Vampire Senate

**Vampire Senate** — This article is for all Vampire Senates in general. For the Senate most mentioned in the series, see: **North American Vampire Senate**.

## Introduction

The **Vampire Senate** is the governing body that controls the actions of all vampires in a certain area. The Senate is a group of really old Master Vampires who pass laws that the less powerful ones have to obey.

There are different Vampire Senates for different regions of the world. The Senate most often mentioned in the **North American Vampire Senate**.

## About

### List of Senates

There are six Vampire senates around the world.

* North American Vampire Senate
* European Senate
* South American Senate
* Asian Senate

### Laws / Treaties / Agreements

* The six senates have reciprocal agreements-if one is hunting a law-breaker, they all are.
* The Silver Circle's treaty with the **Vampire Senate** specifically outlaws Slaving.

### Convocation

* **Convocation**: every Senate had a biannual meeting where master-level vamps met to discuss policy.

### Character / Nature

* Less-than-benevolent
* Senate ruled because they were strong enough to scare even vamps like Tony.
* Feared even among Vampires
* They like the freedom of being only a myth and go to a lot of trouble not to draw mortal attention. Killing FBI agents is the sort of thing that tends to piss them off.

### Known Senate Members

**American Senate Members**:

* Consul
* Mircea Basarab
* Kit Marlowe
* Jack

**Other Senates**:

* Louis-Cesare: Champion for the European Senate
* European Consul: Leader of the European Senate
* Empress Ming-de: Leader of the Asian Senate

### Other Details

* It wasn't a good idea to show fear or weakness in a court situation—the Senate was pretty much the court of courts.
* Rumor: Senate members were so powerful that they had to feed only about once a week

## History

✥ QUOTE: During the Reformation, the six senates had collectively banned open warfare as a way to solve problems. After the religious divide, both the Catholic and Protestant clergy had been supersensitive, warning their flocks to be watchful for evildoers who could rob them of God's favor. Religion had also been a big political issue, with Catholic powers trying to assassinate Protestant leaders and vice versa, a Catholic armada trying to invade Protestant England and a major holy war going on in Germany. Everybody was spying on everybody, and as a result, more people were beginning to notice supernatural activity. Even though most of the accused were as human as their accusers—and usually more innocent—the authorities occasionally got lucky and staked a real vamp or burned a real witch. Open warfare between senates or even feuds between prominent houses were only going to draw more notice to the supernatural community. So dueling became the new, approved way of solving disputes.

There were plenty of Masters whose skills didn't run to battle who also didn't like the new system. So the practice evolved into choosing champions to fight for you if you didn't want to do it yourself. Once the two duelists were agreed on, though, the rules were very strict about what was and was not allowed. Ambushes were definitely unacceptable.

✥ QUOTE: "It was constant war once," Mircea continued, as if he knew what I had been thinking. "Between us and the humans, between families of vampyre, between us and the mages, and on and on. Until the senates rose, until they said enough, or we will destroy ourselves in the end. No one wants to return to that, especially the conflict with the humans. Even if we won against the billions who would oppose us, we would lose, for who would feed us if they were gone?" He looked at Pritkin. "We do not wish for huge numbers of us, running wild, with no supervision and no hope of secrecy, any more than you do. We bite to drain a subject in an execution, or to frighten as with the captives today. But for a normal feeding," he said, returning his attention to me, "we prefer a gentler method." — Mircea Basarab

## Associated Characters, Groups, Objects, Places, etc.

* M.A.G.I.C.
* Convocation
* Lyceum Theatre
* North American Vampire Senate

## Events in the Series

*This section may have **spoilers**. Think of the book title as a "Spoiler Warning" if you haven’t read it yet*.

## See Also

* North American Vampire Senate
* Vampires
* Master Vampires

## Book References

1. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
2. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 1
3. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
4. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 3
5. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9
6. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 5
7. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9

✥