I'm making this post to introduce, and also have for anyone who comes from Ao3, my Hellsing OC Bloody Mary aka Mary Magnolia aka Maria Magnolia. This is gonna be a bit of a sketch dump and lore dump so buckle in (β ββ α΄β ββ βΏβ )
Mary, or Maria, started out as an idea of a nun that Anderson was in love with but never could have. I'm not sure why, but in the TeamFourStar song, I always thought (for an embarrassingly long time) the line close to the end that Heinkel sings "Me? I loved him." never even registered as Heinkel. I always thought it was some random woman who we would never meet. Stupid, I know, but from that the idea of Mary was born.
Early Sketches and Art...
Oh boy, Mary's early sketches a bit of a mess and I mean that. (ΰ² ΰ²Ώβ _β ΰ² ΰ²ΏβΏβ ) I had the idea but no real backstory other than, witch in nun's clothing because I liked the idea of her Hellsing uniform being ironic. Not to say she was a wolf in sheep's clothing, more like a survivor hidden in plane sight.
Her name came to me as a bit of a play on the sound of her name. I knew I wanted it to be an alliteration like Alexander Anderson and when I looked up popular girl names in Italy around the year she was born, Maria stood out to me not only because of the religious background, but as a funny little nod to the Madonna her self, the Virgin Mary. Her last name came from one of my favorite trees, magnolias, and also my religious background from Mary Magdalene. I though since they phonetically sound close to each other in my head, Magdalene and Magnolia, it would be a little cheeky of me to name her Maria Magnolia.
While her name is Maria Magnolia, often I will refer to her as just Mary due to her code name for the Hellsing Organization being Bloody Mary. I also liked the idea of Alucard knowing her name is Maria but refusing to call her anything other than Bloody Mary or Mary.
After so much back and forth with her design, I finally pulled together some references of people and drew what I consider her final form that I am very happy with. Not much to say other than I really hope how I described her on paper matched up better with the final design than the previous icky first drafts. (β ββ α΄β ββ βΏβ )
So yeah, that's Mary. I unfortunately for my other OCs she's a favorite right now. I'll probably write about her on my Ao3 more than I actually draw her unfortunately but I just wanted this here. A small record of the OC design process for one of my most fleshed out OCs.
I'm going to try to keep this section short since most of her backstory is outlined in Blood Bayonets but it also has a lot because I wanted this OC completely fleshed out.
Maria Magnolia was found abandoned near a nunnery in Rome, Italy. With no papers or any note, the nuns decided to name her Maria Magnolia and took her to the Ferdinand Luke's orphanage. As Mary grew up in the orphanage, she grew attached to a small boy who had came to the orphanage around the same time she had. This young boy was Alexander Anderson. Their childhood was as normal as one could expect an orphan's childhood to be however Mary always noticed how the adults treated her. She wasn't a particularly bad child but the adults would treat her differently from the other kids. Stricter rules and harsher punishments, but through out it all her best friend Alexander was there for her. Than, after her tenth birthday, Mary met a rather well off couple who had been searching for a girl to adopt. Though this adoption seemed to be a miracle, it was far from joyous. Mary would have to leave her best friend behind and though Alexander promised to write, neither of their letters would find the other.
The first few years with the couple were bliss for Mary. Rather than strict rules and punishments, her new family was rather lax in her upbringing. They would dress her in cute clothes and show her off to friends and family but it felt strangely forced. Mary however never sensed there was anything particularly wrong until they stopped paying attention to her all together. Heart broken and confused, little Mary did all she could to get her parents to notice her.
One day, her adoptive parents announced they were going on a trip to Switzerland. While there, Mary saw her parents snap back to how they used to be when she was first adopted. Yet at the last day, her parents left her in the care of an old woman and never came back.
The old woman just an old woman, she was a blood witch. Mary's adoptive parents had traded her for a favor from the old blood witch. Mary was devastated and with no one else to turn to, she was at the witch's mercy.
The witch used Mary as an easy supplier of blood for her blood magic, draining the pour child until she was weak and barely conscious. Mary spent most of her teens and early twenties at the Blood witch's mercy. However, even though she was powerless against the blood witch, Mary began to learn blood magic and other dark arts.
It was in Mary's early 20's when the old blood witch decided to do a ritual of etheral youth she had been trying to perfect for decades. The ritual was old magic before the birth of steam and technology but the incantation was clearly incomplete still. Mary was tempted to warn her witch master but what she will never admit and will often lie about, was she did not warn the old blood witch. In fact, Mary had added an ingredient into the spell to make sure it backfired catastrophically. The old blood witch was killed in the ritual mishap and Mary went on to find the actual last piece of the spell.
Mary found the last ingredient ( I won't say exactly what it was but think Yennifer in the Witcher and that is correct ) and completed the ritual giving her eternal youth. This didn't make her young again, rather it made her age very slowly. That is why when she meets Anderson in Blood Bayonets again, she looks to be in her twenties still.
After this she was chased out of Switzerland and back into Rome where Iscariot caught wind of her. Iscariot sent a group after her and Mary fled to England. Iscariot followed there too unfortunately and Mary adopted a more traditional habit to hide. However Iscariot would always find her and chase her out of whatever home she had tried to build for herself.
One night as she raced across the countryside, Mary came face to face with Alucard. Alucard was intrigued by the blood witch as he thought all witches were extinct. Mary, who had no where to go, begged the vampire not to kill her and to help her find sanctuary somewhere. Alucard, though he would never admit it, saw a bit of himself in Mary and offered to introduce her to Integra who may let her stay at the manor.
Mary met Integra and was baffled to see the head of Hellsing was a child at this time. Mary asked Integra to let her stay in the manor and Integra told her she would have to pledge herself to their cause. Mary did just that and quickly became to go to nurse in the manor. Due to her magic being one of blood manipulation, she was able to treat wounds efficiently as well as being the relied upon witch for occult things. It was also her blood magic that gave Alucard the idea to call her Bloody Mary and the name stuck.
That's it and I hope you enjoyed the lore dump and somewhat art dump. If you made it this far, thank you for your time and I hope you found my little OC interesting. (β ββ α΄β ββ βΏβ )
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