Amalia Benavides Aguirre

*Not to be confused with Amelia.*
**Amalia Benavides Aguirre** is a young vampire scout from Torrezon on Ixalan.

## Description

A young vampire who has a dream of adventure, Amalia lived a very sheltered life, having been used to being surrounded by books and peace, rather than the untamed savage wilds. She is skilled in cartomancy, using magic combined with her intent, blood, and ash to create increasingly detailed maps and can chart the topography of a location. In combination with an enchanted quill and her maps, Amalia is capable of altering the world by editing the maps, causing features to cease to be. Amalia has long black hair and wears ruffled clothes and glasses. She wields a sword and is capable of casting spells that can hold a target in place.

Brought up in the nobility, Amalia was soft. She was known to be against savage bloodshed and cringed at the sight of it. Amalia was noted by her peers to be innocent despite surviving the tribulations of the recent planar invasion. Amalia was formerly a devout believer in Aclazotz who she believed was a benevolent god. After meeting the god himself and seeing his cruel and sadistic ways, her faith was broken, leaving her lost. At Kellan's suggestion of seeking out another god to believe in, she took an interest in exploring the Multiverse to meet other gods and vampires.

## History

Amalia was born into an aristocratic vampire family and was originally just a scholar who pored over dusty tomes in the library on her family's estate.

After New Phyrexia's Invasion, Amalia, wanting to do something worthwhile with her life, took the position of cartographer for the Queen's Bay Company, to map the wilds of Ixalan. Upon joining the expedition of pilgrims led by Vito Quijano de Pasamonte to the interior of Ixalan in search of the Temple of Aclazotz, Amalia began to fall into trances in which she had strange visions and heard a strange voice that whispered to her. However, she kept these trances to herself, and from Bartolomé del Presidio, the director of the Company who looked after her.

Once the expedition reached the ruined Temple of Aclazotz, Vito addressed all in the group about how their journey brought them here through the journal of Venerable Tarrian a comrade of Saint Elenda. When he mentioned that they were led by true believers, Amalia grew concerned that he was a follower of Antifex. Not only that Vita declared their expedition's mission was to awaken Aclazotz, creator of the first vampires, and bring him back to Torrezon. If so it was prophesized that god would heal the faithful and bring peace to the land, ending the religious schism.

The expedition found a door barring their way, though Vito knew of a way to open it by offering a human porter as a sacrifice to the altar. Vito directed her to help Clavileño do the deed, but Amalia was against such a travesty. Bartolomé openly protested what he viewed as a corruption of the sacred blood rites. But it mattered little as Vito cowed him to and another soldier stepped forward to hold the human down as Vito slit his throat to open the door.

The expedition went deeper into the temple. Another door was found, and so another servant was sacrificed. There they found a chamber that resembled a desert but filled with quicksand. To cross it Clavileño partially turned to smoke to mark out the solid spots, whilst the rest of the party began constructing a makeshift bridge using remnants of furniture they found. The pilgrims were attacked by mantis-spiders leading to the deaths of many in the expedition. After crossing the desert, the group crossed through another portal that led to a chamber containing arching, natural bridges. It was here that they encountered a strange man being pursued by a goblin and called for help. Amalia was the first to answer his plea, ignoring Vito's indifference to leave the stranger to his fate. Using her maps and quill, Amalia caused the bridge beneath the man and the pursuing goblins to vanish, causing the latter to fall into the abyss. The man thanked her for saving him, introducing himself as Kellan and hailed from Eldraine. Though Vito wanted to leave the stranger behind, Amalia convinced him to allow Kellan to join them. Along their journey, Amalia brought Kellan up to speed on their expedition's mission.

Eventually, they arrived in Ixalan's legendary Core, where a Sun Empire expedition party led by Huatli coincidentally appeared at the same time. The vampires were imprisoned, but all besides Amalia broke out to pursue Vito's goal of setting free the ancient bat god of night, Aclazotz.

However, Amalia began questioning her beliefs and faith due to her interactions with Kellan. After Vito planned to sacrifice Kellan to free Aclazotz, she and Bartolomé refused to go through with his mad plan. Bartolomé bought enough time to allow her and Kellan to escape, sacrificing himself as Vito killed him and used him as a sacrifice instead, The pair then aligned themselves instead with the Core's native Oltecs, who would be wiped out if Aclazotz were allowed to regain his full power.

After helping defeat the god and his demonic vampire minions, Kellan returned to the surface with Amalia, Malcolm, and Breeches, intending to find another Omenpath and pursue further adventure. He was surprised when Amalia offered to accompany him, but had no objection, and they went through together.

### On Ravnica

Kellan and Amalia arrived on Ravnica. While Kellan got a job with the Ravnican Agency of Magicological Investigations, Amalia researched the plane and its history. She was last known investigating an ancient ruin in the Rubblebelt while Kellan was working with Kaya Cassir on the case of Zegana's murder.

## Inspiration

Amalia's last name and her card's "Wrath of God"-style effect may be a reference to *Aguirre, the Wrath of God*, a 1972 historical drama film following a Spanish conquistador in search of the golden city of El Dorado. *The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* Lead Art Director Ovidio Cartagena and story author Valerie Valdes have both mentioned the film as one of the set's inspirations.

## In-game references

Represented in:

* Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Quoted or referred to:

* Earthshaker Dreadmaw

## References

1. ↑ ***a*** ***b*** Harless Snyder, Natalie Kreider (October 30, 2023). "The Lost Caverns of Ixalan #42: Episode 1". *The Magic Story Podcast*.
2. ↑ ***a*** ***b*** ***c*** Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "*The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* - Episode 1". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
3. ↑ ***a*** ***b*** Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "*The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* - Episode 2". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
4. ↑ Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "*The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* - Episode 3". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
5. ↑ Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "*The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* - Episode 5". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
6. ↑ Valerie Valdes (October 20, 2023). "*The Lost Caverns of Ixalan* - Episode 6". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
7. ↑ Seanan McGuire (January 11, 2024). "*Murders at Karlov Manor* - Episode 5: Chains of Expectation". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
8. ↑ Mark Rosewater and Ovidio Cartagena (November 10, 2023). "Drive to Work #1085: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Art Direction with Ovidio Cartagena". Transistor.
9. ↑ The Vorthos Cast (December 4, 2023). "Author Interview: [[Valerie Valdes]]". SoundCloud.