Aro (Twilight Saga)

**Aro** is a character from the *Twilight* franchise. He is a vampire with a special ability.

Several of Aro's relatives are also vampires, including:

* his sister, Didyme;
* his wife, Sulpicia;
* and his brother-in-law, Marcus.

## Superhuman Powers

**Vampirism:** Aro's physical and mental abilities far exceed those of a human being. The exact limits of a vampire's traits vary depending on the individual vampire and depending on what they were capable of as humans.

* ***Speed:*** One of the most amazing among their abilities is their speed. Vampires are able to run in exceed of a hundred miles per hour, substantially faster than the human eye can see. When vampires run, they become "all but invisible". The Quileute wolves are noted to be one of the few things that can keep up with them. This suggests that vampires are meant to move to a new location every so often.
* ***Strength:*** Another enhanced trait is a vampire's unstoppable physical strength. A vampire is said to be thousands of times stronger than any human, able to lift objects several hundreds of times their own weight. They can crush granite boulders, subdue any prey, throw cars, crush metal, and uproot trees with their bare hands.
	+ ***Leaping:*** A vampire's strength also enables them to leap incredible distances.
* ***Senses:*** A vampire's senses are also greatly enhanced, which enables them to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste things imperceptible to humans. The range of their senses can be increased (though only fractionally) through concentration.
	+ ***Sight:*** While running, a vampire can see and sense everything that is around them, allowing them to keep tabs on their surroundings and avoid hitting anything unnecessarily. A vampire's vision is incomparable. Everything is much sharper and more defined as a vampire, and their vision is unhindered by darkness. As a vampire, colors are much more vibrant; humans are considered blind or mud-eyed in comparison. Their sense of sight far exceeds that of a hawk, and they can see objects in microscopic detail and can see into the invisible spectrum of light. They also have much better depth perception than humans.
	+ ***Smell:*** When a vampire hunts, they use their sense of smell to find prey and track its movements. Vampires can smell objects several hundred miles away in a good breeze. Smell is most intense to vampires because they can smell the blood of their prey. As they grow and become more disciplined, vampires can learn to smell differences between the scents of varoius humans' blood, as well as scents of other things, such as fabrics.
		- ***Tracking***
	+ ***Hearing:*** Vampires can hear the most muted sounds. They can hear sounds coming from several miles away, and with their eyes closed, can be sure that there are several people in a room due to the varied breathing patterns. They can hear the sound of a heartbeat, a pulse thudding in a vein, and words spoken too quietly or too fast for humans to detect.
	+ ***Touch:*** Despite being indestructible and hard-skinned, vampires can feel the things they touch no matter the softness, such as fur or the coolness of wind. They can feel the slightest changes of temperature around them, though they are not bothered by it. They can feel the heat radiating from a human several meters away.
	+ ***Taste:*** Vampires have a similarly enhanced sense of taste that allows them to taste flavors with much more depth and precision. They can taste the differet particles in the atmosphere and detect minute differences between similar flavors.
	+ ***Sixth Sense:*** Vampires also have a keen sense to danger, usually from something strong enough to harm them. Sometimes, they may even detect danger before they know it consciously.
* ***Indestructibility:*** Another impressive feature about vampires is their virtual indestructibility. During the transformation process, a vampire's cells become extremely hard, durable, and refractive, rendering their bodies nearly impenetrable. Vampires are noted to be exponentially more durable than humans. The strength of vampire skin is described as harder than granite and even diamond-hard. Their bodies are so hard that they are unable to be harmed by human weapons, and the only creatures capable of killing them are other vampires or werewolves. Their teeth are also noted to be one of the few things strong enough to be able to cut through their skin, as are werewolf teeth. Because of this indestructibility, it is quite impossible for a vampire to kill himself.
* ***Flexibility:***A vampire's bodily movements are uncannily flexible. Their agility is more advanced than humans, allowing them to rapidly respond to change by adapting to its initial stable configuration. They can make numerous gymnastic or martial arts implements with little effort and can even swing, flip, bend, and twist themselves without failure due to their enhanced balance and flexibility. Part of this enhancement is based on the enhanced activity of their brains, allowing them to think and move much faster than humans.
* ***Venom:*** When a vampire catches their prey, they bite into the neck and inject their venom into the bloodstream while feeding. This serves as a way to immobilize their prey while also initiating the conversion from human to vampire, allowing the predator to feed without their prey trying to resist. While the venom is transformative to humans, it is deadly to animals and werewolves.

**Tactile Telepathy:** Aro possesses the gift of tactile telepathy, an ability to read people's minds; he can reach far more deeply into a person's mind than Edward Cullen because he is capable of reading every thought, feeling, and memory a person has ever had in the past. This power works very effectively in gathering information and looking into thoughts that his subjects may wand to hide. It is, however, limited by his need to touch the subject in order for him to access that mind. Because of this power, he can learn any visitor's past and intentions of their visit. When interrogating a criminal, he uses his power to examine the guilty party's mind and see the proof they present. It has also happened on occasion that he discovered individuals with intriguing capabilities by seeing them through someone else's memories, such as Jane and Alec, Bella, Benjamin, Kate, Zafrina, and Alice.

By reading Edward's mind, he can also access any mind Edward has ever read. Like Edward, he can access Alice's mind and experience the visions that she has had.

Since his power is mind-based, it can be blocked by Bella's power to shield, something which she has been able to do since she was human, which piqued Aro's interest.