[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

You are pretty close on your observations there Grislygus.

The mythology of vampires is ancient and a total amalgamation of folklores that date to before written record. But the evolution of the mythology is actually quite easy to trace from its origins.

Every culture has some sort of blood-sucking monster in their tales of terror. It is important to note that these ancient creatures were savage and often demonic in appearance. The Ancient Greeks had Liama, Africa had the Asanbosam , Japan had the Kyūketsuki (which literally means blood sucking demon) to just name a few.

These myths mingled with the European myths of the undead wraiths and revenants in the 12th century when English historian William of Newburgh wrote of several frenzied accounts of the dead reanimating and attacking the living – specifically drinking their blood. He called these creatures sanguisuga (Latin: bloodsuckers) and recommended burning the corpses of these assailants. No one knows exactly what he saw, it was most likely complete bullshit, and England pretty much ignored his stories. But the Slavic regions took the stories to heart and in the subsequent 400 years or so became responsible for much of the early mythos. Including detection and destruction of vampires as well as garlic as a deterrent. They are also responsible for the gaunt, fanged and generally twisted appearance of – say – Nosferatu.

From there, the path leads to actually intellectual debate in Western Europe. An official statement was signed by Austrian government official, surgeon Johannes Fluckinger, on January 7, 1732. That paper documented vampire hunting, the burning of corpses in Serbia and the murders committed by a man named Arnold Paul who raved that he was bitten by one of these creatures. The statement was published in several periodicals, as an observation only - not a serious study or statement, and it eventually reached England were it was published in Gentleman’s Magazine in 1731.

English scholars attempted to explain these accounts scientifically – but that only served to give the general public further credence into the wild stories. The church chimed in when an Abbot named Calmet wrote a treatise recounting the Arnold Paul story. That made the stories of vampires very well known. Then Polidori wrote the short story The Vampire, which in often inaccurately attributed to Byron, based on the Calmet report and Arnold Paul. Polidori created the character Lord Ruthven and Stoker used that and Vlad as inspiration for Dracula.

That's pretty much the origin of the modern literature version of the vampire.