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. Usually an ointment is used "pine scent of rosemary for memory, cinnamon and cloves for preservation, sage for wisdom, and thyme to bind it all together". 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 shape shifter 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

People who got magic through demonic-or worse-power. They bargained for what they got and bartered their souls for money, comfort, lust, power. But some were a version of possession. People weakened by some flaw: mental illness or even a flaw of character. The right kind of flaws can attract evil.

[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 used magic to kill, 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 feeding off a human against their will (with or without hypnosis).
  • Vampires turning a human into a vampire against their will.
  • Vampires turning a minor into a vampire.
  • Lycanthropes intentionally infecting another person, this is always illegal without consent, with consent it varies on a state to state basis.

Discrimination against lycanthopes is technically illegal in most states but common in practice. In some Western states, bounties are paid for dead lycanthropes (if proved by a postmortem blood test). Many lycanthropes hide their status for these reasons. The status of non-lycanthrope shapeshifters, who are far more rare, has not yet been revealed.

[edit] Intermarriage and Reproduction

[edit] Vampires

In countries that recognize vampires as citizens, vampires may legally marry each other or humans. A few newly dead female vampires have given birth, but it is very rare, and the child is always severely deformed. A male vampire can father a child using "leftover sperm" from before his death. This is most common in the recently dead; in The Killing Dance, Anita is surprised that Monica was able to conceive with her century-dead husband Robert. This can result in the birth defect Vlad Syndrome, the fastest rising birth defect in the country. Danse Macabre notes that Vlad Syndrome is always fatal to the fetus, and usually to the mother; pre-natal testing is strongly encouraged, and abortion is "automatic".

[edit] Lycanthropes

Most female lycanthropes cannot carry a pregnancy to term; Cherry states in Narcissus in Chains that the physical changes are too violent. There are some exceptions, some forms lycanthropy which are not tied to the moon, and thus are able to avoid changing to animal form during pregnancy, also, some snake lycanthropes can lay eggs.

Male lycanthropes can father children; it is not uncommon for lycanthropes, especially those not high in their group, to have a wife and children who are not lycanthropes. In Danse Macabre, Anita is warned that if her child is conceived while the father is in animal form there is a risk of Mowgli Syndrome. This syndrome is very rare. The defects are not specified, but are described as "severe". In addition, the fetus can develop at the speed for the animal, instead of a human, and can speed up rapidly at any time.

To avoid reproductive issues, some lycanthropes choose to be sterilized, but their increased healing abilities can reverse the sterilization. Doctors have begun using silver clips to prevent reversal, this also has problems, as the silver clips can cause silver poisoning.

[edit] Law enforcement

[edit] RPIT

Supernatual crimes in the St. Louis region fall under the jurisdiction of the Regional Preternatural 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:

[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 novels, 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 Humans Against Vampires, but uses violent action against vampires and other supernatural beings, rather than the legal methods preferred by the first two groups.