Carpathians (race)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Carpathians are a fictional race of people from the Carpathian Mountain region, in the fictional universe of the Dark Series, a group of books by Christine Feehan. Carpathians survive by drinking the blood of humans, but unlike vampires, they do not kill their human prey. Carpathians use their telepathic abilities to “call” humans to them in order to feed, and then use those same abilities to erase the humans’ memory of the incident. All vampires were once Carpathians. A Carpathian male "turns" into a vampire when he kills while feeding, loses his lifemate, or fails to find his lifemate.(1)

Carpathians mate for life. This is because males and females are different in nature; while the females are filled with compassion and light, the males are filled with an inner darkness, capable of great violence. After 200 years, all male Carpathian lose the ability to feel emotions, sexual desire, and the ability to see in color. As a result, the darkness slowly spreads and consumes their souls. At this time, the only thing they feel is the thrill when they are about to make a kill. The only way their emotions are returned to them is when a male finds his lifemate, the "light" to his darkness, the other half of his soul. Once lifemates find one another, the male recites the bonding words. Once this is done, it cannot be undone. They must touch minds and share their bodies often.

At the beginning of Dark Prince, Carpathians are on the edge of extinction. There have been few children born to them in the past few centuries; those that have been born are all male and often die in the first year. Typically, Carpathian women conceive every 100–200 years (2)however, it has been more than 500 years since a female has been born. Without females, the males are left with a stark choice, "greet the dawn" (i.e. commit suicide) or become vampires, the undead, the monsters of human legend. In Dark Slayer, it is discovered that the infertility issues have been caused by the evil mage, Xavier, who hates all Carpathians, because they are essentially immortal, and he is not. (20)


Most Carpathians are tall, dark-haired and dark-eyed. Most Carpathians are rather lean, but some – like Gregori(2) and his brother Darius – are noted to be rather broad and muscular, which is uncommon. The Golden Twins (Julian and Aidan Savage) are blond-haired and have gold eyes.(3,4,5)

A female Carpathian is tall and slender, voluptuous and seductive, though unaware of it. Natural-born Carpathian females usually have beautiful pale skin and long black hair.(8) Humans made into Carpathians will remain looking the way they are, but more alluring. Humans who are not Carpathian usually get turned via a process of blood exchanges. Three exchanges must be made in order for humans to become Carpathian, but the human must have psychic abilities beforehand.(1)



Carpathians live many times longer than humans. Although, humans believe Carpathians to be immortal, it is not true, they can be viciously wounded,(2) and even killed.(1) The maximum lifespan is unknown, but several have lived to the age of 2000 years or more.(8,9,13,16,17) In addition to living longer than humans do, Carpathians age much more slowly. In their childhood, they age roughly at the same rate as humans,(10) but once they reach physical adulthood, their aging process slows dramatically, and they maintain their physical peaks for centuries. (4) Conversely, men who have turned Vampire, age and show their age. Their apparent beauty is an illusion.(4,16,13)


All Carpathians have the gift of telepathy (all books), the ability to speak “mind to mind” to one another. This telepathic ability can cover vast distances, even across oceans.(3,4,5,11) In addition, they have the gift to communicate with animals. Once two Carpathians have exchanged blood, they can communicate with one another without anyone else hearing them.This ability will also occur if a Carpathian takes a human under his or her care.(3,4) Lifemates use this ability to strengthen their bond with one another. They use this ability to call humans to them in order to feed. Vampires often plant compulsions, compelling humans to commit awful acts, including murder.

Elemental Manipulation

All Carpathians are capable of controlling the elements for their own needs. They often form clouds or storms to protect them from the sun, and can cause minor earthquakes and splits in the earth.(1) They are also capable of creating clothing from the elements, and can sense through the earth to some degree, able to detect water and cave systems miles underground. This power seems to be linked to the emotions- often when a Carpathian loses control emotionally, they will accidentally summon a storm or earthquake, the more powerful the emotion, the more wild and uncontrollable the effects.(2,4)

There have been some cases where the Mother Earth itself has accepted certain Carpathians as her biological children.(20) Though this is true for all Carpathians, who refer to themselves as "Children of the Earth"(1,4) and explains their connection to the earth, these individuals are found worthy by the Earth in times of great need or suffering, after which the Earth will provide all ishe can to assist her child- for example, when Razvan and Ivory were dying and not even the greatest Carpathian healer, Gregori, could save them, the earth protected them and provided her own healing for them, saving them from mortal wounds. Little is known of the long term effects of being a child of the Earth, but it is known that the Earth will take care of her child.(20)


All Carpathians have the ability to shapeshift into various animals. They most often use the forms of wolves, owls, bats, and leopards. They can also take to form of mist or fog. They often use these forms to protect their sensitive eyes if they have to rise before the sun completely sets or they need to enter and leave a dwelling undetected.(1-22)


All Carpathians can heal themselves by dissolving from their body and mending the cut. They also can heal other people the same way, though many can only heal minor wounds- only a born healer, primarily the Daratrazanoff family (4),can heal mortal or serious wounds quickly. Carpathians also have a healing agent in their saliva, they use it to stop pain or heal their lifemates. Some Carpathians are born with the ability to heal the earth,(6,17,20) and restore damaged ecological systems. Others, true children of the Earth, can be healed, very slowly but effectively, by the earth itself- the Earth is capable of reattaching limbs and saving from mortal injuries healers cannot save them from, though this takes many weeks, months or even years.(2,4)


A select few Carpathians are capable of controlling magic, though most of those who survive that can are half-mage rather than born Carpathians. There are two types of magic, "White" or benevolent magic, and "Black" magic, which is power that has been abused for selfish purposes. Formerly (hundreds of years ago) those with talent were sent to a special school run by the mage Xavier, but after he turned, killing his Carpathian students and hunting the rest, no known pure Carpathian has been born with magic, though a few born Carpathian's with magic have been found, having survived the attack.

Magic must be utilized by the chanting of a rhyme describing the effect desired, and can create a much wider variety of effects, such as telekinesis, barriers (it was mages that taught Carpathians how to put up safeguards) possession of another's mind and body, and genetic manipulation. They can also manipulate nature with far more variety than the natural Carpathian though it is more draining, time consuming, and requires years of practice and training. Most of the known users of magic are some of the Dragonseeker bloodline, who, after the capture of Carpathian woman by Xavier, have been born part mage, part Carpathian/human, the most notable exceptions being Gregori Daratrazanoff (4) and Ivory Malinov.(20) Part mages who are converted to become fully Carpathian usually lose much, if not all of their magic.

Dark Series[edit]

  1. Dark Prince Mikhail/Raven
  2. Dark Desire Jacques/Shea
  3. Dark Gold Aidan/Alexandria
  4. Dark Magic Gregori/Savannah
  5. Dark Challenge Julian/ Desari
  6. Dark Fire Darius/Tempest
  7. "Dark Dream" one of novels in After Twilight Compilation Falcon/Sara
  8. Dark Legend Gabriel/Francesca
  9. Dark Guardian Lucian/Jaxon
  10. Dark Symphony Byron/Antoinette
  11. "Dark Descent" in The Only One Compilation Traian/Joie
  12. Dark Melody Dayan/Corinne
  13. Dark Destiny Nicolae/Destiny
  14. "Dark Hunger" in Hot Blooded Riordan/Juliette
  15. Dark Secret Rafael/Colby
  16. Dark Demon Vikirnoff/ Natalya
  17. Dark Celebration Carpathian Reunion of characters in other novels
  18. Dark Possession Manolito/Mary Ann
  19. Dark Curse Nicolas/ Lara
  20. Dark Slayer Razvan/Ivory
  21. Dark Peril Dominic/Solange
  22. Dark Predator Zacharias/Marguarita
  23. Dark Storm Dax & Riley Parker
  24. "Dark Lycan" Fenris/Tatijana
  25. "Dark Wolf" Dimitri/ Skylar


External links[edit]