The Zmeu is from Moldavia. It is a vampire that can take the form of a flame and enter the room of a young woman or widow. Once it enters the room of the sleeping woman, the flame becomes a man and seduces them.
The Zmeu can have legs, arms, and appear completely normal. It’s main goal is to seduce and marry women. This vampiric creature has magical and destructive powers; he can fly and shapeshift. He also has supernatural strength.
The Veshtitza is said to an old woman who is possessed by an evil spirit. The soul leaves her body at night and wanders around until it enters the body of a hen or a black moth. When in the body of the animal, the Veshtitza flies around until she finds a home where there is a sleeping baby or young child.
The Veshtitza’s favorite food is a young heart.
Sometimes, all of the Vestitza would flock together and join in the branches of a tree and hold a meeting while snacking on what they’d gathered earlier in the night. Sometimes old women who have traits of a witch may join in the meetings.
Incubus creatures are ancient in religion, history, and fiction. The earliest stories of an incubus is from Mesopotamia, where Gilgamesh’s father listed the creature as Lilu. A Lilu disturbed the sleep of women and seduced them.
An incubus is a male demon who lies on women sleepers in order to have sex with them. Incubus try to seduce women in order to father children. If a child is produced it’s called a cambion; it appears to be stillborn, as there isn’t a pulse or visible breathing. Around the age of 7, the child starts to behave like a human child, but it often displays evil tendencies. The child is beautiful, intelligent, and very persuasive.
Unlike a typical vampire, an incubus doesn’t drain its victims of blood or energy, but exhausts them to death with intercourse. The victims become worn out and helpless and often die of asphyxiation.
Lilith appears in early Hebraic writings and stories. She is a winged demon, with the body of a woman, and owl-like talons for feet.
It is said that Lilith was the first wife of Adam, but she believed herself an equal to him and refused to be submissive. For this, she was banished from God’s presence into the demon realm.
When Lilith moved to the demon realm, she began stealing babies and small children and devoured them. It’s also said that Lilith was like a Succubus, seducing men to steal their sperm; the men never survived their encounter with Lilith.
Some stories even claimed that Lilith would drink the blood of her victims and used the sperm to conceive her offspring.
Other stories claimed that when God banished Cain (first born son of Adam and Eve) after killing his brother, Lilith and Cain procreated demonic offspring.
Lilith’s offspring were damned to become demons, which is how she obtained her title- “Mother of Demons.” This title was changed to “Mother of Vampires” later in legends.
The new title was obtained because Lilith’s offspring were all destroyed by God, so she vowed to herself to feed on all of Adam’s children (IE humans).
Lamashtu (also referred to as Lamastu or Dimme) was a demon goddess in Sumeria and Acadia.
Lamashtu was often described to have a hairy body, the head of a lion, donkey teeth and ears, long fingers and fingernails, and sharp bird-like talons for feet. She was often seen standing or kneeling on a donkey while nursing a pig and a dog and holding snakes.
It is said that Lamashtu crept into homes at night to kill babies in their cribs or in the womb, becoming the cause for sudden infant death syndrome and miscarriages.
In Mesopotamian mythology, she menaced with women during childbirth and kidnapped babies while breastfeeding. It’s said that she would allow the babies to nurse on her and suckle her toxic milk, causing the baby to die.
Lamashtu was also the cause of many deaths and evil deeds among humans.
• Slaughtered mothers.
• Dined on the flesh and blood of men.
• Poisoned water with diseases.
• Killed plants.
• Caused tetanus and fever.
• Caused sterility in adults.
• Evoked nightmares.
A dhampir (dhampyre, dhamphir, dhampyr) is the child of a vampire and human, as told in Balkan folklore.
It was believed that male vampires returned to have intercourse with his living wife or with another woman that he had an attraction to when he was living. In some legions, male vampires would deflower virgin girls.
According to Albanian legend, a dhampir has untamed dark or black hair and a lack of a shadow. In Bulgarian lore, a dhampir may be “very dirty,” have a soft body, no nails or bones, a deep mark on the back like a tail, pronounced nose, a large nose and larger than normal eyes and teeth.
A dhampir has similar powers to a vampire, but he doesn’t have the typical weaknesses. The dhampir’s skills may include:
• Sense a supernatural creature is within a specified distance
• Develop visions that provide guidance as well as intimacy with the vampire
• Acute sense of sight and hearing
• Regenerating healing abilities
• Walk in sunlight
• Eat like a human
• Procreate and pass powers to offspring
• Control animals
• Achieve a mental edge that borders on psychosis
• Destroy vampires
Dhampirs are often quite stubborn, driven and charismatic. Drinking blood at least once a week can enhance the dhampir’s powers.
Many dhampirs tend to die at birth, but those who live to adulthood will often reject their vampiric heritage. They must train hard to increase their speed, stamina and strength, but will often hunt vampires and other mythical beings.
A dhampir may kill a vampire by shooting it with a bullet, transfixing it with a hawthorn stake or performing a ceremony that involves touching crowns of lead into the vampire’s grave. If the dhampir cannot kill the vampire, he can command it to leave the area.
Dhampirs can be hard to kill, but a witch can cast a spell that causes aneurysms that cause the blood vessels to explode. Decapitation and removing the hear can also kill a dhampir.
The draugr (also called an aptrgangr) literally means “one who walks after death. There are many Norse myths and tales about the draugr and its creation.
The person may become a draugr if he has unfinished business after death, or if he is infected by another draugr. Some believed that anyone who was mean, nasty or greedy could become a draugr after dying. Others believed that a draugr arises because he felt he was wronged in life.
A corpse can be identified as a draugr if it is found in an upright or sitting position. If seen walking around, a draugr will have several distinctive characteristics.
• A pale, deathly skin tone
• Superhuman strength
• Stench of decay
• Large, bulky body
A draugr was said to be able to shape-shift, control the weather and see into the future. He would rise from the grave as a wisp of smoke and float through rock. Most are active at night, but there isn’t any proof that they are sensitive to sunlight.
Some myths about the draugr claim that the spirit may have some form of intelligence and ability to communicate.
The draugr would slay his victims, devour the flesh and drink the blood. After drinking the blood and consuming the flesh, it was thought the draugr would grow larger.
A draugr could be destroyed by beheading or burning. If the spirit is burnt, the ashes need to be poured into the ocean.
There are different methods of preventing a draugr.
• Place a pair of open, iron scissors placed on the chest of a recently deceased.
• Hide straw or twigs inside the clothes of the deceased.
• Tie the big toes together.
• Drive needles through the soles of the feet to prevent the deceased from being able to walk.
• When lowering the coffin, lift and lower it three times to confuse the draugr’s sense of direction.
Denmark spread the belief that a corpse could only rise and return from the dead by walking through the door it entered. Norse culture adopted the same belief; they would prevent the return of a deceased by surrounding the body with people and carry the deceased feet-first through a door. The door was then bricked up so that the draugr could not enter it.
Although, the term “wearh” cannot be directly translated into “vampire,” it is an Old English term that has been used to describe vampires.
A wearh is a monster or evil spirit.
Many authors still use the term when writing about vampires and Anglo-Saxons between England and Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century.
The Aniukha is a creature in Serbian stories. The Aniukha is a small creature (somewhere between the size of an insect and a rodent depending upon source) that sucks the blood out of infants. A Shaman must be called to help get get rid of the creature.
Annis is a sorceress from British folklore who is known for sucking the blood from children.
Mark Bere Peterson’s Counterculture, Urban Legends, Paganism & Witchcraft 