Marcel Gerard

**Marcellus "Marcel" Gerard** is Cassian's former protégé and a vampire that he turned in the early 1880s. As Cassian's adopted son, he is therefore by extension the adoptive older brother of Cassian's biological son, Chance Mikaelson, as well as the protector and surrogate father figure of Davina Claire.

Marcel was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1810 to a female slave and her owner, the Governor of Louisiana. Despite being the Governor's son, he was enslaved and worked on the plantation until he happened to meet Cassian during his half-brother's funeral. Marcel caught Cassian's eye after he threw an apple at a slave overseer after being whipped. Cassian, impressed with his defiance, and feeling as though the two were kindred spirits, decided to adopt the boy into his family as his ward. Marcel's mother had chosen not to name him until she was sure he would survive the fever but ended up succumbing to it herself before she could choose a name for him. Cassian then gave him the name Marcellus, meaning "little warrior", which has been shortened to Marcel.

He then lived with the Mikaelson Family for the majority of the next century until he was enlisted in the Army during World War I and was deployed to France until the war ended in late 1918. He returned home and continued living with the Mikaelsons; Cassian and his siblings Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol at their compound. Marcel and Rebekah, taking a chance at love decided to summon Mikael, the Original Vampire vampire-hunter, who arrived in town to the terror of his children, who dreaded their father completely. As was the norm, the Mikaelson children fled New Orleans after his arrival, a long cat-and-mouse game they played with their father. Following the Mikaelsons' absence and the subsequent power vacuum in the city's supernatural community, Marcel to eventually rose to be the leader of the vampire faction continuing to build up their numbers by carefully turning humans into his kind. The vampires quickly became more powerful. This made his vampire faction reign supreme over witches, humans, and werewolves during the next few decades until Marcel ultimately became the *de facto* King of New Orleans.

During Marcel's rule, he enforced a system of rules of his creation within the French Quarter, by which all supernatural residents must abide. In late 2011, Marcel found himself at war with Cassian, who was trying to reclaim the French Quarter. He was trying to maintain order within the city, which meant dealing with the witches, who continued their pursuit of Davina after the Harvest ritual he and his army interrupted. He also began to rekindle his romance with Rebekah. Marcel and Rebekah sided together to take down Cassian once and for all so that they could finally be together, but their plan failed. Cassian killed many of Marcel's minions, forcing Marcel to ultimately choose to step down from the throne in order to save the rest of his people.

Soon after, Cassian asked Marcel to join him in ruling New Orleans and Marcel agrees to become the co-vampire King of New Orleans at his side. Rebekah ended their relationship and continued her own pursuit to defeat Cassian. Later, Davina learned of the secrets Marcel had been keeping from her and lost her trust in him. It was around that time that Davina's powers began to grow out of control and began to endanger the people of New Orleans, leaving them no other choice but to go through with the Harvest ritual to stop the plague of earthquakes, windstorms, torrential rain and wildfires that were intended to consume the town. Marcel went to desperate lengths to protect her as he loves her like his own daughter, but the event could not be avoided and Davina eventually agreed to go along with it for the sake of the town's citizens. She was thankful that she had Marcel in her life, and it is clear that Marcel would do anything for her. Davina was then killed by Sophie Deveraux, but despite properly completing the ritual, Davina and the other three witches sacrificed as offerings to the Ancestors were not resurrected as they were intended to be, causing Marcel great anguish for her loss. Marcel deeply grieved Davina's death and avoided ruling the French Quarter for some time.

Camille came back into the picture after he avoided pursuing a relationship with her due to Father Kieran telling him to stay away from her. They grew closer as he told her of his dark past and provided her comfort as her uncle Kieran was cursed with a hex. Marcel was also banished from the French Quarter by Elijah due to Rebekah and his great betrayal from 1919. Marcel also left Davina in Genevieve's care in order to protect her. Marcel had began his plan to reclaim the French Quarter with Thierry, Diego, and many other vampires by his side leading to an all out war: Marcel's Army vs. Cassian, Elijah and the Crescent Wolf Pack. The war was interrupted due to Hayley Marshall (who was then pregnant with hers and Cassian's baby son) being kidnapped by the witches, as well as the witches' allies Francesca Correa and her brothers, who revealed they were not actually human, but untriggered werewolves descended from a member of the former Guerrera Pack. Once in possession of the moonlight rings they had stolen from Hayley and the Crescents, Francesca and their brothers triggered their curses and used the rings to control their transformation, allowing them to bite all of the vampires in Marcel's Army and leave them for dead. Marcel, who was also bitten himself by Cassian, was running out of time to save himself and his people. He then rescued his newly-born adoptive brother, hoping to use him as leverage to get Cassian to heal them all with his blood, but when he returned to the compound, the vampires were already dead. Regardless, Cassian forgave Marcel for his actions in gratitude for him saving Chance and decided to heal Marcel with his blood.

## Physical Appearance

Marcel is described as hot, sexy, handsome and very attractive. He has dark skin, brown eyes, shaven hair and appears to physically be in his late 20s. Marcel's style is quite similar to Cassian's. He wears form fitting T-shirts usually dark-ish colours: black, grey and blue and dark jeans although has been seen to wear those of a lighter colour. He will also be seen wearing necklaces and scarfs as accessories. Also, like Cassian, he is fond of a leather jacket he sometimes wears.

He has also said that he looks good in a suit which he wears on special occasions, such as the Masquerade Ball he hosted to present himself as respectable.