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Creatures of the Night

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    Welcome to our vampire and werewolf pages! In these pages we provide a possible explanation of how these legends might have evolved. We believe that these legends arose from fear; fear of people who were different from others. Even though people may try not to, it is common for some people to discriminate against others because they are different. This is what we think might have happened to people who suffered from a genetic condition called porphyria. They were discriminated against because of this disorder, and were judged based on their physical appearance.  People made up stories and legends that replaced the real reason for these differences, which was, these people suffered from porphyria.

    These legends arose in the 1400 to 1600s’. At that time the fastest way for news or stories to spread was by to be passed on by word of mouth. With a different person telling the story each time, you could see how easy it is for these stories to grow and get distorted. We believe that these legends were intentionally exaggerated from time to time to scare people.

    Both the vampire and werewolf legends have many similarities, both in where they came from and in many of their characteristics. Both fear sunlight and come out only at night. There also are many differences between them. The main difference between a vampire and a werewolf is that a vampire lives in between the living and the dead worlds, surviving by drinking blood. A werewolf on the other hand is a living person who can transform into a wolf and assume wolf characteristics.