June 17, 1462: The Battle of the Blood Drinkers

Crisis Magazine ^ | June 17, 2013 | Sean Fitzpatrick

[Rashputin]

IMO, Vlad III gets a bad rep in history ..."

When you're fighting demons different rules apply and any "armty" that beheads the men, women, and children in the name of their "Profit" is without a doubt Satanic. Whatever it takes to stop them is acceptable the way I see it.

Just the "normal" results of battle with several dozen torn up corpses in your wire when the sun starts to rise is sickening. If you saw hundreds or thousands of heads and headless corpses wherever the enemy went I doubt you'd be inclined to think the Genevia Convention applied to such demonic animals.

Vlad did what he had to do and was a smart enough leader to know what would allow his inferior forces to defeat a superior force.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Bram Stoker mixed the legend of Vlad Tepys with that of Helena Bathory, a truly wedged aristocrat who murdered village maidens with impunity and creativity, and came up with his Dracula character which has become the backbone of the modern Goth sub culture.

Most illustrations show Vlad’s impalings incorrectly. A long sharpened stake went up the butt and out the mouth. I know, “thank you for sharing”. But context is everything and if we judge historic events through our enlightened humanistic ethos, we can easily be accused of cultural imperialism. Back then you had to fight fire with fire. Humans can be nasty or angelic, take your pick and live it the way you see it. But try to see it logically.

[Salamander]

Vlad-fan ping

[tjd1454]

Question - do you have any concrete evidence that Assad has been deliberately killing Christians?

[Altariel]

Somehow, I suspected you’d be into vampires. :) ;)

[Altariel]

“Question - do you have any concrete evidence that Assad has been deliberately killing Christians?”

I’d like to know myself.

Freegards,

[shibumi]

"And twenty thousand dead Turks surrounded the city, impaled on stakes."

I love it when my bed-time stories have a happy ending.

[Salamander]

It's the teeth that do it for me...:D

[Salamander]

All that was missing was Oreos and milk.

[Salamander]

I’ve never seen “incorrect” ones, apparently.

[Salamander]

Hey...guess what this is.

[denydenydeny]

Most illustrations show Vlad’s impalings incorrectly. A long sharpened stake went up the butt and out the mouth.

But you are leaving out half the story. Victims were impaled only partially, leaving their own weight to slowly push the stake through the intestines and organs. The pain must have been beyond belief.

[arthurus]

Assad protects Christians, and Druzes, and other minorities, especially Alawites of which he is one. Minorities are his power base, When we put AQ in charge those minorities, the ones who don't succeed in getting out will be killed by the Sunni conquerors. Emir Barack will be pleased.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Most illustrations show Vlad’s impalings incorrectly.***

Nothing new. The Assyrians were doing it thousands of years before Vlad Tepps. Their is more than one way...

[colorado tanker]

Unfortunately, the Turks later gained suzerainty over Romania and ultimately absorbed it into their empire. It would not be until the later part of the 19th century that they would win freedom from the then “sick man of Europe.”

[dfwgator]

We could use another Vlad the Impaler today.

[gnarledmaw]

Yes but, in the Assyrian version there is a single pole and those that are impaled are dead or die in the process. In Vlad's version there are two poles, a taller thicker one for the victims limbs to be tied around and a slightly shorter lubricated pointy one for the victim to "sit" on. In Vlad's version the people lived for a long time after being impaled and were able to relay their pain and horror to those passing by.

It was believed that the stories of Vlad's victims living through the initial...entry...was an exaggeration until recently when the correct path for the second pole was determined. Apparently the victims died when the pole had passed all the way through and out the mouth leaving the victim to choke to death on the pole that had entered their anus.

Vlad's version is far more effective at creating terror.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I believe GOYA drew an impaling in his DISASTERS OF WAR series of drawings.