by Del Howison
In most “familial” vampiric relationships, one vampire is dominant and one is submissive. There is a symbiosis to most all such master-slave relationships. Each side needs the other. The submissive is dependent on his or her master for many things, particularly from a psychological point of view and sometimes for their very survival. It seems one-sided at first glance, but in truth, a dominant needs his or her submissive just as much. Healthy power exchange is always a balance. In all great bondage and discipline relationships, both participants enhance their emotional and psychological well-being through compliance and control.
The master-slave relationship is a common theme in literature and film because it is inside most of us to realize that in a consensual relationship, the right person can complete us, not because we cannot take care of ourselves, but because there is strength in numbers (especially when somebody has got your back). Plus, the relationship adds dimension and variation that creates a larger emotional spectrum for us as individuals. Would most of us survive without this copilot? Yes, of course. But many of us are happier just for the chance to share what we feel inside and who we are with another being.
Vampire society is a complex web. In some ways, it does have similarities to a human lineage or family tree, but it has ties that bind in ways that humans may find difficult to understand. The connection that we humans have with our parents, our siblings, and our distant relations is strong and many feel that blood ties within families transcend mere biology and are spiritual bonds. With vampires, though, the blood ties are literal and are not in any way a point of philosophical contention. The ephemeral, metaphorical links between humans cannot match the connection that vampires have with their Makers and their progeny.
Each vampire could, theoretically, trace his or her lineage back throughout the ages to the first vampires that emerged during Neolithic times. As of this writing, several well-respected geneticists from the Ravan Institute in Varanasi, India, led by the venerable vampire Dr. Usha Avinash, are utilizing genome-mapping technology to literally trace the vampire bloodlines to their origins and map their migration and infection patterns throughout history. A vampiric bloodline and the semimythological progenitor of a bloodline are both referred to by the same term, kelda, which translates from Old Norse to mean “spring, or well.”
At the crown of a vampire’s immediate family tree sits his or her Maker. This refers, somewhat obviously, to the individual who transmitted the virus. The Maker’s offspring are referred to as children, progeny, parvulus, or, archaically, garor, as, in times long past, a vampire’s children were considered to be his “Garden of Souls.”
In defiance of all current scientific understandings of viral epidemiology and pathogenic microbial agents, the vampiric pathogen, when transmitted, creates an intense emotional and psychological bond between the two parties. This bond provides both the Maker and the progeny retrocognition of the other’s life, as though they were their own memories, and a sort of limited bilocation, in which the vampires can experience sensory and emotional responses firsthand, as though they had limited access to the mind of the other vampire. Both of these abilities manifest in different, seemingly arbitrary, intensities, though the connection is most acute during times of extreme stress. This psychological intimacy is almost impossible for a human to understand. It provides the Maker with an enormous amount of access to their progeny’s memories, feelings, and desires, leaving their offspring, particularly those in the early stages of vampirism, extremely vulnerable to manipulation. Some Makers use this to their advantage, leaving bitter, lonely, resentful children in their wake. However, many Makers cultivate a more positive filial relationship with their progeny.
In any case, in the connection a vampire feels with his or her Maker, powerful emotions are inevitably involved, be they feelings of love or hate. Circumstances and personalities dictate how the relationship evolves. Regardless of how your vampire feels about his or her Maker, or his or her own progeny, it is of utmost importance that you respect the bond that they share. Even a vampire who hates his Maker with an unrivaled passion would demand that you show respect to the one that made them what they are today.
The length of time that progeny spends with their Maker varies depending on the nature of their relationship, the nature of personalities involved, and the Maker’s motivation in creating his or her children. On one end of the spectrum, most Interfectors and other comparatively malevolent and sociopathic vampires will create children and immediately abandon them, even before the vampiric pathogen has completely taken hold. Tombeur (and some Interfectors) often create children to act as extensions of their will, and their progeny are little more than bonded slaves. Gentler, more humane vampires tend to create progeny out of love or a desire for companionship. These relationships are usually warm, at least for a time, and these children usually spend many hundreds of formative years with their makers before they strike out on their own. The level of care and instruction that a fledgling vampire receives is also subject to these variables.
To a much lesser extent, vampires share a similar, though considerably weaker, bond with their brothers and sisters—those who were also turned by the same Maker. As with human siblings, there are rivalries among some and affection between others. Again, it depends on the circumstances and personalities involved.
Master-slave relationships also exist between vampires and their thralls. A thrall, also called a minion, ghoul, henchman, or preta, is a human who has become addicted to vampire blood. As we mentioned previously, a thrall is bound psychochemically to a vampire. Thralls, generally, were deemed unfit for turning, and also unfit for a companionship among equals. Usually, thralls are humans who are lackeys or hangers-on—something akin to a groupie—and they command little respect from the vampires they latch on to. The bond is decidedly one-sided; most vampires view their thralls as domestics, and the trails are often beneath a vampire’s notice. Scientists have found that the substantia nigra (a brain structure located in the midbrain that helps regulate mood and is also instrumental in the motivation, reward, and addiction cycles of the brain) is over stimulated in thralls, and it is hypothesized that their increased vulnerability to addiction coupled with the euphoria-inducing, narcotic effects of vampire blood further seals their bond with their vampire.
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Vampire Blood, Thralls, and Addiction
A current theory in the scientific community argues that humans who have been given enough vampire blood to qualify them for minion status have a physical addiction to the blood and saliva of vampires, which contributes to their willingness to act in a servile position to the vampire in order to fulfill the needs of their addiction. The pharmacologic phenomenon of tolerance is not present, and the soporific and euphoric effects of vampire’s blood on the same test subject do not seem to diminish over time.
Factors such as an individual’s genetic and psychological susceptibility to the pleasure-releasing agents in vampire blood and saliva are determining factors in whether or not a human is predisposed to addiction.
VILFs: He’s 700 Years Old, and So Are His Hang-ups
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
—Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
A relationship between vampires and humans truly is the most extreme of May-December romances. He has lived through the entire history of mankind (maybe). The vampire has an enormous range of experiences to draw upon, and they are shaped by millennia of upheaval, change, and adversity that is difficult for a human to comprehend.
A very interesting thing will occur when you meet your vampire, the one who makes your heart go pitter-pat. The odds are that your new mate will be at least a century older than you are, and in the truest sense of the word, chivalry will be undead. Younger vampires are extremely vulnerable, and it takes many, many years for a man or woman to adjust to life-in-undeath. It is unlikely that any vampire under the age of 100 is someone who you will be able to make a connect
ion with. In all likelihood, the vampire will have a much broader scope of knowledge than you have been able to accumulate during your relatively brief life. If he does not, you’d better let him go. At best, such a vampire is unable or unwilling to utilize his extended lifespan for self-improvement and the quest for knowledge. At worst, he is a fool with no passion for life. If he doesn’t possess more experience and understanding than you do, he is either hopelessly obtuse or he’s playing some sort of game, feigning ignorance to help reel you into his clutches.
For humans, overcoming behaviors that have been cultivated over decades is difficult. Our upbringing, the culture and country in which we lived, the influence of society and of our friends and families: All these things contribute to our behavior patterns, societal expectations and values, manners and mannerisms, and moral codes, and most certainly our views on relationships and gender. This is even truer for vampires.
Cultural differences may manifest themselves in little quirks held over from lifetimes in other eras. Darius, a Persian vampire acquaintance of ours who spent centuries living in Egypt after being turned, still, to this day, anoints all of his guests with oil when they visit his home; Alessio, a Tuscan vampire and close friend who was turned in the fifteenth century, lives his life like a page out of Il Galateo. Many of the Victorian vamps of our acquaintance still behave as quintessential gentlemen, down to the minutiae of good manners, such as passing on the right as they make their way down a sidewalk and sending written invitations at least a day in advance of any entertainment.
Presenting more of a challenge than quirks of custom and etiquette is the issue of gender equality. Which, for the most part throughout history, has rarely been the norm. You should consider ahead of time whether you can handle a mate whose ideal woman comes straight out of the Good Wife’s Guide of the 1950s, or a vampire who may quote Athenian dramatist Menander at you as you pursue your second doctorate (“Teaching a woman to read and write? What a terrible thing to do! Like feeding a vile snake on more poison!”). Conversely, a Neolithic vampire, a vampire that was a Brittonic tribesman, or a vampire that hails from ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia will be likely to respect gender equality, and a Spartan or Sarmatian vampire, or a vampire that hails from a matriarchal African tribe, would expect their mates to be their absolute equals, both in love and war. As Herodotus said of the Sarmatians, the women are “frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men” and further emphasizing their belief in the strength and power of women, “No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle.” Are you up for assisting your mate with the hunt?
However, if your vampire holds the aforementioned beliefs that women are second-class citizens, your only chances for domination or even equalization are your looks and personality. There won’t be a trick he doesn’t know, a deception he hasn’t played, or a lie he has never heard. His experiences give him a unique street-wisdom, and it takes a shrewd, quick-witted, observant mind to survive the millennia.
As shallow as it may seem, the truth is that your looks are your main trump card. You do not have to be a model; you simply have to fascinate, captivate, and seduce. All men and women are capable of this. A vampire is a sensualist by nature, and most are near-obsessed with beauty in all its myriad forms. What you actually need are ways to lower the defensive personality guards that he has put up over decades of time living among humans. He can shield himself with the knowledge that he has picked up over numerous years of survival, and he can change his behavior.
But the things he cannot change are his desires and needs, romantic, sexual, and survival. His urges still pull mightily inside him, like the tides of the oceans. They pull even stronger than in a human male because the vampire is tied so inexorably to the phases of the moon. He needs to feel the warmth of your body and the blood pulsating through your veins as your heartbeat quickens in anticipation of a tryst with him. He needs to feel himself inside you while your body grasps him like a glove of human flesh. He needs this comfort, and you have to be sure that you are the only one who is providing it.
Where Is the Lair?
The home is not the one tame place in the world of adventure. It is the one wild place in the world of rules and set tasks.
—G. K. Chesterton
While the coffin or crypt is considered de rigueur, a vampire’s lair isn’t always a funerary box, though many vampires do still utilize them as a style choice that’s in keeping with the mythology that has sprouted around their kind, thanks to popular fiction. As with almost anyone you will meet during your dating life, they will already have a home, a house, or a lair, someplace where they can crash for the day, and where your vampire lays his head will give you valuable information about him.
A vampire’s primary concern with regard to his lair is purely health-related: The electromagnetic-radiation spectrum that sunlight emits is physically harmful. While some closed-minded and puritanical individuals believe that the vampire’s aversion to sunlight is a religious allegory of sorts that illustrates the wrath of God or some such nonsense, the truth is that the vampire’s skin cannot process ultraviolet rays in the same fashion that human skin can, and prolonged exposure to the sun’s radiation breaks down the DNA structure of the vampire’s unique blood type. Exposure to sunlight does not cause the sudden and dramatic conflagration popularized in fiction (although that looks really cool in movies); the effects of sunlight on a vampire’s blood is akin in some ways to the effects of nuclear radiation on humans. In addition, the vampire’s skin’s susceptibility to photo damage is acute. Over time, exposure to the sun causes permanent cell death, from the dermis inward, resulting in necrosis or death due to the cells’ loss of reproductive ability.
As such, vampires choose to sleep in areas that are sealed completely from sunlight, and their choices of resting place are as varied as their personalities. In our travels, we have met vampires that utilize contemporary panic rooms, abandoned bomb shelters, and bank vaults, as well as mansions and townhouses. Most vampires have access to a considerable amount of money, and many have specially built, completely secure subterranean rooms within their homes. Scientifically inclined vampires may utilize a pyrheliometer to accurately measure the solar radiation flux density within their lair to ensure their safety, but most do away with such extreme obsessiveness.
So for vampires, their home is a matter of life and death. The last thing you will be able to do is jump in and “spruce it up” a little. Tread lightly, and do not push to see their abode. If so inclined, they will, over a period of time, invite you to their place of safety.
Where their “crypt” is located says a lot about how confident they may or may not be about their abilities as a vampire and to get around unnoticed in human civilization. Geographically, vampires can be found anywhere in the world. Although it is rare to find vampires living in countries north of the polar circle during the time of the midnight sun, during their months of darkness, Arctic settlements have been very popular with vampires. However, Nordic vampires must exercise extreme caution when venturing forth, even during the darker months. Though UV radiation is comparatively weak during dawn and twilight, fresh snow can reflect as much as 80 percent of the suns rays, so even in dimmer light, vampires may be exposed to high amounts of solar radiation. Tromsø, Norway, for example, is a contradiction of sorts. From April until August, the city has traditionally been a haven for those seeking to flee a vampire’s wrath, while from late November to January, it is a sanctuary for Homo striga.
In other words, for all practical purposes, a vampire’s lair is the Bat Cave. Not only is it his place of rest, but it is also where he plots and schemes, advancing his convoluted machinations. In his lair, he is protected from prying eyes and is safeguarded against the perils of solar radiation and human interference. If you are lucky enough to visit a vampire domicile, take a good look around. Think about its location and consider the following questions things, as their answ
ers will all point out some personality pluses or minuses in your dark ones desires:
Is the lair near an urban area? In one respect, this would allow the vampire easier pickings come feeding time and may even help them to keep their hungry eyes away from you. On the other hand, it may make the chance of discovery a more probable occurrence. Have they weighed both options well?
Is the lair above ground or subterranean? One might think it is traditional for the home or crypt to be below the ground. Some of this comes from our old thinking about cemeteries and such. But consider the fact that vampires can’t live in or even cross running water. Seldom would they have that problem if they lived in a place that were aboveground.
What is the window situation? We all know the vampire’s problem with sunlight. Will they have to remember to close curtains or shut the shades every morning? At night when they are entertaining you at home, will passersby or neighbors be able to see into the lit quarters?
Does your vampire own their own place, having been successful in the passing years or centuries of gathering money? This would allow them to customize their lair in any manner they saw fit. If they are renting or leasing, or even if they stay with you and you are renting or leasing, there is always the possibility of a nosey landlord ruining things for everyone concerned.
It is also important to remember that the numerous locks, alarms, and other safety precautions that vampires utilize in their sleeping spaces are not to keep you out and are not even simple matters of desiring privacy or solitude. They are matters of safety, period.