“The song of the vampires”: analysis of a cursed book.

“The song of the vampires”: analysis of a cursed book.

In the library of banned books There are some works that should not be opened with impunity. One of these cursed books is The song of the vampires —to which corresponds the Memento Umbrarum or Book of Vampires—, about which we will say the little that can be said without committing imprudence.

Domus et Genus Noctuabundus.

The first chapter of The song of the vampires its titled: Domus et Genus Noctuabundusa Latin phrase that means “house and clan of the night walkers.”

There a race of vampires known as Noctuabundus, or “night walkers”; We know beings that differ from vampires through literature and cinema, except for one or two cases that are worth reviewing.

Dracula, the central character of Bram Stoker’s novel, is the typical example of a Noctuabundus: a vampire who operates in solitude, without clans of belonging. His personality is contradictory. On the one hand, he retains the habits mentioned in old vampire legends, including sleeping in coffins and fortifying himself with his homeland; On the other hand, he manages to represent a certain nocturnal glamor that allows him to enter among humans without raising suspicion, at least for a time, since his incursions into society rarely pursue any other motive than feeding on blood.

The Noctuabundus They are horrifying beings that roam cemeteries and rarely live long enough to develop abilities. However, when they are taught by a higher-class vampire, they manage to suppress their primary instincts and exercise that perverse duality that we talked about previously.

One of its main examples can be found in the vampire in Highgate Cemetery.

The vampires who are normally in charge of the instruction of the newly converted belong to the clan of the Natus Cainumor “sons of Cain.” The song of the vampires is reluctant to provide precise definitions, but it is assumed that they are responsible for tracking, pursuing and killing the Noctuabundus who cannot take care of themselves, and to educate those who manifest some type of intelligence.

Let us remember that, after becoming a vampire, the creature is orphaned of human emotions, even the most basic ones, behaving like a Ghoul or a Grobnik, that is, a ghoul being that dedicates itself to looting tombs, feeding on corpses, and who due to that bold behavior is quickly identified and exterminated by vampire hunters.

Among those in charge of chasing others of their own lineage are the Glog: the monster hunter of the Middle Ages. There are also other strange specimens dedicated to tracking work, such as vampires that feed on vampires.

Mors Principium Est.

He Mors Principium Est“death is the beginning,” is one of the most interesting chapters of The song of the vampires.

There the presence of vampires in human affairs is discussed. Contrary to what one might assume, senior vampires prefer to preserve their traditions, leaving the younger and inexperienced ones the chance to blend into the human population.

One of the main hunting strategies that appear in The song of the vampires attempts to stimulate human prejudices. At least until the end of the 19th century, vampires were introduced into society and formed small niches or clans in areas inhabited by foreigners, almost always poor neighborhoods and ghettos. Apathy towards the increase in the crime rate in these areas protected them from suspicion, which normally fell on foreigners.

Yes ok The song of the vampires does not mention it directly, in certain passages of the Mors Principium Est It is suggested that the crimes in the London neighborhood of Whitechapel, attributed to Jack the Ripper, actually correspond to the Sanguis Tremereides, or “descendants of the blood”; that is, people who have been turned into vampires without acquiring any of their abilities, only the insatiable desire to drink blood.

The attack of these creatures is not exactly organized. They move under the cover of night, blinded by thirst, although in many cases they still preserve certain rudimentary levels of intelligence, at least those necessary to escape from their pursuers for a time.

He Mors Principium Est declares that, precisely, death is the beginning of life as a vampire, a birth, so to speak, from which we can deduce that every vampire newly born to its nocturnal existence needs the accompaniment and education of its elders; something that they do not always achieve since not all transformations into vampires occur through traditional methods.

Nox Nunc Est.

Nox Nunc Estwhich could be translated as “the night is now” describes the behavior of humans, their horror and fascination with blood, and how vampires take advantage of it to commit their crimes.

The act of pure vampirism, that is, drinking blood to satisfy thirst, corresponds only to the lesser races of vampires. In fact, the Bestiaeinstinctive vampires, do not possess a thirst for blood, but rather something that The song of the vampires is called as Ultio Sanguinus Cujus: “blood revenge”, a kind of animal impulse that is impossible to satisfy.

The highest ranking vampires manifest a total indifference to human emotions. Sometimes they observe them, study them, but only out of curiosity. Seen from a human perspective, their behavior represents perversion and criminality, but these categories belong to an ethical and moral assessment of the world that vampires do not share.

The song of the vampires explains how vampires must control their primal instincts to survive. To do this, they spend long years of deprivation, of resistance to the pleasures of blood, until they finally reach the first degree on the hierarchy scale: Sub Umbra Sumus“under the shadows we exist”, which refers to the habits that the new vampire must secretly observe to transcend his predatory instinct.

If these instincts govern the vampire, he cannot exist in terms of individuality; he will belong, in any case, to a great collective mind of clumsy blood drinkers. To exist in the shadows, the vampire must control his desires, his instincts, and especially his human impulses.

Apparently, learning to be a vampire has its risks.

Sanguis Malus.

Why do vampires need to drink blood?

The reasons are many, and The song of the vampires He does everything to hide them.

However, not all blood is good for food. There is also the Sanguis Malusor “Evil Blood”, which is inadvisable for any vampire, unless it is a night owl of the highest hierarchy, a In Fidelitate Ab Aeternitate, that is, a vampire “in loyalty to eternity”; beings with interests so strange that they are totally alien to humanity.

The Sanguis Malus It is the blood of the innocent, that is, that of those who have not committed any crime; basically children, or the blood of a dead person. If a vampire makes this mistake he will suffer horrible torments, since the Sanguis Malus Est Ignem Et Aquamthat is, the “bad blood is fire and water” in the vampire’s body.

The only vampires who can actually feed on anything, even ordinary foods, are the so-called Dhampirs, children of a mortal woman and a vampire. This is not a rarity, in fact, there are many love stories between vampires and humans, such as the case of Fear Liath Mor: the vampire who fell in love with a mortal woman.

At the end of this chapter, The song of the vampires It reveals a good part of human folklore and the legends that are woven around them, basically a compilation of false myths about vampires.

No Invoces Expellere Non Posis.

One of the most interesting fragments of the The song of the vampires its titled: No Invoces Expellere Non Possis (“Do not invoke what you cannot reject”), referring to the dangers of invoking the Mater Arcanumor “mother of secrets”, the oldest vampiresses in the world.

Among these ancient vampires are: Aisha Qandisha, Alouqua, Ardat Lili, Dearg Diliat, Empusa, Lamashtu and Lilith, mother of vampires. All of them have lost the will to manifest themselves in the world, although they can be summoned by a necromancer vampire, with all the risks that this entails.

The song of the vampires suggests that these vampiresses were the first to appear. Male vampires were merely mortal men converted to serve as consorts, with no greater power or influence in the affairs of the night.

The book does not mention it, but we can think that there was a conspiracy for the ancient vampire goddesses to move away from the material plane and sleep the restless sleep of the immortals.

And even more, The song of the vampires clarifies that those vampires of yesteryear were daytime creatures, and that the vampires, to protect themselves from them, little by little became beings of the night. Hence, in almost all vampire safe houses, anywhere in the world, you can read the Latin phrase: Nox Praesidium Nostri: “the night is our protection.”

Despite the fear that these ancient goddesses instill in vampires, they all observe the rigorous worship of Algol, the vampire star, which symbolizes the female inheritance in the blood of all pure hematophages.

Arcanum Arcanissimum.

He Arcanum Arcanissimumor “secret of secrets”, is the last fragment that we will comment on The song of the vampires, since it precisely talks about the relationship between these creatures and the human race. The rest, at least on our part, will continue in the most prudent of silence.

In short, there are books that can be searched, and others that find their readers. The song of the vampires It is one of them: a work that can be pursued throughout life without finding anything other than madness. It is he, in any case, who finds readers prepared to study his knowledge.

Not in vain The song of the vampires warns again and again: Quid Vesper Ferat, Incertum Est: “what the evening brings is uncertain.”

It is fair to assume that The song of the vampires It is a work of minor importance for the creatures of the night, and that much of its knowledge was poured into the use of the Disciple, that is, humans who aspire to become vampires, starting with the thankless task of acting as energy vampires; or as female followers, the hateful Hexe: witches who become vampires following abominable rites that prudence requires omitting.

The greatest evidence in favor of this hypothesis is that The song of the vampires It is written in Latin, an erudite but human language. The true books of the creatures of the night are written in the language of vampires, a language that allows unusual constructions and a cipher that is impossible to interpret without having the key.

He Arcanum Arcanissimum explains how a person can become a vampire, and also the methods that this…