Significance of sacrificing twelve number of people?
In The Vampire Diaries Season 4, first it was twelve council member who were sacrificed, then we know in flashback a witch tricked to sacrifice twelve humans to break the Sire Bond and even twelve hybrids were need to be sacrificed for Expression magic. But why only twelve and not any other number? Is there any in/out of universe explanation for it?
Note: Seen upto season 4.
Best Answer
Per the comment above, there isn't an in-universe explanation for the choice of 12 as a number.
That said, 12 is a highly significant number in various religions, esp. the typical christian look a likes which show up in vampire lore. As a result, it's a number which audience members are likely to accept as significant without needing much of an explanation.
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What is the importance of sacrifice?
Through sacrifice, life is returned to its divine source, regenerating the power or life of that source; life is fed by life.What is the value of sacrifice?
The intrinsic value of sacrifices is explained by the recursive account of value: sacrifices are intrinsically good if and because they are appropriate responses to intrinsic values, and appropriate responses to intrinsic values are themselves intrinsically good.Numerology 12 Meaning: Spiritual Significance Of 12
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Answer 2
Not sure why the writers have chosen the number twelve but from the universe, it'll turns out that those events (except for breaking the sire bond, but it was an Expression magic too, so the same rules applied) (SPOILERS) were orchestrated by Atticus Shane to complete The Expression Triangle and it had to be 3 massacres sacrificing 12 person in each and he made sure that 12 humans/hybrids/witches were sacrificed in each massacre.
- An Expression Triangle is the combination of three brutal massacres that happen at separate equidistant locations. These massacres mark the Earth with power and can be used as focus points for witches who practice Expression.
and from here
Unbeknownst to Bonnie, she was drawing on the power of two separate sacrifices of twelve that were orchestrated by Shane behind the scenes in her practice of Expression magic; the first was a sacrifice of the twelve humans who were blown up in the explosion at Pastor Young's ranch, and the other was a sacrifice of twelve unsired hybrids
...managed to manipulate Bonnie to help him complete the Expression Triangle by killing twelve witches
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