Vampyres Across Cultures

 The vampyres in our current media originates almost exclusively from 18th century Europe. Yet vampyre-like creatures have been seen in myths and legends of various cultures across the world. 

Here lets explore a few such stories from various cultures which have common characteristics to vampyres as we know it today.

In Greek folklore, vampire women with the power to transform themselves into birds of prey or other sinister animals. The striges derived from the Roman strix, a night demon, named for the screech owl. It was believed to attack infants and drain their blood. The strix appears across southern Europe, where it is known variously as strega (Italy), striges (Greece), and strigoi (Romania). The striges differed from other vampire creatures in that they were thought of as living members of the community rather than the returning dead. 

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In Philippine folklore, the manananggal is typically portrayed as a fearsome and grotesque creature, most often depicted as female. It is known to detach its upper torso from its lower half, with its entrails exposed, and grow large, bat-like wings used to fly at night in search of victims.

The manananggal is commonly believed to prey on sleeping, pregnant women by using an elongated, proboscis-like tongue to extract fetuses or draw blood. Folklore also associates the creature with targeting newlyweds, lovers, newborn children, and occasionally grooms who were abandoned before marriage. During its nocturnal hunt, the creature’s severed lower torso remains stationary and is its point of vulnerability. Traditional practices for killing a manananggal include applying salt, garlic, ash, or fire to the lower half, thereby preventing the upper torso from reuniting with it. If it fails to recombine before sunrise, the creature is believed to die.

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The Soucouyant is a folklore character who appears as a reclusive old woman (or man) by day in carribean folklores. By night, they strip off their wrinkled skin and put it in a mortar. In the form of a fireball, they fly across the dark sky in search of a victim. The Soucouyants can enter the home of their victim through any sized hole such as cracks and keyholes.

Soucouyants suck humans' blood from their arms, necks, legs and other soft regions while the victim sleeps, leaving black and blue marks on the body in the morning. If the Soucouyant draws too much blood, it is believed that the victim will either die and become a Soucouyant or perish entirely, leaving the killer to assume their skin. 

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An obayifo is a vampire/witch-like mythological creature from West Africa coming from the folklore of the Ashanti. In Ashanti folklore, obayifo are very common and may inhabit the bodies of any man or woman. They are described as having shifty eyes and being obsessed with food. When travelling at night they are said to emit a phosphorescent light from their armpits and anus. The obayifo is known as a similar entity to the asiman by the Dahomey people, a creature that can shapeshift and fly, turning itself into a ball of light and hunting for prey in the night sky. 

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The Tlahuelpichi is a legendary vampiric witch in folklore from the Mexican state of Tlaxcala, with deep roots amongst the indigenous Nahua culture of the region. 

The tlahuelpuchi is a type of vampire that lives with its human family. It is able to shape shirt and sucks the blood of infants at night. It has a kind of glowing aura when shape shifted. Tlahuelpuchi are born with their curse and cannot avoid it. They first learn of what they are sometime around puberty. Most tlahuelpuchi are female and the female tlahuelpuchi are more powerful than males. The tlahuelpuchi have a form of society. Typically they each have their own territories. They also have a pact with shamans and other supernatural creatures; a shaman won't turn in a suspected tlahuelpuchi. The typical sign that a victim was killed by the tlahuelpuchi are bruises on their upper body. The Tlahuelpuchi largely feeds on children, though it can kill others. 

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