Black Court

The Black Court is one of the Vampire Courts. Black Court vampires are the 'classic' vampire variety: undead humans preying on live ones in order to drink their blood.

Description
The Black Court comprises the most well-known kind of vampire, the reanimated bloodthirsty undead popularized by Bram Stoker's Dracula. The publication of that book at the behest of the White Court is believed to be the primary cause of the Court's downfall, as Stoker supposedly published the book as a "how-to" manual to hunt the Black Court. Black Court vampires still inhabit the human bodies that they lived in when they were turned into vampires, with the only difference being their bodies rotting like zombies in the time that they have been undead.

Black Court vampires possess all the classic strengths and weaknesses of Stoker's Dracula: they can lift and throw cars with one hand and crash through concrete walls without harm to themselves; but must sleep in their native soil, and fear garlic and objects of faith. Sunlight, while deadly to younger members of the Black Court, is merely an inconvenience to older members, weakening them significantly, as in Stoker's novel.

Mavra, an ancient Black Court vampire, has demonstrated the ability to use magic in the same way wizards do.

Black Court vampires cannot cross thresholds.

A group of Black Court vampires is called a scourge.

For back up strength, they utilize Thralls and Darkhounds.

Grave Peril
In Grave Peril,

Death Masks
In Death Masks,

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites,

"It's My Birthday, Too"
In It's My Birthday, Too,

Changes
In Changes,

Ghost Story}
In Ghost Story},

Politics
Before the events of Changes, the Black Court is the smallest and politically weakest of the three "significant" Vampire Courts, with the status of the Jade Court unknown and the final three courts being "little more than mosquitoes". However, those few Black Court vampires who survived the purges caused by Stoker's book are among the strongest and most cunning monsters in the world by virtue of sheer Darwinian necessity.

After the events of Changes, with the vast majority (if not the complete totality) of the Red Court being wiped out, the Black Court is now presumably the second-strongest of the remaining "significant" Vampire Courts, although still politically insignificant in comparison to the now-dominant White Court.