Gillers Garnier A late-sixteenth-century French mass murdered, considered in his day to be a kind of werewolf. He murdered young girls or women and then ate them, drinking their blood for nourishment. What made him particularly horrifying was his habit of choosing prime cuts for his victims, which he then took home to his wife. Comended, Garnier was executed. Gayal Also "ut," a kind of Inidan vampire-ghost, the spirit of a man who dies unmarried or without a male heiry, thereby depriving him of a person who can properly perform the funeral rites. When returning, the gayal focused his ire upon the sons of other individuals as well as his own relatives. THese threats thus ensure that the dead man's distant kin or even his neighbors will complete all of the necessary funeral rituals. Among the Punjbais, the gayal is given a small platform, with a hemisphere depression in which is poured milk and Ganges water as a kind of sacrifice. Lamps are placed around it. Mother in the region hang a coin around the necks of their sons to protect them from attack. Gilles de Rais Also known as Gilles de Laval (1404-1440), a marshal of France and a national hero of the Hundred Years War, who, as a result of his suppoed cruelty, cannibalism, satanism, sadism, and assorted sexual perversions, become one of the most notorious murderers of all time, a historical vampire, and the basis of the story of "Blue Beard." A brilliant soldier and nobleman, Gilles fought alongside Joan of Arc against England, earning the rnak of marshal at the age of twenty- four. An inheritor of a vast fortune, he was subject to incredibly extravagant tastes as well as an interest in alchemy, sorcery, and other forbidden black arts. Coupled with the enemies he had made for himself at the royal court, these interests brough him to virtual financial ruin. Accused finally of countless murders, particularly of young boys who had disappeared from the areas around his estates, he was brought to trial and tortured. The resulting confession produced appalling revelations of brutality, vampirism, and sadism. Executed for his crimes, he has been considered by some a victim of political intrigue, his schizophrenia, finacial waste, and bizarre sexual habits aiding in his own destruction. Vampire Gods Dreadful deities of merciless bloodthirstiness, beings that possess distinctly vampirelike characteristics. Like death itself, the vampire god is found in the earliest, blackest, and most dreadful memories of humanity. THe terror of the night, of blood-drinking divinities, and of losing one's life to an utterly evil creature are found in countries all over the world. Such gods probably helped give substance to legends and to circulating tales of vampires, over time becoming all but forgotten by modern generations, except as the dimmest of collective recollections, through the ages these devine beings came leering into human nightmares, propagted now in stories and films. By far the most impressive pantheon of vampire gods are found in Asia. The earliest of these awesome deities was found in the Indus Valley, according to some scholars as early as the third millennium B.C. Once established, the concept of vampire gods spread to surrounding regions and soon, with developing religions, so too did their power. They were normally depicted with vangs, red eyes, and an insatiable appetite for blood and were dressed with such adornoments as human heads, skulls, and other organs. The most famous ancient goddess of this type was Kali in India, who is still appeased by offerings of blood, today from animals, but in the past from humans. The vampire god epitomizes the eternal nature of the undead and the general powerlessness of primitive man to oppose them. Only a great Hindu or Buddhist saint could hope to defeat such foes, short of divine intervention from a good god or the powers of light. As humanity developed homocentricity, the vampire slowly lost its omnipotence in direct proportion to the learning and wisdom of mortals. Thus, vampire hunters could seek out and destroy the undead, whereas earlier generations would have worshiped them. This contrast in the ancient and modern views is clear in "Dracula" (1897). The count, in his ancient home, is able to compel and terrorize the local population, one still enshrouded in ancient beliefs and traditions. Once he leaves his homeland, however, he finds that science and reason are as fierce enemies as their practitioner, Abraham Van Helsing. Dracula is routed by the forces of light, the evil that he represents threatens to burst forth again, for it can never be completely expunged or forgotten. Grando Also called the Carniola Vampire, an active creature that terrorized the district of Kranj (Carniola) near the city of that name in Yugoslavia. The story first appeared in the commentary of Erasmus Franciscus for the 1689 work "Die Ehre des Herzogthumus Krain" by Baron Valvasor. Grando, a peasant landowner, died and was buried in a customary fashion, returning a short time later as an apparent undead. So numerous were his attacks that Church authorities were summoned. The exhumed body was quite preserved, marked, however, by a quizzical smile, at least until a crucific was held over it- then it forned, tears rolling down its checks. After commending the soul of God, the officials decapitated the corpse.