Post by T.H. Hawkmoor on Feb 3, 2014 1:12:40 GMT
The Ultimate Vampire Timeline Rev. 7 02/02/2014
Welcome,
Sometime in 2010 I went looking for a “comprehensive” and COMPLETE vampyre history timeline. What I found was that there were many and of that number many were simply “copy & paste” versions of each other. Some had a little extra thrown in. Most stopped with the history at around the turn of the twentieth century and then diverted into popular fiction lists and entertainment. Some just stopped dead. There were very, very few that represented much ‘History’ after Bram Stoker’s Dracula or some of the early twentieth century so called ‘vampire’ crimes.
I decided that we deserved something more and so I set about compiling and maintaining this for myself.
One thing I want to make very clear from the start ~ I CLAIM NO COPYRIGHT IN THIS MATERIAL. I compiled this from dozens of other sources both electronic and written. I keep an alert open for “creditable” instances of historical significance to the community and I accept suggestions from anyone as to things that, in their opinion, constitute vampyric history. I take those suggestions, I read and research for corroborating information and I cross-reference everything before I put it in the timeline.
It’s a labour of love, I hope it is useful to you, dear reader.
Regards,
T.
3200
Cuneiform writing in Sumeria. Lilith appears as one of a group of Sumerian vampire/cannibal demons that included Lillu, Ardat Lili and Irdu Lili
2000-1600
Old Babylonian Empire. Lilith appears in the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic as a vampiric harlot who was unable to bear children. She was commonly depicted as a young girl with owl’s feet.
1700-1100 BC
Hindu sacred writings describe Vampiric creatures of supernatural origin
200 AD
Lilith is referred to in the Talmud (the collection of Jewish law and tradition consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara ) where she was held to be the first wife of Adam
1047
The first mention of the word “vampir” was discovered in a Slavic document that was Russian in origin. The Book of Prophecy written in 1047 AD for Vladimir Jaroslav, Prince of Novgorod, in northwestern Russia. The text was written in what is generally referred to as proto-Russian, a form of the language that had evolved from the older, common Slavonic language but which had not yet become the distinctive Russian language of the modern era. The text gave a priest the most unsavoury title; Upir Lichy, which literally translated means wicked vampire or extortionate vampire.
1100-1300
Origins of universities in the West; The term “Kindred” appears. A term meaning “of having the same belief or attitude”. It originated in 1125-75AD; Mid-European, a variation (with epenthetic d) of kinrede.
1136
William of Newburgh born. A twelfth century British chronicler of vampyre incidents, was born in Bridlington. As a youth he moved to a priory of Augustinian Canons at Newburgh, Yorkshire. He became a Canon and remained at Newburgh for the rest of his life. Urged to devote himself to scholarly pursuits by his superiors he emerged as a precursor of modern historical criticism and strongly denounced the inclusion of obvious myth in historical treatises. His magnum opus, the Historia Rerum Anglicarum, also known as The Chronicles was completed near the end of his life. Chapters 32 to 34 relate to a number of stories of contemporary revenants, which William had collected during his adult years. Accounts such as that of Alnwick and Melrose Abbey have been repeatedly cited as evidence of a vampyre lore existing in the British Isles in ancient times. William died at Newburgh some time between 1198 and 1208
1190
Walter Map’s De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampire-like beings in England.
1347-1350
The “Black Death” plague sweeps the world. It was, at the time, thought by many to be of ‘Vampyric’ origin.
1431
Vlad Dracula (i.e. Son of Dracul) also known as Vlad the Impaler, was a historical figure upon whom Bram Stoker had partially based his famous vampyre character. The name “Dracula” was applied to Vlad during his lifetime. It was derived from “Dracul” a Romanian word that can be interpreted either as “devil” or “dragon”. Thus “Dracula” would seem to have significance as meaning “son of the dragon” or “son of the devil”.He was born in Sighisoara (then Schassburg), a town in Transylvania
1448
Vlad Dracula first attempts to claim the Wallachian throne.
1456
Vlad Dracula then began his six year reign as ruler of Wallachia, during which his reputation was established.
1459
Most likely, in the spring of 1459, Vlad committed his first major act of revenge upon those he considered responsible for the death of his father and older brother. On Easter Sunday, after a day of feasting, he arrested the Boyar families. The older members he simply had impaled outside the palace and city walls. He forced the rest to march from Tirgoviste to the town of Poenari where, over the summer, they were forced to build his new outpost overlooking the Arges River. It was this chateau that was to become identified later as Castle Dracula. Vlad Dracul’s manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished, earned him the nickname “Tepes” or “The Impaler”.
1476 -1477
Vlad’s death came at the hands of an assassin at some point towards the end of December 1476 or early the following year.
1560
Elizabeth (Erszebet) Bathory born
1575
Elizabeth Bathory marries Count Ferenc Nadasdy
1610
Elizabeth Bathory arrested December 29th
1611
Elizabeth Bathory sent to trial and convicted of 650 offences. Sentenced to life in prison. In evidence given at her trial it was revealed she often “bit” her victims whilst torturing them. However, there was no direct testimony that she drained her victims blood to bathe in.
1614
Elizabeth Bathory dies.
1622
Ludovici Maria Sinistrari born in Pavia, Italy. (died 1701) A Franciscan, Sinistrari included the matter of vampirism in a study of demonic phenomena entitled De Daemonialitate, et Incubis, et Succubis. He offered a theological interpretation of them that stood far from the contemporary rationalism and enlightenment that emerged in the following century. He considered vampyres as creatures that had not originated with the accepted Christian creationist theories. He surmised that while they, the vampyres, had a rational soul equal to humans their corporeal dimension was of a completely different and perfect nature. In saying this he enforced the idea that vampyres were creatures that paralleled human beings rather than being opposite, chthonious, underground beings.
1645
Leo Allatius (1586 – 1669) A Roman Catholic theologian and scholar, authors the first work that treats the subject of vampyres seriously. In his De Graecorum bodie quirundam opinationibus the vampyre to which he primarily referred was the Greek Vrykolakas. At this time the vampyre was connected with the devil of Christianity both in nature and existence.
1656
Jure Grando, an Istrian (Croatian) peasant, who lived in Kringa, a small place in the interior of the Istrian peninsula. He died in 1656, and was decapitated as a vampire in 1672.
1657
Francoise Richard’s Relation de ce qui s’est passé a Sant-Erini Isle de l’Archipel links vampirism and witchcraft.
1665
Giuseppe Davanzati; An archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, and vampirologist is born.
1672
Dom Augustin Calmet born 26 Feb.A Roman Catholic biblical scholar, and the most famous vampirologist of the eighteenth century.
Jure Grando disinterred and decapitated as a vampire.nine people went to the graveyard, carrying a cross, lamps and a hawthorn stick. They dug up his coffin, and found a perfectly preserved corpse with a smile on its face. They tried to pierce its heart again, but the stick could not penetrate its flesh. After some exorcism prayers, the most valient of them, Stipan Milašić, took a saw and sawed his head off. As soon as the saw tore his skin, the vampire screamed and blood started to flow, and soon the whole grave was full of blood.
1679
Phillip Rohr’s “Dissertatio Historico-Philosophica de Masticatione Mortuorum” appears. Rohr was based in the Holy Roman Empire, and his text discussed the common folklore that some corpses returned to life, eating both their funeral shrouds and nearby bodies – a process known as manduction. The chewing dead were part of a larger body of vampire mythology, which Rohr’s text contributed to significantly.
1727
The case of Arnold Paole (Paul), Paul was killed in an accident and was buried immediately. Some three weeks later reports surfaced of appearances by Paul. Four people whom made reports died and panic began to spread through the community. The town leaders decided to act quickly to quell the panic and had the body of Paul disinterred to determine whether he was a vampyre. On the fortieth day after his burial, with two military surgeons present, the coffin was exhumed and opened. Inside they found a body that appeared as if it had just recently died. What appeared to be new skin was present under a layer of dead skin and the nails had continued to grow. Upon being pierced the body poured blood from the wound. Those present judged Paul to be a vampyre and the corpse was staked; reportedly uttering a loud groan at this, then the corpse’s head was severed and the body burned. The four other people whom had died after making reports of Paul’s appearances were treated similarly.
1731
In the same area, 17 people died in the space of three months, of symptoms believed to be those of vampirism. The townspeople were, at first, slow to react until one girl complained of being attacked by a man recently deceased named Milo. Word of this second “wave” of vampirism reached Vienna and the Austrian Emperor ordered an inquiry be conducted by the Regimental Field Surgeon Johannes Fluckinger. Appointed on December 12th, Fluckinger headed for the town of Medvegia and began to gather accounts of what had occurred. Milo’s body was exhumed and found to be in the same state as that of Paul had been found. Accordingly the body was staked and burned. It was determined that Paul, in 1727, had vampyrised several cows that the dead Milo had recently dined on. Under Fluckinger’s orders the townspeople then proceeded to exhume the bodies of all whom had died in recent months. In all 43 corpses were exhumed and 17 found to be in a “vampiric” state; all were staked and burned.
1744
Davanzati publishes his “Dissertazione sopra I Vampiri” following several years study of vampire activity reports in various parts of Germany and other pertinent texts. Davanzati concluded that vampyre reports were human fantasies though acceded they may have had diabolical origin.
1746
Calmet’s only published work on vampires appears; “Dissertations sur les Apparitions des Anges des Démons et des Espits, et sur les revenants, et Vampires de Hingrie, de Boheme, de Moravie et de Silésie.”
1755-63
Giuseppe Davanzati dies sometime during this period.
1810
Reports of sheep being killed by having their jugular veins cut and their blood drained circulate throughout northern England.
1813
The poem “The Giaour”, completed and published. In this poem Byron demonstrated his familiarity with the Greek vampiric being the Vrykolakas
1828
Peter Plogojowitz dies in a village named Kisolova in Austrian occupied Serbia, not far from the site of the Paole case. Three days later, in the middle of the night, he entered his house and asked his son for food. He ate and then left. Two evenings later he reappeared and again asked for food. His son refused and was found dead the following day. Shortly after this several villagers fell ill from exhaustion which was diagnosed as caused by an excessive loss of blood. They reported that, in a dream, they had been visited by Plogojowitz who had bitten them on the neck and sucked blood from them. Nine persons succumbed to this mysterious illness during the following week and died.
1828
The chief magistrate sent a report of the deaths to the commander of the Imperial forces and the commander responded by visiting the village. The graves of all the recently deceased were opened. The body of Plogojowitz himself was an enigma to them – he appeared to be in a trance-like state and was breathing very gently. His eyes were open, his flesh plump and he exhibited a ruddy complexion. His hair and nails appeared to have grown and fresh skin was discovered just below the scarfskin. Most importantly, his mouth was smeared with fresh blood. The commander quickly concluded that the corpse was a vampyre and the executioner that had accompanied him to Kisolova drove a stake through the body. Blood gushed from the wound and the orifices of the body which was removed and burned. None of the other exhumed corpses showed signs of the same condition so, to protect both them and the villagers, garlic and whitethorn were placed in their graves and their remains returned to the ground.
1832
Henry Steel Olcott, American religious leader and author, cofounder of Theosophist movement, b. Orange, N.J.
1847
Abraham “Bram” Stoker, (died 1912) born in Dublin, Ireland – Stoker was the author of Dracula, the key work in the development of the modern literary vampyre myth.
1849
Vincenzo Verzeni, born in Bettanuco, Bergamasco region. In 1874 a court found him guilty of two murders; involving the “biting and sucking of the blood of his victims” and of the attempted murder of four more women.
1854
Nicholas I occupies the Danubian provinces of Turkey. Baron von Haxthausen reports on the case of the DAKHANAVAR – Mythology; Armenia. A vampire whom protected the hills and valleys around Mount Ararat in the Caucasians. The case of vampirism in the Ray family of Jewett, Connecticut, is published in local newspapers.
1858
France. Z.J. Piérart a psychical researcher on vampirism and professor at the College of Maubeuge, founds a spiritualist journal, La Revue Spiritualiste. His rejection of popular reincarnation theory led him directly to his consideration of vampirism. He became interested in the possibility of psychic attack and in a series of articles he proposed a theory of psychic vampirism, suggesting that vampyres were the astral bodies of either incarcerated or deceased individuals that were revitalizing themselves on the living. He first proposed the idea that the astral body was forcefully ejected from the body of a person buried alive and that it vampyrised the living to nourish the body in the grave or tomb. Piérart’s work pioneered modern psychical concern with the phenomena of vampirism. It opened the door to the discussion and consideration of the possibility of a paranormal draining of an individual by a spiritual agent.
1860
British Occult Society founded to investigate paranormal and occult matters.
1870
Sir Richard F. Burton, whom published the English translation of the story collection The Vetala-Pachisi (published under the title Vikram and The Vampire) in 1870 noted of one particular passage that Kali, “Not being able to find victims, this pleasant deity, to satisfy her thirst for the curious juice, cut her own throat that the blood might spout up into her mouth.”Neustatt-an-der-Rheda (known today as Wejherowo) in Pomerania (north-west Poland) a prominent citizen named Franz von Poblocki died of tuberculosis. Two weeks later his son, Anton, also died and other relatives became ill and complained of nightmares. The surviving family members suspected vampirism and hired a local “vampyre expert” Johann Dzigielski to assist them. He decapitated the son whom was then buried with his head between his legs. Over the objections of the local priest the body of von Poblocki was exhumed and treated in a like manner. The local priest made a complaint to the authorities whom arrested Dzigielski. He was tried and sentenced to four months jail. He was released only after the family of the deceased appealed on his behalf and found the case heard by an understanding judge.
1874
Reports from Ceven, Ireland, tell of sheep having their throats cut and their blood drained.
1875
Henry Olcott and Helena Blavatsky found the Theosophical Society in New York City. Olcott speculated that occasionally when a person was buried they may not be dead but in a catatonic or trance-like state, barely alive. Olcott surmised that a person could survive for long periods in their grave by sending out their astral double to drain the blood, or “life force” from the living to remain nourished.
1880
Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers born. Summers was the author of a number of important books on the supernatural including several classic studies on vampyres.
1882
One “vampire” case that draws attention is that of “The Blood Drawing Ghost” of County Cork, Ireland. Recounted by Jeremiah Curtin
1890
Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) born in Wales in 1890
1892
Alleged “Rhode Island” vampire Mercy Brown dies age 19. Her death followed those of her mother and older sister. At the time, her brother, Edwin, was seriously ill and the family was desperate to save him. Family members attributed the deaths to a curse on the family and decided to dig up the bodies of the women, including Mercy, who had been buried for about a month. When Mercy’s body was exhumed, observers noted it appeared to have moved inside the coffin and blood was present in her heart and veins. Fearing she was a vampire, townspeople removed her heart and burned it on a rock before reburying her. The family dissolved the ashes in medicine and gave it to Edwin, who died two months later.
1924
Fritz Harmaann of Hanover, Germany, is arrested, tried and convicted of killing more than 20 people in a vampiric crime spree.
1926
Montague Summers’ “The History of Witchcraft and Demonology” appears
1928
Montague Summers finishes his broad survey, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin, in which he traced the presence of vampyres and vampyre-like creatures in the folklore around the world, from ancient times to the present. He also surveyed the rise of the literary and dramatic vampyre.
1929
Montague Summers publishes his equally valuable The Vampire in Europe, which focused on various
1930
Dion Fortune publishes one of her more popular books, Psychic Self Defence. This book came from her own experiences. In her occult work Fortune had also witnessed various instances of psychic attack which she was called on to interrupt. Among the elements of a psychic attack, she noted, was “vampirism” that left the victim in a state of nervous exhaustion, and a wasting state. From this Fortune propounded an occult perspective on vampirism. She suggested that masters of the occult had the ability to separate their psychic self from their physical body and attach themselves to others and drain the host’s energy. Such persons would then begin to, unconsciously, drain the energy from those around them.
1931
Peter Kurten of Dusseldorf, Germany is executed after being found guilty of murdering a number of people in a vampiric killing spree.
1946
Dion Fortune dies.
1949
In England, John George Haigh, the infamous “Acid Bath Murderer,” is hanged. He was also known as the “Vampire of London.” Haigh, claimed to have drunk the blood of his victims before destroying their bodies in a vat of sulfuric acid.
1962
The Count Dracula Society is founded in the United States by Donald Reed.
1965
Jeanne K. Youngson founds The Count Dracula Fan Club.
1966
Anne de Molay establishes the Order of Maidenfear after investigating the archetype of the vampire and arriving at the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner.
1967
The Vampire Research Society founded as a specialist unit within the much older British Occult Society. Seán Manchester was responsible for the vampire research unit becoming a self-governing body on 2 February 1970.
Also in 1967, Manchester, receives an account from a schoolgirl named Elizabeth Wojdyla and a friend of hers, whom claimed to have seen several graves opening in Highgate Cemetary, London; and the occupants rising from them. Elizabeth also reported having nightmares in which “something evil” tried to come into her bedroom.
1969
Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet.
Also in 1969, Elizabeth Wojdyla’s nightmares returned but now the malaevolent figure actually entered her bedroom. She had reportedly developed the symptoms of pernicious anemia and her neck displayed two small wounds suggestive of the classical vampyre bite. Manchester, and her boyfriend, treated her as a victim of vampirism and filled her room with garlic, crucifixes and holy water; her condition and symptoms were reported to soon improve.
1970
Before an assembled crowd of onlookers, Manchester and two companions entered a vault at Highgate where three empty coffins were found. They sprinkled the vaults with salt and holy water, lined the coffins with garlic and placed a crucifix in each.
In the summer (Northern) of 1970, David Farrant, another amateur vampyre hunter entered the field. He claimed to have seen the Highgate vampyre and went hunting it with a stake and crucifix but was arrested.
In August the body of a young woman was found at the cemetery. It appeared as though the woman had been treated as a vampyre by decapitating and attempting to burn the corpse. Before the end of the month, police arrested two men whom claimed to be vampyre hunters.
Also in 1970, Stephan Kaplan founds The Vampire Research Centre.
1972
True Vampires of History by Donald Glut is the first attempt to assemble the stories of all the historical vampire figures.
1975
The Order of The Vampyre was founded in 1975 by priests of the Church of Satan (founded in 1966) whom had decided to carry forward the serious work of the Church in a more historic, less anti-Christian context. The Temple of Set is configured as an “umbrella” organization that has a number of specialized “orders” whose members concentrate on specific areas of research and black magic applications of the results of that research.
1973
Dracula Society; The – Founded by Bernard Davies and Bruce Wightman in U.K.
1976
House Sahjaza formed in New York City
1977
Martin V. Riccardo founds the Vampire Studies Society. Sean Manchester began an investigation of a mansion near Highgate Cemetary that had a reputation as being haunted. On several occasions Manchester and his associates entered the house. In the basement they found a coffin, which they dragged into the backyard. Opening the casket Manchester saw the same vampyre he had seen seven years before in Highgate Cemetery. This time, it was reported, he performed an exorcism by staking the body which “turned into a slimy, foul smelling substance, and burned the coffin”. Richard Chase, dubbed “The Vampire Killer of Sacramento” commits the first of a series of murders. The second murder in 1978 involved consuming the victim’s blood.
1978
Eric Held and Dorothy Nixon found the Vampire Information Exchange.
1980
Further reports of dead animals found drained of blood from an area called Finchley. Manchester believed that a vampyre created by the bite of the Highgate Vampyre was the cause.
1982
The first vampire RPG, “Ravenloft”, was released as a “Dungeons and Dragons” module featuring the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich.
1985
David Dolphin presented a paper to the American Association for the Advancement of Science outlining a theory that porphyria might underlie the reports of vampirism. He argued that since the treatment for porphyria was the injection of heme, it was possible that in the past people suffering porphyria might have attempted to drink blood as a method of relieving their symptoms. Among those whom critiqued Dolphin’s hypothesis was Paul Barber. Firstly, Barber noted, there was no evidence to show that the consumption of blood had any affect on the disease itself and only held up as long as one did not look at the available data too closely and discounted the powers of observation of those making the reports. Such reports which did not support the theory that any of those reported exhibited the symptoms of Porphyria.
Also in 1985, the founding members of House Sahjaza, under the guidance of Goddess Rosemary form the Z/n Society.
1988
The retail outlet “Siren” is founded by Grovella Blak. Located in Toronto, Canada it is the world’s oldest establishment catering to the enthusiasms of the overlapping communities devoted to the Goth and Vampyre genres. The British Occult Society is formally disbanded by President Sean Manchester.
1989
The secretive; international, Temple of The Vampire (ToV) is founded.
1991
By far the most popular vampire role-playing game is entitled “Vampire: The Masquerade” created by Mark Rein-Hagen and published in 1991 by White Wolf Game Studio. Transylvanian Society of Dracula is founded in Bucharest by a group of leading Romanian historians, ethnographers, folklorists, tourist experts, writers and artists; as well as non-Romanian experts in the field.
1993
The Sanguinarium is founded by father Sebastian Todd (a.k.a Aaron Todd Hoyt, Todd Sabertooth Father Todd, Father Sebastian, Father Todd Sebastian, Sebastiaan Van Houten) This leads to the establishment of the Ordo Strigoi Vii.
1994
Oprah Winfrey forms “prayer circle” outside the premiere of the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” to work against the forces of darkness she believes the film is calling down.
1995
Sean Manchester wrote an account of his perspective on “The Highgate Vampire” (1995, rev, 1991)
The Z/n Society; formed by the founders and leaders of House Sahjaza, comes to an end.
1996
A female reporter named Susan Walsh disappears while writing a story on downtown Manhattan’s mysterious “vampire underground”.
1997
Sean Manchester expands on and releases “The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook”. The remarkable Long Black Veil or “LBV” events truly hold a unique place in the history of New York City’s nightlife. LBV began in 1997 as “Long Black Veil & the Vampyre Lounge” on the second Wednesday of each month at the legendary MOTHER nightclub on 14th and Washington Streets in New York City. The Black Veil
The Black Veil represents a code of vampyre ethics and common sense widely accepted by the vampyre subculture. It is akin to the Strigoi Vii Covenant and although they are different documents they are, in essence, compatible.
Originally authored in 1997, by Father Sebastian of House Sahjaza, it was written as a code of conduct for patrons of the vampyre haven, Long Black Veil, in New York City.
The original ‘Black Veil’, now referred to as version 1, was derived from Renaissance Fair etiquette and from existing codes of conduct in the BDSM / fetish scene. There was, undoubtedly, some influence absorbed from the White Wolf Game Studio role playing game Vampire: the Masquerade as this afforded the only set of “terms” being used in the community at the time. The Black Veil was amended by ‘Lady Melanie’ in 1998 and 1999, and has been revised since then by Michelle Belanger of House Kheperu.
In the spring of 1997 the first webpage of Sanguinarius.org appears.
1998
Katherine Ramsland (clinical psychologist; journalist and bestselling biographer) made contact with Father Sebastian Todd and asked him to serve as a consultant for a book she was writing entitled “Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today .” Her intention was to follow in the last known footsteps of investigative reporter Susan Walsh (who disappeared around the same time as the historic Vampyre Ball at the Limelight in July 1996.) A release party for the book was held at LBV in 1998.
House Sahjaza’s latest incarnation follows the dissolution of the Z/n Society in 1995
1999
Sphynxcat’s Real Vampires Support Page established on the internet. Vampire-church.com was first registered in April.
2000
COVICA, a council of collected elders from different traditions, again revised the Black Veil. It was at this time that the publication gained widespread popularity and was translated into Portuguese, German and Spanish. It was also distributed as the “13 Rules of the Community”. 2000 saw the closing of MOTHER but Father Sebastian chose to continue the event by relocating to True nightclub on 23rd Street near Broadway in Manhattan. LBV remained there for two more years. The Vampire Codex is written by occultist and psychic vampire Michelle Belanger and published by Sanguinarium Press. The Vampire Codex has a significant impact on the worldwide community of psychic vampires, becoming the fundamental text used by numerous Houses, Orders, Covens, and Clans. It has influenced the teachings of vampire groups throughout the US, Canada, and Western Europe.
2001
The Vampire Research Society Worldwide Organisation is founded.
2002
Michelle Belanger, along with input from Father Sebastian and others, presented The Black veil version 2 as a philosophy and tradition of ethics, not rules. This code is annotated as being voluntary and was designed to set an example for the community. This updated and simplified version of the Black Veil was not declared as a set of laws or rules and no longer carried the alternative title “13 Rules of the Community,” but was written as an example set of ethics and ideas.
2006
The Vampire & Energy Work Research Survey (VEWRS) with 379 Questions and the Advanced Vampirism & Energy Work Research Survey (AVEWRS) with 688 Questions are conducted. From 2006 to 2009 a combined response total (VEWRS & AVEWRS) reached over 1,450 surveys or over 670,000 individually answered questions; making it the largest and most in-depth research study ever conducted on the real vampire/vampyre community or subculture. The surveys are translated from English into French, Spanish, German and Russian. In all seventeen countries are represented: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States.
The group body, Voices of the Vampire Community (VVC) is founded to develop friendly relations among the various Houses, Covens, Orders, organizations, and individual leaders of the vampire community.
2007
The first results of the VEWRS and AVEWRS surveys are released.
2008
Pardubice, East Bohemia, July 11. Archaeologists believe they have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, eastern Bohemia, containing the remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time. One of the graves, from the early bronze age burial site was situated somewhat aside from the others and the male skeleton in it was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head.
“Remains treated in this way are now considered as vampiric. The dead man’s contemporaries were afraid that he might leave his grave and return to the world,” Radko Sedlacek from the East Bohemia Museum said.
2010
Real Vampire News is conceived and started by John Reason. The aim is to become a “newspaper” type resource for the online community of real vampires.
The Atlanta Vampire Alliance and Suscitatio LLC commence a second series of studies to complement the 2006-2009 VEWR’s and AVEWR’s surveys. This effort will reportedly include involve the collection of medical testing and information.
June 2012
Two medieval “vampire” skeletons emerged near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol, local archaeologists announced.
Dating back 800 years to the Middle Ages, the skeletons were unearthed with iron rods pierced through their chests — evidence of an exorcism against a vampire.
October 1, 2012
John Reason’s Real Vampire Life E-Zine begins a year long survey of the real vampire sub-culture entitled “The Living Vampire – A social survey”, aimed at gathering social and demographic information about the sub-culture.
September 31, 2013
John Reason’s Real Vampire Life survey, “The Living Vampire – A social survey”, concludes.
November 3rd, 2013
I.C.E - the International Council of Elders is formed by Stefan Resurrectus and a group of long time and active members of the community who want to see change for the better brought to the OVC.
December 30, 2013
First publication of part one of the results of “The Living Vampire – A social survey” is published on John Reason’s Real Vampire Life E-Zine (http://realvampirenews.com/)
If you have a suggestion for inclusion in the timeline please do not hesitate in contacting me at:
rvlmail@yahoo.com
and in the subject line please put, ‘Re: Vampire Timeline’
Regards,
T.
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Welcome,
Sometime in 2010 I went looking for a “comprehensive” and COMPLETE vampyre history timeline. What I found was that there were many and of that number many were simply “copy & paste” versions of each other. Some had a little extra thrown in. Most stopped with the history at around the turn of the twentieth century and then diverted into popular fiction lists and entertainment. Some just stopped dead. There were very, very few that represented much ‘History’ after Bram Stoker’s Dracula or some of the early twentieth century so called ‘vampire’ crimes.
I decided that we deserved something more and so I set about compiling and maintaining this for myself.
One thing I want to make very clear from the start ~ I CLAIM NO COPYRIGHT IN THIS MATERIAL. I compiled this from dozens of other sources both electronic and written. I keep an alert open for “creditable” instances of historical significance to the community and I accept suggestions from anyone as to things that, in their opinion, constitute vampyric history. I take those suggestions, I read and research for corroborating information and I cross-reference everything before I put it in the timeline.
It’s a labour of love, I hope it is useful to you, dear reader.
Regards,
T.
The Ultimate Vampyre Timeline
3200
Cuneiform writing in Sumeria. Lilith appears as one of a group of Sumerian vampire/cannibal demons that included Lillu, Ardat Lili and Irdu Lili
2000-1600
Old Babylonian Empire. Lilith appears in the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic as a vampiric harlot who was unable to bear children. She was commonly depicted as a young girl with owl’s feet.
1700-1100 BC
Hindu sacred writings describe Vampiric creatures of supernatural origin
200 AD
Lilith is referred to in the Talmud (the collection of Jewish law and tradition consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara ) where she was held to be the first wife of Adam
1047
The first mention of the word “vampir” was discovered in a Slavic document that was Russian in origin. The Book of Prophecy written in 1047 AD for Vladimir Jaroslav, Prince of Novgorod, in northwestern Russia. The text was written in what is generally referred to as proto-Russian, a form of the language that had evolved from the older, common Slavonic language but which had not yet become the distinctive Russian language of the modern era. The text gave a priest the most unsavoury title; Upir Lichy, which literally translated means wicked vampire or extortionate vampire.
1100-1300
Origins of universities in the West; The term “Kindred” appears. A term meaning “of having the same belief or attitude”. It originated in 1125-75AD; Mid-European, a variation (with epenthetic d) of kinrede.
1136
William of Newburgh born. A twelfth century British chronicler of vampyre incidents, was born in Bridlington. As a youth he moved to a priory of Augustinian Canons at Newburgh, Yorkshire. He became a Canon and remained at Newburgh for the rest of his life. Urged to devote himself to scholarly pursuits by his superiors he emerged as a precursor of modern historical criticism and strongly denounced the inclusion of obvious myth in historical treatises. His magnum opus, the Historia Rerum Anglicarum, also known as The Chronicles was completed near the end of his life. Chapters 32 to 34 relate to a number of stories of contemporary revenants, which William had collected during his adult years. Accounts such as that of Alnwick and Melrose Abbey have been repeatedly cited as evidence of a vampyre lore existing in the British Isles in ancient times. William died at Newburgh some time between 1198 and 1208
1190
Walter Map’s De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampire-like beings in England.
1347-1350
The “Black Death” plague sweeps the world. It was, at the time, thought by many to be of ‘Vampyric’ origin.
1431
Vlad Dracula (i.e. Son of Dracul) also known as Vlad the Impaler, was a historical figure upon whom Bram Stoker had partially based his famous vampyre character. The name “Dracula” was applied to Vlad during his lifetime. It was derived from “Dracul” a Romanian word that can be interpreted either as “devil” or “dragon”. Thus “Dracula” would seem to have significance as meaning “son of the dragon” or “son of the devil”.He was born in Sighisoara (then Schassburg), a town in Transylvania
1448
Vlad Dracula first attempts to claim the Wallachian throne.
1456
Vlad Dracula then began his six year reign as ruler of Wallachia, during which his reputation was established.
1459
Most likely, in the spring of 1459, Vlad committed his first major act of revenge upon those he considered responsible for the death of his father and older brother. On Easter Sunday, after a day of feasting, he arrested the Boyar families. The older members he simply had impaled outside the palace and city walls. He forced the rest to march from Tirgoviste to the town of Poenari where, over the summer, they were forced to build his new outpost overlooking the Arges River. It was this chateau that was to become identified later as Castle Dracula. Vlad Dracul’s manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished, earned him the nickname “Tepes” or “The Impaler”.
1476 -1477
Vlad’s death came at the hands of an assassin at some point towards the end of December 1476 or early the following year.
1560
Elizabeth (Erszebet) Bathory born
1575
Elizabeth Bathory marries Count Ferenc Nadasdy
1610
Elizabeth Bathory arrested December 29th
1611
Elizabeth Bathory sent to trial and convicted of 650 offences. Sentenced to life in prison. In evidence given at her trial it was revealed she often “bit” her victims whilst torturing them. However, there was no direct testimony that she drained her victims blood to bathe in.
1614
Elizabeth Bathory dies.
1622
Ludovici Maria Sinistrari born in Pavia, Italy. (died 1701) A Franciscan, Sinistrari included the matter of vampirism in a study of demonic phenomena entitled De Daemonialitate, et Incubis, et Succubis. He offered a theological interpretation of them that stood far from the contemporary rationalism and enlightenment that emerged in the following century. He considered vampyres as creatures that had not originated with the accepted Christian creationist theories. He surmised that while they, the vampyres, had a rational soul equal to humans their corporeal dimension was of a completely different and perfect nature. In saying this he enforced the idea that vampyres were creatures that paralleled human beings rather than being opposite, chthonious, underground beings.
1645
Leo Allatius (1586 – 1669) A Roman Catholic theologian and scholar, authors the first work that treats the subject of vampyres seriously. In his De Graecorum bodie quirundam opinationibus the vampyre to which he primarily referred was the Greek Vrykolakas. At this time the vampyre was connected with the devil of Christianity both in nature and existence.
1656
Jure Grando, an Istrian (Croatian) peasant, who lived in Kringa, a small place in the interior of the Istrian peninsula. He died in 1656, and was decapitated as a vampire in 1672.
1657
Francoise Richard’s Relation de ce qui s’est passé a Sant-Erini Isle de l’Archipel links vampirism and witchcraft.
1665
Giuseppe Davanzati; An archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, and vampirologist is born.
1672
Dom Augustin Calmet born 26 Feb.A Roman Catholic biblical scholar, and the most famous vampirologist of the eighteenth century.
Jure Grando disinterred and decapitated as a vampire.nine people went to the graveyard, carrying a cross, lamps and a hawthorn stick. They dug up his coffin, and found a perfectly preserved corpse with a smile on its face. They tried to pierce its heart again, but the stick could not penetrate its flesh. After some exorcism prayers, the most valient of them, Stipan Milašić, took a saw and sawed his head off. As soon as the saw tore his skin, the vampire screamed and blood started to flow, and soon the whole grave was full of blood.
1679
Phillip Rohr’s “Dissertatio Historico-Philosophica de Masticatione Mortuorum” appears. Rohr was based in the Holy Roman Empire, and his text discussed the common folklore that some corpses returned to life, eating both their funeral shrouds and nearby bodies – a process known as manduction. The chewing dead were part of a larger body of vampire mythology, which Rohr’s text contributed to significantly.
1727
The case of Arnold Paole (Paul), Paul was killed in an accident and was buried immediately. Some three weeks later reports surfaced of appearances by Paul. Four people whom made reports died and panic began to spread through the community. The town leaders decided to act quickly to quell the panic and had the body of Paul disinterred to determine whether he was a vampyre. On the fortieth day after his burial, with two military surgeons present, the coffin was exhumed and opened. Inside they found a body that appeared as if it had just recently died. What appeared to be new skin was present under a layer of dead skin and the nails had continued to grow. Upon being pierced the body poured blood from the wound. Those present judged Paul to be a vampyre and the corpse was staked; reportedly uttering a loud groan at this, then the corpse’s head was severed and the body burned. The four other people whom had died after making reports of Paul’s appearances were treated similarly.
1731
In the same area, 17 people died in the space of three months, of symptoms believed to be those of vampirism. The townspeople were, at first, slow to react until one girl complained of being attacked by a man recently deceased named Milo. Word of this second “wave” of vampirism reached Vienna and the Austrian Emperor ordered an inquiry be conducted by the Regimental Field Surgeon Johannes Fluckinger. Appointed on December 12th, Fluckinger headed for the town of Medvegia and began to gather accounts of what had occurred. Milo’s body was exhumed and found to be in the same state as that of Paul had been found. Accordingly the body was staked and burned. It was determined that Paul, in 1727, had vampyrised several cows that the dead Milo had recently dined on. Under Fluckinger’s orders the townspeople then proceeded to exhume the bodies of all whom had died in recent months. In all 43 corpses were exhumed and 17 found to be in a “vampiric” state; all were staked and burned.
1744
Davanzati publishes his “Dissertazione sopra I Vampiri” following several years study of vampire activity reports in various parts of Germany and other pertinent texts. Davanzati concluded that vampyre reports were human fantasies though acceded they may have had diabolical origin.
1746
Calmet’s only published work on vampires appears; “Dissertations sur les Apparitions des Anges des Démons et des Espits, et sur les revenants, et Vampires de Hingrie, de Boheme, de Moravie et de Silésie.”
1755-63
Giuseppe Davanzati dies sometime during this period.
1810
Reports of sheep being killed by having their jugular veins cut and their blood drained circulate throughout northern England.
1813
The poem “The Giaour”, completed and published. In this poem Byron demonstrated his familiarity with the Greek vampiric being the Vrykolakas
1828
Peter Plogojowitz dies in a village named Kisolova in Austrian occupied Serbia, not far from the site of the Paole case. Three days later, in the middle of the night, he entered his house and asked his son for food. He ate and then left. Two evenings later he reappeared and again asked for food. His son refused and was found dead the following day. Shortly after this several villagers fell ill from exhaustion which was diagnosed as caused by an excessive loss of blood. They reported that, in a dream, they had been visited by Plogojowitz who had bitten them on the neck and sucked blood from them. Nine persons succumbed to this mysterious illness during the following week and died.
1828
The chief magistrate sent a report of the deaths to the commander of the Imperial forces and the commander responded by visiting the village. The graves of all the recently deceased were opened. The body of Plogojowitz himself was an enigma to them – he appeared to be in a trance-like state and was breathing very gently. His eyes were open, his flesh plump and he exhibited a ruddy complexion. His hair and nails appeared to have grown and fresh skin was discovered just below the scarfskin. Most importantly, his mouth was smeared with fresh blood. The commander quickly concluded that the corpse was a vampyre and the executioner that had accompanied him to Kisolova drove a stake through the body. Blood gushed from the wound and the orifices of the body which was removed and burned. None of the other exhumed corpses showed signs of the same condition so, to protect both them and the villagers, garlic and whitethorn were placed in their graves and their remains returned to the ground.
1832
Henry Steel Olcott, American religious leader and author, cofounder of Theosophist movement, b. Orange, N.J.
1847
Abraham “Bram” Stoker, (died 1912) born in Dublin, Ireland – Stoker was the author of Dracula, the key work in the development of the modern literary vampyre myth.
1849
Vincenzo Verzeni, born in Bettanuco, Bergamasco region. In 1874 a court found him guilty of two murders; involving the “biting and sucking of the blood of his victims” and of the attempted murder of four more women.
1854
Nicholas I occupies the Danubian provinces of Turkey. Baron von Haxthausen reports on the case of the DAKHANAVAR – Mythology; Armenia. A vampire whom protected the hills and valleys around Mount Ararat in the Caucasians. The case of vampirism in the Ray family of Jewett, Connecticut, is published in local newspapers.
1858
France. Z.J. Piérart a psychical researcher on vampirism and professor at the College of Maubeuge, founds a spiritualist journal, La Revue Spiritualiste. His rejection of popular reincarnation theory led him directly to his consideration of vampirism. He became interested in the possibility of psychic attack and in a series of articles he proposed a theory of psychic vampirism, suggesting that vampyres were the astral bodies of either incarcerated or deceased individuals that were revitalizing themselves on the living. He first proposed the idea that the astral body was forcefully ejected from the body of a person buried alive and that it vampyrised the living to nourish the body in the grave or tomb. Piérart’s work pioneered modern psychical concern with the phenomena of vampirism. It opened the door to the discussion and consideration of the possibility of a paranormal draining of an individual by a spiritual agent.
1860
British Occult Society founded to investigate paranormal and occult matters.
1870
Sir Richard F. Burton, whom published the English translation of the story collection The Vetala-Pachisi (published under the title Vikram and The Vampire) in 1870 noted of one particular passage that Kali, “Not being able to find victims, this pleasant deity, to satisfy her thirst for the curious juice, cut her own throat that the blood might spout up into her mouth.”Neustatt-an-der-Rheda (known today as Wejherowo) in Pomerania (north-west Poland) a prominent citizen named Franz von Poblocki died of tuberculosis. Two weeks later his son, Anton, also died and other relatives became ill and complained of nightmares. The surviving family members suspected vampirism and hired a local “vampyre expert” Johann Dzigielski to assist them. He decapitated the son whom was then buried with his head between his legs. Over the objections of the local priest the body of von Poblocki was exhumed and treated in a like manner. The local priest made a complaint to the authorities whom arrested Dzigielski. He was tried and sentenced to four months jail. He was released only after the family of the deceased appealed on his behalf and found the case heard by an understanding judge.
1874
Reports from Ceven, Ireland, tell of sheep having their throats cut and their blood drained.
1875
Henry Olcott and Helena Blavatsky found the Theosophical Society in New York City. Olcott speculated that occasionally when a person was buried they may not be dead but in a catatonic or trance-like state, barely alive. Olcott surmised that a person could survive for long periods in their grave by sending out their astral double to drain the blood, or “life force” from the living to remain nourished.
1880
Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers born. Summers was the author of a number of important books on the supernatural including several classic studies on vampyres.
1882
One “vampire” case that draws attention is that of “The Blood Drawing Ghost” of County Cork, Ireland. Recounted by Jeremiah Curtin
1890
Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) born in Wales in 1890
1892
Alleged “Rhode Island” vampire Mercy Brown dies age 19. Her death followed those of her mother and older sister. At the time, her brother, Edwin, was seriously ill and the family was desperate to save him. Family members attributed the deaths to a curse on the family and decided to dig up the bodies of the women, including Mercy, who had been buried for about a month. When Mercy’s body was exhumed, observers noted it appeared to have moved inside the coffin and blood was present in her heart and veins. Fearing she was a vampire, townspeople removed her heart and burned it on a rock before reburying her. The family dissolved the ashes in medicine and gave it to Edwin, who died two months later.
1924
Fritz Harmaann of Hanover, Germany, is arrested, tried and convicted of killing more than 20 people in a vampiric crime spree.
1926
Montague Summers’ “The History of Witchcraft and Demonology” appears
1928
Montague Summers finishes his broad survey, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin, in which he traced the presence of vampyres and vampyre-like creatures in the folklore around the world, from ancient times to the present. He also surveyed the rise of the literary and dramatic vampyre.
1929
Montague Summers publishes his equally valuable The Vampire in Europe, which focused on various
1930
Dion Fortune publishes one of her more popular books, Psychic Self Defence. This book came from her own experiences. In her occult work Fortune had also witnessed various instances of psychic attack which she was called on to interrupt. Among the elements of a psychic attack, she noted, was “vampirism” that left the victim in a state of nervous exhaustion, and a wasting state. From this Fortune propounded an occult perspective on vampirism. She suggested that masters of the occult had the ability to separate their psychic self from their physical body and attach themselves to others and drain the host’s energy. Such persons would then begin to, unconsciously, drain the energy from those around them.
1931
Peter Kurten of Dusseldorf, Germany is executed after being found guilty of murdering a number of people in a vampiric killing spree.
1946
Dion Fortune dies.
1949
In England, John George Haigh, the infamous “Acid Bath Murderer,” is hanged. He was also known as the “Vampire of London.” Haigh, claimed to have drunk the blood of his victims before destroying their bodies in a vat of sulfuric acid.
1962
The Count Dracula Society is founded in the United States by Donald Reed.
1965
Jeanne K. Youngson founds The Count Dracula Fan Club.
1966
Anne de Molay establishes the Order of Maidenfear after investigating the archetype of the vampire and arriving at the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner.
1967
The Vampire Research Society founded as a specialist unit within the much older British Occult Society. Seán Manchester was responsible for the vampire research unit becoming a self-governing body on 2 February 1970.
Also in 1967, Manchester, receives an account from a schoolgirl named Elizabeth Wojdyla and a friend of hers, whom claimed to have seen several graves opening in Highgate Cemetary, London; and the occupants rising from them. Elizabeth also reported having nightmares in which “something evil” tried to come into her bedroom.
1969
Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet.
Also in 1969, Elizabeth Wojdyla’s nightmares returned but now the malaevolent figure actually entered her bedroom. She had reportedly developed the symptoms of pernicious anemia and her neck displayed two small wounds suggestive of the classical vampyre bite. Manchester, and her boyfriend, treated her as a victim of vampirism and filled her room with garlic, crucifixes and holy water; her condition and symptoms were reported to soon improve.
1970
Before an assembled crowd of onlookers, Manchester and two companions entered a vault at Highgate where three empty coffins were found. They sprinkled the vaults with salt and holy water, lined the coffins with garlic and placed a crucifix in each.
In the summer (Northern) of 1970, David Farrant, another amateur vampyre hunter entered the field. He claimed to have seen the Highgate vampyre and went hunting it with a stake and crucifix but was arrested.
In August the body of a young woman was found at the cemetery. It appeared as though the woman had been treated as a vampyre by decapitating and attempting to burn the corpse. Before the end of the month, police arrested two men whom claimed to be vampyre hunters.
Also in 1970, Stephan Kaplan founds The Vampire Research Centre.
1972
True Vampires of History by Donald Glut is the first attempt to assemble the stories of all the historical vampire figures.
1975
The Order of The Vampyre was founded in 1975 by priests of the Church of Satan (founded in 1966) whom had decided to carry forward the serious work of the Church in a more historic, less anti-Christian context. The Temple of Set is configured as an “umbrella” organization that has a number of specialized “orders” whose members concentrate on specific areas of research and black magic applications of the results of that research.
1973
Dracula Society; The – Founded by Bernard Davies and Bruce Wightman in U.K.
1976
House Sahjaza formed in New York City
1977
Martin V. Riccardo founds the Vampire Studies Society. Sean Manchester began an investigation of a mansion near Highgate Cemetary that had a reputation as being haunted. On several occasions Manchester and his associates entered the house. In the basement they found a coffin, which they dragged into the backyard. Opening the casket Manchester saw the same vampyre he had seen seven years before in Highgate Cemetery. This time, it was reported, he performed an exorcism by staking the body which “turned into a slimy, foul smelling substance, and burned the coffin”. Richard Chase, dubbed “The Vampire Killer of Sacramento” commits the first of a series of murders. The second murder in 1978 involved consuming the victim’s blood.
1978
Eric Held and Dorothy Nixon found the Vampire Information Exchange.
1980
Further reports of dead animals found drained of blood from an area called Finchley. Manchester believed that a vampyre created by the bite of the Highgate Vampyre was the cause.
1982
The first vampire RPG, “Ravenloft”, was released as a “Dungeons and Dragons” module featuring the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich.
1985
David Dolphin presented a paper to the American Association for the Advancement of Science outlining a theory that porphyria might underlie the reports of vampirism. He argued that since the treatment for porphyria was the injection of heme, it was possible that in the past people suffering porphyria might have attempted to drink blood as a method of relieving their symptoms. Among those whom critiqued Dolphin’s hypothesis was Paul Barber. Firstly, Barber noted, there was no evidence to show that the consumption of blood had any affect on the disease itself and only held up as long as one did not look at the available data too closely and discounted the powers of observation of those making the reports. Such reports which did not support the theory that any of those reported exhibited the symptoms of Porphyria.
Also in 1985, the founding members of House Sahjaza, under the guidance of Goddess Rosemary form the Z/n Society.
1988
The retail outlet “Siren” is founded by Grovella Blak. Located in Toronto, Canada it is the world’s oldest establishment catering to the enthusiasms of the overlapping communities devoted to the Goth and Vampyre genres. The British Occult Society is formally disbanded by President Sean Manchester.
1989
The secretive; international, Temple of The Vampire (ToV) is founded.
1991
By far the most popular vampire role-playing game is entitled “Vampire: The Masquerade” created by Mark Rein-Hagen and published in 1991 by White Wolf Game Studio. Transylvanian Society of Dracula is founded in Bucharest by a group of leading Romanian historians, ethnographers, folklorists, tourist experts, writers and artists; as well as non-Romanian experts in the field.
1993
The Sanguinarium is founded by father Sebastian Todd (a.k.a Aaron Todd Hoyt, Todd Sabertooth Father Todd, Father Sebastian, Father Todd Sebastian, Sebastiaan Van Houten) This leads to the establishment of the Ordo Strigoi Vii.
1994
Oprah Winfrey forms “prayer circle” outside the premiere of the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” to work against the forces of darkness she believes the film is calling down.
1995
Sean Manchester wrote an account of his perspective on “The Highgate Vampire” (1995, rev, 1991)
The Z/n Society; formed by the founders and leaders of House Sahjaza, comes to an end.
1996
A female reporter named Susan Walsh disappears while writing a story on downtown Manhattan’s mysterious “vampire underground”.
1997
Sean Manchester expands on and releases “The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook”. The remarkable Long Black Veil or “LBV” events truly hold a unique place in the history of New York City’s nightlife. LBV began in 1997 as “Long Black Veil & the Vampyre Lounge” on the second Wednesday of each month at the legendary MOTHER nightclub on 14th and Washington Streets in New York City. The Black Veil
The Black Veil represents a code of vampyre ethics and common sense widely accepted by the vampyre subculture. It is akin to the Strigoi Vii Covenant and although they are different documents they are, in essence, compatible.
Originally authored in 1997, by Father Sebastian of House Sahjaza, it was written as a code of conduct for patrons of the vampyre haven, Long Black Veil, in New York City.
The original ‘Black Veil’, now referred to as version 1, was derived from Renaissance Fair etiquette and from existing codes of conduct in the BDSM / fetish scene. There was, undoubtedly, some influence absorbed from the White Wolf Game Studio role playing game Vampire: the Masquerade as this afforded the only set of “terms” being used in the community at the time. The Black Veil was amended by ‘Lady Melanie’ in 1998 and 1999, and has been revised since then by Michelle Belanger of House Kheperu.
In the spring of 1997 the first webpage of Sanguinarius.org appears.
1998
Katherine Ramsland (clinical psychologist; journalist and bestselling biographer) made contact with Father Sebastian Todd and asked him to serve as a consultant for a book she was writing entitled “Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today .” Her intention was to follow in the last known footsteps of investigative reporter Susan Walsh (who disappeared around the same time as the historic Vampyre Ball at the Limelight in July 1996.) A release party for the book was held at LBV in 1998.
House Sahjaza’s latest incarnation follows the dissolution of the Z/n Society in 1995
1999
Sphynxcat’s Real Vampires Support Page established on the internet. Vampire-church.com was first registered in April.
2000
COVICA, a council of collected elders from different traditions, again revised the Black Veil. It was at this time that the publication gained widespread popularity and was translated into Portuguese, German and Spanish. It was also distributed as the “13 Rules of the Community”. 2000 saw the closing of MOTHER but Father Sebastian chose to continue the event by relocating to True nightclub on 23rd Street near Broadway in Manhattan. LBV remained there for two more years. The Vampire Codex is written by occultist and psychic vampire Michelle Belanger and published by Sanguinarium Press. The Vampire Codex has a significant impact on the worldwide community of psychic vampires, becoming the fundamental text used by numerous Houses, Orders, Covens, and Clans. It has influenced the teachings of vampire groups throughout the US, Canada, and Western Europe.
2001
The Vampire Research Society Worldwide Organisation is founded.
2002
Michelle Belanger, along with input from Father Sebastian and others, presented The Black veil version 2 as a philosophy and tradition of ethics, not rules. This code is annotated as being voluntary and was designed to set an example for the community. This updated and simplified version of the Black Veil was not declared as a set of laws or rules and no longer carried the alternative title “13 Rules of the Community,” but was written as an example set of ethics and ideas.
2006
The Vampire & Energy Work Research Survey (VEWRS) with 379 Questions and the Advanced Vampirism & Energy Work Research Survey (AVEWRS) with 688 Questions are conducted. From 2006 to 2009 a combined response total (VEWRS & AVEWRS) reached over 1,450 surveys or over 670,000 individually answered questions; making it the largest and most in-depth research study ever conducted on the real vampire/vampyre community or subculture. The surveys are translated from English into French, Spanish, German and Russian. In all seventeen countries are represented: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States.
The group body, Voices of the Vampire Community (VVC) is founded to develop friendly relations among the various Houses, Covens, Orders, organizations, and individual leaders of the vampire community.
2007
The first results of the VEWRS and AVEWRS surveys are released.
2008
Pardubice, East Bohemia, July 11. Archaeologists believe they have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, eastern Bohemia, containing the remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time. One of the graves, from the early bronze age burial site was situated somewhat aside from the others and the male skeleton in it was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head.
“Remains treated in this way are now considered as vampiric. The dead man’s contemporaries were afraid that he might leave his grave and return to the world,” Radko Sedlacek from the East Bohemia Museum said.
2010
Real Vampire News is conceived and started by John Reason. The aim is to become a “newspaper” type resource for the online community of real vampires.
The Atlanta Vampire Alliance and Suscitatio LLC commence a second series of studies to complement the 2006-2009 VEWR’s and AVEWR’s surveys. This effort will reportedly include involve the collection of medical testing and information.
June 2012
Two medieval “vampire” skeletons emerged near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol, local archaeologists announced.
Dating back 800 years to the Middle Ages, the skeletons were unearthed with iron rods pierced through their chests — evidence of an exorcism against a vampire.
October 1, 2012
John Reason’s Real Vampire Life E-Zine begins a year long survey of the real vampire sub-culture entitled “The Living Vampire – A social survey”, aimed at gathering social and demographic information about the sub-culture.
September 31, 2013
John Reason’s Real Vampire Life survey, “The Living Vampire – A social survey”, concludes.
November 3rd, 2013
I.C.E - the International Council of Elders is formed by Stefan Resurrectus and a group of long time and active members of the community who want to see change for the better brought to the OVC.
December 30, 2013
First publication of part one of the results of “The Living Vampire – A social survey” is published on John Reason’s Real Vampire Life E-Zine (http://realvampirenews.com/)
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If you have a suggestion for inclusion in the timeline please do not hesitate in contacting me at:
rvlmail@yahoo.com
and in the subject line please put, ‘Re: Vampire Timeline’
Regards,
T.
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