My Homework on Vampires and Ghouls
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Corrections for Mercy’s Background Story: Vampirazation
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Date: January 24, 2023
By: ArtsyJandi (I own ajstudio)
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(I spent days studying and writing this lengthy page document of 2,912 words and I’m sharing it to show my work and so everyone can use for their writing. Enjoy!)
(I have corrected the dates for Mina and Lucy. And I corrected the number of years Alucard had served Hellsing before his disappearance. I intend update his section since I neglected to go over the changes his body went through over the years of his time as a vampire.)
The nightmare Mercy and the girls lived through ends at 10 pm sharp. Studying Dracula and Hellsing for important details has helped me learn more about vampires and ghouls. The most crucial detail is the time it takes for a human to become a vampire or ghoul. First I would like to include Mercy’s original tragic story (originally she was called Rosebud but that is now one of her nicknames) :
“Here’s what Integra’s learned about the Omega girl by the time Alucard got back. Let’s call her Rosebud.
In the year 2022 - 2023, Integra recruits Rosebud after doing a case with her assigned by Queen Elizabeth II and appoints her under Seras as her subordinate like when she was turned by Alucard.
From what Integra learned of her background the first time she met Rosebud: she was born and raised in Louisiana, but she was shot six times in Virginia after being bitten by a vampire when the survivors of the attack feared she’d turn into one. Everyone involved originally didn’t believe in vampires, but not after that night.
This horror happened on November 5, 2021, at a bachelorette party, and when the vampire tried to attack Tasha the bride (who was also ten weeks pregnant with her fiancée’s baby), Rosebud pushed her out of the way to take a stab at the vampire with a silver letter opener. The vampire bit Rosebud, then she stabbed his left eye, cut his throat, and finally staked his heart. Three of the guests that were turned into ghouls just drop dead, but everyone was scared for Rosebud. Tasha’s fiancee, Todd, got wind of what was happening and rushed over only to make it to the aftermath. He takes it upon himself to end Rosebud with a resolver. While thankful for her selfless bravery, Todd remorsefully has to end her life before she turns. After much urging and pleading from Rosebud, "I don’t know how different I’ll be when this change is complete. Please. Save the next person that comes after me.”, he empties his resolver of its six bullets.
Unfortunately, Tod didn’t know that Rosebud was not at risk of becoming a vampire because the attacker was already dead. He learned this from the man that warned him of the attack. He told Todd and Tasha he was a doctor, and he could save her with surgery, but he has to do it before the tissue begins to decay. Todd and Tasha agreed to let him save Rosebud since they didn’t want her to die. The doctor, Oliver White, rushes to his lab with Rosebud’s body and begins to replace her organs with new ones from another body.
Four hours later, the surgery is a success. While Dr. White went to wash up after the surgery and make a bracelet out of the bullets that shot Rosebud, another vampire slipped into the lab and started to drink Rosebud’s blood. While Dr. White managed to make it back in time before the vampire did something worse, he found Rosebud had lost too much blood. Dr. White brought her back to Todd and Tasha and instructed them to keep Rosebud hidden in the basement until he got back. The party had taken place at Tasha’s maternal grandmother’s house which was located on a farm. They were also instructed to lay Rosebud near the patch of garlic blossoms close to the ditch as they arranged the basement for her. Before Dr. White returned to his lab to do away with the vampire, he leaves the bracelet he made with Rosebud.
Seven hours after she had been shot Rosebud finally woke up on November 6th that morning before dawn, but she was thirsty for blood. The first person she meets is a crying Tasha, but she feeds on herself because Rosebud didn’t want to reverse her good deed. Rosebud helps the couple move her belongings into the basement and hide her car as they wait for Dr. White, but he never came back. Rosebud waited for him until 8 pm before she, Tasha, and Todd packed her belongings into her car, along with some bottles of pig’s blood, and drove off back home while it was still night since they didn’t know she’d be fine in the sunlight.“
Since I have made some changes to Mercy’s story, which has been a slow progress, I would consider this passage from what I could call the rough draft of her story. As I read the Hellsing volumes, relistened to the Dracula audiobook while looking over the original novel, and rewatched some of the episodes of the anime and OVA for any details I missed and recalled to overview. Consider this a thesis on what I’ve learned.
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Ghouls
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When Dr. Avondale, or the Doktor, was working on the artificial vampires he noted that the test subjects regenerated 17% faster but became ghouls approximately four hours afterward. While he and the S.S. Major Max Montana wanted the transformation process of the ghouls to be quicker. I can deduce that four hours is the natural time it takes for humans to become ghouls.
Another example I can bring up would be in, "Order 03: Murder Club” when Sir Integra Hellsing investigated the aftermath of the Ghoul Lover Duo. After she was informed that the attack had happened a few hours ago. She then ordered the corpses to be disposed of quickly since they would be changed if not dealt with properly. Now while the vampires responsible for the attack were made by Millinuim and not by natural means, Sir Hellsing didn’t know that yet but it still reinforces my estimation of the transformation process.
This makes the realization of Seras’ situation with the Cheddar Priest all the more horrifying. She was by herself for four hours at least before Alucard got there. What took you so long? Moongazing isn’t an excuse! But that would be another reason why Alucard has so much respect for Seras. After her comrades became ghouls and Cheddar quite literally became a Ghouleville Seras was likely the person to request backup before her source of communication was cut off. Looking at the first chapter again the chief explained, and corrected me, that the unit Seras was a part of lost contact with the party stationed outside of Cheddar three hours before Sir Integra and Alucard arrived.
And there we have it: three hours. This concludes that Dr. Avondale’s experiments only slowed the transformation time by one hour. Man.
But onto the Ghouls of Millennium. Judging by the attack on Hellsing Headquarters and London I believe these monstrous Nazi Vampires can spawn ghouls within minutes of biting their human prey and draining their blood. Maybe four or forty minutes tops. Or under twenty minutes taking into account that Jan and his unit of eighteen ghouls taking two lunch breaks eating fractions of the 86 soldiers stationed at Hellsing HQ making it to the 5th/4th floor* where Sir Integra and the Knights of the Round Table held their conference. Luke sliced the ones he encountered without making any ghouls.
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Vampires
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Now on to the vampires. Here I will discuss the four subjects in their sections respectfully. They are Lucy Westenra, Mina Harker nee Murray, Seras Victoria, and finally, Count Dracula himself, also known as Alucard.
Lucy Westenra (1876 - Sep. 20, 1887)
She catches the attention of Dracula when he came to Whitby, England on August 11th, 1889 when she was sleepwalking again making Mina go after her. This condition of hers is possibly how Dracula came to target Lucy and then Mina. He stealthily followed them back to Lucy’s home and following the night after that he drank her blood as she slept. Despite the best efforts of Abraham Van Hellsing, Quincey Morris, Dr. John Seward, and Arthur Holmwood/Lord Godalming to save Lucy Dracula drained her blood until she died on Sep. 20, 1889, at the 18th hour (but Abraham Van Hellsing wrote to Mina that she died with her mother five days before the 22nd and buried the day before. I guess he knew her death was inevitable on the morning of the 18th.) Two to three days later, she’s drinking the blood of children as a new vampire. Eventually, her actions made the paper by Sep. 25th. The very men that tried to save her had to put a stake through her heart and behead her.
Her innocent beauty, blonde hair, and blue eyes were noted to have changed to a more seductive and voluptuous sort with black tresses, red orbs, and fangs. She regained her original beauty upon having a stake through her heart.
Wilhelmina (Mina) Harker nee Murray (1876 - 19??)
On October 3rd at six in the morning, Jonathan Harker (Mina’s husband) wrote about the events that happened the day and night before. Dracula drinks Mina’s blood and then force-feeds her his blood. Abraham Van Hellsing then prayed over her and pressed a blessed wafer to her forehead to stall the time of her vampirization. The blood Mina was force-fed was supposed to speed up her transformation. But the blessing stalled it for 36 days. Mina was bitten by Dracula on the night of Oct. 2nd and she was human again by the dawn of Nov. 7th. The Power of Christ surpasses the blood of the undead! This makes me wonder how much sooner Mina would’ve turned if Mr. Van Hellsing didn’t stall her transformation. Mina’s appearance didn’t change much since she never made a full transformation but she has fangs upon the moment Walter C. Dornez burns her remains on Sep. 16th, 1999.
But as a lot of people who are reading this post are likely Hellsing fans and Dracula fans are pondering how Mina was still a virgin upon the time Dracula bite her and force-fed her his blood since being a virgin is a requirement for a vampire of the opposite sex (Dracula is a male vampire turning the virgin woman Mina into a vampiress) by Hellsing universe standards and Mina Harker married Jonathan before Lucy had become a vampire.
This confusion is very understandable but let me propose something to consider about the timing of the bite: Jonathan’s mental and physical health. He went to Romania in May to discuss the estates Dracula purchased but the Count had no intention of letting him leave and instead left him at the mercy of the three vampire sisters he shared a home. Jonathan somehow escaped but he was without his belongings and important travel documents since Dracula took them when he left (the jerk) forcing him to travel on foot to the monastery where he would recover and marry Mina after receiving his first letter in four months. With Jonathan barely making out of Dracula’s castle alive he was understandably traumatized. So sex was the last thing on the minds of Jonathan and Mina since his recovery was more important than consummating their marriage.
Then the moment they return to London and meet up with Abraham Van Hellsing’s party they immediately piece together they have a vampire to deal with. Hence we have another reason why Mina was likely still a virgin when Dracula bite her simply for the fact they just had one bigger fish to fry after another before Jonathan could have “it’s good to be alive” sex with his wife. Everyone deals with their trauma differently, and therefore, we shan’t blame Jonathan for waiting until the whole deal with Dracula was over to be intimate with Mina. We know this since their son, Quincey Harker, is born on Nov. 6th the first anniversary of Dracula’s defeat and Quincey Morris’ death. So we know they got happily busy in late January or early February. Oh, if they did the deed on Valentine’s day then that’s a story waiting to be written.
Seras Victoria (1980? - July 5th, 1999)
On the night of July 5th, 1999, Dracula, now Alucard, made Seras Victoria a vampire after dealing with the vampire priest and his ghouls in Cheddar. I don’t know how long Alucard walked from where he started and walked back to where Sir Integra and the police force were stationed on Cheddar Hwy. But by the time Alucard did make it back with Seras she was already a vampire within less than a day instead of two or three.
With the experiments and enhancements done to Alucard for the 111 years going on 112 years he was enslaved to Hellsing it would seem the vampirization of the people he drains of their blood have less than a day to become vampires. My best guess is less than 40 minutes to an hour. This makes the thought of him going rogue dreadful. He could easily make an army of vampires to replace the army of familiars he lost after recovering his physical form in 2030. But it’s a good thing he chooses to make vampires when the person in question has earned their immortality. This makes me love him more for being so responsible with his powers, and it’s also one of the reasons why he made Seras a vampire. Although I wish he gave her the choice before he shot through her to kill the vampire priest.
Update from Tuesday, October 14th, 2025: According to the Official Hellsing Guide book, Seras is in her early 20s when she became a vampire by drinking Alucard's blood. Given her condition when Alucard turned her, it would make sense. First, he drank her blood, and he gave her his to drink.
In the first chapter, Seras’ blonde hair is chin length, her eyes are blue, and her bust is probably a C cup. She retains most of these features for the first two months of her time as a fledgling vampire with the exception being her growing hair and bust. When Seras finally drinks Pip’s blood and takes him as her familiar (something he insisted on since he was dying) her slashed blue eyes are restored with a new shade of red. While Kohta Hirano’s art style was simply evolving as the series progressed and it was even said that he drew Seras with bigger breasts since he was stressed out the vampirization can also explain Seras’ changing body in the series seeing as Lucy Westenra went through the most drastic change compared to everyone on this list.
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Vlad III The Impaler Tepes, Count Dracula, Alucard (November 14th, 1431 - December 14, 1476)
The one who started it all. It would’ve been a great injustice to not include Dracula on the list. I don’t believe I’ll go over all the details of our great Dracula in his lifetime so I will just get straight to his death. Vlad the Voivode of Wallachia was fighting the Ottomans at a river in December of 1476 he was ambushed and captured. Later he was beheaded and his head was then placed in a jar filled with honey to preserve it as it was sent to Constantinople where Sultan Mehmed II was residing.
Historians have no definite idea as to how Vlad's death went down. One such scenario is he was beheaded near a place called the Witch's Pond within the Boldu Forest (when Vlad was killed it was a barren wasteland with a dead tree) outside of present-day Bucharest the capital of Romania. Unlike the other scenarios that will follow, there is no historical proof to verify that Vlad was beheaded here as of yet. Unfortunately, many people and I have made the mistake of thinking otherwise. Which is why I am correcting myself.
The other likely scenarios that I've looked at are:
1. Vlad dies in an ambush with ten of two-hundred soldiers surviving and telling Stephen the Great, Vlad's cousin, of this scenario. This scenario is most likely.
2. Vlad was assassinated by boyars (nobles) he had a meeting with who wanted him to make peace with the Ottomans and continue paying tribute to them. Naturally, he said no. After a heated debate of them demanding he hand over Wallachia to the Ottomans and Vlad being strongly opposed to it, the boyars kill Vlad.
3. Vlad was assassinated by the Ottomans or soldiers of his other enemy, Laiota Basarab, who had the throne of Wallachia before Vlad took it back. I would consider this scenario to be a follow-up of the first and most likely scenario I listed before.
4. Vlad was assassinated by a Turk disguised as a servant.
5. Vlad was killed by his men while disguised as an Ottoman soldier. This is most unlikely because our dear Vlad had tried a stunt like this before when he bravely attempted to assassinate Sulton Mehmed II. That didn't work and he had to escape the camp while the place was in chaos over confusion. This sly devil!
After listing these scenarios, I like to believe it's a bite of both 1# and 3#. Another funny speculation I'd like to share is it's a bite of all of them since Vlad had so many enemies they likely put their plans into action at the same time. It reminds of me an episode of CSI where a guy working at a brothel has been hated by the people who work there they all try to kill him with their methods but he keeps surviving until the chair he sat in breaks and he drowns in the pool he fell in.
But for the sake of this post, let's go with 1# and 3#.
After listing these scenarios, I like to believe it's a bite of both 1# and 3#. According to the flashbacks of Vlad's death he was beheaded in a barren wasteland after he lost to the Ottomans.
As we saw in Alucard’s flashbacks in the Castlevania chapters/orders or the 9th OVA the defeated Voivode lapped up some blood in defiance against God just before he was axed in the neck. His grave is at Snagnov Monastary and was found with only animal bones inside which would imply he was buried somewhere else. But in this universe, Vlad came back as a new vampire and the very first of his kind before he could be buried or after and judging by the familiars he had unleashed on Millennium Dracula woke up with a literal thirst for blood and drank the blood of the corpses of his army, his enemies, and some unfortunate animals.
I thought it made more sense for his reanimation to happen with just his head on the way to Constantinople since he tasted the blood just before he was beheaded. As I have observed before it takes two to three days for a vampire to be made so he would be revived as a new vampire halfway through the five-day journey back to Istanbul, Turkey. But I think he swallowed it in time for the blood to do its work on Vlad’s headless body evidenced by the familiars he summons during the London Raid.
It’s all really scary when you think about it. But it gets scarier. Vlad died in the winter of December 14, 1476. If it were any other part of the year those corpses would’ve started to rot ten minutes after dying and Vlad would’ve woken up to the stench of rotting flesh. I’ve never smelled a dead human body before but if the stink is anything like the dead possum pulsating with maggots I found in my backyard a long time ago I can guarantee Vlad wouldn’t have been happy to have a supernatural nose upon his rebirth. So as much as he hated dying when he did it proved to his advantage.
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Conclusion
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It takes three hours for humans to become ghouls, and two to three days for humans to become vampires. If the vampire responsible for biting you force-feeds their blood to the victim they will turn in less than two or three days. If they can be blessed with a holy wafer pressed on their forehead they can stall the transformation for 36 days which is more than enough time to end the guilty vampire.
I need to rewrite Mercy’s living nightmare to last for four hours at least before she stakes Tasha’s ex-boyfriend Lawrence and then is shot by Tod. Then three days need to pass before she is to meet Tasha again as a new vampire.
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Sources
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Hellsing Omnibus Volumes 1 - 3
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Amy’s Crypt website
Britannia for info on Sultan Mehmed II and Voivode Vlad III Tepes.
@merumely @thirstyforlulu @alucardownsmyass @doodleferp @diamond-star @sundove88 @michi-tala @amikartest @trashbaby92 @goblins-riddles-or-frocks @blood-and-cigars @the-hellsing-organisation @icecry @thecrimsonwingsfckerabridged @elixirvitae @therejectkat @alucrd @autumnaaltonen @valentine-bites @theloveandthedead
Google Maps for that Walk Map.
The Official Hellsing Guide book
