| This article is about Marius de Romanus from the novel. You may be looking for Marius de Romanus from the AMC adaptation. |
Marius de Romanus is a powerful vampire, originally from ancient Rome. Marius is a Child of the Millennia, being over 2,000 years old. Marius plays an important role in The Vampire Chronicles, as he is viewed by Lestat as a mentor figure, is Armand's and Pandora's maker, and is the central figure of his own autobiography, Blood and Gold.
Physical Appearance[]
Marius has white blond hair that comes down to his shoulders and breaks into small, lustrous curls with iridescent blue eyes lashed with gold. He is quite tall and splendid to look at. Most of the time he is seen wearing rich, red velvet coats.
Personality[]
Marius is an exceptionally sagacious, wise and optimistic vampire. He loves to read and to write, and sees himself as a historian and a continual observer of the history of the human race. Marius's interests include all manner of intellectual and artistic pursuits, including filmmaking, writing, and most notably, painting. Marius is obsessed with the art created by humans, but is distraught by his inability to create art that is not somewhat unnatural due to his vampiric nature. Marius is frequently torn between his desire to live among humans and the limitations of his ability to do so. Despite his age, he prefers to move and act like a human in situations where he could otherwise use his vampiric powers.
Marius believes in an optimistic future for humanity governed by reason and not by superstition, and sees reason and logic as virtues. Because of his desire to act based on reason rather than on whim, superstition, or emotion, Marius is often blind to the ways that his actions are driven by his own desires and feelings, and often seeks to justify his own actions as the most logical or only possible choice in a situation. Despite his desire to act rationally, Marius holds grudges, and, though he may deny it, is deeply motivated by his own emotions.
Marius has a conflicted attitude towards religion and spirituality, as he is the keeper of the shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept. Marius does not believe in divine power, and blames religious ideas for his own unwilling transformation into a vampire, which often brings him into conflict with other vampires as Christianity and the Children of Satan emerge in Europe. His lover Pandora accuses him of having "made a religion out of reason."
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Marius was a citizen of the Roman Gallic city of Massilia, born in 30 B.C. He was the illegitimate child of a Keltoi woman from the land of Gaul and a wealthy Roman.
Marius was a scholar and chronicler by the age of twenty, traveling quite a lot and visiting all the great European cities. When he is twenty-five, he meets a ten year old girl named Lydia at the home of her father, a Roman senator, and is impressed by her interest in poetry. Marius asks to become betrothed to Lydia, with the intention that it will delay his own obligation to get married until she is of marriageable age. He is denied by her father, who explains to Lydia that this is the reason he was rejected. Lydia encounters Marius once more at a religious festival when she is fifteen, and informs him that she asked her father to allow them to get married, but was denied again due to Marius's lower social status.
At the age of forty, Marius was abducted from a tavern in Gaul by Druids to become the replacement for their dying God of the Grove. Mael, a Druid Priest, educates and prepares Marius to be their perfect God. During the night of the great Feast of Samhain, Marius is taken to an oak grove and introduced to the God of the Grove. The God of the Grove, a vampire who was badly burnt when Akasha and Enkil were put into the sun, urges Marius to escape the Druids and go to Egypt to find the answer as to why vampires were burnt or destroyed the world over. The God of the Grove (whose name is revealed to be Teskhamen in Prince Lestat) makes Marius a vampire, exchanging blood with Marius several times to ensure his strength.
Life As a Vampire[]
Marius escapes the Druids, and later finds Akasha and Enkil in their inanimate state. He removes them from their keeper's clutches with Akasha's urging and consent, taking them to Antioch. There, he finds his love, Lydia, now known as Pandora, on the run from a coup against her family in Rome, and makes her into a vampire when her life is threatened. Pandora enchanted and dazzled Marius and they live together for 200 years in Antioch, bringing flowers and singing hymns to Enkil and Akasha. Over the years, Marius and Pandora frequently quarreled over philosophy and how to best protect Those Who Must be Kept, finally leading to their separation.
Marius returns to Rome, but is disturbed to witness the rise of Christianity and its effect on the city, and the formation of Satanic vampire cults. Marius opens his house to the public for banquets, and paints murals on its walls. Much to Marius's surprise, he comes across Mael, who is now a vampire, and Mael's maker, Avicus. Despite Marius and Mael's animosity towards each other, Marius befriends Avicus, and the three live together in the same area without disturbing one another. Eventually Mael discovers and demands to see Akasha and Enkil, which increases the animocity between he and Marius. When Rome is sacked by the Goths in 410, Marius's home is destroyed. He retreats to the temple outside of Rome he constructed for Akasha and Enkil, and falls into a deep sleep for nearly a century, with Mael and Avicus watching over him. He finally awakens due to Akasha's telepathic urgings once again, and he leaves with Mael and Avicus for Constantinople.
Shortly after arriving in Constantinople, they are invited to the home of the vampire Eudoxia, who demands to be given Those Who Must Be Kept. Marius discovers he has the Fire Gift, unintentionally setting light to and destroying two of Eudoxia's fledglings while fleeing her home. Marius, Avicus, and Mael experiment with their vampiric powers to discover their true capabilities. After some back and forth, during which Eudoxia instigates a mob of angry humans to destroy Marius's house, Marius leads Eudoxia to Akasha, who kills her. Marius leaves Mael and Avicus in Constantinople with Eudoxia's orphaned fledgling Zenobia, and relocates the shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept to the Italian Alps, Marius believing it safer and wiser if he is left alone with the knowledge of Those Who Must Be Kept's whereabouts.
Marius observes humanity from afar as his vampiric powers grow, and eventually goes to sleep in the temple around the year 1200, reawakening in 1482. He briefly returns to Rome, where he encounters and insults Santino, and becomes obsessed with with work of Botticelli in the Sistine Chapel. He travels to meet Botticelli in Florence, and is tempted to, but ultimately decides not to, give him the Dark Gift.
Marius purchases a palazzo in Venice, intending to become a painter and gathering a group of apprentices to assist him. As he becomes more involved in Venetian society, he meets and falls in love with a courtesan named Bianca, but is distraught and decides he cannot make her into his companion when he learns that she is a murderer.
Hearing the desperate thoughts of a child begging to die from outside of a brothel, Marius buys the mortal child, Andrei, whom he renames Amadeo (later known as Armand). Marius is instantly entranced by Amadeo, and decides to groom him into his ideal vampiric companion, but becomes conflicted about his plan as his and Amadeo's relationship develops over the next two years. Marius is forced to make Amadeo a vampire when Amadeo is dying from poison, and he educates Amadeo in the ways of vampirism. They live together as companions mostly happily for several months, but argue over Amadeo's desire to turn Bianca, who he also loves, into a vampire. For the first time, Marius also meets a member of the Talamasca, Raymond Gallant. He questions Raymond on whether he has knowledge on Pandora's whereabouts, but not much is known.
Marius and Amadeo's happiness is short-lived when Santino's coven, who believed themselves to be followers of Satan, capture Amadeo and set Marius and his home aflame, punishing Marius for living among mortals. Marius is badly injured to the point of near death and turns to Bianca for help. With Bianca's blessing, Marius makes her a vampire. They manage to escape to Marius's secret shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept in the mountains of northern Italy where Marius spends centuries drinking from Akasha to restore his physical-self.
During Marius and Bianca's time together, Marius goes to France to find Amadeo, who has since been renamed Armand by Santino's coven, but finds him much changed. Armand is now the leader of a Parisian coven and is no longer recognizable as the Amadeo Marius once knew, and Marius chooses not to contact or rescue him, believing him to be lost to the cult's ideology.
Marius and Bianca move the shrine of Akasha and Enkil to Dresden. Unknown to Bianca, Marius's true purpose for moving to Dresden is he heard rumors of a woman who he believed to be Pandora living there. In the late 1600s, he finds that it is indeed Pandora in the company of her fledgling, Arjun. Their meeting revitalizes the love Marius has for Pandora. Marius urgently requests that Pandora leave with him and to rid herself of Arjun, as he is also willing to leave his companion Bianca, but Pandora adamantly refuses. Bianca discovers this and is distraught by how Marius was willing to leave her. In response, Bianca leaves Marius, who is left completely alone. Years later, Marius comes across a letter from Pandora left for him, telling him that despite her protests, she secretly wanted to leave Arjun and be with Marius again. In her letter she sets a time and location for them to meet and run away together, but by the time he reads it, it is well past the time she scheduled for them to meet.
Marius illustrated by O.J. Cariello in Queen of the Damned by Innovation Comics
Traveling the world, Marius hears the calling of a young vampire, Lestat de Lioncourt. He revives Lestat from his underground stupor in Cairo, and takes him to his Greek island hideaway. Marius tells Lestat his version of the origins of the vampire race, of Akasha and Enkil, who sit as statues in a shrine on Marius's island. Marius is later forced to send Lestat away after Lestat boldly drinks from Akasha, stirring emotions from the ancient couple.
Marius moves Those Who Must Be Kept to Alaska, and becomes interested in the emerging technology of motion pictures. He begins adding examples of new technology to the shrine, including eventually a television. In 1985, Akasha awakens after hearing Lestat's music on the television and buries Marius in ice beneath his home, and he telepathically calls out to Lestat, warning him of the danger. Marius is saved from the ice by Pandora and Santino, and reunites for the first time with Armand at Maharet's Sonoma compound as they prepare for their final encounter with Akasha. Marius argues with Akasha in support of the potential of the human race. After Akasha is killed by Mekare, Marius joins the rest of the vampires in the Coven of the Articulate on Night Island. Marius leads the creation of new rules for vampire kind, and is affectionately frustrated when he realizes that Lestat has no intention to follow them. He leaves Night Island at some point during the breakup of the coven, and is briefly glimpsed in New Orleans from a distance during the events of The Tale of the Body Thief, disapproving of Lestat's actions.
After the events of Memnoch the Devil, Marius and Santino steal the remains of vampires who have died from sun exposure on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral from a forensic laboratory to conceal concrete proof of vampirism from humans. Armand reappears in New Orleans in The Vampire Armand with two young mortals, Sybelle and Benji. Marius and Pandora are left to protect the humans while Armand speaks to David, and Marius turns the two into vampires, knowing Armand will neither turn them himself, nor be able to live with his grief once they have died. Sybelle and Benji are ecstatic, but Armand is enraged once he discovers what has happened, and confronts Marius about the nature of their relationship, his abandonment, and the limitations of Marius's worldview. Marius confesses that his long life has tested the limits of his optimism about humanity, and he is no longer confident about the possibility of a peaceful future governed by reason and free of superstition.
In Blood and Gold, he tells his life's tale to Maharet's fledgling, Thorne. Thorne finds Marius living in Northern Europe and taking care of his fledgling's fledgling, Daniel Molloy, who has gone mad. The night after Marius finishes his tale, Thorne destroys Santino in revenge on Marius's behalf, disobeying Maharet's orders and Marius's protests, spiting her for leaving him as her companion.
In the book Prince Lestat, Marius is now living in Rio with Daniel, whose sanity has returned. After The Voice attempts to use Marius to wipe out other vampires in Brazil, Marius and Daniel join the group of vampires who congregate in New York. Marius becomes part of the newly established Vampire governing group along with other ancient ones, and is tasked with creating laws and rituals for the new society. Lestat asks Marius to turn his son Viktor into a vampire, to which he obliges.
In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis Marius is named Lestat's Prime Minister. However, it's specified that his role acts for Lestat as Chief Ministers did for the old French Kings in history, rather than the modern definition of the title. As a vampire lawmaker, he and Lestat negotiate with the Replimoids, and Marius is in charge of drafting a new vampire constitution. In Lestat's narration Marius is described as thriving in his leadership role and new sense of purpose, but other points of view note that Marius seems exhausted and lonely. It is mentioned that Daniel left Marius for Armand, and Marius is seen attempting to reconnect with his fledgling Bianca, who lives at court.
In Blood Communion, Marius kills Pandora's companion Arjun in an argument, which Marius is greatly distressed by, and asks to be held to the laws of the court, which forbid killing other vampires, by the rest of the counsel. The counsel concludes that the act was done in self defense, and a frustrated Marius argues with Pandora, feeling she pushed the conflict to avoid dealing with Arjun herself.
Marius is taken by Rhoshamandes, and is presumed dead. Upon being discovered alive and returning to the Chateau, Marius seeks out Armand, commenting to Lestat that, "His heart is finally no longer shut against me."
Marius paints a large mural on the ceiling of the restored ballroom of the Chateau, and places himself between Zenobia and Pandora. At the celebratory ball, Marius gives a speech, saying that Lestat’s willingness to sacrifice himself for vampire kind, as evidenced by his battle with Rhoshamandes, has proven the community of vampires has the possibility to endure.
In Adaptations[]
In the film adaptation of Queen of the Damned, Marius is played by Vincent Pérez. In this adaptation, unlike in the canon of The Vampire Chronicles book series, Marius is Lestat's maker.
In Lestat the Musical, Marius is played by Michael Genet, and his story is told in the song "Morality Play."