Trueblood

(W.I.P.)

Trueblood is the central villain in the Ravenloft Dominion novel Heaven's Bones. Known as Tibor Vadoma previous to his casting out, Trueblood is both a darkling and a Dukkar. Though he did not physically construct them, Trueblood is responsible for the creation of the Angels, to which he hoped to use to invade realms beyond the Land of Mists. Trueblood believed himself to be a master of the Mists, though he found out after his ultimate failure that he is their pawn as much as anybody.

History

Early life and casting out

Trueblood was part of the Vadoma tribe, a clan of Vistani with the unusual practice of letting males with the Sight live. He was the twin brother of Jaelle Vadoma and the biological son Mirela Vadoma and Pietre Volmi, though Tibor was raised by his uncle. As a youth, Tibor's Sight enabled him to see worlds beyond the Mists, and he learned forbidden arcane knowledge. His arcane powers were formidable; in addition to his learned knowledge, Tibor was the most powerful Curser of his line. He ultimately sought the ability to breach the Mists and conquer the worlds beyond with Jaelle as his queen. He used his powers of mind control to set up an elaborate sacrifice he needed to enable him to breach worlds, one which spelled disaster for his clan by inciting the wrath of Harkon Lukas.

As he attempted to take Jaelle with him out of the Mists, she stabbed him in the stomach after she Saw the tragedy he would cause in the realms beyond. Vibor returned the favor with a stab to the chest. For his act of treachery, the entire clan cast him out and cursed him to have no name. The Mists engulfed Jaelle and Tibor, and they disappeared. Tibor was stripped of his name and mortal body and became nothing more than a disembodied spirit. The Mists deposited Jaelle near St. Agnes, England, where she was found by Jory Penhallow and nursed back to health. They eventually fell in love.Jaelle lived out the rest of her life in peace and sired a family line that produced many descendants, a family line that would come to be known as the Children of Jaelle or Jaelle's Breed.

Reappearance and new identity

A hundred years or more passed before Jaelle's brother could works his way onto Earth. In London, her disembodied brother spoke to the grieving Dr. Sebastian Robarts and persuaded him kidnap women and give them forms beyond the limitations of weak and delicate flesh. These constructions of metal and flesh Robarts called Angels though Trueblood intended them for use as weapons of war to invade and conquer. Jaelle's brother was eventually united in body and soul after Dr. Alistair Weldon, the darklord of Riverbend, stumbled upon him and healed him. Whole again, the man once known as Tibor assumed the name of Trueblood. He quickly joined Robarts' side as his servant and assistant, though in truth Trueblood gave Robarts the orders as the doctor fell further and further into madness. Robarts worked in a copy of Bryani House in the Mists, a place where time did not flow as it did back on Earth.

Construction on the Angels continued for fifteen Earth years, during which time Trueblood received from Robarts a preoccupation with Heaven, a preoccupation that led Trueblood to wish to conquer them. For Robarts' mad creations to reach heaven, they needed wings. The ability to create functional metal wings was beyond Robarts, so Trueblood recruited and then coerced the engineer Henry Thorpe into helping. In addition, Robarts became obsessed with enlisting the aid of Dr. Sophie Huxley, Thorpe's cousin, in placing the finishing touches on his Angels. By the time of her kidnapping, Huxley found her cousin Thorpe, his mind addled from Trueblood's influence. In the temporal distortion of Bryani-House-of-the-Mists, he had already constructed wings for the Angels.

Defeat

When the time came, Trueblood sent pit the Angels to wipe out St. Agnes, both to rid it of all Jaelle's Brood living there and as a dry run for his invasion of heaven. However, he was confronted Artemis Donovan and Dirk Penhallow. Trueblood tempted Dirk, an outcast among his family for his own ability to curse, into helping him wipe out the people that had betrayed him. Although Dirk was in danger of succumbing to Trueblood's corruption, Trueblood's callous murder of Dirk's sister, Claire Penhallow whom Trueblood only knew as one of the Children of Jaelle, turned Dirk against him. When Dirk turned on Trueblood, he revealed he could not be hurt by normal weapons as a side effect of his cursed loss of identity. Trueblood could not injured by any mortal weapon, for no weapon could know him.

In turn, Dirk revealed he carried a weapon that knew Trueblood, for it was the knife that Jaelle had used to pierce Trueblood's flesh so many years ago. Dirk plunged the knife into Trueblood and cast him out with a curse, just as the Vadoma tribe had done so long before. Although Trueblood mortally wounded Dirk in return, the Mists descended upon Trueblood and ripped him asunder. It was then that Trueblood realized he had not used the Mists, but the Mists had used them for their own unknowable agenda.

Aftermath

As this was happening, Dr. Huxley escaped the Mists and was facing down the Angels that threatened to destroy Lady Cecelia and the rest of St. Agnes. They hesitated to kill Huxley due to their confusing of her with Margaret Robarts. And when Trueblood disintegrated, the Angels fell momentarily out of his control. Only Huxley was in a momentary position to command them, and an Angel begged her for the order to destroy themselves. Reluctantly, Huxley gave the order for the Angels to fly out to sea and drown themselves. However, the Mists swallowed the Angels before they finished this order and brought them back to Bryani-House-of-the-Mists, where they remain watching over Dr. Robarts.

Henry Thorpe remained under the thumb of Dr. Weldon, whom tried to coerce Dr. the engineer to grant the disfigured remains of his wife wings as he had built wings for Robarts' Angels before. Thorpe refused even under threat of death, yet he heard a familiar and convincing voice in his head to help Dr. Weldon.