A black-haired Italian vampire, he is the leader of the satanic coven in Rome when Marius lived in Venice. He was born to Darkness in the mid-1300's during the reign of the Black Death, and his vision for vampires is that they be a "vexation without explanation", which causes mortals to doubt God. Santino helps to form the Great Laws and see that they are carried out. He leads the attack on what they view as the heretic Marius, whom they are trying to destroy because he lives among mortals. Although the attack fails, it drives Marius from Venice and results in Armand's apprenticeship into the coven. Later Armand hears that Santino went mad and abandoned the coven, which subsequently dissolved in chaos. And when Lestat and Gabrielle meet the members of another Roman coven, there is no evidence of Santino.

Santino shows up again in QD. Ironically, he accompanies Pandora to rescue Marius, the vampire he had once tried to destroy.

The Vampire Companion ~ Katherine Ramsland

The Great Laws

That each coven must have it's leader and only he might order the working of the Dark Trick upon a mortal, seeing that the methods and the rituals were properly observed.

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That the Dark Gift must never be given to the cripled, the maimed, or to children, or to those who cannot, even with the Dark Powers, survive on their own. Be it further understood that all mortals who would receive the Dark Gifts should be beautiful in person so that the insult to God might be greater when the Dark Gift is done.

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That never should an old vampire work this magic lest the blood of the fledgling be too strong. For all our gifts increase naturally with age, and the old ones have too much strength to pass on. Injury, burning - these catastrophes, if they do not destroy the Child of Satan, will only increase his powers when he is healed. Yet Satan guards the flock from the powers of the old ones, for almost all, without exception, go mad.

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That no vampire may ever destroy another vampire, except that the coven master has the power of life and death over all his flock. And it is, further, his obligation to lead the old ones and the mad ones into the fire when they can no longer serve Satan as they should. It is his obligation to destroy those who are not properly made. It is his obligation to destroy those who are so badly wounded that they cannot survive on their own. And it is his obligation finally to seek the destruction of all outcasts and all who have broken the laws.

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That no vampire shall ever reveal his true nature to a mortal and allow that mortal to live. No vampire must ever reveal the history of the vampires to a mortal and let the mortal live. No vampire must commit to writing the history of the vampires lest such a history be found by mortals and believed. And a vampire's name must never be known to mortals, save from his tombstone, and never must any vampire reveal to mortals the location of his or any other vampire's lair.

The Vampire Lestat ~ Anne Rice