Marius de Romanus
Encyclopedia
Marius de Romanus is a fictional character in The Vampire Chronicles
novels written by Anne Rice
. He is the primary character in the novel Blood and Gold
.
ic slave from the land of Gaul
. In his mortal years, he travelled the Empire
and much of the known world compiling a travelogue/history of the world. Contrary to his appearance in the movie Queen of the Damned (in which he was portrayed by Vincent Perez
), he has white-blonde hair curled at the shoulders and cobalt blue eyes. Due to his age, his skin is often described as being as pale and hard as white marble; to seem "normal" to mortals, he often applies salves and oils to his skin as stated in Blood & Gold.
When he was approximately 40 years old, he was abducted by druid
s who followed the religion of the Gods of the Groves. Marius was taken to the Grove where he was made into a vampire by the God of the Grove just before the yearly Feast of Samhain
. He was instructed by the god to go and try, by any means possible, to find out why vampires all over the world (and the god himself) had been burned or destroyed, even though they had not been exposed to fire or the sun. Marius traveled to Egypt
and became the caretaker of the original two vampires, Akasha and Enkil, Those Who Must Be Kept
.
Marius has lived in many different places in his two thousand years of life. He lived in Antioch
with Pandora for two centuries after becoming the caretaker of Those Who Must Be Kept. After separating from Pandora, he moved to Rome where he had the silent companionship of Avicus and Mael. He went into a coma-like sleep for "far more than half a century" before he was awoken by Avicus and Mael and the three set sail for Constantinople
. It was there he came to know Zenobia. They lived there for a very short while before Marius went off on his own and visited many places while drifting through time before going into the ground again in the year 1200 AD.
He awoke again in 1482 and visited Rome
and Florence
briefly before settling in Venice
as a rich, eccentric gentleman who painted for his own pleasure. Here, he opened a home for neglected and abused boys who had talent, fell in love with the Venetian
courtesan
Bianca Solderini, found the mortal Armand. Many years passed here before the Children of Darkness (led by Santino) destroyed his house, severely injured Marius, and took Armand (whom he had made a vampire
by this time). After the ordeal, Marius and Bianca (who helped him in his recovery and whom he made a vampire to aid him), lived very briefly in many northern Europe
towns before they settled for awhile in Dresden
. Here Marius found Pandora and begged her in vain to leave her companion, Arjun, and return to him. It was also here that Bianca left him after she heard Marius tell Pandora he would send her away if Pandora would be with him again. The last known places where Marius lived and kept the divine vampire parents was on an island in the Aegean Sea
; in a large, bustling city in the early part of the 1900s; and in an unspecified, icy region of the far north in a secluded, underground dwelling. After the events of Queen of the Damned (after living on the 'Night Island' in Miami), it is revealed in the novel Merrick
, that Marius and Pandora had reunited in New Orleans. After New Orleans, in the novel Blood and Gold
, Marius is living in a modern house in San Francisco with Daniel Molloy
.
stated that Marius made Lestat
into a vampire, but it was Magnus that created Lestat as outlined in the novel The Vampire Lestat
.
. He has, however, lost both of his two greatest loves, Pandora and Armand. Pandora due to his temper and pride, and Armand's due to the drastic religion
-driven actions of a Roman
vampire, Santino. Marius does say however, that he sees Pandora and Armand "often".
The Vampire Chronicles
The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century....
novels written by Anne Rice
Anne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
. He is the primary character in the novel Blood and Gold
Blood and Gold
Blood and Gold is the eighth book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series.-Plot summary:The book begins with an ancient vampire of Nordic descent awaking after being frozen in a block of ice for hundreds of years. The vampire, Thorne, meets Marius de Romanus and inquires about Marius' past...
.
Fictional biography
Marius de Romanus was born in 30 BC in Rome. He was an illegitimate child of a Roman patrician and a CeltCelt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic slave from the land of Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
. In his mortal years, he travelled the Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and much of the known world compiling a travelogue/history of the world. Contrary to his appearance in the movie Queen of the Damned (in which he was portrayed by Vincent Perez
Vincent Pérez
Vincent Pérez is a Swiss-born French speaking actor and director. He is best known internationally for playing the title character Ashe Corven in The Crow: City of Angels, and for starring in Queen of the Damned, playing Marius de Romanus...
), he has white-blonde hair curled at the shoulders and cobalt blue eyes. Due to his age, his skin is often described as being as pale and hard as white marble; to seem "normal" to mortals, he often applies salves and oils to his skin as stated in Blood & Gold.
When he was approximately 40 years old, he was abducted by druid
Druid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
s who followed the religion of the Gods of the Groves. Marius was taken to the Grove where he was made into a vampire by the God of the Grove just before the yearly Feast of Samhain
Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
. He was instructed by the god to go and try, by any means possible, to find out why vampires all over the world (and the god himself) had been burned or destroyed, even though they had not been exposed to fire or the sun. Marius traveled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and became the caretaker of the original two vampires, Akasha and Enkil, Those Who Must Be Kept
Those Who Must Be Kept
Those Who Must Be Kept are fictional characters in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. They are portrayed as the progenitors of all vampires, and are thus regarded as the "King and Queen of the Vampires"....
.
Marius has lived in many different places in his two thousand years of life. He lived in Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
with Pandora for two centuries after becoming the caretaker of Those Who Must Be Kept. After separating from Pandora, he moved to Rome where he had the silent companionship of Avicus and Mael. He went into a coma-like sleep for "far more than half a century" before he was awoken by Avicus and Mael and the three set sail for Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. It was there he came to know Zenobia. They lived there for a very short while before Marius went off on his own and visited many places while drifting through time before going into the ground again in the year 1200 AD.
He awoke again in 1482 and visited Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
briefly before settling in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
as a rich, eccentric gentleman who painted for his own pleasure. Here, he opened a home for neglected and abused boys who had talent, fell in love with the Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
Bianca Solderini, found the mortal Armand. Many years passed here before the Children of Darkness (led by Santino) destroyed his house, severely injured Marius, and took Armand (whom he had made a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
by this time). After the ordeal, Marius and Bianca (who helped him in his recovery and whom he made a vampire to aid him), lived very briefly in many northern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
towns before they settled for awhile in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. Here Marius found Pandora and begged her in vain to leave her companion, Arjun, and return to him. It was also here that Bianca left him after she heard Marius tell Pandora he would send her away if Pandora would be with him again. The last known places where Marius lived and kept the divine vampire parents was on an island in the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
; in a large, bustling city in the early part of the 1900s; and in an unspecified, icy region of the far north in a secluded, underground dwelling. After the events of Queen of the Damned (after living on the 'Night Island' in Miami), it is revealed in the novel Merrick
Merrick
-Arts and entertainment:* Zack Merrick , Bassist in band All Time Low* Bryn Merrick , British guitarist with The Damned* Dave Merrick , American oil-on-canvas artist* David Merrick , American theatre producer...
, that Marius and Pandora had reunited in New Orleans. After New Orleans, in the novel Blood and Gold
Blood and Gold
Blood and Gold is the eighth book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series.-Plot summary:The book begins with an ancient vampire of Nordic descent awaking after being frozen in a block of ice for hundreds of years. The vampire, Thorne, meets Marius de Romanus and inquires about Marius' past...
, Marius is living in a modern house in San Francisco with Daniel Molloy
Daniel Molloy
Daniel Molloy is a fictional character in the Vampire Chronicles universe created by Anne Rice. He first appeared in the novel Interview with the Vampire, but also makes appearances in The Queen of the Damned, and briefly in Blood and Gold....
.
Personality and powers
Marius is an exceptionally sagacious, wise and optimistic vampire. He is one of the oldest known to still survive, a true Child of the Millennia. Because he has drunk so often from the vampire queen Akasha from whom the vampiric life fount originated, he is immensely powerful and possesses a number of advanced powers: with his mind, he can ignite objects (pyrokinesis) (the 'Fire Gift'), the ability to fly (the 'Cloud Gift'), very strong telekinesis, and can move with such speed that only other powerful blood drinkers are able to track his movements. He can read minds with ease and can block his own mind from being read by using the 'Mind Gift'. It is also implied in 'Blood and Gold' that he has the ability to hypnotize/put mortals under his thrall ( the 'Spell Gift'). Another ability he possesses is the 'Killing Gift' (killing by using telekinetic pressure/force). He has a great passion for the arts and is a master painter and great scholar. He loves to read and to write. Marius' interests include all manner of intellectual and artistic pursuits. Like most vampires, he is a highly sexual being. He is bisexual, having had both male (e.g., Armand, Botticelli, Avicus) and female lovers (e.g., Pandora, Akasha, Zenobia, Bianca).Fledglings
Marius's fledglings include (in chronological order): Pandora, Armand, Bianca Solderini, Sybelle and Benji. The last two were made for Armand. The movie Queen of the DamnedQueen of the Damned (film)
Queen of the Damned is a 2002 film adaptation of the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, although the film contains many plot elements from the latter novel's predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah as the vampire queen Akasha, and Stuart...
stated that Marius made Lestat
Lestat de Lioncourt
Lestat de Lioncourt is a fictional character appearing in several novels by Anne Rice, including The Vampire Lestat. He is a vampire and the main character in the majority of The Vampire Chronicles, narrated in first person.-Publication history:...
into a vampire, but it was Magnus that created Lestat as outlined in the novel The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat is a novel by Anne Rice, and the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire. Many events in the two books appear to contradict each other...
.
Other relationships
Marius claims to have loved many over the course of his long life. His greatest loves as he claims them are: Pandora, Armand, Akasha, Bianca Solderini, Lestat, Zenobia, BotticelliSandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...
. He has, however, lost both of his two greatest loves, Pandora and Armand. Pandora due to his temper and pride, and Armand's due to the drastic religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
-driven actions of a Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
vampire, Santino. Marius does say however, that he sees Pandora and Armand "often".