[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vlad_iii_1123.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:315:The man, the legend. Showing off his ManlyFacialHair and [[CoolCrown Crown]]. Best not to ask him what's for barbecue.]]

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler Vlad III Drăculea]] (1428–1476) was a medieval ruler of Wallachia (a region of what is now Romania) who is best remembered today for his bloody deeds and for lending his {{UsefulNotes/patronymic}} name to the archetypal vampire {{Dracula}}. Though he wasn't known for biting people's necks or drinking their blood ([[DependingOnTheWriter maybe]]), he was nevertheless well-known for spilling it. A man of extremes in turbulent times, he has been regarded either as a [[WellIntentionedExtremist brutal but fair]] hero, or a completely crazy sociopath. As Voivode (warlord) of Wallachia, he earned the nickname "Vlad the Impaler", or Vlad Țepeș in Romanian, from his practice of [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impalement,]] which was, and still is, one of the most gruesome ways of dying imaginable.

Vlad was born in Sighișoara, Transylvania in the winter of 1428 to a noble family, in a time when the Christian states of Eastern Europe, which included Hungary, Translyvania, Wallachia, Moldavia and others, contended for power with each other and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. His father was Vlad II Dracul, future Voivode of Wallachia and son of the celebrated Voivode Mircea the Elder. His mother is believed to be the second wife of Vlad Dracul, Princess Eupraxia of Moldavia. He had two older half-brothers, Mircea II and Vlad IV Călugărul (Vlad the Monk), and a younger brother, Radu III the Fair. His family lived in Transylvania, but was of Wallachian descent. In later life he would divide his time between the two regions, both now part of modern Romania.

In the year of his birth Vlad's father and namesake had traveled to Nuremberg, Germany where he had been vested into the Order of the Dragon, a [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Crusader-style]] knightly organization sworn to fight the Ottoman Turks. At the age of five, young Vlad was also initiated into the Order. Thus his father became known as Vlad ''Dracul'', "The Dragon", and in turn he was Vlad ''Dracula'', "Son of Dracul" or "Son of the Dragon" (more loosely "Dracul Junior").

In 1436, Vlad Dracul became Voivoide of Wallachia as Vlad II (some say co-ruling with his son Mircea II). He was ousted in 1442 by rival factions in league with Hungary. But he secured Ottoman support for his return, agreeing to pay the Jizya (tax on non-Muslims) to the Sultan and also send his two legitimate sons, Vlad and Radu, to the Ottoman court, to serve as hostages of his royalty.

While Radu became a court favorite and eventually converted to Islam, Vlad was imprisoned and often whipped and beaten because of his verbal abuse towards his trainers and his stubborn behavior. These years presumably had a great influence on Vlad's character and led to Vlad's well-known hatred for the Ottoman Turks, the [[PraetorianGuard Janissaries]], his brother Radu, and the young Ottoman prince Mehmet II (even after he became sultan). He was also envious of his father's preference for his elder half-brothers, Mircea II and Vlad Călugărul. He also distrusted the Hungarians and his own father for trading him to the Turks and betraying the Order of the Dragon's oath to fight the Ottoman Empire. Vlad was later released under probation and taken to be educated in logic, the Quran and the Turkish and Persian languages and works of literature. He would speak these languages fluently in his later years. He and his brother were also trained in warfare and riding horses.

With Ottoman support, the boys' father Vlad II Dracul took back his throne, but over the years he tried to play both sides. Eventually he and Mircea II were murdered in 1447 by rival factions in league with Hungary (again). The young Vlad was released in 1448 and became Vlad III, Voivode of Wallachia for the first time, ostensibly also with Ottoman backing. But after just a few months he stepped down and went to Moldavia and then Hungary, where he allied himself with the dominant warlord John Hunyadi. With Hunyadi's support, he claimed the throne of Wallachia again in 1456. It was his second reign where he made his name as both a warrior against the Ottomans and as a bloodthirsty ruler. He fought their incursions into his lands and even took the fight to their own territories beyond the Danube River. He continued to be an ally of Hungary, now led by Hunyadi's son King UsefulNotes/MatthiasCorvinus, but also sought to keep his lands independent.

Impalement was Vlad's preferred method of torture and execution. He impaled many of his own country's nobility (the boyar class) because he felt that they had destabilized Wallachia. He also impaled thousands of Turkish soldiers as psychological warfare, all in the name of protecting the Christian kingdoms from the Ottomans. Several of the woodcuts from the German pamphlets of the late 15th and early 16th centuries show Vlad feasting in a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brașov, while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims. It was reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back in fright when it encountered a forest of impaled corpses along the Danube River. It has also been said that in 1462 Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man noted for his own psychological warfare tactics, returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside Vlad's capital of Târgoviște.

But it was also in 1462 that his second reign ended, when an Ottoman army led by his own brother Radu and supported by rebellious boyars captured his castle. He escaped to Hungary but Matthias Corvinus had him imprisoned for political reasons.

The reputation of Vlad's cruelty was actively promoted by Matthias Corvinus, who tarnished Vlad’s reputation and credibility for a political reason: as an explanation for why he had not helped Vlad fight the Ottomans in 1462, for which purpose he had received money from most Catholic states in Europe. Matthias employed the charges of Southeastern Transylvania, and produced fake letters implicating him in high treason, written on 7 November 1462, which were used to justify his imprisonment.

However, eventually he worked his way back into the king's good graces, even taking the king's sister as his second wife. In 1474 he was released, and went to live in Transylvania. Meanwhile his brother Radu, who the Ottomans had put in his place, had died. In 1476, he returned to Wallachia and became Voivode again for the third and last time.

Vlad was killed shortly into his third reign. There's debate over if Vlad was assassinated or died in battle, but his corpse was decapitated and his head impaled by the Ottomans at Constantinople as a trophy, and his body was buried unceremoniously, possibly at Comana, a monastery founded by Vlad in 1461. The Comana monastery was demolished and rebuilt from scratch in 1589. In 1515, 35 years after his death, Wallachia finally was completely defeated by the Ottomans and became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

After Vlad's death, his cruel deeds were reported with macabre gusto in popular pamphlets in Germany, reprinted from the 1480s until the 1560s, and to a lesser extent in Tsarist Russia. These works estimated for the number of his victims ranges from 40,000 to 100,000, comparable to the cumulative number of executions over four centuries of European witch hunts. According to the German stories the number of victims he had killed was at least 80,000. In addition to the 80,000 victims mentioned he also had whole villages and fortresses destroyed and burned to the ground. These numbers are most likely exaggerated, but it can be still inferred he must have had a quite high body count for them to be considered believable at his time.

Surprisingly, while German, Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish literature and folklore all portray Dracula as a monster, he's considered a hero in Romania for his opposition to both Hungarian and Ottoman conquest, being voted among the 100 Greatest Romanians as recently as 2006 (compare UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte or UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington). This tradition of valorizing Vlad the Impaler dates to the era of romantic nationalism, when Romanian intellectuals, artists, historians, re-interpreted their past to find heroes of nationalism -- Vlad the Impaler fit the tenor and purpose of their times. Before then, interestingly, there's little to no record of Vlad the Impaler being especially popular and well liked by the people of Wallachia and Romania. The earliest Romanian chronicle about Vlad the Impaler discussed his persecution of the Romanian boyars. Romanian folklorists documented the existence of an ongoing Romanian oral tradition among the peasantry which consistently featured Vlad III as an evil feudal lord and boogeyman figure, and the existence and persistence of this tradition from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century suggests that the Voivode's cruelty and misdeeds might have been truly extensive for the peasantry to maintain such an ongoing tradition and that it's not merely the case that his enemies demonized him exclusively. The ameliorative tradition of the Impaler originated among the Romanian intelligentsia, and as such comes from top-down rather than from the people. Most notably, during the Communist Era, where the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime elevated Dracula as a national hero using the earlier romantic tradition, and the precedent of a tradition justifying a ruler who indulged in cruelties for the greater good (as romantic nationalists defended Vlad III) was quite useful to Ceaușescu in a manner not dissimilar to UsefulNotes/JosefStalin and his fondness for Ivan the Terrible.

He tends to get a HistoricalVillainUpgrade even in works that do '''not''' identify him with Stoker's Dracula or otherwise depict him as a vampire. Except in Romanian literature, where he ''always'' gets a HistoricalHeroUpgrade, from poetry to historical novels.

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!!Tropes as portrayed in fiction:

* AllCrimesAreEqual: For him, every crime equals death sentence, and he subjects all criminals to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impalement]], no matter how minor the crime is.
* AntiHero: About as far as a negative portrayal you're likely to see of him in Romania. ''Maybe'' with some AntiVillain moments thrown in, but definitely nothing vampire-related.
* AxCrazy: Allegedly, not only did he kill babies, and forced the parents to eat the corpse, but he dunked his bread in the blood of his enemies. In fairness the latter really hasn't been confirmed and is thought to be more rumors than real. Both of these were in fact referenced on ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'' (and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] as a bit ''too'' out there)
* BigFancyCastle: There are a few real-life fortresses that you could call "Castle Dracula":
** Poenari Citadel (Cetatea Poenari in Romanian) is the most authentic one, whose founding story fits nicely with Vlad's gruesome reputation. A legend states that he forced [[YouKilledMyFather his father's and brother's assassins]] [[WouldHurtAChild (along with their wives and children)]] to climb 1,000 feet up a hill (with stones carried from the ruins of an older castle below) to expand his ancestral fortress. Most died in the ordeal; [[LeaveNoSurvivors those who survived were impaled.]]
*** As far as castles go, Poenari is actually neither 'big' nor 'fancy'; like most fortresses, it relied on the effectiveness of its location and the thickness of the walls for protection more than a lavish, spacious interior (as is often depicted in fantasy castles). For what it's worth, HauntedCastle seems to be a more fitting designation for it (then again, what medieval fortress would ''not'' be 'haunted'?)
** Targoviste Palace was actually his main headquarters and residence. Although he was not its founder, he added to it the tall [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Chindia Tower from where it's said he enjoyed watching prisoners impaled in the courtyard]].
** Castle Bran was named by Romanian authorities 'Dracula's castle' likely to draw in foreign tourists who thought it was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's fictional 'Castle Dracula' in the Borgo Pass (due to its deeply gothic and 'romantic' appearance - the result of a 19th century renovation by its owner, Queen Marie), although there is little evidence that Stoker was inspired by it or that Vlad actually visited the castle himself.
*** It's still possible that Stoker did know of it, as it appears and is described in detail by one of his research books. Additionally, Vlad did travel to its town, Brasov, so he may have visited it at some point.
*** If Vlad spent any decent amount of time in Brasov, then it would be next to impossible for him NOT to have at least seen it.
* BloodKnight: Even the fairly accurate historical depictions tend to make the man ''very'' bloodthirsty.
* ChurchMilitant: While Vlad was unquestionably Christian and a defender of his faith, there is debate on whether he was Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. Being Romanian, he was born an Orthodox and remained one while his brother converted to Islam. However, some Slavic records claim that he converted to Catholicism under pressure by Matthias Corvinus while in Hungarian captivity, with his Orthodox contemporaries attributing his defeat and death to "apostasy". Modern-day Romanians believe he remained Orthodox all his life and contest the veracity of these claims, considering they were written to vilify him. Either way, he received the blessing from both churches, and it's known he had contact with the Pope.
* DeathGlare: Well, we can't actually offer proof, but it seems like a pretty safe bet, judging from the reactions of his contemporaries. Most depictions of him tend to make his also into a KubrickStare. SlasherSmile is optional but often added.
* TheDreaded: The Ottomans and the Austrians alike quivered in their boots whenever this man was so much as ''mentioned'', tales of dread spread across Europe of his brutality and ruthlessness (though like [[UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun several]] [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart other]] [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan historical]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}} figures]] it could have been purposeful propaganda to discourage invaders from entering his territory). With that being said, the Romanian people may hail him as a hero ''today'', it's quite doubtful they would have back in 15th Century Wallachia. He was easily one of the most feared and loathed rulers of that period and is infamous even to this day, more than five hundred years after his death. How feared was he? One story tells of a time when Vlad III brought an exquisite golden chalice - said to be of the finest quality and embroidered with all manner of precious stones - into the poorest region of his empire and put it in the town square, by a well or fountain. He claimed the people were allowed to use it freely as long as it never left the town square ([[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumour the man was a lot of things but humourless was not one of them]]). It remained in that '''exact spot for twelve years''', with not a ''single'' person even daring to touch it (again in the ''poorest region'' of Wallachia). While this story may or may not have happened at all, the fact that most people are willing to accept it as fact should tell you something.
** There’s also the story of his encounter with Mehmed II. The Ottoman sultan Mehmed II was set to invade Vlad’s territory, but to do so, he and his men had to pass through a forest. Vlad was aware of this, and so he impaled numerous victims on trees throughout the forest as a warning. When Mehmed II and his men arrived, they took one look at the forest of corpses, and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere immediately turned around and fled.]]
* ExactWords:
** A story goes that he invited every beggar in Wallachia to a feast in a great hall. While they were happily eating and drinking, he offered to take care of all their problems. When they said yes, he left and had the building set on fire with them locked inside. And so, he could rightly say, "there are no beggars in my realm".
** Another story goes that some diplomats refused to take off their caps or turbans in his presence because it was their custom to keep their heads covered. Vlad offered to help them with that, and ordered their headgear to be nailed to their heads. The story changes tone depending on the headgear - if caps, Vlad is committing atrocities against fellow Christians; if turbans, Vlad is sticking it to the Turks.
* FolkHero: In Romania as well as other parts of Europe for his protection of the Romanian population both south and north of the Danube.
* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: Though with him it's kind of difficult. Vlad is quite possibly ''the'' most badass of ''all'' Romanian rulers, both before and after him. And he has some serious competition, too.
** It's pretty much agreed that he had to be tough given that Wallachia was a fairly small principality surrounded by more powerful enemies such as the Ottomans and the Austrians (who also hated each other) and his father had been assassinated. Vlad was no shrinking violet because he couldn't afford to be.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade '''and''' HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He's got it as bad as UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart. He has been depicted as everything from a just, if harsh, leader of his people to a bloodthirsty brute deliberately slaughtering innocents. The truth presumably lies somewhere in between. In Romania, people would rather not mention him at all rather than say something truly bad about him. Mostly because, when it's all said and done, the ''one'' character trait (beside his almost suicidal bravery) that ''everyone'' seems to agree on is his incorruptibility. Which tends to make him stand out quite a bit against ''other'' rulers, both modern and ancient.
* IAmAHumanitarian: Some historical records claim that he had the blood of those impaled collected and soaked his bread with it, hence his connection to vampires. However, this could and most likely is simply historical revisionism and propaganda by the Ottomans after his defeat.
* InconsistentSpelling: He usually signed Romanian documents just as ''Vlad'', but sometimes he signed as ''Drakulya''. In Latin documents he rendered his name as ''Wladislaus Dragwlya'', though his birth name was just "Vlad" instead of "Vladislav" - the names were equated in Latin but not in Romanian. Other variations of "Dracula" include ''Draculea'' and ''Dragolea''. All of this has mostly stopped now, as if he's being fully named he's just referred to as ''Vlad III Dracula'', ''Vlad III'', or ''Vlad the Impaler'' (or ''Vlad Țepeș'' in Romanian).
* KarmicDeath: He was stabbed to death (i.e impaled) by some Ottoman soldiers, or supposedly by his own men while disguised as an Ottoman soldier. His head was also reportedly [[DeadGuyOnDisplay impaled on a spike after his death.]]
* KnightTemplar: He had zero tolerance to criminals, enemies and nobles who would otherwise destabilize Wallachia and the Christian kingdoms. To a degree, he made attempts to purge them at all cost.
* {{Sadist}}: A historically sound assessment of his character. While many of the stories surrounding him are debatable in their authenticity, this is the same man who routinely [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled peasants for the smallest of crimes]] at the drop of a hat and seemed to invent new ways to torture and kill his enemies (or [[DisproportionateRetribution people who pissed him off... or people who didn't]]) at every opportunity. In fact, most historians agree that for as barbaric the period he grew up in was, he ''still'' managed to stand out for his cruelty and bloodthirst, which is REALLY saying something. Or to put it in another way: Many of the stories about him are almost certainly untrue, but the ones that ARE historically verifiable are more than enough by themselves to put him in tyrant territory.
* ShroudedInMyth: Even more so now than he was. Just how many of the "[[NightmareFuel stories]]" about him are true? Those who despise him tend to believe most of them whereas those who view him as a hero (especially in Romania) tend to discount ''all'' the stories as "propaganda" (even though they [[HypocriticalHumor tend to be willing to believe the more positive myths surrounding him]]).
* TheSociopath: A pretty common assessment of him by modern depictions and/or psychological experts.
* TerrorHero: Hero, probably not. Terrifying? Definitely.
* UrbanLegends: There are so many on Vlad it can get a bit crazy. Most being whether he really was a vampire, where he's buried, and if he will rise from the grave if his remains are disturbed.
* ValuesDissonance: While some of his methods were common for the day (such as razing villages, killing innocents during war, etc.) many alive even in his own time considered him terrifying and violent. Granted, those same people tended to be on the wrong end of his sword. This often veers into DeliberateValuesDissonance in modern depictions.

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!!Appears in the following works (most of the Dracula characters tend to also be him, as such this will ''only'' list depictions that are actually supposed to be Vlad III, or explicitly based off of him):

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/SeraphOfTheEnd'' implies that Krul is descended from Vlad. Even her backstory has similarities to his
* Alucard from ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' is Count Dracula and Vlad III. In the manga backstory, he was portrayed as a KnightTemplar, fiercely loyal to God, but was disappointed when He did not descend after all his fighting. Feeling forsaken and knowing he lost it all, he became a vampire by sheer willpower, after sucking the blood of the battlefield before he was executed by the Ottoman Empire. Centuries later, he came to England to seek the woman he desired, Mina Harker, and was defeated by Abraham van Helsing and his group. After this second defeat, he became the [[HunterOfHisOwnKind faithful servant]] of Abraham's descendants for generations.
** In the [[Anime/{{Hellsing}} Gonzo anime]], this connection was merely implied with hints in episode 9 and 13, but supplemental material in the Japanese booklets confirm this. Although, his backstory might be different because his characterization was modified. From steadfast BodyguardCrush-like loyalty on Integra (and a BerserkButton on people betraying her or insulting her) with a deep respect for humanity like in the manga, he becomes more of a rebellious PsychoSupporter with his own agenda who keeps testing her (but he's still angry when she's seriously injured) and without regard for humanity as whole, exhibiting arrogance and superiority for being a vampire. The OVA is more accurate to the manga.
** And both versions have him indulge in his old pastime of impaling. Skewering a bunch of corrupt police on flagpoles in the manga and OVA, and impaling the BigBad of the Gonzo anime on a spike of solid silver.
** Alucard's "Release State Level: 0" shows him as he was when he was Vlad III. [[ShownTheirWork It's actually one of the most accurate depictions of Vlad III's appearance in Japanese media, especially to the image above]]. The major differences are his hair being much, much longer and more [[WildHair unkempt]], his mustache is much less poofy, him having [[PermaStubble the stubble of a beard]] (Vlad III was noted for being clean-shaven ''aside'' from the mustache), being ''very'' tall (Vlad III was mentioned as being short and stocky), and [[RedEyesTakeWarning Reddish-Orange Eyes]][[note]]though the last one is because of the whole Vampire thing, as he was shown having the striking green eyes Vlad was noted for before he became a vampire in-series[[/note]].
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'' has Boris Tepes Dracula, a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, the original Dracula. Not actually a vampire, but his family has used shamanic powers granted by [[BigBad Hao]] to take revenge on humanity, who treated them like vampires since the time of Vlad.
* Vlad Tepes is the main antagonist of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}: the Prototype'', Creator/KentaroMiura's first draft his manga. He's portrayed as a demonic FatBastard who impales people and have them put on displays on the roads. He also regularly abducts little girls and worships the GodOfEvil Vana.
* The manga series ''[[Manga/VladDraculea Vlad Drăculea]]'' by Akiyo Ohkubo depicts Vlad III's life as he goes from the [[PuppetKing puppet monarch]] of Wallachia to the feared defender of the land against the Ottoman Empire. This manga stands out for its subdued style, including an aversion of BigAnimeEyes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/BrothersDracul'' by Aftershock Comics revolves around teenage Vlad and his brother Radu while they were Ottoman prisoners and being taught how to hunt vampires.
* ''ComicBook/DraculaMarvelComics'': ''Comicbook/DraculaLives'', a SpinOff from Creator/MarvelComics' ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'', tells its own story of how Vlad Dracula became the Lord of Vampires alongside with other tales of villainy and bloodsucking.
* In the indie comicbook ''ComicBook/DraculaVsKingArthur'', Lucifer, wanting to one-up God, sends vampirized Dracula back in time to battle King Arthur in order to destroy his kingdom.
* ''Impaler'' by Creator/ImageComics portrays Vlad as a hero fighting against a vampire infestation in America. In this setting, he used magic to become an immortal vampire slayer to combat demons released by the Ottoman Empire in a desperate attempt to take over Europe, and he lived for centuries protecting mankind from these monsters.
* ''ComicBook/PathfinderWorldscape'' features Vlad the Impaler as BigBad of the anthology story ''King of the Goblins''. Here, he is depicted depicted as fully human instead of a vampire, and was transported to the titular magical realm (which also takes beings from all over TheMultiverse resulting in a FantasyKitchenSink). He [[EvilOverlord rules over New Wallachia]], his kingdom in the Worldscape and hopes to return to Earth, but gets pitted against the [[TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} half-elven anti-hero Seltyiel]].
* In ''Realm of the Damned'', Vlad the Impaler is briefly shown in the backstory of the main villain Balaur as one of his previous benefactors. It's also implied he may have been Balaur's vampire sire.
* ''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight'' (or ''Requiem Chevalier Vampire'' in the original French) has a Dracula who's the ruler of the highest social class, the Vampires, on the world of Resurrection. Interestingly, they make lots of references to the man Dracula was based off and in this universe used to be; Dracula has something of an obsession with impaling and decorates his ship the 'Satanik' with stakes covered with the bodies of those who've suffered the punishment, and an impaling gun has the sound effect of 'Tepes!' whenever it's fired. He also has the mask of the HighPriest of the Archaeologists ''nailed to his face'', because the priest hadn't removed it as a sign of respect for the vampire king (and also because Dracula really doesn't like the Archaeologists): this pretty much echoes what Vlad allegedly did to a Turkish messenger who refused to remove his turban. He even looks like the original Vlad, down to the ManlyFacialHair.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'': Vlad Tepes was also a [[HumanoidAbomination Hellspawn]] as depicted in his miniseries ''Spawn the Impaler''.
* Creator/DCComics ''ComicBook/VictorianUndead'': In which Sherlock Holmes is transplanted in the middle of the famous novel and helps the novel's protagonists hunt for Dracula.
* Creator/MarvelComics:
** Much like in ''Hellsing'' and ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', the Marvel version of Count Dracula is presented as being the actual historical figure he's based on, having died and returned as a vampire.
** While Vlad himself doesn't appear as Count Dracula in ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', he's subjected to RelatedInTheAdaptation on two different fronts as ComicBook/{{Morbius}} is reimagined as Vlad's brother and ComicBook/DoctorDoom is one of Vlad's descendants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'', Vlad was one of the [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy past incarnations of the Ben Shui Chosen One reincarnation cycle]], and thus his spirit lives on in their shared MentalWorld. He gets a bit disgruntled when the current Chosen One [[spoiler: (Jade Chan)]] mistakes him for his literary counterpart, being particularly annoyed at being called a "count" when his title was "prince".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/VladTepes'', produced in Romania in 1979. It can be found on Website/YouTube with English subtitles.
* ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' has a prologue about Vlad Dracula fighting the Turks, his wife's suicide, and Vlad becoming a vampire because of it. His deeds of mass impalement aren't shown, but as a nod he hoists an enemy soldier up in the air with his spear. The film also [[AdaptationExpansion introduces]] a key plot element of ReincarnationRomance between Dracula and Mina Harker, who becomes Vlad's wife in a past life.
* Dracula appears as the main villain in the 2004 film ''Film/VanHelsing'', as part of a MonsterMash with FrankensteinsMonster, [[WolfMan The Werewolf]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] [[TheIgor Igor]]. He gives his full name as "Vladislaus Dracula", and a famous portrait of the real Vlad (the page image) is recreated with the actor Richard Roxburgh's face.
** ''Film/VanHelsing'' was originally planned as a direct prequel to ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' (with Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Van Helsing) to set up the doctor's history with the vampire, but it never panned out.
* ''Film/DarkPrinceTheTrueStoryOfDracula'', a 2000 television movie about Vlad's life. While liberties are taken, it's a straight historical story [[MagicRealism until the end]] [[spoiler:where he dies excommunicated and rises from the grave, implied to have become a vampire]].
* ''Film/DraculaUntold'', a 2014 fantasy movie about Vlad becoming a vampire to fight the Turks.
* In ''Film/HeNeverDied'', it's revealed that, as well as being the basic for the Biblical Cain, the main character was Vlad the Impaler.
* The 2003 movie ''Film/{{Vlad}}'' features the titular character as a vampire that haunts a group of American exchange students currently in Romania. It also opens showing the historical incident of his father Vlad II and elder brother Mircea's capture and summary execution at the hands of John Hunyadi before Vlad and his brother Radu's eyes, with the former vowing revenge.
* In ''Film/VampiresVsTheBronx'', Vlad's likeness is the logo of the [[EvilInc evil Murnau Corporation]], which is a front for vampires.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' itself, Count Dracula doesn't claim to be Vlad Dracula but rather a descendant of him, though other characters eventually speculate about them being the same. Though Stoker gets some history wrong, like attributing the wrong family and social class to the Count and Vlad Dracula, he references real details like Vlad fighting his own brother.
* ''The New Annotated Dracula'' isn't, strictly speaking, a totally original work (it's just that, the complete text of the novel annotated) but it does take an interesting angle towards Bram Stoker's novel and its proceedings--taking the statement in the beginning of the novel [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse that the story related is (mostly) factual and being related by a third party]] and building from there. Places where character names and origins have been changed, edits made in retrospect for later editions by the persons involved to make their behaviour a little more acceptable...
* ''Kazikli Voyvoda'' (1928) by Ali Riza Seyfi is arguably the first work to reveal the Count Dracula character and Vlad the Impaler as one and the same, a link which was rather vague in the original story. The story - an almost identical copy of Stoker's original - is set in Istanbul instead of London, with the titular villain repelled by the Koran instead of Christian imagery.
** Popular knowledge that a real Dracula actually existed arose only late in the 20th century, at least outside Romania and its neighbours. It seems fitting that the first people to draw the connection would be the Turks, given their shared past with the bloody Impaler.
* Hideyuki Kikuchi, author of the original ''Literature/VampireHunterD'' light novels, also wrote a novel about Dracula in Japan during the Meiji Restoration.
* Will Hill's ''Literature/Department19'' explicitly makes Vlad and Dracula the same person, revealing that Vlad survived his final battle with the Turks, albeit with mortal injuries, and made a DealWithTheDevil to become the first vampire. Later, he is resurrected in the modern day and becomes the series BigBad, portrayed more as the sadistic BloodKnight and [[GeneralRipper ruthless conquering general]] of history than the conventional idea of Dracula.
* In a light novel from [[Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} Type-MOON]], ''Literature/FateApocrypha'', Vlad the Impaler is once again a Lancer class Servant. However, this [[YouDontLookLikeYou incarnation is a different character]] than his ''Fate/Extra'' counterpart, and is actually rather upset about the whole "Dracula" thing, saying it was malicious rumors spread about him. He's still not a vampire, as within the established rules of Nasuverse vampires, though he has a Noble Phantasm that turns him into the common depiction of Dracula.
* Literature/NightHuntress does introduce Dracula in book 3. He prefers "Vlad".
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Dracula is said to be the son of Vlad Drakul, a monster of enormous power. Dracula is a member of the classically vampiric Black Court, but according to Ebenezer [=McCoy=] joined as an act of youthful rebellion. The book ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' was commissioned by the White Court to Bram Stoker, to act as a manual to explain to {{Muggles}} how to kill Black Court vampires. It was very effective, and nowadays only the most badass Black Court vampires survive. Whether Dracula is among them is unknown; the book might have also been an account of Dracula's death, or might have simply used a powerful Black Court member as an example. Vlad Drakul, on the other hand, is immortal, still in Romania, and a freeholding lord under the Unseelie Accords, meaning he and his underlings are a small supernatural nation unto themselves.
* ''Literature/TheHistorian'' by Elizabeth Kostova is a novel that has the actual Vlad Dracula as a vampire, using books printed with a signature dragon with the word "Drakulya" to entice curious historians into finding his grave and, thereby, himself so that he can make them his minions. In this version, he is essentially an eternally undead BadassBookworm. However, he's still evil.
* Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'' makes some oblique references to Dracula, with a significant part of the AlienInvasion story taking place in the woods and mountains of Transylvania, and a local resistance fighter seems to take inspiration from Vlad the Impaler by impaling alien invaders on stakes as a terror tactic. [[spoiler:He actually ''is'' Dracula and finally gets ''really'' pissed at the end of the book, leading to a CurbstompBattle when he takes the fight directly to the invaders.]]
* In Creator/LawrenceWattEvans's short story "The Name of Fear", a Romanian vampire kills Vlad Dracula and later impersonates an undead version of him, in order to bring back the fear of vampires. It works: the peasants, who formerly easily protected themselves from vampires by usual wards, now don't dare to use something like this against the dreaded "Vlad".
* ''Vlad: The Last Confession'' by C.C. Humphreys is a novel about his life and struggle against the Turks, posthumously framed through the recollections of his closest friend, his confessor, and his mistress. It's suggested his cruel deeds including impalement partly had their roots in a FreudianExcuse [[spoiler:as he was raped by the Turks as a boy.]] In the end [[spoiler:it's revealed he faked his death to take revenge on his greatest enemy.]]
* ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' by Rose Christo is a novel [[EpistolaryNovel in the form of a series of letters]] that Vlad and Elizabeth Bathory secretly send to one another despite living one hundred years apart in time.
* If we were to list here all the Romanian historical novels starring Vlad, we'll be here all night, and possibly still miss a few. Most of them make an honorable effort to be realistic -- though how that translates varies a lot. Some are merely finding Freudian excuses (which, frankly, he had in spades anyway), others are going out of their way to show his cruelty. A few are true gems of psychological analysis that, if properly made into movies, would probably shatter the box office.
* The historical serial novel "Tom Swan and the Siege of Belgrade," by Christian Cameron, features a young Dracula just prior to becoming Voivode of Wallachia. He's depicted as affable and gentlemanly, and not at all sinister.
* In Creator/FredSaberhagen's ''Literature/TheDraculaTape'' and its sequels, Dracula is very much Vlad III and even spends some word count reminiscing about his breathing days, including acknowledging both the torture he underwent in Turkish captivity and his own later atrocities.
* Vlad appears in Creator/VictorHugo' ''Sultan Mourad''[[note]]part of ''La Légende des siècles'' ("the Legend of the Ages"), a poem collection about history of humanity[[/note]]. The poem is about Ottoman Sultan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murad_II Murad II]], his reign, his wars, and numerous crimes. A few verses mention one of his enemies, "Vlad boyar of Tarvis, called Beelzebub", who impaled the whole local Turkish embassy after refusing to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Victor Hugo died a decade before Stoker published ''Dracula''.
* ''Literature/TheConquerorsSaga'' is an AlternateHistory in which Vlad was a woman. Due to this, [[GenderFlip Lada]] Dracul has a considerably harder time to the throne, often prompting her to be even more brutal than her inspiration. Her main motive is her UndyingLoyalty to Wallachia and she does help the people living there at first, but it's slowly drowned under her [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition]].
* ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex'' reveals that Vlad the Impaler was the first vampire in ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' universe. In 1444 he summoned the greater demon Hecate by sacrificing a large number of prisoners of war by impaling them on wooden spikes. In exchange for the sacrifice, Hecate turned Vlad and a large portion of his court into the first vampires.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Went up [[spoiler:and won]] against [[Literature/TheArtOfWarSunTzu Sun Tzu]] in ''Series/DeadliestWarrior''.
* Appeared in episode six in the first season of ''Series/DaVincisDemons'' ("The Devil"). He later returns mid way through season 3 as a reoccurring character; his brother, Radu, is also featured as a villain. Notably, he is AmbiguouslyHuman in the show rather than being depicted as an actual vampire.
* He appeared in ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' episode "Darkness Visible", depicted as a [[AnachronismStew contemporary and friend of Hercules]] during UsefulNotes/AncientGreece instead of the 15th Century, ruling over Dacia (Romenia during the Antiquity) and its mentioned that [[ArtisticLicenseHistory he was at war with the Turks (despite them not originating until the 11th Century)]].
* The second season of the historical docudrama ''Series/RiseOfEmpiresOttoman'' is about the Ottomans' war against Vlad. The series also gets heavily into the [[ItsPersonal personal relationship]] between Vlad and Sultan Mehmet II, since they grew up together at the Ottoman court. Vlad is played by Romanian actor Daniel Nuță.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Count Strahd von Zarovich (of the legendary ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure and subsequent game setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'') started out as a renamed Count Dracula, drawing upon the movie portrayals more than the book. Similarities between the two persist to this day. To muddle the waters somewhat, though, the actual Count Dracula is used as a villain of the sub-setting ''TabletopGame/MasqueOfTheRedDeath'', where attempts are made to portray the character with Vlad III Tepes as a basis. As if to wring the most out of the concept, the accounts of Vlad III's infamy, taken to extremes, had in turn already been a large part of the basis for a non-vampiric villain of the main setting: Vlad Drakov.
** Interestingly, the character of Count Strahd was first sketched out as a villain in a standalone adventure module written in the early '80s. The release of the ''Realms of Terror'' campaign boxed set was the first, though, to detail his history and motivations in depth. As the campaign setting was released in 1990 and the ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' film in 1992, this makes the movie version of the good Count OlderThanTheyThink.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' Vampire Counts have ''two'' bloodlines modeled on versions of Dracula. The Necrarchs resemble the character's portrayal in Nosferatu, but for the closest match, the von Carstein vampires tend to dress exactly like Bela Lugosi, and live in huge haunted castles beyond the forest. The character of Vlad von Carstein is probably the closest match to Dracula; though he is long (permanently) dead in the main storyline, his vampiric offspring (first Konrad and now Mannfred) continue the family tradition. Interestingly, all three take on different aspects of the Dracula archetype. Vlad is an artist, philosopher, and a genuine romantic who reluctantly made his dying wife a vampire so as to not be separated from her, and is Dracula as a charming, seductive noble. Konrad is a bloodthirsty, sadistic butcher, with no sense of subtlety, art, or manipulation, but takes a fierce glee in battle, and so is Dracula as Vlad the Impaler. Mannfred, finally, is a sociopath (though, as the current one, he has been suffering VillainDecay and is now something of a GeneralFailure) who indirectly caused the defeats of the first two to satisfy his own ambition, and is possibly the closest to Stoker's original portrayal of Dracula. As of this edit, all three of them are 'permanently' dead, but there may be other spawns of Vlad's out there.
* Interestingly, the ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' setting has a Vlad Tepes {{Expy}} that ''isn't'' a Dracula: Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince of Umbrey, complete with a spell called "Impaler."
* Steve Jackson's ''Car Wars'' had a car catalog that included a large American car with a spike on the front... 'Vlad the Impala'.
* Due to the fondness the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' exhibits for the BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy trope, it comes to no surprise that ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' features a version of {{Dracula}} that is explicitly stated to be Vlad Tepes in ''Transylvania Chronicles''. He is given a suitably badass backstory, his manipulation of several vampire factions leading to his embrace into the Tzimisce clan and the [[YourSoulIsMine Diablerie]] of one of the clan's Elders. His family dynasty, the Basarabs, are also stated to have once been a family of [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier Revenants]], with a WeaksauceWeakness to garlic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'' serves as a spin on Dracula's OriginsEpisode in the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series: instead of Vlad Tepes, Dracula is [[spoiler: the fictional Crusader Mathias Cronqvist, former friend of the Belmonts.]] However, this character is partially ''named'' after a real person who spread inflated tales of Vlad III's harsh rule: Matthias Corvinus. The game also never uses the name Dracula directly, and is set centuries before the real Vlad's time.
** However, the earlier ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' had direct allusions to Vlad III. The player character {{Alucard}} (Dracula's son) has the surname "Tepes" and [[AllThereInTheManual in the game manual]], Dracula's full name is "Dracula Vlad Tepes". There's also a bomb item called "Power of Sire" (sire being an archaic term for father) which generates an image of Vlad III, based on the portait used as the page image. Since this was never really {{retcon}}ned, just established later that Dracula existed before Vlad, [[WildMassGuessing one might suppose]] Mathias just... changed his name.
** The even earlier ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' had an oblique reference to Vlad. The game depicts the canonical first defeat and death of Dracula. It's set in 1476, the very year Vlad died in reality.
** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', Dracula's tombstone in the endings has the years of Vlad's birth and death listed on it (1431-1476).
* In ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' IV, he can become the ruler of Wallachia if the country allows it. If he doesn't, he'll launch a pretender rebellion. If he does become leader, he's a good general, but as a monarch he excels only in military matters.
* ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'' has a vampire called the Night of Wallachia. No, that's not just a fancy title, he's actually a night, as in the period of time between sundown and sunrise. He was an alchemist who was obsessed with stopping the end of the world that he predicted for the distant future. However, he was mortal and didn't have enough time to figure out the solution, so he made a DealWithTheDevil and turned himself into both a vampire and a recurring phenomenon (likened to a hurricane, something that just happens whenever the conditions are right) wherein he would materialize local rumors. The first place where his night occurred was Wallachia, giving him the shape and personality of Dracula, which seems to have stuck with him for future occurrences.
** Well, it's a bit unclear, since the manga adaptation says that his form in the fighting games is how he looked like before becoming a phenomenon. Then again, the {{Franchise/Nasuverse}} [[FlipFlopOfGod has never been consistent to begin with.]] Incidentally, his appearance is a reference to ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' - he's based off the concept art for Dracula in ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV''.
** Interestingly, it's pretty conclusively stated that Vlad Tepes in the ''Nasuverse'' was ''not'' a vampire; rumors and legends of the vampire Dracula were just that: rumors and legends (although the Night of Wallachia appearing as a physical incarnation of those legends probably bolstered them quite a bit). A bit strange considering the heavy emphasis on vampires that ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' and its spinoffs take.
* In ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', Dracula becomes a Lancer class Servant, based on his other name Vlad the Impaler, in which his tendency to executing his enemies by impaling them with spears became the basis of his class selection as Lancer. Incidentally, he doesn't seem to be a vampire, since there's already Night of Wallachia for the Dracula stand-in and Vlad/Dracula's classic vampire attributes don't seem to match the established Nasuverse vampire attributes. Like the ''Fate/Apocrypha'' version, he has has some vampire attributes despite not being a vampire, because Servants are shaped by their legend as well as their actual attributes in life.
** Additionally, both the ''Apocrypha'' (as a Berserker) and the ''EXTRA'' versions of Vlad appear as summonable Servants in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder''. In a case of ShownTheirWork there are two versions of Lancer Vlad. One as the HistoricalVillainUpgrade version where he's a Chaotic Evil Monster. And the other is his HistoricalHeroUpgrade version where he is a Good Christian King.
* Vlad Tepes, while presumably not possessing any special powers is a member of UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI''. He's also one of the multiplayer characters in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' though he doesn't appear in person, having been killed by the Ottomans a while ago.
--> '''[[FunnyBackgroundEvent Herald:]]''' "To all visitors from Transylvania looking for the head of Voivode Dracula: Yes, we have it. Yes, he's dead. No, you cannot see it. No, he will not return and invade you again. It has been over thirty years, please stop pestering us."
* ''VideoGame/TotallyAccurateBattleSimulator'': The many units of the Secret Faction happen to include the Vlad unit, which is a tall man wielding a [[TelephonePolearm massive spiked log]] that he impales enemies with. He can also summon more log spikes from the ground for the same purpose.
* Remilia Scarlet from ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' is a vampire that claims to be the descendant of Vlad Tepes or the original Dracula. As every character (and fan) knows, this is an [[BlatantLies obvious lie.]] Ironically, if Dracula is assumed to have become a vampire at the time the real-life Vlad the Impaler died, Remilia is actually old enough to have plausibly claimed to be his daughter. Apparently she didn't realize this and went with the less impressive claim of merely being "descended" from him.
* The final few areas in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' are set in Romania, where an army of vampires are trying to TakeOverTheWorld. Despite having been dead for centuries, Vlad Dracul is an important character in the backstory. [[spoiler: He was a vampire '''hunter''', and his followers are still battling his estranged vampire wife's minions.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLastResurrection'' uses Dracula, alongside Hitler, as a servant of the main villain: Jesus.
* There's a Vlad campaign in ''The Forgotten'' expansion of ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII''. One of the missions includes a cutscene about the impalement of thousands of Ottomans in Târgoviste.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'' has Vlad sent to him Hell where he became general of Satan's legions, but after a failed attempt to invade Heaven, Satan punished him to a fate worse than death... By [[TormentByAnnoyance forcing him to listen]] to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment "Wheels On The Bus"]] in a daycare center for all eternity. He joins Johnny and Kinzie as their ally after being freed from prison and clearing out his fortress after it has been taken over by some demonic dudebros.
* ''VideoGame/OmenOfSorrow'': He was born with a debilitating blood disease and his father desperate to save his life so that someone could carry on the Order of the Dragon's mantle as defender of Christendom, used the Book of Tears in an attempt to cure him and turned him into a vampire instead. Now Vlad searches for an cure to restore his humanity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* During his Let's Play of the [[VideoGame/{{Drakengard}} first Drakengard game]], LetsPlay/TheDarkId wondered that would have happened if the events of the game never took place and Cain was crowned king. Cue the portrait of Vlad you see used as the page image. Given that Cain ''is'' a murderous nutcase that gleefully brings death and destruction in the most over-the-top ways possible to all enemies that cross his path, the man's got a point.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* Vlad the Impaler engages in BattleRapping against Count Dracula in ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory''. Taking heavy influence from stories about his ruthlessness, he's portrayed here as a snarling CardCarryingVillain who relishes in violence and brutality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* His teenage clone appears in ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'''s third season, as part of a group of delinquents and social outcasts called the Bleacher Creatures alongside the clones of Christopher Columbus, Ivan the Terrible, Jake the Ripper, and Lizzie Borden.
[[/folder]]
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