Araya Calavera

* Human
* Hunter

**Araya Calavera** is a supporting character who has appeared in Season 3 and Season 4 of *Teen Wolf*. She is the matriarch of the Calavera family, who, like the Argent family, are Hunters of the supernatural, and she is also the mother of Severo Calavera. Both she and her son live in Mexico and run a nightclub out of their family's compound. Araya was first introduced in *More Bad Than Good*, when she and Severo were torturing Derek and Peter Hale for information about a mysterious shapeshifter known as *La Loba* though the two had no idea who *La Loba* was; in fact, Derek assumed she was talking about his younger sister Cora Hale, who had also spent a great deal of time in Central and South America.

Araya was then seen again in *Echo House*, when she came to visit Chris Argent under the guise of being his lawyer after he was wrongly imprisoned for the death of Katashi; while there, she reminded him of his duties as a Hunter and an Argent and made some cryptic comments about his family's recent struggles. Though Chris believed she was alluding to his daughter Allison, it would later be revealed that she was actually talking about his sister, Kate.

Araya was not seen again until Season 4's *The Dark Moon*, when Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, Kira Yukimura, Malia Tate, and Lydia Martin came to her home in Mexico under the mistaken belief that Araya and Severo had taken Derek hostage again. However, the McCall Pack were quickly overpowered using wolfsbane fog and cattle-prod tasers, which led the Calaveras to force Kira to torture Scott with electricity in order to get him to realize who *really* took Derek-- Kate Argent, who had actually survived her mauling from Peter and had turned into a Werejaguar known as *La Loba*. Once Scott realized that Kate had turned instead of dying, Araya sent the pack with Braeden, a mercenary who was intended to guide them to a church called *La Iglesia* in a town ruined by an earthquake, where Araya believed Kate was holding Derek. Before they left, Araya warned Scott that if he bit a human and turned them into a Werewolf, she would come for him in Beacon Hills.

She was later involved in the battle at *La Iglesia* against Kate and her Berserkers, and though the Berserkers were eventually killed, Kate managed to escape. Afterward, Araya helped to incapacitate Peter Hale before making a deal with Chris—if he helped the Calaveras track down Kate once and for all, they would leave the McCall Pack, including Scott's new Beta Liam Dunbar, alone. It can be assumed that she is still in the process of tracking Kate's movements.

Araya is a member of the **Calavera Family** and an ally of the **Argent Family**.

## Early life

Virtually nothing is known about Araya's life prior to her introduction, aside from the fact that she has been the matriarch of the Calavera family for decades, has a son, Severo, in his early-mid 40s, and that they live in Mexico and run a nightclub out of their compound. *("More Bad Than Good")*, *("Echo House")*, *("The Dark Moon")* According to Araya, she has been a Hunter for at least forty years.

## Throughout *Teen Wolf*

* Season 3B
* Season 4

Araya made her first appearance in *More Bad Than Good*, where she walked into the room while Severo was threatening to cut off Derek Hale's head with a chainsaw. She told Severo in Spanish that he didn't need to be so hard, and when Derek claimed he didn't speak Spanish, she insisted that she knew he spoke many languages. She then took out a small curved knife and demanded to know where *La Loba* was, though Derek continued to argue that he had no idea of whom she was speaking. After Peter made several snarky comments, Araya remarked that she knew he would eventually talk because he loves the sound of his own voice. When Peter refused to say anything, Araya cut off his left ring finger with the blade and let it drop claw-first onto the floor, where it embedded itself into the floor.
Later that afternoon, Araya was likely present upstairs when Braeden, a mercenary hired by Deucalion, broke into the house and incapacitated everyone before breaking Derek out as she was hired to do, though she also reluctantly freed Peter as well despite making her dislike for him known. The three then went upstairs, where they found that Araya was in possession of Talia Hale's claws in the Hale family Triskelion Urn, which they then stole before leaving and returning to Beacon Hills.
In *Echo House*, Chris Argent, who had been arrested after being framed for Katashi's murder by Void Stiles, was called into the interrogation room to speak with his "lawyer," who was eventually revealed to be Araya pretending to be a lawyer in order to speak with him. Chris assumed that Araya was there to talk about the fact that the Argents had changed their Code from the traditional Hunter's Code "We hunt those who hunt us," (or, for the Argents, *"Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent")* to Allison's new Code, "We protect those who cannot protect themselves," (or *"Nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger eux-mêmes"*), and Araya reminded him that the Code was just not a code of behavior, but one of honor that has bound their Hunter families for generations.
When Chris coldly asked where in Code stated that his wife Victoria had to kill herself, Araya insisted that Victoria had honored their legacy with her dying breath, but Chris retorted that she would have better honored her daughter by living to continue to raise her. Araya then cryptically brought up the fact that his family was very complicated, leading Chris to (wrongly) assume that Araya was there to talk about Allison and asked her why she was fishing for information about his daughter. Instead of answering his question, Araya stood up to leave and simply replied, "I don't fish, *mijo*-- I hunt." It would later be revealed that she had come not to seek out information about Allison, but to drop a hint that Chris' sister Kate Argent was *La Loba*, and had survived her mauling by Peter Hale, whose deep claw gashes had transformed her into a Werejaguar rather than killed her.
In *Insatiable*, Chris met with Derek at Derek's loft after the latter had rescued Ethan and Aiden from a mysterious shooter in the woods who used a shotgun with wolfsbane-laced rounds to attack them in the Beacon Hills Preserve. Derek showed Chris a shotgun shell he had recovered from the woods and asked him if it belonged to Araya, but Chris said no before recognizing the symbol carved and gasping in shock, stating that what he was seeing wasn't possible. Unbeknownst to anyone else at the time, the shells belonged to Kate Argent, and had the Argent *fleur-de-lis* carved into it.
In *The Divine Move*, Severo Calavera, likely on Araya's orders, stormed into Derek's loft with a half-dozen fellow Hunters and once again questioned him on where *La Loba* was, as they had tracked her to Beacon Hills and knew that Derek, whether he knew it or not, had crossed her path. Derek once again assumed they were talking about Cora and stated that he wouldn't be telling them where his sister was, but when Kate Argent suddenly appeared in the loft after fighting and incapacitating the other Hunters, it was revealed that Araya and Severo were referring to Kate when they talked about *La Loba*, and that she gained this name because of her transformation into a Werejaguar.

In *The Dark Moon*, Scott McCall became worried about Derek Hale's lack of communication for the past few weeks and went to Derek's loft to investigate, where he found dozens of rifle shells with a skull carved into the metal, which Alan Deaton informed him was the symbol of the Calavera Hunter family who reside in Mexico. Assuming the Calaveras had captured Derek, Scott, Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin, Kira Yukimura, and Malia Tate (who together are known as the McCall Pack) decided to travel to Mexico to infiltrate the Calavera compound and break Derek out.
After the supernatural members of the pack (Scott, Kira, and Malia) sneaked into the club run by the Calaveras in a wing of their compound, Stiles and Lydia used a tarot card with a skull on it to gain legitimate entry inside. Despite being a human and a Banshee, respectively, Severo Calavera recognized them and approached them at the bar, and when Lydia presented one of the Calaveras' skull-engraved bullet casings, he took the two into their office so they could speak to Araya. They wasted no time telling Araya that they were there for Derek, which amused Araya, particularly when Lydia mentioned she heard that Araya could be bought, and Stiles pulled $50,000 in cash out of his jacket pocket with which to pay her. Araya asked them where a couple of teenagers got that much money before indicating that she knew they had stolen it from Katashi's belongings after he was killed.
When she suggested it was unwise for Stiles and Lydia to come alone, Stiles gave her a look and asked her what made her think she was alone, revealing that he had not only brought a werecoyote and a Kitsune, but had also brought a True Alpha werewolf, a revelation that angered Araya. She asked them if they were aware of their poor timing and wondered if they knew about the meaning of the dark moon, which Lydia replied meant a time of reflection of grief and loss. Araya confirmed this, implying that she was referring to the recently-deceased Allison Argent before asking them why they would risk suffering even more loss for someone like Derek Hale. Stiles informed her that it was because they didn't like to lose, just as Scott managed to steal a walkie-talkie from a guard that he knocked out and instructed Stiles to take $10,000 off of the table, leading Lydia to suggest that it would be better if Araya just took the deal.
However, Araya replied that while she was keen to listen to the warning of a Banshee, she was still going to decline, despite Stiles' pleas that they don't want Derek anyway. Araya then instructed Severo and the other hunters acting as guards to show the McCall Pack how the Calaveras negotiate. Though Scott, Kira, and Malia were able to defeat the guards, they were subsequently incapacitated by wolfsbane fog that Severo pumped into the hallway, knocking Kira and Malia unconscious while Scott struggled to breathe. Scott insisted that all they wanted was Derek, and Araya replied that she knew, though her anxious expression led Scott to realize that neither Araya nor the rest of the Calaveras knew where Derek was either before she electrocuted him in the chest with her cattle-prod taser.
Araya first questioned Lydia outside Consuela's Café on how her powers work, and when Lydia expressed her insecurity about not understanding the full scope of what she could do, Araya asked her to predict which of her guards was going to die before she took a knife and killed one of them. Lydia, horrified, demanded to know why she did that, but Araya simply shrugged and stated that he had stolen from her. Lydia was then brought back to the compound and shackled to a chair next to Scott, with both being hooked up to a car battery. After Kira was brought into the room as well, Araya and Severo explained that they would be given a test-- since Kira, as a Thunder Kitsune, was immune to electricity, she would be in charge of shocking Scott with the electricity if he didn't answer correctly, and if she refused, then Severo would shock Lydia, who wouldn't be able to heal from it like Scott would.
Scott insisted that Kira do whatever they ask, and that he would take it to ensure that Lydia wasn't harmed before they began. Araya confessed that she didn't know who took Derek, and that they were also trying to find him as well, before bringing up the fact that Scott knew who took him. Scott scoffed and asked her why they would come there if they knew who took Derek, and Araya replied that that wasn't an answer before forcing Kira to shock him on the first level. Araya continued to ask him questions about who took Derek, pointing out that it was someone with a vendetta specifically toward the Hales and who was turned, but not by a bite, alternating between interrogating him and shocking him at increasingly high levels until, after Scott was shocked at the highest level, he realized that Derek had been captured by Kate Argent, who had survived her mauling by Peter Hale and had turned into a shapeshifter.
Afterward, Araya apparently told Scott more about what happened with Kate off-screen, namely the fact that when Araya and Severo had heard about the manner of Kate's death, they came to Beacon Hills to make sure she was really dead and found her slowly coming back to life as the full moon drew closer, her fingernails already turning into claws. They then swapped out Kate's body for another and brought her back to Mexico, locking her in the same room in the basement where they locked up the McCall Pack and countless other supernaturals until the night of Kate's first full moon, when Severo gave her a straight razor and instructed her to kill herself with it as per the Code. Not willing to kill herself, Kate had faked her death, killed six of the Calavera Hunters, and escaped the house.
Because Araya was eager to get Kate back to mete out the punishment for killing Hunters and not committing suicide as per the Code, she thought the pack may have better luck finding her and would be better motivated due to their desire to get Derek back. So, as a result, she hired Braeden to take the pack to *La Iglesia*, a church in a town destroyed in an earthquake, where the Calaveras believed she was hiding, so that the pack could rescue Derek and so Braeden could capture Kate and bring her back to the Calaveras. Before they left, Scott asked Araya why she didn't just tell them that Kate was alive, but Araya replied that they never would have believed her. She then explained that she wanted to see what kind of an Alpha Scott really was, and now that she knew, she wanted to warn him that if he bit an innocent human to make a wolf of his own, she would come to Beacon Hills to punish him.
In *I.E.D.*, Araya, concerned by the fact that she had not heard from Braeden for several weeks and afraid that Kate might have killed her, traveled to Beacon Hills with Severo, where they confronted Chris Argent in the basement armory of his apartment complex. She explained that she believed that they needed to stop having others do their work for them where Kate was concerned and reminded him of what she believed to be their true Code-- "We hunt those who hunt us." Still unhappy that Chris had changed the Code for his family and had aligned himself with Werewolves via the McCall Pack, Araya and Severo demanded that Chris repeat the Code until he finally complied.
In *Smoke and Mirrors*, Araya, along with Severo and several dozen Calavera Hunters, joined Chris Argent, Jordan Parrish, Derek Hale, Braeden and the other members of the McCall Pack in their fight against Kate Argent and her Berserker minions. Armed with a silver revolver pistol, Araya went after Kate, who was fully shifted into her Werejaguar form, and upon seeing her, Kate insisted that she was coming after Araya next. Araya used her other hand to pull out her cattle-prod taser and told her that she would soon see how the Calaveras die, implying that they kill instead of being killed.
Though the group ultimately failed at catching Kate, who had fled from La Iglesia after her Berserkers had been killed, they successfully incapacitated her co-conspirator, Peter Hale, with yellow wolfsbane so that he could be transported back to Beacon Hills and imprisoned at Eichen House. She, along with Severo and Chris, approached the members of the McCall Pack after the battle, where Chris informed them that he had made a deal with Araya-- he would join the Calaveras in finally hunting Kate down, and in exchange, they would leave the pack alone and not interfere with their mission of protecting the innocent people of Beacon Hills. Araya then presumably returned to Mexico to continue her search for Kate, where she apparently remains to this day.

## Personality

Araya is a strong, independent, and no-nonsense woman who possesses great leadership skills, as evidenced by her success as the matriarch of the Calavera Hunter family. She has a great sense of honor and loyalty, particularly to her fellow Hunters, and has dedicated her life to upholding the Hunter's Code to the letter by acting as the Code's enforcer. As a result, she has no issue with killing or torturing others when the situation demands it, as evidenced by the fact that she was willing to electrocute Lydia Martin, an innocent, mortal Banshee who had never killed anyone at that point, in order to motivate Scott McCall into talking.

Despite her sense of honor and duty, she also seems to be at least partially motivated by money, as rumor has it that she can be bought for the right price. Araya has also shown herself to be a very cunning and intelligent woman who has a great understanding of human behavior and is able to read people well, allowing her to manipulate them into doing what they want; for example, she knew that threatening to torture Lydia would cause Scott to talk and endure torture himself in order to prevent her from being harmed. Additionally, she seems to make it a point to keep up with the gossip and current events of the supernatural community, as she appeared to know about Stiles Stilinski's possession by the Nogitsune and the fact that Void Stiles killed Katashi, as well as the species of each of the members of the McCall Pack who infiltrated her home prior to even meeting them for the first time.

## Physical Appearance

Araya is a woman of medium stature who appears to be in her late 50s to early 60s, and who has short brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. She dresses in clothing typical of a woman her age, typically choosing khaki slacks with a blouse and cardigan sweater in a style that is both practical and appropriate for most occasions.

## Powers and Abilities

As a human, Araya has no supernatural powers. However, she has been a Hunter for over forty years, and as a result, she has been highly trained in close quarters combat and in the use of a multitude of weapons, though her cattle-prod taser and revolver pistol seem to be her weapons of choice. She is also very knowledgeable about the supernatural, including the various different species, their powers, and particularly their weaknesses, as she has been seen using wolfsbane, mountain ash, and electricity to both incapacitate shapeshifters as well as to protect herself from them.

## Weaknesses

Araya possesses the typical weaknesses of humans, namely mortality, making her vulnerable to illness, injury, and death.

## Equipment

* Wolfsbane fog
* High-voltage cattle-prod taser
* Silver revolver pistol

## Etymology

* **Araya**: Araya is a given name that is a variant of the Armenian *Ara*, which is a name given to both men and women, though more frequently for women. It has both Armenian and Hebrew origins; Ara was the name of the Armenian god of spring and harvest, and later, the god of war and strength, the latter of which makes it a fitting name for Araya Calavera, given that she is the matriarch of a powerful and strong hunter family whose members are trained as warriors, though she is of Mexican and not Armenian origin. Ara is also a feminine variant of the masculine given name *Aram*, which appears to have three possible origins. The first is an English and/or German name derived from Hebrew, as Aram was the fifth son of Shem and thus a grandson of Noah in the Bible. The second origin is also Armenian and means "excellence," while the third origin is Kurdish and means "calm."
	+ Strangely enough, Araya as a surname has much more relevant roots to the character Araya Calavera, as it is a Castilianized form of the Basque and Catalan surname *Araia*, a habitational name from any of the various places of the same name in Spain and their territories, such as Basque Country, Catelló de la Plana, Valencia, and the Canary Islands. On another strange note, it is a variation of the Japanese *Aratai*, meaning "wild valley," or "new valley."
* **Calavera**: Calavera is a Spanish word meaning "skull," as evidenced by the fact that the Calavera hunter family's symbol is the skull, which they etch on their ammunition and entrance cards to their compound. English speakers recognize that the source of the name, which was derived from the French word *calvaire,* and was related to the name of the hill in Jerusalem called Calvary, where Jesus was crucified.

## Trivia

* Araya's family appears to have been associated with the Argent family for many years, though how exactly they came to be allies remains unknown.
* Araya is a big fan of what she calls "the music of youth," such as the dubstep and electronic music that is played at her club. She specifically mentioned being a fan of the Mexican DJ Deorro, as she liked that his music has a "savage energy."
* According to Araya, she has been a Hunter for over forty years, which seems to indicate that she became one in her early adulthood. It is unknown if this means that she married into the family, or if her parents waited quite a while to start to train her, similar to the way that Chris and Victoria Argent waited until their daughter Allison was seventeen before they began to train her.

## Gallery

*Teen Wolf Wiki* has 16 images related to ***Araya Calavera***.