Marius Ardelean

**Marius Ardelean** (born March 9, 1957) was a Romanian cryptozoologist and university professor. He also trained Merlyn Murphy as a Parliament agent when she was young.

## Biography

### Early Life

Marius Ardelean was born somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania on March 9, 1957. He attended the University of Bucharest, studying literature and cultural studies, and writing his thesis on the Witches Pond in the Boldu-Creteasca forest outside of Bucharest. He would eventually be employed at the university as a professor of literature.

### Murders of Eder and Funar

In 2000, two women were killed in the vicinity of the Witches Pond: Sorana Eder and Adelina Funar. At the time, Ardelean was teaching a class at the university on true crime literature, so the police brought him on as a consultant. Over time, he became increasingly sure that a vampire was responsible for their deaths, researching vampires and the folklore surrounding them. The cases would go cold.

### Joining Parliament

Parliament took notice of Ardelean's work on vampires and his attention to detail concerning folklore. The organization reached out to him and offered him employment as Preceptor of Histories. He would go on to impart his knowledge of creatures from folktales to many Parliament agents. He would also befriend Thomas and Brigit Murphy, and become a mentor to their daughter, Merlyn.

After the disappearance of Thomas and Brigit in the early 2000s, Marius took Merlyn Murphy under his wing. He helped with her extensive training with the organization, and Murphy even noted that Marius was like a substitute father to her.

### Return to Romania

In 2009, Ardelean suddenly returned to Romania, no longer being able to ignore his feelings about the cases that he had left cold nine years earlier. After he had spent some time in Romania again and resumed his role as professor of literature, he became very outspoken about the murders, the police claiming that investigating a satanic serial killer would be bad for tourism and that he should drop it. Still claiming that the killer was a vampire, the police and anyone else involved with the case was convinced that Ardelean was crazy, no longer believing anything he had to say. Ardelean eventually came to the conclusion that the vampire in question was Jonathan Roxburgh, an acclaimed mystery novelist who had moved from the United States to Romania around the time the two women were murdered.

### Reunion with Merlyn Murphy

On July 14, 2020, Maria Bogdan was found dead at around the same location as the other two women. Having been drained of her blood, the murder's pattern matched that of Eder and Funar from twenty years earlier. Ardelean was sure that Roxburgh was behind this murder as well, and so he arranged for a public interview about his new thriller novel, Witches Pond, at the university at which he taught. He sent an invite with a plus one to Merlyn Murphy at her flat in England, along with several newspaper clippings from the most recent murder and from the murders twenty years prior.

At the event, Marius interviewed Roxburgh onstage, asking him how he came to know about the lore of Witches Pond and about his connections with Transylvanian culture and the magic-practicing community in Romania. The questions seemed innocent enough until Ardelean recommended a passage from Roxburgh's new thriller novel, Witches Pond, for him to read onstage. Roxburgh noted that the passage was extremely graphic, but after a rousing response from the audience, he agreed to read it anyway. During this time, he spotted Murphy in the audience, and by the end of the reading, had made direct eye contact with her.

## Behind the Scenes

The voice of Marius Ardelean was portrayed by Francis Pàce-Nuñez.

Marius Ardelean was created by Derek Sherry for the episode "There Existed An Addiction To Blood."

## Appearances

* *There Existed An Addiction To Blood* (First appearance)
* *In The Woods Somewhere* (Mentioned only)