Nox

Other Stuff

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:32:15 GMT

Animators are able to ‘raise’ corpses from the dead as zombies.

They naturally have partial immunity to a vampire’s influence (gaze, voice, and will).

The ointment used by animators consists of graveyard mold, rosemary for memory, cinnamon and cloves for preservation, sage for wisdom, and a sharp herb like thyme to bind it together. Some believe that it helped the spirits to enter you, so that the ‘powers that be’ could use you to raise the dead. Others believed that the scent and touch of the herbal mixture enhanced your psychic abilities, or helped open them so they’d work at all.

When raising the dead, if a blood circle has already been cast then it can be retraced with a minimal amount of blood, reactivating the circle.

One ritual for animators is described in GP, Chapter 28.

Another is described in CS, Chapter 3.

Animating had only been a licensed business (in the United States?) for about 5 years. (Still summer, same year as GP so 1986?) Before that it had been either an embarrassing curse or a religious experience.

No one can teach you to raise the dead unless you have the power in your blood.

A strong animator can act as a ‘focus’, combining another animators power with their own. Very few animators are strong enough to act as a focus and are generally mistrusted by other animators.

Ritual for using a ‘focus’ is described in BB, Chapter 33.

The older a corpse is, the ‘larger’ the death needed to raise it as a zombie. Once a corpse is old enough, the only death big enough is a human sacrifice called a ‘white goat’. An old corpse would be over 200 for a fairly strong animator. The stronger an animator is, the older a corpse they can raise without a human sacrifice.

The stronger an animator is, the more raisings they can do in a night. 2 – 3 is average, with weak animators only being able to accomplish one, and very strong animators being able to do more.

An animator has to wait 3 days after death to raise a corpse as a zombie, to give the soul time to leave. A zombie will not rise if the soul is still near.

A corpse that is going to rise as a vampire cannot be animated as a zombie.

Words for laying a zombie back into its grave described in CotD, Chapter 20.

Animators need a name to call a corpse from the grave.

A murder victim rises from the grave and immediately goes after their murderer if they are raised as a zombie. The animator that raises them cannot control them and they will go through anything and anyone in the way until they kill the murderer.

If a deceased person was into Voodoo or any other mystically oriented religion in life, it might interfere when they are raised as a zombie. Also, any psychic ability can either make the person harder to raise, or harder to control once they are raised as a zombie.

Necromancers have sympathy with the dead, all dead, and the dead respond to them.

Human deaths are cumulative. Each one gives the necromancer more power. This is not true with animal deaths, at least when applied to raising the dead.

Necromancers and some animators can sometimes feel a soul hovering near the body, if it has not departed yet.

Necromancers have a stronger resistance to a vampire’s gaze than humans or animators.

Very strong necromancers may be able to raise the dead even during the day, as long as they are underground and away from the sun.

Ritual necromancy involves raising the spirits of the dead for divination purposes or to get questions answered.

Real spells for shape shifting are complex and generally require a human sacrifice.

A curse is like the ultimate act of will. The witch gathers all their power, magic, or whatever and focuses it on one person and wills them to be cursed. You always do it in person so they know it’s been done. Some theories think it takes the victim’s belief to make a curse work.

A witch or a faerie are the only things which generally have the power to cast curses.
Magic often rises and falls on the casters belief in their own ability. Someone may have the ability to do something, but cannot accomplish it because they do not believe they can.

A sorcerer deals with power granted by the demonic. They generally barter their soul for their power.

A summoned demon must be kept within a circle of protection, generally delineated with pentagrams and other magical writings and ritual. They do not require virgin or pure sacrifices, but rather prefer corrupted souls that can be stolen.

Gris-gris are a kind of magical charm that can have different effects. Each has something you must do to keep it ‘happy’ or ‘fed’ and something you must never do or the magic stops.

Also called vaudun.

A voodoo priest/ess’ sanctuary is called a Humfo.

The symbols drawn on the floor and around the altar of the Humfo are called verve. They are meant to summon the lao, the gods of vaudun.

Voodoo priest/ess’ (also called a bokor or bokar) can capture a soul in a bottle at the moment it takes flight from the body. (Necromancers too?)

Voodoo can be used to create a spell of compulsion. This requires some piece of the person to be compelled, usually hair and fingernail clippings.

The Catholic Church sees voluntary vampirism as a kind of suicide. All vampires have been declared suicides and are considered automatically damned.

Sleeping with the undead is enough to get someone excommunicated?

The Pope excommunicated all animators unless they ceased raising the dead.

The Followers of the Way is a sect going back to the Gnostics, who embraced almost all magical ability. The were all but wiped out during the Inquisition because they would not deny or hide their magical abilities. Also called Christian witches, though not all members are actually witches.

Addison v. Clark – this court case gave the United States a revised version of what life was, and death wasn’t. Vampirism was made legal in the United States as it became one of the few countries (which ones?) to acknowledge them. The United States is the only country where vampirism is legal.
**Guilty Pleasures copyrighted 1993 - Addison v. Clark is noted as being passed 2 years before. Would this be a 1991 ruling?**

Britain is the only other country in the world where vampires are legal, but they’ve been doing it less time than the U.S. (ID, says 4 years vampires have been legal in US. Would that make this set in 1995?)

The dead have no rights (other than vampires).

Lycanthropy is a disease. It’s illegal to discriminate against lycanthropes just like any other disease.

There was no such thing as a life sentence for a vamp. Death or nothing. No prison can hold a vampire. The vampire has to be proven a danger to society before a death warrant would be issued by the court.

It is illegal for a vampire to feed on an unwilling victim. The penalty is death.

If a vampire acquires three complaints against them (using preternatural powers to coerce someone unwilling for instance) a death warrant can be issued, if the judge is sympathetic.

A renegade witch is treated much like a renegade vampire, an instant death sentence.

Raising a zombie for the purpose of being a murder weapon is an automatic death sentence.

It is considered murder to stake a suspected vampire victim before they rise unless they have a will that explicitly states they do not want to come back as a vampire.

Carrying a vampire execution kit without a court order of execution on their person is an automatic jail term. (CotD chapter 15, Summer 1993 ruling?)

The newly dead (a week or less) can be raised and verbally order a will. This requires two lawyers, two witnesses, and the family and the zombie has to be controlled by a neutral third party, either the animator or other not involved in the proceedings. (CotD chapter 19, Sept 1993 ruling?)

To worship in a cemetery after dark you have to be a member of a legitimate religion and have a permit.

Quote CotD, Chapter 16: It wasn’t too long ago that the police wouldn’t have been called in at all. The good ol’ days when vampires were left to a handful of dedicated experts. Back when you could just stake a vamp and be done with it.

Quote CotD, Chapter 30: In the olden days only the strongest, smartest, or luckiest vampires survived. The human vampire hunters weeded out the stupid, the careless, the violent.

Quote Lunatic Cafe, Chapter 13: As late as the 1960’s lycanthropes were still being mobbed and burned at the stake.

There are bounty hunters who specialize in rogue lycanthropes.

Lunatic Café, Chapter 29: Gaia’s Law – an ambulance has to be present if there is any chance that remains might be humanoid. Went into effect three years before (1990?)

There is ban on unseelie court faeries moving to the United States.

It is illegal to turn anyone under age 18 into a vampire, even with their consent. It is considered murder.

There are still three states (in the US) that will pay hundreds of dollars in bounty for a dead shape shifter, no questions asked. (Western state, Wyoming was one). The only criteria some states had was that after death, the body was medically certified as a lycanthrope. A blood test was sufficient in most cases.

(Obsidian Butterfly) There are about six states (rancher-run) where it was still legal to hunt down varmints and kill them on sight. Varmints included lycanthropes, as long as a blood test proved they were a shape shifter later.

Vampire Law: The Council will hunt down and kill a necromancer who has demonstrated the ability to control vampires, unless they are the bound human servant of a Master vampire. The Marks bind the necromancer to the vampire, and in theory given him or her control over the necromancer. This may actually not be the case. Necromancers have more free will than other Human Servants.

(Burnt Offerings, chapter 2) There was a vampire mayor in Michigan. Vampires can run for political office? Do they have the vote at this point? (Summer in this book? 1994?)

Europe: (Obsidian Butterfly) There are parts of Europe where it’s still legal to burn a ‘witch’ at the stake.

Vampire executioners (licensed) are allowed to carry knives, even large, normally illegal ones.

It is illegal to take blood from anyone under 18 years old. To do so will earn the vampire an order of execution.

Vampire executioners given Federal Marshall status very recently. September 1995?

If a lycanthrope is accused of murder they get a speedy trial and execution. If they are declared rogue and determined to be actively hunting humans, a court order of execution can be issued for them just like for a vampire who was deemed a public danger and eluding capture. With this in hand, it means that you can kill it when you found it.

It is illegal in most states to contaminate anyone willingly with a potentially fatal disease, regardless of age.

An animator who raises a murder victim as a zombie is liable for all damages, injuries, or deaths caused by the zombie in its attempt to kill its murderer. If the zombie kills someone, including its murderer, the animator can be charged with murder themselves. Murder with magical malfeasance, which is an automatic death sentence.

A police officer using a cross on a vampire during questioning is considered assault. (July or Aug 1995 ruling?) A holy item is considered a weapon.

Magical practitioners who earn their living from their magical talent cannot be denied access to their magical tools. (Such as, they’re allowed to bring them on airplanes, ect.)

Vampire Junkie: Someone who is addicted to the rush of fear and pain associated with being bitten by a vampire, and will pursue a lifestyle that enables them to feed their addiction.

Animator: Someone with the innate ability to animate corpses; i.e. raise zombies.

Clairvoyant: Someone who can see ‘visions’ when handling some sort of object. A strong clairvoyant can be nearly crippled by their ability, seeing visions when touching even everyday ordinary things. Generally these are images from the past of someone who had handled or touched the object previously.

Revenant: An animalistic vampire that knows nothing but hunger and has no mind or humanity. They are driven purely by instinct.

Pyrokinetic: Also known as ‘firebugs’. A human with the ability to call fire psychically. The pyrokinetic’s own aura keeps them from being burned by the flames they summon, and will also prevent anyone touching them from being burned on the parts of their body actually within the pyrokinetic’s aural space. When they lose control of the fire the flames change from blue to yellow and the pyrokinetic will burn as well. They often die by spontaneously combusting. It’s speculated that when they grow old, they lose control of their ability.

Sorcerer: A magic-user who gets their magic through the demonic, or worse. The bargain for what they receive and barter their soul for money, comfort, lust, power. Some are a form of possession; people weakened by some flaw like mental illness or weakness of character that attracts evil.

Lamia: Retractable fangs in human form, as fast as a lycanthrope. They can shape shift to the form of a woman with the lower body of a snake. Silver doesn’t hurt them. They are able to perform illusions, but only on men. They’ve been listed as extinct for over 200 years but are truly immortal so must simply be rare. (CotD)

Gargoyles: There are three species of man-sized gargoyles in Europe. They will attack and eat humans.

Naga: A creature out of Hindu legend. Generally pictured in serpent form, particularly cobras. Their skin gleams with opalescence without being any one color. It is like a rainbow or oil slick with the color changing depending on how the light hits it. They have a large pearl embedded in their forehead, almost between the eyes. They can take human form or appear as snakes with human heads. They are the guardians of raindrops and pearls. Nagas are immortal.

Merpeople: Just what it sounds like. ‘Maids of the sea’ though there are both males and females. When they wish to they can appear very human. Males are called tritons?

Siren: A siren is to merpeople like what a Master vampire is to normal vampires, or a necromancer is to the undead. They can, when they come into their full power, control other merpeople. The mind-control doesn’t work on all, but many. When a merperson exhibits the traits of a siren the others kill them before they take on all of their power. Their power is seduction. A siren can be male or female.

The Fay: Faeries look like humans, and can breed with humans, but are actually their own species. The scientific name is homo arecanus.

Glamour is faerie magic. It allows them to cloud humans minds, make things seem better or worse than they are. It can be used as illusion, to change a persons perception or appearance. High Court faeries, the Daoine Sidhe, are most proficient with glamour.

The seelie court doesn’t interbreed with humans often, the unseelie court does so more often. The unseelie court is said to be evil and cruel.

Faeries have supernatural strength and are faster than humans.

One power of the unseelie court is to siphon life force from humans, like absorbing heat from the sun. It creates a kind of high, like a drug.

There are things a person can do to protect themselves from faerie glamour. Four-leaf clover, Saint-John’s wort, red verbena, daisies, rowan, and ash. An ointment made of four-leaf clover or Saint-John’s wort spread on eyelids, mouth, ears, and hands will make a person proof against glamour.

Rawhead and Bloody Bones is the name of a type of nursery boggle. At full size it is larger than a person, almost the size of a giant. It eats bad children.

Salt thrown on the fey, or on the thing being magicked will disrupt faerie magic temporarily.

Many full-blood fey are true immortals; they don’t age and can’t be killed.

A faerie can’t be bled in the flesh or not in the flesh without ritual magic that confers some portion of mortality on the fey.

Other Undead

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:23:32 GMT

A type of undead. Generally found in very old cemeteries, or ones which have had certain satanic or voodoo rites performed in them that cause the ground to become unholy and no longer blessed.

Ghouls have skin that is a silvery-grey color, with long back teeth and claws and crimson eyes. They can be sensed by animators, and leave a psychic stench behind – evil.

Ghouls do not rot like zombies. They retain their form and are more than animal intelligent, but not by much. They do not retain their former human personalities. They are generally cowardly and will not attack people unless the person is hurt or unconscious. Ghouls feed on living or dead flesh and will often dig up corpses to eat.

The surest way to destroy them is with fire.

Ghouls usually run in packs and do not travel far from the cemetery where they rose from their graves.

A corpse that is animated by an animator, necromancer, or voodoo priest/ess. A type of undead that has little mind of its own and continues to rot after being raised.

Zombies do not have minds. They have, for a very short time, a memory of what and who they were in life. Ill treatment and abuse will speed up the process of a zombie losing their personality.

Zombies must answer all questions truthfully, and obey the commands of the one who raised them from their grave.

‘Flesh-eating’ zombies do not decay as quickly as normal zombies. There have been only 3 documented cases of flesh eating zombies hunting for flesh. All have been solitary hunters.

A zombie doesn’t ‘die’ even when it is chopped into pieces. The pieces will try to crawl and complete the command the zombie was given. The only way to destroy a zombie is with fire.

Zombies are not inhumanly strong, but they can use every ounce of strength without regard to the damage they do to themselves. The feel no pain.

Zombies don’t like sunlight but it doesn’t hurt them. They can be ordered about as easily in daylight as at night.

An animator or necromancer who is raised as a zombie craves flesh and doesn’t have any memory until they’ve consumed flesh. Once they eat they remember who and what they are, are faster and smarter than normal zombies or ghouls. They continue to crave flesh and will kill.

Zombies who were the victims of violent crimes are often disoriented and afraid when raised. They may have impaired or garbled memories of just before they died.

Zombies do not lie. They answer all questions honestly, but because their brains are deteriorating they may not always understand the question.

Ghosts are not trapped souls. Ghosts are like a memory of the soul, the essence left behind.

Ghosts or restless spirits could be trapped on earth by violence, evil, or confusion.

Ghosts cannot cause actual physical harm to a living being.

Ghosts wear away with time, becoming ‘hot spots’ and then fading completely.

When a ghost is encountered, such as touching a person or grabbing at them, every time a person notices them (by being afraid, swatting at the manifestation, ect) it gives them more power to manifest, makes them more solid.

Lycanthropes

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:19:02 GMT

All lycanthropes are stronger and faster than a human and have heightened senses such as sight, hearing, and smell.

Lycanthropes heal very, very quickly if injured with normal weapons (non-silver bullets or knives). Silver heals more slowly, but still faster than for a human and the shifter can still heal damage that would kill a human, even if inflicted with silver.

A bite or scratch from a lycanthrope (were) in shifted form (that draws blood) can cause infection. There are inoculations against lycanthropy, but they do not always work. Also, they sometimes actually cause infection.

Most lycanthropes have a sense of contained energy about them when they are in human form, in the way they move and their aura.

A ‘king’ can keep his people and lesser animals of their species from answering the call of a Master vampire, but must actively be trying to do so. Otherwise they may choose to answer, or be forced to.

Lycanthropy can’t cure baldness.

Most lycanthropes start out human, although there are a few rare inherited curses. All lycanthropes are shape shifters by definition, but not all shape shifters are lycanthropes. Lycanthropy is a disease that is caught from surviving an attack or getting a bad batch of vaccine. Other types of shape shifters are most often inherited conditions. The family dog, beast, big cat. Usually European in origin, one person a generation has the genes and changes. Family guardians of this type are not tied to the moon like normal lycanthropy.

Lycanthropes must change shape at the full moon with few exceptions (such as family guardians). Stronger shifters can hold off the change longer, but as the urge gets more urgent their eyes or other aspects of their appearance may change.

Lycanthropes can smell some emotions, like desire. They can also smell magic, and when someone lies.

Normally a shape shifter stays in animal form for eight to ten hours, then collapses and changes back to human form. Alphas have more control over the change, and can change back after shifting without collapsing.

It takes a lot of energy to shape shift back to human early.

Lycanthropes must feed after shifting.

Lycanthropy is not contagious while in human form.

Lycanthropes shift in a roiling mass of fur, raw flesh, and bones. They don’t bleed, but the shift is accompanied by the release of a thick clear liquid that will form a puddle around them. They do not end up covered by it however; they will emerge dry and new.

Lycanthropes are immune to poison.

Very strong lycanthropes can suppress their energy and pass for human.

There are avian (bird) forms of lycanthropes. Swan manes are one example, but theirs is an inherited condition.

One way of identifying if a body is a shape shifter is to cut off the hand and see if there is fur on the inside of the body. ??

Silver bullets can kill lycanthropes, and any kind of silver hurts them. It’s like an allergy. Silver burns the skin.

‘Alpha’ lycanthropes can do things that normal lycanthropes cannot. For instance, moving the bones of their face around to give themselves a different appearance. They may appear like their own sister or brother, similar but different.

Strong shape shifters can partially change their form; nails changing to claws, ect. The can also use their power to restrain the shift of another shifter (own species or other?) or overpower them.

Lycanthropes blood is more potent than human blood; it has more power.

A wound can be caused to scar by shove burning metal into it. Fire purifies and stops the healing process, unless the wound is reopened. (for both lycanthropes and vampires) Branding included.

Lycanthropes metabolize anesthesia too fast for it to work effectively.

Almost none of the cat-based lycanthropy is as contagious as wolf and rat.

If a shape shifter spends too much time in animal form they don’t come all the way back when they shift to human. They may retain certain animal features, such as changed eyes or teeth.

There are shape shifter halfway houses (more like prisons) for first-time shifters. Admittance has to be voluntary, but once they sign in it’s almost impossible to sign out again.

These are called ‘secured facilities’ and are run by the government. The idea is that they are places new lycanthropes could go and be sure of not accidentally hurting anyone. You stay until you have control of your beast, then they’d let you out to resume your life. The reality is that once you were signed in, voluntarily or otherwise (like by the Police), you almost never got out. The ACLU has started the years of court battles it would take to get them outlawed, or made unconstitutional.

Weaker shape shifters do not heal as fast from serious trauma as strong ones do.

The top-ranked alpha of a lycanthrope group protects the weaker shifters with their power if a vampire able to summon that animal tries to force them to obey. The alpha may be forced to answer themselves, but unless they are broken and release their protection of the group or call themselves, the rest of the group is safe from coercion.

Some strong alphas can share their power with lesser shape shifters of the same species (wolf-wolf, leopard-leopard) by letting them drink their blood. It is a rare talent. It can help the lesser shifter heal, and give them a kind of ‘high’ like they are drunk on the power.

Lycanthropes, at least those that run in groups, find touching comforting. Touching is part of what keeps the group together. Warmth, the exchange of scents, it doesn’t have to be sexual. It’s like they have the normal human skin hunger ramped up by orders of magnitude. It can even be necessary for them to remain sane.

Lycanthropes are attracted to blood, and will lick it off each other. The smell and the power both attract them.

The physical closeness of your group, whatever the animal flavor, is healing both emotionally and physically. For serious injuries, lycanthropes need to ‘bake’ in the heat and energy of their particular group.

Blood, especially pack blood or powerful blood, will help a lycanthrope heal if injured.

Another lycanthrope licking the wound helps it to heal faster as well.

A lycanthrope’s temperature rises as the full moon gets closer. But the night of the full moon their base temperature can be over 100 degrees. Their skin will feel to be burning with fever.

A healthy shifter group (pard, pack, ect.) is built up of a thousand gentle touches. A million small comforts.

Lycanthropes always recognize each other. Their beasts always know.

Wolf lycanthropy will show up in the bloodstream – and in a blood test – anywhere between 24 and 72 hours after infection. Leopard or any of the other big cat lycanthropies take anywhere from 72 hours to eight days to show up on a test.

Some of the secondary symptoms of infection are rapid healing, a fatally (to humans) high spike in temperature, needing heat to heal.

Most secondary abilities such as improved sense of smell don’t show up until after a new shifter’s first full moon.

New shape shifters can ‘lose time’. This happens when their beast controls them. Generally the first few full moons are complete blackouts, until they can learn to access the memories consciously. This takes work.

Every group of shape shifters that is healthy has a ‘group mind’. Like a coven of witches who have worked magic together for some time, they begin to be parts of a whole when it comes to working magic or healing. Together they form more than they form separately. That they will feel more in tune, more comfortable with one another is one of the affects.

Other than at the full moon, if a shape shifter cannot access the full affects of an adrenalin rush they cannot change shapes. Something in it opens the way for their beasts, which is why strong emotions (like the fight or flight reflex) can bring on the change. It is very difficult to suppress due to the shifters advanced metabolism, and takes a complex cocktail of drugs to do so.

Some (alpha/dominant/very strong) shifters can ‘call’ the beasts of others of their own species. They literally pull the beast out with their power and force the other to shift. Generally it will go about the same as if the shifter had made the change themselves, but sometimes it is done as punishment. This is both painful and disorienting to the shifter, as their ‘beast’ exploding from their body violently. There is no need to physically touch to call the beast, but it makes it easier to control.

Shape shifters can heal any wound (not made with silver) short of decapitation as long as fire isn’t applied to the wound. They cannot heal burns unless the burned flesh is removed, essentially creating a new wound.

New shape sifters often have a sponsor (wolves only? All?) who teaches them to control their power and the change under all extremes of emotion. Orgasm especially is a true test of control, because it is meant to be a release and loss of control and to keep from shifting the lycanthrope must hold something back. To give up true control means to shift for a lycanthrope.

Female lycanthropes cannot carry a pregnancy to term except in very specific instances. The change is too violent, and causes miscarriage.

Another power of strong alphas can be to shape shift with incredible swiftness, and without needing to pass out or otherwise recuperate, though it can make them dizzy for a few minutes until they overcome the toll it takes on them.

Lycanthropes need to eat a balanced diet heavy on protein. It helps keep the beast at bay.

If a human gets pregnant with a shape shifter in animal/man beast form, there’s a chance that the baby can have ‘Mowgli syndrome.’ The fetus grows at the rate of the animal form, not at the human gestational rate, and there can be severe birth defects involved. Mowgli syndrome is rarer than Vlad syndrome.

In rat form they appear as giant germen shepherd (germen shepherd size: 24 – 26 in. at the shoulder for males, 22 – 24 in. for females; weight 60 – 130 lbs. for males, 45 – 110 for females.) sized rats.

As a ‘manrat’ they are basically human sized but tend to have somewhat of a bend to their legs, and still have the appearance of rats – though with clawed fingers rather than paws.

Wererats can command normal rats to do what they want.

The leader of the rats is the ‘Rat King’. Had a crown shaped brand on his forearm.

Seconds are called lieutenants.

There is no equivalent in the rats for the wolves Lupa.

The rats or a group of rats is called rodere, or sometimes a gang.

Werewolves in their ‘manwolf’ form are bigger, taller than they are as a human, and their legs have a very different shape. In their wolf form they are ‘gigantic’ (?), larger than normal wolves anyway.

Werewolves have a pack structure, led by an Alpha male and female.

The next in line behind the pack leader is the beta male? (Later books state there can be multiple ‘alphas’, both male and female. It’s based on the degree of power?)

You can move up in the pack hierarchy by fighting, you win you go up a notch. You lose, you stay where you are. Anyone can order someone lower in the pack structure to do what they want.

The fight for the position of pack leader is to the death. Even if a challenger wins the fight, if they don’t kill the current leader they do not gain the position.

If the pack leader kills the challenger outside the challenge circle, he doesn’t retain leadership of the pack. It’s like cheating and the pack will turn on him.

To ask pack members for their protection is to acknowledge they are of higher rank without having to fight them. If they give their protection then you have agreed to help them fight their battles. If they are challenged you are honor bound to aid them.

Acknowledging someone as higher in rank in the pack means you acknowledge them as being dominant. This is not the same as being alpha.

A submissive display in human form is dropping to the knees, head bowed, spine bent low.

Dominant pack members don’t make idle threats to subordinates.

Werewolves call themselves the ‘Lukoi’

Hierarchy:

Ulfric: Wolf king, pack leader. A woman can be Ulfric but it’s rare. Women do not generally have the sheer physical size and strength to win a full-out physical battle for pack leadership.
Lupa: Ulfric’s mate, usually a dominant alpha but not always. The Ulfric picks his Lupa, but she still has to fight to be the most dominant female in the pack. She is both within the pack hierarchy and outside of it since she doesn’t fight to gain or maintain her position. The Ulfric gets to pick his Lupa because they are a ‘mating’ pair and he doesn’t want to be stuck with a mate he can’t stand. An alpha couple binds for life, like a marriage. They often marry each other in ‘real life’ as well as in the pack.
Fenrir: Challenger; a contender for Ulfric must fight his way up through the Geri, then the Freki. Once he is Freki he may declare himself Fenrir and challenge the Ulfric. Only the Fenrir may challenge the Ulfric for leadership of the pack.
Freki: Second in command
Geri: Second in command
Skoll: Head enforcer/bodyguard
Hati: Enforcer/bodyguard
Eros: Sexual surrogate who teaches new shifters control if their sponsor is too squeamish. They are supposed to remain emotionally uninvolved, giving them a distance that loved ones or friends or even the sponsor sometimes can’t get past.
Eranthe: Same as Eros but female.
Bolverk: Worker of evil. The one who does the Ulfric’s evil deeds. This can range from trickery, lies, or murder.
Baugi, Suttung, and Guunlod: Helpers of the Bolverk.

Vargamor: A pack’s wise woman or wise man. A witch usually, but sometimes just a psychic. Most packs don’t have them anymore because it’s considered old-fashioned. The vargamor is neutral, s/he never fights or takes sides in challenges. This is how they can be human and run with the pack.

Without a Fenrir or pack leader to back you up, it is like mutiny to go against the pack leader’s orders. The penalty is death or mutilation.

Same thought: Behind the Ulfric, the Lupa’s word is law. To refuse an order from the Ulfric and Lupa is to go against their authority. To refuse their authority is to be declared outlaw from the clan.

Werewolves are not supposed to share pack ‘secrets’ with normal humans. This includes their name for themselves and their cultural words. Once, sharing such would have earned the offender a death sentence.

Some strong alphas can ‘fling’ their essence out to touch the pack. Touch their minds, see for a moment where they are, what they feel, what they see. The other werewolves can feel this contact. This is what allows the alpha to calm another shape shifter’s power, or force them to swallow it (which can be disorienting and painful).

Every werewolf pays tithe to the pack leader.

A werewolf must get the permission of the local pack leader before they enter a new territory. If they don’t it’s considered a challenge to his authority.

Some wording for the battle for pack leader in ‘The Killing Dance, chapter 37)

Dead werewolves are consumed by the pack.

(Burnt Offerings, chapter 6) Lupa stuff.

The lukoi spirits of the dead are called ‘munin’, after Memory, Odin’s raven. The munin are only able to enter lukoi (can psychics access?) and are not true ghosts. It is the energy of anyone who has ever belonged to a particular pack; their power, their memories, their knowledge. If a person’s personality was particularly strong, they can sometimes possess a weaker pack member, but normally the munin come only when called. If a pack is destroyed completely, then the munin of that pack are lost. The energy is absorbed by the pack by consuming the body of the deceased werewolf. If one is lost to accident and the body cannot be recovered, then all they were is lost to the pack. Sometimes the pack decides not to feed, and it is kind of like excommunication. The pack rejects the wolf in death as well as in life.

The formal greeting is like one friendly wolf greeting another. You rub cheeks, then burry the nose in the hair behind the other persons ear. This greeting is more like a handshake, both wolves offer their faces at the same time.

The less dominant wolf should offer greeting to the more dominant. A proper greeting in public is a light kiss on the lips, just a brush. In private, the less dominant wolf licks the more dominant wolf’s lower lip. This is a submissive wolf begging a dominant’s attention.

Note: Verne’s pack (Blue Moon) was 52 wolves with 9 alphas.

Calling a werewolf a ‘real wolf’ is considered an insult. Werewolves refer to normal wolves as ‘natural’ wolves. Werewolves are ‘real’ wolves part of the time, they’re just not natural.

Some Lukoi phrases noted in Blue Moon:

“I am Skoll, and you have no name among the lukoi. Your voice is only the wind outside our cave.” Reply “The trees themselves bow before the wind.”

“The moon is rising, time is passing.” (leopards use also)

If a less dominant pack member moves ‘into’ (gets close to, hides behind) a more dominant pack member when threatened, they are petitioning for protection. The more dominant wolf will touch them to show that the protection has been extended.

When a guest of a different pack, the visiting Ulfric and lupa give the a gift to the resident pack. Generally the gift is a freshly killed animal, jewelry for the lupa, or something mystical.

A lupa can declare herself ‘Frejya’ if she is displeased with her Ulfric. Basically it becomes open season, with every male wolf trying to claim her. If the wolf shifts and loses their human shape before the lupa they chase, they are out of the running. To initiate the rite, the lupa slashes the Ulfric’s chest and then her own, and speaks the words:

“Your heart to mine, mine to yours. Lupa to your Ulfric. But not to your bed, nor you to mine. Claim me again if you can, my Ulfric.”

The chase ends when the Lupa has sex with any of the lukoi.

A werewolf will offer their throat as an act of trust. The person offered will either kiss the pulse in the neck or bite it. The harder they bite down the less they trust the person, or the more dominant they see themselves as being over the person.

The lukoi have a rule about hunting: Don’t begin a hunt unless you mean to kill.

Pack Law: Anyone who harms the pack without just cause is the enemy.

Most packs don’t hold to the old laws anymore.

A werewolf pack’s place of power is called the lupanar.

If a lupa is set aside, she has the right to refuse to step down. If she does, she may fight any dominant who wishes to replace her and if she wins, she retains her position. Otherwise she can ‘anoint the throne’, in other words have sex with the Ulfric in front of the pack. Sex alone is not enough however, they must prove to have a mystical connection between their beasts.

Real leopards don’t have a pack structure or care who is in charge, but wereleopards are people and complicate things.

The wereleopards call themselves pard.

Terms:

Leoparde lionne – Protector or avenger.
Lion passant – Sleeping lion. One who leads or has power, but doesn’t protect.
Nimir-Ra – Leopard queen.
Nimir-Raj – Leopard king

It is legend amongst the leopards that a true Nimir-Ra and true Nimir-Raj are meant to be a mated pair. Their souls will recognize one another. This is a very rare thing (thus being a legend). One may be either Nimir-Ra or Nimir-Raj of a pard without their mate being Ra or Raj to compliment them. The dominant (leader) of a pard is not necessarily a Ra or Raj.

When two shape shifters are both powerful and a true mated pair, they can spill their energy and their beasts through one another. This is called Shiva and Pavarti, or simply Maithuna, which is Sanskrit for union, or coupling.

One greeting amongst the leopards is to ‘scent mark’ the alpha’s hand by the lesser leopard rubbing their cheek against the back of the hand and then licking it.

It is considered an insult to the dominant if a leopard refuses to greet them.

If a less dominant pard member moves ‘into’ (gets close to, hides behind) a more dominant pard member when threatened, they are petitioning for protection. The more dominant leopard will touch them to show that the protection has been extended.

A true Nimir-Ra(j) is rare. (Why?)

In the pard, a bite/wound to the side of the neck is considered a love-bite. A sign that the sex was good.

Werecobras: Kadru and Kashyapa are the mated female and male leaders respectively. Tied to the moon. (Inherited? Children are shifters.) Can choose to try and carry a baby like a mammal or like a snake. The female can choose to lay eggs and thus bear young though they cannot carry a pregnancy to term in the normal way by carrying the baby inside their body.

Weresnakes: Snake lycanthropy isn’t like normal lycanthropy; it isn’t the result of a viral infection. You must either be the victim of a witch’s curse or inherit the condition (genetic.) (This is contradicted in the same book as Anita states it - NiC. Again, she doesn’t know everything.)

Anita states that the panwere’s snake was anaconda, this implies that anaconda can be caught through a virus. (NiC chapter 65)

Werehyena: A group of werehyenas are called a clan. The leader is called Oba.

Natural spotted hyenas are matriarchal, with the females being larger and more aggressive than the males.

Werebear: Ursa (queen?) and Ursus(sp?) are the female and male leaders respectively.

Werefox: Not much info.

Weredog: An inherited condition (genetic), not tied to the moon. Females able to bear children by avoiding shifting until after they give birth.

Werelion: Male leader is called Rex and his mate Regina, the group called a pride.

The lions are the most aggressive society among all the cats. To be a lion is to be always ready to defend your place in the pride. Unless you are very dominant or very strong, or make people fear you enough to be left alone. A few dominant lions in most prides mate with all the females.

Most of the big cat groups are more ‘live and let live’ but lions are all about establishing dominance, more like werewolves.

Prides with strong females don’t get taken over as often as those with weak ones. Basically, the males need to sleep sometime.

Female lions can be just as aggressive in the jostling for dominance as males.

Weretiger: Not much info.

Werejaguar: Obsidian Butterfly’s AtC, not much information about structure or culture though her’s seemed pseudo-mezo-american/Aztec. Could be just how she like to dress them up.

Panwere: A shape shifter that can take more than one form. The one known was wolf, hyena, leopard, lion, bear, and snake. This instance, the man hunted and was mauled by several different types of shape shifter in the month between his initial infection and his first change. In essence, he contracted multiple strains of the lycanthropy virus.

Swanmane: Sometimes the result of a witch’s curse, but usually genetically inherited.

Older swanmanes have downy feathers in place of hair.

Swanmanes can change their shapes as often as they wish to without having it exhaust them. The consider this to be a great gift, as they are one of the only kinds of shape shifters who can do so.

A true swan king is born as such. They have a birthmark in the shape of a swan that shows their destiny from birth. Other (male?) leaders of a group of swans is a swan prince.

Being a swanmane either runs in your family or does not.

Vampire Council

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:11:50 GMT

The council has existed for a very long time. It is not so much a governing body as a court, or police. Before the U.S. made vampires citizens with rights they had few rules and only one law. Thou shalt not draw attention to yourself.

The law of succession is that whomever empties a seat on the Council (by killing that Council member) takes that seat.

A vampire hunter who killed a Council member would be hunted down and executed with no trial and no hesitation.

It is one of the vampire’s most strident rules that they do not destroy another’s Servant. However, they can be tortured and warped.

It is Council law that a Master vampire’s Servant(s) are merely an extension of their power. Their hands are the Master’s hands, their deeds are the Master’s deeds.

A Human Servant gives up their safe conduct if they attack another vampire directly. That is council law.

Members of the Council:

Mr. Oliver – Earthmover (deceased) m.
Queen of Nightmares – ‘our dark queen’, head of the Council? f.
Traveler – m.
Padma – Master of Beasts m.
Morte d’Amour – Lover of Death m.
Belle Morte – Beautiful Death f.
Dragon – f.

For 400 years there has been talk that the Council is too old-fashioned, and those whom are unhappy with their rules.

The Council are the nightmares that other vampires are based on, the thing that even vampires fear.

Members of the Council cannot fight to the death amongst themselves.

If a vampire is declared rogue by the Council, any vampire can slay them without violating the law.

The Council is 7 in number; always an odd number so that a vote can decide a question.

The very presence of some or all of the Council will give unprotected vampires extra power; early rising, and perhaps other gifts that they would not normally manifest.

It is an old law amongst the vampires not to feed in another’s territory without their permission.

At least two Council members have and can limit the powers of their subjects, preventing their power from manifesting and them from realizing their potential ability, such as being a Master vampire. (Can other Master vampires do this to their get?)

Once it was Council policy to slay all necromancers on sight. Since then the policy has changed but vampires are still wary of necromancers (NiC, chapter 19).

The Council decides which of them will send their vampires out to make more. For thousands of years, it was the Queen of Nightmares, the leader of the Council; or Morte d’Amour, the lover of death, and the Dragon; but they grew tired of the games and retreated inside the council chambers. Belle Morte, Beautiful Death, then sent out her people to populate the world with vampires.

Vampire Law: The council has ruled that human law rules the vampires of America as it does the humans. Refusing the human laws is the same as breaking with the council. The council sees the benefit of being main stream. They want the money, the power, and the freedom to walk the streets in safety.

The Council has declared the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, off limits to all vampires and their minions. The Master of the City, Itzpapalotl (Obsidian Butterfly), has killed every vampire or minion that has entered the city for at least 50 years. The council chose to decree her territory taboo rather than fight her.

In France it is customary for every kiss to have at least one vampire from each of the Council bloodlines.

Also called Mr. Oliver and a member of the vampire Council.

Appearance: A small man, four feet tall, but not a midget or dwarf. Dark expertly cut hair and perfectly brown eyes, almost no chin and a sloping forehead, which draws attention to the wide nose and prominent eyebrow ridge.

Mr. Oliver could play tricks with his voice, and project an aura of calm, warmth, and comfort that made humans instinctively want to trust him. He could levitate, draw blood (wound) from a distance, and levitate others. His most powerful ability was to cause earthquakes. He could make the earth swallow an entire city.

He was very, very old and he himself claimed to be the oldest living vampire. Possibly a million years old, and not human but homo erectus.

Karl Inger was his Human Servant, and claimed to be over seven hundred years old.

His animal to call was snakes.

He died at the end of CotD (book three).

Called ‘our dark queen’, leader of the Council.

Same as Mother of All Darkness or someone different?

Traveler. Council member.

His Human Servant is Balthasar, who is also his lover. He ‘has never felt the draw of a woman’s body’.

Able to block the powers of the MotC and all his vampires so that they cannot sense one another, and loan his power to other, lesser vampires.

The Traveler is like a disembodied spirit. He ‘borrows’ the bodies of other vampires to inhabit, pushing their own personalities to the back of their minds. They still see and feel everything that happens to their body. The Traveler refers to the person as a ‘horse’. He can also hover in an area undetected, and be heard if he desires, as if on a blowing wind.

He states that no one else has his ability to share a body.

The Traveler can take energy through lesser vampires without possessing them. This may cause weaker vampires to have increased hunger, and new vampires to have less control.

Master of Beasts

Able to control wolves, leopards, rats, tigers.

Padma is Indian, he had a son named Fernando who was a wererat (deceased, Burned Offerings).

Padma is the Master of a triumvirate, consisting of his Human Servant, Captain Thomas Carswell, and his animal, the weretiger Gideon. Gideon is a strong alpha, but it’s unclear if Carswell has any magical ability not related to the triumvirate.

His power feels warm and electric, almost like a lycanthropes power rather than a vampires. He could squeeze and flex his power inside a person to cause injuries or death.

Padma must actually feed on the blood of his Servants to gain their energy. It is considered a weakness that he cannot take their warmth without biting.

The weakest of the Council members.

Able to ‘call’ a shape shifter’s beast and force them to change, and also the reverse.

Morte D'Amour, or ‘Lover of Death’

The progenitor of at least one line of ‘rotting’ vampires.

Afraid of change, and what legalization of vampires will do to their culture and ways. He wants it stopped.

Can spread corruption from his bite, which is the rarest of talents. The corruption gets into the blood, and causes the victim to rot, to decay while still alive. Even lycanthropes can be infected.

The Dragon. Female.

Alive at least since at least the time of the Romans.

One of her offspring was able to ‘feed’ on violence he did, or that was done against him, making his power spike and build. He was able to use his power as a physical force to throw off those fighting him as though with an explosion, and send rage to crash over others like a Mora could do with fear.

She knows how to steal another vampire’s essence with a kiss, eating the spark that gives them life and leaving them truly dead.

Belle Morte, Beautiful Death is a member of the vampire Council.

Her blood cannot make the ugly beautiful, though all is improved by her touch.

Some in her line (including herself) have the power of sex. They live on it, breath on it. The feed on it like a night hag feeds on fear. The can gain power through sex and use it as a second lure for mortals.

They are sometimes considered incubus (if male) or succubus (if female). It is a rare power, even amongst those directly descended from Belle Morte. They gain power through sex; not just intercourse, but sexual energy and lust. This is called the ardeur.

Belle Morte’s first animal to call was leopards, but over time all the great cats began answering to her one by one.

In the first few nights of a vampire of Belle’s line’s existence she has the ability to ‘look in’ on the vampire, possessing them with her power, able to see through their eyes and read their thoughts. After the first few nights the vampire gains more control and the ‘door’ closes that allows her to do so.

It is strongly suspected that Belle is able to extend her ‘magic’ and interfere with other Master vampires, both of her line and not. She can loosen their control, make them crazed for a time, without being detected. This should not be possible, but it seems she is able.

One of her gifts is to be a bridge between her children, allowing the sharing of gifts. Another is to smell sexual appetite.

Belle is 2000 years old, or thereabouts.

Belle can spread the ardeur like an illness, each person spreading it to any others whom touch them. She once spread it through hundreds at a banquet and did not find a limit to her ability. She also gains power from every feeding around her.

It is legend that all who are turned into Belle Morte’s line become more beautiful when they rise. This is not true, but does happen occasionally so Belle cultivates the image.

She is able to recall a moment of pleasure and send it into another person by touching them, making them experience the pleasure of that moment, and that memory.

All of the gifts of Belle Morte’s line are double-edged. When a vampire uses them against another, they feel the effects of their power themselves. They can learn to shield against it to lessen the impact.

Female.

Maybe the very first vampire, something so ancient, that to think of human bodies or flesh to contain this darkness was laughable. She was the primordial dark made real. She was why humans feared the dark, just the darkness, not what hides there, but why we fear the darkness itself. There was a time when she walked among us, fed on us, and when darkness falls, somewhere in the back of our skulls, we remember the hungry dark.

Can send dreams or visions, appearing as a wall, an ocean of impenetrable darkness, or as a sending of here were-self. As a vampire they have scent like cool evenings and sweet water, vaguely like jasmine. As a were animal they have no scent, because she is not truly there, it is only a sending.

She is asleep, and has been asleep for centuries, or for a millennium, but is slowly waking. Moving around like a restless sleeper.

Is both a vampire and a shape shifter, (Danse Macabre) a cave lion.

Her animal to call is all cats, both great and small.

She is the Mother of all Vampires, the Mother of all Darkness, the Primordial Abyss. The vampires call her Mother Gentle, Marme, Sweet Mother, and a dozen other euphemisms.

There is a room where the servants of the Sweet Dark wait. Belle Morte has been able to call six of them to her service and believes it to be a sign of her growing power. It truly means that the Dark is starting to wake, and her servants wake before her.

There is no one (except her servants?) who can claim direct descent from the Sweet Dark. She started the council, gave the vampires rules, and created their culture. This is untrue (Danse Macabre) Merlin was created by the Mother and there may be others.

Merlin may be Fay, and the Mother a shape shifter. It is speculated that vampirism is a blood-borne contagion and although it can be ‘cured’, purging it from the body leaves only a corpse since vampires are not alive. Over the millennium the strain has changed, so that the vampirism that most carry makes it impossible to be a shape shifter, and the lycanthropy virus protects against becoming a vampire. It could be that the strain the Mother carries is not so proof.

They talk about her like she is the head of the council. Does this mean she is the Queen of Nightmares that was spoken about before? But they talk like she hasn’t communicated in centuries but Asher stated that the former council group was in the US on the Queen’s orders.

Moroven’s true, secret name, is Nemhain.

Moroven is of Belle Morte’s line, but is a night hag or mora. She can inspire terror in her victims and actually moves with a low level dread always surrounding her. Her power can drive men mad with fear.

She is able to day walk – walk out in the sun without it destroying her. She was able to share this power with some of those she made, but the power was hers, not theirs. If she took it back they burned in the light.

Not a member of the Council, but powerful enough to be. She was offered the Earthmover's seat but refused.

Vampire Servants

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:51:39 GMT

A human servant is one with whom a Master vampire has shared their life-force. They will never be bitten or hurt (this is not true) and age almost as slowly as the vampire to whom they are bonded. This is considered a great gift, to be given only to those whom have shown themselves to be invaluable. A Servant helps protect the Master’s territory and will kill to protect their life.

A Human Servant is an extension of the Master’s will. When one speaks to the Servant, they are figuratively speaking to the Master. They share the Master’s strength also.

The first mark makes the servant immune to their Master’s voice, glance, and mind. They are more difficult to hurt and gain better resistance to other vampires influence, though this protection is not total.

The second mark appears like a pair of floating flames that sink into the Servant’s eyes. The Master can send their Servant dreams and communicate through them, and siphon energy from them, feeding through their body for a time and not needing to drink blood. When they are doing so, the Servant will eat more than they normally would to make up for the lost energy. The vampire can also taste food through their Servant.

For the third mark the Master ritually drinks the Servant’s blood. This can be through a cut or a bite. With the third mark the Master can whisper in the Servant’s mind outside of dreams and they become very hard to kill, healing very fast. They also gain an immunity to poison. With the third mark is placed, the Servant and Master share glimpses of memory, as though they get a window into each others minds. The Master can shape these shared memories; invoking pleasure, or horror, or other emotions that seem to pick and choose what memories are shared.

The fourth mark is the Servant ritually drinking the Master’s blood from a wound on the Master’s body, usually the chest. Accompanied by the Master reciting words similar to, “Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, two minds with but one body, two souls wedded as one.” Or “Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, the two shall be as one. One flesh, one blood, one soul.” The Servant can now know what thoughts are going through the Master’s mind and will not age, or will age as slowly as the vampire.

Servants still have only human hearing, but gain some strength, stamina, healing, resistance to injury, immunity to poison and disease..

An uncontrolled Human Servant makes a Master vampire appear weak.

A (Master) vampire’s powers are enhanced when their Human Servant with them, much like a witch and their familiar. They can channel power through the Servant, making themselves stronger for a time.

A Human Servant that is also a Necromancer has a greater degree of free will than a normal Human Servant. Normal Human Servant’s can be forced to comply to the vampire’s wishes though the extension of the vampire’s will.

A full Human Servant (after the 4th mark) is not affected by any vampire’s mind tricks and powers, no matter how strong the vampire. (?)

The death of the Master vampire will hurt a Human Servant severely at any time, and can cause the HS to either die or go insane. After the 4th mark death is assured if the Master is killed. A Master vampire may survive the death of their HS but will be greatly weakened for many years if they do survive. Not very many do.

If a Servant has not received the 4th mark, then another Master vampire can mark them. Once one of the Master’s gives the 4th mark, then the marks from the opposing Master are wiped out.

A Master vampire can also take power from their Servant by taking their warmth. This is accomplished by touching bare skin, though if any portion of skin is touched too long the warmth and life is leeched out, leaving it numb and cold for some hours.

A Human Servant, especially one of a powerful Master vampire, echoes the master’s power, and can ‘borrow’ some of the Master’s ability; like being able to entrance an audience.

At some point once the Marks have been initiated, they must be ‘married’. Marrying the marks merges the vampire and the Human Servant’s auras into one whole. How this is accomplished is individual to the persons involved.

Once the marks are married, the HS can sense if a vampire belongs to their Master or not. The only exception is another Master vampire. They can hide their affiliations.

It is generally within a pomme de sang’s rights to have sex with their Master’s HS, if the HS consents. It is considered a great gift for a Master to share their Servant in this manner.

A Master and Servant both feel a need to touch each other. It can be sexual, but the need itself is not. It’s more of a compulsion. When a Master touches their servant they gain power, or their power is strengthened. Also, it gives them a feeling of rightness to touch.

In addition to sharing thoughts and glimpses of memories, a Master and Servant may share some elements of their emotional makeup. If one tends towards anger, then the other may become easier to anger, if one has a depth of calm, the other may become calmer, ect.

When a Master gains in power, their Servant may as well.

Sometimes, especially with those humans who have their own abilities (magic-users, physics, necromancers) a Human Servant will gain powers not possessed by their vampire Master.

The joining between Master and animal isn’t as intimate as that between Master and servant. The master is unable to taste food through their animal.

If the animal is a stronger alpha – roughly equivalent to a Master vampire in power – they will have more control over the vampire entering their dreams or thoughts.

The animal servant is still given the vampire Marks. It’s unclear if any Master could mark an animal instead of a human servant. It is clear, however, that triumvirates (where the master marks both) are very rare.

The animal servant and the Master vampire will be bound together for eternity after the 4th mark, just as with a normal Servant.

It’s unclear if being marked improves the shape shifters stamina or senses like it would a humans.

The animal servant is generally called the Master’s ‘animal to call’, though in a different way from the general power of having an animal to call which means the Master can call all animals of that species.

Also referred to as a triad of power.

There are two cases of master vampires who could call animals, who then made one of those animals in were-form a sort of human servant. (Sabin w/ Cassandra (wolf) and Dominic was unknown? Padma w/ Thomas and Gideon (tiger))

A triumvirate is based on the magic that connects people. A necromancer has magic that connects them to vampires; a master vampire may have magic that connects them to a particular type of animal or were-animal. (can it be done with a human who is not a necromancer?)

With a triumvirate, each of the three can accidentally or purposefully invade each others dreams and thoughts, thought they can shield each other out if they wish.

A Master vampire could possibly include a third in the bindings if they have already marked a Human Servant, but the marks must be recent. Once the marks have been in place for long enough, they become too entrenched to stretch for a third.

Vampires

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:47:50 GMT

A vampire can ‘roll’ someone’s mind by capturing their eyes, mesmerizing the victim and inducing a trance. They can accomplish the same effect by exerting their will alone if they are strong or old enough, but eye contact makes it easier. The level of the trance and its effects are under the vampire’s control. Once a vampire induces a deep trance in someone, they can summon or command them whenever they wish. (GP)

A vampire can put someone under their power if they bite them at the same time that they ‘roll’ their mind. A bite alone doesn’t work, nor does simply rolling the mind without a bite. (CotD, Chapter 24) ** This contradicts what happened in GP.

When a vampire well and truly rolls someone’s mind (just when biting? Keeps the victim from struggling?) They feel wonderful afterwards. Warm, safe, loved, a little drunk. Struggling afterwards can cause them to feel rather ill, but simply sinking into the feeling causes a peaceful, happy lassitude.

Touching makes the use of all vampire powers easier and magnifies their effect.

Once a vampire ‘rolls’ someone’s mind they can plant false memories or blur the victim’s memories of what happened. A good hypnotist will be able to raise the memories even if the victim is unable to recall them consciously.

Can smell or taste emotions like fear, terror, desire, or lust. Can smell lies and have heightened sense of smell overall. They don’t rely on it like lycanthropes do, but it’s still better than a humans.

Although vampires are ‘dead’ during the day, you can sometimes note a pulse or heartbeat. The blood does flow, and the heart beat, but very very slowly.

In general, silver won’t kill a vampire but it forces them to heal their wounds almost human slow.

Regular metal and bullets don’t hurt vampires. The wounds heal instantly.

Some ways to kill a vampire are: Remove the heart and head in any manner; a shotgun or explosive bullets work well, as does the traditional stake and hammer/sword, axe, saw; inject them with a large amount of silver nitrate, exposure to sunlight, fire.

When a vampire burns to death, it burns down to ashes; no remains are left. Vampire flesh is extremely combustible; once they are on fire, they will burn as if doused with an accelerant until the fire is put out.

If a vampire is downed with something like a stake, or a sword through the heart, if it is removed the vampire may die permanently or may recover. Until the object is removed they are in a kind of stasis. The only way to be sure of a vampire kill is to take out the heart and remove the head.

To hurt a vampire, a cross (or other holy item) has to be blessed and backed up by faith. A blessed holy object will burn a vampire’s flesh when it comes into contact with it. Crosses generally only glow around vampires if they are out in the open. Even when glowing, the cross will remain cool unless vampire flesh is actually touching it. Then it will actual flames and burn the vampire and any human flesh that happened to be touching it at the same time.

Even a vampire with faith can sleep with a holy item under at least two layers of pillows, or under the bed, as long as they do not call their own power. This helps ward off the attacks of other vampires.

(Cerulean Sins)Asher flew into a cemetery and landed, does that mean that crypts and things don’t bother them? Seems likely. (Incubus Dreams) it’s mentioned offhand that ‘watching Asher or JC burst into flames as they entered the church …’ Churches are off limits to vampires? Just the buildings? (Are they considered a ‘holy item’?) Grounds? Shrines? Catacombs?

Holy water acts like acid on vampire flesh.

Mass hypnosis isn’t permanent or personal.

Vampires are stronger and faster than a human. Even ‘young’ vampires can bench press a car (half a ton or so).

Old vampires can become so still that they are almost invisible. They don’t breath, and there is no sense of life about them. They exude a sense of ‘emptiness’ around them that causes people to simply not notice their presence.

Vampires are either ‘Master vampires’ or not. Master vampires have more power in comparison to their age than vampires who are not Masters. A vampire has the ability to be a Master from the beginning, but they gain strength from age and can be as helpless and powerless as any other new vampire in the beginning of their undead life. The age at which they gain enough power to break away from their own Master will vary. Some may not even realize they are a ‘Master’ vampire if a stronger Master masks their ability and keeps them weak.

Most Master vampires can ‘call’ an animal species. Some call more than one. The call can extend to the were creatures of that species. A very unique ability of this kind is being able to call ghosts. Older vampires may gain additional animals to call over time. (in the same family? Different?) They feel an attraction to their animal, not necessarily sexual in nature, but there is comfort and pleasure in being in their presence and touching them.

The older a Master vampire is, the less time they need to ‘sleep’ during the day, but they still must be underground or otherwise shut away from sunlight. Any sunlight falling near where they sleep will cause them to remain asleep through the entire day. Some very old non-Master (1000 years or so? Less? More?) may also awaken early, but most vampires must sleep until nightfall no matter what their age.

Vampires do not require a coffin to sleep in, just a place that lacks daylight. A coffin is more secure, but not required.

Vampires are completely insensible once full daylight comes, they literally ‘die’, all at once. For some, it hurts.

Master vampire’s, on occasion, can capture a hunter’s gaze even during the day while they sleep, holding them until nightfall.

Some vampires can levitate and fly, usually the more powerful ones. It takes a great deal of strength to fly, to defy gravity and one’s own body’s desire to touch earth.

When a vampire’s humanity ‘fold’s away’ their eyes seem to fill with flames and their skin glows. The may appear particularly skeletal beneath the glowing skin, or ethereal.

Vampires can be locked in a coffin by binding it with blessed crosses.

A vampire can speak telepathically with those whom are theirs to command; Human Servant, Renfield, animal to call, other vampires under their sway. (including Pommes? Pommes who are also their animal to call? That they’ve rolled and have a hold on?)

When someone has been bitten by a vampire the wound can be cleansed with holy water so that the vampire cannot summon or control the person. Holy water feels like acid being poured on the wound as long as it is contaminated. If the vampire is very powerful, sometimes even cleansing the wound doesn’t break their hold on the person.

It takes three bites ending in death to make a human into a vampire, with just one vampire feeding over a space of several days. Three bites within a month by the same vampire can cause the body to rise as a vampire, if the person dies. The body will rise as a vampire on the third night after their death.

A newly risen vampire has no or very little humanity. They feel only hunger, and the need to feed on blood. Until after they feed the first time, they have no room for other emotions. It can takes days or weeks, sometimes months, for them to truly regain some portion of their human selves, though soon after satiating their bloodlust they may regain some humanity and sense. Often, of old, a newly risen vampire would feed on those nearest or dearest to their heart because they are the ones the vampire is thinking of in their heart but they are unable to control the hunger. It is only with the aid of a Master vampire that the hunger can be directed elsewhere. (Any Master? Not necessarily the one who made the new vampire?)

If a non-Master vampire brings over another vampire, that new vampire is subject to their creator’s maker.

Vampires can take no sustenance from the dead; that includes the blood of other vampires.

Some vampires can inspire physical sensations and/or emotional responses with their voice and/or laughter. With these voice tricks, the words themselves hold the key. They say beautiful and you see beauty, they say terror and you feel afraid.

A vampire cannot enter a residence without an invitation, and once invited the invitation gives the vampire free access until the invitation is revoked by the person who issued it. If the person dies, the invitation is still in effect and cannot be revoked by anyone else in the house.

When an invitation is revoked (as simple as saying ‘I revoke my invitation’) the vampire is literally pushed out of the home as though by a great wind. (Lunatic Café, Chapter 31)

A master vampire has near absolute control over their flock (or Kiss).

A human who dies of bites from multiple vampires will not rise as a vampire themselves in most cases. Rarely a victim will rise as a vampire even if only bitten once by a very powerful master vampire, resulting in death. Some very powerful Master vampires can contaminate every corpse they bite.

A victim who dies of multiple vampire bites from different vampires cannot rise as a vampire, unless one of those who bit them is very, very powerful. Then they may rise, but will rise like a beast and slaughter everything in its path unless the master that made it comes back to command it or until they are dead. No one else can control an animalistic vampire. Animalistic vampires don’t feel pain and are even stronger than normal vampires.

A Master vampire can sense the Marks left on a Servant by another Master. A truly powerful Master can ‘taste’ the others power, judge how strong they are, but not know their name or location.

The title of the Master vampire who rules a particular city is ‘Master of the City’. The Master of the City controls all of the vampires in that city to a certain extent. You can not abdicate from being MotC, you can only die. A really powerful MotC can command their vampires to do anything, even if it is against their will. The MotC can feel their people like background noise, the ebb and flow of them. In extreme duress they can feel their pain, their fear.

Just being Master of the City conveys additional power onto that Master vampire through the oaths that are taken, and the magic that binds the other vampires to the Master.

Some additional powers are an immunity/resistance to silver, and the ability to cause a sort of wind that can push against things physically. Bending back flames is one example. Also, drawing blood (wounding) from a distance, making another levitate a distance. Making shadows seem darker, more uninviting and cold is considered a ‘parlor trick’, as would making wax run faster, causing a door to swing shut without touching it, candles to light of themselves. These are perhaps more a directing of pure power, rather than specific abilities.

Drawing blood from a distance uses a vampire’s own aura of power against them, turning it inwards like knives. Most humans do not have this kind of aura of magic. Some vampires can do this just as a manifestation of their power, others in conjunction with their voice. IE: laughter like glass really cuts. Voice lashes out, draws blood.

Some can weave shadows and darkness around them.

A stronger, older vampire may be able to capture even another, younger less powerful vampire with their gaze.

Being the Master vampire who brings someone over gives them certain powers over their progeny, though those powers vary. They can force them to sleep, or steal back their energy, making the vampire shrivel up like a corpse though they are still alive.

The limit of a vampire’s powers is well established after two or three centuries, but age will slowly increase them even after.

Many of the old vampires value their privacy above all else.

Some Masters of the City may have what is called a ‘stalking horse’. This is a lesser Master who seems to hold the title of MotC but is in reality the puppet of a stronger vampire. They draw challenges for their position, and human assassins, but the real master remains hidden.

Some vampires have the ability to rot and reform at will, either shriveling up like a dry corpse or decaying into wet putrid flesh and liquid. Both the forms are real, as are the normal human-looking forms. This makes them extremely hard to kill; fire is the only sure way.

With rotting vampires, sometimes the vampire who makes another can make that lesser vampire rot at will. This is an unpleasant thing, and painful.

Some Master vampires can send people dreams, even during the day. With some, a scent may linger after the dream breaks that even others not having the dream can smell. Generally the vampire must have some sort of hold on the person; like having marked them, or bitten them, or rolled their mind.

If a vampire tries to abstain from drinking (live?) human blood they will manifest a kind of rotting disease. Cold (blood bank?) blood and animal blood are not enough to sustain them. They being to decompose, their flesh becomes puss-filled and gangrenous, and unlike ‘rotting’ vampires, they cannot reform or heal. The rot is virulently progressive, though the vampire’s power and ‘being’ isn’t affected. Their mind, however, may become addled either because of the rot, or the sheer horror of the condition driving them insane.

Generally human women cannot become pregnant with a vampire over the age of 100, although there are rare exceptions. If a vampire makes a human pregnant, there is a chance of the baby contracting “Vlad syndrome” which can be detected with an amino test. Newly dead males often have leftover sperm from before death. Sometimes newly dead female vampires can get pregnant, but the body spontaneously aborts or reabsorbs the body. There have been two cases of female vampires giving birth, but the offspring was born with a full set of pointy teeth and was more cannibal than vampire. Vampires cannot reproduce without the contribution of a human partner.

(Danse Macabre) One of the Master vampires has three sons with his wife, a Siren. Two are only 17 the other just over 70 years old. Both parents are stated to be over 1000. This doesn’t mesh with the info earlier in the series that vampires over 100 should be sterile. Also, it makes no sense at all.

A wound can be caused to scar by shove burning metal into it. Fire purifies and stops the healing process, unless the wound is reopened. (for both lycanthropes and vampires)

A greeting among vampires is to plant a light kiss above the big pulse in the throat. It is a gesture reserved for the very closest friends. It showed great trust and affection. To refuse it meant you were angry or distrustful.

Vampires offer up their throat, wrist, or the bend of their elbow to each other as a formal greeting. The lesser offer up their flesh to the greater as an acknowledgement of power. It is a pretty thing, a polite thing, but the reality is that if the greater vampire is displeased with the lesser, they may actually rip out the offered throat. Such violence is not condoned unless the lesser vampire questions the authority of the greater vampire, if their dominance is challenged it is an appropriate punishment.

A vampire (Master?) escorts someone with their fingers resting on the pulse of their wrist; it indicates that they consider them more than servant or bed partner, but as an equal.

Vampires cannot consume normal food. They can only drink anything one sip at a time (aside from blood).

When a vampire cries, the tears are pink-tinged with blood.

A Fay cannot become a vampire (?, Bloody Bones)

A vampire cannot be a lycanthrope and vice versa.

The Master of the City can bind his vampires to him with a blood oath. This replaces somewhat the bond that exists between the vampire and the one who made them. This gives them power over the vampire, and allows them to share their power to a degree if the vampire is injured badly.

Burnt Offerings, chapter 17: ritual for invoking the blood oath.

‘The Day of Cleansing’, called the ‘Inferno’ by vampires. About two hundred years ago the Church joined forces with the military all over Europe (except France) and burned out every vampire or suspected vampire sympathizer in a single day. (Burnt Offerings, chapter 34 – sometime in July)

Being able to survive exposure to prolonged exposure to even dim sunlight is the rarest of vampire talents. It is not something that all vampires acquire as they age or gain in strength or power.

A ‘night hag’ or ‘mora’ can feed off of fear and terror as if it were blood. They can also induce fear in others. For a mora, fear is like a drug. A low level dread surrounds them at all times, it’s something they do without thinking about it – like breathing for a human- though they can intensify the sensation if they desire. (‘different from other master-level powers’, does this mean non-master vamps don’t have this aura? Or only masters can be night hags?) Moroven (Damien’s maker) is descended from Belle Morte and is a night hag (Blue Moon, chapter 41).

Terms:

pomme de sang: Apple of blood. A sobriquet among the Council for willing food. The vampire that feeds from a pomme de sang is duty bound to protect them, like a shepherd keeping the wolf from his sheep. To kill a pomme de sang of another master vampire is a mortal insult. Wars have begun over less. Generally it is polite to reward a pomme de sang for their service, to show appreciation for the gift they give. It is generally best if the pomme is submissive towards the vampire. A vampire should show respect for their pomme and the service they perform, treating them much like a beloved mistress. They provide for them and keep them safe.

It’s considered bad form to have sex with your pomme, unless they initiate it. Then it’s like an extra treat, but only if they’ve been good.

Ardeur: The fire, the burning hunger. A gift that afflicts some of Belle Morte’s line that causes them to both crave and require feeding off of others lust.

Sourdre de Sang: Fountain of blood, the head of a line of vampires, fountainhead, a bloodline’s originator.

Temoin: Second

Attacking one’s sourdre de sang is not done. Every vampire owes allegiance to the head of their line like a vassal to their lord.

The sourdre de sang can take back the life from any vampire of their line.

If a vampire acquires enough power, they may become sourdre de sang of their own line, in which case they no longer owe allegiance to their own sourdre de sang, and that vampire can no longer leech their life away. This also protects any vampires of their own (new) line. It is rare for a vampire to acquire enough power to become SdS of their own line; not more than three (maybe more but didn’t advertise it?) in the last 800 years.

Some vampires of Morte d’Amour’s like can spread corruption through their bite. The only way to save a victim is (if they are mortal) for a vampire or vampires to ‘drink’ the corruption away, drawing it out of the body and taking it into themselves. If they are not strong enough, then they will begin to rot. The only way to save a vampire from this rot is for their Master, the one who made them, to drink away the corruption. Or for them to drink the blood and power of a very strong mortal, but if the mortal is not mystically strong enough to take the corruption inside them, they will die.

Each vampire’s territory was like a foreign country. Sometimes you had diplomatic treaties between them. Sometimes you didn’t. Occasionally you had a couple of master vampire that were enemies pure and simple, so if you belonged to one, you stayed away from the other.

The ardeur – the fire, the burning hunger – is a power (or curse) that will sometimes, though rarely, appear in the line of Belle Morte. It is what makes one an incubus or succubus. A vampire with this ability gains power from feeding on others lusts, but also craves it and must feed the hunger just as they must feed their hunger for blood. If a vampire has the control to resist feeding the ardeur, they will begin aging within a matter of days. The pain, also and especially for those who are still new to the ardeur, is intense. It is possible to ‘ghost’ feed, from a distance and without physical contact but it is not as satisfying as feeding the ardeur through sex or absorbing the energy through direct skin-contact. If a vampire with the ardeur doesn’t feed immediately when the hunger calls, then all their hungers grow worse, for both sex and blood.

Vampires have an anti-coagulant in their saliva, and a natural antiseptic. They also have fewer types of bacteria in their saliva than the average human. Vampire bites rarely become infected.

Vampires consider a bite to be a ‘mark of favor’ and it can actually offend them if the person they care about hides the bite.

Additional abilities that may manifest in Belle Morte’s line: The ardeur, to give true sexual release with their bite (make it orgasmic).

A non-Master vampire is filled by the power of their Master. It is their master’s power that makes their heart beat, the blood move through their veins. If they are made by another vampire who is not a Master, then their maker’s power still fills them, but it only comes through them from their Master of the City and ultimately from the head of their particular line. A Master vampire is a vampire who has become enough of a power in their own right that they fill themselves up with life. This is only true of vampire’s of same line as the Master of the City. (If they are a different line, where does their power come from when they swear blood oath? Directly through their ties of blood to the originator of their line?) The blood oath still ties these vampires to the MotC, but doesn’t bind as tightly (They have more free will? Or just don’t feel an actual compulsion to do as the Master commands?) (Nic, chapter 19) The oaths bind the vampire to the MotC, their bloodline, or their maker.

Quote NiC: (how does this mesh with the above? Seems contradictory) “I am Master of the City, my vampires live through me. Unless they are masters themselves, their life force comes through the line that bred them, until they take blood oath to a Master of the City. Then that master makes their hearts beat. If I run short of power, then some will simply not wake in the night, or they will become revenants, animals to be destroyed…”

There are no master-less vampires. There are vampires who have lost their master, but they are compelled to find a new master, to swear new blood oaths, to hunt someone else to rule them. A truly lesser (new? Not very powerful?) vampire can even die without a master vampire to rule them. The go to sleep at dawn and never wake up again.

One punishment involves locking a vampire inside a silver wrapped, cross bound coffin. When the vampire comes out of the coffin after an extended amount of time, the shock can be fatal. They must first be fed, a lycanthrope is best because the first feeding can be violent, as the vampire is nearly a revenant, then by the MotC or their maker to rebind them and restore their connection to the power that fills them with life. After that they must be soaked in a hot bath to bring them up to a more human temperature and to prevent them from going into shock.

A (male) vampire must feed on blood before he can have sex. Otherwise there’s no blood pressure and no erection. (Is it unpleasant for a female vamp then?)

Only one vampire per country can hold a particular name at any one time. Only one in the world for the better known names. Dracula has been banned after the last two holders’ went mad.

(Incubus Dreams) They talk about master vampires who are under 5 years old, so the power can manifest very early? From the beginning?

Another power (not sure of a line) is to read someone’s mind by touching them. Being able to riffle through their memories and catch images and thoughts from that person’s point of view. Also, to be able to blur memories, so that portions are unclear.

A Master vampire with an animal to call as one of their powers can have a metaphysical link with a particular one of those animals. They gain power from them, but they do not have the Marks that would give them immortality.