Classification: Legendary & Supernatural Humanoids

Temporal Range: 16th - 17th Century

Geographic Range: Hungary

Diet: The blood of the young

Horde: Wretched Mortals

Also known as the Bloody Countess, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is known as one of the most prolific female killers in history. Wrapped up in a tale of vampiric horror and sadism, Countess Báthory has become a legend in her native Hungary.

A woman of noble birth, after her husband died in 1604, rumors began to emerge that the Countess had been partaking in horrible deeds in an attempt to stay young and beautiful. Witnesses and staff in her castle claim that she would lure in virginal young women and then torture and bite them, drinking their blood to stay eternally youthful. Other tales describe her as bathing in the blood of her victims too. A true vampire spa treatment that would alarm even Count Dracula or Vlad the Impaler.

Local authorities eventually arrested Countess Báthory and she was confined to her castle for the rest of her life. Some say they stormed her castle while she was simply sitting to dinner, while others claim she was caught in the act, draining a victim while covered in the young woman’s blood. Many historians have doubted Countess Báthory’s sick and vampiric nature, suggesting this was a power grab by other nobles after her husband died. Much of the evidence came from eye witnesses and there were not the hundreds of missing people that the stories suggested there should have been. However, perhaps the vampiric Countess was just exceptional when it came to cleaning up after herself? She did have impeccable standards of cleanliness if the regular blood baths are anything to go by.

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