The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (12 page)

M
ost vampires find their key personality characteristics intensified by the vampire transformation in the same way their physical abilities are strengthened, but relatively few have abilities that can be classified as supernatural. More common would be a human with a love of learning becoming a vampire with an insatiable scholarly curiosity, or a human with a deep value for human life becoming a vampire with the strength to avoid human blood.

But a few vampires do develop additional abilities that go beyond the natural. These extra abilities are due to psychic gifts in the original human that are intensified in the resulting vampire. For example, a human who was very sensitive to other people’s moods might develop the vampire ability to read thoughts or influence emotions. A human who had some limited precognition might develop into a vampire with a strong ability to see the future. A human with a good instinct for hunting might become a powerful vampire tracker.

The proportion of supernaturally talented vampires to “normal” vampires is greater than the proportion of psychically gifted humans to “normal” humans. This is due to the same factor of temperament that results in more beautiful humans being selected to become vampires. Vampires are also drawn to gifted humans when they look to create companions. Some vampires actively seek out the gifted in the hope of utilizing that extra ability in their coven.

“I’ve always loved superheroes, so the vampires I created actually have a lot more in common with superheroes than with horror-genre vampires.” —
Stephenie

A
newborn vampire—defined as any vampire who is less than one year from his date of transformation—is different from a more mature vampire in behavior and appearance. The newborn is plagued by an unrelenting thirst and will feed as often as possible. The thirst is so maddening in the first year that most newborns are more animalistic and wild than their older counterparts.

They are marked as physically different by their vibrantly crimson irises, though in other ways they look the same as mature vampires. Their behavior is more diverse than their appearance. As they age, their behavior generally becomes more rational and constant.

T
he transformation from human to vampire begins with a vampire bite. Once the venom coating the vampire’s teeth enters the bloodstream of a human, it moves through the human’s body, changing each cell as it passes. The spread of the venom is swift, but the reconstruction of the cells takes time. This process is excruciatingly painful, comparable to the feeling of being burned alive. The process lasts for roughly two to three days, depending on how much venom is present in the circulatory system and how close to the heart it entered. There is no way to circumvent the burning with painkillers; the most narcotics can do is immobilize the body.

One benefit to the human is that vampire venom is capable of repairing all kinds of damage to the body. A human who had sustained a crippling injury would be made whole again as a vampire. Venom does have limits, though; it could not, for example, regrow a lost limb.

Only vampires with a great deal of self-control are able to remain focused enough to bite a human and then let him live long enough for the venom to effect the change.

The transformation is difficult from the vampire perspective as well. Even mature vampires have trouble resisting flowing human blood. The scent affects them as it does sharks; they can go into a feeding frenzy. For this reason, vampires tend to not hunt in packs. During the irrational frenzy, members of a coven are likely to turn on one another in competition for the blood. The taste of human blood makes it even harder for the vampire to resist. It is nearly impossible for a vampire to not drain the human—thus killing him or her—once the vampire has tasted blood. Only vampires with a great deal of self-control are able to remain focused enough to bite a human and then let him live long enough for the venom to effect the change.

There is another factor that can complicate this process for the vampire. The smell of each human is different, and certain humans can smell more appetizing than is usual to vampires. The more appealing any human’s scent (and taste) is to a vampire, the more difficult it will be for that vampire to bite the human and still leave him alive.

Infrequently, a specific human will smell nearly irresistible to a specific vampire. That human is known as a “singer” among vampires, because his or her blood “sings” for the vampire in question. Singers are individual phenomena; a person whose blood sings for one vampire will not have the same effect on all vampires. While there are some humans whose scents are more appealing to vampires in general, that appeal does not reach the level of a singer. Singers are considered by most vampires to be a great find, the drinking of whose blood is an experience to be savored.

T
he oldest known vampire history is that of the Romanian coven (named for the location in which they originated, which would later be known as Romania), the most powerful coven during the time before 400
A.D.
Their power resulted from their numbers; the Romanians were the first to expand their single coven beyond the normal two or three vampires. They had to cooperate in a way unusual to vampires to accomplish this (see “The Transformation Process” for information about feeding frenzies), but their self-control extended only to their fellow vampires. The Romanian coven made no secret of its existence and both preyed on and enslaved humans indiscriminately. The Romanians were overthrown by the Volturi coven between 400 and 500
A.D.

The Volturi coven originated in Greece during the Mycenaean Era. It began with three original members—Aro, Caius, and Marcus—and then grew to a core of six as the members found romantic partners: Sulpicia, Athenodora, and Didyme. Ambition was their bonding element, much the same as with the Romanians. The Volturi actively recruited gifted humans into their coven. Eventually, using the basic argument that vampires should conform to simple laws of mutual convenience, the Volturi launched a successful war against the Romanians, who would not conform to these laws. The Volturi hunted the Romanians until there were only two survivors of the original coven, Stefan and Vladimir.

The Volturi coven is both the largest and easily the most talented group of vampires in existence.

The Volturi preserved ruling status over the years through coven strength and a policy of general noninterference. The Volturi coven is both the largest and easily the most talented group of vampires in existence, but they could still be overthrown if they gave the other vampires of the world a
reason to unite against them. For this reason, the Volturi do not get involved with other vampires frequently, and act against other covens only when there is a complaint that could negatively affect other vampires. Consequently, they are commonly perceived by vampirekind as a positive force.

There are very few vampires alive who predate the Volturi. Most have been born into a world where the laws constructed by the Volturi are an accepted fact of life. This protects the Volturi from the realization that their laws are merely an excuse to exert control over the vampire world.

One notable event during the modern rule of the Volturi was the war that engulfed most of the southern part of North America during the early 1800s. Precipitated by a vampire known as Benito, the conflict began when Benito created a small army of newborns in order to conquer the older covens that controlled the majority of what is now Mexico and Texas. His tactic was so successful that most covens in the area created their own armies of newborns to defend against him and the other covens that were also reacting. The resulting disappearance and death toll was so alarming to the humans in the area that supernatural causes were suspected and reported (though the epidemic was later blamed on cholera). The Volturi eventually descended in force on the area and exterminated every coven that had experimented in the creation of newborn armies.

T
he basic law of the vampire world is that all vampires must protect the secret of their existence. This affects vampire life in a variety of ways. Vampires must be circumspect enough in their hunting and behavior that humans do not become aware of them. Or, if a human were to become aware, the vampire at fault would be responsible for silencing that human. Neither of these is a particularly difficult task.

As long as a vampire’s interaction with humans does not garner wide attention, there is no consequence to the vampire. Many vampires have relationships with humans to varying degrees, and as long as these stay within boundaries, the Volturi are not aware. However, if something suspicious—something that might indicate the existence of vampires—was known widely enough to appear in the human news, or even in human fiction, the Volturi would hunt the rumor to its source.

Vampire laws are not written down; to write them would in itself be an infraction. Vampire laws are passed by word of mouth from creator to newborn, and each creator is responsible for the behavior of his creation. If a newborn is abandoned by his creator (a rare occurrence, given the difficulty of creating a new vampire), the newborn, though ignorant of the law, is still punishable for any rash acts.