This is the story of Vlad Dracul, Defender of Christian Europe: The year was 1462, and Christendom teetered on the edge of destruction. The Ottoman Empire, swept across the land like a storm of shadow & fire. A single name stood in defiance against the crescent moon: Vlad Dracula: The Dragon’s Wrath Against the Crescent Born of warriors, Vlad was the son of Vlad Dracul, a knight of the Order of the Dragon, sworn to defend Christendom against the encroaching Islamic forces. The Order was forged by the Holy Roman Emperor to guard the Christian lands against heathen invasions. As his father bore the name "Dracul" (the Dragon), so too did Vlad inherit the mantle, becoming Dracula, the Son of the Dragon, a name that would be written into the pages of history with both fear and reverence. But fate is cruel to those it chooses for greatness. As a boy, Dracula was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court, where he was in the service of the Sultan, forced to witness the power of the enemy he would one day fight. He learned their language, their ways, but most importantly he learned their weaknesses. He watched his younger brother, Radu, fall under their influence, betraying their blood for Turkish luxuries. But Vlad was loyal to his homeland. When the time came, he returned to his homeland Wallachia. It had become a battleground, a land trampled beneath the boots of foreign invaders and traitorous boyars. But Vlad had no patience for cowards or liars. He seized his father’s throne and avenged his family, He rallied his people around him. Then after his uprising the Sultan of the Ottomans, Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, cast his gaze upon Wallachia, demanding submission. Vlad answered with war. When the Sultan’s envoys arrived, demanding tribute and fealty, Vlad did not bow. Instead, he nailed their turbans to their skulls and sent them back to their master. The Turkish legions, tens of thousands strong, marched into Wallachia, expecting another swift conquest. They did not expect the wrath of Dracula. He struck with savage cunning, ambushing columns, poisoning wells, scorching fields. But it was the horror of Târgoviște that shattered the enemy’s resolve. When the Sultan’s vast army arrived at Vlad’s capital, they were met with a vision from hell. 20,000 Turkish corpses impaled upon great wooden stakes, stretching like a forest of death. The stench of rotting flesh choked the air, and fear gripped the Ottoman ranks. Mehmed, who had stormed the walls of Constantinople, turned back, unwilling to face the man who was responsible for this. Vlad Dracula’s war against the Ottomans was more than bloodshed; it was defiance, a stand against an empire that sought to erase his people’s faith and freedom. Though his rule was brief and his enemies many. Although in the end, Vlad the Impaler was killed in battle in late 1476 fighting Ottoman and rival Wallachian forces near Snagov, Romania. While details are contested, historical accounts suggest he was ambushed and accidentally struck down by his own men in the fog of war, or assassinated by a disguised Turkish agent. Nevertheless he became a legend, a specter of vengeance whose name would echo across the centuries. And in the end he helped assure Wallachia would remain Christian.
