Actrise

Actrise's History

Actrise is a woman whose ambition lies in power and beauty (her own, naturally). In an attempt to fulfill her wishes by gaining immortality, Actrise pledged herself to Dracula's service by slaying 100 children... among which was her own child. She became one of Dracula's lieutenants along with Death and Gilles de Rais, and together the three sought the resurrection of their Dark Lord.

At some point during this time, she alongside de Rais also proceeded to vampirize J. A. Oldrey, thus forcing his family, Mary and Henry, to cut ties from him.[1]

During Cornell's infiltration of the dark castle, Actrise only appeared once to taunt the man-beast after the latter defeated de Rais in a brief duel, and also hinted alongside her ally that Cornell's man-beast abilities would make a worthy opponent for Dracula regarding the latter's goals. She appeared again only after Dracula had been defeated by Cornell. She was present in the throne room as Death sacrificed Cornell's wolf form in the ritual to revive their Dark Lord.

After Dracula was reborn as a child, the three lieutenants conceived a plan to stop the two vampire hunters who had come to investigate the dark happenings around the castle. In order to stop the hunters, Death and Actrise each took to distracting and impeding their progress through the castle, while Gilles assumed the role of Dracula. As a fellow practitioner of magic, Actrise pursued Carrie. She would offer the girl the opportunity to join her side, which was naturally refused. In a later effort to break the girl's spirit, Actrise had Carrie battle against another Fernandez warrior who had been turned into a vampire.

After Carrie had climbed through the Tower of Sorcery and reached the top of the Room of Clocks, Actrise confronted Carrie one last time. She shared her story with the girl of how she became an evil sorceress in the service of darkness. Actrise herself showed no remorse for her actions, yet Carrie felt only pity for the "pathetic" woman, which infuriated Actrise, also expressing irritation at how Carrie's appearance reminded her of her own child before they died. Proclaiming to love nobody but herself, Actrise moved to the center of tower and challenged Carrie herself, vowing to gouge the girl's heart out and present it to Dracula.

In one last attempt to stop Carrie from reaching Dracula's throne room, she engaged the girl in a battle of magic. She used her dark magic to summon crystal shards in an attempt to impale her opponent. Actrise's vanity and over-confidence in her own power would unfortunately be her downfall. The witch proved to be no match for a descendant of the Belnades Clan, and perished by Carrie's hand. While dying, she could only express disbelief that she could even be bested in battle, ultimately being sealed inside one of her own magic crystals and then promptly shattering with her still inside (although not before revealing a bit of her true physical appearance). Actrise died never realizing that she was little more than an expendable pawn for Dracula's schemes.