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| “ | She who was loved and fell will rise again; The hand that held her heart will prove her bane The Three warriors bravely together in war; By oath they were bound to the Sixty-And-Four. Appa Vie, the light of morning; Apa Moarta, the final forewarning; Joined at his tomb to bring the Dragon to life, So that he may put an end to His Bitch Of A Wife. |
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| ~ Anastasia reading a text for how to defeat Mara |
Queen Mara is a arc-villain of the M.M.O. - The Secret World, main antagonist of the games' shift to Transylvania in it's Mortal Sins issue. Mara is the one organizing the Issue's Vampire Crusades, which has seen vampires from all of Europa and parts of Asia all assemble for one massive campaign to siege Transylvania. The truth behind the campaign is a mystery through-out the Issue at first. As the head of the campaign, eventually makes her appearance, and when she does, the crusade begins to become much more defined.
She was voiced by Laura Aikman.
The Vampire Crusades[]
The Secret Societies and player factions The Templars, Illuminati and The Dragon receive word of a major secret war in Transylvania from their overseers in the Council of Venice - the supervisor of the treaties between them. Vampires have gathered from all across Europe and Western-Asia to lay siege to the tiny region. The relatively small group of farming communities, forests and mountain ranges is of little to no tactical value and virtually non-existent political importance, so the reason for the massive sustained vampire raid is a mystery at first. Previous story-arcs and interests of the factions will all bring them to the region - The Templars will have tracked down a child-witch/mutant hunting sub-division of the Orochi Group and wish to avenge if not save the children being herded there, that aside the Templars have a strong legacy in Transylvania as the famous Vlad Dracula was one of theirs, though, even by their standards a fanatic. The Illuminati have been hunting Orochi since the start of the game with the player becoming more and more interictal to the investigation, spy-work will reveal Orochi has a massive cover-up operation in Transylvania and the higher ups wants Orochi's secrets, that aside the Council of Venice are powerful friends and allies and with them concerned about the secret war in the region, the Illuminati earn some major political favors by putting down the Vampire Crusades and use it as a cover for rummaging through Orochi's secrets in the area under the cover of peace-keeping and with a war to blame for any missing assets. The Dragon have been hearing about the conflict for some time, but recently the head of their order proclaimed a strange message to them "Emma Misses Her Teddy", with the mysterious child-monk's words deemed vital to the Dragon's cult, they move quickly to uncover it's meaning in relation to Transylvania, dealing with the Vampire Crusade as it interferes with their investigation.
The Besieged Farmlands area is the residential area, farms villages and old Cold-War era factories and facilities all being raided. The Vampire Crusade has a very specific infrastructure - Ghouls do the lowly farmland raids, werewolves inhabit the forests and non-suburban areas and thousands of vampires raid the wreckages of the cities left over. Yet still there is more - Old Vampires from about a century ago have risen, some dark necromancers, some Soviet Union officers long since converted into vampirism have risen from their graves and joined the crusades, while they are higher ranking lieutenants of the army, they are not the organizers and answer to higher forces still. There are the Deathless - former monks, now as immortal undead liches - Deathless are truly persistent, even if killed they will rise again inside a day and have been part of a curse on the land since the days of Vlad Dracula but they do not appear to be the organizers either, merely very powerful undead that the Vampire Crusaders are trying to free in order to have them as elite soldiers. Deep passed the Shadowy Forest in the Transylvanian mountain range are the remnants of the Red Hand, a former Soviet Super-Science secret society. The Red Hand logo is on many secret parts of Transylvania and the Vampire Crusaders are raiding every piece of it they can get their hands on. Massive super-soldier vampires roam from broken open Red Hand bases to join the Vampire Crusade. The Red Hand vampires seem to be the organizers at first, but in-fact they are merely the honor guard of the true overseer of the Vampire Crusades as finally encountered in the Carpathian Fangs - Mara - Queen of the Vampires.
The Vampire Crusades are said to be a sort of Vampire Holy-Quest to claim Transylvania - the vaunted home of Dracula himself as the Vampire Mecca. This may be an excuse, or a bit of myth among the lower ranking vampires, for in truth Mara has no interest in the region as a kingdom; In-fact the truth is Mara in no way wants to keep Dracula's legacy alive as anything but a farce.
Previous Life[]
Mara was originally the wife of the famous Vlad the Impaler of the House of the Dragon "Dracula". The Romani of the area the Draculesti are in-fact the true descendants of Vlad Dracula and his order, and Mara's Vampire Crusade merely a twisted farce sold on years of folklore brought on by Bram Stoker. Outside of the famous novel, Dracula was in-fact a vampire hunter, not a vampire. However his wife Mara had become tainted with vampirism and was to be used to tempt and then convert him for her "mother" Lilith. Lilith had turned Mara with intention to use her as bait for Dracula and once he was a vampire as well to rule Transylvania as a secret vampire nation state. The Deathless left in the region are actually the remains of an army Lilith had specifically crafted to act as Dracula's super-soldiers, though things did not go as planned. Mara waited for Vlad to lure him to her side. However Vlad saw through the trap, he had hunted vampires for years and saw that his wife had been turned. Lilith and Mara were still counting on Vlad being too overwhelmed with emotion to refuse her dark embrace, however in this too they had underestimated him, Vlad Dracula firmly hated vampires he viewed them as demons and saw the creature in front of him as less his wife than a fiend wearing her face, and tried to murder her. Mara fled to the Deathless monastery, though they had been intended as an army they were revamped as a sanctuary for Mara. Lilith had seen the plan go awry and abandoned the Deathless and told Mara to flee as well. Vlad and his Draculesti slew all the Deathless but soon found the truth in their names. Their monasteries were sealed by his friend and Lilith's sister Cucuvea - a local witch. Cucuvea saw to it that though the Deathless were unable to die, she would ensure they were unable to leave either. In the carnage it was assumed that Mara died, but she had not, she fled, and Vlad knew deep down she would return. Vlad asked Cucuvea to use him to make sure Mara would never trouble his people again, and to keep his spirit alive after his death. Cucuvea preformed a rite to do just that, though Vlad Dracula would die, on the day his wife returned Cucuvea would assemble the components for his spirit to temporally take on living form to slay his wife, or rather free his wife from the creature she had become.
Re-Emergence[]
Mara had gone into hiding, she was terrified of Vlad finding her, and even after his death, she still knew how fanatic his vampire-hunting Draculesti clan of Romani were, so she stayed quiet and far. Things would change in 1960s. The Red Hand were shifting their secret-world focus to vampires, wishing to repurpose them as super-soldiers, or rather use them as the outline for a super-soldier program. The Red Hand hunted down Mara and sent her powerful Red Hand trained necromancers as diplomats to strike an accord - Mara sucked the necromancers dry and pinned messages to their corpses saying she would gladly help and sent the Red Hand numerous vampires she had made. It is unclear what the Red Hand promised Mara, but whatever it was, she was not interested, what she was interested in was the research itself. Mara sent the vampires not merely as guinea-pigs for the Red Hand but as spies and conversion agents. It took years of wearing at Red Hand security but eventually the conversions were made and Mara had bunkers full of Red Hand newly vampirized scientists with access to the Soviet Union's cutting edge secret-world experiments. The largest and most cutting-edge Soviet vampire super-soldier-bunker was called Facility 10 or "The Slaughterhouse" as a colloquialism for the horrific experiments taking place inside even long before conversion. The Super-Soldier vampires seen in increased in number in the region are the result of the Slaughterhouse, some normal vampires mutated to massive war-hulks, some normal soviet soldiers enhanced with vampire D.N.A. and the various gene-splitting it and they were subjected to. The war-hulks were going mad - killing Soviet handlers, so that when Mara finally had enough sleeper agents inside the base to subvert it and open the gates to allow her in, it was practically a kindness of Mara's to dominate them thus giving them peace-of-mind. The Slaughterhouse was opened again in 2012 - decades after being sealed and condemned by Russia and Romania as an old Soviet Era research program gone wrong. It was in 2012 that Mara was contacted by a benefactor telling her to secure the region - her creator and new mother Lilith.
Due to an incident in Tokyo, rifts had begun forming all over the world in areas of major mystical nexus points, one beneath the mountains Transylvania. Lilith had tried an Age ago to seize control of the Eldritch entities upon which reality is built on - The Dreamers, but the temperamental experiment to seize them had exploded in Lilith's face and ended The Age, the world reset, as it does whenever reality is imperiled and the Dreamers went back to sleep. The devices that keep the Dreamers asleep and focuses the laws of physics upon which reality functions, are called Gaea Engines, most are lost or untouchable, but the starting of the incident in Tokyo - organized by a cult to the Dreamers, has left a select few Gaea Engines exposed. Of the Gaea Engines exposed Lilith has only found one with a compromised operating system the one beneath the mountains of Transylvania. Mara's Vampire Crusade is naught but a cover, a distraction and perimeter securement of the Carpathian Fang's Gaea Engine. Lilith wants the engine to undo the damage in Tokyo and perhaps try to use it to sap the power of The Dreamers, thus has Mara and her Vampire Crusade been incited. The Gaea Engine is also reaching out to certain individuals with a connection to the planet - a new breed of witches and psychics - those the Orochi-Group was gathering that had bought the Templars to the region, the secure facilities of which the Illuminati had compromised and with one little girl in particular a prime candidate for accessing the Gaea Engine - Emma, who is missing her Teddy Bear, as the Dragon had found. Thus Mara's Crusade does not merely need to be stopped for regional stability, but is the source/cover for the real reasons that bought each of the factions to Transylvania in the first place.
Encounter[]
Mara is finally met in the Carpathian Fangs she is securing the region with her Red Hand elite-vampire-super-soldiers. Mara does not seem to know the significance of the girl Emma and is only receiving carefully worded missives from Lilith, but mostly organizing her own kingdom separate from Lilith's directives, to the point where she is surprised to hear her "mother" is in the area. Following Cucuvea's rite and history and context from the Draculesti - the Players will need to perform the rite to revive Dracula before they can even get to Mara. The final piece of rite is held by Callisto - a knight of Vlad Dracula and former lover of Mara turned vampire. Callisto was meant to help convert Dracula or strike at him if he refused as Mara's personal love-slave bodyguard, however seeing his lord unwilling to bend ignited his sense of nobility and he resisted Mara's sway to side with Vlad instead. Vlad condemned him as a traitor but spared his life for trying to fight Mara, as a result Callisto was assigned the final piece of the rite to restore Vlad Dracula after death. Callisto, in what he sees as a vain attempt to make amends, not only helps complete the rite, but shows the Players where Mara is hiding and helps break them in. Mara is sickened to see her old love-slave leading her enemies to her lair, but simply resigned to torture Callisto later once she deals with the Players. The Players will have completed the rite for Vlad Dracula's revival but must still fight Mara to the point of death, assured Dracula will merely be there at the end to make sure Mara does not come back. Mara is surrounded by numerous people she has gathered to feed on, but with her under-attack instantly converts them to slavering vampires under her direct control. Dealing with the vampires Mara will then turn to dealing more directly with her foes. The chamber Mara is encountered in has several pillars, while the Player can hide from Mara's blood rights behind a pillar, if they stay there Mara will hone in on them and psionically destroy it, as there are only so many pillars the battle is about rationing when it is needed to hide and about keeping as much cover as possible for her on-going psionics and blood-rites. With Mara on the edge of death, the rite will go off and Vlad Dracula's spirit will appear and be made physical. With the light of his spirit presented upon Mara's weakened vampiric powers the projection will purify Mara and she will become human again. Mara, restored to her human state is confused and is not fully aware of what has happened since she'd been converted to a vampire, viewing it as a nightmare of some-kind. Vlad assures her it was a nightmare, but it's over now and to simply get some rest, as Mara closes her eyes, Vladimir holds her close and then stabs her through the chest, ending her vampiric curse for good. Mara dies and Vladimir fades as well, their fading energies merging with each other as they fade into the afterlife.
Powers and Abilities[]
Mara's very presence places all vampires in a pacified submissive state when around her, the otherwise uncontrollable feral Red Hand vampire-super-soldiers become obedient minions looking to serve her. Even Callisto feels compelled to serve her, though refuses by alienating his vampiric nature, yet he still cannot bring himself to actually harm her. The vampire Hasdatean is a late Romanian general and is not even slightly swayed by Mara, Hasdatean is disgusted by the newer generation of vampires that he sees as little more than barbarians, and so the idea of joining them is so alien that he cannot even conceive of joining the Crusade - whether this is because Hasdatean's patriotism is too core to him be overshadowed by Mara's will, or simply a range issue as Mara never set foot near Hasdatean is unknown. Mara has potent Blood-Magic, something Players may practice - which involves using one's own blood to complete a magical circuit that can do many things such as disrupt life-fields, restore wounds or transmute the blood itself into crimson-fields-of-force. Humans bathed in Mara's blood can be instantly transformed into vampire thralls, not only undead but with no innate wills of their own and functioning as ravenous puppet-life-forms. Mara can project massive psychic blasts one-part telekinesis and one part telepathic pain simulant ray. Mara has a more mundane resource she uses to great effect, fame - she is the wife of the famous Vlad Dracula and has used Bram Stoker's famed story to engineer a place for herself in popular vampire mythology.
It is said Alpha Vampires - first generation vampires, created by Lilith, are much more powerful than later generations - something some of the older vampires resent about Mara, as she is not one of the oldest vampires, but was made straight from the source and thus more powerful than vampires hundreds of years older. Alpha Vampires are not hurt enough by the sun to need cover or to hide from it and Mara strolls around in the sunlight without coverings of any kind. Alpha vampires have an ability to sense others of their kind and can mildly influence them, although even in this regard, Mara is gifted and she not only can sense other vampires but subconsciously call them to her. Like all vampires, Mara can convert others to vampirism by inviting them to drink of her blood - as vampirism is essentially a virus created by Lilith, with herself as patient-zero and all following vampires acting as carriers. Being an Alpha vampire has one major draw-back though - they have little to no independent will, and are merely puppets of Lilith. Lesser vampires have independent goals and may preserve their personalities from when they were human. Though all vampires eventually give into their appetites, some only feed on willing humans or resist the allure of human blood to feed on animals. Those of darker inclinations do not even try to resist their hunger - willingly feed on human blood with no consent and become rabid murderers; However Alphas do not have such choices, their old personalities are completely over-shadowed and they cannot even fall into the oblivion of feral madness, they become nefarious sadists - only achieving identity in the methodically applied pain of others and acting on the whims of their "Mother" - Lilith.
Personality[]
In most of her encounters Mara is domineering and sadistic. She kills as second nature, paying no mind to the loss of life. She kills the Red Hand diplomats casually despite agreeing to the terms, she has live humans bought in to feast on and then turns the terrified masses into kill-crazy vampires without a second thought, and she thinks nothing of killing her husband the second he decides to oppose her instead of joining her. The bits of info connecting Mara and Lilith imply that while Mara is gladly serving the will of Lilith she has little to no direct contact with her, meaning either Mara is working on subconscious inklings from her "mother" or she is a full on thrall of Lilith merely following hypnotic commands. Mara is very theatrical, she is fond of bombastic over-the-top-carnage as a declaration of her presence. Callisto says she was quite fond of Greek myths and named him "Callisto" upon his rebirth as a vampire, as she was a student of ancient Greek stories, he then notes that "Callisto" is actually a female name, and points out that he never said she was a good student. The vampire nature of Mara is heavily weighing on her psyche' and if any of this was even remotely tied to Mara's human-personality it is merely a perversion of what came before. Restored to her faculties though, Mara is a very demure loving wife unable to process the level of evil she was being made to carry out and turning to her husband as her lord and guiding light. With the implication that the lights emerging from Mara and Vlad are their souls, Mara finds redemption in death, if not in life.
Trivia[]
- Vlad The Impaler's first wife is unknown, her name is lost to history.
- Folklore says that Vlad The Impaler killed his first wife, but there are no actual credible sources for this - as The Secret World builds out of both history and folklore from the real-world (sometimes with myth more accurate than history) Mara fits nicely into the game's themes of playing with history.
- Lilith shows little to no concern for Mara's well being, and indeed is far more invested in the Gaea Engine and Emma. Lilith loves the idea of her children, but does not specifically care about individual ones like Mara - likely due to her having given birth to literally millions over the Ages.
- Lilith is alluded to through-out the Mortal Sins arc but mainly as a figure of folklore and her true nature is left ambiguous while Mara takes center-stage; However Lilith shows up in-person in the post-Mortal-Sins issue 7 - A Dream to Kill.
- As the humans being fed on in Mara's chamber turn to thrall vampires immediately, this would mean either initially Callisto had no free-will and Mara allowed him autonomy but once given it cannot be revoked, or Mara's presence is so overwhelming it dominates only new vampires still adjusting to the change.
- According to the game's bestiary lore Vampires are fully sentient and most of their previous personalities as humans are preserved with the transformation, save their new need for blood and the corruption that occurs to all non-Alphas, is merely the natural psychological reaction of trying to justify their new need for living blood.
- According to one ancient vampire holding-down Dracula's castle, the older vampires are resentful of Mara and make fun of her for being overly theatrical and simply follow her because they are out-numbered by the younger generation of vampires who are completely enamored with the so-called "Wife of Dracula". The older-vampires are, however, terrified of Lilith, specifically letting her down.
Gallery[]
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