|
This article contains several information taken from other sources in addition to information from the series proper. This may include the published version of the Shadowhunter's Codex, the family tree, and other extra content or companion books. |
| “ | The Night Children are a wise and careful people. Any scheme that draws their ire draws my suspicions. | ” |
Vampires, also known as the Children of the Night, are a species of Downworlders. Along with werewolves, vampires are humans infected with a demon disease. However, unlike the former, vampires are considered "undead".
Description
Vampires generally tend to look pale, sallow, and thin, though this is not always the case.
The blood of vampires shimmers bright red. Vampires cannot shed tears;[1] instead, it is blood that leaks through their eyes. Being reanimated corpses, they do not have a heartbeat and do not need to breathe, although they are still able to inhale and exhale oxygen, in order to utilize their heightened sense of smell, to pass as human, or to blow on something. Their lack of breath makes them impervious to such things as asphyxiation, drowning, or gases.[2]
A vampire and a sire also have some sort of connection. Particularly, upon the death of one's sire, a vampire will experience a momentary jolt of pain, presumably feeling the same pain their sire felt at death.[3]
The dirt of the grave where a vampire was buried holds special properties for that vampire. The vampire can tell if the grave has been disturbed. Vampires may use this to communicate simple messages,[4] even without the other's presence—for instance, breaking a container of a vampire's grave dirt could be used to alert and summon that particular vampire.[5] Clans sometimes even have a spot where a jar of every member's grave dirt is hidden, used for emergency purposes for when a leader needs to call on all their vampires.[6]
Vampires also cannot be tracked by normal tracking magic, neither demonic nor Nephilimic; however, powerful vampires tend to travel with mundane subjugates who can be tracked.[7][4]
Like warlocks, vampires are immortal and sterile; though unable to bear children, they are able to continue their vampiric bloodline by turning humans into vampires.[4]
Abilities
Like werewolves, they possess superhuman strength, grace, and speed, and are able to heal quickly from most mundane injuries. They also have enhanced senses—smell, sight, and hearing. They can easily adjust their eyes to seeing in the dark, as well as almost instantly adjust when shifting between light and dark.[4] Vampires also gain sharper eyesight than humans, and any fledgling who wore glasses in life will no longer need them as a vampire.[8]
Vampires also have the power of the encanto—the ability to mesmerize and essentially control others.[5] They can also shapeshift into bats, rats, and dust, while maintaining their intelligence in either forms.[9]
Allegedly, their abilities increase and grow stronger as they grow older. Despite the significant experience and strength older vampires have over new, younger ones, it is possible for the latter to overpower the previous, especially if the killing is meditated or unexpected.[10][11]
Power from a sire, the one who gave them the vampire blood that enabled them to turn, is also seemingly shared or transferred, to some extent, to those to they turn, mainly because this is how vampires pass their powers to each other—through blood.[8]
Creation
| “ | It is how we are made. We are drained, blooded, and buried. When he digs his own way out of a grave, that is when a vampire is born. | ” |
A human who has consumed enough vampire blood, known as a fledgling, will not abruptly Turn into a vampire. To be reborn, the human must first die a mortal death, during which the undead body will enter into a state of transition. They must then be buried, during which they will reanimate while in the ground, and then must make their way out of their own grave to be 'truly born'. They must then feed on an exceptional amount of fresh human blood within the next 24 hours to complete the transition, or else they will fade and die.[8] Because of the vampire blood, the demon "disease" and energy, in their bodies, their corpses are kept intact and animated.[4]
Because of this, a killed fledgling should have someone familiar with the process to support the fledgling and ensure a smooth transition, specifically by being present for the vampire's rising, to ensure that the fledgling would successfully rise of the grave, and supply him or her with blood and take him or her to a safe place to recover.[4][8]
Diet
Blood is the main component of a vampire's diet; all vampires need to drink some kind of blood for their survival. Whether it is the blood of humans or animals is up to the vampire. Mundane food can make a vampire sick since they cannot digest it, although some have learned to eat food with practice, most of which they have to spew out sometime after.[8][5]
Vampires possess retractable razor-like fangs that extend from their upper canines when their bloodlust is roused; these fangs are sharp and strong enough to penetrate the skin and vein of their prey. The act of drinking blood brings a rush of energy and vitality to the vampire. Experienced vampires can resist this rush and cease their drinking in order to leave their victims alive and able to recover, though new vampires may have trouble controlling their urge to drink their victims to satisfaction, to the point of the victim's death. Controlling hunger and the sheathing and unsheathing of one's fangs on command is also a feat harder to master with younger vampires.
After the initial sting or a vampire bite, the poison contained within vampire saliva dulls the victim's pain and may make the experience pleasurable for the victim. The poison acts as a muscle relaxant and a euphoric, and even a strong Shadowhunter will respond to its effects. Vampire saliva, once in the victim's bloodstream, is also said to increase his red blood cell count, making the bitten human stronger, healthier, and able to live longer; the effect is small, but it mitigates the weakening effect of losing blood, and so a bitten human usually remains unharmed.[4] A well-Marked Shadowhunter can retain his or her consciousness much longer than a mundane, though there is still a heavy risk associated with being bitten.
When a vampire decides it wants more than a snack and wants a human subjugate, also referred to as darklings, the vampire will start feeding its bitten human small amounts of vampire blood to keep it docile and connected to its "master". Subjugates worship the vampire that bit them and love serving them; all they want is to be near them. They follow their every command and find offense when others speak badly of their masters. Most darklings continue serving their master in hopes of becoming vampires themselves once they die.
Along with other Downworlders, vampires are generally unaffected by mundane drugs or alcohol they ingest. However, if they drink the blood of a drugged or intoxicated human, they become drugged or drunk themselves and may become susceptible to addiction.[6][3]
Weaknesses
Vampires are extremely vulnerable to fire. While they are much stronger and more durable in many ways than mundanes and Nephilim, their bodies are weaker and less resistant to burning. As such, vampires are not only harmed by fire but can also be kept at bay by a protective boundary of fire or a burning torch.
Holy water, and other common blessed materials, such as angelically aligned swords, are harmful to vampires and will scorch and burn their flesh. More generally, holy symbols may be anathema to vampires if the symbol holds weight with the specific vampire addressed. A crucifix may repel a vampire who held Christian beliefs before he or she was sired, but a vampire who was raised as a person in a Buddhist faith would not generally respond. Most vampires that did not ascribe to a religious faith as mortals do not develop an aversion to holy names as part of their vampirism. In addition, older and more powerful vampires often regain the ability to speak holy names and touch other religious objects such as the Bible.[12] This may either be because the aversion fades over time as the vampires age, or because they descend more deeply into the demonic and become able to speak God's name as a curse, or simply because the religious word or symbol is not of their own faith.[4]
Vampires cannot stand the direct light of the sun. Sunlight burns the skin of vampires, as does witchlight, to a lesser extent, being light of angelic origin. A ray of sunlight will cause blisters and burns on a vampire's skin, but full exposure to the sun or being exposed fully to unblocked sunshine will cause them to burst into flame dramatically, and they will be consumed and reduced to ash quickly. Additionally, it is said that it would take walls to protect vampires from sunlight, and layers of cloth will simply be penetrated through by the light.[8] For this reason, vampires are normally careful to remain dormant and inactive during daylight hours. Artificial light, such as that of gaslight or electric light, may cause discomfort in vampires if it is strong enough, but they are normally able to remain undamaged unless already very weak.[4]
An exception to this are "Daylighters", or vampires who are invulnerable to sunlight. While there used to be more Daylighters during ancient times, according to Lilith, they have become rarer over time, and the precise way how they are made is unknown. One of them, Simon Lewis, became one after being fed Nephilim blood, particularly Jace Herondale's, who has more angel blood than most of his kind.
As stated by tradition, a wooden stake pierced through a vampire's heart will slay them instantly. Vampire-slaying stakes are usually crafted out of oak, which is believed to help guide the wielder's hand to the source of demonic magic, in order to eliminate it.
Silver is toxic to vampires and causes them to experience pain, headaches, nausea, and so on, though it will not kill them. Cutting off a vampire's head or bleeding them dry are among other ways to kill them.[4]
History
Beginning
The first vampires were created in 1444 A.D. in a public ceremony for which the Nephilim have multiple written accounts from those who claim to have been present. The Greater Demon Hecate was summoned in a massive blood-based sacrifice held at the Court of Wallachia (modern day Romania). The ruler of Wallachia at that time, Vlad III, had a great circle of prisoners of war impaled on tall wooden spikes. In exchange for this impressive sacrifice and act of savagery, Hecate transformed Vlad and a large majority of his court into the first vampires.[4]
Spread of Vampirism
Vampirism did not spread seriously until a few years later when Vlad led a series of raids into neighboring Transylvania. There, he and his men appeared to have gorged themselves on the blood of their enemies and spread vampirism through the entire region. The city of Cluj became the site of the first vampire clan officially recognized by the Clave, and Transylvania took over as the epicenter of the vampire epidemic. For whatever reason, Vlad and his men did not sire any significant number of vampires in their own home area, and vampire activity in Wallachia diminished to near silence after Vlad's death.
War with the Nephilim
The Cluj Institute in the late fifteenth century was home to a Shadowhunter named Simon who provided a detailed record of the original spread of the vampire plague. He described an all-out war between the Nephilim and the earliest vampire clans, with mundanes being taken from their beds and left drained in the streets, and vampires chained to the ground in village squares and left to burn in the rising sun, and other such acts. Shadowhunters, especially those already experienced in hunting Downworlders, traveled to Transylvania for the sole purpose of vampire slaying; new vampires began to appear just as fast as old ones could be killed. Within months, the Cluj Institute, formerly one of the smallest and least important Institutes in Europe, had become the epicenter for the largest demonic epidemic the mundane world had ever seen. Chaos arose, as neither Nephilim nor vampires yet understood how new vampires were made or how they could be reliably killed.
The war ended with no clear victor. Knowledge of the vampiric disease grew, vampirism spread to other parts of Europe, and Shadowhunters returned home to sign treaties with local vampire clans and keep the peace in their own territories. Transylvania remained a devastated battleground for hundreds of years, where mortality rates for both vampires and Shadowhunters remained the highest in the world, and where the authority of the Clave was tenuous at best. Only with the unofficial end of the Schism in the first half of the eighteenth century did the battle die down, and today the Cluj Institute is, while more vampire-focused than most other Institutes, no busier or more dangerous than any other, and Shadowhunters visit not to wage war but to see the Muzeul de Vampiri, where magically animated wax figures re-create the carnage of five hundred years ago.
Exposure, the practice of binding vampires outside to be burned by the sun, was banned in the Third Accords of 1902 after the popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, the titular character being based on Vlad III, which led to an enthusiasm for hunting and brutally killing innocent, Law-abiding vampires.[4]
Culture
Law
Because of the healing properties of vampire saliva, it is not against the Law for a vampire to drink blood from a human, provided that the human remains alive.
Nevertheless, the risk of accidentally killing a human have led some to refrain from drinking directly from living victims and instead drink animal blood or pre-drawn blood.
Politics
Vampires around the world may choose to band together and form a group of vampires, usually called a clan. There are several vampire clans throughout the world, with at least one or more in every major city. Usually though, no matter what clan they are affiliated with, vampires consider each other, to some extent, brethren. Clan wars do occur, however, and during these battles, leadership may change because, as with werewolves: Whoever kills the head of a vampire clan becomes its leader.
Along with faeries, vampires are committed to notions of honor and etiquette. They take bonds very seriously, as well as oaths and vows. Blood-oath rituals, as in vows written and signed in blood, bind and compel vampires, and can only be violated when broken by another ritual.[4]
Because of the continued antagonism between vampires and the Nephilim, vampires, according to Jem Carstairs, sometimes Turn a Shadowhunter as a joke. Because of the Shadowhunter's past and heritage, the Shadowhunter will be scorned and shunned among the vampire community.[13]
For some reason, vampires and werewolves also have a long-standing rivalry with werewolves, considered their mortal enemies. Maia Roberts once explained that the demons that passed on the disease to humans that gave birth to vampires and werewolves were mortal enemies, and that prejudice was passed down through their races.[8]
Known clans
Vampires, as illustrated in the film.
From as early as the 1780s until as late as the 1850s, the vampire Marcel Saint Cloud led the most powerful clan in Paris. During his reign, Marcel threw blood parties, resulting in a period of "vampire craze", during which several children and young residents were made subjugates. Because of this, Downworlders chose to stay away from Paris during that time, as Marcel often asserted power over them, and Paris, to a large extent, was considered the terrain of the vampire.
A clan was existent in London during the Victorian era and led by Alexei de Quincey until his untimely death in 1878. Before this though, de Quincey led the clan liberally, secretly encouraging them to defy what he saw as the oppressive Covenant Law. During the raid on one of his parties, the Shadowhunters murdered several of the vampire members; de Quincey was later executed, with his few remaining followers. Whether the clan recovered from this is unknown.
In New York, primarily Manhattan, a clan is existent as of 2007. The clan resides in the Hotel Dumort. This clan has motorcycles that can fly through the demon energy that runs them. Formerly led by Camille Belcourt, and temporarily by Raphael Santiago, briefly by Maureen Brown, and currently by Lily Chen.[3]
Known vampires
Trivia
- Vampires have no scent.[12]
See also
References
- ↑ City of Glass
- ↑ The Mortal Instruments
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 City of Heavenly Fire
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 The Shadowhunter's Codex
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 City of Fallen Angels
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Fall of the Hotel Dumort
- ↑ Clockwork Prince
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 City of Ashes
- ↑ City of Bones
- ↑ City of Lost Souls
- ↑ Saving Raphael Santiago
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Clockwork Angel
- ↑ Clockwork Princess