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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3970191" data-attributes="member: 15999">Going off topic, but this is something I've always wondered -- why did D&amp;D come to embrace the importance of the wood?Of the various vampire legends, some did require a wooden stake and some did not.&nbsp; But most stakes would be made of wood in a pre-industrial period, so if the tradition was trying to convey the sense of either &quot;pinning it to the ground&quot; or &quot;using a weapon large enough to entirely destroy the heart,&quot; a wooden stake would work for those reasons.&nbsp; It's possible that some traditions were specifically focused on the fact of it being wood, and others on the fact of it being a stake.&nbsp; In Dracula, there is no discussion of wood being necessary -- only &quot;a stake&quot; is mentioned. [about Lucy]&nbsp; &quot;I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body.&quot;[about Dracula] &quot;...find this great UnDead, and cut off his head and burn his heart or drive a stake through it, so that the world may rest from him.&quot;So it looks like decapitation plus destruction of the heart are essential.&nbsp; It seems that a large knife works as well a stake.&nbsp; The Count himself is killed by decapitation with a Kukri and a Bowie knife in the heart; the sunlight was not a factor (&quot;the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them turned to triumph&quot;).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 3970191, member: 15999"] Going off topic, but this is something I've always wondered -- why did D&D come to embrace the importance of the wood? Of the various vampire legends, some did require a wooden stake and some did not. But most stakes would be made of wood in a pre-industrial period, so if the tradition was trying to convey the sense of either "pinning it to the ground" or "using a weapon large enough to entirely destroy the heart," a wooden stake would work for those reasons. It's possible that some traditions were specifically focused on the fact of it being wood, and others on the fact of it being a stake. In Dracula, there is no discussion of wood being necessary -- only "a stake" is mentioned. [about Lucy] "I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body." [about Dracula] "...find this great UnDead, and cut off his head and burn his heart or drive a stake through it, so that the world may rest from him." So it looks like decapitation plus destruction of the heart are essential. It seems that a large knife works as well a stake. The Count himself is killed by decapitation with a Kukri and a Bowie knife in the heart; the sunlight was not a factor ("the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them turned to triumph"). [/QUOTE]

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