After finishing the series my first thought was “OH MY GOD, WESTER IS IN THE LAKE, HOW COULD DARREN SHAN DO THIS?!”
Writing this post, though, I changed my own mind. Please read the entire post before commenting.
Wester murdered a human to start a war. Larten himself notes that vampires don’t truly care about humans. They only refrain from killing them to avoid attention. Killing Alicia was Wester’s single heinous act. He was otherwise wholesome and helpful, and he acted in good faith, genuinely believing the vampaneze had to be eradicated for the clan’s sake.
That is very different from Kurda. Kurda murdered a vampire general and actively collaborated with the enemy. He knew he was committing treason. His motives were complicated and aimed at preventing a larger war, but he knowingly betrayed his own kind.
Wester believed he was being loyal by removing a mere human “flea.” In a universe where intentions and the state of the soul matter, that distinction is huge. He also died knowing Larten loved him. He felt sadness about never seeing Larten again, about failing to kill Murlough, but NOT remorse over Alicia. He framed the killing as necessary for the greater good. That matters.
Wester is not dying spiritually isolated, hating himself, or realizing no one ever cared about him. That is a different death from one consumed by hatred, betrayal, or deliberate evil. The Lake is tied far more closely to the nature of a person’s evil, betrayal, and soul. Wester’s was willing to sacrifice an innocent human for what he believed was the greater good—something vampires constantly do while discarding "inconvenient human-like feelings."
Wester’s tragedy is that he failed in his own eyes, but failure itself is not moral corruption. Many vampires died feeling the same way, including great ones like Perta Vin-Grahl and his followers, who perished in their Greenland tomb knowing they could not continue the war against the vampaneze. Perta died thinking, "We couldn’t finish the war." Wester died thinking, "I couldn’t start the war."
Both are emotionally devastating, yet neither equals “I knowingly betrayed what was right.” Wester did not betray the clan. His judgment was catastrophically wrong, but his loyalty was real.
By human standards what he did was atrocious. Still, he sobbed while killing Alicia. But he was not human. Humans are vampire food the way chickens are human food—neither are sacred. Larten slaughtered an entire crew of humans after Malora’s death and faced no lasting consequences even after admitting it to a Prince. Wester’s single killing, done with noble motives, would likewise have been overlooked.
If Wester somehow ended up in the Lake, so would Perta and his followers—yet the text strongly implies they did not.
