Who was this particular Vlad Tepes Dracula? An explorer of other realms of experience, a demon to some and an angel to others. Nevertheless, he was the ruler of Romania in the 15th century. Bram Stoker based his novel Dracula on Vlad Tepes. His true story is perhaps more interesting than any vampire story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayVlad was born in 1431 in the town of Sighisoara. He was the second son of the prince of Wallachia, Vlad Dracul. Dracul, his father was the ruler of a country called Wallichia. He was also a member of the Order of the Dragon. This organization was a group of Slavic leaders and warlords who had sworn to defend the Christian faith by fighting the Turks. Dracul was unable to fully secure the throne. He eventually created a powerful union by marrying Eupraxia. Eupraxia was the sister of the ruler of Moldavia. Vlad Dracul then entered into an alliance with the Turks and betrayed his own people by attacking his Wallachia. The Sultan of the Turks had to take Vlad prisoner because he could not be trusted. However, he managed to have Radu and Vlad, his sons, taken away instead. Vlad Dracula was taken prisoner at a very young age by the Turks from 1444 to 1448. They were to be taken to Sultan Mehemet, while their father Vlad Dracul negotiated their release. After being released, his father was murdered, prompting Vlad Dracula to commit his first major act of revenge. Vlad had a brutal way of terrorizing his enemies. This is how he received the nickname Tepes which means the impaler. This is generally how Vlad the Impaler is known today. He attacked the Boyer family, whom he held responsible for his father's death. Not only did he attack the boyers, but he also attacked the churches. The Orthodox and Roman Catholics were each very powerful in their territories. Vlad the Impaler pursued a brutal foreign policy that was more terrorism than policy. Transylvanian merchants were thought to have failed to follow his policies and were using impalement to enforce his will. He looted the church of St. Bartolomeu, burned down part of Brasov, and impaled many other people. This raid was depicted in anti-Dracula prints showing him dining among the impaled bodies. (tvlad_i.html) A closer look at this man's iniquity would show that he is known for his human cruelty. Impalement was the execution and torture technique invented by Dracula. Impalement is one of the worst ways to die and probably the most horrific in terms of pain. Vlad usually tied a horse to each of the victim's legs and slowly drove a sharpened stake into the body. The stake was usually oiled at the end and care was taken to ensure that it was not too sharp. If the stake was too sharp, the victim would die too quickly. The stake was usually inserted into the body from the posterior end and forced through the body until it emerged from the victim's mouth. There are other cases where the stakes were inserted into other orifices of the body or into the abdomen and chest. Little children were impaled on stakes already imposed by their mothers. Some records kept at the time insinuated that the victims were hung upside down from the stakes with which they were impaled. The resulting pain was very painful and sometimes lasted for hours or days. He arranged the stakes in patterns on the outskirts of the city. These shapes were usually concentric circles to make a target. The height ofThe stake on which the victim stood indicated the status or rank of the individual. (jyu.fi/`karnorr/vlad.html) This separated individual suffered many different tortures which he used as if he was commanding the torture chamber of Hell. Cutting off limbs, nails in the head, blinding, burning, cutting off noses and ears, strangling, mutilating sexual organs, scalping, skinning and sometimes boiling alive. So who was safe from the evil terror of these warlords? In fact, no one was. He would attack anyone depending on their mood. Women and children, peasants and lords, ambassadors of foreign countries and traders, no one was safe. (jyu.fi/`karnorr/vlad.html) To make his point clearer, Vlad would eliminate the old boyer class in Wallachia. They had repeatedly undermined Dracula's power. Vlad had ultimately made it his goal to secure his throne on secure ground, so he executed the boyers and appointed a group of loyal peasants to take their place. During his reign, Vlad moved to Bucharest and built a city fortress. The strong outer walls and the Transylvanian Alps made this city very safe. The castle, however, faced many difficulties. His army collapsed and he decided to escape through a secret tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains to Transylvania. His wife is said to have committed suicide before the Turks took control of the castle. Vlad surrendered to the new Hunger King, Mattias Corvinus, who arrested him. While Vlad was imprisoned in the Hungarian capital, he appeared to live in conditions considered comfortable. This was around 1466, and by 1475 he appeared to be the second best candidate for the Wallachian throne. In the summer of 1475 he again became prince of Wallachia. Shortly after his return to the throne, he left with the army to fight in Siberia. When Vlad returned home, he fought against the Turks alongside the King of Moldavia. The Vlachs gathered their courage and found an assassin for Vlad to end his fear-inspiring reign of terror. His death dates back to the year 1476, he died at the age of forty-five. During his forty-five years, he killed approximately 40,000 people. Highest number of deaths per person before modern times. Many stories were also associated with Vlad Tepes Dracula. These stories are very common in Europe and this is what made him the legend of who he was. Many feared and despised him for what he did, others were interested in what he did and considered him a hero at the time. The first story is The Golden Cup. Dracula was known for his justice and harsh punishments, thieves did not dare to practice in his domain. Dracula was so confident in his power that he placed a golden cup in the town square. Throughout his reign, the cup remained intact. The power to be wielded must be incredible for no one to steal from their lands at all. The lazy woman Dracula once noticed a man working in the fields while he was wearing a caftan that was too short for him. The prince asked the man if he had a wife, and the man replied that he did. Dracula brought the woman before him and asked her what she did during the day. She said she washed, cooked and sewed. The prince pointed out that her husband's caftan was too short and said that this was proof of his laziness and dishonesty. They then had the woman impaled on a stake despite her husband's protests. The husband said he was happy with her and didn't want this to happen. She was impaled and Dracula ordered another peasant woman to marry the man. She was forced to work hard to avoid ending up like the previous woman. I found this story very interesting.