So Bella is actually stronger than the Cullens? That’s a new twist! I’ve never encountered a vampire myth in which newborns were not significantly weaker than vampires a couple of decades old and those vampires in turn not significantly weaker than centenarians.
How much of this greater strength relates to the Cullen’s self-sabotaging diet? None of the Cullen’s seemed particularly intimidated by James, Laurent or Victoria so I take it that the difference between ‘vegetarian’ and carnivorous vampires is less significant than the difference between carnivores and newborns.
Is there any particular advantage to being a 1,000 year old vampire in this world? Just the experiences, skills and allies you have accumulated? Gradually improving witchcraft powers?
Is it a net disadvantage to be ancient? Some deal with translucent skin and bad eyesight? Or were the Vorturi weird in some different way?
To be honest I find the prospect of a world of vampires in a female targeted reality not gaining power with age rather surprising!
take it that the difference between ‘vegetarian’ and carnivorous vampires is less significant than the difference between carnivores and newborns.
Correct. Drinking human blood out of newborn phase makes vampires stronger, but only a little bit, and it makes them worse at certain sorts of thinking—it’s almost a tossup in a fight. Newborns are much stronger than non-, and (unless, as I interpret the situation, they have advance warning of the turning process) much less clearheaded.
Is there any particular advantage to being a 1,000 year old vampire in this world? Just the experiences, skills and allies you have accumulated? Gradually improving witchcraft powers?
Experiences, skills, and allies are definitely nontrivial. Control improves with time, although anthropophagic vampires value that considerably less. Witchcraft is shown in canon to improve over time with practice… for Bella. (It’s implied that one of the Denalis has also gotten better at his considerably less flashy power, or rather better at interpreting what it tells him. If you count Carlisle’s immunity to human blood as a power, he’s improved a lot over the centuries.) It’s not clear whether this is because most vampires are happy with what they get and don’t work on it, or because most witchcraft isn’t readily improved upon.
Is it a net disadvantage to be ancient? Some deal with translucent skin and bad eyesight? Or were the Vorturi weird in some different way?
It’s never outright stated whether the Volturi’s weird skin and eyes actually confer physical disadvantages, and I haven’t decided how to cash it out in Luminosity yet. Some even older vampires who ruled before the Volturi did, in book 4, consider it a sign of complacency or something, and say that they used to have the same traits but they’ve since been reversed with their deposition.
Thanks for the explanation. Compared to some other fictional realities I have investigated Twilight seems relatively harder to find practical descriptions of.
It’s never outright stated whether the Volturi’s weird skin and eyes actually confer physical disadvantages, and I haven’t decided how to cash it out in Luminosity yet. Some even older vampires who ruled before the Volturi did, in book 4, consider it a sign of complacency or something, and say that they used to have the same traits but they’ve since been reversed with their deposition.
Now that is fascinating. I saw some reference to the two Romanian vampires who survived when the Volturi overthrew them and it got me curious. If the Romanians actually had the cataracts and weird skin but lost in due to improved behavioural patterns or perhaps with the change in status, well, that is the sort of thing that makes me tempted to go ahead and read the Twilight books myself to pick up hints.
But I suspect I would find Twilight unbearable now, having just absorbed 31 chapters of Luminosity. I love the Luminosity characters and it would be infuriating to have them revert to fools.
But I suspect I would find Twilight unbearable now, having just absorbed 31 chapters of Luminosity. I love the Luminosity characters and it would be infuriating to have them revert to fools.
I hope that in writing Luminosity I haven’t discouraged anyone from reading Twilight. They are flawed books, it’s true. But the biggest flaw is misplaced emphasis, I think. They have the resources, embedded in the text, to be truly fantastic; as it is they’re mostly just easy and pleasant reads, because Meyer pays attention to the weaker parts of her characterization and world. It is my guess that if you’ve read Luminosity, it will encourage you to read the canon books the way I first read them, automatically sifting through the content to get the good parts and mentally apologizing for the bad parts.
luminous!Bella doesn’t bear the same relationship to canon!Bella that rational!Harry bears to canon!Harry. canon!Harry could not have become rational!Harry—MoR couldn’t be a single point of departure fic. Too much else is in the mix. Whereas canon!Bella, making a handful of different choices when she was nine or ten or eleven, could have become luminous!Bella, and changed everything. (All the other characters are the same, changed only insofar as my copying is imperfect and insofar as they react to a different Bella.)
If you like, think of canon Twilight as slightly inferior, thematically different fanfiction of Luminosity :P
So Bella is actually stronger than the Cullens? That’s a new twist! I’ve never encountered a vampire myth in which newborns were not significantly weaker than vampires a couple of decades old and those vampires in turn not significantly weaker than centenarians.
How much of this greater strength relates to the Cullen’s self-sabotaging diet? None of the Cullen’s seemed particularly intimidated by James, Laurent or Victoria so I take it that the difference between ‘vegetarian’ and carnivorous vampires is less significant than the difference between carnivores and newborns.
Is there any particular advantage to being a 1,000 year old vampire in this world? Just the experiences, skills and allies you have accumulated? Gradually improving witchcraft powers?
Is it a net disadvantage to be ancient? Some deal with translucent skin and bad eyesight? Or were the Vorturi weird in some different way?
To be honest I find the prospect of a world of vampires in a female targeted reality not gaining power with age rather surprising!
Correct. Drinking human blood out of newborn phase makes vampires stronger, but only a little bit, and it makes them worse at certain sorts of thinking—it’s almost a tossup in a fight. Newborns are much stronger than non-, and (unless, as I interpret the situation, they have advance warning of the turning process) much less clearheaded.
Experiences, skills, and allies are definitely nontrivial. Control improves with time, although anthropophagic vampires value that considerably less. Witchcraft is shown in canon to improve over time with practice… for Bella. (It’s implied that one of the Denalis has also gotten better at his considerably less flashy power, or rather better at interpreting what it tells him. If you count Carlisle’s immunity to human blood as a power, he’s improved a lot over the centuries.) It’s not clear whether this is because most vampires are happy with what they get and don’t work on it, or because most witchcraft isn’t readily improved upon.
It’s never outright stated whether the Volturi’s weird skin and eyes actually confer physical disadvantages, and I haven’t decided how to cash it out in Luminosity yet. Some even older vampires who ruled before the Volturi did, in book 4, consider it a sign of complacency or something, and say that they used to have the same traits but they’ve since been reversed with their deposition.
Thanks for the explanation. Compared to some other fictional realities I have investigated Twilight seems relatively harder to find practical descriptions of.
Now that is fascinating. I saw some reference to the two Romanian vampires who survived when the Volturi overthrew them and it got me curious. If the Romanians actually had the cataracts and weird skin but lost in due to improved behavioural patterns or perhaps with the change in status, well, that is the sort of thing that makes me tempted to go ahead and read the Twilight books myself to pick up hints.
But I suspect I would find Twilight unbearable now, having just absorbed 31 chapters of Luminosity. I love the Luminosity characters and it would be infuriating to have them revert to fools.
I hope that in writing Luminosity I haven’t discouraged anyone from reading Twilight. They are flawed books, it’s true. But the biggest flaw is misplaced emphasis, I think. They have the resources, embedded in the text, to be truly fantastic; as it is they’re mostly just easy and pleasant reads, because Meyer pays attention to the weaker parts of her characterization and world. It is my guess that if you’ve read Luminosity, it will encourage you to read the canon books the way I first read them, automatically sifting through the content to get the good parts and mentally apologizing for the bad parts.
luminous!Bella doesn’t bear the same relationship to canon!Bella that rational!Harry bears to canon!Harry. canon!Harry could not have become rational!Harry—MoR couldn’t be a single point of departure fic. Too much else is in the mix. Whereas canon!Bella, making a handful of different choices when she was nine or ten or eleven, could have become luminous!Bella, and changed everything. (All the other characters are the same, changed only insofar as my copying is imperfect and insofar as they react to a different Bella.)
If you like, think of canon Twilight as slightly inferior, thematically different fanfiction of Luminosity :P
I like that framing. I may just do that. :)