Cantarella

Art By: @SaintCinder

> "Tell me...what are you afraid of?"
>
> Cantarella

**Vesna 'Cantarella' Soroka** is a player character in MagiRPG - Grim Domains, played by Miss Magitek. She is a dhampir (former half-elf) Bard, College of Whispers and Warlock, Pact of the Undying. Currently, she works with Pritch, Remy, Alphie, Rev, and Cordelia under the employment of Firan Zal'honan.

## Description

### Appearance

Cantarella has long, red hair, red eyes, and short elven ears. She wears a long, red dress with black accessories. She wears elegant jewelry upon her long, black claw nails. Cantarella also has tattoos of crescent moons on her chest and arms. She has an additional tattoo on her upper back, between her shoulder blades.

### Personality

Very abrasive and willing to get the job done, Cantarella carries herself with elegance and tenacity. She always wants to know how things work and what makes people tick and believes that anything worth doing is worth doing right.

   She does not like to rely on others often, and finds herself very independent by nature. She rarely puts her own ambitions after anything else, as her past life has taught her that it is hard to rely and trust others. Her biggest flaw is that she is never satisfied with what she has--she always wants more.

### Weapons / Gear

Cantarella carries two jeweled daggers on her person, both of them have inscriptions on the hilt in Vistani. She also carries a mysterious deck of Tarokka cards.

Cantarella currently has a raven companion gifted to her by her patron that she can summon at will.

## Biography

 This area contains spoilers for previous seasons

### Early Life

Cantarella was born between realms to an elven mother and Vistani father in a traveling carnival within the Domains of Dread. She spent most of her childhood within this carnival and found fun and mischief doing mystical readings for the patrons.

After running afoul of the Carnival's new owner, Cantarella fled into the mists to make her own way. This did not go well, as she found herself on the streets for several years, surviving off the magic and mystal tricks she learned from her childhood.

Fortunately, her quick wit impressed a wizard who enrolled her into The Order of the Whispering Stones, where Cantarella learned discipline & the powers of whispers and magic.

   One day, a powerful noble, Count Strahd von Zarovich, arrived and took her into his service. From there, Cantarella traveled to a new Domain, Barovia, where she spent the majority of her life into her unlife.

In Barovia, Cantarella served as a Courtier to Strahd, and it was during this time Strahd turned her into a vampire spawn. She was very ambitious and cunning, and quickly moved up the ranks within his inner circle. As a vampire spawn, Cantarella fed only on blood - it wasn't until later in her life where she learned to feed from other means and her vampire abilities changed to that of a dhampir.

Cantarella stumbled upon Strahd's most powerful and loyal wizard, Khazan, who was secretly trying to achieve lichdom behind Strahd's back. When Cantarella learned of this, she thought that this would be an immediate threat to Strahd, so she attempted to destroy Khazan for good before he could become a powerful lich. When Strahd learned of this, he saw it as a direct disobedience to him and had Cantarella punished.

Her punishment was severe. She was locked into a coffin and submerged underwater for 13 years. Cantarella had to live her darkest fear everyday - trapped in a confined space and darkness for so long was enough to nearly drive her mad. The enclosure, confinement, and pure nothingness that surrounded her became an endless torment.

Time dragged on endlessly, struggling against the confines of the coffin was futile. As she started to lose her mind, she began retracing every moment of her life until she thought of the wizard who had first met her when she escaped the Carnival and enrolled in a new place. If not for him, she would have never served the noble who punished her to this watery grave. She cursed the wizard’s name in every language she was taught to speak. She cursed his name with the old Vistani tongue that her father used to swear by. As she did, a voice responded to her in the darkness. It was the wizard's voice…his name was Firan Zal’honan.

Firan began talking to her in this coffin, spending small moments of time - sometimes minutes, at most, an hour - in between months and years of deafening silence. He was the only solace within this coffin, and it took much time for him to help Cantarella regain her sanity. For years he whispered to her basic meditations about ancient powers such as the The Lightless King and the Gazing God. The two spent years this way, slowly plotting an escape and revenge, as he was unable to reach her in her current location by himself. Cantarella would have given up hope without him.

He kept his promise. One day, Firan sent a group of adventurers to free from her confines. She was able to enact some form of revenge on the noble before making her escape.

   She immediately went to Firan, and spent years with him training in new ways to feed and use her skills. Once her skills and understanding of her new power became strong enough, he sent her on her most important mission yet: a journey to the material plane to recover ancient artifacts that escaped the Grim Domains.

### Background: Courtier

Cantarella served as a courtier within Strahd's noble court for most of her life. She became close with the noble's inner circle, including Escher and Strahd's brides (Ludmilla, Volenta, and Anastrasya) and used her cunning words to become close with many within the circle. She also became more familiar with many of the political workings of various surrounding domains.

### Fear & Feeding

Cantarella no longer feeds the way a typical vampire would. While she can still drink blood to satiate her hunger, she prefers a newer method that was taught to her by Firan. She feeds off the fear of others - using her words of terror on the victim to bring them to share their deepest fears with her. The effects usually torment the victim for a continued period of time after the feeding. Cantarella uses this method of feeding to separate her old life as an early vampire spawn to her new life as a dhampir.

In season 2, Cantarella fed off Remy's blood in an attempt to cure herself of the Gnawing Plague. This had been the first time she fed on human blood in years, and unfortunately the feeding brought back an addiction she thought was left behind many years ago. Now she must resist the urge to feed when she is weakened. The feeding of Remy's blood also brought on additional side effects - it awakened Strahd's connection to Cantarella once again. Because he sired her into her vampiric life, he is also able to track her down because of their blood bond. The more Cantarella feeds from blood, the quicker she will return to her life as a vampire spawn, and potentially return to Strahd's domain.

## Relationships

### Pritchard Graves

Cantarella has a fondness for Pritch, though she rarely expresses this. When she first joined the Grave Matters group, she was most curious about Pritch because her patron expressed his own interest in Pritch's origins, though not explaining the details of why. As Pritch takes the leadership role of the group, Cantarella finds herself naturally drawn to him and sees much potential in his skills. The two of them rarely see eye-to-eye, as Cantarella is naturally deceptive and Pritch is naturally insightful, as if the two are opposite sides of thre same coin. Pritch was the first character Cantarella has fed from fears and has used controlling magic on.

Throughout season 1 and 2, Cantarella remained mostly closed off to Pritchard and the rest of the party. Only toward the end of season 2 did Cantarella begin to reveal her softer side toward Pritch. In season 3, the two of them worked closely together at the masquerade, where Pritch learned a great deal of Cantarella's past life. Cantarella was blindsided by much of this, and quickly became more open with Pritchard about herself and her past. She revealed many of her vulnerabilities to him, and Pritch seemed receptive to her finally opening up. The two have become much closer because of this.

### Remy DeLafosse

Both Cantarella and Remy spend much time bickering, but different from how she bickers with Pritch. Remy and Cantarella often fight like siblings, with Pritch needing to step in to break up the fighting. Despite this, she believes that she can sometimes find an ally in Remy where Pritch would not be. Cantarella also finds herself drawn to Remy and his troubled demeanor, wanting to solve the mysteries of his lute. In season 2, Cantarella was infected by the Gnawing Plague, to which Remy had recovered from due to the afflictions of his lute. Because of this, Remy let Cantarella feed from his blood so Cantarella could be cured. Unfortunately Cantarella quickly became addicted to blood, and even once lost control and drank from him against his will.

As time has passed, Cantarella's feelings toward Remy have changed from disagreeing and bickering, to respect and finding much more agreeable. She feels guilt for feeding on him, and having a continued desire to feed on him.

### Cordelia LaMonte

As Cantarella was doing research on who she could hire to help her with her job, she learned of a young scientist named Cordelia and a brief history of her studies, which immediately intrigued Cantarella into hiring her. Cantarella deeply respects Cordelia's work and her curiosity, probably the most out of any of her other party members. Cantarella believes in Cordelia's potential and will continue to push that potenital, much like Cantarella's own patron pushed her potential. She is also very protective of Cordelia, and will make sure she can achieve her goals without anyone standing in her way.

### Rev

When Cantarella and Rev first met in Richemulot, she was unsure if Rev's nervous nature would ever trust Cantarella. However, as time went on the two have seemed to earn a mutual respect for each other. Cantarella sees Rev as one of the most reliable and values him as a member of the group - he does not complain. In season 2, Cantarella attempted to save Rev's life after he consumed an artifact of the Lightless King. She fed on his fears, and learned much about his troubled past with his family. Cantarella has remian intrigued about Rev's past, but also

### Alphie Graves

Cantarella has interacted the least with Alphie out of everyone in the group, and in some ways it is intentional that she keeps her distance from Alphie. This could possibly be because Cantarella fears threatened by Alphie and his cleric abilities, but she also fears he may gain too much knowledge too quickly.

### Firan Zal'Honan

Firan is Cantarella's warlock patron - the two seem to share a mutual respect for each other. Firan treats Cantarella not as subservient to him, but as an equal. Because of this she remains very loyal to him, and also respects his privacy. Firan has offered much insight on the Grim Domains and various Dark Powers, but has remained quiet about his own past. While Cantarella has tried to probe information about his past, he has kept many things close to his chest - but Cantarella acknowledges the dangers if she was to know more about his power. Alongside her appreciation for her patron, Cantarella also tries to remain as independent as she can, trying to solve any issues that come her way by herself before turning to Firan for help - she believes in her own strength that came from his teachings, and doesn't need to turn to him for every inconvenience. In turn, he has helped her in her most desperate of moments, so she is confident she will never walk alone with him by her side.

## Character Stats & Abilities

STATS
 +2

### Abilities

* Cantarella uses her two daggers as psychic blades, dealing extra psychic damage to her targets.
* When Cantarella makes eye contact with an indvidual, she can use her Words of Terror on the victim which compells them to share their darkest fears, which she uses to feed and regain her strength.

### Familiar

As part of her warlock boon, Firan gifted Cantarella with his piebald raven companion, Skeever. Cantarella can use this raven as her familar companion that serves her.

## Trivia

* Cantarella is not her real name -- only three individuals know her true name, besides her dead parents.
* Tracie based the character of Cantarella off Carmilla from Castlevania.
* The name "Cantarella" is an alleged a poison used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been identical with arsenic, sprinkled on food or in wine, in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste". (It is also the name of a Nilfgaardian spy from The Witcher)
* Tracie's Spotify playlist for Cantarella can be found here.

## References

1. ↑ https://youtu.be/4UxPI0lcqzk