Bianca Solderini is a Venetian courtesan who became the vampire fledgling and paramour of Marius de Romanus at the end of the fifteenth century.
Description[]
"That Botticelli hadn’t painted her was a mere accident. Indeed he might well have done so. She looked so very like his women that all other thoughts left my mind. I saw her oval face, her oval eyes, and her thick wavy blond hair, interwound with long strings of tiny pearls, and the fine shape of her body with exquisitely molded arms and breasts." - Marius from Blood and Gold.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Bianca was a young courtesan from Venice known widely for her beauty and lavish parties. Though originally drawn to her as a possible companion, using the Mind Gift, Marius discovers she uses her parties as cover to poison powerful men, and decides against pursuing her. It is later revealed that Bianca is actually forced to commit her killings by her kinsmen, who are moneylenders and instruct her to kill men they owe debts. Marius and a mortal Armand, then named Amadeo, both become close to Bianca, and she and Amadeo have a sexual encounter. Marius threatens to kill Bianca as an evildoer while trying to demonstrate the truth of his vampirism to Armand, but is swayed to spare her and instead slays all of her kinsmen, thus freeing her from her life of murder.
After Amadeo is mortally wounded by a jealous admirer, Bianca tends to him until Marius arrives. Unbeknownst to her, to save his life Marius makes Amadeo into a vampire. She remains close to Marius and Amadeo, and becomes the hostess of parties thrown at Marius's palazzo.
After the palazzo is burned by the Children of Satan, a severely burned and deformed Marius uses the Mind Gift to send a message to Bianca, telling her to come to him. To aid in Marius's recovery, Bianca willingly consents to the Dark Gift.
Life As a Vampire[]
Bianca is fiercely loyal to Marius for several hundred years, hunting with him and sharing guardianship of Those Who Must Be Kept while his flesh heals from the fire. During that time, Marius confides in her his secrets of the great Queen and King, and of his past love Pandora. Deeply in love with Marius, Bianca swears that she will never be jealous of Pandora. After Marius decides not to attempt to retrieve Armand from Paris and tells her the stories of his encounters with the Children of Satan, he and Bianca argue for the first time, she pointing out that his refusal to share knowledge of Those Who Must Be Kept has allowed superstitions to flourish among vampires.
Centuries after his burning, Marius is fully healed and returns to society. He hears rumors of a woman resembling Pandora, accompanied by a male companion, and investigates to see if it is her. He finds it is indeed Pandora and pleads with her to leave her companion, her fledgling Arjun, and to run away with him. Pandora rejects Marius's offer, citing the reasons for their separation. In desperation, Marius says he would leave Bianca if Pandora were to come back to him. Pandora still refuses Marius, but Bianca overhears their conversation. Distraught by what Marius has said, she leaves him, ignoring Marius's protests that he was out of his mind when he offered to leave her.
Armand claims that he believes he once saw Bianca outside of Paris, and warned her against entering the city proper, less she be destroyed by the Satanic coven. In Prince Lestat, she is mourning the loss of a fledgling who died as a result of the destruction created by The Voice. In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, she and Marius appear to reunite, and in Blood Communion, Louis tells Lestat that Bianca and Pandora have "become like two wives to Marius." In the mural on the ceiling of the ballroom, Bianca is between Armand and Gabrielle.