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A secret "escape clause": how to make it work?

Ireth

Myth Weaver
This is an issue that comes up near the end of my vampire novel. A vampire character sacrifices himself out of love for another, and comes back to life as a human once his death is avenged by another character killing the one who killed him. The "escape clause" is not mentioned at all in the beginning of the novel, even by the Goddess herself when She appears to the hero (or any other vampire for that matter), for a very specific reason: because of the nature of sacrifice, any vampire who knows about the clause beforehand might actively seek his own death in order to be restored to humanity, and the self-seeking would negate the sacrifice. As a consequence of this, any vampire who turns human loses all memory of the surrounding circumstances so s/he can't tell others about it, and any witnesses are left in the dark as well. The possibility of such an escape clause is alluded to, but none of the vampires know what it is, with the reasoning that "if I knew what it was and could fulfill it, do you think I'd still be like this?"

My main trouble with this is keeping the nature of the escape clause just as it is, and keeping it hidden from the POV character (and thus the audience) without making it seem like an ass-pull to keep my beloved character from being killed off for real. There's literally no vampire who could possibly tell anyone else about the sacrifice clause, so even hearing about it second-hand wouldn't work (and it would defeat the purpose anyway).
 

Xaysai

Inkling
This is an issue that comes up near the end of my vampire novel. A vampire character sacrifices himself out of love for another, and comes back to life as a human once his death is avenged by another character killing the one who killed him. The "escape clause" is not mentioned at all in the beginning of the novel, even by the Goddess herself when She appears to the hero (or any other vampire for that matter), for a very specific reason: because of the nature of sacrifice, any vampire who knows about the clause beforehand might actively seek his own death in order to be restored to humanity, and the self-seeking would negate the sacrifice. As a consequence of this, any vampire who turns human loses all memory of the surrounding circumstances so s/he can't tell others about it, and any witnesses are left in the dark as well. The possibility of such an escape clause is alluded to, but none of the vampires know what it is, with the reasoning that "if I knew what it was and could fulfill it, do you think I'd still be like this?"

My main trouble with this is keeping the nature of the escape clause just as it is, and keeping it hidden from the POV character (and thus the audience) without making it seem like an ass-pull to keep my beloved character from being killed off for real. There's literally no vampire who could possibly tell anyone else about the sacrifice clause, so even hearing about it second-hand wouldn't work (and it would defeat the purpose anyway).

In The Night Angel Trilogy, by Brent Weeks ***OMG SPOILER ALERTZ***



...he has a character which is able to return to life after dying (but the result is someone he loves dies, if he chooses to be resurrected). He does this by after the death, the character is brought to a place where he speaks with IIRC a wolf which gives him the option to be resurrected.

Maybe its a stretch of Vampire mythology, but after your vampire is killed he visits something which says "As a result of your maker (or w/e dying), I can resurrect you, but if you speak of it, you will be turned again (or dead for real, or sent to hell, etc)" as kind of a magically binding contract.

Or something to that effect?
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Maybe its a stretch of Vampire mythology, but after your vampire is killed he visits something which says "As a result of your maker (or w/e dying), I can resurrect you, but if you speak of it, you will be turned again (or dead for real, or sent to hell, etc)" as kind of a magically binding contract.

Or something to that effect?

My vampires have their own mythology, rooted somewhat in the Celtic myths. Long story short, the first vampire was created by the Crone Goddess after a human nobleman was poisoned because of another man's lust for his wife; he drank his wife's blood in a fit of madness to try to preserve his life. He was thus cursed to subside eternally on blood, being neither living nor dead. Eventually he created more vampires by biting them; the first two were accidental, but as the horror of it began to affect his sanity, he began killing deliberately. I've toyed with the resurrection clause in an AU RP with some of the same characters; the vampires who sacrificed themselves did not see the Goddess between the sacrifice and resurrection, mainly to uphold the secrecy of the clause. To give them that knowledge would be to give them the means to share it, even if by accident.

The sacrifices and avenging acts are very important: they are done out of love (familial as well as romantic), and not all vampires can feel love once drinking human blood starts to corrupt them in body and mind. The first vampire is a prime example of this; when he first became a vampire he was full of love, but after his second accidental kill it began to twist into pure lust (or just amplified the lust that was already in him, even as a human). The Goddess who made the vampires is a deity of darkness and death, and is in a way the opposite of someone associated with love. When the vampires sacrifice themselves out of love, Her power over them is broken.
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
What about having another character who finds out about the escape clause somehow but also about the thing about how it can't be known about, so keeps it secret, fearing a major memory wipe if anyone finds out.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
What about having another character who finds out about the escape clause somehow but also about the thing about how it can't be known about, so keeps it secret, fearing a major memory wipe if anyone finds out.

I'm not sure how to make that work; it'd be hard to pull off if it's a minor character whose POV is never entered (the whole book is from the POV of the hero, at least at this point). I can't have the hero or his love interest figure it out, as they'll be at the center of the sacrifice during the climax. And I'm really not sure how *anyone* could find out, since I did kind of mention the memory-wipe thing with regard to witnesses. Humans wouldn't understand it, and vampires aren't allowed to find out.
 
I think the real question here is why don't you want the reader to know? I think that might be an interesting hook for all vampires, the ability to come back after death as human. This way the reader will know the stakes and the emotional connection you can have with them is tighter.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
I think the real question here is why don't you want the reader to know? I think that might be an interesting hook for all vampires, the ability to come back after death as human. This way the reader will know the stakes and the emotional connection you can have with them is tighter.

It's not exactly a matter of not wanting the reader to know; it's that letting the reader know, with the proper constraints still in place on the third-person-limited POV, is impossible. The vampires themselves cannot know, for reasons stated above, and I don't go into the POV of the Goddess at all, since She only has a brief cameo at the start. And it's not an all-inclusive "ability" to come back, more like an *opportunity*. If a vampire has no love in his/her heart, they have no chance of making the proper sacrifice, or indeed of having a loved one to avenge them.
 
All right, so why not have something like this be a revelation, a dream, a flash in the brain? Or, perhaps, a rumor that it can happen, selling it that there was another vampire (or two) that made it. You can certainly use it as a religious dogma for some if they think they can achieve humanity. Heck, you can get some interesting characters out of that concept alone.
 
Hi,

Why can't the vamp's know? Knowing that you have a mechanism to return to mortal life is one thing. Choosing to take it is another. It could say be a legend among them, but the very idea of sacrificing their immortality and other powers to become just a mortal is considered a fate too horrible to imagine. And add to that, the idea that even if they were to choose that route the outcome is not guaranteed, and that most who choose it will end up in hell, simply because the act of sacrifice requires such purity, not even a trace of of self interest, that it's almost impossible.

That way everyone knows but you can keep the plot fairly much unchanged.

Cheers, Greg.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Hi,

Why can't the vamp's know? Knowing that you have a mechanism to return to mortal life is one thing. Choosing to take it is another. It could say be a legend among them, but the very idea of sacrificing their immortality and other powers to become just a mortal is considered a fate too horrible to imagine. And add to that, the idea that even if they were to choose that route the outcome is not guaranteed, and that most who choose it will end up in hell, simply because the act of sacrifice requires such purity, not even a trace of of self interest, that it's almost impossible.

That way everyone knows but you can keep the plot fairly much unchanged.

Cheers, Greg.

I'm afraid it's not that simple. A lot of vampires hate their immortal existence, and even after being corrupted they may seek redemption for their past sins. Returning to human life is something to be desired, not feared. Vampirism is a curse, plain and simple -- the drawbacks far outweigh any potential benefits. Watching your human friends and family die of old age (or corrupting yourself if you choose to turn them to prevent that), being physically as well as mentally changed by drinking human blood, and never really knowing what becomes of your soul if you die as a vampire without becoming human again.

Since my vampires and their creation are rooted in Celtic myth, even for those who started out as Christians, there is no hope of going to heaven or hell if they die after they are turned, because heaven and hell do not exist. There's just the Otherworld. No vampire knows what happens to their soul after they are turned, so there's not even really the hope of being reunited with human loved ones after a real death. In that case, being human is really the better option. That again leads into the problem of the vampires wanting to change, which gets complicated if they know about the escape clause beforehand. The vampires who don't want to change largely don't deserve to, since they are too corrupted to care. And there are some who simply accept their undead life as the new norm, and are resolved to suffer through it without ever knowing of the chance for redemption.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Vampires cannot know - the memory wipe thing.

Humans would not understand - though you might be painting with an overly broad brush. A human familiar with Dante, comparing the vampires state to being in hell, and aware the way out of Hell is to go all the way down, might have a glimmer.

Still leaves Fey. I seem to recollect you having a Fey character or two who become human (mortal).

So what you have is your MC, once in a while run into a human or fey who does know about the escape route, and who drops the odd cryptic hint - not the full info, possibly because they don't want the ire of this goddess. Or maybe because from their POV, it is something which much be individually discovered.

So...after your vampire comes back to life as a human, here is this minor character, sitting on a stone nearby, who says something to the effect of 'I knew you'd figure it out.'
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Humans would not understand - though you might be painting with an overly broad brush. A human familiar with Dante, comparing the vampires state to being in hell, and aware the way out of Hell is to go all the way down, might have a glimmer.

Not sure how familiar humans in the mid-14th century and earlier would be with Dante... I can't recall when he lived and wrote.

Still leaves Fey. I seem to recollect you having a Fey character or two who become human (mortal).

True, though one of those characters is in a completely different continuity, and the circumstances for both are notably different. The one that would be relevant here was turned human deliberately as a punishment for crimes against his Court, entering into a perpetual, indefinitely-lasting cycle of life, death and rebirth as a mortal, with the possibility of one day being "unbound" and returning to his full-Fae self. The other was turned human by a magical accident, and cannot become Fae again unless he returns to Faerie and stays there long enough to lose part of his humanity. Even then he will only become about half-Fae.

So what you have is your MC, once in a while run into a human or fey who does know about the escape route, and who drops the odd cryptic hint - not the full info, possibly because they don't want the ire of this goddess. Or maybe because from their POV, it is something which much be individually discovered.

I'm not sure if any human or Fae would know about the escape route, since even the vampires don't know about it. The fact that it must be individually discovered is the Goddess' whole reason for keeping it secret.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I'm not sure if any human or Fae would know about the escape route, since even the vampires don't know about it. The fact that it must be individually discovered is the Goddess' whole reason for keeping it secret.

Hmmm...let me restate this.

The minor character (I'm going to call him 'Carl' for this post) does not have absolute knowledge. He need not even be familiar with Dante' (think Dante' was early 14th century, but I'm not sure).

Say Carl is a christian, familiar with the whole death and resurrection story of Jesus (and Lazarus, and other episodes from the OT and pagan mythology). Say Carl is aware that vampires exist, is aware that vampires are not truly alive, and exist in a tormented state - in other words a sort of private hell on earth. (Maybe he escaped from the vampire colony, or survived an encounter with vampires elsewhere) Yet Carl belongs to a faith, which unlike many of the pagan religions, offers an ESCAPE from death/hell. So he applies this belief to the vampires situation, mixed in with 'free will' - and puts forth the proposition that a vampire who is willing to 'surrender everything' may gain 'true life'. Carl would be working this out from the perspective of his religion, not that of the goddess.

Maybe 'Carl' could be a saint or a follower of one such?
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Yikes, tough.

How about this? OK vampires know there's an escape clause but they don't know exactly what that is. Now, not knowing what something is never stops people from guessing and asserting they know. There will be con-artists, wack-jobs, and just plain bullshitters, who will say they know what the escape clause is even when they don't.

So just throw a bunch of these BS theories into your book, then hint at what the real escape clause is. Put it up front but as mystery, sprinkling a few hints at what it is, but never enough to be sure. Now at your end, you can have them think how the sacrifice sort of fits with some of the hints at what the escape clause is, but have them dismiss it, thinking along the lines that all the theories have been BS and the escape clause is just a myth. It's something told by vampires so they don't completely lose hope.

Now when make the sacrifice, to them it's really the end, so you don't lose too much of the power in the sacrifice when they resurrect. But it isn't completely out of the blue.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Hmmm...let me restate this.

The minor character (I'm going to call him 'Carl' for this post) does not have absolute knowledge. He need not even be familiar with Dante' (think Dante' was early 14th century, but I'm not sure).

Say Carl is a christian, familiar with the whole death and resurrection story of Jesus (and Lazarus, and other episodes from the OT and pagan mythology). Say Carl is aware that vampires exist, is aware that vampires are not truly alive, and exist in a tormented state - in other words a sort of private hell on earth. (Maybe he escaped from the vampire colony, or survived an encounter with vampires elsewhere) Yet Carl belongs to a faith, which unlike many of the pagan religions, offers an ESCAPE from death/hell. So he applies this belief to the vampires situation, mixed in with 'free will' - and puts forth the proposition that a vampire who is willing to 'surrender everything' may gain 'true life'. Carl would be working this out from the perspective of his religion, not that of the goddess.

Maybe 'Carl' could be a saint or a follower of one such?

That's quite possible. I hadn't really considered the impact of the non-Celtic religions on the story, aside from the obvious crisis-of-faith scenario resulting from any non-Celt encountering a manifestation of a Celtic goddess the moment they become a vampire. Any vampire who knows that the Celtic gods/goddesses are the "true" ones would probably dismiss such a claim from a Christian as nonsense, since their God doesn't exist in this canon.

Yikes, tough.

How about this? OK vampires know there's an escape clause but they don't know exactly what that is. Now, not knowing what something is never stops people from guessing and asserting they know. There will be con-artists, wack-jobs, and just plain bullshitters, who will say they know what the escape clause is even when they don't.

So just throw a bunch of these BS theories into your book, then hint at what the real escape clause is. Put it up front but as mystery, sprinkling a few hints at what it is, but never enough to be sure. Now at your end, you can have them think how the sacrifice sort of fits with some of the hints at what the escape clause is, but have them dismiss it, thinking along the lines that all the theories have been BS and the escape clause is just a myth. It's something told by vampires so they don't completely lose hope.

Now when make the sacrifice, to them it's really the end, so you don't lose too much of the power in the sacrifice when they resurrect. But it isn't completely out of the blue.

My one issue with this is that the Goddess doesn't even tell vampires that there IS an escape clause, let alone dropping hints as to what it is. Even if they were to ask, "hey, is there any way I can get out of this?" I doubt She'd tell. The most She might say is "You need to find that out for yourself." Which, come to think of it, may very well lead into what you described. So it could work after all, as long as enough vampires think to ask about the clause and start thinking about it (and don't end up either committing suicide or getting too corrupted to care anymore). :)
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
One other thought here: If my hazy memory serves, in an early draft, you had your vampire MC encounter a christian family. If you still have that scene, that would be the perfect time to drop the hint. "Everyone can be saved' type statement.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
One other thought here: If my hazy memory serves, in an early draft, you had your vampire MC encounter a christian family. If you still have that scene, that would be the perfect time to drop the hint. "Everyone can be saved' type statement.

I think I remember the scene you're talking about, though I don't think I ever fully decided whether the family is Christian or not. It hasn't come up in their conversation yet, at least. But that is a good idea, if I can manage to pull it off. :)
 
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