Given to me, Who is Sebastian Vasilis?
Radu the fair, Radu the handsome, Radu the beautiful. The brother of Vlad Tepes, Dracula! That’s who Sebastian Vasilis is. His Turkish name is Radu Bey and he, like his other brothers, was for a time, the ruler of Wallachia. His father was Vlad the 2nd, while his brother was Vlad the 3rd, or Vlad Tepes.
At the age of 22 Radu became a leading figure in the Ottoman court. In 1462 the Sultan’s son, Mehmed the 2nd, led his army against Wallachia and Radu had the pleasure of causing his brother to flee to Transylvania. Vlad would retaliate in what was called “The Night Attack” and Mehmed suffered serious losses, but hung on to the throne. Radu would eventually force his brother out of Romania after long and bitter battles.
It is said that Radu converted to Islam, but that is highly contested based on his own writings. It is known that Radu almost killed Mehmed the 2nd after the Sultan’s son made inappropriate advances toward him. He contracted Syphilis and died somewhere between 1475 and 1477, presumably killed by Stephen the 3rd or having succumbed to the disease.
That is the historical Radu. Now let’s see who he is in the Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter universe:
Radu didn’t die in 1475 but his body was ravaged by the disease of Syphilis and his daughter, Maria, who was also a vampire, became his caretaker. He was buried until a cure for the disease could be found. He was resurrected in 1825 and they tried to cure him with mercury, but that didn’t work and only caused him more pain. He was finally resurrected again and treated with Salvarsan, which finally cured him.
It was during his brief resurrection in 1825 that he attacked a Greek peasant named Sebastian Vasilis. To escape his more popular brother’s shadow he adopted that name for himself. He also became infatuated with Greek culture, which had become more relevant to modern society than his own Romanian culture.
He had been killed by the vampire hunter Karl Vincent, who was his arch-nemesis, and returned as a Ghost in the horror/adventure novel Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis. Which is being made into a major motion picture from Crisp Film Works. Actor Luis Antonio Howard will portray Sebastian in the film. The comic book adaptation is available on Indyplanet. Check it out today!
Pictures: artist renderings of Radu, Luis Antonio Howard is Sebastian Vasilis, comic book art from Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter # 3 Scott Story art.
About the Author
Kevin Given Kevin Given has studied with "Longridge Writers Group" and "Writer's Boot Camp" a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the "Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter" franchise which includes 2 novels and 8 comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of "Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter" #1 and "Files of Karl Vincent" #1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series "Dracula Rising" (working title) and developing "Foul Blood" into comic book form.
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