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Vampires in History

~new~ VAMPIRE POSTCARDS ~new~ VAMPIRE POETRY ~new~

Please note the following: Apparently, there is a crusader or two who claim to be "real" vampires who disagree with some of the information we are providing on this site, and so, are running rampant through the vampire community doing their best to discredit the Vampire Legacy Society.  Also apparent is the fact that they neglected to read through the rest of the site where it plainly states in several places that we post ANY and ALL information on the vampire to let the visitor formulate their own opinions, instead of merely taking the word of one person.  According to them, we should seperate out certain articles, and put them on a "bullshit" page, or a fictional vampire page, whether or not they deal with the topic at hand.  Well guess what?  I'm not going to do that. Because who are we, and who are they, to say what is fact or fiction? No one knows the entire truth about vampirism, which is why there are so many sites attempting to find out. So, I am going to warn you, the visitor, to read through all of the articles, formulate your own opinion, and know, that we at the Vampire Legacy Society do not necessarily agree with ALL of the views presented on these pages, we merely collect them, and post them.

As well, as soon as I find out for sure who these people are that insist on trying to destroy the vampire community from within by claiming to be real vampires, and trying to discredit sites where many members have spent many hours researching articles to bring them to you, I will post their name, any contact info I can get, where they hang out, and whatever else I can dig up on them and post that information at the top of each page, along with this notice, so that you, the visitor, can contact them for yourselves, and I encourage you to do so.

As well, I encourage you the visitor to visit our forums, find the General Discussion forum, particularly one started by Broken Ghost, read through the threads, and post your own thoughts.

Also let it be noted, that the above narrative does not come from the entire membership, it comes entirely from the Founder, Tattunigma.  And I have no problem whatsoever defending the honor and hard work of the membership here at the Vampire Legacy Society.

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There are many legends about vampires. However, there are official documents proving the existence of an authentic seventeenth-century countess, Elizabeth Bathory, who was the most bloodthirsty vampiress of all time!!!

Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560 into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. She had many powerful relatives - a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary. The most famous Bathory was King Steven of Poland. 1575-86.

Elizabeth was married to Count Ferencz Nasdasdy when she was 15, he was 26. The count added her surname to his, so the countess kept her name. They lived at Castle Csejthe in the Nyitra country of Hungary. The count spent a great deal of time away from home fighting. His nickname was "The Black Hero of Hungary". While he was away, Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult.

Elizabeth eloped with a dark stranger briefly, but came home. Luckily the count forgave her. Back at the castle, Elizabeth couldn't stand her domineering mother-in-law. She began torturing the servant girls with the help of her old nurse Iloona Joo. Her other accomplices included the major-domo Johannes Ujvary, Thorko, a forest witch named Darvula and a witch Dorottya Szentes.

In 1600 Ferencz died and Elizabeth's period of real atrocities began. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away. Elizabeth was very vain and afraid of getting old and losing her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing it -- Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately though her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She was sure she found the secret of eternal youthful skin!!! She had her major-domo and Thorko strip the maid, cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.

Over the next 10 years Elizabeth's evil henchmen provided her with new girls for the blood-draining ritual and her blood baths. But one of her intended victims escaped and told the authorities about what was happening at Castle Csejthe. King Mathias of Hungary ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, Count Cuyorgy Thurzo, governor of the province to raid the castle. On December 30, 1610 they raided Castle Csejthe. They were horrified by the terrible sights in the castle - one dead girl in the main room, drained of blood and another alive whose body had been pierced with holes; in the dungeon they discoverd several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced. Below the castle, they exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.

Elizabeth was put under house arrest. A trial was held in 1611 at Bitcse. She refused to plead guilty or innocent and never appeared at the trial. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survices today in Hungary! Johannes Ujvary, major-domo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. The victims were tied up and cut with scissors. Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess herself. Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed.

All the people involved in the killings, except the Countess Bathory and the two witches were beheaded and cremated. The tow accomplices had their fingers torn out and were burned alive. The court never convicted Countess Elizabeth of any crime. Stonemasons were brought to Castle Csejthe to wall up the windows and doors of the bedchamber with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed. King Mathias II demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which really meant solitary confinement for life.

In 1614, four years after she was walled in, one of the guards wanted a look at this famous beauty. He saw her lying face down on the floor. Elizabeth Bathory, the "Blood Countess" was dead.

There are some connections between the Bathorys and the Draculas. The commander of the expedition that helped Dracula regain his throne in 1476 was Prince Steven Bathory. A Dracula fief, Castle Fagaras, became a Bathory possession during the time of Elizabeth. Both families had a dragon design on their family crests.

To which Lynn Saunders adds:

One thing I found out was that the Countess, as a small child (4 or 5) used to have quite violent seizures where she would pass out. I do not think this was epilepsy, but most likely some other neurological disorder that may help to explain her horrific behvior as a young woman.

The second thing is that when her husband, the Count, was alive, he loaned a large sum of money to the government. After his death, and once the discovery of Elizabeth's grisley activities was made, the government decided that another reason to wall her up in her castle was to avoid having to pay back the debt they owned to her estate.

Vlad Dracula

An intriguing figure in the fifteenth century

 By Benjamin H. Leblanc
valmont@lanzen.net
M.Sc. Student, Sociology of Religion
University of Montreal, Canada

In less than two years from now the Count will celebrate his 100th birthday, and many Dracula enthusiasts from all around the world intend to underline this event. Of course, almost everybody has heard about this nosferatu: through movies featuring Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman; in several books - among which the recent Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice; or even in bedtime stories told to us in our childhood. We all have an idea of who or what the Count is. However, on the other hand, Vlad Tepes Dracula, the historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker for his novel, is definitely less known. The centennial of the gothic masterpiece provides us with a good pretext to dive back into the life of this machiavellian fifteenth century leader - an initiative that will enable us to better appreciate the work of Stoker.

Vlad Tepes was born in November or December 1431, in the fortress of Sighisoara, Romania. His father, Vlad Dracul, at that time appointed military governor of Transylvania by the emperor Sigismund, had been inducted into the Order of the Dragon about one year before. The order - which could be compared to the Knights of the Hospital of St. John or even to the Teutonic Order of Knights - was a semimilitary and religious society, originally created in 1387 by the Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Barbara Cilli. The main goals of such a secret fraternal order of knights was mainly to protect the interests of Catholicism, and to crusade against the Turks. There are different reasons why this society is so important to us. First, it provides an explanation for the name "Dracula;" "Dracul," in Romanian language, means "Dragon", and the boyars of Romania, who knew of Vlad Tepes' father induction into the Order of the Dragon, decided to call him "Dracul." "Dracula," a diminutive which means "the son of Dracul," was a surname to be used ultimately by Vlad Tepes. A second major role of this Order as a source of inspiration for Stoker's evil character is the Order's official dress - a black cape over a red garment - to be worn only on Fridays or during the commemoration of Christ's Passion.

In the winter of 1436-1437, Dracul became prince of Wallachia (one of the three Romanian provinces) and took up residence at the palace of Tirgoviste, the princely capital. Vlad Tepes followed his father and lived six years at the princely court. In 1442, for political reasons, Dracula and his younger brother Radu were taken hostage by the Sultan Murad II; Dracula was held in Turkey until 1448, while his brother Radu decided to stay there until 1462. This Turkish captivity surely played an important role in Dracula's upbringing; it must be at this period that he adopted a very pessimistic view of life. Indeed, the Turks set him free after informing him of his father's assassination in 1447 - organized by Vladislav II. He also learned about his older brother's death - Mircea was the eldest legitimate son of Dracul - and how he had been tortured and buried alive by the boyars of Tirgoviste.

At 17 years old, Vlad Tepes Dracula, supported by a force of Turkish cavalry and a contingent of troops lent to him by pasha Mustafa Hassan, made his first major move toward seizing the Wallachian throne. But another claimant, no other than Vladislav II himself, defeated him only two months later. In order to secure his second and major reign over Wallachia, Dracula had to wait until July of 1456, when he had the satisfaction of killing his mortal enemy and his father's assassin. Vlad then began his longest reign - 6 years - during which he committed many cruelties, and hence established his controversed reputation.

His first major act of revenge was aimed at the boyars of Tirgoviste for the killing of his father and his brother Mircea. On Easter Sunday of what we believe to be 1459, he arrested all the boyar families who had participated to the princely feast. He impaled the older ones on stakes while forcing the others to march from the capital to the town of Poenari. This fifty-mile trek was quite grueling, and those who survived were not permitted to rest until they reached destination. Dracula then ordered them to build him a fortress on the ruins of an older outpost overlooking the Arges river. Many died in the process, and Dracula therefore succeeded in creating a new nobility and obtaining a fortress for future emergencies. What is left today of the building is identified as Castle Dracula.

 Vlad became quite known for his brutal punishment techniques; he often ordered people to be skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried alive, stabbed, etc. He also liked to cut off noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs. But his favorite method was impalement on stakes, hence the surname "Tepes" which means "The Impaler" in the Romanian language. Even the Turks referred to him as "Kaziglu Bey," meaning "The Impaler Prince." It is this technique he used in 1457, 1459 and 1460 against Transylvanian merchants who had ignored his trade laws. The raids he led against the German Saxons of Transylvania were also acts of proto-nationalism in order to protect and favour the Wallachian commerce activities.

There are many anecdotes about the philosophy of Vlad Tepes Dracula. He was for instance particularly known throughout his land for his fierce insistence on honesty and order. Almost any crime, from lying and stealing to killing, could be punished by impalement. Being so confident in the effectiveness of his law, Dracula placed a golden cup on display in the central square of Tirgoviste. The cup could be used by thirsty travelers, but had to remain on the square. According to the available historic sources, it was never stolen and remained entirely unmolested throughout Vlad's reign. Dracula was also very concerned that all his subjects work and be productive to the community. He looked upon the poor, vagrants and beggars as thieves. Consequently, he invited all the poor and sick of Wallachia to his princely court in Tirgoviste for a great feast. After the guests ate and drank, Dracula ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire. No one survived.

In the beginning of 1462, Vlad launched a campaign against the Turks along the Danube river. It was quite risky, the military force of Sultan Mehmed II being by far more powerful than the Wallachian army. However, during the winter of 1462, Vlad was very successful and managed to gain many victories. To punish Dracula, the Sultan decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Wallachia. Of course, his other goal was to transform this land into a Turkish province and he entered Wallachia with an army three times larger than Dracula's. Finding himself without allies, Vlad, forced to retreat towards Tirgoviste, burned his own villages and poisoned the wells along the way, so that the Turkish army would find nothing to eat or drink. Moreover, when the Sultan, exhausted, finally reached the capital city, he was confronted by a most gruesome sight: thousands of stakes held the remaining carcasses of some 20,000 Turkish captives, a horror scene which was ultimately nicknamed the "Forest of the Impaled." This terror tactic deliberately stage-managed by Dracula was definitely successful; the scene had a strong effect on Mehmed's most stout-hearted officers, and the Sultan, tired and hungry, admitted defeat (it is worth mentioning that even Victor Hugo, in his Legende des Siecles, recalls this particular incident). Nevertheless, following his retreat from Wallachian territory, Mehmed left the next phase of the battle to Vlad's younger brother Radu, the Turkish favorite for the Wallachian throne. At the head of a Turkish army and joined by Vlad's detractors, Radu pursued his brother to Poenari castle on the Arges river.

According to the legend, this is when Dracula's wife, in order to escape Turkish capture, committed suicide by hurling herself from the upper battlements, her body falling down the precipice into the river below - a scene exploited by Francis Ford Coppola's production. Vlad, who was definitely not the kind of man to kill himself, managed to escape the siege of his fortress by using a secret passage into the mountain. Helped by some peasants of the Arefu village, he was able to reach Transylvania where he met the new king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus. However, instead of providing some help, Matthias arrested Dracula and imprisoned him at the Hungarian capital of Visegrad. It was not until 1475 that Vlad was again recognized as the prince of Wallachia, enjoying a very short third reign. In fact, he was assassinated toward the end of December 1476.

We do not know exactly why Bram Stoker chose this fifteenth century Romanian prince as a model for his fictional character. Some scholars have proposed that Stoker had a friendly relationship with a Hungarian professor from the University of Budapest, Arminius Vambery (Hermann Vamberger) , and it is likely that this man gave Stoker some information about Vlad Tepes Dracula. Moreover, the fact that Dr. Abraham Van Helsing mentions his "friend Arminius" in the 1897 novel as the source of his knowledge on Vlad seems to support this hypothesis. It should also be kept in mind that the only real link between the historical Dracula (1431-1476) and the modern literary myth of the vampire is in fact the 1897 novel; Stoker made use of folkloric sources, historic references and some of his own life experiences to create his composite creature. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Vlad Dracula's political detractors - mainly German Saxons - made use of the other meaning of the Romanian word "Dracul" - "Devil" - in order to blacken the prince's reputation. Could the association of the words "Dragon" and "Devil" in Romanian language explain an earlier link between Vlad Tepes and vampirism?

Today, as Romania opens itself to the tourism industry, many "Dracula Tours" are being offered throughout the country. Two months ago, the author of this article attended one of them, organized by Bravo Group and designed by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. This particular Tour includes the most important historical places related with Vlad Tepes, such as 15th century town of Sighisoara - Vlad's birth place; the Snagov Monastery - where, according to legend, Vlad is said to have been buried after his assassination; Castle Bran - which has been in the past erroneously described by officials of the Romanian Tourist Ministry as Castle Dracula; the Poenari fortress; the village of Arefu - where many Dracula legends are still told; the city of Brasov - where Vlad led raids against the German Saxons; and, of course, Curtea Domneasca - Dracula's palace in Bucharest. The Tour also covers the folklorical aspects of the fictional Dracula. For instance, one will find oneself eating the meal Jonathan Harker ate at The Golden Crown in Bistrita, and sleeping at Castle Dracula Hotel - built no so long ago on the Borgo Pass, approximately where the fictional castle of the Count is supposed to be. If you have another trip to the Bahamas planned for next Christmas and are a fan of Stoker's literary work, maybe should you reconsider your decision?

As for the 100th birthday of the novel, may you celebrate "freely and of your own will!"

Further reading

Florescu, Radu, and Raymond T. McNally. Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973. 239 pp.

_________. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces; His Life and His Times. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, 261 pp.

Giurescu, Constantin C. The Life and Deeds of Vlad the Impaler. Dracula. New York: Romanian Library, 1969.

McNally, Raymond T., and Radu Florescu. In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires Completely Revised. 1972. Reprint. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994, 297 pp.

Stoicescu, Nicolae. Vlad the Impaler. Translated by Cristina Krikorian. Bucharest: Romanian Academy, 1978.

Treptow, Kurt W., ed. Dracula: Essays on the Life and Times of Vlad Tepes. East European Monographs, no. 323, New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. 336 pp.

The Transylvanian Society of Dracula
47 Primaverii blvd.
Buccuresti 1
ROMANIA
tel.: 401-6666195
fax: 401-3123056

Lord Ruthven (author unkown)

The circumstances surrounding the creation of Lord Ruthven are legendary. In 1816, Dr. John William Polidori accompanied the famed poet Lord Byron on a trip through Europe. In Geneva, the duo met with Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin, and Clair Clairmont where they took accommodation on the shores of Lake Leman. One night in June, after they had aloud from Phantasmagoriana, a collection of horror tales, Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Mary Godwin worked on a tale that would later evolve into Frankenstein, Byron wrote (and quickly abandoned) a fragment of a story, whereas Polidori is remembered as having come up with a story about a skull-headed woman. However, Polidori had taken detailed notes during the trip, and used Byron's abandoned story as inspiration for his own tale.

Dr. Polidori was inspired by real-life vampire cases that had occurred only a century before in Europe. However, rather than use the crude, bestial vampire of folklore as a character template, Polidori based his antagonist on his former friend, Lord Byron. Although the mysterious character in Byron's piece was named Darvell, Polidori renamed the character "Lord Ruthven" as a snide in-joke. The name was originally used in Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon, in which a thinly-disguised Byronesque figure was also named Lord Ruthven. By creating Lord Ruthven, John Polidori altered the face of vampire fiction forever. Lord Ruthven was not only the first vampire in English fiction, but was the first fictional vampire in the form we recognize today - an aristocratic fiend who preyed among high society.

Polidori's story, "The Vampyre," was published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine. Much to both his and Byron's chagrin, "The Vampyre" was released as a new work by Byron. Byron even released his own "Fragment of a Novel" in an attempt to clear up the mess, but, for better or worse, "The Vampyre" continued to be attributed to him.

HISTORICAL DRACULA

Compiled by CRIMSON ANGEL

Historical Dracula ("devil"), known as Vlad Tsepesh, Voivod of Wallachia (1456-62, and again in 1476). These stories were originally penned in 1486, and copied in the year 1490 by the monkish chroniclers at Kirill-Belozersk, in northern Russia. In addition, similar narratives have been documented independently by a wide variety of respected, unbiased historians throughout Europe, leading to the inevitable conclusion that these exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" are indeed factual and unexaggerated. Even the Rumanian people, who to this day view the Draculas as a great and noble race, do not deny these acts of unparalleled violence.
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Dracula's exploits form a rough cycle of twelve incidents--incidents which for preposterous and whimsical cruelty challenge comparison with the outrages of young Caligula--and in the oldest manuscripts they are presented in the following order:

1. The Turkish ambassadors sent to Dracula's court in Wallachia failed to remove their fezzes in his presence. To Dracula's question about this impropriety, the emissaries replied that such was their custom.

2. The witty governor had their fezzes nailed to their heads in order to "fix them in this observance."

3. Dracula offered to join forces with the Turkish sultan upon the condition that his army be granted immunity from attack. The sultan accepted. After marching his army five days into Turkish territory, Dracula wheeled his host toward home. On the return march his men ravaged the countryside and killed, impaled, or tortured all the land's inhabitants.

4. All offenders against Dracula's laws were put to death, whatever their offense. In his domain was a spring of cool, sweet water by which he placed a golden drinking cup. No one ever dared steal this, so great was the fear he aroused.

4. Once Dracula had the aged, sick and poor of his domain summoned. He invited his guests into a large, specially made apartment and there fed them and gave them wine. He then asked the assembled unfortunates if they wished to be freed from all earthly care. They answered that they did; whereupon Dracula burned the building down upon them.

5. Two Catholic monks from Hungary visited Dracula in order to beg alms. Dracula took each separately, showed him the numerous wretches impaled upon stakes in his courtyard and asked him whether he had acted rightly. The first monk said no; the second monk said that a ruler was appointed by God to execute the wicked and reward the righteous. Dracula had the first monk impaled; the second monk he gave fifty gold ducats and dismissed with honor.

6. A merchant who had 160 gold ducats stolen from a cart appealed to Dracula for justice. Dracula had a similar quantity of gold, with the addition of one extra ducat, replaced in the cart. The merchant reported to Dracula the restoration of his money, as well as the presence of the additional ducat, at the very moment the captured thief was brought in. Dracula let the merchant go, telling the latter that had he not reported the extra ducat, he would have impaled him along with the thief.

7. Dracula was particularly cruel to lazy and unchaste women, as exemplified by this story. Once he met a poor peasant wearing a torn shirt. The peasant was asked if he had a wife, and next, if he had flax. When he replied affirmatively, Dracula had the hands of the peasant's lazy wife cut off and then ordered her to be impaled.

8. A peasant attending Dracula while he dined among the corpses of his courtyard held his nose against the stench. Dracula had him impaled to elevate him above such annoying odors.

9. Dracula continually set traps in the form of subtle questions for foreign envoys. If they failed to elude these, he impaled them, saying that he was not responsible for the punishment, but their master, who chose unsuitable emissaries.

10. Dracula had workmen make him iron casks which he filled with gold and lowered into a river. Afterward he had the workmen killed so that his secret would not be known.

11. King Matthias of Hungary defeated Dracula and imprisoned him at Vyshegrad on the Danube for twelve years. Even in prison Dracula managed to act with customary cruelty. He caught mice and impaled them, bought birds and plucked them alive.

12. In return for embracing Catholicism, the king freed Dracula and restored him to his former eminence. Ten years later, after defeating the Turks in a battle, Dracula rode to the top of a hill in order to survey his victory and was mistakenly killed by one of his own men in the failing light.

A Theory on Vampires in History

by Crimson Angel

In almost every article that I have read about vampires in history they all seem to say the same thing, that the person died and became a vampire afterwards.  I have a theory on this.  Let’s take Arnold Paole for example.  He claimed that he was being stalked by a vampire and then bitten by one and was worried that he too was to become a vampire.

When he died they immediately buried him.  This is where my theory comes in and it goes with others that were said to be a vampire after they died, not just Arnold Paole.  Perhaps Arnold from birth had always been a vampire and the vampire that was stalking him was to be his teacher and in being bitten that caused the tendencies to awaken in Arnold.  Perhaps he didn’t die at all and was just comotose, or as Anne Rice describes, a death like sleep, and when they buried him, he was indeed still alive.

It has been reported that weeks later after he died that he was seen and those that seen him eventually themselves died.  Going on the theory that he was buried alive and just comotose, his astral self was the entity that was plaguing people, hence, he was psi feeding on them thus causing their deaths.  However it could be possible that he was draining their blood but there weren’t any reports of strange marks on them so that leads me to believe that he and others like him, were psi feeding.

The reasoning that I have come up for is simple….to physically get yourself out of a coffin that is buried in the ground would require a great amount of energy and you get that kind of energy of off living breathing beings.  Or maybe these vampires weren’t trying to get out of their graves….perhaps, they were just surviving not knowing that they could get out…..or maybe even, they weren’t conscious of the feeding.  And when they attained a certain amount perhaps they were able to extract themselves from the grave and went out into the world and made a life for themselves.  And once out in the world again they discovered that blood contains the highest potency of pranic energy.  Thus causing the illusion that vampires are the undead.

It has been said that people had a ritual back then to do in the event you were bit by a vampire.  Which was to track down the vampires grave and kill him and then bath in their blood and the graves dirt.  In doing this perhaps the person bit was killing their very own teacher.  The one that would provide information to them to keep them alive or in case of a burial, the means to get out.  Or it’s possible that this form of training or mentoring didn’t exist then and vampires were left to fend for themselves based on instinct.  Could be why you didn’t hear of too many living long.  And those that did, why in the world would they tell people?  They would be committing suicide.

The Children of Judas

by Lord NightWalker

This legend hailing from the Balkans bespeaks of a particularly nasty clan of vampires which are the off spring of Judas Iscariot. These vampires are considered the uttermost vile and ravenous of the Balkan undead. They are distinguished by their flaming red hair( Judas was a reputed red head.) And the infamous XXX teeth marks their bite leaves upon their victims. (Which signifies the thirty pieces of silver.)They posses the ability to  siphon all of their preys blood in a single kiss. They are crazed for vengence, And often ressurrect in a means in which best to obtain their revenge, Often returning as the opposite sex in order to seduce their aggitator and kill them unexpectedly. However, They they may be little more than single minded killers who leave a bloody swath behind them. The tell tale triple X mark the only clue to be found. Sadly, there are only a handfull of written accounts pertaining to the Children of Judas. This legend was mainly passed down orally generation to generation.