Heyo. Just a quick question for any hardened Dresdenites out there. I'm currently working on an OC fanfic that features Red Court vampires, and I wondered if anybody knew about the exact nature of silver as it related to things other than the loup-garou.

I seem to recall it needing to be inherited silver to have an effect, but does that rule also apply to vampires? Hell, for that matter, does any kind of silver, inherited or not, work on Red Court vamps?

Thank you in advance.

 

When someone makes one, I'll be happy to post there instead.

 

Silver does nothing to the Red Court IIRC. This is supported by the utter lack of silver being used to repel vampires in south/central american myths.

If you ever run into questions like this in the future, you're best bet is to just look up the relevant myths, because Butcher has explicitly incorporated those legends into just about everything in the Dresden-verse.

 

Alright, as a follow up question, does holy water work as well on Red Court as it does on the Black?

I remember Harry had those cool holy-water balloons that he smashed into a Black Court vampire's face one time, but I don't think we've ever seen anything other than the Swords damage the Reds with faith. I know there's been expressions of faith REPELLING Red Court, but I can't remember ever seeing it hurt them, outside of the aforementioned Swords.

Unfortunately, I lost my copies of books 1, 3, 4, and 8, so I feel like the answers would be there if only I had them.

 

The only weaknesses I can remember being explicitly mentioned are sunlight and cutting their stomachs open to drain out all the blood, which they derive their strength from.

 

Hmmm...Damn. Welp, looks like I may have some rewriting to do.

 

I'm not sure about holy water. Michael repelled a Red Court vampire when it touched him due to the power of his faith (he was without Amoracchius at that point), setting it on fire in the process.

Given that true faith is harmful to Red Court vampires, I would say that holy water should affect them. I wouldn't expect it to be as useful as a Knight of the Cross or sunlight though; Black Court are more sensitive to these things in general.

 

I'm not so sure on that. It's definitely possible, and as it's never explicitly said one could simply go with whatever best fits the story and not sweat it, but in that very quote the vampire is acting incredibly dismissive about the crosses for faith to be useful againt them.

I'm reasonably certain she got hurt just because Michael's a Knight.

 

I think it's meant to be more of a "Oh, ha ha, I know most humans just don't believe enough." There's a big point made in several books that you have to really believe in your deity or concept of choice to get the symbol of faith to work. Hence why Dresden is able to use his pentacle amulet like others might use a cross. He has genuine belief and faith in his magic.

 

Holy water works on the Red Court, but I think it does even more damage to the black court. Look at the fight scene in Grave Peril for the exact details.

As for symbols of faith, I think it is the same, though I'm less sure on that one.

Edit: Welcome to DLP, Ravnius.

 

The roleplaying system, which is generally taken as canon for information such as this, lays it out that Red Court vampires have 'Standard vampire weaknesses', which would include silver, as well as their bellies being a significant weak point. It also rates these weaknesses as less severe for the Red Court than for the Black Court.

 

Thank you. Thank you for using this exact phrasing. I now have the theme music to Knight Rider playing on loop in my head. I love that tune.

As for silver - just like faith, it's a minor weakness for the Reds. The Black Court are the traditional Stoker-esque vamps, with all the traditional weaknesses, the effectiveness of which fades over the years (again, just as Dracula himself could go about in daylight, so too can the oldest and strongest of the Black Court).

Reds are about as vulnerable to these things as the strongest of the BC, just as most supernatural beings can be affected (however slightly) by magic, faith, and objects that are empowered as such. So while holy water and symbols of faith may not (usually) burn or repel the Reds, the effectiveness of the weapon would likely be based on the strength of the user's conviction: ie, if Micheal used a holy water balloon, it would do more than if Harry used it; likewise, Michael's rosary would do more than if Harry grabbed the rosary, but if Harry used a pentacle, it would work better than if Michael used it.

tl;dr: I like Knight Rider.

 

Thankee kindly for the assistance. Now I only have to do slight tweaks to my story instead of a massive overhaul.

P.S. Thanks Zeelthor.

 

You could've just asked me via email, you noob. ^^

/D