The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (23 page)

The room that Carlisle and Esme share is at the top of the staircase on the third floor. Edward’s room is also on this floor, facing south. The remainder of the third floor is called the library and is used for any technically illegal activity, such as forging birth certificates and hacking into computer systems, which the Cullens must do in order to maintain the various identities needed to live unnoticed in human society.

T
he equivalent of royalty in the vampire world, the Volturi coven consists of five core members: Aro; Caius; Marcus; Aro’s wife, Sulpicia; and Cauis’s wife, Athenodora. Marcus’s wife (and Aro’s sister), Didyme, was also a member of the Volturi before she died.

The Volturi reside in their city—Volterra, Italy—which they have secretly controlled for three thousand years, since the time of the Etruscans. They prefer to stay indoors, out of sight of humans, using other vampires as subordinates to serve their coven. Occasionally, they also use human minions.

Between 400 and 500
A.D.
, the Volturi launched an offensive against the most powerful coven in the world, the Romanians. Rather than simply attack the Romanians, the Volturi first cleverly demanded that the Romanians conform to laws that the Volturi claimed benefited all vampirekind. When the Romanians scornfully refused, the Volturi were able to categorize (and publicize) their strike as a move for the good of all vampires, rather than a standard territory dispute.

The main portion of the war lasted for nearly a century and—due to the fact that there are still two remaining survivors of the original Romanian coven—was never officially concluded. In the end, the Volturi were able to defeat the Romanians because of Aro’s intentional creation of talented vampires. The Romanians had created vampires for their empire with less foresight, and their physical skills were not a match in the long term for Aro’s psychically gifted choices. Aro called his soldiers “the Volturi guard,” making it clear that they were subservient to the actual coven of five.

After the Volturi had defeated the greater part of the Romanian coven, they began spreading their doctrine throughout the world. Their basic operating premise was that
keeping the existence of vampires a secret was beneficial to all; anyone who would not keep this secret was an enemy to the vampire public.

While many vampires questioned the validity of this premise at the time (after all, what could a human do to a vampire, despite any knowledge that human might have), none of them wanted to take on the Volturi fresh off their victory over the Romanians. As time passed, more vampires were born into a world where the Volturi existed as benevolent governors, and slowly the Volturi became accepted by their own positive, self-created definition. Many of these new vampires were created by the Volturi themselves, indoctrinated, and then let loose into the world. This was the first incarnation of the Volturi’s human recruitment program; they found humans who sought the power and immortality of vampire lore and introduced them into that world with a set of preconceived ideas about vampire society—ideas that those new vampires eventually introduced to their own “offspring” and other covens they came in contact with. After the Volturi became an accepted force, they continued with the human recruitment on a smaller scale; they utilized humans hopeful of becoming vampires as servants in order to create a human façade for their ancestral home. The majority of these humans were eventually killed for their blood, and only those with potential for useful psychic talents were transformed.

“There aren’t very many bad guys in my novels. Even the bad guys usually have a pretty good reason for the way they are, and some of them come around in the end. I don’t see the world as full of negatives.”
—Stephenie

As time passed, the Volturi became more and more powerful as Aro discovered more humans and vampires with formidable gifts and added them to his “collection.” In the twentieth century, the advances in human weapons technology came to be viewed by many vampires as a validation of the Volturi’s now inspired-seeming laws.

The present-day Volturi guard stands at nine permanent members and ten to twelve additional transitory members. The foremost members are Jane and Alec, twins changed around 800
A.D.
Jane and Alec had psychic abilities as humans that were greatly intensified in their vampire forms. After their inclusion, the Volturi’s power became virtually unassailable.

Rank in the guard is decided by power; the guard members who are merely physically strong do not rank as high as those with extra abilities. Rank is marked by the color of the individual’s cloak; the darker the cloak, the higher the vampire’s rank. Jane and Alec wear the darkest cloak, outside of the true black of the actual coven members. The only guard who wears a darker cloak is Chelsea.

If a human were to discover the truth about vampires and remain silent, it is probable that the Volturi would never know.

Generally, the Volturi do not keep the vampires of the world under close supervision. If a human were to discover the truth about vampires and remain silent, it is probable that the Volturi would never know and would leave the vampire responsible—and the human who possessed the newfound information—alone. The Volturi are concerned only with breaches that lead to widespread awareness in the human world. Certain news stories, books, or movies about vampires occasionally pique the interest of the Volturi. Members of
the guard then trace the information to its source, assess the threat, and silence it if need be.

Many vampires around the world aspire to be accepted into the Volturi, as vampires are drawn to power. However, most of them have nothing to offer the Volturi that the Volturi don’t already have. Vampires with powerful skills unmatched in the Volturi’s current coven are invited to take the place of older, less skilled vampires. Depending on the circumstances, a demoted vampire might go off on his or her own, join another coven, or be executed.

“A
S
I
STARED AT THE ANCIENT SIENNA WALLS AND TOWERS CROWNING THE PEAK OF THE STEEP HILL
, I
FELT ANOTHER
,
MORE SELFISH KIND OF DREAD THRILL THROUGH ME
.”

—Bella, on her arrival in the city of Volterra (
New Moon
, Chapter 19)

A
RO

Aro was born in Greece just after 1300
B.C.
All his life, he was ambitious; power was always his primary goal. It was in the pursuit of this goal that he was transformed into a vampire in his mid-twenties. During the first century of his
vampire life, he joined forces with two other vampires, Marcus and Caius, and transformed two humans into vampires: his sister, Didyme; and his future wife, Sulpicia. Aro formed this coven (which also included Caius’s wife, Athenodora) in order to further his ruling ambition, seeking strength in numbers to augment his own powerful mind-reading talent. Originally, Aro, Caius, and Marcus agreed to rule jointly, but Aro was always the decision-making force behind the threesome. It was Aro who devised the plan on which the Volturi ultimately founded their reign over the vampire world: the concept of vampire laws of mutual convenience. Over time, Marcus lost interest in the coven due to personal tragedy, and Caius grew obsessed with solely the punitive side of governing. Aro handled every other aspect of the Volturi rule.

Aro was the last of the coven to form a romantic attachment.

Aro was the last of the coven to form a romantic attachment. After Marcus and Didyme fell in love, Aro felt that the balance of power had swung away from him (before this, he would have counted his sister an infallible ally; now he assumed she would side with Marcus in any difference of opinion in the coven). Aro decided in advance that he would rather choose a human and create a mate than look for his match in another vampire, who might have ties to her own creator or other relationships that would complicate his plans. He had a certain type of woman in mind, and he found what he was looking for in Sulpicia: a lovely young orphan with few ties to her human community. He courted her successfully, and she agreed to be transformed into a vampire and join Aro as his wife. She remains totally devoted and loyal to Aro.

Aro had chosen to transform his sister because he hoped she might have a gift similar to his own powerful mind-reading gift. He was disappointed in this, and later disposed of her when she got in the way of his plans by distracting Marcus—her mate—from Aro’s goals. One unintended consequence of this action was the near total debilitation of Marcus by the loss of his mate. Aro and Caius were both disturbed to realize that they were vulnerable to a similar devastation; they immediately sought safeguards for their own wives. Over time, as Aro and Caius increased security in every way they could devise, Sulpicia and Athenodora became virtual prisoners in their home. Part of their confinement, however, included a vampire talented at making them feel content. With Corin as part of their personal guard, Sulpicia and Athenodora never objected to their incarceration.

He created the Volturi guard out of gifted vampires who shared his desire for authority.

Despite his failure with Didyme, Aro never stopped seeking out talented vampires who could add to his power. He created the Volturi guard out of gifted vampires who shared his desire for authority. The guard were never fully part of the coven or the ruling body, but they gained prestige and protection by joining them in a subordinate position. After Aro acquired Chelsea (then Charmion)—who had the ability to bind people to one another and break any bonds that already existed—he was able to influence vampires to join the guard who would not otherwise have been motivated by power or prestige.