Countess Viola Mundilfari: All About Arendelle’s First Vampire!

“Your Vampiress” by Inkwhite (@Inkwhite_mo)

Viola Mundilfari, better known as Countess Vi or simply Vi, is the tritagonist (third main character, after Anna and Elsa) of this fanfiction project’s story. Your friendly editor thought that she deserved her own profile, especially to help any new readers that don’t know who she is! I hope you enjoy this summary of her journey so far as this newspaper’s main OC.

Chief

Meet the Countess

Don’t mind this Draculina’s sharp wit and sharper fangs: she’s someone you want by your side always!

A former antagonist of Queen Anna-turned-ally and anti-heroine, Countess Vi is a charismatic and caring vampire that watches over you by night. Second only to Anna and Elsa as drivers of Arendelle’s destiny, the charming Vi lives in a stately home in Arendelle called the Grand House, serves as Queen Anna’s prime minister, and holds court with her own household: her werewolf general and lifelong protector Commander Hilde, and her English sweetheart Tess Gaunt. Behind her shield of sardonic, dry wit and slight snobbishness and sarcasm, hides a tender heart that desperately wants to do the right thing. Once a human noble, her vampirism is a result of her saving Tess’s life: a defining act that has shaped her immortal existence forever.

Welcome to her first official profile!

Powers

When she was a human being, Vi was already an influential and wealthy noblewoman with substantial business and aristocratic connections across Europe. As the First Vampire, she’s both blessed and cursed with extraordinary powers of darkness that even Elsa would struggle against, were they enemies.

Immortality: As long as she drinks blood every day, Vi will live forever, ageless and eternally young. However, she can only drink from a human being that offers their blood freely and willingly.

Mistress of the night: Vi’s signature vampire bite can be lethal, draining an entire human body of blood if Vi loses herself in the pleasure of feeding. But with a concentrated act of will, Vi can also turn her victim into a familiar under her control. For these reasons, Vi must be extremely careful when feeding off someone she doesn’t want to harm.

Superhuman strength: Vi’s perfectly manicured nails can shred swords and bullets, and when she’s angered, she can tear human beings apart like wet tissue. This, combined with her already rich knowledge of fencing and Mundilfari fighting arts, make her a terrifying foe.

Regeneration: Vi can heal from almost any wounds inflicted upon her, be they bullets in her head or severed limbs. If she hasn’t fed in twenty-four hours, her regenerative processes might take longer, but when nourished with blood, she’s effectively indestructible.

Moonlight metamorphosis: Vi has command over the creatures of the night, from wolves to bats. She can herself form and reform into a cloud of screaming bats, travelling over long distances or transforming to confuse or frighten her enemies.

Matriarchal privileges: As Arendelle’s First Vampire, Vi is free from all the weaknesses that constrain lesser vampires, including sunlight, blessed silver, and open waters.

Biography

Before her undead transformation, Vi was the last head of the Mundilfari clan, a brutal and power-hungry family that traces its aristocratic bloodline back to the Viking warriors, farmers, and seamen that founded the original village of Arendelle. A family older than that of the royals, the Mundilfaris’ prestige and control over Arendelle came at a heavy price: a collective, centuries-long servitude to a demon of contracts, Mephistopheles. He has long wished to manifest fully in the world, and his bargain with the Mundilfaris was for the latter to give him the power of Northuldra’s spirits, upon which Mephistopheles would release the clan from his control.

In the fanfiction plotline of The Arendelle Guardian, Vi’s clan has lurked in the shadows and controlled the royal family long before Frozen 2. It was Lord Mayer Mundilfari, Vi’s grandfather, that fed King Runeard’s bigotry and hatred of the Northuldra, sponsoring the forest dam’s construction and urging him to take the forest for Arendelle. It was an attempt to seize the forest’s magical power, foiled by none other than Elsa and Anna. When Elsa became the Fifth Spirit and Anna destroyed Runeard’s dam, the Mundilfaris’ great hope to free themselves from their demon collapsed along with the great structure.

With the appearance of the Fifth Spirit in the world and the death of Mayer, Vi sprung into action and seized power, destroying her family in a ritual blood feud that confirmed her ascension to Mundilfari head. She deployed her newspaper and rival to The Arendelle Guardian, the Snow Herald, to launch a relentless public relations attack on Anna’s reign. Northuldra had to be conquered, whether through public opinion or votes in the Great Assembly’s parliament. With the queen and countess struggling for the public’s hearts over Arendelle’s relationship with Northuldra, Vi also tried to force Anna into accepting her bleak worldview: in this brutal world, Arendelle would either colonize or be colonized.

After a long period of political maneuvering, Anna and Vi confronted each other directly, both finding an intimate kindred spirit in one another despite their differing politics and rivalry. Things came to a head when Vi attempted to hold Arendelle hostage, unveiling a great warship with cutting-edge technology called Muspelheim. Despite anchoring it in Arenfjord and presenting it as a “forced gift” for Anna, Vi and her Runic Knights were defeated by a bold and desperate counterattack by the queen, who for the first time showed Vi the power of true selflessness. Rattled by Anna’s vulnerability and for the first time questioning her own motives, Vi admitted defeat, and even had Anna over for a sleepover at her vast castle estate of Mundilfari Keep. Both found each other formidable foes: Anna with the Crown’s loyal vanguard of royal supporters and state power, and Vi with her “shadow state” of a rival newspaper, vast wealth, and a private army led by her right-hand woman Hilde Von Altheim.

Vi continued her extra-legal rampage against her enemies: first by destroying a cabal of hostile nobles led by Prince Hans, and then by sending Commander Hilde on an invasion of the Southern Isles, ultimately razing the kingdom and drawing the attention of the then-leader of the Exalted, Yixin. Vi shared a tense relationship with the Exalted thanks to her brief relationship with member Peony Sinclair, and this was the last straw for Peony’s master Yixin. Exerting his influence over Arendelle, the Chinese prince regent demanded that Anna destroy Vi once and for all, and with Yixin’s support, perhaps Anna could have. But in an ingenious yet risky move, Anna offered Vi a position that the latter would be dishonoured to refuse: the position of prime minister, in return for giving Anna and Elsa a chance to rid Vi of Mephistopheles and therefore renounce the need to attack Northuldra. It was a legitimate role of real power, and one that outflanked Yixin as well. Vi accepted, her heart slowly opening thanks to Anna’s warmth, and her rebellion against the demon began.

Disillusioned with her heritage and furious at Mephistopheles’ control over her life, Vi rebelled against the destiny assigned to her at birth and accepted Anna’s offer, her sullen and defensive heart gradually opening and softening as she spent more time with her former foes, including Elsa. Just as she and Anna became an inseparable political team, she was forced by Peony and Yixin to leave Arendelle and track down a former member of the Exalted. This ex-Exalted, Thomas Hunt, turned out to be a demented cultist based in London, where Vi formed a romantic bond with Tess Gaunt, an impoverished prostitute living on the streets of the East End. When they were both captured by Hunt and seemed doomed to be tortured to death, Vi desperately recanted her rebellion against Mephistopheles. She pledged renewed servitude to him, and in return gained eternal life and the power of Arendelle’s First Vampire. With her newfound powers, she massacred Hunt and his cultists, saved Tess, and brought her with her back to Arendelle.

During her time in London, Vi was indirectly responsible for a bill against the trafficking of young women. She counted among her allies a British MP, a senior surgeon, and a newspaper editor.

Vi was able to return to Arendelle in time for the Russo-Arendellian War and contribute her Mundilfari Court Guard (the reformed Runic Knights) to the Battle of Arenfjord.

Vi is now forever in the demon’s bondage and constantly needs human blood to survive (which Tess volunteers to give). Nevertheless, she’s grown accustomed to her complicated state, moving from Keep Mundilfari to stay at her princely residence in Arendelle.

A fierce and dark, yet noble character struggling to do the right thing, Vi has since made a family for herself, departing from her bloodline’s cursed legacy and resisting Mephistopheles in her own small way despite her bondage to him. She’s turned away from her family’s cruel legacy and built a small and warm household with Hilde and Tess. Furthermore, her newfound purpose as one of Anna’s most important allies has given her new direction and determination to help the sister-queens steward Arendelle into the modern age. Her sharp edge and dark aura provides a complementary counterpoint to Anna’s endless optimism and fiery energy.

Vi is the dark protector of the kingdom, an immortal presence that you can always rely on.