Resurrection [Воскрешение] @2014 (footnotes* below highly recommended after reading story)
A modern twist on Slavic folklore traditions
1. Dusk quickly approaches as I peek out from behind a dark, tattered curtain. One of my long fingernails accidentally scratches a hole in it. I am in a small abandoned church in a secluded village on the outskirts of Liepāja.* The building is becoming ruined as the walls and ceiling peel from old age. Its outside beige bricks have begun to crack and crumble from decay. My clan can tolerate this building since the religious icons were destroyed. This land, the Kurzeme* region, has been the home of our clan for over two centuries. We don’t like to travel far from home. Life is simple here near the sea.
We hunt and feed alone, by ourselves, in order to prevent suspicions. We like to hang out with human friends at bars, clubs, and restaurants, but only at night. We cannot drink wine, because it will burn us from the inside out. It is related to the wine of Christ which was symbolic of His blood. Everything else is fair game. We eat human food too, not only drink humans' blood. We don’t prefer to eat food or drink non-blood beverages, but our bodies are able to tolerate them. This helps avoid suspicions from human friends.
2. I wait for my five clan members to stir from our long day’s rest. Tonight, we will meet up with two other vampire clans for a bloodshed tournament. Each clan is made up of six members. Yes, six-six-six...these three clans are laughed at by a diminished werewolf pack not far from here. Those savage dogs, genetic mutations* of our kind, are just jealous. There are more of us than there are of them. We have successfully suppressed their pack by chaining them in a small manor hidden in a thick forest. The chains are pure silver with crosses etched into every chain link to weaken them. Wolfsbane seeds* are scattered around every werewolf to slow him down. They are not allowed to move out of the binding circles* without counting the seeds first. If we don’t have a supply of the seeds, then we use pure silver bullets for the circle perimeters. This reminds them that one stupid rebellion will lead to slow, painful death.
3. It will be a dark, chilly evening. The maddened clouds oppress the rising moon’s light. The autumn trees shiver at the nipping wind and the piercing torrential raindrops. Tonight is a full moon. Let’s hope those chains and seeds keep the vârcolaci* from eating it. Ha! Through the courtyard’s large iron gate, I see an old man leaving the private cemetery after paying respects to his deceased. The wind carries his human scent to me. Now I can track him for my first quench this evening. Something about him piques my curiosity; he bothers me. I take in his scent as the wind hits my face. I can sense his heartbeat; it is weakening. He must not have much time left to begin with. I would gladly put him out of his misery by strangling him and feasting on his blood. Although, there really is no fun in preying on the weakest of the already weak mankind. I like a challenge; it makes my meals worth the while. Consider yourself lucky old man.
Later in the evening, the weather has stilled. The vampires have finished the last blood match and are returning to our abandoned church. My clan came in second place. As we walk towards the church, one of our opponents jokes with me by asking, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” All of us snicker. “I didn’t fall from heaven. I jumped.” We sit and chat inside my clan's abandoned church. Suddenly, I sense a heartbeat from outside. It is a weak heartbeat. I pretend that I am bored and walk over to the window. We broke the stained glass out of it a long time ago. I hear rustling in the bushes below. I smell a familiar scent. Who do I see scurry out from the bushes? That old man from the cemetery earlier. He runs around the side of the building towards the back of the church.
5. I quietly borrow one of my clan members while the others continue discussing. We split up to take out this daring human. His scent is all over the place. This means that he circled the property to throw us off our track. He must be a hunter. I knew there was something I didn’t like about this guy. As I search around the courtyard furniture and topiary, my clan member is in the cemetery. I hear my member cry out, so I hurry over. The old man has impaled my member’s heart with the tip of a golden cross.* I hear the other clan members running towards the back. The old man lights a match and tosses it on my member, making him burn to ash. The hunter runs towards me with the cross's pointed tip facing me. I am wearing black leather gloves with inverted pentagrams etched into each palm. These protect us from apotropaics,* an anti-apotropaic. I quickly grab the cross from underneath, and lift up the cross’s body while the hunter holds on with dear life. I catch his eye for a few seconds as fear quickly wells up in the human. He loses his grip and falls to the ground. I impale his heart to get back at him for destroying one of my own.
My clan leader rips the man’s head from his body, lights a match that he finds in the hunter’s pocket, and then throws it on the hunter.* After his body turns to ash, I bury the hunter’s ashes to hide his remains.
We revive our fellow vampire by pouring some of his ashes into a pot of burning bloodstone,* a mineral common in today’s witchcraft. The smoke that ensues from this ritual* is what conjures our member’s resurrection.
A modern twist on Slavic folklore traditions
1. Dusk quickly approaches as I peek out from behind a dark, tattered curtain. One of my long fingernails accidentally scratches a hole in it. I am in a small abandoned church in a secluded village on the outskirts of Liepāja.* The building is becoming ruined as the walls and ceiling peel from old age. Its outside beige bricks have begun to crack and crumble from decay. My clan can tolerate this building since the religious icons were destroyed. This land, the Kurzeme* region, has been the home of our clan for over two centuries. We don’t like to travel far from home. Life is simple here near the sea.
We hunt and feed alone, by ourselves, in order to prevent suspicions. We like to hang out with human friends at bars, clubs, and restaurants, but only at night. We cannot drink wine, because it will burn us from the inside out. It is related to the wine of Christ which was symbolic of His blood. Everything else is fair game. We eat human food too, not only drink humans' blood. We don’t prefer to eat food or drink non-blood beverages, but our bodies are able to tolerate them. This helps avoid suspicions from human friends.
2. I wait for my five clan members to stir from our long day’s rest. Tonight, we will meet up with two other vampire clans for a bloodshed tournament. Each clan is made up of six members. Yes, six-six-six...these three clans are laughed at by a diminished werewolf pack not far from here. Those savage dogs, genetic mutations* of our kind, are just jealous. There are more of us than there are of them. We have successfully suppressed their pack by chaining them in a small manor hidden in a thick forest. The chains are pure silver with crosses etched into every chain link to weaken them. Wolfsbane seeds* are scattered around every werewolf to slow him down. They are not allowed to move out of the binding circles* without counting the seeds first. If we don’t have a supply of the seeds, then we use pure silver bullets for the circle perimeters. This reminds them that one stupid rebellion will lead to slow, painful death.
3. It will be a dark, chilly evening. The maddened clouds oppress the rising moon’s light. The autumn trees shiver at the nipping wind and the piercing torrential raindrops. Tonight is a full moon. Let’s hope those chains and seeds keep the vârcolaci* from eating it. Ha! Through the courtyard’s large iron gate, I see an old man leaving the private cemetery after paying respects to his deceased. The wind carries his human scent to me. Now I can track him for my first quench this evening. Something about him piques my curiosity; he bothers me. I take in his scent as the wind hits my face. I can sense his heartbeat; it is weakening. He must not have much time left to begin with. I would gladly put him out of his misery by strangling him and feasting on his blood. Although, there really is no fun in preying on the weakest of the already weak mankind. I like a challenge; it makes my meals worth the while. Consider yourself lucky old man.
Later in the evening, the weather has stilled. The vampires have finished the last blood match and are returning to our abandoned church. My clan came in second place. As we walk towards the church, one of our opponents jokes with me by asking, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” All of us snicker. “I didn’t fall from heaven. I jumped.” We sit and chat inside my clan's abandoned church. Suddenly, I sense a heartbeat from outside. It is a weak heartbeat. I pretend that I am bored and walk over to the window. We broke the stained glass out of it a long time ago. I hear rustling in the bushes below. I smell a familiar scent. Who do I see scurry out from the bushes? That old man from the cemetery earlier. He runs around the side of the building towards the back of the church.
5. I quietly borrow one of my clan members while the others continue discussing. We split up to take out this daring human. His scent is all over the place. This means that he circled the property to throw us off our track. He must be a hunter. I knew there was something I didn’t like about this guy. As I search around the courtyard furniture and topiary, my clan member is in the cemetery. I hear my member cry out, so I hurry over. The old man has impaled my member’s heart with the tip of a golden cross.* I hear the other clan members running towards the back. The old man lights a match and tosses it on my member, making him burn to ash. The hunter runs towards me with the cross's pointed tip facing me. I am wearing black leather gloves with inverted pentagrams etched into each palm. These protect us from apotropaics,* an anti-apotropaic. I quickly grab the cross from underneath, and lift up the cross’s body while the hunter holds on with dear life. I catch his eye for a few seconds as fear quickly wells up in the human. He loses his grip and falls to the ground. I impale his heart to get back at him for destroying one of my own.
My clan leader rips the man’s head from his body, lights a match that he finds in the hunter’s pocket, and then throws it on the hunter.* After his body turns to ash, I bury the hunter’s ashes to hide his remains.
We revive our fellow vampire by pouring some of his ashes into a pot of burning bloodstone,* a mineral common in today’s witchcraft. The smoke that ensues from this ritual* is what conjures our member’s resurrection.
1a. Liepāja: West coast city of Latvia, next to the Baltic Sea
1b. Kurzeme: name for a region in Western Latvia
2a. Throughout European history, the vampire and werewolf creatures were often intertwined through word etymologies between countries. That is why, for example, Stoker's Dracula and plenty other similar creatures are somehow connected to wolves and/or have wolf-like characteristics.
2b. (Wolfsbane) seeds: This is a modern take-off of an old Slavic folklore tradition in slowing down vampires. In the folklore, poppy seeds were poured into coffins of accused vampires. The vampire needed to count the seeds one-by-one before leaving his coffin. The wolfsbane seeds in this story are a twist to relate to the werewolves.
2c. The circles are a demonic mocking of a Holy circle found in the Slavic Folklore Story, Viy, by Nikolai Gogol. In Viy, the main character draws a Holy circle as protection against the vampire. He is reading the bible out loud in order to save her soul from the curse. She tries to attack him due to the Holy Word. She cannot enter the circle. The human is safe as long as he does not step out of the circle or look at the vampire.
3. Vârcolaci: Romanian word for their folklore werewolf creature which they believed bit and ate the moon
5a. Apotropaic: objects (often Holy) used to ward off and/or destroy vampires and other evil beings
5b. Golden Cross with a pointed tip: This is symbolic of Vlad Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler), the historical Dracula.
1) Vlad had people drink out of a golden cup at a water fountain that he erected for anyone to drink from.
2) The cross is symbolic of how Vlad left the Orthodox faith by converting to Catholicism. Orthodoxy considered this the darkness.
3) The pointed tip of the cross refers to when Vlad was impaled with a lance by one of his own soldiers. Then, he was shot with several arrows which finally killed him.
5c. Beheading and burning the man are ways for the vampires to turn the tables on hunters. In Slavic folklore, impaling the heart, beheading, and then burning the body was a common ritual performed by peasants who wanted to stop a supposed vampire from causing further havoc.
5d. Bloodstone: agate mineral, also called Heliotrope in witchcraft. This mineral is often associated with the sun (hence the prefix, helio-). Using this mineral in the resurrection ritual is a mocking and even a defeat of the sun's energy which usually destroys vampires. In witchcraft, it is used for healing purposes, cleansing the blood, and providing energy to the body. Historically, warriors wore this mineral for courage during battles and it supposedly healed their battle wounds. As one might expect, this stone was also used due to [blood] in its name.
5e. This story's ritual: a demonic mocking of a similar human-resurrecting ritual found in a Slavic folklore story titled, Peasant and the Corpse, by Alexander Afanasyev. In the tale, the hero takes a piece of the vampire's shirt, drops it into a pot of burning coal, and then puts a lid over it. The smoke from this burning brings back the vampire's dead victims. In Resurrection, the vampire replaces the humans, his ashes replace the shirt, and bloodstone replaces the coal.
1b. Kurzeme: name for a region in Western Latvia
2a. Throughout European history, the vampire and werewolf creatures were often intertwined through word etymologies between countries. That is why, for example, Stoker's Dracula and plenty other similar creatures are somehow connected to wolves and/or have wolf-like characteristics.
2b. (Wolfsbane) seeds: This is a modern take-off of an old Slavic folklore tradition in slowing down vampires. In the folklore, poppy seeds were poured into coffins of accused vampires. The vampire needed to count the seeds one-by-one before leaving his coffin. The wolfsbane seeds in this story are a twist to relate to the werewolves.
2c. The circles are a demonic mocking of a Holy circle found in the Slavic Folklore Story, Viy, by Nikolai Gogol. In Viy, the main character draws a Holy circle as protection against the vampire. He is reading the bible out loud in order to save her soul from the curse. She tries to attack him due to the Holy Word. She cannot enter the circle. The human is safe as long as he does not step out of the circle or look at the vampire.
3. Vârcolaci: Romanian word for their folklore werewolf creature which they believed bit and ate the moon
5a. Apotropaic: objects (often Holy) used to ward off and/or destroy vampires and other evil beings
5b. Golden Cross with a pointed tip: This is symbolic of Vlad Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler), the historical Dracula.
1) Vlad had people drink out of a golden cup at a water fountain that he erected for anyone to drink from.
2) The cross is symbolic of how Vlad left the Orthodox faith by converting to Catholicism. Orthodoxy considered this the darkness.
3) The pointed tip of the cross refers to when Vlad was impaled with a lance by one of his own soldiers. Then, he was shot with several arrows which finally killed him.
5c. Beheading and burning the man are ways for the vampires to turn the tables on hunters. In Slavic folklore, impaling the heart, beheading, and then burning the body was a common ritual performed by peasants who wanted to stop a supposed vampire from causing further havoc.
5d. Bloodstone: agate mineral, also called Heliotrope in witchcraft. This mineral is often associated with the sun (hence the prefix, helio-). Using this mineral in the resurrection ritual is a mocking and even a defeat of the sun's energy which usually destroys vampires. In witchcraft, it is used for healing purposes, cleansing the blood, and providing energy to the body. Historically, warriors wore this mineral for courage during battles and it supposedly healed their battle wounds. As one might expect, this stone was also used due to [blood] in its name.
5e. This story's ritual: a demonic mocking of a similar human-resurrecting ritual found in a Slavic folklore story titled, Peasant and the Corpse, by Alexander Afanasyev. In the tale, the hero takes a piece of the vampire's shirt, drops it into a pot of burning coal, and then puts a lid over it. The smoke from this burning brings back the vampire's dead victims. In Resurrection, the vampire replaces the humans, his ashes replace the shirt, and bloodstone replaces the coal.