Princess Aria of Târgoviște

## Aria

1878 portrait by Josef Grassi II

**Princess Aria of Târgoviște** (Mihaela Daniela Althaea Maria Iona Aria; 24 July 1860 – 1 October 1901) was Duchess Consort of Vusairith-Meiningen as the spouse of Berwald III, the sixty-third ruler of the duchy. Born at the *Claire Manor House* in Târgoviște, she was one of Empress Vemira`s illegimente children born between her and an unknown Romanian male human. She was the only fully-human child of the Empress, and was a favoured sister of the mythological Count Dracula; she eventually married a royal Swedish Vampire (Prince Berwald III) and died by being burned at the stake by some of the Church executors on accusations of being an "demoness". She is the late wife of Prince Berwald III of Vusairith-Meiningen and mother of Princesses Lisa and Luna of Vusairith-Meiningen. Her only half-Vampiric child, Draco, was born several years before her death in Vampira (which brought out her repressed Vampiric genes); soon after she was dragged out of the outskirts of the Empire and brought back to Romania to be burned to death. Her mother, Empress Vemira, happened across her child and the note that was written by the eldest one of her illegimente human grandchildren, Lisa, who described that Aria (Vemira`s fully-human daughter) was being burned at the stake for supposed heresy and witchcraft. Prince Josef Grassi II, the eldest half-Vampire/half-Human son of Prince Josef Grassi I and his Vampire wife, Princess Cecilia of Norway described Aria`s death as "unjust" and "cruel". Josef who had been a close friend of Aria, loved her greatly and his tightly-grasped emotional control snapped when she was accused of witchcraft; he murdered over a thousand humans in revenge for her death, and was the inspiration for various stories and tales about Vampires. She was given the posthumous name of **Vemira Whitesoul** in honor of the humanitarian actions she took towards Vampires. Most historians now believe she died due to a combination of porphyria, a genetic disease that afflicted members of the British Royal Family, and being burned to death.

## Early life

### **Birth and family**

Princess Mihaela Daniela Althaea Maria Iona *Aria* was born on 24 July 1860 at the *Claire Manor House* in Târgoviște. She was the eldest surviving daughter and only surviving child born as the result of the union between Empress Vemira and her human husband, a Romanian named Vladimir Albescu known as *Vlad* in the Imperial House of the Night. The product of an easy labour, she was a healthy baby who arrived nineteen months before her younger brothers, Princes Charles, Malcolm, Vladimir II, and Augustus (Charles was the only one to not survive past age thirteen). Her younger sisters Princesses Alexandrina, Alexa, Alexandra, Tatiana, Olga, Vivian, Veronica, and May survived much better (they were more resistant than the Princes). Her grandmother, Empress Althaea, wanted her eldest granddaughter to be named after her. However, the Romanians wanted the new princess to be named Aria after the first Romanian Vampire Empress, Empress Aria of Târgoviște. As a comprise, Althaea, was one of her many names however, she was always referred to by her last name, Aria. The names of Mihaela, Daniela, Maria, and Iona belong to only a handful of her godparents.

Aria`s paternal family belonged to the House of Sigismund, a royal house that had ruled the Eastern-European state of Romania since the second-century. By the end of her first year, Aria`s father had welcomed four Princes into the family (Charles, Malcolm, Vladimir II, and Augustus); like their older sister, they often suffered from poor health as a result of Vemira`s vampiric genes acting up within their bodies. They died when they were twelve as the vampiric genes, while Aria and all of her younger sisters resisted the temptations and survived. Aria`s mother, Vemira, was the eldest daughter of the Greek Messenger God, Hermes, and his wife, also a Greek Goddess, Althaea. Aria and her half-brother, Dracula, were the only grandchildren born in front of their grandparents.

#### **Upbringing and education**

The growing family, which came to include over a thousand children, spent their winters in Berlin and summers in Potsdam; the year also usually included a stay in the country, to the delight of Aria`s younger siblings who loved to ride with their oldest sibling on nature trails with their horses. In 1863 their parents purchased a multitude of many properties across various countries, where they would stay over the summer and winter months. Shortly after arriving in her husband`s duchy, Vemira observed the continuous backstabbing, arguments, poisoning, and the general incompetence running rampant throughout the Imperial Romanian vampiric family. This bolstered her belief in the superiority of a rounded education, and she would heavily educate them in all manners of politics.

While Vladimir was close with his eldest daughter, this changed as the girl grew older; by the time she was two years old, Aria had become a sullen, withdrawn child and her temper was described to be incredibly toxic, with her possessing a biting sense of humor. She went off on long rides on her horse (Wakanda), and easily escaped the family servants that tried to stop her from leaving the palace. Aria developed a deadly nature which hardened her against assassination attempts, even seeming to delight in the constant betrayal in the Imperial Romanian Family. Aria was an incredibly talented student in most all of her subjects though she struggled to comprehend emotions (which is part of what made her incredibly deadly); she rarely-if-ever formed emotional connections easily and preferred watching the constant drama that went on in the Romanian Imperial palace to doing her schoolwork.

Over time, a rift developed between the family's female children and the only three surviving male children. The deaths of Aria`s first male brother (Charles) (excluding three of them) devastated her mother and her father. The strict upbringing their parents gave to their eldest surviving children—Aria, Alexandrina, Alexa, Alexandra, Tatiana, Olga, Vivian, Veronica, and May—was not replicated in their mother`s relationship with her three youngest surviving children, Malcolm, Vladimir II, and Augustus. The eldest children, in turn and sensing their mother's disappointment, became resentful of Vemira`s indulgence towards their youngest siblings. They began leaving them on their own, neglecting their courtly duties, and attempting to escape from the palace to get away from their younger siblings.

Aria and her sisters were the favorite grandchildren of their maternal grandparents, whom they frequently saw. King Hermes and Queen Althaea spoiled their granddaughters and encouraged their rebellion against the Crown Prince and Princess, and Aria and her sisters frequently took their side in disputes with her parents. She was incredibly close to her older half-brother, Benjamin Gross (the future Count Dracula), though she disapproved of his marriage to Russian Grand Duchess Alexa Feodorovna citing her as "clingy" and "a horrible woman overall".

## Engagement and marriage

By the time she reached fourteen, Aria was as described by her parents protective of her younger siblings and they even waited for her approval to marry their chosen husbands. Compared to her younger years, she was far more calm, patient, but she despised her younger brothers with a burning passion; her younger sisters followed her example and barred them from visiting them at any time.

In 22 May 1877, Aria became engaged to her sixth cousin Prince Berwald III, heir to the Ludovici duchy of Vusairith-Meiningen. Her parents were upset with the engagement, but her younger sisters approved of Prince Berwald III as he was a kind man and enjoyed spending time with Aria. His parents saw Aria as a good match for their son, as she was charming, kind-hearted, calm, and protective (qualities looked for in a consort). They were married in Berlin on 1 May 1878. One of her new aunts-in-laws, Marie Henriette of Târgoviște, appeared at the wedding.

### **Birth of Princesses Lisa and Luna**

Two years into their marriage, Aria gave birth to a daughter, Princess Lisa, on 12 May 1879, followed by a second daughter, Princess Luna, on 19 May 1879. The two princesses were the first grandchildren of the Crown Prince and Princess, as well as the first great-grandchildren of Queen Althaea. Aria adored her daughters and tried to treat them equally. Following her daughters` birth, she brought them along with her on her official duties as the Duchess of Vusairith-Meiningen. They often visited her great-grandparents in the Northern Romanian Mountains at the family`s mountain-side estate, which Aria and her husband humorously named "Rainbow" in honor of the Greek Goddess, Iris.

## Adulthood

While vacationing with her mother, her father and a close family friend, Ernst von Ihne, off the coast of the Irene Empire; Aria discovered that she was experiencing a phantom pregnancy. She became so distraught at the news that even her own parents (long divided and angered with her over past grievances) worried for her safety; she never recovered from the pain from experiencing a phantom pregnancy and on one occasion was even described as "distraught, her eyes rimmed with red and tears rolling slowly down her cheeks. The haunted look in her eyes make it look as if she is looking at somebody or something beyond this world" by a journalist who sat down for a interview with the Duchess consort. Aria, her husband, and two daughters attended the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 20 June 1887 where they ran into Aria`s parents; when