Bram's Vampire Hunter Handbook

Chapter 8 - The Amsterdam Treaties of 1899

After talking so much about those treaties, I suppose it is time to actually show what they are about and their history.

History

In 1890, Vlad I, king of the vampires, was killed, presumably for turning mad. His only son and heir was just a baby and his wives had turned mad, too. There was a power vacuum and things looked grim.

During those uncertain times, the next high-ranked Dracula, Adrian, assumed the throne as a regent. He did all he could to keep the vampires united and to avoid any coups. As he tried to find a solution for the problem, the vampires started to speculate if the death of Vlad I really was a valid kill (because he was mad), or if he was murdered. Rumours piled up until 1987, with the publication of Dracula. The readers knew that the book was not one hundred percent accurate, since it was written by a human author, but they were assured that the events were roughly the same.

Naturally, it sparked passionate debates about which parts were fact or fiction, so Adrian Dracula finally caved in to pressure and brought Van Helsing to court to answer for the king's death. It was a lengthy process that took a whole month and famously had the vampire council asking for clarification in every single page of the Harker Papers (the documents that Stoker used to write his book). All evidences that could still be gathered were brought to court. While the case was not airtight, what few pieces of evidence the council had seemed to corroborate with Van Helsing's version of the facts.

Finally, since no one could find concrete proof to accuse him, he was found not guilty. His composure during the proceeds gathered a lot of respect from everyone present. It was patent that he had enough knowledge and courage to really pull off the king's death. After all was said and done, the council even offered him the chance of being a vampire under any family of his choosing, which is the biggest honour they could offer to a random human/half-vampire at the time.

Van Helsing did not accept the offer, though, politely stating that he was comfortable with his own mortality especially now that most of his loved ones were already dead.

The newborn Vampire Hunter Association then decided, after much debate, to ask for his advice in hunting, which gave him an idea.

At this point, Prof. Van Helsing concluded that he was both feared and admired enough that he could use his fame for good. A few months after the end of his trial, he invited both the vampires and the hunters to his house, in order to discuss how vampire hunting could happen without being harmful to either side. His reasoning was that the hunters needed laws that made sure that they would not kill innocent vampires, but the vampires also had to agree to not bother them while doing their job. If they could agree on the proper terms, such an agreement would make the lives of both sides safer, and the vampires would not have to keep a costly team of servants such as the 'Dracula Hounds' to deal with mad vampires anymore.

Both sides took a little while considering those points, until the vampire council and the founders of the Association accepted to meet at Van Helsing's house in Amsterdam in the 14th of February of 1899. In this meeting, they wrote the documents that would be later known as the Amsterdam Treaties.

It took more than a week for them to agree on the first draft. All points were discussed and perfected until there were no more loopholes. To speed things up, Van Helsing offered to write the first official version, since he had legal training. This version was read and perfected over the next seven months, and the final draft was finally signed in the 6th of September of 1899.

Since then, the Treaties have been updated from time to time, to reflect new needs and changes. The first big update happened soon after the signature of the Treaties, when the Royal Vampire Council became the Vampire Society. Other significant changes were the inclusion of nuclear weapons in the banned weapons section (which was followed by a modernization of some regulations) and the recent changes to ban the Ghost Bullet and other similar weapons from peace times.