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Time and Aging in VK storyline: An observation (edited)
As VKM’s chapters are being released, questions about the characters’ life-span were brought to light, without being really answered. Part of it is because of the vampiric nature of the characters, but it’s likely that actually the aging process isn’t fixed in VK.
Of course, we are aware of the basics: Pureblood are legit immortal and will stay forever young, Noble vampires are not immortals but depending of the amount of human blood in their system, their life-span will vary, C-class vampires will, according to logic, have a lesser life-span, as they are more human too.
Level-D vampires will surely have a short life-span for a vampire and Level-E vampires are likely to be killed before they can enjoy the benefits of a vampire’s life.
Hunters seem to age like the humans, even if they have healing abilities that are alike the vampires’. Unless they have a particularly high amount of vampiric genes and blood (like Kaien Cross), they will not last more than a century.
Until now, the system seems rather simple. Now I will get into facts that can give us a lead to determine their age, dividing the observations for the different levels : Pureblood, Noble Vampires + Zero’s special case and the Hunters. Then after the facts are stated, I will give my theories about this.
=== I will take into account the stories told in VK light novels, and the informations from the VK fanbook. Since both were under Hino’s supervision, we can assume the informations in it are canon ===
Ages of the characters at the beginning of the series (according to Fanbook and for Night Class/Vampires, based on “their vampiric age”
Yuuki Cross/Kuran: 16 y/o (brought to Kaien Cross when she was 5 y/o)
Zero KIryu: 17 y/o ( 13 y/o when he was bitten by Shizuka Hio and brought to Kaien Cross)
Kaname Kuran * when reincarnated into Juri/Haruka’s son*: 18 y/o ( approximatively 12 y/o when Juri and Haruki died )
Hanabusa Aido : 17 y/o (approx. 8 y/o when he first met Kaname, approx. 11 y/o when they met again at the ball)
Akatsuki Kain: 17 y/o (looks a little older than Hanabusa for some reasons)
Ruka Souen : 17 y/o ( /// same as Aido)
Rima Toya: 16 y/o (looks approx. 11 y/o when she first met Senri)
Senri Shiki: 16 y/o (//// same as Rima)
Takuma Ichijo: 18 y/o (//// same as Kaname, was approximately 8 y/o when he met Sara for the first time.)
Maria Kunerai : 16 y/o
Sayori Wakaba : 16 y/o ( looks in her early twenties at the beginning of VKM and maybe 70/80 y/o at her death ?)
Seiren : looks approximately 18/19 y/o (was approx. 6/7 y/o when she encountered Kaname Kuran, who was 13 years old approx.)
Haruka Kuran : 25~ y/o (+ 3000 years in human years at his death)
Juuri Kuran : 22~ y/o (same as Haruka)
Rido Kuran: seems a little older than Haruka appareance-wise (same as his sibling)
Asatô Ichijo: late forties? (in his twenties when he encountered Sara Shirabuki)
Sara Shirabuki : 19/20 y/o ( states to be a little older than Kaname + was likely to be 11 y/o when she first encountered Asatô and seems to only be a year older when she awakened from her slumber and met Takuma)
Isaya Shoto : more than 2000 y/o in human years, 25-30~ in vampire years
Kaien Cross: 25-30 in appareance, over 200 y/o.
Yagari Toga: 30ish y/o (was 8/10 y/o when he first met Kaien Cross)
I ) PUREBLOOD’s Aging
The list of facts (among many others, it is simply to give you an idea) :
Yuuki’s pregnancy has been four-years long (cf to VKM 1: Life). Ruka stated than vampiric pregnancy varies between 2 and 5 years, we can assume that it is likely than Pureblood’s pregnancy lasts longer than the other Level’s)
Ai looked approx 15 y/o in VKM 3, and in this chapter Ruka is desperately trying to push Zeki into each other’s arms. In VKM4 it is stated that a year after Sayori’s passing, Yuuki and Zero got together for the first time. Since not a long time must have passed between VKM 3 (Ai being 15) and Yori’s passing, we can assume that more or less half a century is necessary for a Pureblood to turn 15.
Yuuki was 5 and Kaname was around 12 when their parents died. In ten years, Yuuki grew up as a normal human whereas Kaname apparently aged up of only 5/6 years, when VK begins. His aging compared to an human was divided by 2.
Juri, Haruka and Rido didn’t even look past their thirties when they died. Also, we never saw a Pureblood who looked past their fourties.
Yuuki at her death looked pretty much like she did when she gave birth to Ai, despite the millenia that passed away between the two events.
Sara Shirabuki in VK: Fleeting Dreams is stated to have been put into slumber around the age of 10, just after having encountered Asatô as a man in his early twenties (see the art made for the LN). When she awakened, enought time has passed for Asatô to continue his lineage, to look after his fourties and to have a grandson already around 9 y/o. HOWEVER Sara didn’t really age, maybe she was a year older physically-wise but that’s it.
Ai stated that she had put herself into slumber for a while in the 1000-years span. She looks aroung 18 when Kaname is awaken.
a) The theories:
Pureblood’s pregnancy lasts longer than the average. (Very Likely)
As a child, the Pureblood children age very slowly. (around 40 years to get at 10 vampiric years) Around the ten-years mark/or Puberty, they aging took a pace up : it would take 20 human years for the vampire kids to age up of 10 years. ( Remember, in 10 years, Yuuki has aged like a normal being and Kaname only aged of ~5/6 years.) until the 20-years mark. 60 human years all in all. (Likely, assuming by the facts ?)
When they reach adulthood, their aging process nearly stops. After a millenial, they stay in their early twenties (as seen with Yuuki in VKM). THEORY: After the 2-millenials mark, they hit the mid-twenties’ appareances and the aging process slows again.
Being put into Slumber alterates the aging process of the Purebloods : Despite that she is almost a millenial old, Ai looks like she is around 18. She should have looked a little more older given her age.
A more striking example is the case of Sara Shirabuki in VK: Fleeting Dreams. She only ages slightly during her slumber, while Asatô ages, has the time to start a family and even have a grand-son. Since it has been stated when Asatô first makes an appeareance that he “has lived countless years (chap 10) or; in the anime “that he is 10 times older than us” (episode 8, s1 --> Translation of the French official version) we can assume that her slumber lasted at least four centuries. Maybe more, but that’s not likely it lasted than this approximation.
b) What can we conclude about it ?
---> In short, the pregnancy lasts 4 to 5 years, when Pureblood reach their 20 years-old appearances they most likely are 60 years old. And then, they grow older of a few years (in vampire years) each millenial. We also have to take into consideration that Pureblood have a knack for putting themselves into slumber to not have to deal with their eternal life, so they also doesn’t age during that period of time.
-> Is there a problem with that theory ? Well, maybe. If Purebloods reach adulthood in such a short period, we should have more Purebloods than we get to see in VK, even when we take into account the amount of suicides. As an possible answer to that problem, we can either assume that due to the incest, Pureblood have a lot of difficulties to have children ( Ai being an exception) or that simply Purebloods take their time before having an offspring, like Juuri and Haruka did.
--> Fun fact: if the assumptions made here are correct, it would mean that Yuuki was already ~20 years old (in human years) when she was turned into a human.
II) NOBLES + ZERO : Aging.
A list of facts:
As @vampireknightmeta said in one of her recent works, it is likely that the lifespan of vampires depends of the amount of human blood in their system. Hence, Senri being more than a half-Pureblood is likely to live more than the other Nobles.
Since that Asatô is said to be one of the oldest Noble Vampires around and that he has an obsession for Pureblood’s life-span and powers, we can assume that the Ichijo lineage is rather close to the Purebloods as well.
Aristocrats and Purebloods are likely to have the same aging process during their childhood, as we can’t see age-gaps that varies between Aido’s group and Kaname. They always seem to be 1 or 2 years apart, and this matches the ages given in the fanbook.
Asatô Ichijo is likely to be around half a millennium old and looks like he is in his early fifties.
By the time Sayori grew old and passed away, Aido has barely grown older, physically wise. He looks pretty much alike he is in VKM 1, when Sayori is in her early twenties. Hence we can assume that a little more than a half-century doesn’t have much of an effect on an Aristocrat.
Aido’s father seems to be in his early thirties when he appeared in the manga.
Ren is also like, 80 % of a Pureblood and seems to be 15/16 years old. That would mean that, if the assumptions are correct, that she is approximately 53 y/o, in human years.
Which is interesting, because it means that Zero had to be alive at least for +900y/o to impregnate Yuki. (we’ll get to come back to that later)
(I will not take into account the fact that we don’t see any of the Aristocrats when Kaname awakens a millenial after, because we don’t know yet if they are not here because they died of natural causes or if they died of unnatural causes, duh.)
a) The theories:
The aging process during Childhood and Puberty are the same for both Aristocrats and Purebloods ( hence 60 years old to be 10 y/o in vampire years and another twenty years to be full Adults).
And then.... The aging process is obviously quicker than Pureblood, but we can try to make an assumption. Be careful when you take into account the physical appareance of the characters, though. We will see why later...
We’ll take Asatô Ichijo as an example. He was in his early twenties when he met Sara ( let’s say he was 70 Y/O/ Approximately 21 vampiric y/o). Sara is being put into slumber. According to the Night Class, he is approximately 600 years old. Physically, he is around 50 years old. So, approx. 530 in human years should be the equivalent of 30 vampire years. After they hit the 20-years mark, they would do their vampire anniversary every ~18 human years.
And that doesn’t seem too far-stretched since it leaves the time to family to have two generations of vampires, as Asatô did, if vampires have their babies when they are approximately 26/27 years old in vampire ages.
Another calcul to prove that. Nagamichi Aido seems to be in his early thirties. Let’s say he is 32 y/o. ( in human years, it would give you something like 276 years). Aido is 16 y/o (hence, something like 52 y/o in human years).
So, Aido was born when his father was approximately 224 y/o (276 - 52). 60 human years correspond 20 vampire years, so let’s deduce that of Nagamichi’s age, I doubt he had a child at 20 years. (224-60 = 164). 164 divided by 18 = 9,1 vampiric years. Hence, Nagamichi was more or less 29 y/o in vampiric years when Aido was born.
So in ~500 years, Asatô Ichijo could definitely have a child and a grand-son, depending of how early he got his wife pregnant or how early the second generation got Takuma.
Again, PHYSICAL APPEARANCES IN VK ARE TRICKY.
We thus can assume that Aristocrats can live for a millenial and more (since there is only an handful of Aristocrats, given the scheme of vampire society we were given at the beginning of the manga, we can assume that we fall into Level-C pretty quickly).
Level-C would likely live less than a millenial.
Level-D who didn’t get to drink from their Pureblood master will die prematurately. Level-D who did get the Pureblood’s blood in their system will be likely to live more than an average human, but I doubt they would be able to live more than two centuries.
EXCEPT if they have a regular dose of Pureblood’s blood, like Zero. Zero has already an exceptional constitution, since he has absorded his brother’s life and was given blood from several Pureblood. However, if he had likely survived for nearly a millenial, it’s thanks to Yuuki and the regular doses of blood he could take from her.
b) What can we conclude of all of this ?
Purebloods and Aristocrats have the same aging system until their 20 y/o (60 human years). Then Aristocrats will age up but very slowly (approx 1 vampiric year every 18 human years). That’s why Hanabusa didn’t look too much different from VKM 1 when Sayori passed away, a little more than a century later. He only aged of 3/4 years during that period.
Aristocrats are likely to live for a millennium. The more we get down in the hierarchy, the less you’ll live as a vampire.
However, getting blood from a Level-A vampire will considerably slow down the aging process, as we can see for Zero.
--> Is there a flaw in this theory ? Well, I still cringe over Ren’s late birth, but either my calculations are right, either the whole aging process doesn’t make sense, so...
Edit: @soulisthirsty has mentioned that the fact that Ren’s birth being late may be because she isn’t Zeki’s first child or because Zeki had trouble conceiving. Thanks!
--> Fun fact : In chapter 7, if Yuuki would have ask for Ichijo’s age in HUMAN years, he would have likely answered 56 years old. Yep.
III) The Hunters
I’ll directly go to the theories/summary, because there aren’t many facts to mention, so bear with me :)
Hunters have healing abilities, improved speed and strenght like the vampires, but it is never stated that they live longer than an average human ! So, until it’s stated otherwise, they will likely die before they’re a century old...
EXCEPT if you have an abnormal amount of vampire blood in your veins/are a cursed Hunter child, like Kaien Cross. It is hinted that he has “eaten” his twin in his mother womb, and that would be why he is stronger than most Hunters. He is already over 200 years old and his aging process seem to have stopped, leaving him to look like he is in his mid-twenties/early thirties. It is impossible to determine what would be his life-span. I’ll speculate that he would be able to live for 3 another centuries, since it is unknown if the sickness he had in VKM was a hint that his life will come to an end soon or if it was just a sickness.
That would be all, people! If one of you finds an error in my calculations or has something to add, let me know !
Also, please do not take the calculations I made for absolute truth. I may be right, I may be wrong, perhaps even Hino didn’t think much about the Vampire’s aging process in general, so take this with a pinch of salt! Well then I’m out !
I swear I’m never doing maths again
EDIT: @soulisthirsty did point out a few things concerning Ai’s age that wasn’t right when Sayori died so I’m rectifying that. Thanks a lot, Soul !