Creature Feature

Bite like an Egyptian

Sorry about the title. I'm a fan of all things 80's and couldn't help play- in the lamest of fashions- on The Bangles.

The Crypt and the Belfry have been listening and taking notes and we will address your night crawlers as they show up. lumierutsuki requested Egyptian Vampires, and here is what we have for you.

We are all story tellers at some degree and fans at another. My question is: Have you ever heard a story so convincing, a yarn so delicately spun that you almost believed it to be true?

That was my case when I started "digging" on Egyptian Vampires. I was ready to uncover ancient tales of Isis and Osiris. I was to read about how the lords of the underworld slowly but surely, holding the key to life eternal in the shape of an ankh satiated their thirst with human blood.

Do you know what I found? Well, that Anne Rice did her research and did it well. While doing so, injecting her discoveries with a brilliant amount of imagination, the New Orleans born author gave us a myth that many have taken to be truth carved in stone. Reality though, deals a different hand.

Yes, ancient Egyptians might have been considered the original "Goths", obsessed with a certain allure in death. You bet they made beautiful corpses, as they embalmed their dead with a mix of precise science and faith in the afterlife. However that journey, as long as it might take, was a one way ticket. Egyptian mythology has no outstanding record of "revenants", creatures that return from the grave, which is after all, at the heart of all vampire myth.

It seems that Osiris did such as awesome job as King of the underworld that the dead stayed put and the living thought of him, not only as the "lord of silence" but "giver of life". Yes, one of his many trades was to serve the rounds of seasons. Nothing mysterious of bloody about that cycle of birth and rebirth.

But... don't fret, lovers of golden cities in the sand! We have a glimmer of hope for you!

Have you heard about the "Ka"?

The Ka was basically a spiritual body double, part of the soul. In fact, one of the reasons why ancient Egyptians went through so much dedication in their funeral rites was to guarantee that the "Ka" might have a home. You see, the "Ka" drifted about in sunshine and returned to its home inside a mummified body at night. The "Ka" needed to sustain itself, therefore that is the reason why there was a whole supermarket isle buried along with the dead. I'm talking bread, beer, fowl, oxen and all other necessities.

And now I wonder... what if the Ka decided not to go back? What if it fell too much in love with sun and sand? Or missed the night? What if those short trips didn't suffice and maybe... just maybe that piece of the soul figures a way to raise that wrapped up body from eternal slumber. Would it walk in the sun? Or perhaps go out at night when the rest of the nice, obedient Kas were sound asleep inside their mummies. If they run out of food... what could they eat or drink to sustain themselves? Those are my questions to ponder and your stories to write...

Until next time. See you in Rome. Another friend of the page wants to try our luck in the Eternal City.