Actually, that's one of the few remaining things in the books that does make sense to me. I mean, think about it- the vampires are all magically powerful, the Council members ridiculously so. So what do they do, spend eternity hunting each other? Have vampire 'society' be nothing more than a constant free-for-all? That's a pretty lousy way to spend eternity.
Hence, rules. They can fight, and do, but they have to abide by the boundries of polite combat. It keeps them able to be around each other without the whole thing turning into one big mess.
Maybe it's my anthropology geek coming out, but American society is one of the few that doesn't put much stock in ritual. However, there are benefits to ritual, including creating structure and order where there might otherwise be none. It can also be a way of bonding people together, which is helpful when you have to work together to survive. (And vampires as a whole were hunted by humans for centuries. Kind of hard to deal with that threat if the vamps are too busy at each others' throats all the time.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-10-23 10:28 am (UTC)Hence, rules. They can fight, and do, but they have to abide by the boundries of polite combat. It keeps them able to be around each other without the whole thing turning into one big mess.
Maybe it's my anthropology geek coming out, but American society is one of the few that doesn't put much stock in ritual. However, there are benefits to ritual, including creating structure and order where there might otherwise be none. It can also be a way of bonding people together, which is helpful when you have to work together to survive. (And vampires as a whole were hunted by humans for centuries. Kind of hard to deal with that threat if the vamps are too busy at each others' throats all the time.)