Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. | 
They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today`s gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century. | 
Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. |
