COUNT DRACULA + VOICE HEADCANON
bold is for always/often, italic is for situational/sometimes. strike is for never.
ACCENT: “country” | “backwoods” │ “sailor” │ “upper class” │ “city slicker” | foreign speaker │ refined
ELOQUENCE: educated │self-taught | uneducated | doesn’t use conjunctions | shortens words | omits entire words on occasion | mixes up words │ just makes up their own words! │ archaic english │dependent on mood or setting |doesn’t use contractions
TONE: loud │ soft │ room volume │ high pitched │ low pitched │seductive │velvety │ speech impediment │ abrasive │ gruff │ shrill │ booming │ matter-of-fact │ toneless │ husky │gravelly │ breathy │ nasal │ barking │ chatty │ condescending │ musical │ suave │ world-weary │ brash │ authoritative
HABITS: refers to self in third person │ incorporates different languages/terms/sayings │ uses gender-specific terms │ adapts to audience │ changes pitch around animals or children │ shifts tone when lying │ gives others nicknames │ uses terms of respect towards others
ㅤㅤㅤOTHER BITS: his predominant language while growing up was daco-romanian, specifically the crișana dialect with several argots borrowed from banat dialects. his accent was, however, warped as hungarian customs and language were further forced on the transylvanian population as corvinus’ power (and that of his warlords) grew. he was communicative in what he could learn from the ruthenian ( his rusyn roots especially pushing his interest here ) roma, kaikavian, slovakian, ukranian and istriot languages (as we see in the book as well, this is canon), meaning that he had likely been a polyglot since a very young age - as is wanted of the students of scholomance. he is diligent in learning language, often spending full days without sleep just to memorize grammatical rules and language cadences so that he does not sound ignorant when he speaks. this trickled down into when he learned english, which he gratefully practiced with his captive friend, jonathan harker, saying that he wanted nothing more than to eventually lose his accent.
he puts emphasis on the middle vowels of a word, as is traditional in eastern european languages. ivan becames eevan, igor becomes eegor, gregori becomes grygoree. the emphasis on words turns to identification for action. ‘if that is what you wish’ becomes ‘if that is what you wish.’ in the count’s mouth. i take a lot of inspiration on his cadence and manner of speech from béla lugosi (rip) who basically made this role his own, and who was unfortunately mocked for his accent for decades after his portrayal/was ultimately denied success because of it in hollywood.
he does not tend to speak in modern english, however. he did not have the time to study it as well in such a fast-moving world as the future. instead, he slips into the familiar unless he is corrected. he will still say words like pray you to insist upon something, or say that to explain himself is to illustrate his meaning. he is also prone to going off on wild tangents if a topic particularly excites him.
ㅤㅤㅤVOICE CLAIM REFERENCE: i utilize my faceclaim for his voice claim as well, especially in the deep sort of ‘quiet’ / nonthreatening way he talks. i will include both here. his singing voice (ivan ozhogin) is very deep, very ... baritone, melodic, very powerful and controlled. ( see here and also especially here ) although the count almost never sings since his death, and has since become somewhat rusty. vampiric power somewhat takes over here, much like how a siren’s voice works, and serves to bewitch and ensnare the victim that hears it. it sounds beautiful, metallic somewhat, like a bell that has been rung. his speaking voice, however, is much less threatening if he is not yelling. but it is intimidating in some ways. when you can tell he’s angry, but he’s still speaking very softly. it is a little flat, gentle, but very ... emotive, somehow. dangerous in how its easy to be drawn in and made to feel comfortable. especially since he tends to talk with his hands in canon, grabbing things and gesticulating (normally with only three fingers, as my portrayal has a very early case of viking’s disease, which was stagnated at the time of his death.) of with almost every word. assuming he isn’t annoyed, in which case he is very still.
i was tagged in this by @jokethur centuries ago. but i wanted to move it over.
