The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (40 page)

What Bree never knew was that her mother’s body had been discovered outside of Las Vegas, and the police tracked down her father a few months after she ran away. When he could not produce Bree, he was tried and found guilty of both murders.

O
THERS
M
EMBERS OF
R
ILEY’S
C
OVEN

ADAM
After discovering that the sun does not injure vampires, Adam revealed his discovery to Riley. He was killed by Victoria.

CASEY
Known to Bree as the “Spider-Man kid,” Casey was a recruit suggested to Riley by Raoul, who had worked with him when they were human.

DOUG
Doug was the first newborn to discover that the sun did not harm vampires. He went to Riley with his breakthrough and was killed by Victoria.

JEN
Jen was Kristie’s closest colleague.

KEVIN
A member of Raoul’s faction, Kevin was Raoul’s second in command. Kevin was a part of Raoul’s human gang, too, and was taken by Riley upon Raoul’s suggestion. Riley asked Kevin if he wanted to join Raoul.

KRISTIE
Kristie was Raoul’s main competitor in the newborn coven. She did not have his ability to gain followers through magnetism alone, but she was smarter than Raoul, and better able to manipulate others.

SARAH
Sarah did not like working closely with any of the other newborns, but she preferred Kristie’s crowd to Raoul’s.

SHELLY AND STEVE
Shelly and Steve formed a romantic attachment in the early weeks of their newborn life. After a few months, they decided to abandon the newborn coven. They are currently nomads.

O
FTEN REFERRED TO AS
“D
RACULA’S
C
ASTLE
,” B
RAN
C
ASTLE IS A NATIONAL MONUMENT AND LANDMARK IN
R
OMANIA
. I
T WAS BUILT IN
1377—
HUNDREDS OF YEARS AFTER THE
R
OMANIAN COVEN WAS DEFEATED BY THE
V
OLTURI
.

T
he Romanian coven dominated the vampire world until it was overthrown by the Volturi, between 400 and 500
A.D.
Only two members of the original Romanian coven survive.

S
TEFAN

Stefan was one of the original twelve ruling members of what is now known as the Romanian coven. (Romania did not exist as a country at the time of the coven’s inception; that area of Eastern Europe was known as Dacia.)

The Romanians were formed in a way similar to the Volturi: A group of ambitious vampires called a truce to the usual squabbling between small covens and then joined forces for the purpose of gaining power. This prevailing desire to rule allowed them to overcome their competitive drives and cooperate.

The eventual downfall of the Romanians was their focus on physical strength. They created a guardlike entity—a pattern later copied by the Volturi—composed entirely of vampires like Felix and Emmett. Perhaps because none of the ruling members of the coven possessed supernatural abilities themselves, they underestimated the advantage such abilities could give them in battle. They ignored talented vampires in favor of brute strength. This blind spot was understandable, as no one had ever used talents the way the Volturi eventually did. Talents have also grown stronger over the centuries; the talents exhibited by vampires during the Romanian rule were not as potent as the talents that developed in modern times. Much of that is due to vampires learning to seek out talented humans to transform, and also understanding how to focus and improve their talents after the transformation. Aro’s innovative focus on talent over strength was the reason the Volturi were able to defeat the Romanians, though it took them more than a century, and they never wiped them out completely.

Stefan and Vladimir both lost mates to the Volturi—Stefan during the third decade of the initial battle—ensuring that their drive for vengeance would never fade.

Stefan and Vladimir both lost mates to the Volturi—Stefan during the third decade of the initial battle—ensuring that their drive for vengeance would never fade. They are always searching for ways to discomfit or damage the Volturi. They are particularly bitter toward Jane and Alec, who were not involved in the original war but strengthened the Volturi to the point of invincibility, making it impossible for the Romanians to exact their revenge.

Every few decades, the Volturi send Demetri and others after the remaining Romanians, so Stefan and Vladimir are constantly on the move and always on their guard. If the Volturi focused their efforts, they would be able to wipe Stefan and Vladimir out, but since the two pose little threat, the Volturi have never committed their assets to a drawn-out chase.

V
LADIMIR

Like Stefan, Vladimir was one of the original twelve ruling members of the Romanian coven. Vladimir was the head of a coven of four—large by normal vampire standards—when he joined forces with the other Romanian vampires. His big, successful coven was one of the inspirations for the notion of coexistence to pursue power.

They ruled over humans and vampires alike, demanding slave labor and copious human sacrifice.

During their rule—which lasted nearly a thousand years—the Romanians lived brazenly and decadently. For thousands of miles in every direction, they were known and feared. They ruled over humans and vampires alike, demanding slave labor and copious human sacrifice. Occasionally humans would create armies to try to overthrow what they considered to be beautiful demon overlords, but of course all such attacks were futile, resulting in an easy feast for the Romanians. Obedient humans were spared death, if not labor, and a few lucky individuals pleased the Romanians enough to earn immortality.

Vampires were a well-known fact in the human world
when the Volturi began to rise. Their contention that vampires should conceal their existence was scoffed at.

After the Volturi had defeated the Romanians, the Volturi copied many aspects of the Romanians’ way of life—the formation of a permanent guard, the stationary home, and the eschewing of hunting in favor of prey being rounded up and delivered to them. The difference was that they did all of these things while remaining invisible to humans.