Wankers Explained:
Werewolves were supposedly humans that could turn into wolves at will and that was it. No other powers, not evil, died in normal ways and didn't kill people or eat them. There were many people claiming to be real life werewolves at the time, so much so that people could hire a werewolf to tame wild wolves so that they could protect a person's livestock or prevent wolves from attack a farmer's animals. These supposed werewolves were most likely just people who were particularly good at dog psychology and maybe had a magic trick up their sleave for fooling people into believing they could switch between human and wolf form using a tame wolf and something to distract the client while they swapped places.
Eastern Europe at the time was going through a phase of vegetarianism and had been since before the appearance of werewolves. However a rogue group of these werewolves started eating meat. Horrified by the fact that these people were devouring living creatures, which when you think about it, that's pretty much what meat-eating is, the people of Eastern Europe started a man hunt for all the werewolves which would become a mass histeria that went on until the 20th century even though people got confused along the way and didn't really remember the reasoning behind it, with what theese creatures are supposed to be and how they function becoming highly distorted over time.
Wanker translates as "a person who winks" but they are probably more well know by the alternative spellings of the word "vampir" pronounced "banker" or "shit'trix" pronounced "stricken" or "chicken". Known for being very attractive but lacking the ability to turn into an animal, they are quite possibly the lamest mythological creature in existance. That was until immortality, super human strength, speed and agility and powers of transformation and mind control were added later to the mythology. Frequent in the stories is that vampires lure people's husbands away from their wives, though it's highly uncommon for a vampire to be male and lure women away. Different regions differed on the rules of how they worked and how to stop them, but water in particular was a quite common method of dispatching them and the vampirism was normally caught via kissing on the lips.
The belief that vampires consumed humans or part of them such as their blood was not universal and most vampires it seems consumed or consumed from other animals instead. The belief that animals could become vampires was also highly unpopular, and though suggested many times in folklore, it's often laughed at and discarded as foolish nonsense by people who don't understand the folklore properly.
Later Christian influences came up with the idea that holy objects and religion worked on vampires as well as expensive commodities that could be purchased from priests such as salt or silver. Garlic unfortunately was not a very commonly understood way to stop a vampire and it only seemed to work for certain vampires from certain locations. Also the theory that vampires needed to be close to the earth of their home, or that they needed your permission to enter your home, was pretty much exclusive to popular fiction, though older stories rather than mass produced books.
Mirrors and other forms of reflective surfaces, as well as shadows and other depictions of person who is a vampire such as puppets or paintings, seemed to operate differently depending on local folklore, and vampire hunters would need to keep switching and adapting their methods to suit local beliefs.
Also sunlight is barely mentioned as a method of stopping vampires other than the light being too bright for their eyes, however the fact that vampires are nocturnal is frequently mentioned.
