Chapter Thirty-Four - Vlad the Impaler

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Vlad the Impaler

BORN IN 1431, in the land of Wallachia (modern-day Romania), Vlad III, later known as Vlad the Impaler, wasn’t meant to be remembered like this.

He was supposed to be a defender of his homeland, a bulwark between Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

And he was.
But he also became a legend soaked in blood.

Because Vlad didn’t just kill.
He turned execution into a statement.

He made death an art.

Vlad was born the son of Vlad II Dracul, a nobleman in the Order of the Dragon. They were a Christian brotherhood sworn to fight the Ottomans.

His father was murdered.
His brother was buried alive.

So Vlad didn’t grow up with peace.
He grew up with revenge in his bones.

When he took the throne of Wallachia in 1456, he didn’t just want to rule.
He wanted to cleanse it.

That meant corrupt nobles, criminals, traitors, and foreign invaders all faced one brutal fate:

Impalement.

Impalement wasn’t a quick death.
Vlad had it down to a science.

A wooden stake was driven through the body, sometimes blunt to prolong the suffering.
Victims could survive for days, hung in the air like meat on hooks.

And he didn’t do this in secret.

He displayed them.
Outside cities. Along roads. In front of castles.

There are reports of entire forests of bodies, a psychological war campaign to tell the world something very simple.

You don’t mess with Wallachia.

It worked.

When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded Vlad’s land?
He turned around after seeing 20,000 corpses impaled outside Târgoviște.

Even he didn’t want that smoke. The numbers depend on who you ask.

To his enemies, he was Dracula. The Devil's son.
To his people, he was a savage who made the roads safe.

He fought corruption.
He protected his kingdom from foreign invasion.
He crushed crime with merciless consistency.

He didn’t rule with love.
He ruled with order through terror.

And in a time of chaos?
That worked.

Vlad died in 1476, likely betrayed in battle.
His head was sent to the Ottomans.
His body? Still debated.

But his legend outlived his bones.

Centuries later, Bram Stoker used the name “Dracula” to create a new monster, but the real Vlad?

He didn’t drink blood.
He spilled it.

And the world never stopped staring.