Draculina

Scurifer · Post by **Scurifer** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:42 pm

Just curious but does 'Draculina' mean anything other than that magazine. Someone told me that it means Daughter of Dracula or some such? Anybody know anything?

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:26 pm

I'm not sure if it has any specific historical connections in terms of older Vampire mythology (in fact, I'm fairly certain it doesn't). I've heard draculina used to connote dracula's bride, dracula's daughter, or simply a female vampire in some fiction works (and it seems like B-Movies, but I may just be thinking of the magazine). Anyway, I'd be interested if anyone has any specific information.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:11 am

Dracul would be from the Romanian for "Dragon", and 'ina' is a general romance language suffix for "Little" (female tense). There is a certain amount of evidence to suggest that Romanian descends from the romance toungues (duhh), so "Draculina" could be taken to mean "Little Dragon" in the female tense, hence typically a younger female.

Such names typically get assigned out of context, however (a woman would acquire such a name as a young girl and perhaps carry it well into her dotage). Five gets you ten, though, that it's the whimsical fabrication of a fiction writer. I know of no history suggesting that such a character ever existed.

Scurifer · Post by **Scurifer** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:29 am

Thanks

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:24 pm

Oh, and by the way, as "Dracula" is the Romanian male form of "Little Dragon", then if there were a "Draculina", she would be more likely to be Dracula's sister than his daughter.

Tenser · Post by **Tenser** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:50 am

???

AFAIK "Dracul" simply means "Dragon" - that guy which inspired "Dracula", Vlad the impaler or how he's called in english, was member of some dragon knight order, therefore his nickname was "Dracul".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula

I always thought that Bram Stocker simply changed "Dracul" into "Dracula" to make the name easier spellable for english people... ?

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:42 pm

My understanding is that Vlad II was nicknamed 'Dracul', and as such his son caught the moniker 'Dracula' in childhood, and it stuck.

Scurifer · Post by **Scurifer** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:38 am

Dracula was christenned Tepes after his death meaning Impaling Prince in Romanian by his enemies. Dracula was of the Mircean branch of the House of Basarab of the throne of Wallachia.

His father; Vlad II was nicknamed Dracul meaning Dragon (in Romanian) and because he was part of the Knightly and Holy Order of the Dragon. Vlad III (Dracula) took the name Dracula, an anagram of Dracul (Dragon) and Ulea (Son of) and thus christenned himself Son of the Dragon.

Which means technically that Vlad's full name is Vlad Dracula Tepes Mircea Basarab the 3rd.

I think that's how it went.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:29 pm

Now, I've GOT to thank you for that. That's more decent information on Dracula's lineage than I've ever even *heard* of. Now I can get some decent (and hopefully productive) searches done.

Scurifer · Post by **Scurifer** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:06 am

Your welcome.

TigerProwler · Post by **TigerProwler** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:22 pm

Umm... sorry to disappoint you but "dracul" means "the devil" in Romanian, at least nowadays...

Raa · Post by **Raa** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:56 am

Nowadays... probably. But in the past it was obviously used for both. I guess it is similar to the English word wyrm which also means 'dragon' but in Old English it meant 'serpent', a name which is also used for devil...

TigerProwler · Post by **TigerProwler** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:50 pm

You're probably right.

My question may be stupid, but I would still like to know what his alignment could be in D&D

Lawful Good
Neutral Good
Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral
True Neutral
Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil
Neutral Evil
Chaotic Evil

Gauda · Post by **Gauda** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:45 pm

All vampires in D&D are chaotic evil. And Dracula is a vampire.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:17 pm

That may well be, but in the context of the historical Vlad Tsepes, he would have been Chaotic Good. He Stomped The Earth, but for perfectly good reasons.

Raa · Post by **Raa** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:07 am

But what about impalements?

That should make him a chaotic neutral at least

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:17 pm

He impaled invading enemies in an effort to scare off other invading enemies. On the one hand, he was trying to protect his people, and on the other hand, trying to avoid having to fight and kill more invaders. The technique was chaotic, for certain, but the motives were benign all around. Like I said before, he had more than adequate motivation for pretty much everything his is accused of, especially back in those days when you could be the toast of the court one day and starving trying to live off rat droppings in a dungeon the next. Impalement seems a pretty extreme torture today, but back then, it was one of the less hideous ways to die.

Raa · Post by **Raa** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:35 am

It still makes him neutral IMO - he did evil acts to one side to do good for the other...

Gebeleiz · Post by **Gebeleiz** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:08 am

Actually in romanian drac = devil and dracul = the devil. The romanian term for dragon in identycal with the english one - dragon although it is pronnouced diffrent. Note that Dracul(who was not noteworthy historically speaking) was the nick name of his father and that Stocker reffers to Vlad in his writings. Vlad Tepes (which means vlad the ipailer roughtly) as he remains in the history books was nick named dracul becouse of his cruelty. Keep in mind that he was a just (fair) ruler and that he came to rule when the country was in chaos. In order to restore order he came up with very harsh punisments for all crimes. He also used a lot of guerilla tactics (night attacks mostly) against the turks and is most famous for impailing a lot of them, fact that utterly destroyed the morale of the vastly superior turk force and ultimately brought his victory.
At that time Romania was diveded in 3 separate countries: Transylvania, Moldavia and Valahia. Although Vlad was born in Transylvania he actually ruled Valahia.
His reputed cruelty is belived to derive from the fact that he was taken and forcefully kept in Turkey from 1442 to 1448. He was 12 years old at that time.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:12 am

I'm pretty sure we covered Vlad Tepes and his history in at least one other thread, possibly more. So please, let's stay on Draculina, folks.

And if you want to resurrect that other thread, do a search on Tepes in this forum, and feel free to comment appropriately.