Ulterior Motives

Hi everybody. This is Clare, and my post is... I guess it's news, but it's old news. We didn't tell you at the time all the reasons we had for going to Europe. It's not that we wanted to hold out on you. It's just that - well, the blog is a public space. By now, people who want to mess with us have probably figured out that we have it. Announcing our intentions would be like beckoning someone to sabotage them.

So here's the scoop. We didn't just go to Hungary, Croatia, and Italy to play tourist. (Although we did play tourist, and it was awesome.) We also went there to meet with some vampires, to talk to them about joining the council we're trying to form. Getting into vampires politics wasn't really our plan, but after we fought The Elders, we didn't have much choice, because the power vacuum we created had to be filled. Our idea was that, instead of trying to have one leader or group of leaders, we form a vampire parliament instead. Thus, the council, which will be made up of representatives from all the vampire groups who choose to participate.

We got some takers on our Europe trip. (Our biggest surprise? The three remaining Elders were in. I didn't see that coming.) Obviously, not every vampire in the world is going to agree. So far, we have only a handful. But the people we did find seem pretty committed, which is even better than huge numbers.

The vampires who wanted to join the council signed an agreement. They had to promise:

1.) Not to attack humans to feed on their blood.

2.) Not to kill people... including other vampires... except in self-defence.

3.) Not to harass werewolves or other supernatural creatures.

4.) To respect other vampires' territorial boundaries, except when they violate the first three rules.

5.) To resolve differences by the vote of the council, rather than by force, to the extent it is in your own power to do so.

Some of the vampires we talked to found this pretty difficult to accept, although it seemed pretty basic to us. Eventually, they all agreed, though, and I think they understood the reasons for it - even if they only said yes in the end out of self-interest.

We currently have nineteen signatures, including the vampires in our family, meaning Cécile, Marie-Grace, Tabitha, and me. We're going to need a lot more if we're going to change anything about how the vampire world operates. It's a start, though.

Eventually, we're going to have to figure out an enforcement mechanism besides the honour system. At the moment, I think we all have sufficient agreement, but that may not hold forever. Again, this is a start.

So that was the "ulterior motive" of our trip. We just thought you should know. :-)

Love,
Clare

P.S. If you are a vampire and want to join the council, just let us know!