Powers of Old

How do you tell me a fictional character is honourable? Mind you, all words for positive traits are not interchangeable and I am not referring to “good”, “heroic”, “virtuous”, “human” or “likeable”, I am only asking about “honourable. How do you tell me a character has honour? Simple. You must show me your fictional character making a promise he do not whish to make. This promise must be something that is off character, something this character would never do willingly and that will cost something.

Then, you must show me your character in a situation that allows him to brake that promise. Without any negative consequence. No one would know, even his reputation will remain intact. Only the person to whom the promise was made would lose. And, this person is evil, mean, unlikeable, and in those circumstances, completely powerless.

Maybe this person will never be able to speak again, or come back from sleep. Specially not if the promise is not honoured.

Then, evidently, you must show me the character keeping his promise.

Show me a few variations of that, in context, through your story. Never show me this character broking any promise. You will have succeeded in selling to me the notion, that is a honourable character.

As a human I had never noticed, but this was the first thing pointed to me by my guide, my “elder sister” if you will. You do not find honourable characters anymore, among the protagonists of popular stories in the Entertainment Industry. Certainly not in US and its cultural satellite nations. And in recent decades about all the villains became obsessively honourable.

It is never called honour, but is exactly what I just described here as such. Now honour is an Evil trait to be found in the characters we are supposed to despise, and only in them.

The characters we are supposed to identify with are slaves to their whimsical volitions of the instant, their “emotions”, being slaved by that is considered the same than being “human” and this “humanity” is implicitly presented as the only real morality. Therefore, “human” characters cannot have honour. They cannot keep a word when they do not feel like keeping it. Instead, they must take advantage of any opening they are given to get what they want.

Nephthys loves super-hero comic books, and the old scifi comic books from the 1920 t0 1950 too. Her human father was a scribe in Ancient Egypt, that must have something to do whit her inclination in favour to sequential art. I have no idea why she has a bias in favour to US cultural background in particular.

Anyway, she insists that Superman and Captain America are both essentially the same skeleton, structurally the occupy the same role. In the surface, of course, they could not be more different. One is an alien, the other is a native, has godlike powers the other is a soldier in steroids, one starts as a super-powerful baby in a farm the other was a weakling, feeble, boy, in the streets of some big city. Somehow, she sees both as personification of the highest ideal supposed to be present in their respective settings.

And the most distinctive common trait in both, for the longest time, was that they used to be both honourable men. With and without powers, when they had the last saying and when they were at their limit. They would brake law, if necessary, they would not brake a contract honoured by the other part when the time arrived for them to do what they had promised.

I pointed, of course, that this hero who brake promise is a well stablished trope from popular Medieval stories. To “trick the Devil”, getting something from the “Evil One” and then fining a way to not pay the price, was the core point in those stories.

“US, being a Christian nation, has every right to take its share from that heritage” I said.

My preceptor looked right in my eyes, with a sad expression.

“Look where those Catholic Barbarian Nations ended, following that guide. Is any surprise to you that you culture stopped working the moment you embraced this piece of heritage?”

We don’t see eye to eye in most subjects.

Despite the fact that we share some things. Neither of us was born in a Vampire Family. She grew up knowing vampires exist, because her family was among the few with benefit of privileged access to information about the supernatural. I never knew vampires are real until I was invited to became one, but I had visions of vampires and other supernatural beings all my life. Frighteningly vivid daydreams, sometimes consistent with murders happening in the nearby region.

Nephthys is a small woman, looks around 20. Painfully white skin, painfully black hair completely straight. If I could forget for a moment that she is a vampire, and non-metaphorically older than most Pyramids buried under sand in her homeland, I would say describe her as sassy and cute. She could have a charming accent to make her more exotic, but the sad truth is that her pronunciation of English is better than mine.

Make sense, I suppose, she has been using the language since is was in the process of being born. Besides, linguistic is her second most important field of interest.

First being, supernatural vampiric powers, and their common origin. The Creator Race.

Most important vampiric power, by far, is the one that develops from the blood-seed named Holly Seed. This is the power to contact and use Creator Technology, the gifts of our Creators to the vampiric race. Special information, passage between planets in different galaxies, inter-dimensional toys beyond what any race in our Universe can develop, ever.

There are a few isolated vampiric families on Earth that have many members with this seed. They remain isolated from Nocturnal Courts. Cannot take part in politics unless instructed to do so by superior powers.

Except from those, there is about one vampire with Holly Seed for each Nocturnal Court on Earth. The balance is kept like that, some courts have no resident Oracle, some have more than two, but the understanding is that we have the obligation to make the connection between the vampires on Earth and the rest of the Universe. When necessary, we must serve the messengers send by the Creator Race. We get privileged information about reality, some we are supposed to negotiate as currency and some we are supposed to share for free. Some we must keep secret even from our own vampire family.

That is the reason why I became Nephthys’s protégé. We both have the Holly Seed.

The second most highly regarded vampiric power is the Warlock Seed, this one open the capacity to make magic, perform rituals that are not as powerful as the gifts of the Creators, but are more versatile than any other seed. Is like having a entire book of recipes of vampiric powers at your disposal, at once.

Many vampires who have the Holly Seed also have the Warlock, we don’t. Another thing I have in common with my mentor.

Bellow that, which are the better and the less desirable powers is a matter for debate.

About everyone agrees that this seed named Nereus Seed is one of the less desirable powers one can have. Should not be developed, does not compensate the trouble. This, happens to be another seed I share with my mentor.

It is a shapeshifter power, modern vampires call it “werewolf-seed”. There are good and great shapeshifter blood-seeds. This one is garbage. Most people say. Nephthys, however, loves it. She has been insisting that I should grow that seed after I consolidate my first steps in the Holly Seed.

With the Nereus Seed we learn to turn into other species. Must be something that has blood. We drink the blood, stay in the company of the animal we wish to learn, pay attention, and we get the ability to turn into that animal.

Problem is, that we get the animal brain, with its booms and limitations.

We are still vampire, instinctively we will avoid sunlight, that’s not problem. We will hunt. However, other than that, we forget all about objectives, plots, dangers and the reason why we could choose to turn back into our human form. One can hope to turn back during a dream, until that happen, chances are we stay stuck in our new existence.

Well, after some time, with enough experience and development, familiarity with that animal form, and others. We get a better control, and improve our sense of identity.

Supposedly, after that we get the capacity to be ourselves all the time. What makes us a little bit every animal shape we have learned. When we are in human form.

Finally, and that is the goal my mentor is aiming for and has not mastered yet, the mastery of the werewolf seed gives a vampire the capacity to turn other people into any animal shape the vampire can use himself.

So, if you can turn yourself into a rat, you can turn your enemy into one. If you can turn yourself into a dog, or a lion, you can turn your human blood-thralls into those animals.

Is hard for vampires to escape this condition, if they do not have the Nereus Seed themselves. For humans, is practically impossible. And, the most attractive idea, you can turn individuals of any one of those species you have masters into any other, including turn dogs, cats, bats, etc, into humans.

My mentor just loves the idea.

She believes no human born vampire will ever be as honourable as a dog turned human would. So, her plan is to have as many dogs as possible reshaped as humans. If possible, also have them turned into vampires.

I suspect dogs reputation for honour is exaggerated, most likely.