The Great Laws were the five Vampiric laws created by the Children of Satan. [1] From the formation of the cult in Medieval times, the Great Laws were used to rend judgment upon other vampires and to dictate the predation of the Children of Satan. Many of the Great Laws were created in line with the Children of Satan's beliefs that their actions should be done to affront God and Godliness. Violation of the Great Laws was considered punishable by death.
The Great Laws[]
- LAW ONE: Each coven must have its leader, and only he might order the working of the Dark Trick upon a mortal, seeing that the methods and the rituals were properly observed.
- LAW TWO: The Dark Gifts must never be given to the crippled, the maimed, or to children or to those who cannot, even with the Dark Powers, survive on their own. Be it further understood that all mortals who would receive the Dark Gifts should be beautiful in person, so that the insult to God might be greater when the trick is done.
- LAW THREE: Never should an old vampire work this magic lest the blood of the fledgling be too strong. For all our gifts increase naturally with age and the old ones have too much strength to pass on. Injury, burning--- these catastrophes, if they do not destroy the Child of Satan, will only increase his powers when he is healed. Satan guards the flock from the powers of old ones, for almost all, without exception, go mad.
- LAW FOUR: No vampire may ever destroy another vampire, except that the coven master has the power of life and death over all his flock. And it is further his obligation to lead the old ones and the mad ones into the fire when they can no longer serve Satan as they should. It is his obligation to destroy all vampires who are not properly made. It is his obligation to destroy all those who are so badly wounded that they cannot survive on their own. And it is his obligation finally to seek the destruction of all outcasts and all those who have broken these laws.
- LAW FIVE: No vampire shall ever reveal his true nature to a mortal and let the mortal live. No vampire must ever reveal the history of vampires to a mortal and let the mortal live. No vampire must commit to writing the history of the vampires or any true knowledge of vampires lest such a history be found by mortals and believed. And a vampire's name must never be known to mortals, save from his tombstone, and never must any vampire reveal to mortals the location of his or any other vampire's lair.
Notable violations of the Great Laws[]
Though belief in the Great Laws waivered with the dissolution of the Children of Satan, their existence plays a key part throughout the Vampire Chronicles.
- The entirety of the Vampire Chronicles, starting with Louis de Pointe du Lac 's discussion with the Interviewer and including all of Lestat de Lioncourt 's novels, are in violation of the Fifth Law. This law is also what prompts vampire-kind to attempt to kill Lestat during Queen of the Damned.
- Claudia 's making by Lestat and Louis and subsequent attempted murder of Lestat are in violation of the Great Laws and are what partially prompt Armand to arrange her death.
- Lestat de Lioncourt is considered a renegade vampire because of his creation by the rogue Magnus , violating the First Law. His death is demanded by the Children of Satan , leading him to meet Armand and eventually liberate the coven.
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- ↑ Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery, Becket, Anne Rice, pg. 169-170