History
There is nearly three months of continuous day where the sun doesn't set on Barrow between May 10th and August 2nd. Conversely, between November 18 and December 17th the sun never rises, resulting in thirty continuous days of night (hence the name of the series).
The vampire Marlow sought out Barrow for this purpose, realizing that a town so remote could easily be cut off from all contact with the outside world. With thirty days of continuous night, the Nosferatu would have the span of an entire month to consume the inhabitants. Uninterrupted, isolated, and without fear of the sun they would not need to sleep, and needed not fear discovery by the outside world. The massacre that would ensue was finally put to an end by Eben Olemaun, sacrificed himself by turning himself into a vampire to save his wife Stella Olemaun. Eben killed one of the elder vampires, Vicente. This scared the other vampires, who retreated from Barrow. During the vampire occupation 443 residents of Barrow were killed, and only 19 residents survived.
Barrow continued to be plagued by the occasional small vampire attack. The surviving residents of Barrow would not be taken by surprise again. They erected a fence around the perimeter of the town with guardtowers along the fence as well as UV floodlights. Residents possess firearms and explosives, and the town has installed machine-gun turrets in the town. Barrow would experience the occasional vampire attack periodically, but nothing like the first attack. Many new residents of the town are relatives of those that were killed during the first attack. During the annual 30 days of night some residents of Barrow would leave, some would hide until the sun rose again in December, and some chose to stay and take up arms, preparing for the possibility of another attack.
Three years after the first attack on Barrow, the residents (and protectors) of Barrow noticed a number of vampire scouts popping up before November 18. Knowing that another attack was impending, the residents of Barrow prepared for the worst. After the deaths of most of the vampire elders over the course of a few years, vampire society had fallen into somewhat of a chaotic state, and the leadership hierarchy was now uncertain. The vampire youth were shamed by the defeat at Barrow, subsequent defeats by Stella Olemaun, and frightened that the living survivors of Barrow could continue to expose their existence. The next attack planned for Barrow would be to wipe Barrow off the map, killing and burning everything, to redeem themselves ensure their collective survival.
This time the vampires amassed prepared, and now armed with weapons. Despite their preparedness for attack, the residents of Barrow that chose to stay through the winter did not expect the vampires to come armed. Nevertheless, they continued to fight hard for their small Alaskan town. During the attack vampires and humans alike would witness blurred attacks on vampires, quick enough that it was difficult to tell what was happening until more and more vampires lay dead. At the end of the battle the vampire forces were left dead. Two, lone figures lingered in the horizon. These were once residents Eben Olemaun and Stella Olemaun Olemaun who announced their presence as protectors of Barrow. Eben and Stella swore that they wouldn't let anyone else ever harm the residents of Barrow before fading into the Darkness.
Casualties of Barrow
30 Days of Night
This is a list of deaths during the first attack on Barrow. Because there were over 400 deaths during the first attack on Barrow it is impossible to name all of the characters that died (most were not named in the comic books), so this is a list of the named characters that died.
Humans: Eben Olemaun, John Ikos, William Kitka, Gus Lambert
Vampires: Marlow Roderick, Vicente
Return to Barrow
This is a list of deaths during the second attack on Barrow.
Humans:
Vampires: Dane, Agent Norris, George
The Real Barrow
Barrow does exist as the Northernmost Settlement in North America, but bears few similarities to the Barrow depicted in the comic. Unlike the books most buildings in barrow are raised on stilts. Prolonged periods of night do occur, but are much longer than the 30 days of the book (the periods of continuous night can last for greater than 60 days). There is little precipitation in Barrow, however the winds that are common to the area do often result in white out conditions similar to those illustrated in the comics. Also land in barrow is tundra, rather than being covered by ice and snow.
Barrow is also no where near as isolated as shown in the comics, having much in the way of air traffic year round.
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30 Days of Night
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