- "So Riley doesn't need brains. He needs numbers."
"Like chess. He's not making knights and bishops."
"We're just pawns."- ―Diego and Bree[src]
The Seattle newborn army, also known as Riley's Coven in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, was an army of newborn vampires created by Victoria for the sole purpose of getting past the Cullens and the Uley pack to kill Bella Swan.
The army was eventually destroyed at the hands of the Cullens, the wolves and the Volturi. The only three survivors are Steve, Shelly and Fred, all of whom escaped before the battle began.
History
Twilight
Victoria originally was part of a nomadic coven that consisted of herself, her mate James, and their friend Laurent. When the nomads reached Forks, they found the Cullen family and a human named Bella. Bella was the girlfriend (and later fiance and wife) of Edward Cullen. When James realized this, he and Victoria decided to hunt Bella for sports. But James was killed when he made his attempt on her life. Victoria, feeling alone and vulnerable, quickly ran away. Upon arriving in Seattle, she changed a young college student named Riley Biers and won his heart with lies about her background story and her feelings. She created more newborns for protection, and Diego, Fred and Raoul were added into her collection.
New Moon
When she sensed Edward's coming for her life, she ran away to Texas and encountered a small coven with newborns vampires. This encounter gave her an idea, and she used her newborns to make an army and exact revenge on Edward by killing his mate, Bella. Wanting backup plans, she traced Laurent, who had relocated to Denali, and extracted information about the Cullens' powers and weaknesses, then sent him back to check if Bella was still under their protection. After finding out about her being alone in Forks, Laurent never reported again. She went to investigate and wanted to kill Bella on her own, until Sam Uley's pack of werewolves came across her and chased her away. When the Cullens finally returned, she knew her solo attempts were up, and put all of her focus on her army, and started creating more of them. Bree was added into the collection in early 2006.
Though the creations went into high gear, so did the murder rates in Seattle as the newborns relentlessly terrorized the city at night, only keeping themselves hidden during the day due to the lies made up by Riley and Victoria about sunlight being deadly to vampires. Though they had kept most of them in the dark, a few newborns had discovered the sun's effect on their skins and were killed for their discovery. Two of the newborns, Shelly and Steve, however, discovered the secret and departed from the army as a couple.
Riley getting the newborns' attention.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
After she was satisfied with her army, Victoria said that the Cullens posed a threat to them all, and that by finding Bella, they would find the Cullens. When Jane and the other Volturi guards found Victoria and Riley, they offered a five-day limit to fulfill her army's "task" before making a decision. Riley then persuaded the soldiers to stop killing each other and start working together to fight against them. The army followed Bella's scent to Forks, split in two groups to surprise the Cullens, and ended up walking right into a fatal trap.
Sam's pack destroying the army
Eclipse
The Cullens had been monitoring the situation in Seattle, and allied with a local shape-shifter pack to combat the army when they realized they were coming to destroy them. To protect Bella from the army, Edward and Jacob hide her in the mountains. Victoria and Riley, however, weren't fooled, and they found Bella's hiding spot while the army battled the other Cullens and the wolves. But Riley died at the hands of a wolf named Seth Clearwater and, seconds later, Victoria met her end at Edward's hands and teeth.
The inexperienced army was slaughtered except for Bree Tanner, who surrendered. The Volturi showed up after the battle was over and Felix, one of the Volturi guard, killed her.
Members
The Cullens standing over the dead newborns.
- Victoria: Leader with the power of self-preservation; killed by Edward Cullen.
- Riley Biers: Second-in-command (and Victoria's puppet); killed by Seth Clearwater.
- Raoul: Group leader of the male newborns with the power to lead underlings; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Kristie: Manipulative group leader of the female newborns; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Bree Tanner: 3 month old newborn, Diego's girlfriend; killed by Felix.
- Diego: Riley's favorite and Bree's boyfriend; killed by Victoria and Riley.
- Jen: Kristie's underling; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Sara: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Warren: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Logan: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Heather: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Jim: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Dean: Killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack.
- Kevin: Raoul's underling; killed by Emmett Cullen.
- Casey: Nicknamed "Spider-Man" or "Spider-Man kid"; killed by Sara.
- Adam: Killed by Victoria and Riley for discovering sunlight's true effect on vampires.
- Doug: Killed by Victoria and Riley for being the first to discover sunlight's true effect on vampires.
- Sherman killed by Jasper Hale at the start f the battle
Former members
- Shelly: Escaped with her mate, Steve.
- Steve: Escaped with his mate, Shelly.
- Fred: A member with the power of physical repulsion, escaped before the war.
There were originally over twenty-two newborn vampires (including the ones that had been "lost to the sun"), but overtime, they fought and killed one another and eventually narrowed down to nineteen, before the engagement with the Cullens, including Riley and Bree. They also had a red-haired vampire who was also "lost to the sun".
Appearances
Trivia
- Fred and Raoul were the only members of the army known to be gifted, other than their leader, Victoria, who had supernatural self-preservation. Raoul could draw others to him and make them view him as their leader, though it only worked on the weak-minded, and Fred could create a feeling of repulsion to push pursuers away.
Template:Newborn Army
| Covens |
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| Olympic • Volturi Amazon • Arkansas • Benito's • Denali • Egyptian • French • Hilda's • Irish • James's • Joss's • Mexican • Monterrey • Northern Texas • Romanian • Sancar's harem • Seattle newborn army |