This is fascinating. It sounds different from other vampire origin stories, and yet still fairly plausible, which is cool.
I like the implication that the doctor knew what was happening and why. At that time, Egyptian medicine really was a mix of practical and mystical aspects, they did a lot of death-related things ... and they had far more sophisticated science than most people realize these days, except for folks who read history/science magazines. So the change might have been a genetic quirk, or a result of something the doctor did, or a combination of both.
Later on, vampirism would have spread from Egypt to ... hmm, Africa and Arabia, then through the Middle East to the Mediterranean and up into Europe, eastward into Asia, along the trade routes. Egypt was enough of a cultural center at the time to be quite well connected. If we assume a monogenetic origin, then vampirism would only have reached the Americas and Australia with European explorers.
The cultural manifestation of vampires probably varied as it traveled through different places, and it's also possible that the lines may have developed different features. That's especially likely if the four progenitors went to different continents, instead of staying together and allowing only their progeny to spread out.
Particularly intriguing is that vampirism is conspicuous in the folklore of Mediterranean and east-central Europe: the parts of that continent that would have been affected first in this scenario. It didn't become such a widespread concept in western and northern Europe until it became kind of a pop-culture thing later on, when people started looking into other cultures' folklore.
Ah, and now the auctions make all the more sense! The first vampires were slaves. They came from a culture with institutionalized slavery, a belief in might-makes-right, and a reverence for immortality. Plus which they were pharaoh-kin and the pharaohs claimed divine ancestry. So it stands to reason that once they realized what was going on, they would make that jump to considering themselves "better" than human ... and entitled to claim human property.
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timeasmymeasure
Wow!
Date: 2012-02-05 07:31 pm (UTC)I like the implication that the doctor knew what was happening and why. At that time, Egyptian medicine really was a mix of practical and mystical aspects, they did a lot of death-related things ... and they had far more sophisticated science than most people realize these days, except for folks who read history/science magazines. So the change might have been a genetic quirk, or a result of something the doctor did, or a combination of both.
Later on, vampirism would have spread from Egypt to ... hmm, Africa and Arabia, then through the Middle East to the Mediterranean and up into Europe, eastward into Asia, along the trade routes. Egypt was enough of a cultural center at the time to be quite well connected. If we assume a monogenetic origin, then vampirism would only have reached the Americas and Australia with European explorers.
The cultural manifestation of vampires probably varied as it traveled through different places, and it's also possible that the lines may have developed different features. That's especially likely if the four progenitors went to different continents, instead of staying together and allowing only their progeny to spread out.
Particularly intriguing is that vampirism is conspicuous in the folklore of Mediterranean and east-central Europe: the parts of that continent that would have been affected first in this scenario. It didn't become such a widespread concept in western and northern Europe until it became kind of a pop-culture thing later on, when people started looking into other cultures' folklore.
Ah, and now the auctions make all the more sense! The first vampires were slaves. They came from a culture with institutionalized slavery, a belief in might-makes-right, and a reverence for immortality. Plus which they were pharaoh-kin and the pharaohs claimed divine ancestry. So it stands to reason that once they realized what was going on, they would make that jump to considering themselves "better" than human ... and entitled to claim human property.