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THE MANGA
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On July 16, there was an announcement that said the following.

Amy... Tell me how to split this up, if you would. It's rather long.

VAMPIRES IN MYTH AND HISTORY
By Beverley Richardson
Vampire myths go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.
However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the Far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian Mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.
Our modern concept of the vampire still retains threads, such as blood drinking, return from death, preying on humans at night, etc in common with the Eastern European myths. However many things we are familiar with; the wearing of evening clothes, capes with tall collars, turning into bats, etc are much more recent inventions.
On the other hand, many features of the old myths such as the placing of millet or poppy seeds at the gravesite in order to keep the vampire occupied all night counting seeds rather than preying on relatives, have all but disappeared from modern fiction and film.
Even among the Eastern European countries there is a large variety of vampires.

SLAVIC VAMPIRES:
The Slavic people including most east Europeans from Russia to Bulgaria, Serbia to Poland, have the richest vampire folklore and legends in the world. The Slavs came from north of the Black Sea and were closely associated with the Iranians. Prior to 8th century AD they migrated north and west to where they are now.
Christianization began almost as soon as they arrived in their new homelands. But through the 9th and 10th centuries the Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Roman Church were struggling with each other for supremacy. They formally broke in 1054 AD, with the Bulgarians, Russians, and Serbians staying Orthodox, while the Poles, Czechs, and Croatians went Roman. This split caused a big difference in the development of vampire lore - the Roman church believed incorrupt bodies were saints, while the Orthodox Church believed they were vampires.
The origin of Slavic vampire myths developed during 9th C as a result of conflict between pre-Christian paganism and Christianity. Christianity won out with the vampires and other pagan beliefs surviving in folklore.
Causes of vampirism included: being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived on certain days, irregular death, excommunication, improper burial rituals etc. Preventative measures included: placing a crucifix in the coffin, or blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, placing millet or poppy seeds in the grave because vampires had a fascination with counting, or piercing the body with thorns or stakes.
Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighborhood included: death of cattle, sheep, relatives, neighbors, exhumed bodies being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, or if the body was swelled up like a drum, or there was blood on the mouth and if the corpse had a ruddy complexion.
Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation (the Kashubs placed the head between the feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, holy water on the grave, exorcism.

ROMANIA:
Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it isn't surprising that their vampires are variants of the Slavic vampire. They are called Strigoi based on the Roman term strix for screech owl which also came to mean demon or witch.
There are different types of Strigoi: Strigoi vii are live witches who will become vampires after death. They can send out their soul at night to meet with other witches or with Strigoi mort who are dead vampires. The Strigoi mort is the reanimated bodies which return to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbors.
A person born with a caul, tail, born out of wedlock, or one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire. As was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who didn't eat salt or was looked at by a vampire, or a witch. And naturally, being bitten by vampire meant certain condemnation to a vampirism existence after death.
The Vitriolic which is sometimes mentioned in folklore was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon and later became connected with werewolves rather than vampires. The person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.
The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threw things around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be most active on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), the night when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St Georges Day is still celebrated in Europe.
A vampire in the grave could be told by holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or having one foot in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were found by distributing garlic in church and seeing who didn't eat it.
Graves were often opened three years after death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism.
Measures to prevent a person becoming a vampire included, removing the caul from a newborn and destroying it before the baby could eat any of it, careful preparation of dead bodies, including preventing animals from passing over the corpse, placing a thorny branch of wild rose in the grave, and placing garlic on windows and rubbing it on cattle, especially on St George's & St Andrew's days.
To destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century people were shooting a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.

GYPSIES AND VAMPIRES:
Even today, Gypsies frequently feature in vampire fiction and film, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's book "Dracula" in which the Szgany gypsies served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth and guarding him.
In reality, Gypsies originated as nomadic tribes in northern India, but got their name from the early belief that they came from Egypt. By 1000 AD they started spreading westward and settled in Turkey for a time, incorporating many Turkish words into their Romany language.
By the 14th century they were all through the Balkans and within two more centuries had spread all across Europe. Gypsies arrived in Romania a short time before Vlad Dracula was born in 1431.
Their religion is complex and varies between tribes, but they have a god called O Del, as well as the concept of Good and Evil forces and a strong relationship and loyalty to dead relatives. They believed the dead soul entered a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stayed around the body and sometimes wanted to come back. The Gypsy myths of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire myths of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands.
The ancient home of the Gypsies, India has many mythical vampire figures. The Bhuta is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wandered around animating dead bodies at night and attacked the living like a ghoul. In northern India could be found the brahmaparusha, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.
The most famous Indian vampire is Kali who had fangs, wore a garland of corpses or skulls and had four arms. Her temples were near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.
Sara or the Black Goddess is the form in which Kali survived among Gypsies. Gypsies have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptised a Gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24th in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred.
One Gypsy vampire was called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire was believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or not properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper.)
Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would exhaust the husband. Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had animal appendages, etc. was believed to be a vampire.
Even plants or dogs, cats, or farm animals could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood.
To get rid of a vampire people would hire a dhampire (the son of a vampire and his widow) to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it.
In spite of the disruption of Gypsy lives by the various eastern European communist regimes, they still retain much of their culture. In 1992 a new king of the Gypsies was chosen in Bistritz, Romania.

BATS:
No discussion of vampires is even thinkable without talking about bats. They are integral to the modern day concept of the vampire, but this was not always the case.
Many cultures have various myths about bats. In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the Bathouse of the Underworld. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. On the other hand, the Gypsies thought them lucky - they wore charms made of bat bones. And in England the Wakefield crest and those of some others have bats on them.
So how did bats end up becoming associated with vampires? There are only three species of vampires bats in the entire world, all of which occur in Central and South America. During the 16th century the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with them and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their mythical vampires. It wasn't long before they began to associate bats with their vampire legends. Over the following centuries the association became stronger and was used by various people, including James Malcom Rhymer who wrote "Varney the Vampyre" in the 1840's. Stoker cemented the linkage of bats and vampires in the minds of the general public.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VAMPIRE CONTROVERSY:
Today everyone is familiar with vampires, but in Britain very little was known of vampires prior to the 18th century. What brought the vampire to the attention of the general public? During the 18th century there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires.
This controversy was directly responsible for England's current vampire myths. In fact, the word Vampire only came into English language in 1732 via an English translation of a German report of the much publicized Arnold Paole vampire staking in Serbia.
Western scholars seriously considered the existence of vampires for the first time rather than just brushing them off as superstition. It all started with an outbreak of vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1725-1734.
Two famous cases involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole. Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Soon Plogojowitz returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.
In the other famous case Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who had been attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After death people began to die and it was believed by everyone that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours.
These two incidents were extremely well documented. Government officials examined the cases and the bodies, wrote them up in reports, and books were published afterwards of the Paole case and distributed around Europe. The controversy raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural people having an epidemic of vampire attacks and digging up bodies all over the place. Many scholars said vampires didn't exist - they attributed reports to premature burial, or rabies which causes thirst.
However, Dom Augustine Calmet, a well respected French theologian and scholar, put together a carefully thought out treatise in 1746 which said vampires did exist. This had considerable influence on other scholars at the time.
Eventually, Austrian Empress Marie Theresa sent her personal physician to investigate. He said vampires didn't exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemics. But by then everyone knew about vampires and it was only a matter of time before authors would preserve and mould the vampire into something new and much more accessible to the general public.

For the next part, credit goes to KibaB and the Nightfall Asylum Brotherhood:

Vampire

A supernatural entity, revenant or supernaturally endowed person who attacks living things, weakening and possibly destroying them. The vampire has no single definition, but represents types of entities and people. In Western lore, the vampire is primarily the returning dead who drain the life force of the living. Other types of vampires exist. Wide varieties of vampiric or vampirelike entities are found in lore and mythologies around the world.

Possibly the most inclusive definition of vampires is put forth by folklorist Jan L. Perkowski:

...a being which derives sustenance from a victim, who is weakened by the experience. The sustenance may be physical or emotional in nature.


This definition encompasses the returning dead, living vampires, psychic vampirism, clinical campirism, and vampire sorcerers and witches.

A 19th-century definition of vampires, given by the Century Dictionary and reported in the Providence Journal of Rhode Island on March 21, 1892, presents beliefs about vampires:

A kind of spectral being or ghost still possessing a human body, which, according to a superstition existing among the Slavic and other races of the lower Danube, leaves the grave during the night and maintains a semblance of life by sucking the warm blood of men and women while they are asleep. Dead wizards, werewolves, heretics and other outcasts became vampires, and anyone killed by a vampire. On the discovery of a vampire's grave, the body, which is supposed to be found fresh and ruddy, must be disinterred, thrust through with a white thorn stake, and burned in order to render it harmless.


In the early 20th century, Montague Summers gave this description of the vampire:

The vampire has a body, and it is his own body. He is neither dead nor alive; but living in death. He is an abnormality; the androgyne in the phantom world; a pariah among friends.


Vampires originate in Slavic lore, however, some scholars hold that they originate in classical lore. Vampires have a strong presence in the folklore of Greece and where Slavic influence has reached in Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia. In it's earliest forms, vampires are related to eclipse demons and to werewolves. Later they became associated primarily with the returning dead. A vampire returned to the world of the living to take away life through wasting illnesses and a draining of blood.

Vampires are associated with contagious illnesses and plagues, crop blights and droughts. They embody fears of death and the consequences of improper burial, sudden death, and the lives of sin and crime. The European vampire became contaminated with the lore of other wasting entities, such as the nightmare demon, the poltergeist and the incubus and succubus. Characteristics of the vampire include poltergeist disturbances , unpleasant dreams, and sexual assaults during sleep. Vampires can shape-shift into animals, most often cats, dogs, sheep, wolves, snakes, birds, and horses. Bats are not prevalent in European vampire lore, but have been popularized in fiction and film.

Vampires are also types of living people who possess supernatural powers. Traditionally, these have been individuals born with a marked physical trait, or who are sorcerers or witches. In contemporary times, due to influences of populars literature and films, vampires are seen as supernaturally powerful people who are initiated into vampirism by choice or by attack by a vampire. Shared blood-drinking has a strong erotic appeal.


Appearance of the Term Vampire

The word vampire made its first appearance in French literature and correspondence in the late 17th century. The French publication Mercure Galant reported vampire cases in 1693 and 1694 in Poland and Russia. The term also was used in 1737 in Lettres Juives. In 1746 Dom Augustine Calmet made the word vampire a household term in France with the publication of his Dissertations sur les apparitions et sur les revenants et les vampires.

A cognate of vampire--the Polish term Upior--was published in German in scholarly literature in 1721, and in the media in newspaper accounts in 1725. Johann Fluckinger's reports of vampires in Medvegia appeared in 1732, and was translated into English.

The first use of vampire in German belles lettres appeared in 1748 in the poem "Der Vampyr" by August Ossenfelder, and most notably was used by Goethe in 1779 in "Die Braut von Cornith."

In England, William of Newburgh described cases of "blood-sucking" revenants in the 12th century. In 1679, in a work by Paul Ricaut, State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Ricaut describes the phenomenon of vampires but does not name them:

...a pretended demon, said to delight in sucking human blood, and to animate the bodies of dead persons, which when dug up, are said to be found florid and full of blood.


By 1688 the term vampire evidently was known in England. In Observations of the Revolution of 1688, vampires is used to describe business practices.

The term was used in the anonymous work Travels of 3 English Gentlemen from Venice to Hamburg, Being the Grand Tour of Germany in the Year 1734, which was published in 1810. Travels gives the first English explanation of vampires in some detail, quoting a paragraph from John Heinrich Zopfius's Dissertatio de Vampiris Seruirnsibus(1733):

These Vampyres are supposed to be the bodies of deceased persons, animated by evil spirits, which come out of the graves, in the night time, suck the blood of many of the living, and thereby destroy them. Such a notion will, probably, be looked upon as fabulous and exploded, by many people in England; however, it is not only countenanced by Baron Valvasor, and many Carnioleze noblemen, gentlemen, etc., as we were informed, but likewise actually embraced by some writers of good authority. M. Jo. Henr. Zopfius, director of the Gymnasium of Essen, a person of great erudition, has published a dissertation upon them, which is extremely learned and curious, from whence we shall beg leave to transcribe the following paragraph: "The Vampyres, which come out of the graves in the night-time, rush upon people sleeping in their beds, suck out all their blood, and destroy them. They attack men, woman, and children, sparing neither age nor sex. The people attacked by them complain of suffocation, and a great interception of spirits, [exhaustion] after which, they soon expire. Some of them, asked at the point of death, what is the matter with them, say they suffer in the manner just related from people lately dead, or rather the specters of those people; upon which their bodies , from the description given of them, by the sick person, being dug out of the graves, appear in all parts, as the nostrils, cheeks, breast, mouth, etc. turgid and full of blood. Their countenances are fresh and ruddy; and their nails, as well as hair, very much grown. And, though they have been much longer dead than many other bodies, which are perfectly putrefied, not the least mark of corruption is visible upon them. Those who are destroyed by them, after their death, become Vampyres; so that, to prevent so spreading an evil, it is found requisite to drive a stake through the dead body, from whence, on this occasion, the blood flows as if the person was alive. Sometimes the body is dug out of the grave and burnt to ashes; upon which, all disturbances cease. The Hungarians call these specters Pamgri, and the Serbians Vampyres; but the etymon, or reason of these names, is not known..."


Zopfius's description was cited in many subsequent English works on vampires, including the writings of Summers.

From the early 19th century, the term and concept of vampires was firmly established in English literature and the popular press. In 1819 the first English story about vampires, The Vampyre, was published and became an immediate success in England and Europe. Much of its success was due to insinuation that Lord Byron authored it; it was written by his one-time physician, John Polidori, who plagiarized an oral story told by Byron. More works on vampires followed.

Vampire lore was imported to the American colonies and was especially prominent in New England areas ravaged by tuberculosis epidemics.


Etymology of Vampire

The origin of the word vampire has been debated by scholars ever since it made its first appearance in Western literature and media. Turkish, Hungarian, Greek, and Slavic sources have been put forward. Scholarly opinions of the word fall into four general groups:

*The first group is oriented around the opinion of Franz Miklosich, a late 19th-century Austrian linguist, who stated vampire and the Slavic terms Upior, uper, and upyr all derive from uber, a Turkish term for "witch." Montague Summers was among those who relied on Miklosich as an authority.
*The second group subscribes to the theory of a classical origin of the word. Summers also suggested that the Greek word for "to drink" is the origin of vampire.
*The third group, which includes most contemporary scholars, favors a Slavic origin with the Serbian word bamiiup as the root noun. Other possibilities put forward are the Serbo-Croatian verb pirati ("to blow") and the Lithuanian verb wempti ("to drink"). Still another theory put forward is that bamiiup is only a borrowing from an earlier Greek term.
*The fourth group includes some contemporary English and American writers who hold that vampire is a recent term of Hungarian origin. Raymond T. McNally opined that the Hungarian word vampir was the source of vampire. However, vampir postdates the first appearance of the word vampire in the West by more than a century.



Types of Vampires

Vampires can be categorized as follows:

*folkloric vampires
*living vampires
*literary vampires
*psychic vampires
*psychotic vampires


Folkloric vampires include a wide spectrum of revenants and demonic beings, who have supernatural powers and characteristics and drain the vitality or blood from the living. Examples are the returning dead who died of plague, drowning, murder, suicide, or unnatural or suddenly violent causes, or who died as a result of being killed by an active vampire; and corpses who become possessed by demonic or evil spirits. In Serbian lore, honest people cannot become vampires, unless a bird or animal flies or walks over their corpse. the soul is in the bones only as long as a person is alive.

The returning dead are the most common type of vampire. They come out at night, especially midnight, and must return to their graves by the crowing of the c**k at dawn. They do not come out on Saturday, when they must remain in their graves. They enter homes through keyholes and under doorsills and windowsills.

Living vampires are people who act as vampires while alive. Traditionally, they are certain supernaturally empowered people, such as witches and sorcerers, who drink blood and cause wasting illnesses and deaths, and crop blights. Living vampires are also people destined to become vampires after death, such as those born with the caul or born with a tail (protuberance at the end of the spine) or one or two teeth.

In contemporary times, living vampires are individuals who believe themselves to be vampires, more or less in accordance with popular fictional vampires and vampire motifs. Such individuals consider themselves "made" vampires after a blood-drinking and exchange ritual with an individual who is believed to already be a vampire. Many call themselves "vampyres" to differentiate themselves from fictional vampires.

Literary vampires are created in fiction, poetry, film, and the arts. They are based on folkloric vampires, but many have characteristics that have been invented by their creators.

Psychic vampires are living persons who either deliberately or unwittingly drain the energy and vitality of other people. Deliberate psychic vampirism can be accomplished through magic and ill intent. In the broadest sense, any act that drains another person can be considered a form of psychic vampirism, such as gift-giving that is intended to create a sense of obligation, and individuals who constantly ask for service or favors.

Psychotic vampires are people who commit blood crimes, such as mutilating or killing others and drinking their blood. Some of these individuals are declared criminally insane.


Prevention and Destruction of Vampires

Slavic customs call for various methods of preventing and destroying vampires. The most prudent approach is to bury a body properly. If a person is feared to become a vampire, such as the victim of an untimely death, a suicide or a criminal, preventative measures are taken at the time of burial. These include mutilating and staking the corpse and filling the coffin with various materials designed to keep the spirit from escaping the grave.

If a spirit has escaped the grave and is attacking the living as a vampire, the grave of the vampire is opened and the corpse is staked, mutilated, weighed down with stones, dismembered, or burned to ashes. If the identity of the vampire is unknown, a hunt must be undertaken to discover which corpse is in a "vampire condition," that is, incorrupt and exuding fresh-appearing blood from the orifices. In earlier times, vampire hunters, individuals endowed with the supernatural ability to detect and destroy vampires, were employed to search out and eradicate the culprit. If a vampire hunter was not available, villagers undertook their own searches, by digging up graves of the most likely suspects, or by employing various methods such as the use of white horses to detect the right graves.

Among some Muslim Slavic Gypsies, vampires can be destroyed by certain animals, chiefly the wolf, followed by a dog that has "four eyes," or two marks resembling eyes over each eye. In some cases, the dog must be black and the wolf must be white. Among other Gypsies, the wolf is the only creature that can strangle a vampire, but dogs and horses can sense one.

Contemporary popular fiction and film hold that sunlight and crosses destroy vampires. There is no folklore tradition for vampires being destroyed by exposure to sunlight and many anecdotal cases in the folklore literature report vampires active in daylight hours. The origins of the destructive power of sunlight are found in the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau.

The power of the cross over vampires--as well as over evil entities in general--is a Christian influence imposed upon a pagan folklore tradition. The Christian Church was opposed to the vampire cults it encountered in pagan Europe and sought either to suppress them altogether by forbidding vampire practices or subordinate them to the power of the church by requiring priests to officiate.

Magical spells and exorcism are performed against psychic vampirism.


Vampirelike Entities

All mythologies have predatory, vampirelike entities that prey upon the living, sometimes with fatal consequences. Some are demons, while others are the restless spirits of the dead. Some are sexually rapacious, while others like to drink blood and cause illnesses and misfortune. Some are cannibalistic in nature. One significant type of vampirelike being is the childbirth demon that preys upon infants and women who have just given birth. Many vampirelike entities have shape-shifting ability, such as demons who can masquerade as people and animals, and people who are half-human, half-animal or half-human, half-demon.


Vampire Hunters
Coutesy of Wikipedia
Professional" or semi-professional vampire hunters played some part in the vampire lore of the Balkans (especially in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romani folk beliefs). In Bulgarian, the terms used to designate them included glog (lit. "hawthorn", the species of wood used for the stake), vampirdzhiya, vampirar, dzhadazhiya, svetocher etc.
They were usually either born on Saturday or the offspring of a vampire and a woman (typically his widow), called a dhampir in Romani or a vampirović in Serbian; both facts gave them the innate capability of detecting vampires (and sometimes other supernatural entities as well). In the case of the Sabbatarians, it was believed in some places that they needed to be fed with meat from a sheep killed by a wolf (Bulgarian vâlkoedene); this would enable them not to fear the things they saw.
In some traditions, the killing of vampires was only performed by vampire hunters. Aside of the well-known manners of execution (staking the corpse, burning it etc) that were normally entrusted to them, the hunters were also capable of using other methods such as enticing the invisible creature with music and then shooting it, or throwing its hat or head-cloth into the water and telling it to go fetch it (which caused it to drown).[1][2][3]

Usefull links:
Plot links
. razz lot Page:.

Brotherhood Promoted Links
.:Original Thread:.
.:Brotherhood's Open GCD Discussion:.
.:Orchid Discussion:.

Other Organizations
.:Louie Von Helson Fan Thread:.
.:Zhivago Fan Thread:.
.:The Order of the Orchid:.

JOHNNY K GAMBINO
Info from Gaiapedia.com

Johnny K. Gambino is the most powerful man in all of Gaia. His first appearance was made at the First Gaia Anniversary Ball along with his son, Gino Gambino. The Ball was held in his mansion on the Isle de Gambino. He later also held the Easter 2k4 party, the Gaia Olympics and the Halloween 2k4 event. Unfortunately, the Halloween 2k4 Party ended with his mansion being destroyed and his fortunes being dissolved.

Gino Gambino and Johnny K. Gambino
After the loss of his wealth, another family, The Von Helson Sisters decided to take the role of 'most powerful women of Gaia'. They hosted The Second Gaian Anniversary Ball. Gambino was disgusted at their pointless displays of wealth, disparaging them and saying that their late father would never have approved. He started causing havoc for the Von Helsons by promoting himself, even giving away some G Pins. In retaliation the Von Helson twins held Gino hostage. They told Gambino that he must agree to never come back to Durem (and never attend events hosted by the twins) in order to get Gino back. Gambino agreed, finally choosing to be a good parent, and was able to have Gino back.


With the people on his side, he regained his power from donations in the spring of 2005. With this, he built a gigantic tower. However, he reached his demise (for the moment) when an unknown assassin shot him from the Durem clock tower on April 1st, 2005. He was missing and presumed dead for a year, with Gino taking over his legacy.
One year after his supposed death, it was revealed that he has merged with Gino on a molecular level, allowing them to split apart when LabTech X injected them with a Vial of Unknown Liquid. He and Gino are now both alive and well.
During the Halloween 2k6 event, he released the Red Bino Energy Drink, to raise money to rebuild his mansion. It was later revealed that Gambino joined a partnership with the Zurg's leader, "Mother," which shocked some Gaians. A little while later, on December 12, in an exclusive interview with Cindy Donovinh, he stated that his partnership with Mother had ended. He stated that some members of the Gaian Resistance showed him blueprints showing a Zurg plan involving the Zurg homeworld, Gaia, a "stargate" (which some Gaians call it), and Santa Claus. He said he showed the blueprints to Mother, but he disliked her explanation. He immediately severed all ties with Mother.
Retrieved from "http://gaia.wikia.com/wiki/NPC:Johnny_K._Gambino"


INFO ON G CORP


The History of G CORP


Shortly after the release of the Gaia Guild system,
the NPC Johnny K. Gambino created in his name a guild
to be known as "G CORP". From there, and leading up
to halloween 2004 (H2K4), The G CORP storyline started,
and we were shown many great things. At this guild,
various "LabTechs" would keep Journals that we were
allowed to read, and it showed us things that were
happening behind closed doors. In the beginning, they
were all something of a happy staff, working towards
the goals of Johnny K. Gambino.

Originally, as we found out, G CORP was originally
created to create a virus for Gambino. This virus,
was suppose to take the better traits of two subjects,
and make the first much better. In short, Gambino
was ashamed of his son, Gino, and wanted to manufacture
this virus, to make Gino a worth heir of the Gambino name.

As H2K4 was fast approaching, we found that an employee
of G CORP, known only as the mysterious "LabTechX",
was selling Vials of Unknown liquid in the Market Place
for 100 gold a piece. Unsure of why they were there,
what they were there for, or how long they might be there,
users all over gaia began buying the vials up in great
quantities. Gambino was to hold a bash at his mansion
on Halloween, and it was also to celebrate this birthday
of his son, which is not even in the month of October.

H2K4 was here, and we all went to Gambino's mansion to party.
There were forums set up for this, and we all were having
a good time for awhile. Some time after it started, a new
thread was made there in which several LabTechs were
celebrating the retirement of one of their own, LabTech062.
The party would not go long though, as undead LabTech began
munching on brains, and starting the great H2K4 event.
From what we know, this LabTech was ordered to be dealt with,
for trying to get out of the CORP. in the process, he was
stabbed in the head with the "G-Virus". instead of combining
his cells with that of another, his living cells combined
with the dying, making him the first Zombie.

The infection spread quickly, and soon, LabTech123 was the
only employee not to be infected. Once this occured, they
began to raom the mansion, biting many unsuspecting party
guests. Madness swept the mansion, as nobody was safe any longer.
Gamino quickly handed out shotguns to the surviving hopefuls,
and had them defend themselves, and the mansion, from the rising
undead ranks. Gaians shot and bit one another for most of the
night, but at one point, it became too much, and the Zombies
far outnumbered the living. (We found out on this day, that the
unknown vials were capable of returning you to your normal
gaian form.) A man named Bucho appeared, whom was the head of
Security for the Gambinos. He told Gambino that the "Silent Flash"
protocol had been activated, and that they must quickly leave
the mansion. Silent Flash, was the code name for a nuke that
was fired up from around Durem, and aimed directly at the mansion.
When the nuke hit, Johhny K. Gambino had barely escaped, as you
may see him lunging out of the explosion in a picture taken
that night. Gino went missing, and the LabTechs and zombies
were all beleived to have perished. LabTech123, however,
made it out alive, we later found out.

Both LabTechX and LabTech123 were later spotted at the Second
Gaian Anniversary Ball, but little is known what went on there.

Halloween 2005 came, and so did G CORP once more.
Bucho came out, and invited us all to the Gambino Mansion once more,
an invitation that came from Gino Gambino. The mansion was
reconstructed, as was the Secret Underground Test Facility.
The facility was not so much of a secret this time though,
and LabTech123 was now head of operations there, under the
supervision of Gino. Gino did not know what his father was
working on there before him, but he ordered that the experiments
be continued anyway. LabTech123 had with him a Grunny, and he made
a new batch of the G-Virus from it. Many grunnies were created in
doing so, and a crisis was bound to occur once more. Whitout
hesitation, LabTechX appeared, and let loose the grunnies from
their cages, bringing us the H2K5 event. Bucho requested that
we capture them, and in doing so, users became "Grombies".
There were several levels, this highest of which granted you
your very own Grunny atop your head. Unlike the Zombie skins of
H2K4, which were deleted by the admin, the Grombie skins still
remain, so long as you never drink one of the unknown vials.

In the end, the mansion was burnt down, by an unknown cause.
Gino was dining with Sasha, and saved her from the fire, but was
trapped under the burning rubble himself. Thre is speculation,
that LabTech123 died during this event, but that has never been
Proven our discounted. Since then, all was silent from G CORP.
LabTechX was the only remaining member, whom we never saw
anywhere publicly. It was not until April 1st, 2K6, that we saw him again.

X came to the Barton Cliffs, where Gino and Ian were fighting
in the name of Sasha. Ian was still weak from some other
prior events (Such as when he was shot by the sniper), but
he stood his ground nonetheless. Cindy Donovinh was overhead
in her chopper, and X arrived a moment before Ian was to take
a heavy punch from Gino. X took the blow himself, not wincing
even for a moment. He got a vial out from in his jacket
(Which we have identified as the very last vial from his shop,
that he refused to sell), and he emptied it into the heart of Gino,
causing a transformation within him. Gino's arm grew to cartoonish
proportions, and he grabbed ahold of LabTechX. They both grappled,
and fell over the cliffs. at the bottom, a bright flash occured,
that encompassed all of Gaia that day. There formed a crater
at the cliffs, and X had gone missing. Standing at the bottom of the
crater, was now Gino, and his father, Johnny K. The Gambino's were
themselves once more, but that was supposedly the end of G CORP.

After this, the alien race known as the Zurg were attracted to that very
event by it's energy signature, and the Zurg invasion occured
shortly after.

What we find important here, however, is that Gambino made a deal
with the Zurg mother, in energy drink sales. Zurg Energy turned you
into an alien, and Red Bino made you normal once more.
One of the Zurg aliens died, by the hand of his brother, and the
G-Virus was used to revive him. While we are unsure exactly what
he truly is anymore, the infliction has become to be known as "DARKNRGY",
and it proves to us, that G CORP lives on. Mother warned us in
meetings in towns, that Gambino was up to his experiments again,
and that there was an even greater force rising.

While much of this is unclear, it is becoming more and more
clear to us, that G CORP does indeed live on.

We here at G CORP Support, are here to ensure that coming.
and if it should somehoe fail... it will then be our aim,
to replace the official G CORP, and become what was once lost to us.

G CORP will live, and we will all make sure of this.

~Captain MK
LabTechMK Wrote:
Familiar Faces



Johnny K. Gambino
Founded G CORP, and the G CORP Guild. Responsible for the G-Virus.


Bucho
Head of Security for G CORP


Grunny
Product of the G-virus given to a Bunny. LabTech101 named it
"grunny" for it's green fir. (Green Bunny)


LabTech013


LabTech062


LabTech101


LabTech123


LabTech126


LabTech137


LabTech138


LabTech247


LabTech722


LabTech909


LabTech912


LabTech957


LabTechX


Flarn (Alien 09)


~Captain MK


GCS History


October 23rd, 2006: GCS is born.
In eight days time, we would have our first halloween without
G CORP since they first came to be. Before then, there was
a guild of several users who called themselves G CORP, but
they came and went, much like a fad would. They are the
unoffical G CORP guild, a place I was once a part of myself.
I was made crew there shortly after I began to gather more
and more supporters in the name of G CORP, but I saw no
potential in that guild. While we all did things in the name
of G CORP, we had different goals in the end. It would not
be long from then, that I officialy quit that guild, and formed
G CORP Support. Some members were lost in transition, as some
stayed with the dying guild, while the brave few followed me
into what we all no may call our home.

The goal of G CORP Support (GCS) is a simple one;
We either Revive the official G CORP, or replace them ourselves.
While it is hard to live up to the legacy that is Johnny K. Gambino,
Should the need arise, I believe that we can take on the task of
carrying on the G CORP name.

Currently, we are the largest, and most active G CORP based guild.
There have been several others created over time, but none
have yet to challenge us. 2 of them, in fact, I had written to
the captains about a possible merging of guilds, and the captains
themselves didnt even know the G CORP storyline.
It is a shame to see such waste.

Some of our own members, it seems, have branched off and tried
making their own G CORP guilds as well. ... This will be dealt with
soon enough. The goal here is not to split those loyal to G CORP,
but to gather them up, that we may make a difference in Gaia.
It is also our goal then, to assimilate rouge guilds, or destroy them.
G CORP is a great power, and it must not be divided.

The GCS guild was formed early November, not even a month after
recruiting first began. Since that time, we have gained over
500 LabTechs, most of which want nothing more than for the CORP to
return, and some of which are new, and interested greatly in the
work of both the CORP, and GCS.

Activity comes and goes here at the guild, but we have never to my
knowledge gone a single day without a post. While Activity may be
lacking at times, and there are those who come once, and never
return, I rest easy knowing that in the end, we will at least have
enough loyal and active members to represent the size of the original
G CORP, if not bigger.

There are a few here that stand out above the rest. They are those
who are dedicated solely to our cause, and our fellow members.
We have come so close, that you may even consider us something of
a family. I will list shortly, some of the names of these few.
The list grows a little with time, and I hope that we can at one point
have a much greater number of people whom I would consider family.

Among these members, are our current Crew.

Sasha-Ak-Amun, the Head of Research. She is a hard working young
woman, and I highly value her time here, along with the PM conversations
that we sometimes have. Her work in closing Sector Y, especially, has
proven to me that she is willing to take charge of something, and do
what she has to to see it through.

LabTech133, the Head of Security. While he may sometimes be
confused for a girl, and seems prone to injury, he is an energetic
fellow, and seems to love the RP and his work here dearly. He puts
great thought into the things that he does, and covers all that he can.

Squeertzy, My Secretary. Also my Wife in real life.
It is hard not to consider her family, as she really is, but
she also has found her way into the RP, and G CORP. She has grown
attached to the very things that I have, and is a great help to
both myself, and anyone else should she be available. Her current
work schedule makes her unavailable at times, but it should pass soon.
I expect a great deal to come from her in the future.

[G CORP] Menace, the Head of Recruitment. His support for the
CORP has risen substantially since our beginnings, and he has
proven irreplacable in many aspects. He is a good graphics artist,
much like myself, but prefers animated graphics to the static style
that I myself have chosen. Upon his promotion to Recruitment Head,
our memberbase has rocketed to new heights. We approach my goal
of 500 members at an astounding rate. Making newbies active is a hard
task, but he never fails at keepoing them interested.

my_sad_ending, The Strike Team Leader. While she does not know
it yet, and neither did any of you, I am as of now promoting her to
RP Moderator. This position will allow her to help ensure that those
active in the RP follow the rules, and that things continue to go smooth.
"Crimson", as she is known to most, is deeper into the guild RP than
most of our other members, and she brings that depth to a level that we
all may enjoy. While she is sometimes torn between requests and actions
of other guilds, she always comes back to us, with little or no hesitation.

There are others beside the crew, that have worked their way into
our hearts in their own ways, some unique to an unfathomable degree.

Elfsneef, The Recon Team Leader. It takes great patience
at times, and an even better knowledge of videogames, to keep up with
Elf in conversation regardless of where she goes. Some refuse to try,
and many are left confused, but I revel in the fact that I always seem
to know just what she is talking about. For some reason, I feel a closeness
to her that i get with no other member of GCS. Not in all of Gaia even.

????, There was a young girl, full of energy, and highly active.
Nobody can seem to remember hr now though.

????, There used to be a Vice Captain, but the need for one
was banished, along with the person who held that place.

~Captain MK



Thank you too Quinn Cillian and his mysterious friend who gave him the info.


VON HELSON SISTERS

Making their debut on February 17th, 2005, The Von Helson Sisters Anne Corinne and Marie Von Helson were the hostesses of the The Second Gaian Anniversary Ball that took place a day later. Claiming to be the two most powerful women on Gaia, [1], their appearance coincided with the Von Helson Mansion appearing in Durem.
Throughout the Ball itself, the sisters made sporadic appearances to users and presented them with 'swank', in the form of the left and right halves of a V Pin which the Helsons bore on their breasts, as well as hats and balloons.
As the ball progressed, Gambino himself slipped in and began the discreet distribution of G Pins amongst the users as well. Eventually, the Von Helson sisters called him out and evicted him from their mansion, using the captured Gino as a hostage.
With the appearance of Gambino's Tower in Isle de Gambino, the sisters once again took action and appeared outside their Durem mansion, selling Anti-Gambino Picket Signs for 500g each.
In a climax of the Gambino vs. Von Helsons event, Gambino's Tower, built with donations from users, collapsed with Gambino's assassination, reaching across the map to fall squarely on the Von Helson Mansion, but this wasn't the end of the Sisters... Injured and embarrassed from what happened to them, they would wait for the perfect moment to return and claim Gaia again.