Triumvirate of Terror timeline 1428-1476

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Dracula's (Vlad Tepes) Human Years

Text provided by Prof. Matthew Baugh,

with notes provided by Prof. Dennis Power.

1428

Dracula's older brother Prince Mircea is born.

1431

Dracula's father Vlad is inducted into the Order of the Dragon, which is

a Catholic order of knights. To acknowledge this honor, his supporters

begin to refer to him as Vlad the Dragon, or Vlad Dracul.

Later that year, Vlad Dracula (Son of the Dragon) is born.

New information, brought to my attention by Prof. Dennis Power, shows

that Vlad's mother was a gypsy woman, and not Princess Cneajna. Vlad's

real mother not only had Gypsy blood, but was also a witch. She was

burned to death for revealing to Vlad that she was indeed his true mother.

1432

Birth of Vladimir Danesti, son of one of Vlad Tepes' uncles, and member

of a rival clan to Mircea Tepes I, fathered by his brother, Dan Tepes.
________________________________________________________________

1435

Dracula's younger brother Radu the Handsome is born.

1436

Vlad Dracula becomes Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia.

1440

A gypsy girl visits young Vlad in his dreams and tells him that she will

one day become his bride.

1442

Vlad Dracul and his sons, Radu and Vlad Dracula, visit Gallipoli to pay

tribute to the Ottoman Sultan Murad. The Sultan seizes them. Prince

Mircea rules Wallachia in his father's absence.

1443

Dracul is released, but his sons remain hostages.

1444

Dracul participates in an anti-Turkish crusade alongside the Hungarian,

John Hunyadi. Against expectations the Sultan allows Dracula and

Radu to live.

1447

Radu succumbs to the Sultan's heir Mehmed, and becomes his minion

and lover.

November Hunyadi forms an alliance with Vladislav II, a

member of the Danesti clan, close relatives of Dracul who are rivals for

his power. Mircea is tortured and buried alive, and Vlad is killed

attempting to escape his capital city.

1448

Murad releases Dracula and gives him the support he needs to rule

Wallachia as the Sultan's minion.

Dracula rules for two months, but is forced to flee the country when

Hunyadi regains the advantage.

1449

Dracula spends several years living in Moldavia.

1451

Sultan Murad dies and is succeeded by the much more militant

Mehmed.

1453

Mehmed's forces sack Constantinople, bringing the Byzantine Empire to

an end.

1456

Fearing the Sultan will invade Hungary next, Hunyadi allows Dracula to

come out of exile as his vassal. Dracula's knowledge of the Turks proves

invaluable, but Hunyadi dies of illness during the campaign.

Dracula avenges himself on Vladislav II (now an ally of the Turks.) By

August 22, Dracula is again Prince of Wallachia.

1457

Dracula seized all the nobles who collaborated in the death of his father

and brother. The strong he presses into brutal forced labor in building the

walls of Castle Dracula, the infirm he has impaled. This is Dracula's

favorite form of execution, and it earns him the name Vlad Tepes (Vlad

the Impaler).

New information from Prof. Power reveals that when Vlad took over

Wallachia, he heard tales that his father and brother had been cursed by

gypsies to wander the world as the Undead. He believed the story when

Vlad Dracul returned to drink his son's blood. Vlad was rescued by the

young gypsy woman of his dreams.

According to this report, witches have power to control vampires, or just

certain types of vampires. She summons a Strigoi, a demon or gargoyle

that carried Vlad Dracul, Mircea, and Mircea's wife to Scholomance.

Tzigane, a young gypsy woman, became Vlad's lover and his teacher in

occult matters. She told him that witches worship the Devil, who is not evil

but is rather the savior of mankind; it is the so called False God that will

lead mankind to ruination. This must be the event where Vlad is introduced

to Rasalom.

Rasalom is Satan, or at least is whom Vlad refers to as Satan. Rasalom is

merely one of the many beings who pretended to be the Devil, using their

occult powers to attract deluded worshippers. While still pretending to be

the Devil, Rasalom would also pretend to be one of Vlad's

vassals.According to certain reports by F. Paul Wilson, such as The Keep,

Rasalom was a human wizard born countless millennia in the past (possibly

as far back as the Hyborian Age), who gained both immortality and

immense mystical power due to pacts with various demonic entities,

including the Old Ones (whom he referred to collectively as "the

Adversary"), possibly leaving his humanity behind entirely to become a true

demonic being.

Among the entities he received power from was Varnae, a being said to

have been a human mystic transformed into one of Earth's earliest

vampires back in ancient Atlantis. It's possible Varnae was kin to, or

connected in some way with, the Turokian strain of vampires, though he

seemed much more powerful than even Lothos, the alleged progenitor of

this demonic strain of vampire-like beings.

According to other sources, including Doug Moench's report "Genesis of

Depravity," which was published in Eerie Vol. 1 #50 by Warren Comics,

Rasalom disguised himself as Satan and appeared to an unknown female

conjuress who sought demonic powers (it's Prof. Mike Nero's theory

that the "Satan" in this account was a disguised Rasalom). While

masquerading as Satan in this summoning, Rasalom called upon the power

he acquired long before from Varnae to transform the woman into Satanna

(not to be confused with Satana Hellstrom), the first of the Varnaean strain

of vampires in a manner that twisted and parodied the prevailing Christian

beliefs, particularly the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.

Satanna then soon bit and vampirized Vlad Tepes Dracula, who acquired

his Star Stone ring, various secret knowledge, and guidance from Rasalom,

whom he too believed to be Satan. Special thanks to my colleague Prof.

Jay Lindsey for bringing the F. Paul Wilson reports to my attention.

Vlad Dracula means "Son of the Dragon"; it also means "Son of the Devil."

Vlad is prophesied to be Satan's King on Earth, meaning Rasalom's chief

agent in Earthly matters.

1458

Dracula consolidates his power by wholesale executions of nobles, towns,

or villages suspected of disloyalty.

1459

In his best known retributive action, Dracula sets up a table near the

base of Timpu Hill and dines as he watches thousands of people impaled

or otherwise tortured to death. He is said to have dipped his bread in the

blood of his victims, believing it would give him vitality.

1460

Dracula responds to Pope Pius II's call for a crusade. He also overcomes

another rival for power named Dan III, and personally beheads him.

1461

Dracula wins an impressive string of victories over the Turks.

1462

Sultan Mehmed and Radu the Handsome invade Wallachia with an

army three times the size of Dracula's.

Dracula fights a defensive war using scorched earth and guerrilla tactics.

On June 17, he leads a daring raid that almost succeeds in killing the

Sultan. When Mehmed's army gives chase they run into a psychological

warfare surprise. Dracula has set up a veritable forest of stakes on which

he has impaled 20,000 prisoners. The Sultan eventually withdraws,

having failed to capture Wallachia.

However, Prince Radu incited the people and nobles to rebel against

Dracula. They do, and he is forced to flee to Hungary, where he is

promptly arrested by King Matthias and held for a number of years in a

comfortable house arrest. Having no real power, Dracula amuses himself

during these years by torturing and impaling mice and small birds. Radu

becomes Prince of Wallachia with Mehmed's backing.*

At Scholomance, Tzigane reveals that she is going to become a

vampire.

Vlad balks at first but eventually goes along with the ceremony. She is

able to use her increased powers to enhance his occult teachings. After

leaving Scholomance and traveling to Moldavia, they approach the

ancient castle built for Satan's King on Earth; it is known as Castle

Dracula. It is here that Vlad accepts his destiny to be Satan's Heir and

takes the dark kiss from Tzigane so that should he fall in battle or die of

disease, he will become a vampire.

Shortly after this, Dracula is forced into an arranged marriage to a woman

named Zofia as part of a familial obligation his father obliged him to many

years earlier. Dracula despised Zofia, and after a year of marriage, he felt

his obligations had been settled, so he threw the pregnant woman out of

his house, hoping she and the child would spend the rest of their lives in

abject poverty. After giving birth to Dracula's daughter, Zofia gave the

infant girl to a gypsy mystic (possibly of the Kalderash tribe) named

Gretchin to raise, and then committed suicide.**

* New information shows that when Vladislav or Hunyadi returns to

Wallachia, Tzigane and Vlad flee, going to the Vale of Flowers and Fog

wherein lies the Scholomance (Devil's School). Tzigane reveals that the

valley had been formed upon the Devil's (Rasalom's) arrival on Earth.

According to this source, the Devil had originally come to earth on a falling

star (meteorite).

Prof. Power adds...

"Rasalom may have borrowed this origin story as well as his identity as

the Devil. Inside the valley was a lake wherein lives a dragon, which only

appears every once in a while, and appears when Vlad stands near the

lake. The valley was also inhabited by vampires. There are apparently two

types of vampires. The first type are nearly mindless predators caring

about little but their own appetites; these are those made into vampires

without any previous training. The second type of vampire are those who

receive occult training and mental preparations prior to becoming vampires.

Once they become a vampire they have vast powers."

For more theories by my esteemed colleague, Professor Dennis Power,

on the malevolent creatures known as Vampires, click here.

** Dracula's infant daughter was later transformed, via powerful gypsy

magick, into a unique and powerful vampire by Gretchin to become her

father's eternal nemesis in revenge for his killing of several gypsies

following his transformation into a vampire, these victims including

Gretchin's own son. Upon being transformed into a vampiric state by

Gretchin, Dracula's daughter was given the name Lilith (not to be confused

with the powerful female demon of Hebrew lore whom she was likely named

after, or Lilith "Lily" Munster). See Marv Wolfman's file "Night of the

She-Demon" in Giant-Size Dracula #1, published by Marvels Comics.

1475

Radu dies of syphilis. Dracula demonstrates that he is now loyal to

Matthias by converting to Catholicism and marrying the Hungarian

princess Ilona Szigali.

1476

Dracula is appointed one of the captains of an anti-Turkish crusade, and

uses his tactics of terror to reclaim Wallachia. By November he is again

the region's ruler. One of his first actions is to hide a vast treasure in a

river and have all laborers and other witnesses to this act impaled.

According to the notes of Prof. Damien Harmon, as edited by Robert

Lory, the true reason Vlad was amassing this horde of gold was for a time

when this gold would be used as a weapon against the Old Ones. Whether

or not this was speaking of a battle alongside or against Rasalom, Prof.

Harmon was never able to ascertain. Research conducted as a

collaboration between members of MONSTAAH and the Wilmarth

Foundation have been unable to find any new clues in this matter.

While leading a successful battle against the Turks, Dracula encounters

the Riders of the Dark led by En Sabah Nul, a brutal man who had

achieved immortality after having been transformed into a living

weapon by alchemical modifications made to his body via experimentation

by the corrupt sorcerer Imhotep II* in ancient Egypt 2,000 years earlier

(Nul was a slave at the time). Nul spent the succeeding two millennia

building a vast power base with his Akkaba Clan, and was obsessed with

seeing to the survival of only the fittest human beings in the world. His

vow to eliminate the weak from all human bloodlines and thus purge the

world led to his taking on the name Apocalypse. Vlad attacks Nul, not

fearing the whispered legends of his reputation, only to be severely struck

down by one of the Rider's lead warriors.**

However, Dracula is saved from a premature ending by Rasalom, who

has other plans for him. Nevertheless, this incident would cause Dracula

to wage war on Nul's Akkaba Clan--and therefore, Nul himself--five

centuries later, after he had become the Lord of Vampires.

Upon Dracula being struck down by the warrior acting under the directives

of En Sabah Nul, he is prevented from being fatally injured by Rasalom

and sent on a trans-temporal mission back to the 5th century A.D.

Rasalom had apparently contacted an alternate extratemporal counterpart

of himself who existed at a point of time congruent with the latter century,

and the two versions of Rasalom apparently set a complex plan into

motion involving Dracula that spans across time. The exact details of

this plan have not been uncovered to date, however.

This extratemporal counterpart of Rasalom, who resides back in the 5th

century, also having taken on the guise of Satan, was involved in the

conflict between the legendary warrior hero Beowulf, Prince of the

Geats, and the formidable human-eating monster Grendel, who was then

repeatedly terrorizing the palace of Beowulf's friend and ally King

Hrothgar, leader of the Danes.***

In fact, it was Rasalom, in the guise of Satan, who presented Beowulf

with a fabled fruit called the Zumak, whose cider enhanced his strength

and endurance to the incredible proportions he would need to defeat a

menace as powerful as Grendel.

Upon arriving in the late 5th century with a contingent

of his fellow Wallachian warriors under his command,

Dracula lays siege to many areas of the desert regions of Scandinavia.

This results in his being hunted by the Ashers, the Jewish warrior

clan who referred to themselves as the "Lost Tribe of Israel," who sought

to destroy him before he could do the same to them and their land.

During this incident, Beowulf and some of his allies are on a mission in

the desert when they encounter the Ashers, resulting in Beowulf

befriending their leader, Bruzz-Solomon. The two groups ultimately

work together when the time-tossed Dracula and his troupe of

Wallachian warriors finally turn the tables by hunting them down

instead. The bloody conflict that ensues (during which Bruzz-Solomon

is killed, and succeeded as leader of the Ashers by his trusted second-

in-command, Yushashia) leads to a brief personal battle between Dracula

and Beowulf. This tussle is interrupted by Raslalom, who manifests as

"Satan" and transports Dracula back to his own time period.****

* For the story on the second Imhotep, see Stephen Sommers' file THE

MUMMY (not to be confused with another file of that name). Theories

regarding the connection between Imhotep II and En Sabah Nul were

provided to us by Prof. Kevin Heim, to which Prof. Nero

then extrapolated upon.

** See Frank Tieri's 4-part file X-Men: Apocalypse/Dracula, all reprinted in

the X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula TPB, published by Marvels Comics.

Certain events in that report were embellished for entertainment and

disinformation purposes, particularly various aspects of the Akkaba Clan,

and the date given for Dracula's early encounter with the Riders of the

Dark, 1457, was incorrect.

*** The entire amazing life of Beowulf was recorded in the eponymous epic

poem that was chronicled by the warrior hero's sorcerer ally known as the

Shaper, which appeared in the ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscript called the

Nowell Codex, and has since been reprinted in prose form. A few other

incidents involving Beowulf during his conflict with Grendel were recorded

in Michael Uslan's file Beowulf, Dragon Slayer, published in comic book

format over six issues by DC Comics in 1975-76 (A.D.).

It's likely that some of the incidents chronicled by Uslan in his above file

set were untold events in Beowulf's life (such as the involvement of

Rasalom in the guise of "Satan"), whereas others were pure exaggerations

and embellishments that conflicted too much with the established story

(such as Beowulf's alleged journey to Atlantis). A full analysis of this file

has yet to be done, and is currently outside the scope of this timeline.

Many different interpretations of the legend have appeared by

other chroniclers, including the accounts acquired by Uslan, which may

imply recordings of different alternate reality versions of Beowulf and his

saga rather than the sole result of distorted information (though that

undoubtedly plays a factor in the conflicting accounts, too).

**** See Michael Uslan's file "Valley in the Shadow of Death," published in

comic book format in Beowulf, Dragon Slayer # 4 by DC Comics.

Go to 1476-1795

Triumvirate of Terror Timeline:

1428-1476