Mircea Voivode

Mircea Voivode is a main antagonist in the novel Dark Blaze. He appears in Hadrian Voivode's 1915-1916 storyline, and both of Hadrian's and Nicholas Aero's 1918-1920 storylines.

He is the Grandmaster of the Thule, the most powerful of the strigoic factions globally. He is a master political and is ruthless against his rivals. When he exiled both his own son and the daughter of his major political rival, he was able to overcome this and keep the Thule from descending into civil-war.

Mircea's lack of fear and total confidence in his actions to discover his father's, Vlad Drăculești's body, and revive him, even led him to risking all out war with Hell, although he knows Hell is just as factionalised as the strigoii are.

Pre-Book History:
Mircea Voivode was born amongst the litter of Ilinca and Vlad within his "Camera Vieții" in Sighișoara, Transylvania, Wallachia, the same chamber which his son, Hadrian Voivode, was also birthed in.

Mircea was the eldest of the litter. Basarab is the only other known member of this litter besides Mircea. Although Mircea is technically half-siblings with the other supreme-strigoii, they all distinguish themselves by refusing to interbreed for some generations and by adapting alternative surnames during their Ceremony of Maturity. By choosing, with approval, of another's surname, would formally make them a united family, as was the case when Basarab took the Voivode surname to remain officially family with his eldest brother, Mircea.

Originally from Wallachia, Mircea identifies as being Bavarian, as he had resided in Munich since the early 1500s. It was during the Protestant Reformation in the German States where he met his future wife, Edith. They fell in love and she accepted his offer to sire her so that they could be immortal together.

Edith's dead baby, which later became Hadrian, was able to be birthed in Vlad's Birthing Chamber before it was destroyed by a united human front.

With Vlad's defeat and his body disappearing, his strigoic empire crumbled and shattered into smaller factions which were controlled by other supreme-strigoii. Mircea spent much of his rule, expanding his boarders, defeating any enemy, regardless of their species, and defeated anybody who dared defy his rule. The Thule came about from the joining of the Münchner Gericht and the Berliner Gericht, with Mircea being the ruler of the Munich Court, and Lothar Wedemeyer being the ruler of the Berlin Court.

Lothar and Mircea came to an agreement to marry their son and daughter after Hadrian's other engagements had fallen flat. With his inner conflicts dealt with, Mircea returned to expanding his territories. Under his rulership, the Thule were able to defeat the strigoic factions that ruled France, Iberia and much of East Europe. He defeated and greatly reduced the strength of the once powerful Neamh-Mairbh. Mircea fought in a three-sided war in Italy against the Vatican and the Italian Strigoic Families, which ended in the the surviving Italian Families fleeing to the United States to regain their lost power, and a gruelling war with the Vatican that continues into the current events of the novel.

Mircea had used the German and Spanish Empires to further broaden his grasp on territory and power, however, much of his non-European exploits have ended in failure, especially when he lost his lands in South America to the natives and other factions, and in the Far East, where he lost his territories to the Kuran Chi.

Due to Mótsognir's recognition of Mircea's leadership, and the exclusiveness of the grey-pygmies to his faction, Mircea has legitimacy as Vlad's successor which no other strigoic leader has. His sphere of influence means that Mircea is the negotiator in global strigoic deals and the host of the Marele Consilius the strigoii have. This is the case in 1915, where he hosted the Marele Consiliu, in an attempt to unite the strigoic factions to aid the Central Powers against the Entente.

Physical Appearance (Base Form):

 * Eye Colour - Light Blue
 * Hair Colour - Silver
 * Hair Style - Short, combed.
 * Facial Hair - Clean-cut.
 * Skin Colour - White.
 * Height - 6'3" (190.05cm)
 * Weight - 16st (224lbs)
 * Accent - Bavarian w/ a hint of Transylvanian (in German & French), Bavarian (in English).
 * Age (End Of Novel) - 425-years-old.
 * Other Features - He is known for his broad body and Romanesque nose.

Physical Appearance (Great-Bat Form):

 * Eye Colour - Red.
 * Hair Colour - Silver
 * Hair Style - Short, combed.
 * Facial Hair - Clean-cut.
 * Skin Colour - Grey.
 * Height - 6'6" (198.12m)
 * Weight - 16st (224lbs)
 * Accent - Bavarian w/ a hint of Transylvanian (in German & French), Bavarian (in English).
 * Age (End Of Novel) - 425-years-old.
 * Other Features - He is known for his broad body and Romanesque nose, in this form his skin turns grey and he spouts huge bat wings from his spine.

Attire & Arsenal:
In both the 1915-1916 storyline and the 1918-1920 storylines, Mircea is not seen without his Germanic military uniforms, even in England after the Great War had ended.

Although he is seen with a Mauser C96 during his appearance at the Marele Consiliu in 1915, he does not use weaponry, preferring to use his own brawn in combat and rely, if necessary on his great-bat form.

Personality:
Mircea Voivode is a strong willed leader, who is ruthless both in life and in the political world. He has a morbid sense of humour seen when he fought Eoin O'Leary in 1920. Although he is entirely tough on the exterior, he does show glimpses of softness when he speaks with Eliza Bowie, of her treatment by his son, and when he speaks of his wife, Edith. This proves that, like Hadrian, he had not gotten over the death of his wife, however, unlike his son, he honours Edith and does not allow her death to consume him and take lead of his decisions.

Mircea's tactical prowess has allowed the Thule to flourish and expanded at a rapid pace. By 1920, in the strigoic world, Mircea had manoeuvred it so that the only rivals he had were the Kuran Chi, the American factions and the Adze in terms of land and power.

Biography (1915-1916):
This section contains potential spoilers, be warned.

Mircea Voivode is seen during some of Hadrian's chapters, where he hosts a Marele Consiliu in Germany, where the some of the most powerful leaders within the strigoic world speak about the war and whether or not to join it, then questioned on which side to join. With the Thule already involved on the side of the Central Powers, and the Klyki already involved on the side of the Entente, it quickly becomes a question of which sphere of influence the faction desired to be under.

Weaved within these chapters are glimpses of how Mircea led the Thule during times of war.

Biography (1918-1920):
This section contains potential spoilers, be warned.

Mircea Voivode reappears within Hadrian's chapters, where he and a daemon, claiming to be the representative of Oque Puinsim, the creature which the daemons praise as a god. Mircea tasks Hadrian with discovering the daemon emissary's name, to gauge whether or not the daemon is in fact representing whom they say they are.

After the meeting between the emissary and Mircea, the Grandmaster of the Thule engaged in single combat with Eoin O'Leary.

Powers & Abilities:

 * Knowledge of Lingua Diaboli.
 * Increased speed.
 * Increased strength.
 * Increased hearing.
 * Inceased sense of smell.
 * Increased durability.
 * Deep knowledge in lore and the weaknesses of monsters.
 * Can transform into a great-bat.
 * Superiority over lesser strigoii.
 * Sexual persuasion over humans.
 * Immortal.

Weaknesses:

 * Holy water.
 * Fire.
 * Silver.
 * Cast-iron.
 * Palo Santo.
 * Mountain Ash.
 * Chloroform.
 * Direct prolonged sunlight.
 * Lack of blood.

Major Relationships:
This section contains potential spoilers, be warned.

Defeated:
This section contains potential spoilers, be warned.

Although Mircea Voivode has killed thousands of rivals over the centuries, within Dark Blaze Mircea has only defeated Eoin O'Leary, brutalising the Celtic Crusader by tearing a limb from his body, eye gouging him and tearing his head off. Mircea, however, did this at great cost to his body as he was required to transform into a great-bat.

Trivia:

 * Mircea Voivode named the Thule after the mystical island of Germanic lore.
 * Darryl M. Finch-Ellis believes that Charles Dance or Pierce Brosnan would be perfect casts for a live action adaption.
 * Mircea was named after Mircea cel Bătrân, or Mircea I of Wallachia.
 * Mircea is only one of two supreme-strigoii in Dark Blaze who transforms into a giant-bat.
 * Mircea was in the process of adopting Julian Orndorff.
 * Mircea's personality was based on a mixture of Dracula, from Bram Stoker 's original novel, and Erich Ludendorff, a German general of the Great War who became de facto leader of the military later in the war.
 * Mircea's Zodiac Star Sign is a Aquarius.
 * Mircea is one of the few people who know where his mother, Ilinca, is located.
 * Mircea had not sired anybody after he had sired his wife, and Hadrian's mother, Edith.
 * Mircea finds that strigoi are the true blue-blooded of the world.
 * Of all the strigoic leaders, Mircea seems to be the most loyal to Vlad, and the most eager to see his return.
 * Mircea is the only strigoic leader who has the approval of Mótsognir, the ruler of the grey-pygmies, and his patronage, meaning that not only are the grey-pygmies exclusive to the Thule, but Mircea has the most legitimacy of being Vlad's true successor out of the other faction's leaders.
 * His favourite music is Wagner, however, he felt it an injustice to sire Wagner or order it and so allowed Wagner to die a mortal's death, choosing to instead allow his music to be immortalised.