servant-girlservant-girl
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human, possible vampire;
presumed citizen of the United Kingdom
Occupation: Servant of the Derings
Group Membership: Possibly the Vampires of Earth
Affiliations: Edwin, Lord Dering; Mary, Lady Dering; Randolph Dering (aka the Moorlands Monster);
Inspector George Chelm, Frank Drake, Taj Nital, and Rachel van Helsing investigated her disappearance;
if she became a vampire (see comments), she may have considered Dracula an ally
Enemies: Dracula (possibly formerly, see comments)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly the Moorlands near Dering manor, England, UK
First Appearance: Tomb of Dracula I#6 (January, 1973)
Powers/Abilities: In life, the servant girl demonstrated no special skills.
IF she became a vampire, she would have had some degree of the following abilities:
Superhuman strength (lifting perhaps 1000 lbs) and requiring regular blood meals to survive.
Further,
feeding on a human victim would turn that victim into a
vampire, depending on the extent of the feeding and other
circumstances.
Those she vampirized may or may not have been subservient to her.
When fully fed, she could likely heal rapidly from non-fatal wounds.
She would almost certainly be vulnerable to a wooden stake (or arrow) through the heart. Presumably she would have the standard
vampire vulnerabilities, including sunlight, religious icons, garlic, and silver.
She may or may not have been able to transform into a bat, wolf, and/or mist.
Height: Unrevealed (she
is not shown standing next to anyone of known height. She's
signficantly shorter than the tall Dracula, Taj Nital, and Randolph
Dering, but whether she's 5'2"-5'6" (or a little taller or shorter) is
hard to judge)
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 110-130 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (one post-mortem image shows them in shadow, and they look dark, so perhaps brown)
Hair: Brown
History:
(Tomb
of Dracula I#6 (fb) - BTS) - A servant of Lord and Lady Dering, she
traveled daily to the ruined chapel in the moors behind the Dering
mansion, bringing food to their deformed son, Radnolph, whom they kept
hidden there.
(Tomb of Dracula I#6 (fb) - BTS) - Randolph appeciated the servant girl's kindness, and he liked her.
(Tomb of Dracula I#6) - One day, en route to bring apples to Randolph, she was startled to see a large bat flying toward her, and she was even more startled when the bat changed into the human form of Dracula. She screamed until Dracula's bite halted her cry. Dracula fatally drained her of blood and then left her lying on the ground.
Presumably having followed Dracula (who had arrived in the ruined chapel in which Randolph lived via a Black Mirror), Randolph subsequently approached her form and crouched over it, grieving and sobbing. After easing his hunger by consuming some apples, Randolph considered that he should hide her body for whatever reason (perhaps fearing he would be blamed...). (Tomb of Dracula I#6 (fb) - BTS) - Randolph took the girl's body back to the ruined chapel his which he dwelled.. (Tomb of Dracula I#6 - BTS) - After a man's body was found in the same area, completing drained of blood (by Dracula's vampiric companion Lenore DeCade), Inspector Chelm informed vampire-hunters Frank Drake, Taj Nital, and Rachel van Helsing, who traveled to the Derings' house to investigate. While they knew nothing of the man's death, the Derings informed the vampire-hunters that one of their servant girls was missing. (Tomb of Dracula I#6) - Investigating the ruined chapel (to which Rachel had followed Lenore's bat form), the vampire hunters found the servant girl's corpse. After the vampire hunters confirming the girl to have been drained of blood, Taj carried her body out of the chapel. (Tomb of Dracula I#6 (fb) - BTS) - The vampire hunters apparently put the servant girl's body in their car and brought it to the Dering's manor, after which they likely contacted Inspector Chelm. The Derings told the vampire hunters about Randolph. |
Comments: Created by Gardner F. Fox, Gene Colan, and Tom Palmer.
It is unrevealed whether she had direct interaction with Randolph, but as he cried after her death, it would seem most likely that he knew her.
It is pretty consistent that someone fatally drained by the bite of a standard (Varnaean) vampire in the Marvel Universe revives as a vampire, usually three days later, but sometimes sooner. Therefore, this chap likely revived as a vampire, to embark on adventures we may never know...
However, it is also possible that as Rachel van Helsing learned of his death at the hands of vampires, that she took the appropriate steps to prevent his returning as a vampire, including applying a wooden stake to his heart, stuffing his mouth with garlic, decapitating him, and/or having him cremated. Then again, Chelm may or may not have allowed such treatment of a corpse in his custody.
Randolph saved Drake and Van Helsing from imprisonment and potential starvation at Dracula's hands, but you can read about that in Randolph's profile.
'
That's a lot of apples she was carrying to Randolph. Eating that many
apples is not good for someone so hairy. Additionally, they thought
Randolph had Ricketts (which is probably just wrong), but if you have a
Vitamin D deficiency, apples ain't getting you no place...
You may well ask why I spent so much time on a profile on an
unidentified character without much to go on.
The obvious answer is obsessive-compulsive disorder.
However, she had a number of
connections to a number of people, but the whole vampire-or-not
discussion boosted her to another level for me. The guy Lenore vamped
had no connection to anyone else, and so he'll get a sub-profile in her
profile.
Or, many I was motivated by this picture of her, when they find her corpse in the chapel, which shows
her bite wound midline on her neck, which would be into her larynx.
Obviously Dracula know enough to bite into the jugular veins, which are
paired on either side of the neck, well off-midline.
Dorkas Farcas.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Dering's servant girl should be distinguished from:
Tomb of Dracula I#6, pg. 3, panel 1 (spotting bat);
panel 2 (attacked by Dracula);
panel 5 (corpse);
pg. 4, panel 2 (Randolph carrying);
pg. 8, panel 3 (corpse; bite mark);
pg. 11, panel 1 (Taj carrying)
Appearances:
Tomb of Dracula I#6 (January, 1973) - Gardner F. Fox (writer), Gene Colan (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 04/24/2021
Last updated: 04/24/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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