The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (13 page)

Sometimes group behavior will bring on a stronger response from the Volturi. The Southern Wars are one example. Another example would be the outlawing of immortal children.

Immortal children were humans who had been transformed into vampires at a very early age. There was no absolute age limit set as to what constituted an immortal child;
it was a subjective definition, based on the child’s ability to behave himself in a way consistent with vampire law.

Like all vampires, immortal children were frozen at the mental and physical age at which they were transformed. Post-transformation, these small children continued to exhibit childish behaviors, including impulsive acts, tantrums, irresponsible activities, and a general lack of circumspection. These behaviors were incompatible with the law of secrecy, and immortal children often attracted the notice of humans.

Another aspect of immortal children was their appeal; they were both beautiful and endearing. Covens were utterly devoted to their immortal children, and would protect them at all costs.

The Volturi found themselves punishing individual covens for the behavior of their immortal children with a much greater frequency than other occurrences of lawlessness. Because of the devotion inspired by immortal children, the Volturi were forced to destroy full covens in order to destroy an immortal child. After some study into the matter, the Volturi decreed that immortal children were not capable of following the law, and therefore it was no longer legal to create an immortal child. Anyone responsible for creating such a child would be destroyed whether that child had broken the law or not.

The Volturi continued to experiment with and study immortal children for centuries, but has never reversed its decision.

“The only time I really did any research on vampires was when the character Bella did research on vampires. Because I was creating my own world, I didn’t want to find out just how many rules I was breaking.” —
Stephenie

T
here are many myths about vampires, most of them created and put into circulation by the Volturi. Their purpose is to disguise the existence of vampires behind stories that could never be proven to have a basis in truth—and to make it possible for a vampire to easily “prove” that he is not a vampire to a human who believes the myths (by touching a cross or standing in front of a mirror, for example). Additionally, these myths give humans a sense of control over the supernatural. Though vampires are never in any danger from humans, the Volturi contend that human ignorance makes hunting more convenient for all.