elves-only, vampires-only, etc, but most of the time, the more beings procreated & encroached on each other's claimed land, the more different beings co-mingled with each other.

And everyone wasn't so good looking either. Like any race of being vampires were subject to variations of appearance; facial shape, hair color, eye color, height, weight - size, shape, color. And were not absolved from deformities, illnesses, and other non-conformity issues such as tooth decay, fertility problems, and other known issues rampant amongst multiple races from humans to vampires to dwarves, etc.

While humans are by far the most vulnerable of the humanoid classes of beings to have existed on earth, and certainly the advantages provided to Vampires, Elves, Giants, Dwarves, Merfolk & such exceeded the physical limitations of humans, it didn't make them any more impervious to earthen mortality. In fact, their super abilities made them targets for the undeveloped, non-enlightened minds of humans. To see a being that could perform outside of a human's ability meant they must be something "different", and to be "different' is no less problematic than it is today. If someone appeared with the abilities of a vampire today on tv or in public they would be whisked away by authorities & locked up in some horrific testing facility to see how they work & how humans can benefit. The only difference from then to today is back then it was better to just kill it & be done with it. And certainly after the emergence of the Catholic Church, anything "different" meant the devil was involved.

Was there a time when humanoid races co-mingled & co-existed without issue? Sure. But, they were short-lived in comparison to the total time of existence of the earth planet. However, we know from different excerpts in non-paranormal records of history that humans lived among giants, elves, dwarves, pygmies, and other special races of humanoid beings for centuries. However, if you think about the flash in the pan of time that covers (even 1 million years), to the complete existence of life on this planet, you see that it is likely the majority of these special beings went out over the last 5,000 years with seriously dwindling populations in the last 500 years, and had probably started to taper in the last 15,000 years.

So how did humans come to have this romantic notion of Victorian, slender, good-looking, all sex, fatal predators begin? Media. Before Dracula it was common knowledge that vampires could bite anywhere on a body, & humans weren't the exclusive target for blood. If that had been the case vampires would not have even survived, the human population was micro to begin with & if vampires had been predatory for humans only both the vampire & human races would have gone extinct before they would have had a chance to begin. The vampires would have wiped out the small human population in no time, starved, and both would be eradicated from the earth's surface.

Stoker had to have a way, without having his book censored into oblivion, to convey the sexual portrayal he desired without actually discussing sex in any way, shape, or form (mind the time he wrote this book). The only way to do this was to pick an erotic part of the body for biting, hence the neck. It was a tender spot meant for intimate interactions between a husband & wife, or two lovers, therefore the reader gets a titillating, sexual view via book without Stoker having his book canned for being too racy. Which, truthfully, even with all the editing & more artistic explanations for things, his book still was considered racy; imagine if he hadn't edited it.

From there you saw the springing of Vampire killing kits, vampire lore, and much like the UFO craze, everyone saw a Vampire. The truth being far closer to home, Vampires had been there all along, & had already been killed by centuries of generations of humans from all over the globe & they didn't need a kit, just a good, strong warrior with the ability to do it, or just someone with dumb luck.

I am sorry to dash dreams of romantic views, but why be in the dark with those who obliterate an entire race's existence into fairytales, when you could be someone who actually acknowledges history & realizes that like any race of being on earth, they were are vast & varied in culture, religion, physical appearance, hopes & dreams, and life as anyone else.

Read Part 2