#22. Diana

Lore

The Monster Hunter

"Our Father, who reign eternal in crimson slumber. Please deliver us from Diana. She killed Cytorax and Bob last week, and I think she’s back because the building is on fire."

– From a hasty prayer by Alan, priest of Belzar


"I need a dozen quicksilver bombs, five quarters of holy water, two hundred silver bullets. And one stake if you've got it."

– Diana to Octavius, Quartermaster of the Order

As the story goes...

For a thousand years, the Order of the Exalted Lion has defended mundane society from the supernatural with a trademark combination of elite training and exotic weaponry.

As the commander of the Order’s hunters, Diana drove Europe’s vampire population into exile and eliminated the self-appointed Unseelie Diplomat. She slew the Mad King of Batavia, then slew the Vampire Mad King of Batavia, then finally slew the Ghost Vampire Mad King of Batavia.

She is the national hero of Batavia. But when she uncovered corruption in the Order itself, Diana fell into a trap. Breaking into the chambers of the Supreme Patriarch, Diana was seized by dark magic that drove her into a deathlike sleep. She fought for moments of wakefulness – catching a glimpse of the Order’s subbasements, of a winding forest of thorns, and finally of an expanse of darkness filled with screams.

Diana awoke on the shores of Nastrond, a land deep within Helheim. The endless dead sensed the unfamiliar warmth of mortality and swarmed to consume it. And so she fought. She held the damned at bay for eleven days before the Goddess Hel herself found her and ejected the troublemaker. A Valkyrie found Diana lost between worlds, and offered her a place in Valhalla.

In Valhalla, Diana is a ruthless combatant and a force for justice. But she seethes that monsters like Azoth and Mordex are allowed in the warrior’s heaven, and plots their destruction.

Connections

• Betrayed and ambushed by archnemesis Mordex when she was the only one who stood between him and the Geminius Virens (a cursed artifact he desired)

Context

Diana's archetype seems to be "monster hunter" (hunter of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc.), or general "Gothic horror hero." Believe it or not, Diana's archetype can provide the basis for when she lived her mortal life. All these mentions of monsters, fairies (Unseelie Diplomat), and undead find many sources in Romanticism, which is considered to have reached its peak in the time between 1800 and 1850. The Romantic movement permeated literature, art, and music at the time, and emphasized emotion, individualism, and oftentimes the supernatural.

During this time (and a little before), there was a revived interest in the Gothic style of architecture and anything else from the medieval time period. This led to the origin of the Gothic horror novel, and the very first one was The Castle of Otranto, written in 1764. That novel borrowed a lot from Shakespeare. The Gothic horror genre continued into the Victorian era (think Lord Byron and Mary Shelley), and even a bit later (Edgar Allen Poe, anyone?). What we consider "modern" horror finally took over by the 1950s.

Now that we've established what Gothic horror is, what creatures come to mind when you think of Gothic horror? How about Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, or werewolves? The first two find their roots in the Romantic or post-Romantic times. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, while Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897. Werewolves seem to have even older origins, but more information on werewolves (and lycanthropes in general) can be found on Mordex's page.

Based on all of this information, I think it's safe to say that Diana lived sometime in the mid-19th century, possibly late 18th century in Europe. Why Europe? The mention of Batavia, as well as the fact that the Order of the Exalted Lion certainly had an English member in medieval times (Sir Roland), and most things Gothic- or Romantic-related was connected with some part of Europe. (sure, the Romantic movement affected America, but most of what we consider "Gothic" comes from Europe, Bram Stoker was Irish, Mary Shelley was British, even the writer of The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole, was British).

Blasters and bow are fitting weapons for a monster hunter, though many other weapons would certainly fit the bill. These ammunition-based weapons, however, are especially fitting, because most classic monsters were believed to have a weakness to silver bullets or arrows (or any silvered weapon, really, but it was usually ammunition; besides, you really want to go toe-to-toe with a werewolf instead of shooting from a distance?).