#general vampire information

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Since gender equality makes up a miniscule of our history (50-60 years in comparison to 2000 years+ of women’s oppression), do u think our male protagonists will still hold some of this view? E.g: objectifying Jessica and imposing traditionally held gender expectations (obedience etc..) on her? It seems unrealistic for these ideologies to just vanish after being so deeply ingrained into their heads. The philosophies on women’s rights from a 21st century American female will surely cause conflict

No - the female vampires are as equally strong as male and some of the strongest vampires in the world are female i.e. Jane, Siobhan who was known to be strong beyond many human male and this ability were more visible as a newborn.

Even in Volturi, the vampires that are the cornerstone of the coven are females: Heidi, Chelsea and Corin. There's Renata who is Aro's personal bodyguard, Jane who are tasked to be the leader of important missions and Aro chose Sulpicia who was just as ambitious and cunning as himself and Didyme went against her brother by choosing Marcus over her clan and family.

The positions of the women they surround themselves with are in anything but the traditional role people expected women to be in the past and even now.

But when it comes to their desire for Jessica's obedience stems from their superiority as vampire and from position of someone with more life experience, wisdom and insights because Jessica need to realise that the moment she became involved, her decision and choice are not bound to her own anymore - it will also affect them and she needs to understand this.

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Do you think vampires experience sociomoral emotions?

:emotions evoked based on learned, culturally based standards of right and wrong. Also called secondary emotions.

Yes, Twilight vampires' emotions are enhanced and intensified after the transformation and although I think once they become vampire, their memories as human being becomes blurred and vague, and their Id (primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories) becomes more pronounced; overall, it's different for each individual vampire as they were all born in different era where their upbringing and social cultural references were vastly different.

The primary example I could think of is Carlisle. Son of Anglican pastor born during the time of religious and political upheaval, it's hinted his entire life was strict, constant indoctrination and propaganda against vampires and supernatural kind, being conditioned to loathe and fear them. It is said:

When he emerged as a vampire three days later, Carlisle was repelled and horrified by what he had become and tried various ways of killing himself, including starvation, drowning, and jumping off cliffs.

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How long do you think it takes for a vampire to turn?

The venoms work differently for everyone, it’s said:

blood contaminated with venom isn't fully sucked away, the human's heart will pump the venom throughout his or her cardiovascular system and start to infect every cell it passes within the host's body. Over the span of 2-3 days, the venom will have saturated all cells within the host, completing his or her transformation into a vampire. The process is known to be slow and painful, described with the feeling of being burned alive.

It seems how long it takes depends on how much of the blood is left or contaminated and perhaps other factors like if they’re adult or young children. The study of venom as well as some aspect of vampires physiology has been largely neglected in comparison to how long vampires existed to the point that it wasn’t until Bella became pregnant that Volturi realised male vampires can still impregnable human females.

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I only read the Twilight books and never watch the movie. i can't help to see Alec and Jane as a 13 years old forever vampire. I know it's not the case in your fanfic but I can't help it. Btw, is Jessica gonna to sleep with all the Volturi ?Just wondering... not judging.

It won’t steer too much from the original in terms of pairing so not all the Volturi.

As for physical aspect of characters, I prefer basing them on movies meaning Alec by Cameron Bright and Jane as Dakota Fanning - I understand where you’re coming from because I was like that before the movies came out. I’d say try and watch the movies at least Volturi scenes to get immersed into the characters but remember that vampires moral is very different to humans:

I’ve wrote in one of my story chapter:

"Now I myself is someone who believes have what one would consider 'knowing basic right and wrong' to live in this day and age as a 'normal' person. Of course, what's right and wrong are influenced by our culture, education and traditions as history. Philosophy had shown us the ever changing norms parallel to time and technology and this is firmly rooted in our mind that it's difficult to change our views.

To answer why I am writing this warning is because this chapter and future chapters will contain themes of infidelity, non-monogamous relationships and implication of sexual nature that may be considered heretical in its nature and many readers may find reading such things disturbing and controversial but I ask of you, dear readers, to keep open minded.

I try to understand that vampires are beings who have 'died' as humans and were reborn as something resembling an animal disguised in human skin that mainly acts on primal instinct and therefore cannot be expected to adhere to norms and morality set by humans and its society. Even in books, they are coded as predator.

Vampires in Twilight has their own rules and laws, along with its entirely different ruling government and when I read all four books, I noticed it was always a pair and I presume this was more influenced by the writer's religious belief.

Vampires have no concept of time or age or morals or ethics the way humans have. Vampires – Volturi in particular, were born from various ages where morals, ethics and what defined adulthood/childhood were very different, ranging from Ancient Greece to Middle Ages to Enlightenment era to Victorian era to modern period. Humans judge by people's appearance because it gives you an idea of what sort of person they are: age, ethnicity, gender, social class, personality traits and even physical strength. The book says when they become a vampire, this is stripped away – their skin colours are bleached away and their human side becomes dormant. In the case of Alec and Jane, they are known as the strongest vampires in the world because of their power regardless that they were turned so young. Age/physical appearance becomes unreliable source in judging how old and how strong vampires are.

To Jessica, she might simply see Alec as a young boy because she cannot separate human age to vampire age. To other vampires, Alec's physical age doesn't matter, what matters is which coven he belongs to, what power and how old he has been alive.

TL:DR: So I hope that you guys understood where I'm coming from and that you remember that vampires and humans are entirely different creatures with different morals and ethics. Age and physical appearance doesn't matter as much to vampires than to human.

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We don't really know why Gianna died in the story because her character is very minor in the book, however in your story will we find out the reason why she was killed off? Did they just come to a conclusion that it was her time to go and they figured they needed a more 'fresh face'? Or did she do something stupid? Like those girls who started working after her. I believe Valentina was killed because she walked in on them feeding and Bianca spelled Carlisle's name wrong.

I think it’s combination of Gianna getting restless (although she doesn’t voice it out, Aro is sharp enough to see it without using his power) and simple drill of changing the secretaries every few years or so. But this also applies to every secretaries that works for Volturi.

Imagine being promised you might be offered immortal youth/beauty, few years past but during it you keep a good, healthy diet and exercise, follow the rules, dress and work diligently in hope you impress them, be nonchalant as you see groups of soon-to-be-eaten human basically dedicate your life to Volturi forgoing your family and friends and other relationship. 

It’s a very lonely, isolated life that they signed up for and whilst it was their own choice to sign up for it, they can’t simply resign by handing in their resignation and they have no choice in leaving. And anyone in that position, it’s too late to turn back so they are more motivated to become a vampire. What’s use of all that sacrifice when you gain nothing from it?

Yet there seem to be no sign of you about to be turned vampire any time soon, time flies and as you grow more older each year, you could see new set of lines appearing in your face and nothing seems to come to fruition. 

Humans are patient but to a degree, few years might seem very little time to wait for vampires but not to humans. So to avoid dealing with the trouble that comes with it, Volturi replaces the secretary every few years. It’s new face, new start and it buys them few more years of dangling that promise to new secretaries desperate to prove their worth before they get impatient.  

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I wonder what did the volturi or other covens did during World Wars 1 and 2?

My view is that they took advantage of soliders who were dying, ill or simply being in wrong place at wrong time to sustain themselves - it is so much easier and convenient to vanish when your country is involved in war and people go missing/die/unreachable all the time.

I also think it was an era where they could more or less freely move around without worrying too much about concealing their existence - humans were too busy with the war, everything was hectic and chaotic all the time and people were just simply trying to survive.

This doesn’t mean vampires were recklessly appearing in daylight for all of them to see they were different per Volturi’s rule but there was certain amount of liberty and leeway given that don’t exist anymore in modern days.

With amount of people dying and getting injured, the battlefield would have been ultimate feeding ground for vampires due to never ending and focused smell of blood and death, and non would be wiser differentiating a bite mark on the fallen victims bodies from wounds inflicted during battle and dirt/blood covering them. Those who were lucky to have survived before they were about to be bitten, I like to think somewhere in their journals narrating their stories in battle, they make reference to seeing red eyed angels of death in moment of near death.

Some covens also took advantage of these warring period to incur territorial war themselves as humans would simply shrug off as result of the war and there would be very little suspicion those devastation were done by anyone other than humans. Aro was aware few vampire covens would use the fact many would go undetected by Volturi but Aro was willing to allow them to resolve their own issues as long as they were regulated and contained that humans would not have any unnecessary suspicions other than it being humans doings.

Few other covens most likely to have remained hidden, away from human conflict, only resurfacing to hunt.

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Random thought about Twilight vampires

A bit random thought I had today about vampires in Twilight when I attended a conference (I volunteer then and there when I have the time because I basically get a free entrance to the otherwise sold out conferences with various psychologists, philosophers and therapists) and we ended up discussing about the ethical view that human nature is fundamentally evil vs fundamentally good (in Korean we call it 성악설/성선설) 

With the former one, it’s more accurate to say humans innately lean toward the bad than the good and to maintain civilised society that innate ‘evil’ nature must be tamed through rules and laws with the examples being how cruel children can be (in some extreme case, more so than the adult) i.e. picking apart insects, or psychologists are hesitant to diagnose children with ASPD (psychopathy/sociopathy) under the age of 18. Someone in the audience pointed out that, in that case, that instinct don’t disappear as they age but suppressed as amount of responsibilities one must bear increases and ‘comes out’ in instance when someone becomes inhibited either by drugs or alcohol. In a way, humans are animals who cannot co-exist but do so because it benefits them more than if they were alone. 

And my mind sort of linked this with Twilight portrayal of vampires (probably because it’s in line with my portrayal of them in my story, Pandora) how they become more competitive and preferring solitude with very few bonding factors as opposed to humans who are social creatures and amplification of their natural behaviours/defining characteristics:

It’s this part that I related to the innately fundamentally bad vs good which is shown in two main characters:

Aro who was ambitious as humans become a ruthless, calculating vampire that believes he is above the laws he had created vs Carlisle, with his amplified compassion and  law abiding peaceful nature to co-exist with both human and vampires has stopped him from becoming someone like Caius or Aro. 

I guess this could apply for Romanian and Egyptian covens where they thought themselves God and above humans (Apotheosis or in biblical sense, Eve eating the apple because Satan said she’d become like God). And living as a God is a hungry thing.

So in a way, I feel like vampires are more ‘humans’ since they’re not as imprisoned by the laws of human society other than their own which is basically down to one rule: secrecy. As long as they kept that rule, there’s not much that restrict them and they have the freedom to show their true colours that they hid as a human then shackled by human morality and laws. 

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Your recent text post got me thinking. So if vampires are really more human. So those who are clinically diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder become vampire ( lol I sound crazy) how will it manifest as trait in a vampire ? Hope this makes sense??

Sorry for taking so long with answering this question, I wanted to have a time to think it over before analysing the potential the disorder may have when translated into vampirism. 

ASPD doesn’t always equate to psychopathy or sociopathy. While in many respects, the symptoms found in people diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder mirror the symptoms commonly associated with psychopathy i.e. disregarding of the welfare of others, superficial charm, lack of guilt/regret, involvement in crime ranging range in severity from occasional bad behaviour to repeatedly breaking the law and committing serious crimes, manipulate/lie to others, act impulsively, seek stimulation through reckless activity, and maintain grandiosity.

TL;DR: sociopaths or psychopaths can be anywhere on a large spectrum ranging from the type of behaviour seen by remorseless serial killers, or the behaviour seen as a general disorder in emotional capabilities or accuracy. ASPD =/= psychopath or sociopath.

What is ASPD:

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or APD) is a personality disorder characterised by a long term pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others. A low moral sense or conscience is often apparent, as well as a history of crime, legal problems, or impulsive and aggressive behaviour. 

ICD-10 diagnosis:

It is characterised by at least 3 of the following:

Callous unconcern for the feelings of others

Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations

Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them

Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence

Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment

Marked readiness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalisations for the behaviour that has brought the person into conflict with society.

How would it translate to vampirisim:

The example of characters that exhibits few characteristics of ASPD would be James, Aro and to a certain degree, Caius.

Callous unconcern for the feelings of others

I imagine this would enable the person to be capable of cruelty and sadism in greater magnitude and easier adjust to vampire life. They are most likely to be human blood drinker.

Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations

Unless they were truly reckless and going out of their way to wreck havoc in human world, this would be a much easier task for them compared to human rules. 

Vampire world have few rules which you can get away with given you have reasonable control of your actions and self-preservation compared to myriads of rules in human society entrenched in every aspect of your daily lives i.e. pay tax, keep to speed limit, follow societal/cultural rules, pay bills etc.,

As a vampire, they only need to heed: no exposure to humans, keep hunting discreet (vampires need blood only few times a month) and kill/turn human that becomes aware of their existence. Simple and straight-forward.

Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them

Vampires are naturally solitary creatures, although I imagine they would be more recluse as vampire (i.e. Alistair) compared to your average vampires. 

Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence

This would make them more dangerous and aggressive compared to average vampire and perhaps more destructive and volatile if they were a member of coven.

Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment

This would go in hand in hand with no.1 characteristics in that they would more readily see humans as nothing but food and have no qualm in hurting or killing humans and even fellow vampires.

Marked readiness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalisations for the behaviour that has brought the person into conflict with society.

This could be seen as self-preservation or by others, cowardice. I think this could take in form of if they were ever in coven with others or they were brought to Volturi for questioning, they’d readily put the blame on either their coven mates or someone else knowing full well that they’d be killed in punishment or simply run away from conflict, leaving others to deal with the mess. 

When I said vampires are more human, turning into vampire simply amplifies who you actually are and without the human laws/societal or cultural norms to hold you back, your behaviour/actions most likely remain true to your desire.

I know there’s molecular evolution that may alter one’s constitution for example, vampires experience more powerful emotions so they could be swayed more readily by emotions than logic (I mean the whole fiasco with Volturi and Renesmee were quite dramatic and ‘emotionally’ fulled), they become more animal like comparable to a slightly more primitive version of homo sapien, but there’s lot more factors that determines what makes you ‘you’.

This got me thinking that turning into a vampire would wipe away any psychiatric disorder a person would have like it does for physical ‘imperfection’ (i.e. psychopaths have different brain structure so would it rewrite the brain structure to allow for amplification of emotional capacities as vampire) for genetic perfection. If it’s due environmental factors, I think those quality might simply be amplified but if it’s genetic factors, it could be altered during transformation.