Decapitation: Heart, Brain and Anatomy
- the vampire Brain, Heart
and Decapitation
- by Robert
How, July 1998
Vampires are of course extremely difficult to kill by straightforward
physical attack, because of their incredible abilities of regeneration.
However, Decapitation is a sure-fire method of killing. This
is because it separates the line between the brain and the heart.
These two organs are still of major importance to vampires, although
their functioning is rather different to that of humans.
Heart
In humans the heart pumps blood around the body. In vampires
it does not pump constantly, but is the organ responsible for
directing blood-Vitae to where it is
required - pumping it into muscles for strength, or into other
areas where its essence is used to heal wounds. The pumping is
not regular or noticeable as it is with humans, as the action
is relatively slow and not at such high pressure.
When the heart is pierced and/or injured, it is unable to
function in sending power (ie quintessence) to appropriate areas
of the body - even enough to move. The brain however still functions
- because it is the brain which directs the heart to move Quintessence
to various parts of the body. Interestingly, organs like the
liver and kidneys are also used, as well as some modified glands.
The liver, for example, is still used to make heat when necessary
(this is what 'burning' blood is), although as with all other
functions this is not autonomic, but consciously directed by
the brain.
Brain, Thought and Avatar
The heart and brain-stem share the Black
Avatar, the power source of vampiric unlife. In Kindred the
brain is still used for thinking and memory, although true memory
and thought are kept within the Avatar. As anyone with wide experience
in violent incidents will know, a vampire can have her brain
mashed to a pulp, and still survive. This is because the Avatar
is the ultimate seat of thought. Unconscious thought, long-term
memory and personality are held here, but conscious thought,
reasoning, short-term memory and the neural mechanisms for directing
the body remain in the brain. This division of short and long-term
memory between soul and brain is an interesting issue for Kindred,
because it is one of the main reasons why Kindred find it very
hard to learn new skills and thought-processes, and find it hard
to adapt to new circumstances.
The result of this is that those with serious head injuries
will not die as long as some of the brain stem remains attached
to the brain-heart line. However, their intelligence is proportionately
reduced (its hard to think with no brain, after at all) at least
until the next sunrise, or until they heal sufficiently. No long-term
damage is done this way.
Decapitation
So how can the brain be mashed and live, yet clean decapitation
kills? This is because decapitation severs the all-important
brain-heart line. Case studies show that vampires can be severed
totally, but as long as the line between the brain and heart
stays intact along the spinal column, the vampire can survive.
The Black Avatar is still bound to the brain, heart and spinal
column, and connecting tissues and nerves. As long as some of
these are connected, survival is more likely. However there are
an infinite variety of complications - this does not, for example,
mean that a broken neck kills, as it does a human. In this case
the Avatar stays connected through blood vessels and neural tissue.
Definite neural tissue needs to remain, and that is why the neck
is so vulnerable. The head hanging on by a stretch of skin is
not enough, although a broken neck, with other connecting tissue,
will work. The entire body severed below the rib cage is fine
- as long as the heart stays in place.
The heart is more important as it is the root of the Avatar,
and the centre from which blood is directed. The brain is also
very sensitive, but it has a backup in the Avatar. Still, if
either the brain or the heart are entirely removed from the body,
this counts as Decapitation too.
(The ritual The Misplaced Heart gets round this by
a complex psychic link between the physical heart which can be
located elsewhere, and a 'shadow' heart formed in the body cavity
- the mechanism for this is too complex to outline here.)
"Order of Draco", (c) Robert
D How, 1998
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