Dracula's Soul-Clones

By Chuck Loridans

[Note: This is a slightly updated version of Chuck's classic essay on Dracula's soul-clones, with some additional text added by this editor, which appear in blue.] 1570 - Dracula begins his plan to rule the world. He creates soul-clones by exchanging blood with a human and putting his own psyche and powers into him (as seen in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a.k.a., The 7 Brothers vs. Dracula).

Dracula sends a clone to the Mayans and Aztecs in Central America. Dracula's clone creates a tribe of Aztec vampire women, and transforms a British explorer named Rex Rufus into a werewolf. Thus begins his reign of terror of Mexico.     This is the first time, as far as what my research has turned up, of Dracula creating soul-clones.The soul-clone theory is based upon events recorded in the Hammer film, The 7 Brothers vs. Dracula.


 In this film's opening, which takes place in 1804, a Chinese wizard known as Kai travels to Transylvania to seek Dracula's
 aid  in reviving 7 evil vampires.  Kai's wish is to be the master of these vampires himself, so that he may hold a reign of terror over China.   What he soon learns is that you cant cut deals with the Prince of Darkness. Dracula is intrigued with the idea of ruling an army of vampires, even if it is not in his native country.Dracula proclaims the wizard a fool, and grabs him by his throat.  A swirling mist envelopes them both, and when next we are able to view the contents of the dank, cobwebbed-filled throne room, it is only Kai the wizard that we see;  Kai in form, but with the mind and voice of Dracula.  Kai gazes one last time at the huge tomb from which Dracula had arisen upon the wizard's arrival, and then departs.Dracula is nowhere to be seen.    When we next see Kai it is in the year 1904 in China.He is destroyed by Lawrence Van Helsing, but before he turns to ashes he reveals what Van Helsing already knew that Kai was indeed Count Dracula.  From this information, one might assume that Dracula uses his shape-shifting abilities to transform himself into the wizard, travel to China, and rule the 7 titular vampires.  But the fact that Dracula, in Kai's form, was in China from 1804 to 1904, would make the Dracula confrontations with Abraham Van Helsing, and then later his son Lawrence Van Helsing, impossible.   Abraham fought Dracula in the year 1887 (as seen in Bram Stoker's novel DRACULA); and  Lawrence, from 1895 to 1910 (see Hammer film's 'Dracula' series, specifically the movies Horror of Dracula and The Brides of Dracula).    



 In The 7 Brothers vs. Dracula, Van Helsing and Dracula acknowledge that they have met before And so the soul-clone theory was born. In the film Blacula, the opening of which takes place in 1815, Prince Mumuwalde, like Kai before him, makes a trek to Castle Dracula, seeking the Lord of the Undead's assistance. This time the agenda is far nobler:  to end the slave trade.  But as before, Dracula has other plans. Because Mumuwalde's will is so strong, Dracula cannot, as planned, have a vampire proxy to rule in Africa, so he curses the prince with vampirism, and renames him "Blacula."

  

 Now, did  Dracula intend to semi-transform Mumuwalde, as he later would Renfield, to be his eyes and ears?  That seems  doubtful.

 

 Dracula seems to be an impeccable judge of character, sizing up his potential allies, slaves, and foes very quickly.   In most cases, Dracula chooses a weak-minded, weak-spirited person to become his slave, and this does not describe    Mumuwalde.  Hence, his plans to make Mumuwalde a soul-clone.To prelude this idea, lets go thru a check list of what has been witnessed on the abilities of Dracula.

1. In Stoker's DRACULA, he is shown to have the ability to shape shift (wolf, bat, mist, etc.).

2. Also in Stoker's work, it is revealed that Dracula can see and hear thru the eyes and ears of a partially transformed servant.(i.e., Renfield).

3. In the Universal film House of Dracula, Dracula, under the pretense of being cured of his vampirism, enlists the aid of a Dr.  Franz Edelmann.  Edelmann begins to transfer some of his own blood into Dracula for this purpose. At a point when Dr. Edelmann is unaware, Dracula returns the favor and infuses the scientist with his own blood. It is never explained why Dracula does this, but the result is that soon after Dracula is destroyed, not only does Dr. Edelmann become a partial vampire, but he also becomes quite evil. Edelmann immediately picks up where Dracula left off, wanting control of Henry Frankenstein's Monster.(That this was one of Dracula's goals is demonstrated in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and later in Jeff Rovin's novel RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN.)So it is implied that Dracula transferred his essence into Dr. Edelmann. Why does Dracula make soul-clones?  


 It is shown time and time again that Dracula is strongest when surrounded by the soil of his native Transylvania, and is in peril if he does not have a supply of it nearby.  From this one can assume that this soil is one of his sources of strength; fuel, if you will. Nowhere can a greater supply of this soil be found than in Transylvania itself.  My theory is that the longer the Prince of Darkness rests in this soil, the stronger he becomes. Lying in the dirt for extended periods of time, however, is not helpful when one plans to rule the world. Hence, he needs field agents with great power to traverse the globe, setting his plans into motion.   The negative in this method  for Dracula is that when you give someone such power, tell them what to do, then go to sleep...well, draw your own conclusions.  So he makes soul-clones:  beings with powers almost equal to his own, living (or unliving) puppets, which Dracula exists through, hears through, sees through, and drinks through -  all while his original body lies sleeping, gathering power as he does. How is a soul-clone made?  As shown above in reference to Dr. Edelmann, Dracula can infuse his essence into another being. It has been proven countless times that Dracula and other vampires can bestow the gift (or curse) of vampirism, including all of the powers and abilities that go with this condition. Who are Dracula's soul-clones? 


The first, to my knowledge, as mentioned at the beginning, was an Aztec priest who somehow made it to Castle Dracula, seeking the King of the Vampires' help. Through him, Dracula thrived in Mexico.

This soul-clone may be called Dracula-Delgado.    


The second would be Kai, the Chinese wizard.

 The third would be Count Lejos Zeleska; who the original body belonged to is unknown at this point. Lejos was created for the prime purpose of allowing Dracula to mate with a human woman, the results of which will be shown   in the Monster article, elsewhere. This soul-clone was created circa 1815, shortly before or after Dracula's confrontation with Prince Mumuwalde. The Lejos clone would be used several times in the early 20th century.  It is possible that this soul-clone used the title Dr. Armand Tesla at several points in time. The films which show these events have the actor Bela Lugosi portraying the soul-clone. The fourth known soul-clone's name is unknown, but his exploits were between the years 1895 and 1910; he was later revived  in the year 1971, but destroyed once more in 1973.  In this last adventure (The Satanic Rites of Dracula), the soul-clone used the name D.D. Denrom, which may be a clue to the name Dracula-Prime bestowed upon him.  The actor who played the role chronicling the events of this soul-clone was Christopher Lee. This soul-clone may have been the first to have Dracula-Prime's control over him lost, which occurred for a short period of time around 1895. The clone still believed he was Dracula, and tried to create his own soul-clone out of a young spoiled Baron Meinster. The attempt failed, however, as Dracula-Prime once more took control, and the would-be soul-clone of a soul-clone was left to his own devices (the results of which can be found in the Hammer film, The Brides of Dracula).   




The next soul-clone would be Count Latos Czuczron, portrayed in the films by John Carradine.As before, who this clone's original identity was is unknown. However, through discussions with fellow researchers, including Dennis Power, it's been said that there is a possibility that he was a United States citizen before Dracula transformed him. He might have been, as Dennis and I have pondered, an ancestor of Kwai Chaing Kang, on his father's side. That this soul-clone was indigenous to the U.S.A. is evidenced by his many appearances there.  As a point of fact, the first known adventure of this soul-clone was in the Old American West, where he ran afoul of gunfighter and outlaw Billy the Kid.  Though taking part in several events in Europe, this soul-clone has been sighted in various places at various times in the United States, from Texas; to Harrisonville, New Jersey; to modern day New York City and San Francisco.   It must be said that unique to this soul-clone, Latos was the first to gain full independence from Dracula-Prime.   Dracula-Prime committed a folly when, in the events depicted in House of Dracula, he guided the Latos soul-clone to make a soul-clone of himself.Why he did this, we can only speculate.   Perhaps he felt the Latos clone was becoming too well known, and needed a fresh identity. The host he chose was Dr. Franz Edelmann. As described before, the Latos clone transferred his own essence into that of Edelmann. What Dracula-Prime had not taken into consideration was that some of Edelmann's essence was now in the Latos clone.Edelmann was destroyed circa 1945, and to my knowledge he was never revived. Latos, too, was destroyed during these events, and it is assumed that his remains were taken back to Castle Dracula. 






 In the year 1973, shortly after the soul-clone sometimes known as D.D. Denrom (Christopher Lee) was slain by Lorimar Van Helsing, and after Dracula-Prime was revived (see Marvel Comics' series THE TOMB OF DRACULA), the remains of the Latos clone were found in Dracula's lair by Prof. Damien Harmon and his assistant Cameron Sanchez. The Professor implanted a device near Latos' heart which could, at Harmon's whim, stick a small sliver of a wooden stake directly into the vampire's most vulnerable organ. With this power, Harmon used his control of Latos to do his bidding - namely, fighting evil.  At this time Dracula-Prime is no longer controlling the soul-clone, as his attentions are turned elsewhere is his own form.That factor, combined with the essence of Edelmann, ultimately made Latos into a unique creature. As far as Latos is concerned, he is Dracula, forgetting that he is merely a vessel that was no longer used by Dracula-Prime.What happens to this soul-clone will be revealed in the Monster article. Other soul-clones?It is possible that the Dracula encountered by the Hardy Boys in 1929 was a soul-clone, but at this point I am unsure. It has also been conjectured by fellow researcher Chris Nigro that the Dracula who appeared in Warren Comics (with the exception of two stories, the "Dracula's Guest" adaptation from EERIE #13 and "Genesis of Depravity" from EERIE #50, both of whom he believes to be Dracula-Prime) - and later Harris Comics and Dynamite Entertainment - was a soul-clone referred to as Dracula-Mordante. The handiwork of this this particular soul-clone first became evident when his enchanted coffin created a soul-clone of a soul-clone called Dracula-Varney (as seen in the 2-part "Coffin of Dracula" story in CREEPY # 8-9). This soul-clone is believed to have been a righteous nobleman known as Count Mordante, who lacked the strong willpower found in Prince Mumuwalde that enabled him to totally resist the encroachment of Dracula-Prime's psyche and goals. The Mordante soul-clone was later 'stolen' from Dracula by a cult worshipping the 'mad god' Chaos (believed to be a guise of the Lovecraftian Elder God Azathoth), who was later set free to his own devices upon the dissolution of the cult and the intervention of a benevolent woman with great supernatural power who referred to herself as the Conjuress, and who strove to save the noble original psyche of Count Mordante until she was accidentally killed. After Dracula-Mordante was freed of the conflicting influences of the Cult of Chaos and the Conjuress, Dracula-Prime seems to have never sought to re-establish control over this soul-clone, possibly because the true Vampire Lord found Mordante useless due to the fact that the remainder of his original, noble personality and deep yearning for romantic love kept attempting to resist the superimposed psyche of Dracula-Prime and his vampiric bloodlust (despite how futile this always proved). Ultimately, this soul-clone, who continues to believe himself to be the true Dracula, completely subsumed all aspects of his original benevolent persona and has sought to control the world and wreak havoc upon humanity much as Dracula-Prime does. This soul-clone frequently encountered the unique heroic vampiric she-warrior Vampirella, and he continues to cross paths with Vampi to this day. The full skinny on Dracula-Mordante can be found in Chris' online index to Warren's Dracula.    Another well-known soul-clone of Dracula who operated free from Dracula-Prime's control was the particularly powerful clone created when the essence of another Dracula soul-clone (possibly Dracula-Mordante; see Chris' above-linked index for his theories on this) traveled back in time to the 11th century A.D. (a few centuries prior to the birth of the real Vlad Dracula) and merged with the warrior/alchemist Mathias Crongvist to become the soul-clone christianed Dracula-Mathias by researcher Mike Ongsingco. This particular soul-clone had control over a time and dimension traversing construct known as 'Castlevania,' teamed up with an avatar of Death Himself, and became a sworn enemy of the vampire-hunting family known as the Belmonts. This soul clone's sieges across time and space are chronicled in Konami's Castlevania video game series, and is described in detail via Mike's informative online timeline for the series. 


 Why did Dracula name his clones the way he did?  My speculation on this matter takes us back to the previous King of the Vampires, whose title Dracula usurped after defeating him in battle.  In the Marvel published series DRACULA LIVES, we are told that shortly after Prince Vlad is transformed into a vampire, he defeats the previous Vampire King Nimrod, whom I believe was also known as Lothos. Lothos' reign began (according to the Buffy Summers chronology, credits to come later) in the year 796 BC. 

To mock his predecessor, Dracula gave some of his soul-clones names derived from the former Vampire Lord.   Thus, Nimrod becomes Denrom, and Lothos becomes Latos, Lejos, and so on.

This schema wasn't followed with all of his soul-clones, however; some appear to have been named after their original human identity.    

Some of Dracula's more recent appearances have been chronicled in the novels RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN, THE DEVIL'S BROOD, and THE DEVIL'S NIGHT, which all take place in 1998.  Soon after that, he has made his presence known to Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer. It is my conjecture that Buffy encountered yet another prominent soul-clone of Dracula, known as Dracula-Rominoff.

 

Dracula has also clashed with Vampirella several times in the past year, and this is believed to be a version of Dracula-Mordante (whose backstory is complicated quite a bit by time travel, much like that of his fellow soul-clone, Dracula-Mathias).     Have these been actual sightings of the Prince of Darkness, or is he once again projecting his thoughts into a host body?

 

Only time and further research will tell. Some of that additional research has been presented here as a supplement.

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