A new race: Vampires.

VAMPIRE, in the lower mythology of European peoples, is a dead person who sucks the blood of living people. They can appear in the form of a bat, and sometimes other "unclean" animals. Beliefs about vampires are especially common among Slavs and other peoples of Southern Europe. They partly originate from the ancient Hecate, empusas, and lamias. In Christian beliefs, vampires are unrepentant sinners, suicides, and those who died prematurely without repentance. A person who died from a vampire's bite can also become a vampire. According to the beliefs of the South Slavs, vampires prefer to suck the blood of their relatives. According to beliefs common in Great Russia, vampires, like werewolves, do not harm those who set out on a journey against their will. It was believed that by opening a vampire's grave, one could see that its corpse looked fresh and rosy. In Slavic beliefs, vampires are dealt with by driving an aspen stake into their heart, as well as shooting them with a charmed silver bullet. They are protected by the ringing of bells, garlic, iron, and cemetery (that is, consecrated) soil. In Western Europe, vampire stories became fashionable in the Gothic novel of the 18th century, and later among the Romantics. The story of Lord Byron's friend, W. Polidori, "The Vampire," was particularly popular. In Romania and Hungary, beliefs about vampires were influenced by legends about Dracula, as well as the crimes of real people, primarily Countess Bathory (17th century), who killed several dozen (possibly hundreds) of peasant girls in order to rejuvenate herself with their blood. After the appearance of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," both images firmly merged into one in mass European culture.