Marcel's Army

**Marcel's Army** is an army of vampires created by Marcel Gerard in New Orleans. They compose all of the vampires present in New Orleans during Marcel's reign and, later, during his joint reign of the city with Klaus. However, after Klaus discovered Marcel's treachery back in 1919, Elijah banished Marcel from the city and revoked the privileges of all vampires in New Orleans.

For the following month, the remaining vampires waged war against the New Orleans witches until their new leader, Diego, agreed to negotiate a ceasefire. A peace treaty brokered by Elijah led to a new status for the vampires and peace between the factions. However the vampires have resumed their loyalty to Marcel, who was planning to reclaim the city by himself. After the collapse of the peace treaty, Marcel launched an all out assault against the Originals to reclaim the French Quarter and his rule of the city but the surprise reveal of the werewolves in the Correa family ruined his plans and his vampires were all killed either by the Guerreras or by a resurrected Mikael.

After the Guerrera werewolves took over the French Quarter and banished the vampires to Algiers, Marcel started to rebuild his army with several turned humans from all over New Orleans, such as Gia. In addition, Marcel has recruited his former rival, Elijah Mikaelson, as his co-leader, to help him train his new vampires as well as maintain their position in the city by securing the support of an Original vampire.

## History

Vampires begun appearing in New Orleans when the Original Vampires first arrived in the city during the 18th century. Turned by the four Originals known to have lived in the town (Elijah, Klaus, Kol and Rebekah Mikaelson), vampires were one of the various supernatural factions to take up a place in the town which would become the Big Easy. However, it is unknown whether or not the Originals had organized themselves in a way similar to the way Marcel later organized them.

In 1919, the Originals were forced to flee from New Orleans when their father, Mikael, the vampire who hunts vampire, tracked them down. Mikael slaughtered dozens of vampires during his rampage and burnt down the opera but his children evaded him. Marcel, who had almost died during the massacre, also escaped but did not leave New Orleans. Instead, he begun to assemble his own army of vampires (either vampires who had survived or those he turned) and make plans to reclaim New Orleans which was falling prey to the infighting of witches and werewolves.

In the 1920s, Marcel and his vampires returned to New Orleans to rebuild the place they had lost when the Originals were forced to flee. The dominant power in the Crescent City at the time was the Guerrera werewolf pack, who were renowned criminals and predators who loved a hunt, especially for vampires. In four days, Marcel and his vampires destroyed the Guerreras by waging a guerilla war against them. The battle ended with the vampires victorious and the Guerreras' supposed destruction. Secretly, Gabriel Guerrera had survived his family's massacre and hid away as Gabriel Correa. His family would remain humans for the next 100 years to prevent the vampires from destroying them and they infiltrated the Human Faction to retain a position of power in New Orleans.

Marcel's victory led to the return of the vampires as a dominant force in New Orleans, along with the remaining werewolf packs and the witches. A secret war (which could at times turn cold or hot depending on the players and the tensions) was waged between these various factions during the whole of the 20th century. To the outside world, it appeared as though New Orleans was one of the city's with the highest crime rate in the United States. Marcel's vampires were hampered by their inability to fight against the witches' magic or the bite of turned werewolves. However, their greatest weakness was their inability to walk in the sunlight. Although Marcel could due to his acquaintance with the Originals who had provided him with a daylight ring, he was unable to convince any of the witches to perform the spell for any of his friends. Nevertheless, the vampires' presence grew. As the century went by, Marcel turned Thierry Vanchure when he found him dying of a war wound during the 1940s. He later turned Diego when his family was killed by werewolves. Both would become Marcel's lieutenants and close friends.

The tensions between the werewolf packs was made worse by Marcel's interference and he apparently had a relationship with several of the packs, including the Crescents. The war between vampires and werewolves would never cease. However, their greatest enemy was the witches and the great power they could channel from their dead Ancestors. Tensions came to a head when Marcel learnt of a ritual the witches were planning on performing: the Harvest. This ritual was designed to sacrifice four girls to their Ancestors to restore the link with their magic which had begun to fade over time. Horrified by the idea of the witches gaining more power but also of the idea of children getting sacrificed, Marcel assembled his vampires and raided the cemetery where he killed all the witch Elders (save for Agnes) and saved the life of the only remaining sacrifice, Davina Claire.

Hiding Davina from the witches in the attic of St. Anne's Church, Marcel learnt that Davina had amassed the entire power of the other sacrifices, magic which was supposed to be released into the earth to appease the Ancestors. Davina's power was greatly enhanced and she found that she could sense when a witch was doing magic. Using this ability and Davina's desire to see the witches punished for the Harvest, Marcel banned the use of magic in New Orleans and sentenced any witch caught doing it to death. This allowed the vampires to become the dominant faction in New Orleans. Davina also created the daylight rings needed for Marcel's lieutenants to walk during the day. Only those closest to him were allowed a ring and they became known as the Daywalkers. The rest remained as Nightwalkers.

## Organization

### Hierarchy

* The Daywalkers are a group of vampires formed and led by Marcel. They are part of the inner circle are privvy to some secrets, they make sure that Davina stays hidden. All vampires in the circle have a daylight ring, made by Davina. However, their purpose no longer applies regarding Davina because now she's not a secret anymore and has cut ties with Marcel. Daywalkers have authority over Nightwalkers, with latter supposed to obey them and will nearly always do to loyalty, this is what cued Thierry to deduce that Max, a nightwalker was compelled by Klaus, due to the insubordination he displayed from Klaus' orders.
* The Nightwalkers are lower-class vampires, and form the bulk of Marcel's army. This class consists mostly of newly made vampires or vampires who are just a few years into their new life, or those who have yet to earn a ring. They seem to be used as a show of force and as infantry, often appearing in great numbers together. They try to work their way up the ranks until they are given a daylight ring by Marcel, initiating them into the Daylighters. Nightwalkers can achieve the rank of Daylighter by proving their worth to the community. Despite their lower rank, Marcel cares for them a great deal, throwing parties for them to blow off steam and have fun.
* After the reformation of his army, Marcel seemingly abandoned the idea of distinguishing between nightwalkers and daywalkers. Several vampires, closer to Marcel than others, have a great say in the leadership of the army, such as Gia and Josh (the only survivor of the previous army). Elijah Mikaelson also had a great influence over the new vampires and rule is shared between him and Marcel.

### Crimes and Punishments

* **Killing another vampire** - Death (exceptions can be made however since Marcel instead granted his best friend, Thierry, a reprieve with a century in The Garden)
* **Betraying Marcel** - Imprisonment in the Garden for 100 years to rot and suffer.

### Events

* **Fight Night** - Every now and then, the vampires would amass together for a gladiatorial event where belligerents would try to prove their worth in combat with Marcel and the rest of the New Orlans Vampires as audience. Those who prevail will become closer to becoming a daywalker. However, given that Vampires killing their own goes against Marcel's issued laws, it is very likely that the fights are not to the death.
* **Parties** - Marcel likes to throw parties for his Nightwalkers, allowing them to blow off steam by feeding opening and indiscriminately, the only rule Marcel enforces is not to kill anyone, though accidents has happened.

## Current members

* Marcel Gerard (leader)
* Unknown Others

## Deceased Members

* 2 Nightwalkers (killed by Elijah Mikaelson)
* 2 Nightwalkers (killed by Elijah Mikaelson)
* 8 Nightwalkers (killed by Rebekah Mikaelson)
* Max (killed by Thierry Vanchure)
* 24 members (killed by Niklaus Mikaelson)
* 2 Daywalkers (killed by Papa Tunde)
* Thierry Vanchure (killed by Elijah Mikaelson)
* Many vampires (killed by Elijah Mikaelson in *The Battle of New Orleans*)
* Many vampires (killed by Guerrera Family in *The Battle of New Orleans*)
* Soldiers of The Brotherhood of the Damned\*
* Unnamed Daylighter at Davina's room\*
* Felicia\*
* Otto\*
* Tomas\*
* Diego (fed on by Mikael, causing the venom to spread faster)
* Rest of Marcel's Army (fed on by Mikael, allowing the werewolf venom to spread faster)
* Joe Dalton (retired, killed by Guerrera Family in *Rebirth*)
* Unnamed vampires (killed by Finn Mikaelson in *The Devil is Damned*)
* Unnamed vampire (staked by Hayley Marshall in *The Devil is Damned*)
* Gia (killed by Niklaus Mikaelson in *Fire with Fire*)
* Elijah Mikaelson † (former co-leader; killed by Niklaus Mikaelson in *When The Saints Go Marching In*)
* Joshua Rosza † (killed by unknown vampire in *There in the Disappearing Light*)

**\***Oliver said that Marcel was then alone which means that all the vampires of Marcel's Army (without Joshua Rosza) are now dead. Michael Narducci confirms Josh was the last of Marcel's old army.

## Trivia

* As a result of the battle with Klaus in *The River in Reverse*, this army has now lost 24 vampires. Whether some of them were daywalkers or all of them were nightwalkers is unknown. This puts the total death toll of the vampires under Marcel's reign to 35 since the beginning of the show; as in addition to Klaus' victims, Elijah also killed 2 vampires in the *Pilot*, Rebekah killed eight nightwalkers in *House of the Rising Son* and Thierry killed one (Max) in *Tangled Up In Blue*.
* Despite Marcel given over the reigns to Klaus to save his people from being slaughtered, the Vampire army do not respect or like Klaus nor his leadership, preferring Marcel's rule which was built on respect and loyalty, and functioned competently.
* Only a small group of vampires remain loyal to Klaus and Marcel after *Dance Back from the Grave*.
* In *Farewell to Storyville*, Elijah exiles Marcel and his loyalists from the original vampires territory.
* In *Moon Over Bourbon Street*, Diego became the new leader of the remaining vampires of New Orleans after Marcel's exile with a peace treaty, as Josh is in hiding and Marcel and Thierry prepare to create a new army as Thierry's group left New Orleans.
* Elijah had an easier time dealing with the army than Klaus, this is because he is a more calm, composed, and strategic fighter than his maternal half-brother.
* Marcel has rebuilt his army which is being mentored by both him and Elijah.