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Bd2-126

Benjamin - one of the most gifted vampires.

In the Twilight universe, certain vampires have special abilities gained or enhanced when they are turned.

Explanation

Main article: Gifted humans

When a human transforms into a vampire, they bring their strongest human trait 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 are based on the mind, but there have been exceptions as some powers work physically, like Benjamin from the Egyptian coven; he can manipulate the elements with his mind.

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 vampire hybrid can be born with hereditary gifts from their parents; 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 28 gifted vampires and one gifted vampire hybrid.

Quantifiable talents

Name Ability Examples
Edward Cullen
Telepathy
Edward-mindreading-1011

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 telepathically.

Edward found most of the minds of kids in Forks High School to be unimaginative, but 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
Precognition
Bd2-alice-vision

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
Pathokinesis
659

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 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
Mental shield
Bella-relent-shield

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
Tactile thought projection and shield penetration
Memory-power-nessie

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
Tactile telepathy
Aro-mind-eye

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 reach 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
Relationship identification

Marcus can sense relationships between people. He can also sense the ties' strengths and weaknesses, and can also tell who would betray one another.

In New Moon, Marcus lets Aro know about the intensity of Bella and Edward's relationship.
Didyme
Happiness induction

Didyme had an aura that allowed her to project an atmosphere of happiness affecting all around her.

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
Mental invisibility

According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Afton's power is to become mentally invisible to his pursuers. He can also use it to hide someone standing directly behind him. This power is very limited as it can be seen past by someone with a strong ability of focus.

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
Sense deprivation
Alecsgift

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
Relationship manipulation

Chelsea can strengthen or break emotional bonds and relationships. Though she can break the bond between allegiances, she cannot, as easily, break those as strong as family or true love.

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
Addictive contentment

According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Corin possesses the ability to make others feel content and happy, though it has a side effect that renders her victims feel ill when she doesn't use it.

Corin uses her gift to make the wives feel happy while being trapped in their castle.
Demetri
Tracking sense

Demetri can find anyone anywhere in the world once he's been in their presence and "tasted" their mind. He is a million times more gifted in tracking than James and Alistair, but cannot track Bella due to her shield.

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
Physical attraction
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
Pain illusion
Torture

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 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
Physical attack diversion

Renata causes anyone who approaches her in a way of aggression to become distracted and lose thought of what they're doing, causing them to wander off away from her. Like Bella, she can shield others.

In Breaking Dawn, Edward mentions Renata's ability and Bella wonders if it would work on her.
Zafrina
Visual projection
Illu-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
Ability identification

Eleazar can sense the type and strength of supernatural gifts that certain humans or vampires have both before and after his or her vampiric transformation.

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
Psychic electrokinesis
Bd2-garrett-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
Elemental manipulation
Benjamin-renesmee

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
Lie detection

Maggie can sense if she is being lied to. She can also tell if someone is lying by movement or facial expression.

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
Outcome manipulation

Siobhan can manipulate the outcome of a situation by wanting or concentrating hard enough on how she wants it to turn out.

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
Tracking sense
James-tree

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
Enhanced self-preservation
Victoria-escapes-Jacob

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
Physical repulsion

Fred was confirmed by The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide to possess the ability to make those around him feel physically repulsed. He can also make them feel repulsed even by thinking about him.

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
Enhanced leadership

Raoul possessed the limited ability to be viewed by weak-minded underlings as their leader.

In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Diego mentioned his power to Bree Tanner, but they dismissed it.
Alistair
Tracking sense

Alistair possesses the ability to sense any living thing and their distance in relation to him. He feels a pull in the direction of the thing he is seeking, but it takes a long time to narrow down to one specific place.

He could sense the enormous presence of the Volturi coming in Breaking Dawn, and fled because of it.
Charles
Lie detection

Charles can tell if someone is lying to him.

In Breaking Dawn, Charles gives witness that Garrett's speech was the truth before quickly leaving with his mate, Makenna.
Unnamed tracker
Tracking power

This tracker was a member of the Volturi guard before Aro replaced him with Demetri, who showed a more powerful ability. How his power worked was unknown.

Non-quantifiable talents

These vampires have abilities that are not quantifiably supernatural, but are known as their strongest characteristics.

Name Ability Examples
Edward Cullen
Speed
Edward's gift is advanced speed, running faster than any other member of the Cullens and other vampires.
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
Beauty
Rosalie's gift is incredible beauty, which even surpasses a regular vampire. She is said to be the most attractive vampire in the world.
Heidi
Beauty
Heidi's incredible beauty is comparable to Rosalie's, supported by her gift to attract people, human or vampire. Because of this, she would often go out to find and attract "food" for the Volturi.
Emmett Cullen
Strength
Emmett's gift is extreme strength that surpasses a regular vampire. He is the strongest member of the Cullens, if not the entire world. But his strength can be easily conquered by a newborn vampire, such as Bella when she challenged him into arm wrestling.
During the game of vampire baseball in Twilight, Esme informs Bella that Emmett hits the hardest, while Edward runs the fastest.
Carlisle Cullen
Compassion
Carlisle's gift is an elevated sense of compassion that allows him to resist human blood.
He is able to bite (in order to turn them) people without succumbing to the frenzy and killing them.
Esme Cullen
Love
Esme's gift is to love those around her passionately.
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
Fighting and strength
Meyer has said that Felix's talent is his fighting and strength. No matter how good anyone else is in physical combat, Felix will always remain one, or most likely, several steps ahead of them. His physical strength is pretty much comparable to Emmett's.
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
Self-control
Bella displays high level of self-control and concentration as a newborn vampire, something that most newborn vampires aren't able to do.
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
Strength
Raoul had strength that surpassed that of regular vampires. He was one of the strongest newborns in Victoria's army, and the other newborns were usually frightened by this.
Raoul was able to win over and kill countless newborn members in the army

Note: Some vampires may show special traits beyond their main ability, as with Edward who, in addition to his telepathic gift, shows an incredible speed and mastery of the piano.

Categories

Certain powers' capabilities land in specific categories, but 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 one that tracks a target is called "tracker", which is also known as one of the most common talents despite the small population of vampiric 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".

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