Dating as far back as 4000 B.C., a type of vampiric spirit called an ekimmou was first written of in ancient Assyria, making it one of the first and oldest myths known to mankind. The lore of the ekimmou spread and survived over the years, as the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Inuit all developed this same type of vampire myth in parallel evolution (see ANCIENT BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN VAMPIRES).

The ekimmou is bitter and angry, doomed to stalk the earth, unable to find peace, desperately wanting to live again. Ghostlike in appearance, it attacks humans relentlessly until they are dead. Then the ekimmou possesses the body and does with it as it will. It has been known to stalk a person for years, leaving them alone for long periods of time and then returning suddenly, taunting with its telekinetic ability.

One is created when burial procedures are not followed, such as when a person is not buried properly, when the family of the deceased does not make the proper funeral offerings, when funeral offerings are not plentiful enough, or simply when the body is not being buried at all. An ekimmou can also be created if a woman dies while pregnant or giving birth, if love is never realized, or if a person dies of starvation, heat exhaustion, or leaves behind no surviving family.

Source: Mew, Traditional Aspects of Hell, 12; Muss-Arnolt, Concise Dictionary of the Assyrian Language, 20, 36, 489; Perrot, A History of Art in Chaldæa and Assyria, 345; Thompson, Semitic Magic, 9, 39