GLOSSARY
A Glossary of terms to help guide you through the Carpe Noctem world:
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D.O.T: Date of turning. This is the date that a human is turned into a vampire.
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Mundane’s: Those not of a supernatural species or those without knowledge of the hidden world itself. Basically ordinary humans that do not believe in things that go bump in the night.
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The Alliance: The Alliance came about during a time where the world was a far more superstitious place and those of a supernatural nature were in danger of exposure. Vampires especially, were the victim of scores of villagers waving pitchforks and flaming torches, descending on their place of rest and trying to kill them as they slept. They needed protection and they needed help.
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Along came the Shifter community, newly reunited thanks to the formation of the Immortal Council. The plight of the Vampire was heard and a solution was suggested. The Vampire would act as a sponsor for a Shifter family, employing one or more clan members to act as a bodyguard during the day and an occasional doer of errands that could only be accomplished during the daylight hours, a time that the Vampires could not make use of. In return for the loyalty and protection of the clan, the Vampire would become almost a mentor and patron for the younger generation, helping to educate and train the youngsters and employing them when they came of age. Most Vampires had a business of two and needed loyal, steady , hard working people to work for them, and none are more hard working than Shifters. They were all paid a fair wage, higher than most other jobs and they didn’t have to move on after a few years or hide their strength, something than became tiring when working within the mundane world. Many Vampires have been a patron of the same family for hundreds of years, forming close bonds and friendships with clan elders.
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Ancient: An Ancient is the oldest known member of a species i.e. the oldest known panther Shifter. With age comes wisdom and that is highly prized amongst the supernatural world, knowledge is power.
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The Elders: The Elders are the elective officials, one male, one female, of each supernatural species. Most Elders are there simply because they are considered one of the oldest, wisest, fairest and most trustworthy of the species. Some inherit the positon from a family member such as a father or grandmother, but others are chosen by a vote.
The hidden world: The collective name for the various realms, worlds and species of the supernatural. The world that the Mundane’s do not know exists.
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Shifters: Shifters are beings born with two forms, that of a human and that of an animal. Shifters have a split soul, part animal, part human. The two parts make up a whole, one cannot exist without the other or become separated. While in human form, the Shifter will still exhibit some animal like tendencies, a keen sense of smell, increased speed, enhanced hearing and eyesight, more strength than your average human, along with animal instincts, like the ability to sense danger or an instant distrust in someone. And while in their animal form, while the animal side is obviously more dominant, they would still retain some of their human attributes, an above average intelligence and ability to understand situations and things going on around them, to recognise someone they know or to remember things they knew as a human.
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Shifters are incredibly loyal to their family/ pack/ clan, and those they consider a friend. They will go out of their way to help or protect those they care about, especially their mate.
Shifter Mates: When a Shifter meets their destined Mate, its almost impossible for them to think of anything else but claiming them, they are driven by their animal instincts, claim, mate, mark. Shifter bonding/ mating differs from that of the Vampire, they don’t have the telepathy that Vampires have with their Soul Mates. Some think that the reason for this difference is the fact that the Shifters animal side doesn’t think in words, it relies on instinct, knowing how its Mate is feeling, strong emotions and can sense if they are in danger.
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The Shifter will feel an undeniable attraction to their mate, their scent will feel like home, relaxing them while at the same time enflaming their senses. If their Mate accepts them, they bond with the act of love making, accompanied by a claiming mark. They don’t have the ability to form a mark as the Vampire does, the Vampires being more like a tattoo that appears on the skin, while the Shifters mark with a bite, which even when healed, will leave a scar that other Shifters will see and recognise, deeming the mate to be taken.
As with the Vampire, the mating ties their lives together, forming a bond that only death can break, if one dies, so does the other. So if the Mate is mortal, their life will be extended to the same as that of their Shifter.
Chosen One: The name given to a human or being that is not a Soul Mate, but whom they have a relationship with. It is a term that shows they are special to the Vampire and should be treated with respect. There isn’t a bond as there is with Soul Mates, but there is love, commitment and usually a shared abode. Similar to mundane relationships like a marriage, or long term engagement. Many vampires don’t find their Soul Mate, but crave the companionship and stability of a loving relationship. Immortality can get lonely and they can grow tired of meaningless one night stands.
Watcher: A Watcher is the term for someone that protects a Donor during a feeding. Usually used when the Vampire is hurt or a new turn. A watcher is usually another Vampire or a Shifter, someone with the strength to control a Vampire if they tried to feed for too long or got aggressive with bloodlust.
Special bites: A Vampires ability to heal isn’t always a good thing, it means that they can’t get drunk or high when they want to. Their metabolism sees the alcohol or drug as a harmful substance and works quickly to erase it from their bloodstream. And so, for the days when getting drunk is the only answer, or on a special occasion, the Vampire can indulge in something they call a special bite.
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The Donor will partake of the kind of alcohol the vampire likes, or in some cases, drug, and as soon as the Donor starts to feel the effects, the Vampire will feed from them, taking the charged blood into themselves. As the Vampires body processes the blood, the Vampire will begin to feel the effects of the spiked blood, which will last for around an hour.
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Special bites aren’t that common as the Donor will require more recovery time than with a normal feeding, their bodies feeling the effects of both the blood loss and the drink. Though alcoholic ones are not banned by the Guild, drug induced ones are and if caught both the Donor and the Vampire will face punishment.
Bonding: When a Vampire meets their Soul Mate, the bonding process starts. It usually begins with intense desire for the other person, an instant sit up and take notice, damn I have to have them, desire that they find very hard to ignore. They might feel tingles whenever they touch, or something akin to little sparks and then a kind of sympathetic bond begins forming between them, the ability to feel strong feelings and emotions from the other, and sometimes even form a telepathic link.
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They will share their body with each other, giving that ultimate trust of sharing all that they are with each other. Claiming words are important at this time if they wish to make the bond permanent, they will each speak a promise and an acceptance. They will share blood, making a blood bond before their souls will meld, bonding them even closer, making it unbreakable. To show this bond they are granted the ability to mark each other’s bodies with a symbol of themselves, say a family crest or a flower that means a lot to you, it will take the form of a tattoo and show to everyone that they are taken.
Turning: Turning for a Vampire is complicated and takes many steps that have to all be completed for the turning to be a success. The body must be drained of almost all blood , to the point of death. This can happen from an accident where the Vampire is trying to save the person’s life, or on purpose by the Vampire draining them with their fangs (a messy process as a Vampires stomach cannot hold that amount of blood and so much dribbles out of their mouth, wasted). The complicated part is the fact that the turnee must have Vampire blood in their system at the point of death (usually from drinking from the Vampire, but it has been known for a person to get Vampire blood by accident). Once their heart stops and they die, all you can do is wait, there is no way of knowing if they had enough Vampire blood in their system to force the body to turn, or not. There are no guarantees.
It takes three nights for the turnee to wake up, if they don’t wake within that time, then they won’t wake at all and the turning will have failed.
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If the turning is successful the turnee will awake very very hungry and need more than the normal amount of blood that a Vampire would require. They will need to feed every few hours for at least two days to allow the body to heal. Blood fuels the vampires body and acts as a heal all medicine to them.
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In the days that follow, the turnee will start to feel better, stronger, see better and hear more than they ever could before, and within a week they should know if they are beginning to develop any powers unique to them, though for some that isn’t the case and they only develop powers as they grow older, some still manifest new abilities two or three hundred years after their turning.
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Turnee/ New Turn: The name given to a human that has recently been turned by a Vampire, or is going through the change.
Wiccan/ Pagan: Wicca is a branch of Paganism, an ancient, nature based way of life. Wicca is the religion of witchcraft. The term was coined by a man named Gerald Gardner, known as the Grandfather of modern day witchcraft. Well known in the 50’s and 60’s in England, he brought witchcraft back to mainstream religion, breathing life back in to it.
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Wicca is a nature based religion that follows the turning of the seasons with eight holidays a year. They follow the wiccan rede of “ Bide the wiccan law ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust. Eight words the wiccan rede fulfil, if it harms none do as you will. And ever mind the rule of three, what ye send out comes back to thee. Follow this with mind and heart, and merry ye meet and merry ye part. “
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Paganism is an umbrella term for someone that follows a path or religion that worships more than one deity. Usually a nature based religion that follows the seasons and performs spells and rituals and often they call themselves a witch.
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Witches are not scary beings, most are rather benign, without the ability to do magic that can directly affect things around them, though some that chose to follow the path have the ability to channel the energies of nature and form them in to some pretty impressive displays of magic not dissimilar to that of a sorceress or a conjurer.
“Young Guns” or “The New Generation”: This faction has two names, one is how they chose to refer to themselves, ‘ The New Generation’ , and the derogatory term that the Immortal Council calls them.
They believe that it is time to modernise. That the Council is keeping them in the dark ages, refusing to allow them to move with the times. They believe that the time is right for the supernatural world to reveal itself, to stop hiding in the shadows and to re-join society.
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They know that it’s getting harder and harder to avoid detection, with modern CCTV and the internet, everyone being amateur genealogists, it was only a matter of time before someone noticed that some people didn’t seem to age, or that the name they were using belonged to someone that died half a century ago, or that their paper trail didn’t quite hold up to intense scrutiny. They want to come out on their terms, to not have to keep building a life and then having to leave it behind and move (one of the reasons Shifters and some Vampires liked to form their own communities away from mundane’s).
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The Elders refuse to even think about it, remembering the times many centuries past, when they were hunted and everyone was superstitious. They don’t want to go back to those days, thinking they have worked too hard to create a safe life for them all, to jeopardise it now. But some of the younger generation refuse to heel.
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The Rebels: A small faction within the New Generation that have decided to ignore the council’s ruling and do their own thing with regards to gathering support for coming out to the Mundane’s.
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Surrogate: Someone who volunteers to take over the care of a new Vampire if they do not have their Vampire sire with them.
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Sire: The name for a Vampire who has turned a human. It is the sire’s job to look after the new Vampire throughout the turning process and after, teaching them to feed, helping them learn to use their new powers and basically guiding them through the first few months or even years until they are used to their new way of life. Most turnee’s will feed from their sire for the first few days and them be eased in to feeding from Donors or from bottled blood, this creates a very strong bond between them.
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