Thanks in part to the activities of the North American vampire, species of vampire are no longer confined to the areas they had inhabited for millennia. With Europe traditionally considered the epicenter of vampire activity, who would suspect the central power base to be relocated to a region with so little vampire history?
The enormous fortunes that the Old World vampires of Europe brought with them when they immigrated to North America were invested in steel, the railway and communications. With a powerful hold on these commercial areas, the North American vampires have not only become wealthy, they have also been able to open the lines of communication and transportation, leading to a prolific dissemination and networking of the vampire species.
With clear and established lines of communication and leadership – and with very little opposition – the immigrant North American vampires are leading the offensive against humanity. Vampires have been spreading across the globe for decades, particularly to North America where a lack of true vampire history has resulted in little skill and demand for hunting. Consequently, the congregations of species that have gathered there have been allowed to breed unheeded and in relative peace.
This gruesome sketch serves as a reminder that, at their most basic, vampires are animalistic predators who view the mass of humanity as little more than cattle. (Bridgeman Art Library)
But these New World vampires are not relying solely on their wealth and power to attract other vampire covens to build up their empire. There are those species that possess a limited and primal intelligence, who do not have the mental capacity to be driven by such materialistic reward. As such, it is believed that the North American vampire leaders are exploiting the psychic and empathic abilities showcased by the Chinese Jiangshi and the African Obayifo to influence other, more susceptible vampires into joining their ranks.
There is no doubt that vampires are now more organized than ever before. There will likely come a day when all vampire hunters around the world will be called together to fight in defense of humanity.
There is evidence, for example, that the South American Chupacabra is penetrating the major cities across the North American continent. This behavior is not consistent with historical records of the Chupacabra – they have never been known to approach such densely populated and modern areas, and yet the evidence that more and more of their number are driving further north is increasing month on month. Inhabiting the maze of sewers beneath these metropolises, it is suspected that the Chupacabras are answering the call of their “masters,” vampires who are thought to be using a combination of low-level psychic resonance and echolocation to summon their brethren. Moreover, with numbers of Chupacabra having plummeted in recent years, could the North American vampire be trying to propagate the species? It seems the vampires are using whatever they have at their disposal in order to build their forces.
For more than 500 years, the Vatican led the fight against vampires in Europe. It was they who took on the formalized and organized hunting of vampires, with their first officially sanctioned engagement with the Strigoi taking place in 1520, though the task forces to counter the threat had been in the works long before that. In the early centuries AD, warrior priests had trained in the local monasteries. But over time, as the threats worsened, these young hunters that were working alone to destroy the enemy in their respective European communities became less effective.
The Vatican library, home of the famous “Z Collection,” one of the world’s largest repositories for knowledge about the undead, including vampires. (Francesco Dazzi / Shutterstock.com)
Consequently, the Vatican acted to bring together resources from across the continent to better organize the attacks on the vampires, a move that would be mirrored some 500 years later.
Due to the proliferation of new, previously unknown species of vampires appearing in different countries and continents, the Vatican-sanctioned teams were unable to keep up with their offensive. They recognized that the traditional weapons and tactics used by the European hunters were not enough to tackle the various threats. Subsequently, UNESCO assumed responsibility for dealing with the vampire menace on a global scale. Just as the Vatican brought together the hunters from across Europe, UNESCO has been able to do the same on an international level.
UNESCO was founded shortly after the end of World War II, on November 16, 1945. It aims to encourage collaboration between nations through education, science and culture, in order to establish a peaceful world order. As part of the United Nations, the organization is able to bring all the relevant national parties together in relative privacy, averting the gaze from those prying eyes that would incite mass panic.
As UNESCO aimed to amass the specialist knowledge and skills from each area of the globe in order to inform and educate other hunters, they employed new teams, dubbed Special Action Units (SAU). The SAUs sought to understand everything possible about the vampires in order to counter any possible threat.
The UNESCO world headquarters in Paris, the center for antivampire activities in the modern world. (Simon Tranter Photography / Alamy)
For example, vampires like the Jiangshi have the potential to emerge almost anywhere on Earth. Therefore, it is vital for the Shaolin vampire hunters to share their knowledge of the spiritualist side of hunting, which far exceeds that of any other hunter in the world.
Furthermore, the skills of the Ghanaian hunter and his African brothers are crucial learnings in the North American urban jungles that are currently witnessing vampire uprisings. These new North American opponents may differ from the forest-based threats, such as the Asanbosam, but the African hunters are able to use their abilities to reach places other hunters cannot. They can exercise these talents, which resemble the art of parkour (a modern-day version of the skills developed by the hunters hundreds of years ago in the African forests), itself developed from military obstacle course training.
A rare photograph of Telsa Dane, “The Louisiana Vampire.” Telsa disappeared from her Baton Rouge mental hospital in 2008 before experts could determine the true nature of her apparent vampirism.
As such, training camps are currently being established at key locations across the world, where vital individuals from all continents are pulling together to impart their skills and knowledge and plan their assault. In addition, the work between these new inquisitors and several highly classified US military units in the late 1990s and early 2000s has helped to prepare them for combat in the field. Those relationships between UNESCO and North America are proving vital as we move closer to allout war with the vampires.
Faith is the connecting thread throughout this guide. The religious traditions have always been a part of the counter-vampire culture, no matter the country of origin. Every task force is laced with religious iconography and a symbolic belief that has helped them to overcome their opponents. It seems that even before UNESCO stepped in, the hunters were writing chapters from the same book. Now it is up to UNESCO to ensure that they complete the story – to create the most successful and efficient antivampire units the world has ever seen.
The translation of traditional hunting tactics and vampire knowledge from the Old World sites in Europe, Asia and Africa to those hunters stationed in the New World areas would be an impossible task without the latest advancements in communication. Now, the few vampire hunters that exist in North America are looking to assimilate knowledge and skills from their transatlantic kin.
In the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO embarked on a plan to address the imbalance in global communication. Establishing a set of communication channels where media would flow freely, UNESCO is in a better position to identify vampire communications. In addition, with new recommendations in place, UNESCO is able to encourage and nurture cross-communication of the vampire hunting techniques, allowing the knowledge to cross-pollinate around the globe.
Like the vampires, hunters have worked independently of each other for centuries, in most cases taking a reactive approach to hunting by simply repelling more immediate and localized threats. Now that the vampires’ power base has shifted from Europe to North America, and as the vampire groups evolve from unruly sects to organized armies, so must the hunters move to the source of the upcoming conflicts and become more proactive in their attacks.
Modern hunters must be ready to combat any variety of vampire. This is most true for hunters in Asia, who have lately seen a large influx of European or American Strigoi.
As we continue into the 21st century, the art of war is changing. Technology is affecting the global landscape, and so the hunters must learn to adapt and develop their skills to meet the new demands. Medieval techniques need to be communicated, embraced and brought up to date so that today’s hunters have the potential to overpower the resilient vampires of the Old World.
Vampires have carried out a number of criminal activities to fund their ever-expanding empire and secure their grip on North America. Human trafficking, prostitution, drugs – these activities were conveniently overlooked by law enforcement, with any investigation immediately stalled as a result of random killings or the timely intervention of corrupt cops. But now these movements are being caught on camera.
Technological improvements in communication are not only helping both vampire and hunter factions to amass, they are transforming the once-secret war into a public broadcast. With the explosion of camera phones and social media (not to mention the ever-growing presence of mass media) the vampires’ clandestine operations are now being uncovered for the world to see.
Spurred on by the suggestion that vampires do indeed exist, thrill-seeking, naïve youngsters are taking it upon themselves to hunt down and document vampire activity, and various social media channels and blogs are dedicated to the pursuit of evidence. Despite the number of fatal injuries and killings resulting from these intrusions, delusional youths and documentary filmmakers continue to take to the streets in order to penetrate the underbelly of the vampire underworld and capture the next great vampire selfie.
Authorities in those countries where this documentation is being published are forced by wealthy and powerful pro-vampire supporters to conceal any vampire activity that appears online in an effort to shield their movements. Vampires have surveillance all over the global communications network, pulling down information from the Internet as soon as it goes up. Though they act as quickly as possible, will they be able to keep up with the pace of this fast-moving technological world before the secret is well and truly out? And will the transmission of all this easily accessible information help or hinder the vampire hunting community? It is too soon to tell.
The changing face of the human-vampire war does not simply represent a shift to the technological: as the vampires and the hunters come together in their respective groups to build and train their forces, the hunters are blending the spiritual, psychological and intellectual elements together. Confronted with this ever-changing landscape, the importance of the guide you hold in your hands has never been greater.
We are entering a new age of vampire hunting. As the Old World and the New World unite, the spiritual experience of being a hunter is aligning with the approaches of the modern world. It is imperative that we act now and prepare ourselves for what is to come, for the sake of the human race.
Have you got what it takes?