Mavra is a Black Court vampire and a sorceress. She first appears in Grave Peril.
Description[]
Mavra the Hamlet look-alike.
One of the oldest members of the Court, Mavra is as skilled in the use of magic as a wizard of the White Council.[3] Able to form herself out of mist,[2] she is very good with veils.[1] She also can communicate with subordinate vampires in her scourge telepathically, including speaking through them.[4]
Biography[]
Mavra claims that about twenty years prior to Grave Peril, Michael Carpenter killed her children and grandchildren. He replies that they had killed about three dozen people within a month. He also calls her "Blood of the Dragon, that old Serpent", implying that she is the spawn of Vlad Drakul.[1][Footnote 1]
Following the publication of Bram Stoker's[Footnote 2] "Dracula",[Footnote 3] implied as to be written by the White Court as a how-to manual for exterminating Black Court vampires,[5] the majority of the Black Court was wiped out, resulting in the remaining vampires being only the smartest and most dangerous.[6]
In the series[]
Grave Peril[]
- Main article: Grave Peril
Harry Dresden describes Mavra, using his sight, as a Hamlet look-alike, with slim hips and breast wearing a sable doublet that made her look androgynous. Her skin was pallid, translucent, almost grayish, lips were blue-tinged. Her eyes have no color but have a blue-gray filmy coating like cataracts.[1]
In Grave Peril, while Dresden, Susan Rodriguez and Michael Carpenter were trying to leave Bianca St. Claire's ball, Dresden sensed someone in their way on the stairs leading out. He Saw Mavra through her powerful veil. She boasted that few could see her when she didn't wish to be seen. Mavra threatened to call a duel if Dresden and his friends didn't exchange names and chat with her.[1] Later, she was handed Amoracchius which she attempted to use to behead Lydia, shedding the blood of an innocent to unmake the Sword.[7]
Blood Rites[]
- Main article: Blood Rites
Mavra and her darkhounds.
In Blood Rites, she sent a vampire to ambush Dresden.[8] Dresden sent Bob to scout out her location.[9] Bob reported that she had taken over a shelter, making thralls of the staff and enforcing the place with Renfields and darkhounds. Dresden gathered friends and associates—Karrin Murphy,[10] Jared Kincaid,[11] and Ebenezar McCoy[5]—to take out her nest. They rescued some children, Dresden's hand got burned by Mavra's crew, and it was assumed she died.[12]
Dead Beat[]
- Main article: Dead Beat
Mavra blackmailing Harry.
In Dead Beat, she looks like a withered corpse, emaciated and dried. Dead skin flaked off her face by the mouth and she had yellow teeth. Her was hair like dried straw and broken off to a few inches in length with a few longer strands that were the color of bread mold. Mavra wore a medieval-style green gown with a black kirtle[Footnote 4] made of modern cotton. She bore old, worn-looking weapons: a sword and a dagger. She moved like a spider. Her laugh had no warmth, humanity or kindness to it.[2]
Mavra resurfaced to blackmail Harry Dresden into locating and giving her The Word of Kemmler in return for not releasing photographs of Karrin Murphy shooting one of Mavra's human servants with a shotgun.[2] When Dresden handed over the book at their meeting place in Graceland Cemetery, he threatened Mavra by saying that if the photographs were ever released, or if she ever threatened the lives of his friends or loved ones again to coerce him, he would pick up every single magic item and source of power available to him and hunt her down.[13]
Battle Ground[]
- Main article: Battle Ground
In Battle Ground, Mavra reappeared in a cabal of vampire necromancers attempting to raise an undead army which could single-handedly shift the course of the battle. They were led by Drakul. During a fight with a group of Wardens, Mavra failed to take revenge on Harry Dresden, but escaped with the corpses of 2 Wardens to turn into vampires. She claimed that they didn't care about Ethniu's plans, only wanting new recruits "for the stars and stones." During the battle in the cemetery, Toot-Toot shoved a packet of PizzaSpress garlic into a wound he made in her body, and it erupted in blue white light, badly damaging her, and forcing her to release Harry Dresden.[14]
Notes[]
- ↑ Vlad Drakul - wikipedia
- ↑ Bram Stoker - wikipedia
- ↑ Dracula - wikipedia
- ↑ kirtle - fashionsintime
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Grave Peril, ch. 28
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Dead Beat, ch. 2
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 23
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 17
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Blood Rites, ch. 27
- ↑ Grave Peril, ch. 24 and 28
- ↑ Grave Peril, ch. 29
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 1
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 5 and 27
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 6
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 10
- ↑ Blood Rites, ch. 31–33
- ↑ Dead Beat, ch. 43
- ↑ Battle Ground, ch. 12