For those reading fanfiction or crossovers without reading the books.


Obviously, this contains madd spoilers, for all books.

World:

The setting of the AB books is a world and time very similar to ours, main difference being, a) magic exists (and is rather rife,) and b) Magic has become/is becoming mainstream. In the last few years, a law-suit has made vampires legal citizens. Now we’re in St Louis, where Anita Blake, who works as an Animator for Animators Inc. is also working for the police with consultation on magically-related cases. (Anita has a degree in Preternatural Biology, so she knows about all the creepies.) Previously, the law stated that vampires and lycanthropes (werewolves and were-other-animals) were vermin to be executed as soon as possible. In those times, Anita was a State Vampire Executioner. (The cops called her when a vamp had been spotted and was suspected of killing someone.) Now vamps are legal, she needs a court order of execution.

Anita:

Anita, our hero, is an animator, or more specifically, a Necromancer; one who can raise the dead. Officially, Animators can only raise Zombies, and that’s what they usually do; they get hired for things like contested wills and stuff like that. However, a Necromancer can raise, and control, all kinds of dead i.e. vampires.

There are currently 14 books in the AB series, and over the years Anita has got rather ... involved in the magical world. It started when one of the top local vampires (Jean Claude) became infatuated with her. Now he’s the boss vamp, she’s his human servant, and her necromancy has grown and twisted the vampire powers he has bestowed upon her. Now she’s almost a vampire herself in many ways. She’s also kindof a lycanthrope, too. In the latest book, we found out that she has somehow become infected with Leopard, Wolf, Lion and one other unidentified strain, and yet she never shifts to any of these animal forms.

(BTW, in the setting of my story, which I started before the latest book, Anita had only displayed signs of leopard and wolf, so that’s what I’m sticking with.)

One of the main side-effects of Anita and Jean Claude’s powers mixing is that Anita gained one of his powers, which is called the ‘Arduer’ this power is kinda the same as vampirism, (where life-force or energy is sucked out of the victim and into the attacker) except that the transfer doesn’t come through blood, it happens through sex. Anita now has to have sex at least twice a day (with different people) or she will die.

Triumvirates:

A ‘triumvirate’ in these stories, is when a master vampire binds a human servant and a lycanthrope to his power, and them to each other, making them a triangle of power. Jean Claude did this to Anita and to his animal-to-call, Richard. However now (in a random power spike) Anita somehow has created her own triumvirate with two men she was close to. It’s all very complicated and no one really knows how she did that, but now it means she sustains their life with her own life-force. Partly as one of them is a vampire (in the position of her ‘human servant’ which should also be impossible), this takes a lot of energy which means that she needs to feed the arduer even more.

Characters:

These are the main players, there are others but if they come up you’ll either figure out whatever you need to know, or it won’t matter.

Obviously, there’s more about these characters than what I’ve written down, but hopefully this will give you a starting point and something to help the confusion levels. If you want to know more, read the books!


Jean Claude: Master vampire, Master of the City of St Louis, Sourdre de Sang of his line, Vampire in his Triumvirate. Jean Claude is from France and is a Childe of Belle Morte, he was Anita’s first lover in the series. Relationship to Anita: Lover, Master vamp.

Richard: Werewolf, Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke Clan, Animal-to-call to Jean Claude. Richard and Anita have had a very tumultuous relationship, they both fell in love very early on, but both have been forced to change a lot due to circumstances beyoud their control, Richard secretly hates the fact that he is a werewolf, and Anita hates that about him, Richard hates that Anita isn’t really human any more, Anita REALLY hates that about them. But they still have a lot of love for each other. Relationship to Anita: Occasional lover, Part of Jean Claude’s triumvirate with her.

Micah: Wereleopard, Nimir-Raj of the Blooddrinkers Clan, Nimir-Raj to Anita’s Nimir-Ra. Micah is relatively new to the piece, (arrived bk 10) but he came in with quite a bang and is definitely not going anywhere, he’s one of Anita’s main feeding sources and when they first met he and Anita did this weird bonding thing that I assume is rather like meeting a soul mate, except with metaphysical leopards moving from body to body. Relationship to Anita: Lover, Nimir-Raj, food.

Nathaniel: Wereleopard, Anita’s animal-to-call. Nathaniel is about 20/21 and is the least dominant male in Anita’s life, he was severely abused as a child and has only just started to get his feet under him. He was Anita’s pomme de sang for a while, (she thought of him as too young and too damaged to take on as a real boyfriend) but has determinedly wormed his way to lover status now. Lately Anita bound him in her triumvirate as her animal-to-call. Relationship to Anita: Lover, Animal-to-call.

Asher: Master Vampire, Jean-Claude’s Second in command, Childe of Belle Morte’s line (one removed, I think). Asher and Jean Claude used to be lovers about 200 years ago. (Them and a woman named Julianna.) Unfortunately he and Julianna got captured by the church of the time. Julianna was burned as a witch and Asher was tortured with holy water before Jean Claude was able to save him. Asher was permanently scared over one side of his body and face and blamed Jean Claude for not rescuing Julianna; Asher hated him for a long time. Recently Asher came to St Louis to kill Anita but was convinced otherwise. Over time he fell for Anita and she for him, and he managed to forgive Jean Claude. (yay!) Relationship to Anita: Lover.

Damian: Vampire, ...Human servant... sortof, in Anita’s triumvirate. Childe of Belle Morte’s line, (twice or three times removed? Not sure) and Moroven’s. Damian is also fairly new as a main character, Anita linked herself to him by accident once when she raised him from the dead when he was out for the day, and then bound him as her (human/vampire) servant later when he was really dying. Recently she bound him further by linking him to Nathaniel as part of her triumvirate. Ever since Damian has had the rare ability of being unaffected by the suns rays, however he is mortally afraid of it still. Damian is a bit obsessed with Anita, but although she sleeps with him on occasion, she isn’t romantically involved. Relationship to Anita: Servant, sometimes fuck-buddy.

Jason: Werewolf, Jean Claude’s pomme de sang. Ah Jason, last, but definitely not least. Jason is Anita’s friend, probably her best friend currently and he’s also probably the only one out of all these guys that she really trusts. Jason and Anita are not in love, Jason is a flirt and loves getting into Anita’s pants but they don’t flutter eyelashes at each other. Jason is Jean Claude’s pomme de sang and totally loves it. He’s also very realistic about life’s hard-side, even though he seems a total joker. Relationship to Anita: friend, food, occasional fuck-buddy.


Glossary:

Sourdre de sang – I can’t remember the direct translation but in the series means a vampire who supports his own line, i.e. all the vampires they made, and all vampires THOSE vampires made (etc), draw their ability to ‘live’ from their sourdre de sang. This vampire is the true master over all those vampires (even if they get lent out to other masters) and is master over themselves, not answering even to the ones who created them.

Pomme de sang – ‘apple of blood’ Used to refer to a specific mortal ‘owned’ by a vampire who holds the position of official blood-donor. While many other individuals can give their blood, a pomme de sang is a respected position and is usually emotionally important to the vampire in some way. The position is also important in ceremonies between multiple groups of vampires.

Ulfric – the king, (or queen, but only rarely,) of a werewolf clan. While there can be several Alphas or dominant, there is only one chief of the clan.

Nimir-Raj – King of the wereleopards.

Nimir-Ra – Queen of the wereleopards.

Once or twice removed – this is just a term I’m using to indicate lineage. A vamp is descended from their sourdre de sang first off, but this individual might not have directly turned them, one of the sourdre de sang’s children, or _their_ children might of turned them. So, for example, even though Asher, Jean Claude and Damian are all of Belle Morte’s line, they weren’t all turned by her. I’m pretty sure it says somewhere that Asher was turned by someone else, and Damian was turned by Moroven, a vampire who’s powers were based in the use of fear, as apposed to Belle’s that are based in sex.


P.S. All this stuff gets a bit garbled in my head, so if anyone who’s read the series catches any mistakes I’ve made, please just point it out, okay?





Hope that makes sense. (Sorry it was so long!)

P.P.S. Should be posting DMT Ch3 later tonight.