The Origins Of The Dhampir
Contrary to popular belief, the dhampir is not a fictional character created solely by the entertainment industry, mainly in the video game and anime spectrum. Oh, and of course the Wesley Snipes version of Blade I, II, and III. No, the Hollywood sex-selling dhampirs are a little bit different from those who, according to Balkan legends, stalked the night, preying on other undead. Dhampirs’ first historic appearance was in the Balkan society, centuries ago, among the Roma people. In other areas of the region, there were different names, such as “vampirovi?, vampijerovi?, vampiri?,” or the Bosnian “lampijerovi?” which translated literally to “vampire’s son.” It was believed among the Balkan people that male vampires had a great sexual desire for female women. This is reflective of modern folklore as well. All vampires, whether in fiction or lore have always seemed to exude seduction over women, and the female undead do the same for men. The procreative ability between the two however, is not as easily believed. The main reason of course being, if one party is dead, how can it either produce living sperm to fertilize the embryo, or, how can the female vampire’s embryo be alive enough to be fertilised? This was the process of creating the dhampir; the offspring of human and vampire.
The scientific aspect of the impossible did not occur to the Balkans, and honestly, it shouldn’t really matter in the first place. If one has to argue the semantics of a vampire-human spawn, then one has to also argue the semantics of a walking corpse. But in Balkan society, the exact science of procreation was more or less yet unknown, as were the many mysteries of biology that so many take for granted today. Vampiric men and women had sexual desires for the living, and it is not irrational to believe that many of these men and women were those they were attracted to while living. In one case recorded in history, a Serbian widow was discovered pregnant, and in her defense, she named her late husband the father; claiming he was a vampire. Other sources say that Serbian men would often pretend to be vampires in order to attract or seduce the women they desired. In other legends, a vampire may awaken, and move to a village where he is unknown, marry, and create a family there.
The sexually promiscuous or at lease, sexually active vampire was never just a thing of fan-fiction and Hollywood. Western Europe produced sensual stories of vampires, along with the horrific. However it was the Eastern European population, namely South Slavic that carried the sexual vampire beliefs, whereas Northern Slavs did not. It was a peculiar legend to have, although they were not quite alone; Belarusian folklore and vampire belief also had similar tales concerning vampiric procreation.
