Carmilla (Lords of Shadow)

is an antagonist in the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow saga. Regarded as the Queen of the Vampires, she is the second Lord of Shadow Gabriel Belmont encounters and defeats. She returns in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 once again and tries to prevent Gabriel from leaving the castle.
==History==
===Early life===
It is suggested that Carmilla had originally lived in or near the Bernhard Family's castle when it was owned by Friedrich von Frankenstein. She vowed to bring him to justice for the evil experiments that he committed.
Along with Zobek and Cornell, she founded the Brotherhood of Light and imprisoned a powerful demon, the Forgotten One, which escaped the Bernhards' control. After decades of struggle against the forces of evil, Carmilla ascended to Heaven and became a spiritual being second only to God, unaware that her physical remains gave rise to the Dark Queen of Vampires.
When she became a vampire, most of the Bernhards were driven out, although she kept Friedrich alive, both to torture him and to have him use his skills to develop creations for her. She killed many of her retainers, turning them into skeleton warriors who guarded her castle, later known as the Vampire Castle. She later took the child Laura from her parents, turned her, and made her her "daughter". Laura later commented that Carmilla still had some humanity within her somewhere, unlike herself.
She summoned the demon brothers, Brauner and Olrox, from Hell, giving them vampiric powers; these became the lieutenant and commander of her vampire armies. She later cast a spell of cold and ice, cloaking her country in endless winter so the vampires would not be as bothered by the daylight sun. Throughout the centuries the land became known as the Land of the Vampires. Most people had been driven out or changed; those who chose to stay lived in Wygol Village. The village became the vampire's source of food and a place to conscript more troops.
===Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow===
When Gabriel Belmont arrived to confront her, she attempted to seduce him at first, trying to tempt him to her cause and convince him to join her (as well as possibly to save herself from defeat and death at his hands). However, the recently widowed Gabriel's will was not shaken, and he rejected her. Angered by this, Carmilla revealed her prior knowledge of him and his quest to resurrect his wife, denounced it as a fool's errand and engaged him in battle, summoning her vampire warriors to aid her.
Once they were all defeated, she used her vampiric powers to partially destroy the throne room, then metamorphosed into her true vampire form to fight Gabriel directly. However, after a long struggle that ended with half the castle destroyed and Carmilla seriously injured, Gabriel finally killed her by stabbing her in the heart with the Combat Cross, breaking off the stake attachment in the process.
After this, Gabriel was rewarded with Carmilla's Seraph Shoulders, granting him spectral wings and allowing him to double jump.
===Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2===
Many centuries afterward, an "echo" of Carmilla appears in her castle, with the appearance of her original human form, after Gabriel, now known as the vampire lord Dracula, takes residence. However, despite her benevolent appearance, she is still the Dark Lord, and seeks to corrupt Gabriel back into evil. She tricks him into drinking her blood, which has a poisonous effect on him. In order to resist her influence, Dracula drinks blood from his resurrected wife, Marie. After evading Carmilla in the castle's library, he chases her onto one of the rooftops, where she attempts to trick him by taking the form of Marie and forces him to choose which of the two is his real wife. Dracula makes the right choice and faces Carmilla in combat. As he gains the upper hand, despite the witch's best efforts, including regaining his Mist Form from her, Carmilla makes one final attempt to break Dracula by threatening to kill Marie, only for the new Vampire Lord to throw a broken fence post clean through her head, destroying the echo just as thoroughly as the real Carmilla.
==Appearance==
As a vampire, Carmilla wore a nun's habit with the front split open to partially reveal her midriff and cleavage. Her skin is a ghostly white, almost similar to Alucard. Her eyes in this form were pitch black with red irises. It is possible that this is due to her being the progenitor of the entire vampire race in the Lords of Shadow continuity, since she is the only vampire who is depicted with such features. She also wears an elaborate choker embedded with red jewelry.
In Lords of Shadow 2, Carmilla is depicted in her human form, which is presumably based on what she looked like as a founder of the Brotherhood of Light. She wears a brown brotherhood dress which features a hood. Her hair is a long dark brown. Her choker is much simpler this time and features a single green gem.
==Personality==
As a human Carmilla was a woman who loved life, and could not stand to see vile experiments on the living like those that Frankenstein conducted, vowing to bring him to justice. She was also most likely religiously devoted to God as she spent her entire life fighting evil in his name with Cornell and Zobek.
As a vampire, most of her personality was twisted. She cares little for life as she killed most of the inhabitants of Bernhard castle, with the exception of Frankenstein. She is intelligent, manipulative, seductive and deceptive as she tricked Gabriel into drinking her blood and nearly tricked him a second time.
Despite this, she seems to still possess some humanity after turning into a vampire, as she tortured Frankenstein for centuries for his inhumane crimes, fulfilling the oath she made as a human to make sure he paid for his crimes. She also acts as a mother to Laura, suggesting she still has motherly instincts, despite that she had taken Laura from her real mother.
Carmilla also seems to be a seductress. She attempts to seduce Gabriel when he confronts her for the first time, and does so again nearly a thousand years later. While it is not proven, there are subtle hints that she may have had a romantic interest in Gabriel. She attempts to seduce him the first time they meet and offers for him to stay with her for eternity, saying that she can show him "many pleasures". Throughout their first fight, she also refers to him frequently as "my Gabriel". She also was visibly frustrated when she realized he was collecting the pieces of the God Mask to bring back Marie. During her second encounter with Gabriel, she kisses him on the lips, and claims "I am yours now". She is angered further when Gabriel drinks Marie's blood a second time, and right before Carmilla is killed, she tries to kill Marie, probably out of spite since she couldn't have Gabriel. She seems to have wanted to keep Gabriel, as she was using her blood to make him loyal to her and her alone, showing a very dangerous obsession and abusive side.
In Lords of Shadow 2, Carmilla develops an obsessive personality. Since this incarnation of her is a manifestation created by the castle, this change can be explained as her being a product of Inner Dracula. This is hinted at whenever Carmilla refers to Dracula as 'my prince' (the castle entity is the only other person besides Raisa Volkova who calls Dracula this).
==Powers and abilities==
*Levitation: Before fighting Gabriel, Carmilla hovered above him in the air before calling her vampire warriors to aid her.
*Control over Bernhard Castle: After her sister ascended to heaven, Carmilla gained complete control over the Bernhard Castle and transformed it into what would be known as The Land of Vampires.
*Control over Vampires: Carmilla has complete control over all vampires living in and around the castle. The reason, of course, for why she is known as the Queen of Vampires.
*Superhuman Strength: Carmilla, like all other vampires, possessed strength far beyond that of humans, although not much of this is shown, but sufficient to easily grab a metal door out of it's tinges. However, she was unable to break out of Dracula's grip.
*Superhuman Speed: It can be assumed that, like all other vampires and like Dracula, Carmilla can move at immense speeds, although Dracula proved to be faster than her, as she was completely caught off guard when Dracula stabbed her from behind.
*Electrokinesis: Carmilla's breed of vampires seem to all have the innate ability to emit bolts of lightning from their hands, such as Laura and supposedly Dracula. Carmilla, being the founder of the vampires, also has this ability. Interestingly, the Forgotten One also demonstrates this ability when facing a vampiric Gabriel. She could summon shockwaves of lightning, fire lightning bolts, blast down lightning from the sky, which causes an electric explosion, create a protective dome of lightning, and create illusions of herself via lightning.
*Seduction: Like the titular novel character of the same name, Carmilla has the power of seduction and can supposedly turn any human into her slave. However, this ability failed against Gabriel when the two first meet.
*Teleportation: Carmilla was able to teleport during her battle with Dracula, but she lost this power when Dracula regained his Mist Form power.
*True Form: As an elder vampire and as a Lord of Shadow, Carmilla has the ability to transform into her true form, which is a physical representation of her personality. Her true form resembles both the vampire warrior and the two demonic vampires, Brauner and Olrox. It is a massive bat-like humanoid with elongated talons and fangs. Like almost all vampire true forms, Carmilla's true form has a unique ability that Carmilla can't (or doesn't) use in her regular form, it's a kind of lightning breath, it is similar to how Dracula/Gabriel can breathe fire in his true form. A similar power can also be used with her wings in this form, where she flies up and then blasts lightning down from her wings to generate an electric explosion. Carmilla has also showcased being able to send out waves of bats in this form, as well as creating a dome of electricity to protect herself.
*Spectral True Form: In Lords of Shadow 2, during her fight with Gabriel/Dracula, she shows the ability to create a green spectral image of her true form from the waist up. This spectral image can attack her opponents with its fists or channel lightning to attack from a distance. This form can send straight arcs of lightning along the ground, throw lightning bolts, grab enemies, cut them to pieces with its claws, and blow opponents backward with its wings. However, this form mimics any movement that Carmilla makes, so it is limited only by her.
*Force Fields: While levitating, Carmilla can create electrical force fields that can protect her while her vampire servants fight her enemies.
==Quotes==
===Lords of Shadow===
====Battle====
*Pledge loyalty to me, and I may spare your life!
*Go my children! Drink his blood!
*You will know pain, my Gabriel!
*Do not resist… become one with us!
*Watch the true power of a Dark Lord!
*Look upon Carmilla… am I not beautiful?
*You’ll regret rejecting me, Gabriel!
*Arrogant human… do you really think that you can defeat me?
===Lords of Shadow 2===
====Cutscenes====
*And if you were never to wake again... ...would it matter?
*I am yours now. Do with me what you will.
*Now I am inside of you and your weakness... ...will be my strength.
*You'll never leave here, my Prince.
====Stealth====
*You're not going anywhere, my Prince.
*I can't see you, but I know you are here!
*I think I've found you, my Prince.
*You are not very good at playing this, are you?
*I'm coming to get you!
*Let's see if you're here!
*I'm back...!
*You didn't think you'd beat me, did you?
*Here I am again, my Prince!
*Let's keep playing!
*Where are you, my Prince?
*I can smell you...
*I know you are near...
*Got you!
*You can't escape...
*You're finished!
*I'm getting tired of chasing you!
*I'm starting to get bored!
*Show yourself now!
*Now that we're together, my happiness is complete.
*You're mine now!
*Ha, ha, ha, ha!
*Don't think you defeated me, my Prince!	
{|style="width:100%;"	
====Battle====
==Enemy Data==
<tabber>Carmilla=
|-|Vampire Dark Lord=
</tabber>
==Trivia==
*Houko Kuwashima, Carmilla's Japanese voice actress, also voiced Shanoa in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
*Carmilla is the only Lord of Shadow to be fought twice.
*If one looks closely at the Mirror of Fate during the boss fight against Carmilla, one will notice that Gabriel does not project a reflection, nor does she. This is a nod to a famous superstition, part of vampire lore, that states that vampires don't have a reflection.
*It is possible that Carmilla knew of Gabriel's ultimate fate and sought to hasten it in order to better serve her own ends, as her throne room is where the Mirror of Fate is located. Her dialogue also heavily implies that she knew of Gabriel's fate. When asked about this to David Cox on his Twitter account, he merely replied: "I'd like to think so."Dave Cox Twitter
*Carmilla's name originally belongs to the title character of a vampire novel written by Sheridan Le Fanu. In the novel, Carmilla is a lesbian vampire who seduces a mortal woman named Laura; in the game, Laura was a little girl that Carmilla treats like a daughter instead. The novel predates Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, by 25 years. This shares a similarity with Lords of Shadow, as the character of Carmilla existed before Gabriel took up the title of Dracula.
*Carmilla's library stealth level in Lords of Shadow 2 has been cited by critics as one of the most difficult levels in the game, alongside Agreus' maze.Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Review at Xbox Achievements.
*The echo of Carmilla that appears in Lords of Shadow 2 is a product of Gabriel's memories created by Inner Dracula. Her romantic obsession with Gabriel stems from his encounter with her in Lords of Shadow, while her human visage stems from the portrait Gabriel saw in Reverie.
*During her stealth section, Carmilla can be temporarily distracted with the Bat Swarm.
==References==
==External links==
*Carmilla (Lords of Shadow) at the Villains Wiki
de:Carmilla (Lords of Shadow)
es:Carmilla (Lords of Shadow)
pt-br:Carmilla (Lords of Shadow)
Category:Antagonists
Category:Bernhard Family
Category:Brotherhood of Light
Carmilla (Lords of Shadow)
Category:Deceased Characters
Category:Dracula Relatives
Category:Female Characters
Category:Female Monsters
Category:Flying Bosses
Category:Literary Characters
Category:Literary Monsters
Category:Vampire Masters
Category:Vampires
Category:Lords of Shadow Bosses
Category:Lords of Shadow Characters
Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Bosses
Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Characters