The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
RNT Episode 6: What Changes (Mentally) When a Person Goes Full Red Court?
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on April 17, 2025, 04:46:48 PM ---When has that been clear? Once the change is complete, there is no evidence that any trace of the former human remains...
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I agree that we have no clarity here. I think the human is "gone" (soul moves on to "What Comes After"), but at least one element remains: the Rampire still speaks whatever native language the human spoke.
That could be nothing more than Doylist need: "can talk, and understand, so Harry can snark at them" may be the whole of the matter!
I have 2 working Watsonian theories, though ...
First, that the nascent vampire (within the half-turned but still human host) might be learning: learning languages, learning to recognize friends and family, co-workers, learning habits and patterns and behavioral quirks and etc. This gives them a huge leg up, when they finally turn, as they can fake being still-human in their original lives as well as more-generally.
Second, that maybe the vampire binds the ghost of the newly-dead, uses their knowledge & the binding to emulate the human, and "learns by doing" until, eventually, the ghost fades away.
I slightly-prefer the first one... it helps to explain much of the difference between the feral "blood slave' vampires and those more-in-control: those who lived long as half-rampires are simply much more well-adjusted to acting human, fitting-in within human societies, etc.
Mira:
--- Quote ---I agree that we have no clarity here. I think the human is "gone" (soul moves on to "What Comes After"), but at least one element remains: the Rampire still speaks whatever native language the human spoke.
--- End quote ---
Do they? Or is it easier for the author if they continue to speak the same language? Bianca spoke English, as did the Red King, do you think those were their native tongues? A Red Vamp can take on a human mask, but they are not human..
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on April 18, 2025, 01:20:57 AM ---Do they? Or is it easier for the author if they continue to speak the same language?
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Yes, they do.
Now (as I noted previously) that may just be a matter of authorial/Doylist need.
But it's a fact of the setting; and as such, can be interrogated/explored.
--- Quote from: Mira on April 18, 2025, 01:20:57 AM --- ... Bianca spoke English, as did the Red King, do you think those were their native tongues? ...
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It certainly was not the Red King's native tongue! He was older than the English language itself, even predating when the Angles & Saxons emigrated from the mainland to the isles; the RK likely spoke Nahuatl or Kʼicheʼ or one of the related languages. I've no idea as to Bianca's native language, but given her elevation into the Ramp nobility I presume she's well over a century old, so modern English certainly isn't her native tongue!
But once they're into centuries+ of age, I think we have to presume they've likely learned one or more other languages.
Mira:
--- Quote ---But once they're into centuries+ of age, I think we have to presume they've likely learned one or more other languages.
--- End quote ---
My point, just because they can speak and learn a language doesn't mean Red Court Vamps have any humanity left in them... A parrot can speak many languages, parrots are also intelligent, but there is nothing human about them.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on April 19, 2025, 11:08:18 AM ---My point, just because they can speak and learn a language doesn't mean Red Court Vamps have any humanity left in them... A parrot can speak many languages, parrots are also intelligent, but there is nothing human about them.
--- End quote ---
And my point in turn is that fully/freshly turned Ramps seem to immediately know their prior-body birth language. It's something learned that they retain. Until/unless we learn otherwise, I'm going to presume there's other stuff retained, too (fwiw -- Blampires also retain memories).
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