Lore for nerds - Forgotten History

🧛 Vampire Lore Expansion Pack — Wizarding World Edition1. Overview

Vampires are rare, semi-sentient magical beings in the wizarding world. Unlike most magical creatures, their origins straddle magical experimentation, curses, and folklore, making them difficult to classify. They are known for their longevity, blood-dependent sustenance, and enhanced physical abilities. Vampires are not naturally common in Britain, though some individuals are known to travel or integrate into magical society.

2. OriginsEarliest records of vampires appear in wizarding history during medieval Europe, often linked to curses or failed alchemical experiments.Some scholars suggest vampires may originate from a mutation of magical humans, perhaps from exposure to rare spells or artifacts.Vampire creation is usually intentional: either a cursed transformation, blood magic, or a powerful enchantment gone awry.Unlike Dark Creatures like Dementors or Inferi, vampires retain self-awareness and intelligence.3. Biology & Magical Traits

Trait

Description

Lifespan

Potentially immortal unless killed by magical or ritual means.

Physical Abilities

Superhuman strength, speed, endurance, agility; accelerated healing; acute senses.

Appearance

Typically pale skin, sharp canines, hypnotic gaze; humans may notice subtle differences in shadow, reflection, or temperature.

Sustenance

Requires blood; some subsist on animal blood, though human blood provides more magical potency.

Reflexive Magic

Vampires may unconsciously repel simple charms or curses; their blood has minor inherent magical properties.

Sleep Patterns

Most prefer darkness; extreme sunlight weakens them but does not destroy them unless cursed.

4. Magical AbilitiesHypnosis / Persuasion: Vampires can subtly influence or dominate weaker-willed individuals.Wandless Minor Magic: Some highly skilled vampires can perform elemental manipulations or warding spells instinctively.Blood-Magic Affinity: Vampires' blood interacts strongly with potion-making, hexes, and dark rituals.Enhanced Senses: Sight, smell, and hearing surpass human capability; can detect magical signatures through scent or sound.

Note: Most vampires do not openly practice magic in wizarding society, relying on their physical and mystical advantages.

5. Weaknesses & Limitations

Weakness

Notes

Sunlight

Weakens and disorients them; prolonged exposure can burn or cause loss of magic.

Warding Spells

Protections like the Patronus or anti-Dark Creature wards can inhibit movement or attacks.

Holy Artifacts (optional)

Some sources suggest religious symbols may repel vampires; however, magical objects often have stronger effect.

Silver / Enchanted Weapons

Direct attacks using magical silver or blessed items can cause injury or death.

Blood Dependency

Starvation weakens them physically and magically; prolonged deprivation may lead to madness.

6. Society & CultureVampires are often solitary but may form small covens, primarily for protection and mutual secrecy.Historically, vampires have avoided exposure to wizarding authorities, often inhabiting remote forests, abandoned ruins, or hidden magical enclaves.Some vampires serve as advisors or intermediaries in magical politics, leveraging their longevity and knowledge.Language: Most speak human tongues; many understand Parseltongue or other magical languages due to long study.Moral Alignment: Vampires vary individually; while some are predatory, others attempt coexistence with wizards.7. Known British Vampire FiguresDorian Blackthorn (legendary 16th-century vampire, rumored duelist with Aurors)Selene Arden (19th-century academic; secretly taught vampire magic to a small group of students)Vampires at the Ministry: Historical records suggest minimal interaction; considered restricted magical beingsunder Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.8. Interaction With Other Magical CreaturesWizards/Witches: Can coexist cautiously; some vampire magic aligns with wizarding ritual magic.Werewolves: Natural predators and rivals in folklore; historically, tensions exist.Dragons & Basilisks: Generally avoided; vampires do not have natural defenses against these apex magical predators.House-Elves: Neutral; vampires rarely employ household magic or servants due to self-sufficiency.9. Creation, Transformation, and RebirthVampiric Transformation: Can be achieved via magical curse, blood ritual, or infection by a vampire's blood.Rebirth / Human Integration: Some modern fanon theories suggest a vampire may be reborn as a human or take human form through magical contracts.Potential for Magic: Highly intelligent vampires can learn wizarding spells, manipulate enchanted objects, or perform advanced rituals over centuries.10. Subspecies & Variants

Variant

Description

Nocturnus Vampire

Weak in daylight, extremely stealthy; favors infiltration over combat.

Blood Sage

Magical scholar, retains much of their humanity; uses blood magic for potion-making and divination.

Shadowborn

Rare; partially incorporeal, can phase through minor barriers.

Ancient Elder Vampire

Extremely powerful; near-immortal; may learn wandless magic and manipulate dark spells instinctively.

🕯️ The Vampiric Magic Codex

A compendium of vampiric incantations, rituals, and instinctive enchantments

(Compiled from fragments recovered by the Department of Mysteries and Selene Arden's private archives)

I. Magical Philosophy

Vampiric spellcraft operates on three intertwined principles:

Vital Resonance – All life contains an echo of magical energy; vampires manipulate this resonance instinctively.

Shadow Symmetry – Darkness is not absence but reflection; vampires draw upon inverse light and memory.

Oath and Intent – Their magic is amplified by will, promise, or emotional fixation rather than by incantation precision.

Vampires rarely require wands — their centuries of magical saturation allow direct willcasting, though rituals enhance effect and stability.

II. Core Invocations (Everyday Vampiric Magic)

Latin Name

Translation

Description

Umbrae Vocare

To Call the Shadows

Summons localized darkness or mist; used for concealment or travel between shaded areas. Responds to emotional states rather than vocal command.

Auris Tenebris

Ears of the Dark

Heightens hearing to supernatural precision; capable of discerning heartbeats, whispers, or magical frequencies. Can cause sensory overload if overused.

Speculum Mentis

Mirror of the Mind

Allows limited telepathic communication or the reading of surface thoughts. Vampires often use this for subtle persuasion or emotional empathy.

Silens Vitae

The Silence of Life

Temporarily suppresses the caster's living aura — rendering them invisible to detection spells and magical wards keyed to "life force."

Lux Inversa

Inverted Light

Reflects light away from the caster, producing a natural invisibility in dim environments. Rarely sustainable in daylight.

Vocem Sanguinis

Voice of the Blood

Enables communication or calling to another vampire through ancestral or ritual bond. A vibration-based connection, not sound.

III. Elemental and Environmental Control

Latin Name

Translation

Description

Ventus Umbrae

Wind of Shadows

Creates a chilling gust that can scatter foes, extinguish flames, or disorient pursuers. Often used as a defensive instinct.

Terra Sepulcri

Earth of the Tomb

Manipulates stone, soil, or burial grounds; allows temporary refuge beneath the earth or creation of protective earthen wards.

Aqua Mortalis

Water of Stillness

Instills calm or paralysis through contact with enchanted water. Used in rituals to silence prey or seal agreements.

Ignis Obscurus

Dark Flame

A pale violet fire that burns cold; consumes shadow or magical energy rather than physical matter. Used in purification or destruction rituals.

IV. Mind, Spirit, and Memory Magic

Latin Name

Translation

Description

Noctis Mentem

Mind of Night

A trance state allowing visions through others' memories; often used to glean ancient knowledge or relive experiences through bloodline connection.

Anima Vinculum

Bond of Souls

Creates a psychic link between individuals, binding emotions, pain, or sensation. Often used between coven members or lovers. Dangerous if severed improperly.

Somnus Tenebrarum

Sleep of Shadows

Induces dreamless sleep or torpor in self or others; used for healing, meditation, or concealment. Often paired with protection wards.

Memoria Umbrae

Memory of Shadow

Erases or veils specific memories from the minds of mortals or magical beings; leaves faint emotional traces, detectable by skilled Legilimens.

V. Ritual Magic and Ceremonies

Vampires favor ritualized, long-form magic that binds power through symbolism, rather than raw spell force.

Most rituals use ancient objects, celestial alignments, or echoes of life (such as names, reflections, or dreams).

Ritual Name

Components

Effect

Ritus Nocturnalis(Nightborn Rite)

Circle of black candles, silver dust, lunar water

Invokes heightened awareness during night; strengthens reflexive magic for several hours.

Pactum Umbrae(Pact of Shadow)

Mirror shard, drop of blood (optional), oath spoken to reflection

Forms a binding contract — promises made during this ritual are magically enforced.

Sigillum Tenebris(Seal of Darkness)

Rune sigils, ash, obsidian focus

Protects a location from sunlight or magical intrusion; covens often use it to guard sanctuaries.

Chorus Vitae(Choir of Life)

Multiple participants meditating in synchrony

Restores vitality and magical energy to weakened vampires; also used to awaken ancient beings.

Lumen Reversum(Reversed Light)

Prism or crystal, recited at dawn

Allows temporary resistance to sunlight for a day; rare, complex, and potentially fatal if repeated.

VI. Forbidden Arts

Latin Name

Translation

Description

Cor Vitae

Heart of Life

A rare art allowing a vampire to transfer part of their vitality into another being — used to heal or curse. Considered unstable.

Tenebrae Dominus

Lord of Shadows

Ritual domination of a lesser creature's will; forbidden by wizarding law as akin to Unforgivable Curses.

Vinculum Mortis

Chain of Death

Binds a dying spirit to the caster, preserving their knowledge — but often fragments the soul.

Aeternum Pactum

Eternal Pact

The rumored "Rebirth Rite" — allows a vampire to regain humanity or ascend to near-immortal form; unverified, possibly apocryphal.

VII. The Vampiric Magical HierarchyInstinctive Magic – Reflexive defenses and sensory powers.

Invocation Magic – Direct, word-based incantations (rarely used).

Ritual Magic – Symbolic ceremonies manipulating fate and resonance.

Elder Magic – Ancient arts bordering on necromancy and temporal manipulation.

VIII. Notes from Selene Arden's Journal (Fragment, c. 1879)

"Our kind does not cast magic — we become it.

The living must speak to bend the world.

The dead must whisper.

But the undying — we listen, and the shadows obey."

🕯️ The Vampiric Magic Codex, Volume II: The Ritual Annex

Collected Observations on Ceremonial Arts, Sympathetic Magic, and Nocturnal Invocation

(Compiled from the Fragmented Codex of Selene Arden, the Obsidian Tablets of Dorian Blackthorn, and Department of Mysteries transcripts)

I. Preface — On the Nature of Ritual

Vampiric ritual differs fundamentally from human spellcasting.

Wizards impose will upon the world through wand focus and verbal precision.

Vampires, conversely, shape ambient magic through resonance, memory, and emotion.

Each ritual is a conversation — a negotiation with the world's quiet forces.

Failure to understand the emotion behind a ritual renders it inert, regardless of accuracy.

II. Symbolic Frameworks

Symbol

Meaning

Magical Function

The Closed Circle

Unity, protection, secrecy

Contains magic within; prevents interference.

The Broken Crescent

Change, rebirth, defiance of nature

Used in transformation rites.

Obsidian Shard

Mirror between life and undeath

Focus object; amplifies dark resonance.

Silver Dust

Purity of intent

Prevents corruption of ritual flow.

Ash Rune (ᚨ)

Death-memory sigil

Invokes ancestral energy.

Mirror Surface

Reflection as truth

Acts as intermediary between soul and shadow.

III. Lesser Rites (Common Rituals Practiced by Younger Vampires)1. Ritus Umbralis (The Shadow Veil)

Purpose: Conceal the self or a dwelling from magical detection.

Materials: Black salt, silver dust, one drop of caster's saliva.

Procedure:

Draw a closed circle with salt and silver dust mixed.

Whisper the phrase "Tenebra meam tege" (Hide me, O darkness).

Step backward into your own shadow; the veil activates until dawn.

Effect: Repels Homenum Revelio and similar detection charms.

Risk: Extended use may numb emotional resonance temporarily.

2. Vitae Confluens (Confluence of Life)

Purpose: Restores vitality to a weakened vampire or magical being.

Materials: Two goblets of enchanted water, a moonlit mirror, and mutual consent.

Procedure:

Participants sit opposite one another; mirror placed between.

Each recites their true name once.

Touch fingertips to mirror and whisper "In uno corde, in una vita." (In one heart, in one life.)

Exchange a sip from each goblet.

Effect: Balances energy between participants.

Risk: Can create lingering empathic links.

3. Vox Noctis (Voice of the Night)

Purpose: Summon a nocturnal familiar or shade for guidance.

Materials: Candle of tallow, parchment inscribed with lunar runes, whisper of intent.

Procedure:

Light candle under moonlight.

Chant "Audi me, spiritus noctis."

Burn the parchment; observe smoke form — the shape often reveals the summoned entity's nature.

Effect: Grants one-time consultation or warning.

Risk: The entity may return unbidden if the summoner's emotional state weakens.

IV. Greater Rites (High Vampiric Magic)1. Pactum Somniorum (The Dream Pact)

Purpose: Establish telepathic link between vampire and mortal, often used in secrecy or affection.

Materials: Two feathers, one drop of morning dew, parchment with both names inscribed.

Procedure:

Burn the parchment over flame of dark violet hue.

Each participant inhales the smoke.

Repeat "Somnia iungant, verba taceant." (Let dreams unite, let words be silent.)

Effect: Shared dreams and communication through subconscious thought.

Risk: Strong emotional bleed-through; untrained minds may fragment memories.

2. Nocturna Repetitio (Repetition of Night)

Purpose: Restore a damaged memory, revive forgotten knowledge.

Materials: Basin of still water, hair or relic of the subject, ashes of nightshade petals.

Procedure:

Mix ashes into basin.

Chant "Redde memoriam quae fuit sub nocte." (Return the memory that slept under night.)

Gaze into reflection until visions arise.

Effect: Restores lost memories, though fragments may be distorted by emotion.

Risk: Memory collapse or hallucination if invoked during daylight hours.

3. Ritus Aeternitatis (Rite of Eternity)

Purpose: Prolong existence or reinforce immortality during times of magical instability.

Materials: Obsidian circle, personal relic, blood of a willing donor (optional).

Procedure:

The relic is placed at the center.

Caster recites "Tempus non tangit, mors non vocat." (Time shall not touch, death shall not call.)

Meditate until shadow mirrors heartbeat; ritual ends when dawn light touches the relic.

Effect: Reinforces magical stability for a century.

Risk: Binding too tightly to existence can stunt spiritual growth — leading to eventual madness.

4. Lumen Obscurum (Light of Darkness)

Purpose: Transform a vampire's essence temporarily, allowing passage through daylight or holy wards.

Materials: Prism dust, ash, silver chain, and sunlight reflection captured in mirror.

Procedure:

Cast circle of ash.

Hold mirror to reflect sunlight upon oneself.

Chant "Lux mea in umbris vivat." (Let my light live within shadow.)

Inhale the reflection's glow; the chain seals the magic.

Effect: Temporary protection from light and sanctified places.

Risk: High chance of soul fragmentation — only ancient vampires survive repetition.

V. The Elder Rituals (Lost or Forbidden)A. Mortalis Pactum (The Mortal's Bargain)

Said to restore true humanity by exchanging centuries of unlife for one brief mortal existence — lasting a single day or night.

Requires the sacrifice of the vampire's own reflection.

Only two known attempts; neither survived to record the result.

B. Umbrae Vinculum (Binding of Shadows)

Merges multiple vampire souls into one being for collective power. Used during the Shadow Wars of Eastern Europe.

Banned by the International Confederation of Wizards after catastrophic failure in 1793.

C. Vocatio Tenebrarum (The Calling of the Deep Night)

Summons an ancient shadow-spirit to serve as guardian or messenger.

Rarely performed; considered to border on necromancy.

Runic schema: three concentric circles, inscribed with the phrase "Ex umbris ad lucem servio." (From the shadows I serve the light.)

VI. Closing Fragment — The Obsidian Parable

"Magic is not born of power, but of patience.

The vampire waits.

The wizard acts.

But the night, eternal and unseen, remembers both."

🩸 Vampires of Note: A Historical Compendium (Revised 1950 Edition)

Department of Mysteries, Subsection XIII — "Entities of Half-Life and Lingering Soul"

Classification: Level-Five Access (Unauthorized study punishable by Obliviation or imprisonment)

Compiled by: Unspeakable A. Greengrass, 1949

I. Prefatory Notice

This volume represents the Ministry's sanctioned chronicle of known or strongly attested vampires within the wizarding world prior to 1950.

All records verified via field correspondence, confiscated diaries, or preserved artifacts in the Obsidian Vaults (London, Sublevel 3).

Due to political sensitivity, references to postwar vampires have been redacted.

II. The First Bloodline (11th–15th Century)1. Lord Vassili the Pale (1080–1160)

Region: Carpathian Highlands

Summary:

Believed to be the earliest recorded case of sustained vampiric transformation through magical alchemy rather than curse.

Vassili's domain, Caer Umbrae, thrived on barter of magical knowledge for blood tribute.

He documented the Principia Umbrae — precursor to The Vampiric Codex.

Notable Magic:

First recorded usage of Ignis Obscurus and the concept of "living shadow."

Fate:

Destroyed by an alliance of local wizards led by Hungarian warlock István Szegedi. Vassili's bones were said to hum with residual magic centuries later.

2. Dame Rhiannon of Avalon (fl. 1200–1287)

Region: Welsh Marches

Aliases: "Mist Enchantress," "Pale Druidess."

Profile:

A vampire priestess who integrated druidic and vampiric rites.

Developed early sympathetic rituals combining moonlight and memory magic.

Legends claim she could walk in mist at noon through mastery of Lumen Obscurum.

Recorded Event:

Assisted Celtic witches in safeguarding relics during the Witch Trials of the 1200s.

Her final disappearance occurred following the ritual Mortalis Pactum — believed voluntary.

3. Lucio Varnieri & The Venetian Circle (1400–1491)

Region: Italian Peninsula

Collective Profile:

Six vampiric scholars who merged Renaissance ritual craft with instinctual vampiric casting.

Their sigil — a silver serpent coiled around a mirror — became associated with reflective and dream-based magics.

Legacy:

Their writings introduced Vocem Sanguinis and Speculum Mentis to the broader magical community.

The Circle was annihilated during the Siege of Venice (1491), when their attempt to bind themselves through Umbrae Vinculum backfired catastrophically.

III. The Age of Experiment and Enlightenment (16th–18th Century)4. Dorian Blackthorn (1530–1665)

Region: England

Known As:The Duelist Eternal

Background:

Former Ravenclaw alchemist whose obsession with immortality culminated in a self-inflicted vampiric metamorphosis.

Served as both adversary and reluctant consultant to early Aurors.

His surviving writings, the Obsidian Dialogues, examine moral philosophy of undeath.

Recorded Incident:

Engaged Auror Seraphina Dawlish in a three-night duel (Kent, 1603); ended in stalemate when both participants reportedly vanished into fog.

Fate:

Unknown. The Blackthorn Sigil remains an enduring vampire emblem.

5. Countess Mirela Varkos (1703–1732)

Region: Transylvania / Vienna

Known For: The Midnight Symposium, an intellectual salon advocating ethical coexistence between vampires and wizards.

Beliefs:

Argued that magical morality derived from balance rather than blood.

Proposed the Treaty of Night and Wand — an accord never ratified by the Ministry.

Fate:

Assassinated by rogue Aurors operating under early Dark Creature Eradication Orders.

Her symposium scattered across Europe; fragments later reached Selene Arden.

6. Sebastian de Lorne (1684–1760)

Region: France

Profession: Court astrologer under Louis XIV (secretly undead).

Magical Specialty: Dream-based vampirism — extracting vitality through sleep rather than blood.

Writings:

De Somniis et Tenebris (On Dreams and Darkness), a foundational text on Somnus Tenebrarum.

Fate:

Vanished during a lunar eclipse; his observatory's glass lenses refract moonlight unnaturally to this day.

IV. The Victorian Veil (19th–Early 20th Century)7. Selene Arden (1821–1893)

Region: Britain

Occupation: Academic and occult theorist (operated under aliases).

Contributions:

Authored the modern Vampiric Magic Codex.

Founded the Arden Circle—a neutral society of vampires and wizards dedicated to magical taxonomy.

Taught covertly at Hogwarts under the pseudonym Professor Ardea Sallow (records sealed).

Recorded Ministry Contact:

Auror Archives (1878) confirm an interrogation of "Professor Sallow" on suspicion of Dark ritual use; charges dismissed due to lack of corporeal evidence.

Fate:

Disappeared within her laboratory mirror. Some speculate she achieved "Mirror Ascension," entering a self-contained magical plane.

8. Dr. Edmund Valenford (1848–1905)

Region: London

Field: Alchemical medicine; classified "Rogue Experimentalist."

Notable Research:

Explored infusion of vampiric essence into human bloodstreams to amplify magical resistance.

Accidentally created three "Crimson Hybrids" exhibiting partial vampiric traits.

Incident:

Valenford's lab destroyed by the Ministry in 1905 after outbreak of magically unstable hybrids.

Recovered notes describe partial success with Cor Vitae rituals, transferring life essence without fatality.

9. Silas Morn (1898–1939)

Region: Scotland / Ministry of Magic, London

Occupation: Field researcher, later suspected vampire convert.

Specialization: Reflexive wards and memory dampening.

Contribution:

Developed Memoria Umbrae suppression field used in early Unspeakable experiments.

Fate:

Declared missing in 1939. Unverified reports place him in Albania, investigating remnants of the Venetian Circle.

📜 The Obsidian Archives

Recovered Documents, Correspondence, and Classified Reports from the Ministry's Sublevel Vaults

(Compiled and annotated by Unspeakable A. Greengrass, 1949)

Document 1: Letter from Selene Arden to Dorian Blackthorn (Copy Fragment, 1864)

My Lord Blackthorn,

The world has grown timid. They mistake restraint for virtue and ignorance for safety.

I have read your Dialogues—your words burn as quiet fire beneath the parchment.

You were correct: immortality is not a gift but a mirror held too long.

If you yet walk these halls of dusk, I beg you share with me the means to bind a reflection without losing the soul.

— S.A.

(Note: Original letter written in a hybrid of English and Old Latin. Found in the Blackthorn Reliquary beneath Knockturn Alley, 1937.)

Document 2: Field Report – Auror Division, Vienna Office (1732)

Subject: Assassination of Countess Mirela Varkos

Filed by: Auror Heinrich Vogel

At 23:14 local time, the Countess emerged onto her terrace under moonlight.

She displayed no hostility. Her dialogue was clear, her posture unarmed.

Agent Durtan fired the silverburst charm regardless.

Upon impact, she uttered a phrase in Latin — "Nemo liber sub nocte." (None are free beneath the night.)

Her body dissolved into violet flame.

The assembled Symposium members disbanded before dawn.

(Filed under Eradication Order #22B. Classification later revoked. Case sealed.)

Document 3: Diary of Sebastian de Lorne, Entry dated 1758

The stars hum tonight. They drink as I drink.

When I close my eyes, I feel each sleeper's heartbeat ripple like water.

The dreams I take are not theft — they are communion.

Yet even in sleep, they whisper my name with fear.

Perhaps the moon is the true vampire: pale, patient, ever reflecting but never alive.

(Retrieved from the Astronomical Ruins of Saint-Cloud, 1890 expedition.)

Document 4: Ministry Interrogation Transcript – Subject "Professor Ardea Sallow" (Selene Arden) (1878)

Auror Fawley: Your lecture notes describe "blood symphonics." Explain that term.

Sallow: Harmonics of life essence. All creatures hum, Auror. Some of us have simply learned to listen.

Fawley: You admit to vampirism, then?

Sallow: I admit to awareness. If that frightens you, call it what you will.

(pause)

Fawley: Do you feed on humans?

Sallow: I feed on the past. Knowledge, memory, shadow. There is more than one kind of hunger.

(Transcript fragment recovered from Auror Archives, File #BR-1878-A.)

Document 5: Letter from Dr. Edmund Valenford to the St. Mungo's Board (1903)

Esteemed Healers,

I have discovered a method by which the dying might borrow the spark of another without extinguishing it.

The process is neither curse nor theft — it is a transfer of rhythm, the very pulse of magic itself.

The Ministry calls this abomination. I call it compassion.

If I perish, tell them: blood is merely another conduit for mercy.

— Dr. E. Valenford

(Letter intercepted; archived under "Forbidden Experiments.")

Document 6: Field Note – Department of Mysteries (Scotland Division, 1938)

Agent: S. Morn

Subject: Residual activity near ancient ruins of Caer Umbrae

Nightly manifestation detected: whispers forming in air currents at lunar peak.

Transcription incomplete. Words possibly in Proto-Latin.

Vibrational analysis suggests vampiric memory echo rather than spirit.

Recommend containment via runic dampeners; avoid vocal response — the air listens.

(This is the last known writing attributed to Silas Morn.)

Document 7: The Final Page of Selene Arden's Journal (1893)

Tonight the mirror breathes. I see my reflection blink before I do.

The experiment is ready. If I succeed, I shall step sideways into thought itself.

If I fail, bury this tome where the light cannot find it.

— To those who follow: the night is not an enemy. It is a patient teacher.

May the next dawn remember me kindly.

(Recovered from the shattered remains of the Mirror Laboratory, Hogsmeade outskirts.)

Document 8: Ministry Memorandum (Classified) – "Obsidian Continuance" (1949)

Following comprehensive review of pre-1950 vampire activity, the Department recommends continued monitoring of bloodline anomalies in descendants of Valenford and Arden.

The Obsidian Vaults remain sealed under twelve-layer ward.

No further excavations authorized without Unspeakable supervision.

— A. Greengrass, Department of Mysteries

Epilogue Note

"They outlast our laws, our fears, our names.

Each century we rewrite their stories to make ourselves feel safe.

But in the stillness between heartbeats, magic remembers who taught it to whisper."

— Personal note, A. Greengrass, 1949

📜 The Blackthorn Dialogues

"A record of thought between shadow and spell."

By Dorian Blackthorn (fl. 1530–1665)

Reconstructed by the Department of Mysteries, 1949

I. De Sanguine et Anima — Of Blood and Soul

The soul is not in the blood, but the blood remembers.

Wizards think magic flows through veins; fools. Magic does not flow — it listens.

When I drank first of undeath, I learned the truth: blood does not grant life. It grants memory of life. The pulse is a lie we tell our flesh so the silence will not frighten us.

— Fragment recovered from Blackthorn's private alchemical journal, Kent, 1604.

Archivist's note: Early example of what became the Resonance Theory of Vampiric Essence, suggesting that vampiric vitality is mnemonic rather than biological.

II. De Tempore Inverso — On the Reversal of Time

Time bends for no man, but it hesitates for the dead.

Each century I stand beneath the same moon, and it does not know me. The stars are merciful: they forget what I have done.

Mortals count time by decay; immortals by repetition. We do not live long — we live often.

Marginalia (Arden, 1861):

He perceives undeath not as extension but recursion — a loop of consciousness perpetually revisiting itself. Suggests possible parallel to Mirror Ascension rites.

III. Dialogus Umbrae — A Dialogue with the Shadow

Shadow: Why do you hunger still, when eternity sits beside you?

Blackthorn: Hunger is proof of existence.

Shadow: Then when you are sated, will you vanish?

Blackthorn: I have never known the taste of enough.

(Page margin note in Dorian's own hand: "The shadow speaks truer than any priest.")

Archivist Commentary:

Believed to be an internalized magical dialogue — Blackthorn employing a proto-form of Umbrae Vinculum to converse with a semi-sentient shadow echo.

IV. De Magia Mortua — On Dead Magic

Magic itself can die. Not from misuse, but from neglect.

When a spell is no longer spoken, the world forgets it, as the body forgets a limb it does not use.

We vampires are the graveyards of forgotten spells; every unspoken word finds rest within us. This is our curse and our sanctity.

Each time I cast, I resurrect a memory of the world before it slept.

(Recovered fragment from Obsidian Tome Folio III.)

V. De Fide Tenebrarum — Faith of the Dark

I do not believe in gods, but in gravity — in the pull that binds night to blood, and thought to fear.

Those who worship the light forget it too is born from fire. We, who dwell in shadow, remember that even flame has roots in darkness.

Let the priests pray; we shall listen. Silence is the oldest prayer.

Marginalia (Greengrass, 1949):

Compare to the heretical "Litanies of Noctis." Suggests Blackthorn viewed darkness as origin, not absence — an idea echoed in later Obscurial theory.

VI. Epistola ad Mortem — Letter to Death

You are patient, my only constant companion.

You knock but never enter, for I am already your guest.

When I die again, I shall expect no trumpet. Only the quiet recognition between two scholars long acquainted.

If you have forgotten me, dear Death, I forgive you. I have practiced being forgotten for centuries.

(Believed to be among Blackthorn's final writings, c. 1665.)

VII. De Arte Umbrae — The Craft of Shadow

There are three arts known to the living: the Art of Word, the Art of Wand, and the Art of Will.

There is a fourth, known only to the dead: the Art of Absence.

To shape absence is to create from void without command. It requires neither wand nor voice — only intention carved into silence.

Those who master it are unseen, unheard, unremembered — yet they endure.

(Fragment inscribed on slate, unearthed beneath Blackthorn Manor ruins.)

VIII. Axiomata Nigrum — The Black Axioms Light reveals form, shadow reveals truth.

2. To live forever is not to live always, but to live again and again in the same thought.

3. Hunger is the cost of memory.

4. Magic is an echo, not a voice.

5. The dead do not envy the living; they envy the forgetful.

6. All spells are conversations with absence.

7. The sun burns what it cannot comprehend.

8. There is no curse deeper than understanding.

(Copied verbatim from the Codex fragment titled "Nigrum Principia.")

IX. Dialogus Sanguinis — A Dialogue on Blood

Apprentice: Master, why does blood call to you?

Blackthorn: Because it remembers home.

Apprentice: Is that where you come from?

Blackthorn: No. But it is where I was lost.*

(Later cross-referenced with Valenford's Cor Vitae writings. Thematic parallels noted.)

X. De Ultima Nocte — On the Last Night

When the stars fall silent, I shall finally rest.

Not because eternity ends, but because repetition has completed its circle.

Immortality is not endless life; it is the refusal to die the same way twice.

When I am gone, burn my name but not my shadow.

It will find you when you forget me.

Afterword (A. Greengrass, Department of Mysteries, 1949)

"Of all recovered writings on vampiric philosophy, none unsettle the reader more than Blackthorn's.

He was not a monster searching for humanity, but a philosopher mourning its brevity.

His words taste of ash and ink and longing — a reminder that even darkness seeks to understand its reflection."

⚫ Principia Umbrae

"Let the shadow remember what the flesh forgets."

Attributed to Vassili the Pale (fl. c. 1080–1160)

Translated from Old Romanian, High Latin, and Runic script fragments.

I. Prologus Tenebris — Prologue of the Dark

When the Sun betrayed the first magician, he sought warmth not in fire but in blood.

Blood kept the night alive within him, and so he named it friend.

Thus began the first art: to feed upon remembrance.

For blood is not the drink of hunger, but the ink of memory.

Arden's Note (1869):

Suggests vampirism began as a metaphysical act — consuming not life, but the memory of light. This interpretation reframes the curse as a failed illumination ritual.

II. Formula Sanguinis — The Formula of Blood

Take blood once living, twice stilled.

Whisper its name backwards until silence answers.

If the blood remembers its body, the ritual fails.

If the blood forgets its body, the caster is reborn in shadow.

Incantation Fragment:

"Sanguis, oblivio, lumen fractum — redde mihi noctem."

("Blood, forgetting, shattered light — return to me the night.")

Greengrass Annotation (1949):

The phrase lumen fractum appears again in the Blackthorn Dialogues — "broken light." This may mark the earliest linguistic root of the Vampiric Path: the transformation of illumination into endurance.

III. De Trium Sigillis — On the Three Seals

Before the night may claim thee, three seals must be broken:

The Seal of Flesh — undone by hunger.

The Seal of Name — undone by silence.

The Seal of Shadow — undone by surrender.

Break them not in haste, lest the night devour what it cannot digest.

Arden's Commentary:

The "Three Seals" may be metaphoric or procedural — early alchemical descriptions of separating body, identity, and soul. Compare to modern Horcrux partition theory (though the result here preserves selfhood rather than fractures it).

IV. Ars Umbrae — The Art of Shadow

The shadow is a mirror without reflection.

To shape it is to command what does not exist.

Say not "Fiat lux" (let there be light) — say "Fiat silentium."

For silence is the womb of shadow, and in it all things are conceived anew.

Incantation Fragment:

"Umbra mea, audi voluntatem meam."

("My shadow, hear my will.")

Field Report (Azkaban Archive, 1921):

Traces of this invocation were found carved into the cell wall of an unidentified undead detainee; the shadow of the inscription could not be dispelled by Lumos.

V. De Sympathia Noctis — On the Sympathy of Night

All creatures of blood are kin beneath the moon.

When one feeds, another remembers.

Thus is the Great Web woven — not of silk, but of thirst and echo.

The moon is the heart of the night; through it, all shadows breathe together.

Sallow's Gloss:

This anticipates the concept of "collective resonance" — that all vampires share a metaphysical link through the moon's reflected light, not direct sorcery. This might explain the "calling" effect reported among ancient covens.

VI. Liber Ignis Obscuri — The Book of Dark Fire

Fire is a false light, but it obeys truth when unspoken.

To call forth the Dark Fire, spill no blood, burn no wick.

Speak only thus:

"Ignis obscurus, cor noctis, veni sub verbo non nato."

("Dark flame, heart of night, come beneath the unborn word.")

If you see red — you have failed.

If you see blue — you have angered it.

If you see black — kneel, and listen.

Greengrass Annotation:

Possible proto-version of Ignis Obscurus, one of the lost vampiric spells later revived by Lucio Varnieri (Venetian Circle). The "black flame" motif persists through medieval necromantic ritual.

VII. De Corpore Tenebrarum — On the Body of Shadows

The shadow feeds where flesh cannot.

In fasting, feed it lightless breath.

In silence, feed it thought unspoken.

In death, feed it memory undone.

Thus the immortal body is not made of bone, but of forgetting.

Commentary:

This verse may describe the vampiric healing process — regeneration through reabsorption of "forgotten" energy rather than biological renewal. The term "lightless breath" likely denotes the act of stilling the body to absorb ambient magic.

VIII. Visio Tertia — The Third Vision

I saw a city of mirrors, and in each mirror a man.

In each man, a candle, and in each candle, a night.

The city burned with light unseen,

for each flame was a shadow dreaming itself bright.

Arden's Note:

Interpreted as a prophetic vision of magical humanity's decay — a warning that overreliance on visible magic (wandwork, illumination) would destroy its spiritual core.

This stanza may have inspired later Mirror Realm legends.

IX. De Ultima Noctis — The Last Night

When all lights die, one flame shall remain —

Not of fire, but of remembrance.

That flame is the first blood,

And those who bear it shall never wake nor sleep,

But walk the dream between.

Ministry Annotation (1948, Restricted Creatures Division):

The "dream between" has been interpreted as the metaphysical domain occupied by elder vampires during trance or stasis — neither death nor wakefulness. Field reports from Eastern Europe note long-dormant entities matching this state.

Postscriptum (Ardea Sallow, 1869)

"In Principia Umbrae, Vassili does not preach a curse — he outlines a cosmology.

To him, vampirism was not punishment but revelation: that the world itself feeds on memory, and that forgetting is the true death.

If this is accurate, then every vampire is a historian — one who cannot die because the world still remembers through them."

Addendum (Greengrass, 1949)

"Principia Umbrae predates the concept of the soul as separate from magic.

Vassili's writings are the first known attempt to bind immortality through memory rather than divine appeal or necromancy.

His 'three seals' may represent the proto-ritual from which all vampiric creation descends."

📚 Codex Nocturna

The Venetian Circle and the Birth of the Modern Vampiric Arts

(c. 1400 – 1490)

Compiled from fragments seized by the Department of Mysteries, 1938

Translated by Unspeakable A. Greengrass

I. The Circle

The Venetian Circle—six alchemists, philosophers, and vampires led by Lucio Varnieri—sought to reconcile wand-based geometry with vampiric instinct.

They believed that magical diagrams could stabilize the unstable essence of undeath, turning hunger into will.

Their motto: Ratio in Tenebris — "Reason within the Dark."_

Members recorded findings in overlapping languages: Latin for theory, Italian for process, and Archaic Runes for anything forbidden.

II. Extract: Propositio Primi

"Every shadow has an angle.

Draw the angle, and you command the shade."

— Lucio Varnieri, folio I §4

These "angles of shadow" became known as umbra-triangles—precursors to modern protective wards and Patronus geometry.

When inverted, they generated small fields of absence—the first recorded anti-light barriers.

III. Experimentum VIII — Formula Vitae Continuata

A combined blood-alchemy and runic lattice designed to extend human life without total vampiric conversion.

It required:

A drop of human blood at the moment between heartbeats.

The inscription "Sanguis memor erit" around a silver vessel.

A lunar sigil drawn in ash and salt.

The result was partial success: subjects retained humanity but developed resonant blood, highly reactive to shadow magic.

This phenomenon—the Greengrass Resonance—would echo for centuries.

IV. Collapse of the Circle

Their final working, Umbrae Vinculum ("The Binding of Shadows"), attempted to merge six minds into a single immortal intellect.

Contemporary Aurors found only vitrified marble and a pool of black glass; no bodies.

Fragments recovered there carried the seal G inter Gramina—"G among the Grass."

This sigil is the earliest known link between the Greengrass lineage and vampiric research.

🩸 The Greengrass Blood-Curse

Excerpted from "Notes on Familial Maledictions," Department of Mysteries File #77-G

I. Historical Origin

House Greengrass of Yorkshire descends—distantly—from Aurelio Gramina, one of Varnieri's apprentices who escaped the Umbrae Vinculum ritual.

He carried with him a shard of the black glass produced in the explosion, which he used as a focus to purge residual corruption.

Instead, it bonded with his bloodline.

II. Manifestation

The Greengrass Blood-Curse (formally Morbus Umbrae) presents as:

Photic Sensitivity: pupils narrow painfully under strong Lumos or sunlight.

Resonant Reflection: mirrors darken faintly in their presence.

Dream Recurrence: generations report identical nocturnal visions—"a hall of glass and voices without mouths."

Blood Magnetism: Greengrass blood interacts with vampire ichor, amplifying magical signatures.

Unlike typical curses, Morbus Umbrae is non-degenerative; it behaves as a symbiotic imprint—a dormant echo of the Venetian experiments.

This resonance grants extraordinary aptitude in defensive wards, concealment charms, and memory magic, explaining the family's long service in the Department of Mysteries.

III. Ministry Findings (1947 Report)

"The so-called 'curse' of the Greengrasses is best understood as an inherited synchronization with the Umbrae Field:

a blood-borne sensitivity to shadow magic first engineered by the Venetian Circle.

While non-fatal, prolonged exposure to vampiric essence risks catalytic feedback—manifesting as temporary pallor, insomnia, and craving for lunar environments."

IV. Notable Incidents1723: Beatrix Greengrass recorded the first successful containment of a rogue vampire using a ward keyed to her heartbeat; her blood sealed the circle.

1868: Ardea Sallow (Selene Arden) corresponded with The Greengrass Archivum on comparative resonance—her notes confirm shared sigil structure with Vassili's Trium Sigillis.

1949: Unspeakable A. Greengrass completed cross-translation of the Principia Umbrae and Codex Nocturna, confirming ancestral involvement; the family motto "Memoria Vivit" ("Memory Lives") is a deliberate inversion of the vampiric creed "Oblivio Servit."

V. Modern Interpretation

Contemporary scholars theorize that the curse functions as a protective tether—preventing full vampiric possession while granting limited communion with the Shadow Field.

This explains the family's reappearance in every major investigation into vampiric texts: only a Greengrass can safely read the oldest fragments without psychological collapse.

VI. Epilogue: The Glass Shard

One relic remains—the Fragmentum Varnieri, a thumb-sized piece of black glass sealed in the Obsidian Vault.

Its surface ripples like liquid when exposed to Greengrass blood, whispering in a voice recorded as:

"We remember you."

The Department forbids further testing.

Archivist's Summary

"Vassili gave the world the theory of memory-as-life.

The Venetians gave it form.

The Greengrasses inherited its echo—living proof that the line between study and contagion is perilously thin."

— Unspeakable A. Greengrass, Obsidian Archives Preface, 1950

⚫ Archivum Obsidianum

Classified Record Collection: "Vampiric Artefacts and Ancestral Resonances"

Filed under: Department of Mysteries — Subsection IX: Shadow-Origin Phenomena

Compiled by: Unspeakable A. Greengrass

Vault Access Level: Midnight Black / Restricted

I. Letter — Selene Arden to A. Greengrass (March 3, 1874)

Recovered from the estate of Selene Arden following her death at Caer Lumen.

My Dear Auguste,

You asked if the blood remembers. I can now confirm that it does.

The Varnieri formula does not simply feed on vitae; it echoes through generations like a chime in glass. Your ancestor's resonance—Gramina, "G among the Grass"—was not metaphor. It was a grafting, a blending of human lineage and nocturnal essence.

I attempted the Trium Sigillis last night beneath waning moonlight. The third seal—the one you call "Gramina" sigil—responded to my pulse rather than my wand. I felt it draw upon something older in the air itself.

The resonance thrummed like a heartbeat buried in stone. You must protect that frequency. If it is broken or amplified, the echoes could awaken what your forebear sealed.

Keep your blood close, Auguste. The archives listen.

Ever your colleague in shadow,

— S. Arden

II. Field Report #2217 — Auror Division, Yorkshire (June 18, 1723)

Subject: "Containment of a Nocturnus-class Vampire by Beatrix Greengrass"

Summary:

At 23:47, Beatrix Greengrass and two Auror aides confronted the vampire "Marcellin of Dordogne" in the ruins of an abbey.

The subject displayed standard vampiric traits: rapid regeneration, limited mesmerism, resistance to Stunning Spells.

Greengrass drew a bloodline circle with silver dust, activating it with a whispered charm recorded as "Vinculum Cordis."

The circle pulsed once, corresponding to her heartbeat, and the vampire was immobilized within a prism of pale light.

Witnesses report that when her pulse slowed, the field flickered. She slit her palm and pressed it to the sigil, reigniting it.

Upon questioning, she refused to describe the spell's origin, stating only:

"It remembers me, as I remember it."

Recommendation: Her method is effective but not replicable by standard Auror magic. Further inquiry referred to the Department of Mysteries.

III. Ministry Interrogation Transcript (Partial)

Subject: "Lucio Varnieri," presumed deceased c. 1490; Entity manifesting through enchanted glass relic

Date: February 2, 1899

Interrogator: Unspeakable A. Greengrass

Greengrass: Identify yourself.

Varnieri (through the shard): I am the pattern that refused to end.

G: You called yourself Varnieri once.

V: I am the remainder of him. A thought crystallized. You carry the resonance, child of my apprentice.

G: What did you intend with the Umbrae Vinculum?

V: To fix the human soul in place. To end the cycle of decay and rebirth. We found only reflection. Your line is the reflection's anchor.

G: And if that anchor breaks?

V: Then memory will flow backward. The dead will remember being alive, and you will dream their hunger.

[Vocal distortion recorded; the shard glowed black and emitted low-frequency resonance. Session terminated by containment protocol.]

IV. Diary of Dorian Blackthorn

Extracted from burned pages recovered in 1645 after the dueling incident near Tintagel.

March 4 —

The Ministry calls me monster, yet they study my kind in whispers.

I met tonight with a woman bearing the name Greengrass. Her blood sang. She knew the old seals, those same geometries the Venetians etched in salt. She told me my hunger was not sin but memory—echoes of what the Codex called the "First Resonance."

When I drank of her wrist (with permission), my sight expanded beyond mortal shade. I saw glass halls, black light, and a pulse within the stone itself. She pulled me back before I crossed entirely.

I believe her family guards a door older than our hunger.

If the Codex is correct, then every vampire is only an echo of their experiment—a living shadow of the first Greengrass alchemist who failed to die properly.

V. Letter — Unspeakable A. Greengrass to the Head of the Department (Sept 9, 1939)

Filed in the Obsidian Archives under "Personal Correspondence – Do Not Circulate"

To the Honourable Director of Mysteries,

The fragment has begun to pulse again. I have recorded the vibration—four heartbeats per lunar cycle, increasing as the equinox approaches.

It hums to my blood. When I approach, the air shivers, and reflections of myself in the glass mouth words I have not spoken.

Selene Arden's warnings were correct. The shard listens.

I fear our bloodline was not cursed, but commissioned—bound by contract to carry the memory that Varnieri left behind.

If the resonance grows unchecked, the archives themselves may awaken.

Should that occur, do not let them destroy the shard. It is as much part of me as my own pulse.

— A. Greengrass

VI. Department Memo — Obsidian Vault Access Log (Feb 17, 1950)

File: Fragmentum Varnieri / Shadowglass Containment

Status: Quarantined — Audible Activity Recorded

02:14: Vault sensors detect rhythmic vibration at 72 BPM (human resting heart rate).

02:16: Black luminescence observed within shard.

02:18: Automated wards activate.

02:19: Audio transcribed:

"We remember you."

02:20: All wards fail momentarily, then re-stabilize.

Note: Vault remains sealed. Unspeakable A. Greengrass listed as deceased one week prior. Cause of death: cardiac arrest, time of death approximately 02:19.

⚜️ Archivist's Coda

"The Obsidian Archives do not merely contain records.

They remember.

The Greengrasses were not cursed—they were chosen to keep the memory of the shadow itself from forgetting.

Perhaps forgetting was the mercy denied us."

— Final margin note in the Obsidian Ledger, unsigned, circa 1950.

🩸 Subspecies & Variants of the Vampiric Condition

Revised Scholarly Codex (Obsidian Classification, 1950 Edition)

Authored by: Unspeakable A. Greengrass

Filed posthumously after Vault Incident

I. Overview

Vampirism is not a singular state but a continuum of transformation, defined by blood lineage, magical interference, and metaphysical inheritance.

The Codex Nocturna divides vampiric evolution into three immutable paths—each reflecting how the First Vampire's experiments fractured the human soul.

⚫ 1. Nocturnus Vampire

Common Form — "The Veiled Ones"

Created by direct infection or curse.

Possess physical prowess, heightened senses, and mild regenerative abilities.

Often used as intermediaries between covens and human society.

Their blood is magically inert, unable to transmit advanced traits.

Vulnerable to light, yet still biologically tethered to mortality.

"They are echoes of my first hunger, imperfect imitations of my reach toward eternity." — Fragmentum Varnieri, fol. 2

🩸 2. Blood Sage (Sanguinomagus)

Inherited Lineage — "The Red Scholars"

Rare and hereditary; cannot be created through ordinary vampiric bite or curse.

Descendants of those who drank of the First Vampire's unbroken bloodline, before his soul splintered.

Retain intelligence and emotional balance; capable of wandless or runic spellwork.

Blood functions as a magical conductor — can empower potions, rituals, or divination through sympathetic resonance.

Some acted as court alchemists or shadow philosophers during the Renaissance, hiding behind mortal pseudonyms.

"Blood remembers, therefore it teaches. Those who bear it are archives of my failed divinity." — The Vermilion Codex, §III

Inheritance Rule:

The trait of the Blood Sage can only be transmitted by descent or mutual transfusion with a living Sage, an act that binds both bloodlines permanently.

Outside attempts at replication collapse into madness or physical disintegration.

⚫ 3. Shadowborn (Umbrosancti)

Artificial Origin — "The Hollowed"

Created through ritualized mutilation and Umbrae Transference — the forced grafting of a soul into the Shadow Field.

Not true vampires by lineage; they are manufactured echoes, partial phantoms bound to physical remnants.

Appear incorporeal, phasing through solid matter or existing between light and reflection.

Typically created by Dark Alchemists during the 16th–18th centuries, attempting to replicate the immortality of Varnieri's kind.

Most go mad within decades; a few survive as silent wardens of forgotten vaults.

"I took my own shade and pressed it into bone. It screamed until it forgot which side of the mirror it belonged to." — Testament of the Umbrosancti, Fragment 7

🩸 4. Ancient Elder Vampire (Primoris Aeternum)

First-Blood Ascendants — "The Deathless Minds"

Only those directly descended from the First Vampire, or transformed through his original ritual, possess the true immortality of this class.

They are not bound by the hunger of lesser vampires; their sustenance is metaphysical — memory, worship, and fear.

Can perform high ritual magic, alter memory fields, and manipulate ambient darkness as living matter.

Their existence defies ordinary magical taxonomy: half-being, half-concept.

Only three confirmed entities are classified as Ancient Elders in Ministry history; all presumed dormant.

"When flesh forgot how to die, I found eternity not in life, but in recollection." — Lucio Varnieri, "Reflections on the Shadow," c. 1452

II. The Origin: Notes of the First Vampire

Recovered fragments translated from the lost treatise "De Vita Tenebrarum" — attributed to Lucio Varnieri, c. 1450, Venice.

Filed by the Department of Mysteries under "Obsidian Annex A."

Entry I — The Experiment Begins

"If life is measured by heartbeat, then immortality is but the stilling of the pulse.

I shall silence mine and see if thought continues."

Tonight I draw the Trium Sigillis. Silver for form, salt for flesh, ash for soul.

My apprentices warned me: 'Life is the only mirror that forgives.'

I answer them thus — if the mirror breaks, perhaps the reflection survives."*

Entry II — The First Transformation

*"I did not die. The candle went out, but I remained.

The blood in my veins thickened, not with age, but remembrance.

When I closed my eyes, I could hear every drop whispering the word 'stay.'

I have become a library of myself. Each memory drinks another."*

Entry III — The Curse of Memory

"I sought eternity and found recursion.

Each heartbeat I once had replays itself inside me.

There is no death because there is no forgetting.

This is not life prolonged—it is life repeated."

Entry IV — The Shadow Field

"I discovered that between the body and its shade lies a silence.

If one inhabits that silence, one need not die.

The cost: the sun does not acknowledge me.

Mirrors weep. I have stolen my reflection's breath."

Entry V — Of Children and Variants

"The ones who drank of me inherited half my clarity, but none my restraint.

They became the Blood Sages, the red scholars who think in blood.

Others I permitted to siphon shadow alone. They became phantoms—the Shadowborn—proof that the human frame may hold echo, but not eternity."

"The lesser converts, the Nocturnus, are merely hunger given shape.

They are what remains when purpose decays.

I have ceased creating them; each one is a whisper of regret."

Entry VI — The Final Revelation

"Immortality was never the reward. It was the punishment.

To live beyond death is to remember what must be forgotten.

I am not man nor ghost, but the moment before both."

"Should my lineage persist, may they guard the mirror—not look within it.

The Greengrass child carries my echo. She will know what I mean."

III. Scholarly Commentary — A. Greengrass (1950)

"The division between Blood Sage and Ancient Elder is not evolutionary but hereditary metaphysics.

The First Vampire's soul fractured into three forms: hunger (Nocturnus), intellect (Blood Sage), and reflection (Elder).

Shadowborn are but men who forced themselves into the gaps between these.

The ritual of Umbrae Vinculum was never meant to create vampires—it was meant to anchor memory in matter.

The undead are thus not 'alive' but 'remembering themselves.'"

⚜️ The Greengrass Blood Curse

Restricted Magical Pathology File — Department of Mysteries, Subsection IX: "Shadow-Origin Phenomena"

Filed: 1949 — Compiled by Unspeakable A. Greengrass

I. Historical Background

The Greengrass Blood Curse (formally Morbus Umbrae) is among the most dangerous hereditary magical afflictions known to the British Wizarding World.

Though often mistaken for a "pure-blood malediction," the curse's true origin lies in the failed vampiric experiments of Lucio Varnieri, 15th-century Venetian alchemist and progenitor of the Codex Nocturna.

Varnieri sought to fuse human vitality with shadow itself — to transmute mortality into permanence without external alchemy.

When his final ritual, Umbrae Vinculum, collapsed, it splintered his soul into many reflections.

A single surviving apprentice, Aurelio Gramina, carried home a trace of that broken power, which took root in his bloodline.

In Britain, his descendants adopted the name Greengrass.

II. Nature of the Curse

The curse manifests as a dormant magical infection passed through bloodline resonance rather than contagion.

It behaves like a sleeping echo of the original vampiric spell — awakening sporadically across generations, usually in adolescence or under conditions of magical trauma.

Symptoms of Manifestation

Stage

Description

I. Resonance

Heightened magical sensitivity; improved reflexes; ability to sense nearby enchantments and magical creatures.

II. Consumption

Pallor, insomnia, sunlight aversion, loss of warmth; magic begins to "feed" upon the caster's blood instead of wand focus.

III. Transmutation

The afflicted's blood darkens, congealing with shadow; veins emit faint black luminescence; regenerative properties develop.

IV. Collapse

Magical core destabilizes; the individual's heart ceases, but consciousness lingers — the body caught between life and death. Most perish here.

V. Rebirth (Rare)

In exceedingly rare cases, the body reanimates as a vampiric entity — type determined by magical strength and will at the moment of death.

III. Vampiric Ascension Pathways

When the curse completes its cycle, the individual's fate is determined by their magical aptitude and soul integrity:

Form

Outcome

Notes

Nocturnus

Physical reanimation; feral hunger, minimal intellect.

Common in weak or panicked hosts. Body functions but mind decays.

Blood Sage

Partial preservation of memory and wit; becomes magically active vampire.

Exceptionally rare; requires immense will and stability.

Ancient Elder

Total transformation of soul into immortal consciousness.

Theoretical only — no confirmed modern cases.

"Strength delays the curse. Will defines its form. But all roads end in the same dusk."

— Unspeakable A. Greengrass, Vault Notes, 1949

IV. Mortality Statistics

Out of all known Greengrass lineage awakenings between 1600 and 1950, over 90% resulted in death within six months of onset.

Only three documented individuals have survived the transition into vampiric existence — all subsequently vanished or destroyed by Auror order.

The majority die not from physical trauma, but from magical exhaustion: their own cores consumed as the curse rewrites their lifeforce into shadow essence.

V. Recorded Cases1. Beatrix Greengrass (1723–1724)

Contained a rogue vampire using self-inflicted blood magic.

Showed early-stage luminescence and regenerative pulse.

Perished in containment circle during sleep; cause recorded as "energetic collapse."

Remnants of her blood circle remain active — cold to the touch even centuries later.

2. Arwen Greengrass (1841–1842)

Researcher in the Department of Mysteries. Attempted to suppress the curse through controlled transfusion and sigil binding.

Her last journal reads:

"I can feel it feeding on the spells I cast. The wand trembles, eager to drink. I have become its conduit."

Body disintegrated into soot and ash within ward containment. Shadow residue stored in Obsidian Vault #7.

3. A. Greengrass (1902–1949)

Final known carrier.

Attempted resonance stabilization using the Fragmentum Varnieri (shadowglass shard).

Resulted in simultaneous death and reanimation of artifact — black luminescence recorded at time of cardiac arrest.

Shard now pulses at his recorded heartbeat rhythm.

VI. The Curse's Paradox

The Greengrass Curse grants fleeting mastery of powerful vampiric magic — blood-based divination, enhanced physicality, and heightened magical empathy —

but these abilities come at the direct cost of the user's humanity and life force.

Essentially, the stronger one's magic, the faster one burns.

Those who survive long enough to approach full transformation rarely retain their souls intact.

The transition to undeath is both incomplete and catastrophic — the wizard's core rejects the binding of body and shadow, leading to spiritual fracture.

VII. Hogwarts and Modern Knowledge

Hogwarts' Restricted Section contains a heavily redacted manuscript titled Codex Nocturna: On the Binding of Flesh and Shadow.

Students are forbidden access under Dumbledore's authorization, as of 1947.

Rumors persist that the Greengrass daughters of the modern era (e.g., Daphne, Astoria) carry vestigial traces of this dormant curse.

Astoria's later canonical "blood malediction" perfectly matches the earliest stage of Morbus Umbrae — slow magical decay disguised as inherited illness.

VIII. Current Ministry Classification

Chapter 2 - Lore for nerds