Collaborator's Mindset

Among the supernatural, there seems to be a phenomenon where the more intelligent and charismatic monsters tend to have human servants who do their bidding. Vampires excel at this, but I have read at least one werewolf example, as well as many others.

I have always been interested in the mindset and circumstances of such people. Writers of supernatural or fantasy stories, what are the motivations for your human servants?

Why do they align themselves with a monster against human interests? Just how deep does their loyalty run/what are they willing to do for their master or mistress? What do they get in return, if anything?

edited 12th Nov '15 6:11:03 PM by Swordofknowledge

Well, they don't get eaten, I suppose...

In Dracula, the madman Renfield believed that by eating live insects and animals, he could absorb their life-force and eventually become immortal. The vampire (whose abilities include control over animals such as rats, bats and spiders) offers Renfield an endless supply of insects and rats to consume, if Renfield worships him. (Did I mention that Renfield was barking mad?)

edited 13th Nov '15 4:27:43 PM by pwiegle

It's probably largely down to "everyone's screwed - this lot's won (or is going to win) and my only chance of life/comfort is to cozy up to the new boss."

In other words: being a cowardly self-serving prick. Look at all the times throughout history when people have collaborated with the invaders (I'm not talking about dissidents who wanted their own government overthrown in the first place and actively supported the invaders from the outset, but the ones who were perfectly normal "law-abiding citizens" until the invaders took over, whereupon they promptly "switched sides") - they did so for personal gain - privileges not available to the average person, not being tortured or killed like everyone else etc.

"Don't send me to the work gangs/prison camp, I can be useful to you, I can sniff out possible troublemakers and warn you of their intentions."

is true, but there may also be more "spiritual" reasons. Sometimes the servant of a monster believes their master to be truly worthy of servitude, even worship. In a medieval stasis setting, it's not unlikely that something like a long-lived, intelligent and powerful dragon would be revered as a deity by common folk, especially if it protected them from another dragon. Or maybe a servant believes that their master is right in their goal of eg. killing "undesirables" or some other thing like this (which would make the servant quite a bastard as well). It may simply be servant's life philosophy/mindset aligning with monster's.

But are they still cowardly self-serving pricks if the toppled regime is WORSE than the new one?

I already said in that post that I wasn't talking about people who already hated the previous regime and welcomed the invaders with open arms, which would equally apply to people who hated a terrible regime as to maladjusted people who hated a "benign" government.

This is a good conversation; I like how this is progressing so thanks for contributing everyone.

Pertaining to this issue, I've written two series of vampires stories, and both have radically differing views on human servants. In the first, humans who served vampires were very much "self-serving pricks" who received monetary rewards, deaths of enemies, positions of power or even the offer of becoming vampires themselves, in return for carrying out the dirty work of the undead. In fact, the Creature-Hunter Organization in the story had an entire branch dedicated to hunting and killing these people.

In the second vampire series, human servants are people abducted and forced into slavery by vampires. Their service is largely based on being allowed to live since they are bonded to their master in such a way that even if they run, they can never truly hide. They are viewed sympathetically, and it's a big deal when the protagonist starts killing them as easily as he does vampires. There is one person who voluntarily became a servant and enjoys the benefit, but it's treated as a rare case.

edited 14th Nov '15 4:14:13 PM by Swordofknowledge