Bow To The First Order

i’ve loved seeing the darkmoor fandom take off, and i wanted to throw some info i have about one of the characters i see the least discussed!

what we know about maleva!

Maleva is only named in-park through this A-frame outside of Curse of the Werewolf, and occasionally by walk-around actors. Curse of the Werewolf is the only ride which she plays a large role. She is obviously based off the Maleva from the 1941 Wolf Man film, a Romani woman who tells Larry Talbot that he is now afflicted with lycanthropy after being bit by her son.

Obviously her design is very different, but her role is essentially the same. Midway through Curse of the Werewolf, you encounter a lycanthrope that is decidedly NOT Larry Talbot (let me know if you want a deep dive into the two diff kinds of lycanthropy lol) and then Maleva basically diagnoses you as werewolf, warning you to “Beware of the moon”.

This ties into her role as “Wolf-seer” in the Guild of Mystics, who are also a group in Darkmoor I don’t see discussed! The que of Curse takes riders through their temporary encampment, filled with tarot cards and colorful oil lamps. They seem to be a group of traveling mystics that specialize in lycanthropy, with the star and wolf insignia being key to their iconography. the small merch cart outside the que is actually called the Guild of Mystics, indicating the gift shop is a diegetic part of the town being run by the guild, which i think is a cute touch.

Although we don’t know how many there are, with Maleva being the only named member of the Guild, they take up more area in the park than the Hounds, so I’d love to see some guild of mystics face actors eventually.

As far as her interactions with the other characters in the portal, I was lucky enough to visit Epic a few times during previews, once on May 8th when Curse was down.

When asked why Curse was down today, he immediately launched into a story about how Maleva had actually been banging at the walls of the manor all night, begging for help, followed by howling and barking. He commented that he hates werewolves so he doesn’t really care what happened, and that Maleva annoys the FUCK out of him. We’ve seen him repeat this story on live streams a few times between diff actors, so safe to say it’s a rehearsed story to answer annoying guests that care about werewolves too much. (me).

so while it’s definitely not canon that Maleva got eaten by werewolves, the implication is that she is typically the force taking care of, or keeping the wolves at bay.

hope we see more of Maleva, this one is for all my werewolf theme park nerds lol.