Throne of Blood Character Reveal: Carmina

I’m so happy to finally introduce you to one of my favorite characters in the upcoming Throne of Blood, and in the Nightfall series in general. Meet Carmina!

Carmina - JPEG

Carmina is a mysterious young vampire our heroes encounter during their travels. Her motivations seem a bit too convenient. What does she really want?

And who are “our heroes” exactly? Well, that would be a spoiler!

It took me a long time to choose the right name for her. She was called something else in the first draft until I realized the name didn’t fit her. At one point, I had a shortlist of around 30 (!) names I was considering.

I realized belatedly that some readers might think the name is related to Carmilla, the iconic titular character from Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella:

Carmilla_Le Fanu

Many female vampires in fiction have been named after her, including, most recently, an awesome character from Castlevania:

cm2

(Image: Netflix)

I wanted to clarify, the characters are not related. Carmina is not named after Carmilla and isn’t meant to be a reference.

I ended up naming her after Carmina Burana, the first opera I ever saw. In this context, Carmina means “songs”, which fits the character perfectly. Okay, maybe “saw” it’s a strong word here since I was three years old, and it was late at night, so I slept through most of it 🤔 But I still have strong memories from the parts I did see, such as the big wheel of fortune.

I saw it at the Plovdiv Roman Theater, which is one of the best places to watch open-air opera (or sleep through it if you prefer):

romantheatre