( because who knows how long a bio is going to take me........ rip )
-born in hungary in 1560, the niece of both the king of poland/prince of transylvania, & the former voivode of transylvania, her family basically controlled the entire country.
-her name is actually erzsébet, but the westernized version elizabeth is both more recognizable & more convenient, so? bonus points i guess if your muse knows her & uses her real name?
-she was engaged to her husband at 11 as a political arrangement between their families that she was happy with from a strategic perspective i mean his wedding present to her was a freaking castle, but she did have an affair with a servant boy that resulted in pregnancy when she was 13. she was hidden from public view until the baby’s birth, who was sent away with a woman trusted by her family to wallachia. (liz won’t talk about it, but her daughter’s name was anasztázia,)
-liz eventually married her husband ferenc when she was 15, & was mostly left in charge of running & defending his estates + caring for the people in the area while he was off at war, after he was made the chief commander of hungary’s troops in their war against the ottoman empire.
-ferenc fell ill in 1601 & debilitating leg pain eventually led to permanent disability, before he died in 1604, leaving liz ownership of his money & estates, as well as their 6 children.
-while liz’s relationship with her husband was pretty much purely a business partnership deal, they were married for 29 years once he died, & there was a level of affection there, however slight. mostly all of her feelings were directed towards her children, who she did love & care for significantly, although they were raised by governesses like she was.
-some time before her husband’s death liz was attacked not far from their home in csejte while travelling, by some kind of ‘beast’ (vampire), & as the only survivor of the attack she was discovered afterwards & returned home for treatment. local physicians had no idea what was wrong, but she seemingly recovered on her own from her injuries... despite that, she was never the same - the blood lust & cruelty she would later become infamous for growing in secret while she changed into something no longer human. her husband’s physical decline & eventual death only aided in hiding her activities as she learned to feed. that is, until her body count grew & rumors began to spread across the country of her actions, gaining the attention of other powerful political figures.
-after her “trial” (we’re using that term... very loosely) she was sentenced to life imprisonment, & bricked into a windowless room in her castle in csejte until her “death” 4 years later- in reality, she simply escaped after planting the idea of an illness into the minds of her guards, leaving the body of another woman in her place. No one had seen her during those years of confinement, after all, since her only interaction was through food slots built in to the room’s walls. & bricks are nothing to a vampire, she simply waited for the right time to escape.
-she’s used many pseudonyms over the years & traveled around most of the world, & has picked up english as well as many other languages since her “death”. i haven’t compiled what i feel like is a realistic list yet, so i’ve only listed her originally known languages + english in my info for now- she’s 457 & started out fluent in 4 languages when her husband was practically illiterate, which was fairly common for the time, so the possibilities for her now are kind of endless..
-her current alias is elizabeth dandridge, & she’s working as a visiting night professor of european art, generally moving on before people start asking questions or her victim count draws too much attention.
-liz is bisexual. although she’s like.... -99% likely to have any inclination for romantic feelings towards someone. it’s possible, just not all that likely given her personality.
-that said, she strongly prefers feeding on women- she’s not going to turn down an easy meal if it’s a man & she’s hungry, for example, but if she’s choosing she’s always going to pick a female victim. it’s kind of just a preference for women in general on top of habit, if that makes sense?
-abilities: immortality, suggestive mind control/glamour, enhanced speed, enhanced strength, enhanced agility, enhanced endurance, stealth, echo-sensitive hearing akin to a bat’s, shadow manipulation, blood absorption, shape-shifting (bat), perfect vision at night, able to differentiate & track humans by the scent of their blood, incredibly sensitive sense of touch, resistance to injury, enhanced regenerative abilities
-weaknesses: sunlight, silver, salt, garlic, running water, fire, religious symbols, holy water, churches etc, wooden stakes, decapitation, invitation
-how to kill her: stake her through the heart/head with a wooden stake to immobilize her, then decapitate her, then burn her remains in a fire using fresh wood until her bones have turned to ash, then scatter or bury the ashes.
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