In the Bram Stoker’s Novel “Dracula”, Dracula is revealed to have been trained in the art of Magick by the Devil himself as his star pupil; in a secret mystery school in the Mountains over Lake Hermanstadt called the Scholomance. here the Devil claims his tenth scholar as his due. Dracula controls the weather and the beasts of the night on the devil’s behalf. This section will share the exact words from that Chapter of the 1897 Novel – Bram Stokers Dracula:
Dracula chapter 18 Van Helsing shares some information about Dracula’s history as the Devil’s star pupil in the Scholomance school of sorcery. (pages 298 – 304.)
along with his powers and weaknesses.
DRACULA: CHAPTER 18:
“I think good that I tell you something of the kind of enemy with which we have to deal. I shall then make known to you something of the history of this man, which has been ascertained for me. So we then can discuss how we shall act, and can take our measure according.”
“There are such beings as Vampires; some of us have evidence that they exist. even if we had no proof of our own unhappy experiences, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane people. I admit that at first, I was skeptical. Were it not that through long years I have trained myself to keep an open mind, I could not have believed until such time as that fact thundered in my ear.”
“See! See! I prove; I prove.’ Alas! Had I known at first what I know now. – Nay, had I even guess at him – one so precious life had been spared to many of us who did love her. But that is gone: and we must so work, that other poor souls perish not, whilst we can save.
The Nosferatu! Do not die like the bee when he stings once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, has yet more power to work evil.
This Vampire! which is amongst us is himself so strong in person as “Twenty Men” He is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of Necromancy, which is, as his etymology implies, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to, are for him at command; He is a Brute, and more than brute; he is Devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the Rats, and the Owl, and the Bat- The Moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow, and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown.
How then are we to begin our strike to destroy him? How shall we find his where; and having found it, how can we destroy? My friends, this is much; it is a terrible task that we undertake, and there may be consequence to make the brave shudder. for if we fail in this our fight he must surely win; and then where end we? Life is nothing; I heed him not. But to fail here, is not mere life or death. It is that we become as him.; that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him- without heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and souls of those we love best. to us forever are the gates of heaven shut; for who shall open them to us again? We go on for all time abhorred by all; a blot on the face of God’s sunshine; an arrow in the side of Him who died for man. But we are face to face with duty; and in such case must we shrink? for me, I say, no; but then I am old, and life, with his sunshine, his fair places, his song of birds, his music and his love, lie far behind. you others are young. Some have seen Sorrow, but there are fair days yet in store. What say you?
(Skipping ahead to Page 301)
“Well, you know what we have to contend against; but we, too, are not without strength. We have on our side, the power of combination – a power denied to the Vampire kind; we have sources of science, we are free to act and think, and the hours of the Day and the Night are ours equally. In fact, so far as our powers extend, they are unfettered, and we are free to use them. We have self-devotion in a cause, and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one. These things are much.”
“Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are restricted, and how the individual cannot… In fine let us consider the limitations of the Vampire in general, and of this one in particular.”
“All we have to go upon are traditions of superstitions. These do not at first appear much when the matter is one of life and death. — nay of more than either life or death. Yet must we be satisfied; in the first place, because we have to be — no other means is at our control –and secondly, because, after all, these things — Tradition and Superstition — are everything. Does not the belief in Vampires rest for others — though not, alas! for us — on them? A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, skeptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth (19th) century? We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the Vampire, and belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base.
For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that man has been. In Old Rome, in Old Greece; he flourished in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chersonese, and in China, so far from us in all ways, there even is he! and the peoples fear him at this day. He has followed the wake of the berserker Icelander, the Devil-Begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar. So far, then, we have all we may act upon; and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy experiences.
The Vampire lives on, and cannot die by mere passing of time; he can flourish when, that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amonst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. But he cannot flourish without his diet; he eats not as others.
Even friend Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks did never see him to eat, never! He throws no shadow; he make in the mirror no reflect, as again Johnathan observed. He has the strength of many in his hands –witness again Johnathan when he shut the door against the Wolves, and when he help him from the diligence too. He can transform himself to Wolf, as we gather from the ship arrive in Whitby, when he tears open the Dog; he can be as a bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window of Miss Lucy. He can come in mist which he creates — that noble’s ship captain proved him of this. But from what we know, the distance he can make this mist is limited, and it can only be around himself.
He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust — as again Johnathan saw those sisters in the Castle of Dracula. He become so small — we ourselves saw Miss Lucy, where she was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb door. He can, when once he find his way, come out from anything or into anything, no matter how close it be bound, or even fused up with fire — solder you call it. He can see in the Dark — no small power this, in a world which is half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through. He can do all these things, yet he is not free.
Nay; he is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley, he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature’s laws — why we know not. He may not enter anywhere unless there be someone of the household who bid him to come; though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the Day. Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. if he be not at the place where he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inheritance. Thus, whereas he can do within his limit, when he have his Earth home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place unhollowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the Suicide at Whitby; still at our time, he can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide.
Then there are things that so afflict him that he has no power, as Garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amonst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I Shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them. The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace; or cut-off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes.
Thus When we find the habitation of this man-that-was, we can confine him to his coffin and destroy him, if we obey what we know. But he is Clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to make his record; and from all the means that there are, he tells me of what he has been.
He must, indeed, have been that “Voivode Dracula” who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the “Land beyond the Forest.” That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas, says Arminius, were a Great and Noble Race. Though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the EVIL-ONE. They learned his secrets in the “SCHOLOMANCE,” amongst the Mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the records are such words as “Stregoica” — Witch, “Ordog,” and “Pokol” — Satan and Hell; and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as “Wampyr” Which we all understood too well. There have been from the loins of this very one great men and women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good; in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest.“
DRACULA’S POWERS:
1. Necromany: command of all the dead. divination by the dead. (implies he can raise the dead…Zombie thralls.)
2. Can teleport. Appears at will anywhere, when and where in any of his forms. Like mist, fog, or shadow.
3. Can Direct the ELEMENTS: the Storm, the Fog, the Thunder etc.
4. Controls Animals: mostly Vermin and Predators. Examples given are Rats, Owls, Bats, Foxes, and Wolves. even moths?
5. Invisibility: he can Vanish and become unknown.
6. Can manipulate his height to become Small or Big… like Antman.
7. Has the strength of 20 men. (Is a Heartless Brute, a Devil of a man.)
8. Dracula can Turn into a WOLF, and he can also Be as a BAT. (When he shifts out of wolf form he tears out of its skin.)
9. He cannot die of old age, he’s Ancient and known throughout the Globe by many cultures, and is feared in every one.
10. He drinks Blood to sustain himself. As he feeds he revitalizes his strength and also reverses his age to become young.
11. Has no Shadow, and casts no Reflection in mirrors.
12. Dracula can create a Mist to hide in, but its distance is limited to be around himself. Like a cloak.
13. Dracula travels on the Rays of Moonlight as Particles of Elemental Dust.
14. Dracula can see in the Dark. Night Vision.
15. Dracula can enter any enclosed space through cracks and walls. They believe he can make himself so small that he can pass through the pores of any material, structure, or object. Like a Ghost.
16. Dracula was one of histories Great Warriors, said to be Cunning and Brave. Coming from a Great and Noble Bloodline. Facing him is like facing a Champion fighter. He’s a warrior, a Hunter and an Apex Predator.
17. Hypnosis, Mind Control, Astral Travel, Dream Walking, and has the power to create Thralls
DRACULA’S WEAKNESS/LIMITATIONS:
1. Dracula cannot enter anyone’s home unless he is invited to enter. After which he can come as he pleases.
2. He loses his powers during Daylight hours. (He’s not destroyed by the Sunlight.)
3. A Wild Rose placed on his coffin, keeps him trapt inside it.
4. He can only live on unhollowed ground. (A Place where a Suicide or Murder occurred.)
5. He is bound to his coffin. he has to return to it and rest. This limits his ability to travel too far from home.
6. He can only cross running water at its slack, and at low tides.
7. He can be ward off with Garlic and Sacred symbols, which render him silent and keep him at bay.
8. a Sacred Bullet fired into his Coffin while he rests can kill him (In Theory.)
9. Dracula or Vampires can be killed by Decapitation. or a Stake through the Heart.
10. Dracula cannot rest on Holy ground. (Probably #4 emphasized.)
11. Dracula, has to sleep in the Grave Yard dirt that he and his family were Buried in.
The Misanthropic Vampire 