Certain vampires have special abilities gained or enhanced when they are turned. These special abilities differentiate from the physically enhanced abilities.
Explanation
- Main article: Gifted humans
- "Yes, no talent ever manifests in precisely the same way, because no one ever thinks in exactly the same way."
- ―Eleazar[src]
When a human transforms into a vampire, their strongest trait is brought into their new life. When someone has a particularly intense skill or characteristic, it heightens after their transformation. Some of those characteristics become a supernatural power of some sort. The more pronounced it was in human form, the stronger it becomes in vampire form. For example, Bella's mind originally only covered her from psychic powers, but after becoming a vampire she could project it to cover those around her.
A large majority of vampiric gifts affect the mind, but there have been exceptions as some powers work on the physical world, like Benjamin's elemental control.
Eleazar has explained that every gift is unique, never working the same way twice because no one ever thinks exactly the same way. This is proven by the differences in similar gifts among vampires, for example Edward and Aro, Bella and Renata, Jane and Alec, or Maggie and Charles.
Also, even though vampires have gifts, some may take time to develop and decades, if not centuries, to improve.
A hybrid can be born with hereditary gifts from their vampire father; if the human mother is already gifted, her gift may be inherited as well.
Since the Swan family has passed down mental abilities for three generations, it has been speculated that gifts might be passed down genetically, though influence of intrauterine environment during pregnancy and upbringing during infancy and teen years may also be important.
There are currently 40 known gifted vampires and one gifted hybrid.
Active talents
Name | Ability | Examples |
---|---|---|
Edward Cullen | Edward's gift allows him to hear/see the thoughts of other people, whether vampire or humans, except for Bella and, to a lesser extent, Charlie. The ability seems to behave much like an extra sense and, like the other senses, is likely not under conscious control, though he has learned how to use it. Edward can hear groups at a time, although he has stated that he has learned to drown out extra voices by focusing on one in particular. The closer or more familiar Edward is to a vampire, human, or wolf's mind the better or clearer he can hear them. A stronger bond also allows him to hear them from a greater distance, though no greater than a few miles. Like Alice, Edward's ability seems to work best with other vampires. He can also keep track of people within a few miles using his gift. |
Edward found most of the minds of kids in Forks High School to be unimaginative but he couldn't hear what Bella was thinking at all. He also had the displeasure of reading Jacob's mind. In Twilight, Edward was able to save Bella from a group of men who were going to attack her because he could read what they were planning. He knew Mike, Eric, and Tyler were all going to ask Bella to the dance, but didn't know what her response would be to any of them. In Breaking Dawn, Edward used his ability while confronting the Volturi to know their plans and intentions. |
Alice Cullen | Alice can see into the future. It is unclear whether the ability is sensorial, acting along the lines of hearing or sight, or she has conscious control over it. She can focus in on certain people or search for certain events. Her visions aren't perfect, as the final decisions regarding the future must already be made. This makes predictable things like the weather easy for her to read. She also can't see anything involved with the werewolves/shape-shifters or vampire hybrids. |
In Twilight, Alice saw James in Bella's old dance studio in Phoenix, and Bella later being captured by him, once she decided to meet him there. In New Moon, Alice could see Edward's decision to provoke the Volturi but not exactly how he would do it, because he kept changing his mind. In Eclipse, Alice tells the family that the newborns are coming to fight them. In Breaking Dawn, Alice's ability allowed her to warn her family about the confrontation with the Volturi. |
Jasper Hale | Jasper can feel the emotions of those around him as well as manipulate them according to his content. Jasper's gift is no illusion, Bella's shield would not protect against it. He likely consciously controls the manipulative aspect of the ability, but it is unclear whether he can do so also with the sensorial aspect of it. |
In Twilight, when Bella was stressed caused by James tracking her, Jasper felt her anxiety and calmed her down, so much that she fell asleep. In Eclipse, Jasper used his power to temporarily calm everyone down when the Cullens and the werewolves almost got into a fight. In Breaking Dawn, Jasper stayed near Bella after she had Renesmee because she was so happy and he was drawn to her positive feelings. |
Bella Swan | Bella's gift is a mental shield. Bella's shield is so strong that it's been working without her knowing, most likely, since birth. It protects her from "gifts" that affect the mind. Neither Edward nor Aro read her mind, Jane can't cause her pain and Kate can't shock her. Through practice, Bella learned she could expand her shield in order to protect others when she became a vampire, causing them to become immune to mental gifts. Although at first it was quite hard for her to maintain her coverage of others, she was soon able to cover a great distance and a large number of people with ease. Bella can expand, retract, shape and mold her gift at will; virtually blanketing herself and those she's protecting. Although much more straining to her, Bella can also lift her shield off of her mind altogether. This allowed Edward to read her mind for the first time, thus bringing them even closer. Her learning to manipulate her gift indicates it is under her conscious control. |
In Breaking Dawn, Bella shielded herself and her allies in the battle against the Volturi. At the end of Breaking Dawn, Bella lowered her shield allowing Edward to read her mind. |
Renesmee Cullen | Renesmee's gifts seem to be the opposite versions of her parents' abilities. She has the power to break through mental shields (opposite of Bella's power), and project her visions and thoughts into others by making physical contact with them (opposite of Edward's power). There are indications they are under her conscious control. |
In Breaking Dawn, Renesmee used her ability to transfer her thoughts into Bella after she woke up as a vampire, in order to let her mother know about herself. She also used her talent to show the visiting vampires her side of the story. |
Aro | Aro can see every thought someone has ever had upon physical contact with them. The longer the contact, the more Aro is able to see others' thoughts. Like Edward, he can't read Bella's thoughts. |
In New Moon, when Bella was in Italy, Aro attempted to hear her thoughts but failed, just as Edward cannot read Bella's mind. In Breaking Dawn, Aro uses his talent to read Edward's mind, and thus saw the thoughts he had read in everyone else's mind. |
Marcus | In New Moon, Marcus lets Aro know about the intensity of Bella and Edward's relationship. | |
Didyme | Didyme's aura of happiness that affected anyone nearby caused Marcus to become happy, and therefore he fell in love with her. Her ability also caused Didyme herself to become happy. | |
Afton | Afton's gift wasn't strong enough to land him a spot in the Volturi by his own terms. He owes his spot in the guard to his more talented mate, Chelsea. | |
Alec | Alec can create a mist or fog which upon contact with someone paralyzes them and cuts off all, or some of their senses as he desires. This ability does not reach full effect instantly, as Jane's ability does, but creeps upon the victim. In the movie, he channels the power through his hands; it takes the form of a visible black smoke that slowly moves toward his target, though he can retract it with his mind. |
In Breaking Dawn, Alec tries to cut off the Cullen's and their witnesses senses. It appeared as a mist, but had no effect on them due to Bella's shield. |
Chelsea | In Breaking Dawn, Chelsea attempts to break up the relationships between the Cullens and their supporters, but is blocked out by Bella's shield. Chelsea is said to be useful to the Volturi and often breaks the ties between those the Volturi is eliminating making them easier to destroy. She also makes those who Aro wishes to join the Volturi feel an affinity for them. | |
Corin | Corin uses her gift to make the wives feel happy while being trapped in their castle. | |
Demetri | At the end of New Moon, Emmett, Jasper and Edward joke about hiding Bella because Demetri won't be able to find her since her mental shield prevents him from tracking her. | |
Heidi | According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Heidi's physical features are supported by her power to be physically appealing to both human and vampire. When she tries to feel attractive, those who try to resist will have a difficult time ignoring her attraction. |
Heidi uses her gift to attract "food" for the Volturi. |
Jane | Jane projects the illusion of being in extremely intense physical pain into others minds, thus incapacitating them. The pain that Jane inflicts is described as being like "burning" inside of the victim. Jane's power only allows her to affect one victim at a time, while her brother can affect multiple targets at one time. Although her pain comes instantly, and his power takes a few seconds to fully incapacitate his target. |
In New Moon, Jane used her ability in Bella to see if it would affect her, but Bella's shield blocked it. In New Moon, Jane used her ability on Edward who tried to prevent her from using it on Bella. This caused him to collapse on the floor in imaginary pain. In Eclipse, Jane inflicted her talent on the young vampire Bree to force her to tell the truth about the vampire wreckage in Seattle. In Breaking Dawn, Jane tries to inflict her gift upon Bella, but like her twin Alec, cannot pass Bella's shield. |
Renata | In Breaking Dawn, Edward mentions Renata's ability and Bella wonders if it would work on her. | |
Zafrina | Zafrina can project a vision into others' minds. The vision can seem so real to the person impacted by them can easily forget that it's not real, extremely quickly. This power is most useful in clouding her target's vision. |
In Breaking Dawn, Zafrina kept Renesmee entertained by showing her pretty pictures, causing Renesmee to become very attached to her. |
Eleazar | Eleazar used to be a member of the Volturi and he would help by telling Aro which humans would become useful vampires, in other words, who also had gifts and abilities. Aro sometimes sent him across the world to look for more gifted people.
In Breaking Dawn, Eleazar was the first person to identify Bella's ability as a shield even though he couldn't be specific because she was then unconsciously blocking her mind from him. | |
Kate | Kate can cover her body with an electrical current. Upon physical contact while her gift is in use, depending on the power she puts into it, the person can feel as little as static shock or great enough to cause their knees to buckle and have them on their backs. Because this talent doesn't effect Bella, the current most likely sends a signal to the brain which would be a similar effect to Jane's gift. |
Immediately after Kate's sister Irina was killed in Breaking Dawn, Kate shocked three people who tried to stop her from attacking the Volturi: Rosalie, who crumpled to the ground, Emmett, who threw Kate to the ground before his knees gave out, and Garrett, who locked his arms around her causing his body to spasm and his eyes to roll back in his head as Kate shocked him. |
Benjamin | Benjamin's ability allows him to physically manipulate the four elements of nature with his will: fire, water, air, and earth. His power is channeled through his mind and hands. |
In Breaking Dawn, Benjamin practices his power by creating gusts of wind and fountains of water from the nearby river. |
Maggie | In Breaking Dawn, Maggie comes with her coven to meet Renesmee. After Edward tells her what happens, she declared that Edward spoke the truth and Siobhan and Liam believed Edward before they even touched Renesmee. | |
Siobhan | During Breaking Dawn, Siobhan wished that the confrontation with the Volturi would not turn out to be a fight. As it turned out, she was correct as the Volturi left without attacking anyone. | |
James | James could predict the most probable movements of his prey's next step and then follow his hunches to find them. |
In Twilight, James uses his talent to track Bella and find her old home. |
Victoria | Victoria had the instinctive need to keep herself alive. It allowed her to realize when to evade danger as well as if the place she ran to was safe or not. The meaning of the term self-preservationist defined as: instinctive need to do what is necessary to survive danger. |
In Twilight, Victoria knows when to escape once the Cullens killed James. In New Moon, Victoria escapes from the werewolves multiple times. |
Fred | In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Raoul and his boys are about to pick a fight with Bree when Fred utilizes his gift, causing most of them to flee the room while others just left them alone. | |
Raoul | In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Diego mentioned his power to Bree Tanner, but they dismissed it. | |
Alistair | He could sense the enormous presence of the Volturi coming in Breaking Dawn, and fled because of it. | |
Charles | In Breaking Dawn, Charles gives witness that Garrett's speech was the truth before quickly leaving with his mate, Makenna. | |
Unnamed tracker | ||
Kumboh | In The Groundskeeper, Kumboh made a night patron forget her conversation with him. He later froze James while battling him and managed to snap his leg before running away. | |
Mele | She took Aro's power and then gave it to Sulpicia. | |
Edythe Cullen | Edythe found most of the minds of kids in Forks High School to be unimaginative but he couldn't hear what Bella was thinking at all. In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Edythe knew McKayla Newton, Erica Yorkie, and Taylor Crowley were all going to ask Beau to the spring dance, but didn't know what his response would be to any of them. | |
Archie Cullen | In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Archie saw Joss at Renée's old dance studio in Phoenix, and Beau later in two futures when infected by vampire venom—he joins the Cullens as a vampire or dies. | |
Jessamine Hale | In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, when Beau was stressed caused by Joss tracking him, Jessamine felt his anxiety and calmed him down to the point of falling asleep. | |
Beau Swan | ||
Joss | In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Joss uses his talent to track Beau and find his old home in Phoenix. | |
Victor | In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Victor manages to escape the Cullens' approach while they were following him, planning to hunt him and Joss down. | |
Sulpicia | ||
Elena | ||
Kirill |
Passive talents
These vampires have abilities that are not quantifiably supernatural, but are known as their strongest characteristics.
Name | Ability | Examples |
---|---|---|
Edward Cullen | During the game of vampire baseball in Twilight, Edward runs through the forest to retrieve the ball. In Eclipse, Bella compares Edward's speed to Victoria's, saying 'she wheeled and flew like an arrow from a bow. But Edward was faster—a bullet from a gun.' | |
Rosalie Hale | ||
Heidi | ||
Emmett Cullen | During the game of vampire baseball in Twilight, Esme informs Bella that Emmett hits the hardest, while Edward runs the fastest. | |
Carlisle Cullen | He is able to bite (in order to turn them) people without succumbing to the frenzy and killing them. | |
Esme Cullen | She is able to welcome Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper into her home with open and caring arms; as well as Bella, a human girl her son Edward fell in love with. | |
Felix | In the New Moon film, when Edward tried to defend Bella, Felix quickly subdues him, throwing him to the ground, cracking the floor. | |
Bella Swan | In Breaking Dawn, when she caught the scent of human hikers while hunting, she manages to retain control of herself and run away from the scent while holding her breath. When Charlie comes to visit after she changed, she finds her father's smell more attractive than the hikers and yet manages to remain in control. | |
Raoul | Raoul was able to win over and kill countless newborn members in the army. | |
Santiago | In Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Santiago pulls off Irina's limbs with a light pull. Later, he quickly catches up to Renesmee and Jacob in the woods, despite the fact that the two of them had a headstart. | |
Edythe Cullen | During the game of vampire baseball in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Edythe runs through the forest to retrieve the ball. One month after becoming a newborn, Beau and Edythe race back to the Cullen house, and Beau mentions that trying to catch up to her was like chasing lightning despite all the extra strength and speed he has as a newborn. | |
Royal Hale | ||
Eleanor Cullen | During the game of vampire baseball in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Earnest tells Beau that Eleanor hits the hardest, while Edythe runs the fastest. | |
Carine Cullen | She is able to bite people (in order to turn them) without succumbing to the frenzy and killing them. | |
Earnest Cullen | He is able to welcome Royal, Eleanor, Archie and Jessamine into his home with open arms; as well as Beau, a human boy his daughter Edythe fell in love with. | |
Beau Swan | In Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, when he caught Bonnie Black's scent, he manages to remain in control of himself and avoid attacking his father's friend. |
Note: Some vampires may show special traits beyond their main ability, as with Edward who, in addition to his mind reading gift, shows an incredible speed and mastery of the piano.
Categories
Certain powers can be grouped in specific categories, even though it is at times rather difficult to do so, because no two talents ever work the exact same way. For instance, an ability that protects the bearer is referred to as a "shield", and any ability to find a target is called "tracking", which is one of the most common talents despite the fairly small number of supernatural abilities. Since Edward and a few other vampires can "read" minds, they are considered "mind readers"; also, vampires with the power to project a sort of illusion can be considered "illusionists".