Makers & Minions: Other Relationships You Need to Understand
Some people have so much respect for their superiors that have none left for themselves.
—Peter McArthur
What do you gain by dating a vampire and what does the vampire gain by having a relationship with you? Why is it that most master-mistress or master-slave relationships end after relatively short periods of time? Are there longer-term commitments that need to be made and acted upon that usually get ignored? Or are we merely driven into these relationships for sexual reasons, and once those are taken care of the longer-term emotional commitments fall by the wayside?
You need to think these points through at the outset of your relationship with your vampire, as it is important that you know what he needs to get out of your dating commitment and that you make sure he understands what you need. Without these points being settled upon relatively early you may find your status changing from squeeze to supper! In order to determine what you both want out of your relationship, it is important to understand the ways in which vampires interact with their “kin.”
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.