Carmilla (Castlevania)

"But isn't this world hellish already? People are intrigued by darkness, and covet chaos and power. They are dirty self-centered mongrels. I simply wish the world to properly reflect this image."

- Carmilla.

Carmilla is a recurring enemy of the Belmont Clan and a loyal servant of Dracula, Dark Lord of Castlevania.

Overview
Carmilla often appears as a loyal servant to her master, Dracula, either by plotting to revive him or by awakening from her own long slumber in order to come to his aid. Several incarnations of this vampiress have appeared throughout history, sometimes accompanied by her loyal servant, Laura. She is often referred to as possessing great beauty and allure.

In addition to appearing in several events in hisory, she is also the namesake of certain locations, such as Camilla Cemetery.

Camilla plays a much larger role during a certain battle with the Graves Family as she uses her castle in Austria to plots Dracula's resurrection and eventual rise to power. She is the mastermind behind all events taking place in this story, from the resurrection of Dracula, the summoning of a powerful Necromancer, the abduction of Morris Baldwin, the conversion of Hugh, and the deployment of all creatures to allow her master to regain all his power.

Appearance
In most of her incarnations throughout history, Carmilla is depicted as a giant, floating and androgynous looking Victorian ballroom mask featuring a prominently rounded forehead and ending in a thin, pointy chin. The facade's expression usually displays an ominous evil smirk, but perhaps its most notorious particularity are its eyes or lack thereof. The right one is generally missing and just a deep black hole can be seen in its place (which probably is from where the eye of person wearing the mask is supposed to look through). Nonetheless, it's actually its left eye the one that attracts more attention, which is generally depicted as a red glowing bulge from where the mask sheds copious tears of blood, which in some instances are used as a form of attack.

Carmilla also sometimes appears as a giant and completely nude demonic maiden riding atop an even bigger flying magical skull, which in some cases is revealed to be the being that was wearing the mask. While a different look for her, she still resembles her previous incarnations.

Personality
She is a Vampire Lady and a devoted worshiper of Chaos and follower of the Dark Lord Dracula, and desires to transform the world into a state of constant bloodshed and devastation, which she believes is humanity's true nature.

She is incredibly beautiful and alluring, though said beauty hides her perverse and sadistic persona. Being both lascivious and psychotic, Carmilla views humans as cattle for her pleasure, and enjoys making them suffer. Notably, it was she who began the Witch Hunts across Europe, seemingly on a whim, by corrupting the hearts and minds of mankind. Carmilla is often seen alongside her mindless servant, the once-human Laura, who she seduced and transformed into a feline demoness.

Powers and Abilties
In either of her two forms, Carmilla fighting usually carries on in a similar way, with her being a giant head-like entity that floats about the room and which releases various types of projectiles from its eye sockets. In her true form, she attacks with an array of different forms of dark energy: homing fumes, a barrage of blade-shaped blasts, and a constant stream of energy emitted from the skull's mouth.

Circle of the Moon
In 1830, she successfully resurrected the dark lord, Dracula Vlad Tepes, although not at his full power. To restore his evil might, Camilla planned to sacrifice the vampire hunter Morris Baldwin, father of Hugh Baldwin and mentor to Nathan Graves, during a lunar eclipse of the full moon. As Graves began making headway in an effort to rescue his master, Camilla sent the Necromancer to delay him. Ultimately, under Dracula's approval, she brainwashed Hugh to do her evil bidding.

She later meets Nathan in the Underground Waterway, whom she tries to convince to stop fighting, claiming that darkness is the true nature of the human soul, therefore meaning he shouldn't fight Dracula, but Nathan ignored her point of view, with her then alluding to Hugh's brainwashing by stating the latter was "more honest" with himself.

When confronted by Nathan, Camilla transformed into a winged demoness atop a flying giant skull to fight him. After the battle, she reverts to her base form and tell Nathan that he is too late and there's no way to stop Dracula; then she screams as her body disintegrates into dust. Even as she perishes at the hero's hand, Camilla relished the fact that the rite to restore the Dark Lord was nearly complete.

Myths and Legends
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1871 as a serial narrative in The Dark Blue literary magazine. It tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. Carmilla predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 26 years and has been adapted many times for cinema.

Carmilla, the title character, appears as a member of Austrian nobility, while in reality she's the long-dead Countess Mircalla von Karnstein, returned to life as a vampiress. She is portrayed as possessing lesbian traits and her victims are exclusively female. However, she becomes emotionally involved with the main protagonist, Laura. Carmilla has nocturnal habits but is not confined to the darkness. She has unearthly beauty, can change form at will, and is able to pass through solid walls. Her animal alter ego is a monstrous black cat and she sleeps in a coffin.

In the story, Carmilla takes advantage of the anonymity of a masquerade ball to look for victims. This Carmilla's mask represents the ballroom masks that she wore to the many parties she went to in the novella, and was also used to hide the fact that she was a vampire. Even though Carmilla is a lesser known and far shorter Gothic vampire story than Dracula, the latter has been cited as being heavily influenced by Le Fanu's novella.

Quotes

 * "A female vampire who loves to bathe in blood." - A small descripiton about Carmilla.


 * ''"If only you too would embrace the darkness in your soul, then a new world would unfold before you." - Carmilla to Nathan Graves prior to their encounter.

Image Sources

 * (Carmilla - Castlevania.jpg) Carmilla - Castlevania by Daisy-Flauriossa
 * (Camilla COTM.jpg) Carmilla from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
 * (NP Simon's Quest Vampira.jpg) Weeping Mask from Nintendo Power - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest guide
 * (Castlevania X Rondo of Blood-Carmilla.png) Carmilla from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood instruction booklet
 * (CarmillaXX.jpg) Carmilla from Akumajō Dracula XX: Holy Bible