#daciana

[louisbxne]

Interview with the Vampire 2.01 (Exclusive Look)

[jaggedjot]

Foreshadowing is opening the season with the tale of a child vampire whose physical otherness causes it to be rejected by its kin, before being killed when they deem it unable to live independently, and how their parent, who is as culpable for their fate as they are grief stricken by it, decides to follow them into death.

[showmey0urfangs]

IWTV S02E01, Unit Stills

[nalyra-dreaming]

Can I say how much I LOVE the way Daciana is written into the story. Like eventhough she is a OC it felt the most anne ricean thing that've seen so far. I think it has to do with the compassion with which she wrote monsters, specially vampires. It felt more like a tribute to her writing than just a remarkable and beautiful plot device. The way she foreshadows Madeline, Magnus, Nicolas, somehow even Gabrielle🖤

She just fit. So, so well. Old, disillusioned, broken.

And yes, the way she foreshadows so much?

And god the choice to make that revenant not only a simple mindless vampire but her beloved child. Someone she cherished, despite and maybe because of everything.

Not just a thing. Not just an abomination. Not just a… mistake.

[malenamoonlight]

With Daciana, Claudia gets to know, for the first time, what it's the ‘mother figure’, and this implicates Louis, because this is his role in her life. The mother who refuses the offer of a new world and fresh blood in order to die with her child. The lost, the misery, the loneliness. The sense of care and resignation. A woman vampire. Daciana even prophesies a brighter future for all of them, but it doesn't matter, she lost her reason.

Maybe Daciana will impact Claudia’s future choice of a female companion.

Maybe Daciana's attitude towards her child, her ‘monster’, is what Claudia will expect from Louis, her mother, in the future, but she won't get it, and it will be really tragic, and I will cry 😢.

[storkmuffin]

Daciana mothering Claudia by telling her exactly what she wants to hear as her final meaningful act alive is making me TEAR MY FUCKING HAIR OUT.

[vampiriamorati]

The show seamlessly inserting discussion of the in the concepts of ‘darkness go to the darkness’ and the ‘Devil’s road’ so to connect the lore and language used in later books actually can be something so emotional and powerful.

Daciana fits so well as an Ann Rice vampire. The way her dialogue flows feels like it could have been written on the page. This old and melancholic figure, the feeling of religious conviction she has about what it is to be a vampire.

[leorel]

she should have worn the crown of thorns

she should’ve been a son

[wander-wren]

oc game: i was tempted to just send you all the emojis but 🧠🌼✨ those are in reverse order from how they appear in the game i think oops anyway these are ones we dont usually get in character questions i genuinely dont think I know their ages soooo enjoy

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

inari- she's very, very attached to her home country of skalmere, even though it's illegal for her to exist there and she'd likely be killed if she ever went back. she has a little skalian flag sewn on the inside of her jacket, over her heart. idk, something about it is really compelling, i guess i connect it to being a minority in a conservative area but not wanting to leave.

daci- okay, i love her bc she's a sweetheart, but i think what i like most is that her magic (empathy, literally) is very sensory-based, so if she chooses to use it around a lot of people she gets sensory overload, and sometimes there's so much she can't fully turn her magic off, and idk, i like angst, i like magic drawbacks, i like people who refuse to let their friends know their magic has drawbacks.

cas- he projects this image of himself as really dark and edgy and scary but he actually has the lowest self-esteem known to man (well, second to inari) and if ollie so much as looks at him sternly he will fold and walk back his most recent bad decision. he's so funny to me for that.

ollie- they're literally just this happy-go-lucky artist kid from the backcountry that you would never expect to be the right hand of mr edgy up there ^^ its a really fun character type to play with

eira- she's this small, babyfaced, anxious girl that literally everyone estimates, kind of rightfully bc she's very out of her depth, but from the first page she's got this undercurrent of strength and ambition and i really love balancing those two things (or unbalancing them and causing her problems)

tyrian- he's the most Some Guy ever, the ken to eira's barbie if you will, and he's the only one without magic or a significant amount of trauma, so he's even more out of his depth than eira is but doing his best. and i love him.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

in age order: cas (19), ollie (18), daci (18), tyrian (17), inari (17), eira (16)

i started this story when i was 15 and younger than them all, and in 8 months i'll be older than all of them. which is insane.

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

there's a forum on the nanowrimo website, where i was spending most of my time back in 2019 (you know this, lexi), and there's a category in there to adopt character names. someone made a list of fantasy names and their meanings, which i went back and found just now:

inari, daciana, eira, and cassian (cas's full name) are all up there. i actually almost named him caspian, bc it means sea, but i had an inkling that "hollow" would be more fitting. also, there's narnia.

fun fact: isleen and isleen wer taken for tyrian's older sister & younger brother, dyah (which i'm now tweaking to either dyha or dyja, but it was dyah for four years) was taken for inari's little sister, and valens was taken for eira's father.

i don't remember where tyrian came from at all, except that two posts above that post someone suggested "tyr?" hm. also, i pulled several names from other posts for the eight gods of daci's religion, as well as alarik for her dog and kiver for a kid who will be important near the end. no one needed to know all of that, i'm just realizing now that this thread was absolutely instrumental to olt's beginnings, lol.

oh, also ollie/oleander isn't from there! they came when i sent a picrew to some friends on a discord server and asked for naming help. i'm no longer in that server, nor do i remember who suggested the name, but i am forever in their debt bc it is incredible.

oh, and last names i just COMPLETELY made up based on vibes, except for gatien. i remember googling for that one, i don't remember what, and i selected it bc it means "watchman," tho i'm not sure what i was going for there anymore. also inari and daci's last names have been nixed bc i grew to hate them, so....i still need to replace those.

[majoraslion]

News Anchor:In other news a woman was sighted dressing up the local ducks.

Integra:What a idiot

-It pans to Daciana being dragged out holding a duck with a hat-

Integra:-Spits tea out- THATS MY IDIOT!

[fuzziiwuzzii]

Daciana, the woman vampire ❤️‍🔥

[pronouncingitwang]

something something the spark in claudia's eyes at "a woman vampire!" the way she starts off translating for louis then just talks to daciana alone ignoring his requests for her to translate what she's saying when it used to just be her and louis and their secret language of telepathy against lestat and the way she uses romanian (a language she worked and killed to learn while louis was slowing them down. when she first introduces him to those soldiers she says he can't speak!!!) aloud instead of telepathically so he knows exactly in what way he's being shut out of the conversation but she's not even thinking about that she's just so happy about finally not being alone

[blueiight]

“what can the damned really say to the damned?” is what this episode asks. and well… “nothing.” is what the show answers us with.

we are introduced to louis and claudia as ultimate outcasts to the mortals around them and vampiredom: louis attempts to maintain the illusions of humanity in similar structures once more, casting grace as his lost wife and claudia as his daughter, as claudia seeks to find other vampires. armand, clearly pissed about the interview as is, decides to draw upon 150 years of prior work experience as a playwright toward the end of this episode, which is quite frankly, a bit much considering how daniel’s already scared shitless. and theres a terrible romantic specter in europe following louis thats named lestat. its a lot going on here, and im bound to not cover everything. i do want to cover dreamstat, and me and you(5x) but i will wait for the season to progress to do that^_^

‘He asked me if we could go home. Home? Can there be a more offensive question? Run back to New Orleans. Pry up his bones, why don’t you? Louis de Pointe du Lac, dead weight.’

louis and claudia’s tension in this particular episode revolve around the killing — or the betrayal that prevented the killing — of lestat. et tu, louis? stowaways on ships, trains, and wagons and a totally alien environment where even the blood is hostile to them, is it any wonder louis dreams of lestat? is it any wonder, having access to louis’s mind, in pursuit of some understanding of vampires beyond the facismile of the nuclear structure, that claudia continues to feel betrayed? i always think to myself, if claudia had qualities that made the average fan more sympathetic to her, would they understand how she was betrayed by louis specifically that night? would they be able to sympathize with claudia’s incredible perserverance despite, and because of, everything thats happened to her? and how that betrayal is the underlying tragedy and romance alike of the narrative that made 1940 mardi gras’s aftermath so haunting that louis in dubai did not remember it or was made not to until the other night?

following that in the flashbacks is when dreamstat first appears, clearly an extension of louis’s own mind at this own point, and he asks louis:

Four years of grim wayfaring, and still no sight of the benevolent vampire. So how does denial manifest itself tonight? … Was she worth it?

its so telling that lestat is the image louis calls upon to embody his most bitter feelings toward claudia in this sequence. dreamstat deserves his own breakdown, especially in relation to louis& claudia’s conversation when she first finds the revenant, as well as the wider events in dubai…

speaking of revenants, morgan in the show is a proto-daniel of sorts an abandoned journalist whos interest in photography exposes the illusion of grace the wife and claudia the impossible daughter, and tries to understand louis through the perspective of the mortal hes been given — did he go AWOL, or is he a black bolshevik? louis when questioned absconds, and closes up what little of himself he’s sold to morgan. its a smart way to include him in the narrative, as morgan is witness to emilia’s beheading after she was attacked by said revenant… and louis turns his head, truly embodying the detachment of the vampire in this moment. human affairs, their problem. this is a really good example of whats meant by ‘human affairs’ in the show, by the way. this episode features claudia & louis facing racism from military to children, and thats not framed as a ‘human affair’, but as one of many haunting aspects of their immortal existences.

claudia, in the pursuit for vampires, continues the metaphor of adoption in how she tries to find some sort of companionship and her current understanding of romania as this ancestral home to the vampire. whats also noticeable here is how claudia trying to make sense of centuries of legends is a striking parallel to how louis in the present day attempts to make sense of whats ‘true’ and ‘untrue’ from her diaries. claudia’s private accounts in the present that she never intended to be so deeply analyzed as anything other than her internal narrative in the moments she wrote them has become, to louis, a similar sort of legend thats necessary to decode for his own sense of self.

She writes here, ‘I do not dream.’ I can confirm that. At least, that’s what she said to me once when I was talking about one of my dreams which were erratic and often in those years. Of course, she might’ve just said that to shut me up, but yet… she writes it here so… let’s believe it. She continues. ‘We traveled light in our ancestral home. We slept in the earth, took circuitous routes around the mad army goose-stepping its way toward mother Russia…’

I woke that night to the sound of chaos erupting nearby. Claudia was, uh.. . she was dreaming. Her head twitching like you would. […] No, I can feel her. I can feel her next to me. She’s having a nightmare. What’s worse than a nightmare? If your soul’s projecting out its fears, at least it’s up and running. But the absence of anything? The void, the nothing, pieces… coming back. Hours, nights, objects surfacing in water… It was just something she’d wrote. But it wasn’t true. She could dream.

dubai louis’s recollection of claudia and the existential dread of eternally being damned, the terror of lacking a soul, a rather catholic fear but still having a sequence of memories that cycle back into an immortal brain, replay in this inversed sleep cycle, can be malleable, forgotten, poke a hole in louis’s attempt to utilize claudia’s diaries as but an extension of his own narrative, and offers a glimpse at what is truly at stake in this second interview.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep1 Musings - Daciana: History through Visual Context in Ploiești, Romania

I immediately fell in love with The Vampire Daciana & her Romanian castle, and wanted to know more about it all.

We already know how much the set/costume designers on IWTV looooove attention to detail; they tell whole stories just through architecture, furniture, clothes, etc. So I was like OK, AMC, I see you; lemme start doing some reading up on Romania, so I can try to figure out what might be going on with Daciana. (Warning: I know eff all about Romania or Eastern Europe.)

ROMANIA

Map of Romania. Ploiești's the dot just under Muntenia, north of Bucharest, the capital. Ploiești's part of Wallachia, the IRL kingdom of Vlad Tepes (aka Dracula). Louis & Claudia went there in the 1940s, so I hope this map is accurate enough. (There's this map, but I dunno the date.)

DACIANA

The most obvious thing about her is that she's not dressed in the typical traditional Romanian folk clothing I see all over Google, full of white-red-blue/black palettes.

Daciana's not following traditional 19th/20th-century Romanian nationalist images. Her green/brown palette & silhouette is telling, as she lacks the puffy white blouses & dark skirts. (Despite her name, I'm ruling out her being Dacian (X X)--you think you're FUNNY, AMC! But IDK about Cezare Romulo (X X); might do a Pt2!)

Sleeves

First thing's her trailing slashed open sleeves, which were screaming Medieval! at me. Here's some 15th century Renaissance examples, but with surcoats, which is different, but the sleeves reminded me of hers so IDFK.

We could chalk this up to Daciana's design as just generic "medieval" fairytale stuff and keep it moving. But to give her a fair shake, I looked at local examples for anything similar that's more recent.

Traditional clothing from Huedin, Romania (north Transylvania), (X X).

Traditional clothing from Cluj, Romania (north Transylvania).

Keep Transylvanian/Muntenian cross-cultural contacts in mind when we get to Daciana's castle, cuz it's important!

Wrt rarer non-puffy sleeves, the square cut (light blue) seems to be more prevalent in Wallachia/Moldavia/Bessarabia (southern & eastern Romania); while the rectangular cut (dark green) is all over Romania, but definitely has a concentration in Wallachia & Moldavia.

And this makes sense, cuz the style seems to also be prevalent in 19th - 20th century Bulgaria, just south of Wallachia. Hrm....

Daciana's sleeves hang very long--the only example of super long sleeves I could find is a 19th century one at the Met (C.I.47.3.4a–d). The only example of slashed sleeves I could find is in this museum exhibit at Bran Castle (yes, THE Bran Castle--I'll get to it in a minute!)

Belt, Bodice, & Fabric

Daciana's belt is so plain compared to everything else. Is it supposed to be a leather Romanian chimir (worn by mountain/forest folk)? Those are only worn by men though? Or it depends? Or is it a just a plain cloth belt? It's reminding me of these examples (X X):

I wish I could see more of Daciana's bodice, if there's any particular kind of cut or patterns. Is the diamond netted/knotted/roped pattern on her arms significant? Her fabric is interesting, too:

What's this embroidery? Brocade? (Byzantine-Renaissance?) Damask? (c. 14th-16th century?) Lace? Something else? My brain wants to assume it's imported? Meaning: she's hella rich. Cuz like, the traditional Romanian blouse & skirt used to belong solely to peasants, b4 19th-20th century aristocrats started wearing it, too.

IDKY--more reading led me to a whole bunch of complicated stuff, that can probably be simplified by just saying: The Ottomans. XD

The pre-19th century Romanian aristocracy wore super opulent clothes, inspired by not just the Ottomans (X), but also the Byzantine Greeks (via 18th century Romanian Phanariote boyars (X X X)), etc. But aside from the hanging sleeves, Daciana's dress doesn't really resemble any of these foreign examples. However, it does track with my theory that Daciana predates the 19th-century Romanian nationalist/traditional clothes that became so iconic later on.

Like Louis & Claudia did, let's follow Daciana to her castle! ^0^

DACIANA'S CASTLE

I NEED to know if AMC filmed on location in Romania, or if Daciana's castle is just a studio set/green screen.

The interior's nowhere near what I expected, considering Daciana's haggard appearance. It's really nice--clean & tidy. No spiderwebs, no chipped plaster/paint, not even any bloodstains--but I've mentioned before that I think it's indicating that Daciana's a mother who takes better care of her home (and "child") than herself.

Archway

The first thing is the arch when they first come in (noticeable mostly cuz of how Louis had to bend down to get in, he's so tall).

These types of doors/arches are called "shouldered arches," dating from the Medieval-Gothic periods, which Europeans adapted from Islamic architecture during the medieval Crusades. (Examples inc. Lainici Monastery in Wallachia, and the Academy of Art in Cluj-Napoca (north Transylvania).)

The left pic's Biertan Fortified Church, in Sibiu (south Transylvania). (Another door.) The right pic's Bran Castle, in Brasov (south Transylvania). (Another door.) (Vlad Tepes/Dracula historically never owned this castle, but pop culture says otherwise.) Both places were built by the German/Saxon Transylvanians in the 14th-16th centuries; which might help date Daciana's castle, if not Daciana herself? (The Saxon Transylvanians were in Wallachia, too.)

Wall Ornamentation

The last thing I'll discuss is the wall ornamentation/decoration:

The painted floral trim everywhere instantly reminded me of The Witcher 3, as found in Hungarian, Polish, Ukranian etc buildings. Apparently the designs are all related to fertility, growth/luck, and the Tree of Life. Walls (X X X) and doors (X X) were painted. You can see northern Romanian painted ornamentation in Suceava (Bukovina).

There's painted wall designs in southern Romania, too.

"The research of the popular interior in the Argeş and Muscel areas leads to the determination, along with a local specificity, and some Transylvanian influences, in the contact areas between southern Transylvania and northern Muntenia. In the researched areas, two lines of development of the popular interior can be observed, one relatively simple and the other complex. If the first is the prerogative of a typical Subcarpathian interior, the second represents a distinctly Transylvanian form, which was also imposed due to the presence of the Transylvanian population in the south of the Carpathians, settled in numerous villages." -- (Google Translated from Arta populară din zonele Argeș și Muscel, 1967)

(The website RomaniaDacia has A LOT to say about Transylvania, and the impact of the Germans, Saxons, Hungarians, etc on Wallachia & the rest of Romania.)

Sure enough, I was finding way more carved ornamentation (X X X X X X) than painted ones.

But I wonder if that's why a lot of southern traditional Romanian interiors I've been finding have totally plain whitewashed walls, too, with no painted ornaments, just tapestries (X X). I did find Romanian interior floral wall painted trims (X), but not nearly as much.

Cuz actually, the closest comparanda I was finding for Daciana was Northern European rosemaling (X X), which is also giving me medieval vibes (X); specifically: trims on illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Hours (X X X)--which we know from Lestat in S01E06.

And we do see some Romanian medieval fresco borders & frescoes that had been plastered over & whitewashed, in Biertan's 15th century churches, and in 13th-15th century Darjiu (Transylvania).

So, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Romanian buildings (especially castles with whitewashed plastered walls) were formerly painted similar to Daciana's. Unfortunately, I just can't find an example or figure out what AMC might've been inspired by--Romania has hundreds of castles & churches.

So, I'm tapping out--this is the most I could find so far. U_U

Results? Inconclusive! 😭 My Google-fu has failed me, LOL!

I still have no idea what time period Daciana could be from. We could go several routes:

Go by her name, and say she's ooooold AF, an actual Dacian. She's just been collating Eastern European culture as she ages, but stopped at some point (as her mind deteriorated)

She's medieval, somewhere roundabouts the 14th-16th century (making her ~500 years old, the same age as Armand--but she's weaker (as I've theorized b4), which is why she was able to burn herself up.)

Settle on her being a local Wallachian from Southern Romania, likely pre-19th century / pre-industrial early-modern Europe

Handwave everything aside as Renn-Faire fairytale fantasy; let the tale seduce you~!

OR, we can just bully AMC until they give us an extended BTS look at how Daciana was conceptualized, telling us all the tea about her! 😈

[ambrosethedarling]

It’s Gotham’s notorious Princesses, the famed Wayne Sisters!!

[sleepingfancies]

WIP TAG GAME (thank u @hamburgerslippers!!! <3)

Rules: post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

Laughter echoed down the cistern walls from the market, each gleeful break in the silence haunted by Jenka’s absence.

No pressure tags: @spaceshipkat @mercedesrollinballer @redowlwriting-blog @merrillapologist @maidensfancy @iliyanaofcasimir @adelidae @thearchdemongreatlydisapproves