Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 1)

To celebrate the release of Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward, Decadence has put together an awesome round-up of what we know so far about the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. (Warning: The cheat sheets contain spoilers to previous books in the series.) Lover Avenged is out on April 28. Update: Read our reviews of Lover Avenged: Kat’s review, Wandergurl’s review, Decadence’s review.

The Scribe Virgin and her single act of creation

We’re not sure exactly who the Scribe Virgin is, other than the mother of the vampire race. Her father (don’t know who he is either) gifted her with a single act of creation, which she used to create a race of beings who:

• cannot walk in the sun
• must drink the blood of a member of the opposite sex within the race (to supplement a standard human food and drink diet)
• live for almost 1000 years
• dematerialise to different locations (but are trapped by heavy metals like steel or lead and cannot carry large or heavy objects)
• are stronger and faster than humans and are often quite beautiful and may have unusually coloured eyes and hair. They have no body hair below the neck (how many of us wish we could be vampires?)

When males fall in love, they bond with their female, making them feel possessive and extremely protective of her. They love watching her eat and well … *ahem* climax. Their eyes glow in her presence and their bodies also emit a dark, spicy, sensual fragrance used to mark the female during mating as a warning to other males that she is off-limits. Mating ceremonies for bonded males include the female’s name being carved into the male’s back and sealed with salty water to show her ownership of him. She becomes the primary focus of his existence.

Vampires can breed with humans and half-breed offspring will inherit any or all of the above characteristics, depending on the strength of the lineage of the vampire parent. Humans cannot be made into vampires—you either have vampire blood or you don’t.

The biggest issue facing the vampires in JR Ward’s world is extinction. The vampire population is under threat from the Lessening Society, created with the express purpose of wiping out the race, and also faces difficulties with procreation due to infrequent fertility cycles and high mortality rates.

The Scribe Virgin likes to play a meaningful role in the race’s traditions and there is a very definite code of conduct when in the Scribe Virgin’s presence. First and foremost, no questions. Be extremely polite and respectful. If you want something, make sure you include the phrase, “If it would not offend…” She has been known to melt vampires who offend her. She also believes in balance, so a request granted often requires a sacrifice; so far, the only exception was the gift of creation given to her.

Wrath’s father had a good relationship with her and was even allowed to call her by her name, Analisse.

She is small and beautiful in appearance and usually wears black robes with a white glow spread out on the floor around her.

What is the Black Dagger Brotherhood?

Under threat from the Lessening Society, the vampires as a race began to breed their strongest warriors with their strongest bloodlines to the point that they evolved into a subspecies of vampire warrior, with more physical strength and extra mind powers than the average civilian. This subspecies formed the Black Dagger Brotherhood, named for the daggers Vishous calibrates specially for each Brother to stab lessers through the heart and send them back to the Omega. All the Brothers have a star-shaped scar over their left pectoral caused by being punched in the chest with a spiky glove by the rest of the Brotherhood during initiation.

There used to be 20 to 30 Brothers at a time, but as of the end of Lover Enshrined, there are only four fighting Brothers.

Black Dagger Brotherhood: Wrath, son of Wrath

Wrath is the last purebred vampire and for over 300 years, he was the race’s absent king. Before his transition, he lived a sheltered life until his family was betrayed by a servant to the lessers. He was hidden away while the rest of his family was slaughtered.

He then worked as a stable hand in the human world until his promised shellan (or wife) Marissa tracked him down and fed him her blood to see him through his transition. He also went through the change, which transformed him from a scrawny bag of bones into a 6’6 brick shithouse in a matter of hours. His eyesight was already poor, but worsened after his transition. Today his eyes are so sensitive that he must wear sunglasses, even at night (of course, if he’s out and about during the day, sunglasses are the least of his concerns).

Instead of stepping up to rule his people, Wrath decided to fight against the lessers, as a way of compensating for his pre-transitional weakness while his family died. He viewed his father as someone who sat on a throne and was adored while he fights for his people, but really carries around a load of survivor’s guilt.

One of his Brothers, Darius, kept trying to reach out to him because he believed Wrath was needlessly making himself into a loner, having very little contact with anyone (particularly his “fragile” arranged shellan, Marissa). When Darius discovered that he had a living daughter who would be old enough to go through her transition, he asked Wrath to help her as his blood would ensure she had the best chance of survival.

Wrath goes to Darius’ daughter, Beth Randall out of obligation to his fallen Brother but soon finds himself becoming attached to her. She warms him up and by guiding her into the vampire world, she shows him that he wouldn’t have been able to help his family and that staying safe was the best thing he could have done.

Marissa released him from their mating and Wrath feels free to take Beth as his shellan (even though males are allowed to take more than one shellan, bonded males typically only have eyes for one female). He seeks permission from the Scribe Virgin who demands a favour (yet to be named) as well as for Wrath to take the throne and live up to his duty, something he wasn’t prepared to do until his love for Beth opened him up to love himself and see himself as worthy of leadership.

Class Structure and Civil Unrest

In the vampire world, the king is on top (well, answerable only to the Scribe Virgin) and the First Family (the king’s family) is ranked directly below that. Wrath’s bloodline is in charge because their lineage is pure and should anything happen to Wrath before he can beget an heir, the kingdom is transferred to the male with the next strongest bloodline as females cannot rule in their own right.

The Brotherhood is also way up there, along with the Chosen (female offspring of the union between a Brother and a Chosen—basically their bloodline makes them the female equivalent of the Brotherhood). However, the Chosen spend most of their lives on the Other Side worshipping the Scribe Virgin.

Above the average Joe or civilian vampire, there is also an aristocratic class, referred to as the glymera, which has a lot in common with the ton of Regency England in terms of wealth and snobbishness and is largely a patriarchy. The usual double standards concerning female behaviour definitely apply, especially relating to sexual behaviour and political power.

The upper echelons of the glymera are the Princeps. The Princeps Council (chaired by a leahdyre, which I think is pronounced “leader” but don’t quote me on that because Ward’s letter groupings can make pronunciation confusing and misleading—“Primale”, anyone?) was set up to advise the king, but their decisions or rulings were more like recommendations than actual law. Although the doors have opened to more aristos, only the six founding bloodlines can vote.

Not everyone is eager to embrace their king after he spent so long shirking his royal duty and letting vampire civilisation deteriorate. (For example, there are no longer any soldiers to act as vampire police and the race’s traditions and festivals aren’t really being observed anymore.) The glymera in particular have tried to be helpful by making recommendations to suit only themselves, and Wrath has put their noses further out of joint by (quite rightly) filing them in the circular cabinet.

Legally, Wrath cannot be dethroned, but confidence in his leadership ability can be jeopardised.

There was an attempt to either force Wrath’s hand into complying with the Council or undermine public confidence in him by passing a motion to protect and shelter (read: oppress) unmated females from the lesser threat. Given that Wrath outlawed the keeping of blood slaves, he would be highly unlikely to uphold a ruling to strip away females’ civil liberties, despite the argument presented by recent lesser activity. In the end, the motion was blackballed by Marissa (who had control of her family’s vote by being older than her brother, Havers) before it reached Wrath’s desk.

The war against the lessers has reached a turning point where most of the ruling class was wiped out and Rehvenge was made the new leahdyre. Although Rehv has his own problems, Wrath has found him to be an asset. We haven’t seen the full effects yet, but I believe that the latest massacre may undermine confidence in Wrath.