The terminology commonly used by Notte’s family:
- Amāru: the period of time after being made when the Night-Child gains control of their Beast and becomes ready to face the world.
- Beast: the bloodlust which initially overwhelms a new night child and must be carefully controlled the the rest of their lives.
- Blood Madness: a condition no Night-Child hopes to achieve – when starvation sublimates the self so the Beast becomes all. This leads to complete slaughter and insanity, and usually in the death of the vampire involved. They cannot even feel when they’re injured, and have been known to impale themselves on pikes while trying to reach the owner of undrunk blood.
- Crux: the crucial moment at the end of a Night-Child’s amāru, or test, when they must choose to resist their Beast even when half-starved and presented with tasty humans full of blood.
- Dust, go to dust: conscious disintegration of the vampire’s form into what seems to be motes of dust. In this form, they can travel through barriers and over great distances, and cannot affect or be affected by the physical world.
- Ease: Notte’s term for hypnosis, an ability all Night-Children have. Eye-contact is usually required.
- First-Born: those Night-Children Notte made himself, making them first-generation. Currently, the surviving number is nine:
- First-Sleep: After a new Night-Child wakes for the first time, transformed, they require the blood of a human. Once that is obtained, the Night-Child enteres a deep sleep. There is no way to predict
- Forged: the connection between maker and child. The maker – progenitor – forever will feel what their Night-Child feels. It cannot be switched off; yes, it is invasive, but it is part of the price of blood-bought immortality.
- Gift: The exchange of blood – accompanied by a force of will – required to transform the Ever-Dying into a Night-Child. Note: the exchange of blood alone is not enough. The Maker has to will the human to survive and to change. Whatever spiritual component ties them together to the Skein, that will is part of it, which means no Night-Child can be made by force.
- Inclusion: Notte’s word – borrowed from the concept of precious gems being uniquely flawed – for the one-off magical abilities his children sometimes manifest.
- Knife, Sword: the chosen assassin/executioner of the family line. This is a very taxing position and only given to one person at a time.
- Last-sleep: when the tristwch becomes too great, or injury too deep, the Night-Child finally dies. Their bodies go to dust for the last time, and Death takes their souls.
- Made, Make: the process of becoming a vampire.
- Maker: the one has made a new vampire.
- Patron: a human who donates blood to Notte’s family by choice, usually compensated very well.
- Skein: The magical connection between all Night-Children, linking them inevitably back to Notte himself. He can feel all of them, all the time, and the eldest can feel each other.
- Tristwch (tris-dou): the deep sorrow which can come upon a Night-Child after too many years alive. This is not just depression; this is the dark turning-point in which one usually asks to be released into death. It is a state Notte has done – and will do – anything to keep his children from.
- Viatsa: the first drink of human blood after turning. It’s considered sacred, and is crucial to the sanity and First-Sleep of a new Night-Child.
- Votary: a human who wants to join Notte’s family and is in the process of application (which can take a while).