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Vampires
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Topic Started: 23 Mar 2009, 09:08 PM (170 Views)
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Clover Ma
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23 Mar 2009, 09:08 PM
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General Information
- Vampires are extremely strong - even the new dead are capable of lifting cars.
- Vampires are faster than most humans, but it is difficult to tell how much faster. Occasionally a vampire also use their mind tricks to change humans perception of what is going on.
- Vampires' senses of hearing and smell are also very strong.
- Vampires make no noise, even the newborn vampires don't make any noise when moving around.
- Vampires are able to appear human only after years of practice. Newly made vampires have difficulty smiling without showing their fangs, and feel as if they are made from carved wood.
- Vampires have the ability to remain completely still, expressionless, and silent. New vampires learn this as they age, while older vampires use this often for effect.
- When a human is bitten, the age that they were turned at is the age they will stay at for their afterlife.
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Clover Ma
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24 Mar 2009, 02:51 PM
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Feeding and Conversion
- Vampires can drink human, lycanthrope, or even animal blood for sustenance and to maintain their spiritual power. They cannot eat physical food, though they can experience the taste of food through human servants. Animal blood is not a sufficient diet. A vampire can survive for extended periods without human or lycanthrope blood, but may be driven insane by the experience.
- Vampires are capable of turning humans into vampires by draining their blood; as a result, many vampires do not drain a human more than three times a month. A sufficiently powerful vampire, however, is capable of turning a human with a single bite. In Laurell K. Hamilton's short story, The Girl Who Was Infatuated With Death, Anita explains to a client, "It has to be three bites within a very short space of time or the body fights off the infection, or whatever the hell it is."
- In modern times, it is impossible for a lycanthrope to contract vampirism (or a vampire to contract lycanthropy). This, and the fact that lycanthrope blood seems to more sustaining than regular human blood, is the reason why vampires prefer lycanthropes as blood donors. In pre-historic times the vampiric blood was weaker than it is now so human beings could be infected with vampirism and lycanthropy simultaneously, resulting in incredibly powerful hybrids. The Mother of Darkness seems to be the oldest and most powerful example of such a hybrid. Others include her "children" and certain members of "The Harlequin".
- When a vampire first rises, it may be confused or dangerous. As a result, persons who might rise as a vampire are stored in a locked morgue, and attended by a vampire counselor who supplies the newly risen dead with an animal to feed on and helps them adjust to their new status.
- If a human is killed during a group feeding and then rises (a very rare occurrence), he or she will rise as an "animalistic vampire," with little or no cognitive ability and with extreme strength and resistance to pain, and can only be controlled by the master that made it, and even then only if he or she is powerful enough.
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Clover Ma
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24 Mar 2009, 02:54 PM
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Repelling and Killing Vampires
- Vampires cannot enter a person's home without invitation. If an invitation is revoked, they are unable to reenter.
- Vampires can typically be killed by fire, decapitation, or a stake through the heart, or any other form of extreme physical trauma to the head or heart. Silver generally causes wounds that heal with approximately the same speed as humans, and thus head or heart shots may be fatal.
- Guns without silver on or in them have no effect on vampires.
- Garlic is very strong to a vampire so they try to avoid it when possible.
- Sunlight is fatal for all vampires. When they sleep during the day it is a death-like sleep and their heart beat is very slow during that time- only vampires with a specific power or are old enough can be awake during the day and even they need protection from direct sunlight.
- Religious symbols can repel and even physically harm vampires providing the person carrying such a symbol is a true believer. A Jew carrying a cross or a Christian wielding a mezzuzah would have no effect.
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Clover Ma
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24 Mar 2009, 02:58 PM
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Mental Abilities
- "Rolling": Vampires can "roll" victims by making eye contact. "Rolling" typically refers to a temporary hypnotic state that vampires can use to conceal their movements (giving them the illusion of instantaneous movement), to give commands to the victim, or to reduce the pain of a vampire's bite. Victims with supernatural power, such as other vampires, animators, human servants, and lycanthropes, display varying amounts of resistance to this technique, but most people avoid the technique by not looking vampires directly in the eyes.
- "Deep Rolling": Given time, a sufficiently powerful vampire can put a victim into an effectively permanent hypnotic state. Vampires sometimes pretend to release a rolled human to appease the police, but if they have been "deep rolled" they can still recall them.
- Mass Hypnosis: Some vampires are able to exert a hypnotic effect over an entire crowd. hypnosis does not have the same permanent effects as "deep rolling". Mass hypnosis is not a widely known vampire power, and has its limits. This form of "mind control" is the only one currently considered legal.
- Vampire's Bite: A vampire's bite can (but apparently does not always) provide the vampire with mental control over the victim. Wounds can be disinfected with holy water but is stings like hell. A vampire's bite can be sexual and a vampire can enter a victims mind while the bit them.
- Empathy: Vampires refer to being able to "smell" emotions such as fear and lust, and some vampires are able to detect lies. It is not clear precisely how much of this ability involves literal scent and how much involves mental powers. A vampire is unable to read their human servant's emotions, which suggests that the technique is not purely physical.
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Clover Ma
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24 Mar 2009, 03:03 PM
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Master Vampires
After a few centuries, some vampires reach "master vampire" status. Other vampires will never become master vampires, although their abilities continue to increase with age to a certain limit.
A sourdre de sang appears able to mask and retard the development of master vampire status in his or her followers.
Master vampires are more powerful than typical vampires with regard to the general abilities discussed above, have the ability to control lesser vampires, and may also develop additional powers. Some of the abilities that master vampires may display include the following:
- Call Animals: Some master vampires have one or more animals to call. Mr. Oliver had the ability to call snakes, Belle Morte can call felines, and the Master of Beasts can call nearly every animal. This ability also allows them to summon and command animals and lycanthropes of that type. A sufficiently powerful lycanthrope can interfere with this call, however. For example, Nikolaos had the ability to call rats and wererats but Rafael temporarily blocked her call, preventing her from calling the wererats of his Rodere against their will. Some masters can call non-animals: Samuel, for example, can call mermaids and mermen.
- Rise Early: Some master vampires, such as Nikolaos, Oliver, and Warrick, are able to wake, move, and use their powers during daylight (but must remain in shadow). It is unknown, however, how far Warrick's power extended. Aubrey, although not a master vampire, was capable of at least reflexive motion during daylight if threatened. Damian, Anita Blake's vampire servant, was able to move and survive in the sun in Incubus Dreams after receiving another mark from Anita.
- Empathic Voice Manipulation: Jean-Claude and Mr. Oliver have the ability to form an emotional or hypnotic connection with their voices. Anita characterizes Jean-Claude's voice as having an almost physical sensation, and typically describes his voice as "silk against skin" or "fur against skin." Asher also has this power, but while Jean-Claude is able to portray joy and pleasure better, Asher is able to portray sadness and bitterness better. It is somewhat unclear whether this difference is inherent in the power, or simply due to the individual vampire's personality.
- Human Servant Creation: Most or all master vampires appear to be able to create a "human servant." By marking a human with four successive "marks," the vampire makes the human into a human servant. A vampire can only have one human servant at one time, and cannot remove a mark once given. A vampire's human servant functions similarly to a witch's familiar in that when the servant is nearby, the vampire's abilities are stronger. Most vampires seem to be able to exercise some control over their servants, but a necromancer servant, such as Anita, has complete free will. The death of either the servant or the vampire may injure or kill the other member of the relationship.
- First Mark: the vampire shares energy with the servant. The first mark grants the human servant greater resistance to injury and to vampire mental powers, and an almost complete immunity to their own vampire's mental powers.
- Second Mark: Anita experiences this mark as a pair of floating points of flame in the color of the vampire's eyes that merged with her own. The second mark allows the vampire to draw power from the human servant, to experience food and drink consumed by the servant, and to enter the servant's dreams.
- Third Mark: The third mark is made by the vampire drinking the servant's blood. It conveys increased healing, immunity to poison, and allows the vampire and servant to communicate mentally even when awake.
- Fourth Mark: The fourth mark is made when the servant drinks the vampire's blood. It conveys immortality (from age) to the servant, almost complete mental communication, and allows the servant to draw on the vampire's strength. Anita believes that this causes said human servant to lose his or her soul.
- Animal Servant Creation: A vampire with the ability to call animals may also form a vampire-servant relationship with one animal or lycanthrope subject to the vampire's call. The series does not provide many details about animal servants, but the process and relationship appears similar to that of a human servant. The nature of a triumvirate, however, implies that the two are different enough that a vampire can have both at the same time.
- Triumvirate: When a vampire binds a human servant and a lycanthrope who is also their animal to call, within a sufficiently short period of time, the three may form a triangular relationship called a triumvirate. This relationship forms a virtuous circle that magnifies and shares the abilities of all participants. It also seems possible for Anita to create a second triumvirate with her animal servant, Nathaniel, and her vampire servant, Damian. In the case of a triumvirate, the one who binds the animal servant and the other servant, whether vampire or human, uses their energy to keep the others alive and be able to have mind-to-mind communications. For Anita's case, if she does not eat, or feed one of her many other hungers, she will begin to feed off of Damian and then Nathaniel until she feeds those hungers.
- Resist Silver: Some vampire are not hurt as badly by silver and some are not affected at all. It depends on how much power the vampire has and how old the vampire is, though age rarely has that effect.
- Draw Blood From A Distance: This ability allows a vampire to cut or skin an opponent, but only if that opponent has a magical aura. Rare.
In Bloody Bones, Serefina says she usually accomplishes this by using a vampire's own 'aura of power' against itself, and that humans normally lack the aura and therefore cannot be harmed this way. As necromancers, Anita and Larry each have an aura of power, which enables Serefina, for the first time, to cut humans from a distance just as she does vampires.
Jean-Claude admits to being unable to do this, though he does hold the knowledge of how it is done. It was demonstrated in The Killing Dance by Sabin, aimed at Anita, though Sabin claimed it was an accident.
Anita has inherited this vampiric ability to cut a vampire's aura. Anita first demonstrated the ability Burnt Offerings, when she accidentally cut Yvette, out of anger. Later, in Incubus Dreams, Jean-Claude helps her control the ability as they were trying to control Primo.
- Drain Power: A master is capable of drawing all of the power from vampires that he has personally sired, reducing them to a weakened, near-skeletal state. (Examples: Jean Claude; Belle Morte; Obisidian Butterfly.)
- Call Shadows: Some master vampires can call shadows, cloaking an area in darkness. Serefina conceals her orchard this way in Bloody Bones.
- Pyrokinesis: Some vampires have a minor level of pyrokinesis, but major pyrokinesis is almost unheard of among vampires because flame is an element of purity, with the exception of Warrick who believed it to be a gift from God in Burnt Offerings.
- Read Minds: Some vampires have a mind reading power but they only can read peoples minds from a distance away.
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Clover Ma
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24 Mar 2009, 03:11 PM
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Vampire Bloodlines
Each sourde de sang is capable of supporting a bloodline - a group of vampires who draw power from that vampire either by direct descent or by blood oath. Some powers are only seen in master vampires of a given bloodline.
- Morte D'Amour
- Rotting Vampires: Rotting vampires, such as Janos, have the ability to allow their body to rot into a decaying corpse or even fall apart without suffering damage. As a result, they are almost impossible to kill without fire (or, presumably, sunlight). This ability appears to be limited to selected members of Morte d'Amour's bloodline.
- Corruption: Morte d'Amour and selected members of his bloodline are able to cause "corruption" with their bite -- unless the victim is sufficiently powerful to resist, even a single bite can cause a victim to decay and die. This ability appears to be significantly more rare in Morte d'Amour's bloodline than the ability to rot and reform.
- Belle Morte
- Ardeur: The greatest of the powers in Belle Morte's line is the ardeur. Belle Morte, Jean-Claude, and Anita are the only people known to possess this power fully. Like all the powers of Belle Morte's line, the ardeur is a double-edged sword, affecting both the user and its target/s. The most basic aspect of the ardeur inspires intense sexual passion in all it touches. Those under its thrall are gripped with an intense desire to have sexual intercourse with the user of the ardeur, or else the nearest person. When used lightly it is possible for a person to choose the one they have sex with, but the more powerful the ardeur becomes, the less picky its victims become (to the point where they would have sex with those they are normally not attracted to i.e. straight people would choose same-sex partners). The ardeur can be extremely addictive, making those in its grips do anything to have another taste of it. At more powerful levels the arduer can also inspire intense love and devotion towards the wielder of the ardeur. At its most powerful, the ardeur can home in on its victims deepest desires and reshape their personalities to better accommodate those desires. It was through this that Micah and Anita found exactly what they wanted in each other as lovers, helpmates and companions.
The ardeur seems to have a primitive awareness in that it must regularly feed on the lust of its user and others. If it is not voluntarily fed, the ardeur unleashes itself without the volition of its user (often at full strength as well) and forces its user to feed it. This is a necessity as those who wield the ardeur gain power when they feed it and weaken and eventually die if they do not. If the ardeur is mastered it can only be unleashed by the will of its wielder, but the wielder will still decline in health and power if it does not feed. The ardeur can be used to feed on peoples lust from a distance without having to have intercourse with them. This process is described as being akin to "pulling velvet through an open wound" and is thus not as pleasant as the more usual method of feeding the ardeur. Furthermore it is not nearly as effective. In the latest novel of the series, "Harlequin", the ardeur is revealed to be able to feed on a master vampire or alpha lycanthrope and thus feed on anyone who has metaphysical ties to said master vampire (all its vampire underlings, human servant, animal to call etc) and alpha lycanthrope (all its pack/group etc), thus accumulating enormous amounts of power.
The ardeur drains the energies of those it feeds on and can potentially drain a person to the point of death. Thus those who possess the ardeur must have several lovers if they wish to properly feed the ardeur without killing anyone. Jean Claude and Anita can only spread the ardeur to other people (and anyone who touches said people) through physical contact. Belle Morte, who possesses the original ardeur (which all other are but pale imitations), can spread its influence over great distances (even through dreams and metaphysical connections), affecting people even if they are not touching her. She has been said to have once used this version of the ardeur on several hundred people with only a fraction of its full power.
- Incubi/Succubi: All those in Belle Morte's line that possess the ardeur are called "incubi" (if male) or "succubi" (if female). It should be noted that other vampires automatically assume that all belonging to Belle Morte's line are incubi and succubi.
- Other Related Abilities: Several master vampires in Belle's line have powers related to the ardeur.
Asher's powers seem to revolve around intimacy and seduction. He is unusually strong at "rolling" his victims mentally, and has a power to "fascinate" others. Asher's bite is literally orgasmic, and his victims often are addicted to the experience and/or experience "flashbacks" of the orgasms received from his bites. Although Asher does not appear to draw strength from lust itself, he can draw power directly from Anita, or, presumably, from anyone else he has seduced as deeply as he has her.
Augustine has the ability to make others love him. As with the other powers in Belle's line, unless he is extremely careful, the power also works in reverse, forcing him to love his victim. London's power is that he is exceptionally good "food" for the ardeur itself. Using the ardeur on him generates additional power, and he is capable of satisfying the ardeur much more often than anyone else.
Requiem can inflame physical lust in his victims. (And, of course, in himself).
- Nighthags
Also called mora, Night Hags are vampires who have the ability to feed on and create fear in those around them. This ability works similarly to the ardeur in that the vampire who feeds using fear can go longer without blood, though not forever. Damian's former Master, Morvoren, is a very powerful night hag and is possibly the sourde de sang for the bloodline. Night hags cannot completely turn this power "off"; everywhere they go there is a small feeling of dread, no matter what they do. It is a master-vampire power.
Belle Morte: Lust Morte D'Amour: Rotting Dr. Oliver: The Earthmover The Dragon: Fear Padma: Master of Beasts The Traveler: vampire without a body Marmee Noir: the original vampire
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