“Old Ways” is a euphemism used to describe the behavior of the Children of Darkness (or the Children of Satan) for more than five hundred years. The covens obey the five Great Laws, which deny luxury and excessive blood drinking—actions which Lestat fearlessly embraces. The Old Ways also enforce vampires’ avoidance of the blood of innocent people and demand they drink only the blood of immoral or infirm individuals. The last vestiges of the Old Ways are destroyed by Lestat in the eighteenth century when he convinces Armand, the coven master of the Children of Darkness, that his Old Ways are superannuated behaviors in the time of modern advancements in science and philosophy. Later, in the twentieth century, Armand often reflects on how he once followed the Old Ways.
The Old Ways are referenced in The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), and The Vampire Armand (1998). For more perspectives on the idiom, read the Alphabettery entries Armand, The Children of Darkness, Great Laws, and Lestat de Lioncourt.