Whilst browsing the internet, I have come across a number of myths which could quite easily be explained away in terms of VtM mythos. These are entirely my interpretation of these myths. Perhaps of more interest, I have come across several unexplained incidents that were recorded very much as fact and not as legend which could connect with VtM. Some of these are very recent. I have provided links to sites containing more detail of these events in addition to a VtM explanation of how they occured. Of course, this explanation is consistant with my own interpreation of English VtM, but the incidents described could well be of interest to any Storyteller running a UK game who wants to put an interesting element of 'realism' into their games.
For more information, please visit The Net Vampyic an excellent resource of 'real' vampire cases. The incidents referred to here are The Vampyre of Alnwick Castle, The Vampyre of Berwick and The Vampyre of Melrose Abbey. I've not currently come up with a good explanation of these three, but considering that all of them involved vampires that slept in their graves during the day, it is tempting to attribute these incidents to the actions of arrogant and uncaring Tzimisce overlords, who were powerful in Britain at this time, created childer and then failing to look after them properly.
For more information, go to Pathway to Darkness or The Net Vampyric again.
This is a well known case of vampirism in the northern stretches of England. In essence, a well-to-do family rented a remote country house, and a female member was attacked by a hideous vampiric monster, which was driven off by her brothers. The incident repeated itself a year later, at which time the vampire was shot. The family traced the vampire to a local crypt where a corpse was found with a bullet wound in it's leg. The corpse was dismembered and burned.
This is actually a sad case of Sabbat wickedness resulting in not only the needless end of an unlife but a breach of the Masquerade also. The vampire in question was a Nosferatu antribru who has been created at the end of the industrial wars between the Sabbat and the Camarilla, shortly before the fiends broke and ran to the north. He was subjected to the usual terrifying rite of having to claw his way out of a buried coffin and shortly afterward the rest of his pack were killed by the Camarilla, leaving a very confused vampire in the midst of hostile territory. He fled north and, finding no other fellow kindred to assist him, took to living in the crypt where he was eventually killed. With his lack of experience, it is small wonder that his attacks were so ill-timed and unsuccesful. He must have spent time living off the blood of animals in the intervening months.
For more information see Tom Selemen's site on wierd UK phenomenon.
Spring-Heeled jack terrorised parts of England from 1837 to 1848. In all cases, victims reported seeing a humanoid figure with firey eyes, usually dressed in black with a metal helmet, who laugh hysterically and was able to leap 25-30 feet into the air, apparantly without effort. He seemed to like scaring people and had a fondness for attempting minor sexual assaults on young women. He is also described as having had claw-like hands and ice-cold flesh and was able to breathe some kind of firey phospohrescent material. While the last reported sighting was in 1948, this report proves he is still very much alive and well.
Spring heeled jack is in fact an Independant Malkavian ancient, about whom very little indeed is known. Outraged Camarilla archons sought to catch and punish him during his active days but now that he is rarely seen, interest in him has waned. It is known that he loves the company of humans, and appears to have retained a very human interest in members of the opposite sex, although as a vampire he is no longer capable of the act of physical love. He moves about the UK, masquerading as a human and seeking company as much as possible. Sadly, his instability and love of malicious pranks and young women mean he's rarely welcome in one place for long. During his springheeled phase, Jack was in cahoots with the Marquis of Waterford, a minor English noble who shared Jack's love of pratical jokes. Together, they played a most audacious joke on all of London. After the death of the Marquis, Jacks appetite for his bizarre tricks waned and eventually dried up entirely. No-one knows where Jack came from, who his sire was, why he let the Marquis die rather than embracing him or where he is now. Obviously powerful, Jack remains something of a wild card in UK kindred politics.
For a more detailed account, turn once more to Tom Slemen who posted some more detail about it here
In April of 1922, three people reported into Charing Cross hospital with the same bizarre injuries in a very short space of time. Each claimed they had been passing the same street corner in London in broad daylight when they felt a sharp, stabbing pain in the neck and were later found to have sustained deep and penetrating injuries to that area of the body.
This odd incident is the work of the Tremere elder Dr. John Dee. A major thrust of his eldritch research has been toward helping vampires move about during the hours of daylight without sustaining injury. In the early 20th centuries he was known in the court of London for making many wild boasts about how far advanced this research was, and how powerful it was going to make the Tremere clan as a result. Concerned that it was a bluff to buy the Tremere more power about the court, and even more concerned that it might be true, the primogens of the other clans demanded that Dee show proof of his claim. These attacks were the result. An obfuscated Dee walked out in broad daylight and attacked several passers by in busy London. The elders were horrified at this breach of the masquerade and Dee himself was horribly burned, although it was generally agreed that he must have employed terribly strong magic to survive at all. It took him several years to recover. All the primogens agreed to put the incident behind as a mistake, and indeed Justicars were involved in an investigation. It is known that Dee has greatly decreased the thrust of his research in this area, although many suspect that he is, slowly, trying to perfect his methods.
Yet again, we turn to Tom Selmen for further reading on this one. It's the second story on this page.
The Winsford vampire case involved two girls who were taken to see a doctor with remarkably similar symptoms. Both had bruising around the neck and breasts, and both were lethargic, listless and having night terrors. On further questioning, both revealed that they had a midnight visitor who came to them in the night, whom they described as a tall, handsome man with black hair and olive skin. One of the girls recognised her assailant as Lazlo Ordog, a local art student known for his eccentric habits. The Doctor tracked down and confronted Lazlo, at which point the attacks on the girls stopped and the doctor started having a series of strange attacks.
Lazlo Ordog was an unfortunate Toreador, living in the Wessex fief. His sire, known as a most obtuse and self-seeking vampire very keen on indulging personal whims, had created Lazlo on just such a whim. He had then utterly failed to teach Lazlo the traditions of the Camarilla, instead merely honouring his childe with the occasional visit to discuss artistic flights of fancy. Lazlo was thus highly incautious in his feeding habits and was, naturally, as self indulgent as his sire, believing this was the 'correct' way for a vampire to behave. Eventually, of course, reports of the curiosity reached the Prince via the newspapers. After an investigation by the Archons, Lazlo's sire was made the victim of a blood hunt for his crimes. Lazlo was pardoned, provided he learned the proper strictures of the Camarilla and never again came close to breaking any of them. Thus Lazlo survives in the Wessex fief. In fact, he is more than a little upset about the treatment his beloved sire recieved and might one day gather courage and allies enough to plot revenge.
This is quite a well documented case, and you can find reports about it from Tom Slemen , The Net Vampyric and The Scarlet Moon
The accounts of this case are long and confused, and sometimes disagree with one another, but the body of the story is as follows. In the late 1960's a series of bizarre occurances began in and around highgate cemetary. Locals reported seeing the dead rising from graves, odd booming sounds echoing round the graveyard and a number of bloodless and mutliated animal corpses were found in the area. Finally, a young woman reported suffering suvere anemia accompanied by night terrors of a horrible tall thin man outside her bedroom window. The local media and a couple of self-proclaimed vampire hunters became involved. Over the next few years, hauntings were reported, exorcisms performed and two witnesses claimed to have been attacked by an eight-foot tall horror in the graveyard. More animal corpses were found. Eventually, the hunters claimed to have found and staked the creatures and that it had been destroyed and interest in the case wained. A few years later, the reports started again. The hunters moved in, claiming that this was a new vampire, the spawn of the first creatures in the area. They hunters eventually killed this beast too, which they claimed took the form of a huge spider, and the case ended. I have to say that whatever VtM interpretation of this you might choose to make (mine follows) this whole episode might make the basis of an excellent campaign by itself.
In fact, this entire episode was a highly succsesful attempt by the Sabbat to distract the Camarilla of London while they set up operations in the area. The Tzimisce John Druitt, the notorious Jack the Ripper in life, came back to the London he loved after many years of self-imposed exile in the north. He created the Highgate vampire, used vissicitude to create an 8-foot, wiry thin and monstrous looking creature (the better to scare kine) and buired the poor soul in a crypt in Highgate cemetary. The vampire arose, confused and driven quite mad by his experience and his new horrid form, and proceeded to follow his instincts and attack animals and eventually humans, resulting in the case of the Highgate vampire. The local Camarilla archons went mad trying to solve the case and find and kill the vampire but Druitt, with some assistance, managed to hide the vampire and stay one step ahead of the investigators. Mortals eventually found and killed the vampire, but not before it had created progeny and indeed not before the Camarilla had been distracted enough for Druitt to move a small cell of Sabbat into London, where they remain to this day, harassing the Camarilla undercover. Even today, archons remember this notorious case and would probably pick up the trail again if fresh clues or evidence came to light.
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