Morana (モラーナ Morāna?) is a character in the Castlevania animated series. She is one of the four Queens of Styria and a member of the Council of Sisters, serving as a strategist and economist.
She was voiced by Yasmine Al Massri in the English version of the show.
Background[]
Morana is the oldest member of the Council of Sisters and is likely thousands of years old.[1] As a reminder of older times, she wears a kaunakes styled shawl, which could be a hint to her having Mesopotamian or Persian roots.
Appearance[]
Morana's appearance is that of a woman of average height with darker features (with the exception of her eyes, which have a rather light blue hue), implying her to be of Middle Eastern/North African or South Asian descent. Like every other vampire in the animated series, she has pointed ears and sharp fangs. Morana has shoulder-length hair that appears to be thick and wavy. She wears an ultramarine blue and white dress, which she accompanies with a golden shawl. She also wears blue eyeshadow, golden earrings, and a ring on her right ear.
Personality[]
Morana is the chief administrator and organizer of Styria, running the kingdom while Carmilla is away. She is not afraid to share her honest advice with Carmilla. Morana is described as being highly cruel by Lenore; often using torture to get her way with enemies, or just for fun.
Being the one who keeps Styria running, Morana is in close correspondence with Carmilla. She was the first to embrace Carmilla's plan and helps to align Striga to it. Being focused on the present, Morana is Carmilla's prime agent in making her dreams a reality.
Morana works closely with Striga; the two keep the kingdom of Styria running. They have long been lovers and work exceptionally well together - combining solid plans, supporting each other, and pushing each other to greater heights. As Striga makes a military strategy, Morana supports the plans with supply lines, currency, and mercenaries. Morana is excited by the notion of building and running an empire with endless supplies of blood.
As seen during her and Striga's logistical survey of the lands that Carmilla desires to conquer, Morana is shown to be the most realistic of the four. This is seen where she quickly realized the impossibility of Carmilla's conquest using force and only a peaceful method of conquest would allow such a plan to work. With Morana realizing that the immense administrative and logistical difficulty of conquering and policing an area that was essentially nothing more than open fields and forests where humans could easily escape, hide and regroup in for thousands of years to be practically impossible. Morana herself has admitted that she had only thought that Carmilla's plan made sense because she had been taken in by the latter's charisma.
Like Striga and Carmilla, Morana has very little, if no, compassion or sympathy for humanity, seeing them as nothing more than food for her and other vampires, and has literally stated that she saw them no better than livestock that wears shoes and has no regret or guilt at turning them into food. However, despite her abysmal attitude towards them, Morana has acknowledged their ability, adaptability, and intelligence; this is seen where she begrudgingly admitted that humans are smarter and craftier than pigs and livestock and that they will constantly fight back against her and her sister's rule should they successfully conquer the lands from Styria to the Black Sea. Away from Carmilla, Morana was able to realize that controlling such wide lands was near impossible without near-constant, never-ending maintenance from both her and Striga to maintain control of their "Empire," effectively leaving her trapped in Styria trying to keep supply lines intact and leaving Striga constantly battling their captured humans to keep control of them for the rest of their immortal lives.
Despite her being sometimes being fed up with each of their individual personalities, Morana has shown to deeply care for her "sisters" and considers them dear friends of hers. This is seen in her relationships with Carmilla and Lenore, despite finding Carmilla's ambition and expectations of making her schemes work for her, Morana has shown to deeply care for her as her friend and despite realizing the impossibility of her conquest, Morana was shown to have been torn between her desire for freedom with Striga and her loyalty to Carmilla. After Carmilla was killed during her battle with Isaac, Morana was shown to have shed tears of grief over her death and silently mourned for her. Morana was also shown to care for Lenore in the same light despite finding her personality frustrating at times; this is seen where she had attempted to convince Striga that they should go back to the castle and rescue her after sensing Carmilla's death.
Powers and abilities[]
- "So we can deplete the forces rallied against us and deploy the men we buy, as you wish."
- — Morana in "What the Night Brings"
Brilliant administrator: Morana knows all aspects of how a kingdom is run. She is well educated on how effective empires were run in the past and takes inspiration while planning Styria's growth.
- Master accountant: Given her position as the main Administration Official of Styria, Morana is shown to be a highly skilled accountant and is implied to be the one in charge of the country's commerce, economy and wealth. This is seen during her conversation with Striga in acquiring more help for their endeavors via mercenaries, where Morana had already calculated the exact amount needed to bribe them to switch sides to instead help them instead of their enemy nations. Morana has also been the one implied to handle funding for Styria's armies and government and is responsible for allocating the needed funding for its day-to-day needs and activities.
Appearances[]
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Quotes[]
- – Striga: Soldiers, mercenaries, local forces — what's the difference?
- – Morana: The difference is that mercenaries can be rehired by the opposing side for more money!
- – Striga: But... there's no honor in that.
- – Morana: No, but there is money.
- — ("What the Night Brings")
- – Carmilla: But we do have Hector.
- – Morana: We have a half dead thing in the cell that will have no interest at all in helping you do anything.
- – Carmilla: He is quite pliable.
- – Morana: He was quite pliable once. And then you got him to betray his master, made him see all his goals destroyed, beat the *** out of him, and dragged him eight hundred miles on the end of a rope. I don't see him being happy to do you any other favors, Carmilla.
- — ("The Reparation of My Heart").
- "We lost so many soldiers at Braila that I'm not even sure how we hold off an attack from our neighbors right now. ("The Reparation of My Heart")
- "But surely you know how the regions surrounding Styria defend their borders against the "four terrible vampire in the castle"." ("What the Night Brings")
- "It's because of Carmilla that we got to fall in love in a fairy-tale castle." ("I Have a Scheme")
- "We would own and control the land from here to Braila. Almost to the Black Sea. That's not a country or a region, love. That's an empire!" ("I Have a Scheme")
- "Imagine. An empire ruled by four women." ("I Have a Scheme")
- "We can have a drink and tell you how we'll be ruling an empire next year." ("What the Night Brings")
- "I changed my mind. Have soldiers carry me around the countryside on a bed." ("Walk Away")
- "This is all wrong... We've been touring-- Not even the entire territory Carmilla marked out, just a piece of it" ("Walk Away")
- "It's not war. There are no two sides to this. It's a rolling invasion and entrapment of hundreds of thousands of humans." ("Walk Away")
- "We'd be doing it forever. You'd be out here fighting forever. I'd be back at Styria trying to keep supply lines intact forever." ("Walk Away")
- "Striga... you and I? It's not like we ever really needed anything else." ("You Don't Deserve My Blood")
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
.jpg "Morana and Striga (2).jpg (199 KB)")
Concept art[]
_Model.jpg "Morana Season 4 (Riding Outfit) Model.jpg (579 KB)")
Promotional art[]
Trivia[]
- Katie Silva, the character design supervisor for Season 3 described Morana's design:
- For Morana, I wanted her to look really out of time but also regal. Vampires wear more modern fashion than humans in Castlevania [Alucard invented the V-neck], so there's more room to play with clothing periods. Morana's the oldest, probably thousands of years old. Her shawl is a kaunake-type thing that she's either kept for thousands of years or adapted from something else as a reminder of older times, while her outfit top is more Elizabethan. Morana has modern makeup because she's an icon, and one of the biggest challenges was trying to do that eye makeup myself at 2 a.m. to test my abilities.[1]
- Morana wears a ring on her ear based on the original Carmilla's mask (particularly, to its depiction in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest). Striga and Lenore wear one as well, although the former has it on her hair and the latter on her hand.[2]
- Her name is possibly a reference to Marzanna, also known as "Morana" in some countries, the goddess of death and harvest in Slavic paganism.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Blood, Sweat and Vampires of Anime Castlevania - Katie Silva, character design supervisor for Season 3, September 22, 2020.
- ↑ @NXOnNeltflix - Twitter, April 7, 2020.