Vampires

Vampires are some of the most well known monsters across the world, and almost every culture includes a myth of blood sucking undead. The word Vampire is derived from the old english word Vampyre, meaning: "To suck blood violently". The oldest known vampire myth comes from 1008 in the village of Vallaki, people believed that if a dead body did not decompose and the hair and nails still grew, they were a Vampyre. They would blame all deaths on the Vampyre and burn the corpse on a wooden steak. The truth is, the body did not decompose because they kept it in a sealed, cold, casket. The hair and nails appeared to grow, but it was actually caused by the skin shrinking. In d&d, Vampires share many of the same traits, they are intelligent undead that require the blood of their enemies to sustain themselves. They are kept in this state from a dark ritual that requires a sacrifice to the negative energy plane.