Our modern vampire is most directly descended from Bram Stoker's Dracula, but where did Stoker get his vampire from? The answer is not as easy as Vlad the Impaler. In fact, Vlad doesn't have very much to do with Dracula at all. Our modern vampires are the product of a variety of sources including fiction, legend, a literal vampire epidemic in the 18th Century, and Lord Byron's personal physician.