twilight fact file

aro

Aro  volturi

Aro was born in Greece in the 1300s B.C. He was transformed into a vampire in his mid-twenties and joined forces with Marcus and later, Caius, and together with Caius's wife, Athenodora, they created the Volturi coven.

Approximately a decade after becoming a vampire, Aro changed his younger sister, Didyme, in the hope that she would develop an ability related to his, as well as his future wife, Sulpicia. However, Didyme was blessed with an ability not as useful to him; the power to make people happy. Aro's colleague Marcus fell in love with her, and she with him. However, Marcus and Didyme eventually became discontent. In order to prevent their leaving the Volturi, Aro killed Didyme: Marcus was too integral to his plans to lose. Aro had Chelsea use her ability to ensure Marcus remained loyal to the Volturi, and Marcus never found out the truth. However, this experience made Aro and Caius realize how vulnerable they could be if their mates met the same fate and so had them well protected.

By 500 AD, the Volturi had usurped control of the vampire world from the Romanian coven. Along with Marcus and Caius, Aro ruled the Volturi, although he generally acted as the spokesperson. The Volturi, under the three ancients' leadership, set down the laws of the vampire world and punished those who did not follow them, as it posed the threat of exposure to humans. His greatest assets being the discovery of Jane and Alec, two young children gifted with enormous abilities, and waited to change them when they were older (since the law against creating immortal children had already been established). His plan backfired as the villagers deemed them as witches and burned them at the stake. Aro got to the village just in time to save the barely-alive twins and changed them into vampires, and also slaughtered the entire village to keep them from spreading the news. Since Jane and Alec joined the coven, the Volturi had been invincible.

Aro normally carries himself in a cheery disposition and has shown to be polite to the point of being at complete ease even in the most objectionable of situations. Beneath this facade of optimistic giddiness, he is power-hungry, smart with his actions and highly manipulative. He finds Bella Swan's immunity to mental powers, including Jane's "painful" power, intriguing. Though he has never wanted anything more than Alice's power, after Bella becomes a vampire, he twice invites her to join the Volturi Guard, which she refuses both times. This upsets and surprises Aro, but does not infuriate him.