Carpe Jugulum recap

King Verence of Lancre, wishing to be modern and tolerant, invites a family of enlightened vampires, the Magpyrs, to the naming ceremony of his infant daughter. These vampires have trained themselves out of the traditional weaknesses, tolerating sunlight, garlic, and holy symbols, and they use the invitation to mesmerize the kingdom and take control. Granny Weatherwax, who feels her invitation was overlooked and is wrestling with doubts about her own worth, withdraws at first, leaving Nanny Ogg, Agnes Nitt, the returning Magrat, and a doubt-ridden young priest named Mightily Oats to resist. Agnes's divided mind gives her some protection against the vampires' influence, and Granny, once bitten, turns the connection to her advantage: her overwhelming will flows back down the blood-bond, saddling the Magpyrs with her own nature and cravings and stripping away their edge. Their much-vaunted self-training proves their undoing. With help from the coven, from Oats, who rediscovers his faith, and from the old traditional vampire the family had supplanted, the Magpyrs are destroyed. Lancre is freed, the royal baby is named in Granny's honour, and Granny recovers her sense of purpose.

Previously, in earlier books: the mountain kingdom of Lancre is guarded by a coven of witches led by the powerful and proud Granny Weatherwax and the warm, earthy Nanny Ogg. Over earlier adventures they saved Lancre's throne, traveled abroad where Granny defeated her own sister, and drove back the elves, after which the youngest of their old coven, Magrat Garlick, married King Verence II, the former royal Fool, and became queen. To fill the empty place in the coven, Granny and Nanny drew in Agnes Nitt, a young Lancre woman with a remarkable voice and, unusually, a second personality named Perdita sharing her head. Now Magrat and Verence have an infant daughter, and the kingdom has settled into a fragile peace. Granny remains its fiercest protector, but she is also its most troubled, prone to dark moods and, in this story, to gnawing doubts about whether her long life of hard choices has made her good or wicked.

King Verence of Lancre, anxious to be a modern and open-minded ruler, sends out invitations to the naming ceremony of his baby daughter, and among the guests he welcomes a family of vampires, the Magpyrs, who present themselves as civilized and enlightened. These vampires boast of having trained themselves out of the traditional weaknesses, so that sunlight, garlic, and holy symbols no longer trouble them. Granny Weatherwax's invitation appears to go astray, and, already burdened by doubts about her own worth, she takes the slight badly and holds herself apart. That leaves Nanny Ogg, Agnes Nitt, and the others to sense what the king in his tolerance cannot: that the polished, reasonable Magpyrs have not come to Lancre as guests at all, but as conquerors, and that the door has just been opened to let them in.

The modernized Magpyr vampires seize Lancre by mesmerism, confident that having trained away the old weaknesses makes them unstoppable. Their conditioning, though, becomes their weakness. Granny Weatherwax, bitten and seemingly beaten, uses the blood-bond that vampires forge with their victims to reverse the flow of influence: her sheer strength of will pours back into them, burdening them with her own tastes, cravings, and iron personality until they can barely function as vampires at all. While Granny works from within, Nanny Ogg, Agnes and her second self Perdita, the returned Magrat, and the young priest Mightily Oats hold the line. Oats, who has spent the story paralyzed by doubt, finds a hard, genuine faith when it is needed and turns it against the enemy. The old, traditional Count Magpyr, the courtly vampire whose place the modern family had usurped, is restored to a harmless coexistence with Lancre. The Magpyrs are destroyed and the kingdom freed. King Verence's baby daughter is named Esmerelda, in honour of Granny Weatherwax, and Granny, who began the story crippled by doubt about her own worth and beliefs, comes through it with her sense of herself and her purpose restored.