A Bloody (And Public) Domaine (short story)
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A Bloody (And Public) Domaine was the sixth story in The Book of the Enemy.
Heavily featuring Count Dracula, it notably established him to exist in a state of "quantum possibility", constantly shifting between different backstories and personas, thereby reconciling the myriad of conflicting accounts given of the public domain ghoul in previous stories.
Summary
Godfather Gideon and Godfather Auteur are at the stop of the Shadow Spire in the Eleven-Day Empire listening to a recording of Godfather Morlock's personal testimony on a phonograph.
Morlock admits to being fascinated in the role Vlad Tepes has played in the war, examining his body, which "experiences multiple branches of history". The normal history of his life has only a tangential impact on the war, the massacre at Targoviste caused the Celestis to take note of him. But his future life has multiple strands, being resurrected by Mal'akh worshipers, or people believing in Stoker's novel and so him becoming Dracula, and one thread, more interesting than the others, a woman in a black dress, the mother of monsters, Lilith. Dracula survives, builds an empire, and vampirism even becomes fashionable. Indeed, in this timeline there was a fleet of organic timeships, blocking the timeline of a Dracula who didn't ever die.
Characters
References
to be added
Notes
- It's mentioned that Auteur is a prisoner in the Shadow Spire.
- The Mina Harker portion of this story takes place on 19 November, establishing it as being set very shortly after the main narrative of Dracula, which ends on 6 November.
- It's mentioned that the Mina Harker portion of this story takes place concurrently with the film The Brides of Dracula.
- The idea of Count Dracula surviving the events of Dracula, taking over the British Empire, and making vampirism an acceptable and fashionable condition is similar to the premise of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series. Other elements, set in space, are a reference to Hideuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D series.
Continuity
- The Eleven-Day Empire has a red sky. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire, et al.)
- Morlock mentions the massacre at Tirgoviste which the Celestis were involved in. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
- In one quantum possibility, Vlad's history "tangled" with the Incremental Effect and his "vampiric persona" was "made real because so many people took Stoker's novel for gospel". (PROSE: The Found World)
- Morlock mentions the Ghost Point. (PROSE: The Book of the War, This Town Will Never Let Us Go)
- Auteur says Morlock can "baise lui-même." (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
- Homeworlders have a special power over the universe caused by the Observer Effect. (PROSE: The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic)
- Dracula uses a Bedfordshire mine built in the future by "invaders of metal and spite" who tried to get to Earth's core. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- "A History" is hidden in Earth's core. (PROSE: Interference - Book Two, Head of State)
- The caldera was described as an "absence" in PROSE: The Book of the War.
- Lilith refers to the Very Fabric. (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen, et al)
- Lilith is also known by the names "Lady Waki" (PROSE: The Book of the War) and "Queen Charlotte". (AUDIO: In the Year of the Cat)
- Earth's core bleeds green pus. (TV: Inferno)
- "Lilith" also shows an interest with the Earth's core in PROSE: Head of State.
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