Count

 

Count is a historical title of nobility in some European countries, with varied degrees of relative status and generally occupying a middle position in the nobility system. A count's land was denoted by the etymologically similar English term "county." In the aristocracy structures of several non-European countries, such as hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial Empire, equivalents of the rank of count exist or have existed.

Doctor Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictitious Lithuanian-American serial murderer who is known for eating his victims, earning him the moniker "Hannibal the Cannibal." Hannibal Lecter was born in a wealthy aristocratic family in a historic castle in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1933. His father, simply known as Count Lecter, was a descendent of the warlord "Hannibal the Grim" (1365-1428), who defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. He is the eighth generation in his family to carry his ancestor's surname.

The main adversary of A Series of Unfortunate Events and its various adaptations is Count Olaf. He is a crook, mastermind, and serial killer who commands the Volunteer Fire Department's Fire-Starting members. He is a Baudelaire foe who plots to deprive them of the Baudelaire fortune.

The titular character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula is Count Dracula. In succeeding works of fiction, he is regarded as both the prototypical and quintessential vampire. Some features of the character are said to be based on the 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler, better known as Dracula, and Sir Henry Irving, an actor for whom Stoker worked as a personal assistant.