Carmilla (カーミラ Kāmira) is the second main antagonist in the Castlevania animated series. She is the vampiress Queen of Styria, as well as the leader of the Council of Sisters. She is a scheming and manipulative noblewoman, and former ally and general of Lord Dracula, who sought to usurp control over the vampires from him and raise them as the world's new dominant species.
She was voiced by Jaime Murray in the English version of the show.
Background[]
Carmilla was a former general of Dracula's army. She was the last vampire general to arrive at Dracula's Castle, although this being due to having had her own hidden agenda. It was soon revealed that she was not pleased with Dracula's plans of mankind's extinction, mainly because this would leave the entire vampire population without a stable sustenance of blood.
She was turned into a vampire centuries ago by an unknown Vampire Lord, whom she later killed, claiming that he was "old and cruel" to those around him.
General in Dracula's army[]
Carmilla arrives late to Dracula's war council, announcing that the demon forces were defeated in the city of Gresit, and openly defies Dracula by asking why he didn't turn his wife Lisa into a vampire, which would have kept her away from the fanatical Church officials who burned her at the stake, thoroughly unable to fathom that he could genuinely love her instead of using her as a sex slave. This greatly angered Dracula and shocked the other vampire generals; however, such a reaction was exactly what she wanted. Dracula orders her to meet with him at the fireplace. Calmly, Dracula notes her rather dramatic entrance and questions her. First and foremost, he wanted to know why Godbrand communicated with her, to which she believed stemmed from a desire to have sex with her. To which he asked if she intended to, and she said it would only be possible if all of the other vampire males dropped dead, plus half of the females and some animals. While Dracula became mildly amused by this, he then questioned what advantages his anger bought her. Carmilla said that none of it was meant to cause offense and simply something obvious she bravely asked.
The vampire nobles keep infighting, furious that Dracula trusted two human Forgemasters, Hector and Isaac, more than them, and worried that his goal of total genocide of the human race would leave them unable to feed and doomed to extinction in turn.
Upon learning that Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades and Dracula's son, Alucard, had teamed up to destroy Dracula, Carmilla freaks out, knowing how powerful they are and insists on taking them out immediately, but the others do not listen. She becomes increasingly frustrated with the babbling Godbrand, who only thinks she wants to talk to him about sleeping together. Eventually, she knocks him down and states that Dracula is turning into a sad, old man like her previous master.
Betraying Dracula[]
Dracula orders Carmilla to work with Hector and Isaac, and she takes advantage of it to talk the indecisive Hector into attacking the Belmont Estate and to attack the city of Braila –which was not yet on Dracula's list– with the monsters he forged, planting doubt in his mind about Dracula's sanity.
As the vampires are slaughtering everyone in Braila, Carmilla makes her move. She raises the fanatical Bishop as an undead to make him bless the water of the Danube River and uses her army of vampires to ambush Dracula's forces and make them fall into the now holy water, destroying them. Right after this, she drags Hector with her and launches her troops to attack Dracula's Castle.
Right as Dracula is about to destroy Carmilla and her forces by himself, Sypha casts a spell to teleport the castle, displacing the blessed water which ends up destroying all of Carmilla's armies, with herself and Hector only barely escaping.
Finally, after Dracula is destroyed by the heroes, Hector has had enough of Carmilla and tries to get away, calling her twisted, but she viciously beats him to a pulp and sadistically punches him 22 times taking great pleasure in the act. Her guards chains him, declaring that he is now her slave and forcing him to forge an army of demons to restore her forces.
Return to Styria and the Council of Sisters[]
It takes 30 days of marching with her decimated forces to reach Styria, by which time had made them vulnerable to both uncontrolled human and vampire aggression. Their horses were taken and Carmilla arrived at her castle and Council of Sisters angry, dirty and tired. After verbally detailing her difficult road back home, her friends Striga, Morana and Lenore welcomed their agitated ruling member with open arms, much to Carmilla's happiness. She spent the first day back at the castle soaked in a bath and calming down. Although it did not take long before Carmilla's ambitions began to intrigue an idea. She had her cartographer draw up a map of Europe, which she soon presented to her sisters. The destruction caused by Dracula had reduced the power structures in all of Eastern Europe, from their region to Braila. Before this, the four had tried to rule Styria under the radar and knew that the western countries were too powerful to contend with. Now, with humans scattered and in complete disarray and vampire kingdoms fractured in the East, Carmilla sought to enclose the 800-mile territory and trap all the humans there. That would significantly increase their borders and provide sustainable livestock that would feed them for centuries. The others understandably pointed out the flaws of enacting such a vast plan, especially now that their heavily reduced forces. Though as always, the sisters would try together to make it work. Striga would oversee the military, Morana would organize the effort, Carmilla would keep planning and scheming, while Lenore was left with convincing their beaten prisoner to create a night creature army.
While Striga and Morana presented their conquest plans to Carmilla, she started bickering with the two that her original plan was failed. A reluctant Striga stated that Carmilla's idea lacked any clarity or reason, and yet Morana made it work. Carmilla denied permission that her plan was holed, though, and bickered with the other to admit that any other than her were a genius. Just then, Lenore entered and prayed the sisters to stop meddling and accept that they were all brilliant. Much to everyone's surprise, Lenore had not only managed to make Hector her slave but also bound him with a magical ring that forced his loyal night creatures to serve them. If he tried any form of disobedience, the ring would inflict extreme pain. A dazed Carmilla then fittingly said: "Bloody hell". The compromise was that Hector would get to roam freely around the castle and live comfortably, to which Carmilla first denied. Yet after Lenore's disposition, Carmilla reluctantly agreed and pushed the youngest sister away after she lamented how she had got the ring on Hector, much to their discomfort.
Two weeks later, Carmilla had kept more to herself than ever while Morana and Striga led a war campaign and tried to get an overview of possible targets, and Lenore had little to nothing to do. The long time Carmilla kept in her private studies came at a consequence, as Carmilla's once fairly sane plan had grown. No longer was she planning to stop at Braila, but she became infatuated with the whole world. Carmilla also became impatient with Hector's delaying process of creating his forging hammer. Coupled with a continuously less tolerant demeanor, Carmilla began to change. Lenore tried to uncover Carmilla's true motives, which quickly angered her. Once Lenore asked her sister if she would be satisfied at any point, Carmilla simply retorted with the memories of how stupid old men had taken things from her for half her life. Therefore, she sought revenge and an imperialistic desire to have everything in the world and every stupid old man to be dead. Now Carmilla was beginning to turn into the very thing she hated herself, and her plan was not too unlike that of Dracula. It also became apparent that Carmilla initially lied to Lenore about the whole livestock plan, as it was never her true plan. The last thing Carmilla would say to her sister would be that only everything in the whole world would be enough, to which maybe she could be content with.
Final stand[]
Soon, Isaac opened a rift in the sky with his large transportation mirror and began his long-awaited assault on Styria. Carmilla, who was studying the maps, was suddenly ambushed by dozens of night creatures. The ongoing onslaught caused Carmilla to go completely mental and unleash all of her pent-up rage on her attackers in brutal fashion - her scleras turning red. Cutting through a seemingly everlasting line of night creatures, the vicious vampire queen clawed, kicked, and sliced savagely until she eventually began to tire. The entire room was covered in blood and severed limbs, her blade dripping red, her dress wrinkled and sweaty, and her hair hanging loose. She fell to one knee and staggered to her feet again with her sword. With the help of Hector's traveling runes, Isaac entered the room, where a force field had been erected around preventing Carmilla's escape; the two then briefly talked. Knowing that she could never defeat Isaac and his hordes, Carmilla offered him to kill Hector instead for revenge for Dracula's death. To her surprise, the cold Forgemaster had already chosen to spare him, and she realized that they combined efforts to kill her. First, she questioned Isaac if he had really come all this way simply to end her life. While Isaac was reluctantly more philosophical and with a rare display of emotion, he did believe Carmilla's death would ultimately be for the better.
The two then wasted no time and engaged in a final confrontation. Though Carmilla proved she still had one fight left in her, she was eventually overwhelmed once Isaac was joined by his best night creatures. One cut her dress and sliced her entire back, another her lower back and a third her neck. After wrestling in a brief strength contest, Isaac (with the aid of Abel) cut into her sword and soon stabbed her left thigh. The two dueled some more; however, Isaac used his trusty night creature as a distraction to cut deep into the side of Carmilla's abdomen. This final hit proved too much for Carmilla, and she stepped back, exhausted and beaten. Bleeding from several injuries, clothes in tatters, Carmilla still refused to surrender. Knowing her end was near, she began to berate her murderers for their unworthiness, undeserving of her blood. She promised to wait in Hell to kill all of them twice. She proclaimed her rightful position as "Carmilla of Styria" and then cursed at all of them. Denying Isaac the satisfaction of killing her, Carmilla poised her blade above her chest and decided to rather commit suicide than to be killed by a man, seeing how she had tried to rise above them all her life. A single blood-filled tear ran down her cheek as she said that she wins. The moment the blade pierced the skin, Carmilla's body began to explode, and as it cut through her heart, the vampiress disintegrated and exploded the whole room. In the end, Carmilla went out on her own terms but fell to the consequences of her overly ambitious, greedy nature.
Appearance[]
Carmilla bears the appearance of an elegant and majestic pale woman with crimson red lips, icy blue eyes, and long straight white hair. Although her face is mostly round, she has a notoriously pointy chin, which could likely be a reference to her mask initially seen in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. She is also seen wearing a black and crimson red ombre dress, sporting golden shoulder plates and matching heels. While in Styria, Carmilla always dons several long, elegant blood-red dresses with golden accessories and heels. Her nightgown had an open cleavage with a single button below the chest and golden, rounded shoulder pads.
Personality[]
- "Lenore: She's the spark. We see the present. She draws down the future. We're the body, and she's the dream. Hector: She's the nightmare."
- — Lenore and Hector describing Carmilla in "Investigators"
Carmilla is portrayed as a femme fatale, both seductive and manipulative. She is also selfish and will do anything to accomplish her goals. She proved very politically skilled as she was able to twist the affairs of Dracula's council on itself to even questioning him while maintaining the appearance that she was loyal. While cunning and cautious, Carmilla tends to be arrogant and overconfident. Despite Dracula's great personal power and his army of demons, she believed she could overthrow him by simply killing his vampire generals and attacking him directly. Given the extent of Dracula's power revealed later on in his confrontation with Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard, this was highly unlikely to succeed. Nonetheless, Carmilla is both persistent and opportunistic, and even though her attempted usurpation against Dracula failed and most of her forces were destroyed, she did not admit defeat, only viewing it as a setback. With Dracula dead at the hands of Alucard, Trevor Belmont, and Sypha Belnades, Carmilla aimed to fill the power vacuum in the wake of Dracula's death and that of his council, even taking a former General in Dracula's army as her personal pet and slave.
