Erzebet Bathori Timeline

Circa 1180 – Wampyri Faethor Ferenczy impregnates Ezebet Bathori’s great great great grandmother Elspa Bathori.  (Necroscope: Deadspeak by Brian Lumley)

1560 – Erzebet Bathori born.  She is also indirectly related to Voivode Vlad III “the Impaler” of Wallachia.

1575 – She is formally wed to Count Ferenc Nadasdy, whom she doesn’t realize at the time is her own great great great grandfather the Wamphyri Faethor Ferenczy. (Necroscope: Deadspeak by Brian Lumley)  This would seem to have triggered something in her, because during this marriage her behavior began to transcend that of a typically cruel aristocrat of her times.

1600s – Erzebet makes a deal with a Dracula soul-clone and becomes his bride.  Precisely which soul-clone remains a matter of speculation, the two top candidates being Dracula-Matthias and Dracula-Lykos.  At this point, due to her Wamphyri heritage, she demonstrates many vampire characteristics although not yet dead and still able to walk in sunlight.  However, she still needs blood to keep from aging.  (Blood Scarab)  About this time she also had a negative encounter with Dracula-Prime (Dracula Lives #4).  So it would seem from this time onward she herself was aware of the existence of Dracula’s doppelgangers.

 

1611 – Erzebet masquerades for a time as her own daughter Ilona, but eventually the truth comes out when she seeks to marry a young nobleman.  (Countess Dracula film) Captured by the Inquisition, Erzebet’s servants are executed, including the polish werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.  She herself is to be buried alive, but not before swearing vengeance.  (Night of the Werewolf 1972)  In fact she was sealed in a room in her castle, with a young woman of lower nobility named Jeanette to look after her needs.  Jeanette, who had been Erzebet’s favorite and forced to watch many murders, fed the Countess ground glass in her food to kill her (Secret Six from DC Comics)  In the wake of her trial, authorities began hunting vampires in Europe with far greater efficiency, eventually forcing many of them to see the New World (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter)

1614 – Her body is found dead. 

1614-circa 1875 – Erzebet seems to be in the equivalent of torpor, requiring outside intervention to be reborn.  Like many a vampire witch before her, she manages it eventually though.

Circa 1875-1900 – Student of the occult Erika contacts the spirit of Erzebet Bathori, steals a medallion and brings the Countess back to life as a full vampire. (Night of the Werewolf 1972)  Erika becomes Erzebet’s first victim and ‘bride.’  The also-reborn Waldemar Daninsky (brought back via removal of a silver dagger from his heart) manages to kill her, but then she takes possession of Erika’s friend Karen, whom she’d earlier bitten.  As far as anyone knows, this marks the first time she fled her body into another at the point of death

Circa 1887 - In London, Erzebet vampirizes and enslaves a English serial killer of women to serve as a procurer.  This individual rightly or wrongly (mostly wrongly) has been identified as Jack the Ripper (Dark Shadows/Vampirella) .  Most likely, she was still recovering from her original body's second death at the claws and fangs of a werewolf.

Circa 1910 – Erzebet, having been defeated by someone (that adventure remains unchronicled or at least unidentified at this time) is resurrected by a witch named Drolta Tzuentes.  In alliance with Dracula-Matthias (whom she called "uncle") she possessed the body of a Gorgon and fights a member of the Belmont family, John Morris. (Castlevania Bloodlines)  Evidently, from subsequent events this defeat proved very traumatic and she had difficulty rebuilding her strength.,

Prior to 1970 – Erzebet in the body of an elegant blond older woman seduces a young newlywed.  This is a time when she seems adrift, spending literally decades wandering Europe.  She is killed in a car accident but then possesses the newlywed, who is not yet a full vampire.  (Daughters of Darkness)

Prior to 2005 – Erzebet maintains a cult in Montreal. (Eternal 2005)  At this point Erzebet would seem to have become re-invigorated in some way, having regained her ambition.  No longer a loner, she surrounds herself with servants and uses her cult to become increasingly powerful “behind the scenes.”

Prior to 2007 – Erzebet’s death cult includes branches in Slovakia (HostelPart II 2007).  At this point a model in Eastern Europe is tortured and bled to death so a “Mrs. Bathory” could bathe in her blood.

Prior to 2008 – Seeking a way to have all the advantages of undeath but not wishing to fear sunlight, Erzebet seeks a mystical solution in Los Angeles, soon after the death of her ‘husband’ Dracula-Lykos.  Her body is destroyed by an Egyptian “goddess” possessing a mummy and she has to possess a new host.  (BloodScarab 2008)  It seems possible her essence fled into a video game for a time.  (Stay Alive 2006)

Circa 2011/2012 -  Erzebet goes to New York City to seek revenge upon old enemies, running afoul of Vampirealla and (most likely)  Jonathan Collins of Cabot Cove, Maine (not to be confused with his distant cousin Barnabas Collins of Collinsport, Massachusetts).  He and his werewolf cousin Quentin David allied themselves with Vampy and her friend Pantha at this time. (DArk Shadows/Vampirealla)

2013 - By now Erzebet's cult has spread and given her a firm grasp of actual power in Europe especially.  She begins to gather a full "court" around her, echoing that of old including a witch and even a werewolf.  Taking over the mysterious Chateau des Ombres not from from Vyones, France, she begins to gather a large group of undead under her leadership.

Note:  Unlike most vampires of her type, Erzebet is not a shapeshifter, unless she happens to possess someone with that ability.  Her ability to possess others, however, is very nearly a power uniquely hers.  This, and her inherent strength as a powerful undead, makes her one of the most infamous and long-lasting vampire in many, many years.

Many thanks to the scholars of MONSTAAH for their help in putting together this timeline.