Humans (Anita Blake mythology)
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There are many different ways in which humans interact with the supernatural in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter universe, including the animators of "Animators, Inc.," who use their power to raise the dead for profit, and the police of RPIT, the law enforcement division assigned to deal with supernatural crimes.
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[edit] Human supernatural abilities
Magic and psychic abilities are closely related in the Anita Blake universe. In many cases, magic serves as a ritual to focus psychic abilities, or psychic abilities are necessary to employ various types of magic.
[edit] Animators
Anita Blake and many of her associates are animators - humans with an inborn power to raise or inter zombies. Typically, an animator engages in a ritual involving drawing a circle and sacrificing an animal, usually a chicken or goat. However, in some cases, no ritual is required, and before she learned to control her powers, Anita often raised and summoned zombies inadvertently.
The longer time a person has been dead, the more powerful an animator must be in order to raise the zombie, and the greater of a sacrifice is required to do so. Anita is one of the few people powerful enough to raise a centuries old corpse, but even she initially believed that she would require a human sacrifice to do so.
No animator can raise a body until its soul has passed, which usually occurs in about three days. Anita believes that if someone were able to do so, they would achieve a true resurrection, bringing the person back to life.
Anita also has the ability to sense the dead. For example, she can walk through a graveyard and "feel" whether the graves are full or empty, and can sense ghosts or human souls.
All of Anita's animator powers are significantly more effective at night.
Some animators are vaundun priests. These animators are trained in the rituals of vaundun and can use their abilities in more sophisticated ways, including the creation of magical talismans called gris-gris.
The most powerful animators, including Anita, are referred to as necromancers. Necromancers have power not only to affect zombies, but have power over all of the dead, including vampires. Anita's grandmother, herself a vaundun priestess, believed that training a necromancer in vaundun led to evil, and therefore encouraged Anita to become Catholic.
Anita's magical power is also useful in a more general respect. She is able to sense other magic when active, and can destroy many spells simply by flooding the affected object with her own raw power.
[edit] Witches
Witches appear to be humans with magical talent focused through a variety of rituals. The novels contain numerous passing references to witches.
- Upon issuance of a warrant, witches now may be executed rather than captured and held for trial because, like vampires, there is no reliable way to confine a witch safely. Some witches can pass through bars, while others can use their powers from within a cell.
- Similar to the relationship between a vampire and its human servant, a witch's powers are magnified if the witch's familiar is nearby.
- A sufficiently powerful witch can curse others. Anita describes this process as not being a ritual, but rather the result of a witch focusing his or her entire magical power on another. One of the characters in The Lunatic Cafe was cursed to become a shapeshifter and shift into a swan.
- The term "witch" is apparently used very generally, to refer to everyone from Wiccans to dark magicians such as the coven Anita meets in The Lunatic Cafe.
- Most witches connect their power and rituals to nature in some way. (Lunatic Cafe).
- There is a group of Christian Witches called "Followers of The Way". Local detective Tammy Reynolds is a member.
[edit] Clairvoyants
One of Anita's associates has an ability more properly called psychometry, although Anita refers to him as "clairvoyant." He is able to sense the history of an object by touching it. It is possible that he has true clairvoyant powers, but we never see him use any in his appearance.
[edit] Pyrokinetics
Also referred to as "firebugs," some humans in the Anita Blake universe have the psychic ability of pyrokinesis. They are able to create flames with their mind, and to shield themselves from the flames.
[edit] Sorcerers
Someone who has sold his soul to, or treats with, demons.
[edit] Telepaths
The series has not featured any human telepaths. However, Anita has noted that real telepaths are "scary," probably scarier than she is.
[edit] Human reaction to the supernatural
[edit] Legal status of supernatural beings
A few years before the beginning of the series, vampires had been granted limited human rights in the United States. This is apparently quite novel, and has resulted in a significant number of vampires traveling to the US. It has also caused many vampires to explore the possibility of living legally and openly.
Because of the difficulty in holding vampires, lycanthropes, or witches in prison pending trial, they are entitled to very little legal process. Once a judge is convinced that a supernatural being has committed capital crimes, he or she may issue a warrant of execution without trial. (This represents an improvement for vampires and lycanthropes, however -- during Anita's early career, she was entitled to execute vampires without a warrant).
According to Anita in The Lunatic Cafe, witches are executed within 48 hours of conviction of causing death by magic, without delay or appeal.
A number of supernatural actions are illegal or even capital crimes, including vampires using their hypnosis to "deep roll" a person against their will and lycanthropes infecting another person against their will or infecting a minor.
Discrimination against lycanthopes is theoretically illegal but common in practice, and many lycanthropes hide their status for that reason.
[edit] Law enforcement
[edit] RPIT
Supernatual crimes in the St. Louis region fall under the jurisdiction of the Regional Preturnatural Investigation Taskforce, also known as the "spook squad" or "RPIT" (pronounced "rip-it"). RPIT is dangerous and low status work, and the division is therefore staffed largely with police officers who have offended their superiors.
[edit] Vampire executioners
Some people are licensed as vampire executioners and are authorized to kill vampires pursuant to a warrant of execution. Most vampire executioners only kill vampires, but Anita and some others also investigate and combat other supernatural beings.
Vampire executioners are very rare. In Bloody Bones, Anita states that she is only aware of eight living vampire executioners in the United States, two of whom are retired. Vampire executioners named in the book include:
- Anita Blake
- John Burke
- Larry Kirkland
- Manny Rodriguez: (Presumably, Manny is one of the two retired executioners Anita is thinking of).
[edit] Bounty hunters
In many states, it is legal to hunt lycanthropes for bounty. In some states, only a postmortem blood test to prove lycanthropy is needed to make it legitimate. One of Edward's cover identities is that of "Ted Forrester," a bounty hunter.
[edit] Anti-vampire groups
Several anti-vampire groups have appeared in the novel, particularly the League of Human Voters and Humans Against Vampires, each of which seeks to restrict vampire rights by legal means, and Humans First, a group that originated from the failed Humans Against Vampires, which uses violent action against vampires and other supernatural beings.
