I need to know more about your worldbuilding for Vampire Hierarchy. Thats like my favourite part of your writing is seeing all the freakish Vampire Hierarchy woven into it!!!
Maybe this is a good chance to write it all down in one spot, rather than referencing it in authors notes and comment replies lol.
(I have added #vsmp worldbuilding to some of my posts for people to find if they're interested in that, and will try to use it going forward.
WARNING huge lore dump under the cut. This is all my initial thoughts on how Vampire Hierarchy works, and what I've been working with so far. It will be subject to change if it serves the story better. I don't know if at some point in my fics Louis will explain this to Legundo, or Scott to Pyro, or maybe even Abolish would explain this to someone! Either way they would not explain it like THIS so I don't think this is spoilers to answer.
My main jumping off points are the fact that Owen mentions Louis descending from a long line of Goldsmiths in canon, Cleo's mother and her rules, and Scott's whole... situation. As well as the push and pull Owen and Scott have in canon vis a vis "Scott is not my sire," and Scott's combination disregard and trust of Owen. There's a lot I chose to read into with that lmao.
Fact 1: There is one Sire for every coven. It is both an ancestry, and a position. For example, although Shelby was turned by Pyro in canon, Scott would be considered her 'Sire', because he is Pyro's Sire, and he defers to Scott.
Fact 2: There is still an intimate (either positive, or negative, or any color in between) relationship between someone who is turned, and the person who turns them. They are their sire, lowercase 's'. But the leadership and deference goes to the Sire, until they either die, or are defeated/killed/succeeded after death, by another member of the coven. Or even an interloper if they get the drop on them! (If you come for Scott Goldsmith, you better not fucking miss.)
Fact 3: This is simplifying it immensely, and is not a hard RULE. There are so many nuances and variations of relationship in the coven, and everyone does it differently. Cleo's mother was different from Scott Goldsmith, who was different from HIS Sire (absolute evil freak), who is different from LOUIS. Just look at the fucking train wreck that was canon Owen and Legs once Owen turned him.
Fact 4: You can think of this evolutionary as a survival tactic. If there's rogue vampires, they bring attention to a coven, and make it dangerous to settle in any one place. They do not ration their feeding, and do not consider the weaker vampires of an existing coven who need care, such as fledglings, or injured members. It's the responsibility of the Sire to ensure they are all fed, safe, and protected politically from other covens. It isn't JUST a ruling position, it's a huge responsibility, and only the most capable will take it up.
There will never be a vampire just vibing in a coven territory. They will either be dead, or folded into the coven. (I'll address this in a moment.) A vampire Sire has both a political and instinctual need to murder any vampire not in their coven, who is existing in their territory.
Fact 5: Let's use the Goldsmiths as an example.
Long long ago in ancient Rome, there was a vampire that was very charming. He was turned when he was in his thirties, and had a wife and many children. In spite of whoever sired him, he mutated, and a new vampire lineage was born. This happens on very rare occasion. Perhaps his sire had an affinity for echolocation, or singing, or some sound based trait. Perhaps he had venom that could put people to sleep, and this mutated into the hypnotism the Goldsmiths became so proficient in.
Who knows.
Anyone this ancient roman turned had the same traits, as did his biological children when he turned them. They eventually formed a new coven.
His children had children prior to turning, and so on and so forth, to continue the line. Occasional (every thousand years or so, a very rare occurence) vampiric offspring ensured the bloodline did not get diluted. Louis is an example of a child born of two already turned vampires. Often times lineages die out before they get off the ground, but the Goldsmiths prospered because of their subtlety. It is VERY hard to keep bloodlines like this, which is why long vampire lineages are so rare. There's maybe 50 worldwide, which is not a very large number at all if you consider the population of say, China, or India. (Minecraft China... Minecraft India.... anyway.)
The new sire is chosen from the purest bloodline of the direct sire lineage. It's all very vomit inducing- Scott is probably the third or fourth Goldsmith sire leading the coven. Someone took over after him, and that was probably Louis' mothers parent/sire.
Fact 6: As you can imagine, this makes vampires a fucking nightmare at parties.
Fact 7: Vampires can join the coven either through marriage (often arranged), or through sharing intimacy/approval of some sort with the Sire. Whether it's just trading scents for a while, feeding blood off of each other, or whatever, it takes the Sire's approval for someone to be welcomed. It's a purely inhuman process. There are many ways it can happen, each individual to the situation, but you know if it's happened, as a vampires scent will change. (Vampires are very scent based. Like cats.)
Fact 8: Let's use Owen for an example. Owen as a person, says "Fuck Scott Goldsmith and the gilded carriage he rode in on." VAMPIRE Owen however, sees Scott performing well enough as a sire. He has fledglings, already three generations removed from himself. Bro is speed running forming a coven. They are also locked in together, unnaturally so. Owen does not have the option to retreat from this forming covens territory, even if he wanted to. Owen has three choices in his vampire brain that he does not consciously know are happening, but stress him out regardless:
-Let Scott Goldsmith fold him into the coven. Puke, no thank you.
-Kill Scott Goldsmith. Tempting, but Owen might not be able to take him.
-Escape Oakhurst before either things happen.
Meanwhile, Scott sees Owen (a strange vampire, not of his lineage (or at least, so far removed that it does not make a difference, since Louis was effectively starting his own coven with Owen)) and he has three choices in front of him.
-Let Owen do his own thing. An unacceptable option. That's how covens are destroyed. When they are not united. Scott would be a bad Sire if he did this, by any metric. (Even canon Cleo's! And Abolish's!)
-Kill Owen. Also unacceptable. He kind of likes Owen, and Owen is astonishingly capable besides. Any coven would KILL to have someone like Owen. Fresh blood and all that.
-Fold Owen into the coven forcibly, until his instincts subside and he accepts Scott as his Sire. Acceptable, and not the first time Scott has done so.
In spite of Owen thinking "Fuck Scott Goldsmith and the gilded carriage he rode in on," if Scott puts Owen down enough, and makes it clear that (a certain level of) obedience is the only option, Owen will eventually submit. A HUMAN perspective of the situation would be thinking what the fuck man. Girl GET OUT OF THERE. But to Owen it feels natural, and he hardly notices after a while. Pyro even gets his own taste in my headcanon, because he WOULD test the limits eventually. (Scott works so hard... fledglings these days need such a firm hand...)
Which isn't to say Owen doesn't have bitterness and emotions about it, it's not mind control. He just suddenly gets sick of fighting Scott tooth an nail...he'll fight him on this tomorrow, for now maybe he'll just do what he's told... bide his time... and then before you know it fifty years have passed and bro's being arrange married to a fucking duchess or something.
Meanwhile Louis just had to frown and say pretty please and Owen would rip his own heart out and serve it to him on a platter. Cringe.
Fact 9: In "a duty to others" Cleo begins taking a psuedo Sire role in town, for lack of direction, and organization. She's naturally inclined to it (I think her mother was preparing her for such eventually), and Oakhurst is SUCH an outlier of a situation that a lot of social cues get mixed up and fucked up anyway. Think of how animal behavior gets messed up when they're in a zoo.
