Purgatori
Encyclopedia
Purgatori is a fictional comic book
character, created by writer Brian Pulido
and artist Steven Hughes
. A crimson
-skinned, winged vampire
goddess
, she first appeared in Lady Death
#3 (March 1994), published by Chaos! Comics
. She has since appeared in books published by Devil's Due Publishing
.
ic origin who told Sakkara he knew a way to escape slavery and achieve immortality.
One day Sakkara was grinding corn when the Queen came to inspect the progress of her tomb. Sakkara was in the way of her chariot and narrowly escaped being run over. Ostraca wanted to punish Sakkara for not moving quick enough, but as soon as she saw her she was mesmerized by her beauty and her blue eyes. The Queen was well known for her love of women, and Sakkara became the newest acquisition to her harem
. The two were married, and for a year Sakkara lived a life of luxury.
In Egypt, the situation with the citizens of Alexandria had grown steadily worse. The Queen realized that if they rebelled, she would never get her tomb finished. The general of her army, Ramses, made her an offer: if she married him and made him pharaoh, he would keep the population in check and ensure the completion of the tomb. He had one condition: Ramses must be her only lover, and all of her harem must die. Sakkara returned to the palace one night to find all the other girls dead. She fled into the night, in search of the old Celtic slave and his secret of immortality.
She found the old man as he was being attacked by guards. She killed them and he lived long enough to direct her across the desert to a cave set into a mountain peak. There she met Rath, an ancient Celtic vampire
. She wanted to gain immortality for her revenge; he wanted a weapon to help him turn man from the civilized path to the wild ways that Rath advocated. Rath drank Sakkara's blood and fed her some of his own, turning her into a vampire. As Rath's blood mixed with her own, it combined with the strange blood of the Fallen Angels within her, transforming her into a creature with blood red skin, horns, glowing white eyes, and bat-like wings.
Sakkara returned to the Queen's temple on her wedding night and attacked the married couple and their guests. Amongst them were the samurai
Jade
and her father, and Kabala and her husband from Africa. Sakkara bit Jade and Kabala, turning them into vampires. She incited the citizens of Alexandria to rebellion, and they demolished the city. She then bit Ramses and Ostraca and entombed them in the Queen's burial sarcophagus. They were rescued five days later, but by then they had turned vampiric - starved of blood, they were wizened and insane, and would stay that way forever.
. He eventually came to her, entranced by her dark and savage nature, and took her to Hell. He intended to marry her, but she had other ideas: as soon as he joined her in his bedchamber, she bit him and drank from him. Infuriated, but impressed by her spirit, he cast her through the Nexus of All Things, exiling her to the city of Necropolis. Lucifer also gave her a new name: Purgatori.
Purgatori stayed in Necropolis for millennia, feasting on its occupants and acquiring a pet chimera
. She was unable to pass through the Nexus, but one day she saw the soul of Marion, Lady Death
's mother, passing on its way to Heaven. She intercepted it with the help of her chimera, and kept her in Necropolis for over 400 years, studying her and the Nexus to see if there was a way she could return to Hell. Her hand was forced by Lady Death: with the disappearance of Lucifer, the Fallen Angels were moving on Hell in a bid to rule it. They attacked Necropolis first and Purgatori was forced to flee. Risking all, she used Marion's soul to travel through the Nexus and ended up in Hell. This was the home of Lady Death now, and Purgatori knew all about her from studying Marion. She knew her blood would be rich in power, and she wanted both her blood and the soul of Lucifer, now trapped inside Lady Death.
pets, she located Cremator, lost after the battle for Hell, and entranced him, turning him against Lady Death and setting him to forge a magical sword for her to reclaim Lucifer's soul. Casting a spell to sever the psychic link between Lady Death and Evil Ernie
and dealing harshly with Mary Young
who had turned up in Hell to kill Lady Death, she set about tormenting Lady Death in order to make her blood all the richer and sweeter.
After getting Cremator to attack Lady Death, Purgatori attacked her herself. In a long battle she lost her jackals to the Nameless Wolves but beat Lady Death. When she impaled her with Cremator's sword, her magic backfired, hurting her and allowing Lady Death to escape. Lady Death plunged Purgatori into the Styx, impelling her to tell her the truth, and Purgatori revealed that Lucifer's soul had never actually been inside Lady Death. He reappeared at that moment to confirm the point: he had been playing her for a fool as one of his games. Annoyed at having his hand shown, he took Purgatori to Dis
and tortured her while taking Lady Death and turning her into a creature of evil — Lady Demon
.
The next day, she was forced to fight Lady Demon in Hell's Arena. Still very weak after being tortured, Purgatori lost the fight, but still refused to submit to Lady Demon and reveal to her where Marion's soul was. Lady Demon drained her of her powers and cast her through the Nexus, sending her to the one place she loathed more than any other: Earth. With her power gone, the Separation spell began to erode.
Purgatori arrived in San Francisco on 13 October 1995, and immediately became a victim to the ravenous thirst that is a vampire's own form of slavery. She secured a victim at a local lesbian S&M bar and was attacked by a tormented creature who called himself The Faithless One. She killed him in short order, at the very instant of the Pandora Effect.
Her arrival back on Earth had been noticed: Jade and Kabala contacted her psychically
, telling her of their intention to kill her, and Rath too began to track her. Realising she was too weak to fight them, Purgatori stowed away on a freighter and made her way back to Alexandria, hoping to confront her enemies on home turf. She was ambushed by Jade, who mindprobed
her to find out what both she and Kabala wanted to know - why they had been made into vampires. Purgatori managed to force an image of Lucifer onto her, a vision that horrified Jade and knocked her off-guard. Purgatori drank her blood but lost it almost immediately when Rath chose that very moment to attack, draining her of her newly-acquired power and taking her to be interrogated.
Rath offered to save her from her enemies if she would accept him as her master. She refused, and he left her to be captured by Jade and Kabala. Taken to Africa, they probed her mind and were enraged to find that they had been created as a mistake, in a moment of passion. They tortured Purgatori, trying to make her beg for her life, but she denied them too. Rath arrived and told her he had just been testing her limits. When he was attacked by the samurai, Purgatori was drenched with his blood and absorbed tremendous amounts of power. She killed Kabala and Jade escaped. Rath offered to teach her again but she spat in his face, unwilling to side with someone who had used her in such a way.
. She set off to find him, and finally tracked him down in his castle. They made love, Dracula swearing his loyalty to her.
Purgatori returned to the USA again, and set about trapping Evil Ernie, the lover of her enemy Lady Death. In the middle of a battle, she appeared through the blood of Mary Young, with whom she still had a link, and knocked out and kidnapped Chastity
, taking her to Los Angeles
where she had already recruited The Faithless One — now calling himself The Saviour — to do her work. While The Saviour was setting up Ernie, Purgatori scanned Chastity's mind to find out about her history, and took her to a lesbian bar for purposes of pleasure. Purgatori sensed the Saviour had failed in his plan, and she took Chastity with her, attacking Ernie herself. She got inside his mind and discovered his ability to shape reality, but before she could take action, his Cyber Dead attacked the house and destroyed it, forcing her to flee. Her probing would have disastrous consequences for Ernie. She was in fact, the direct cause of his death.
She travelled to the ruins of New York, seeking the blood of the Fallen Angels. Here she encountered Metatron (named after the angel
), and met Blattidae (named after the cockroach
), who told her of an ancient Prophecy that detailed her life history and told of her return to Goddesshood. In her battle with Metatron, she began to have doubts about whether she would ever be more than just a common vampire, but after beating him she realised that part of the problem was that she had been wasting her time with lesser creatures like him and should have been aiming higher. She left New York to Blattidae, most of her army having been crucified by Metatron, and began plotting her Ascension.
Travelling to Necropolis, she found it in ruins and was attacked by Rubicante, Rath's brother. Knowing of her abilities he decided to test her, and teleported her to the nightmarish world of Trandaemonium. Beating off an attack by the freaks that inhabited the world, she scented Lady Death here, and tracked her down. Lady Death pretended she didn't want to fight, then used her sword to fight for her — Nightmare swallowed Purgatori. Purgatori was well versed in magic and Blood Alchemy and made the sword submit to her will, allowing her to escape. She was ready to fight Lady Death again, but realised that if she didn't leave Transdaemoniium immediately, she never would. Taking the blood energy from Nightmare she left, returning to Earth where a war between the vampire clans was under way.
Purgatori watched the vampire war escalate, deciding that Dracula was becoming too powerful for her liking. She was attacked by Karmilla, who had been given various powers by Satrina, but defeated her, trapping her in her dungeon to torture. Karmilla managed to escape but Purgatori deflected her teleportation spell and left her to die in the cold tundra of North America while she traveled to the Invisible Village to find out whether or not it was Rath who had given Karmilla her charmed weapons.
Karmilla followed her, freshly armed with the Spine of Eden, and attacked Rath instead, tricked by Purgatori into thinking he had kidnapped her children. In the ensuing struggle, Purgatori learned that it was Satrina who had betrayed her and was trapped and almost killed by the Spine of Eden, but escaped by turning herself into blood, a sign of her rapidly growing powers. She splattered Karmilla over most of the landscape.
Her next stop was Shanghai
, to take down Jade's empire and recover the Chalice of Regeneration. Intercepted in the Sun nightclub, she dispatched her attackers and met up with Dracula who was secretly after the same thing. Together, they assaulted Jade at her fortress home, Purgatori almost killing Jade by shoving her onto a stake. Dracula left her to fight and traveled to get the Chalice himself, enraging Purgatori at having been used. She followed him and was almost killed by Blood Sect vampires who were armed with a new type of bullet lethal to vampires. She bested them and Dracula, recovering the Chalice for her own use. Dracula fled, happy that she had inadvertently helped him - by taking apart Jade's empire, she had strengthened Dracula's position immeasurably in the war.
Weak and without blood to feed on, she found herself in the catacombs
under Vatican City
, attacked by revenant
s. She beat them but Dracula moved in, trying to dominate her will. He offered her the use of his army if she would join him but she refused. They fought, and ended up on the roof of the Vatican, both ensnared by the Octarine chains she had found in the Vatican treasure rooms. Dawn was coming up fast, and she was rescued at the last moment by Pope Stephen, who realised that Purgatori was the stronger vampire and stood the best chance of winning the war. She tore out Dracula's fangs, escaping just before the rising sun fried Dracula forever.
She left for Cairo, to study the Prophecy hieroglyphs at Isis International, and while she was gone Satrina began an invocation ceremony to summon a demon and steal Purgatori's power, killing her to rise as the goddess herself. The spell was corrupted and she raised Gorge instead, who had been watching Purgatori's progress from his home in the Unknown.
Purgatori returned from Cairo, having discovered the betrayal, and killed Satrina, ripping out her heart. Gorge revealed that she was his blood-mother, and he would help her Ascension. Feeling she had to leave the weaknesses of her humanity behind she partially destroyed the Isis International buildings. Gorge showed her that the power of all she had killed was at her disposal. She also saw Rath's creation at the hands of Satrina and suspected that they were still in league. Tracking him to the Serengeti, she killed Rubicante by ripping out his spine, but Rath revealed that he was actually here to help her.
on a "training exercise", unaware that Odin
was one of her warriors. Her army ravaged Asgard, killing some and converting the rest to her warriors. She defeated Odin and stole his powers. Vandala and Vulnavia fled the carnage, trying to take Frigga
to safety, but Purgatori followed them to Transdemoniium, killing Frigga. Vulnavia cut off Purgatori's hand but she regenerated immediately and bit Vulnavia, turning her into a faithful convert. She fought with Matthias, who had been banished here by Lady Death, and took possession of Nightmare. Vandala managed to escape with the help of Brock and Grimmir, leaving to find Lady Death. Purgatori burned Transdemoniium and left for Earth, determined to find and kill Lady Death.
She assaulted Lady Death's fortress in Oblivion, but after a long battle she was stabbed through the heart with the Scythe, degenerating into a pool of blood. Armageddon resurrected her with his power and took her as a servant, ordering her to kill Lady Death. She attacked Lady Death's forces and then sneaked off to attack Armageddon, her plan all along to steal his blood and power. The raw energy and chaotic power in his blood poisoned her, and she collapsed unconscious. Nightmare was taken from her and used to attack Armageddon. He died, but in a final act of defiance unleashed an Uncreation Wave to destroy everything in the cosmos. The effect of the Wave was altered by Mitchell Wardlow, who managed to use it to create eight different parallel universes. Purgatori recovered just in time to be swallowed by the Uncreation Wave.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
character, created by writer Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido is a creator, writer and producer of comic books and films.-Early life:Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Pulido first developed an interest in the horror genre after the release of Night of the Living Dead when he was a child.-Comic book career:Pulido has created, written or...
and artist Steven Hughes
Steven Hughes
Steven Jay Hughes was an American artist for the Chaos! Comics company. Hughes provided the art for many of the company's comics, including Lady Death, Evil Ernie, and the short-lived superhero series Detonator...
. A crimson
Crimson
Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color. It is originally the color of the dye produced from a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, but the name is now also used as a generic term for those slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose; besides crimson itself, these colors include...
-skinned, winged vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
, she first appeared in Lady Death
Lady Death
Lady Death is a fictional character, a comic book goddess created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 by Eternity Comics in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct...
#3 (March 1994), published by Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics
Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1994 until 2002.-Overview:Their titles included Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon, and Smiley The Psychotic Button.They also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling...
. She has since appeared in books published by Devil's Due Publishing
Devil's Due Publishing
Devil's Due Publishing is an independent comic book publishers in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, DDP is best known for its wide selection of genres, including licensed and original creator-owned properties that populate its monthly comic book series and graphic novels.Though...
.
In Egypt: as Sakkara
Purgatori was born in Egypt around 1390 BC, and raised in the city of Alexandria. Her parentage is unknown, save that she has the blood of the Fallen Angels in her veins. Her human name is Sakkara, and she was part of the team of slaves that built the burial tomb for Queen Ostraca. Sakkara's job was to grind corn all day under the desert sun, and she was constantly whipped by the brutish male guards. Amongst the slaves was a foreigner, an old man of CeltCelt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic origin who told Sakkara he knew a way to escape slavery and achieve immortality.
One day Sakkara was grinding corn when the Queen came to inspect the progress of her tomb. Sakkara was in the way of her chariot and narrowly escaped being run over. Ostraca wanted to punish Sakkara for not moving quick enough, but as soon as she saw her she was mesmerized by her beauty and her blue eyes. The Queen was well known for her love of women, and Sakkara became the newest acquisition to her harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
. The two were married, and for a year Sakkara lived a life of luxury.
In Egypt, the situation with the citizens of Alexandria had grown steadily worse. The Queen realized that if they rebelled, she would never get her tomb finished. The general of her army, Ramses, made her an offer: if she married him and made him pharaoh, he would keep the population in check and ensure the completion of the tomb. He had one condition: Ramses must be her only lover, and all of her harem must die. Sakkara returned to the palace one night to find all the other girls dead. She fled into the night, in search of the old Celtic slave and his secret of immortality.
She found the old man as he was being attacked by guards. She killed them and he lived long enough to direct her across the desert to a cave set into a mountain peak. There she met Rath, an ancient Celtic vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
. She wanted to gain immortality for her revenge; he wanted a weapon to help him turn man from the civilized path to the wild ways that Rath advocated. Rath drank Sakkara's blood and fed her some of his own, turning her into a vampire. As Rath's blood mixed with her own, it combined with the strange blood of the Fallen Angels within her, transforming her into a creature with blood red skin, horns, glowing white eyes, and bat-like wings.
Sakkara returned to the Queen's temple on her wedding night and attacked the married couple and their guests. Amongst them were the samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
Jade
Jade (Chaos Comics)
Jade is fictional comic book character published by Chaos! Comics.-Fictional character biography:Jade is a 4000-year-old vampire-sorceress who has been the leader of a powerful, Shanghai crime family for over a millennia, a position she inherited from her father. For ages, it was a position she...
and her father, and Kabala and her husband from Africa. Sakkara bit Jade and Kabala, turning them into vampires. She incited the citizens of Alexandria to rebellion, and they demolished the city. She then bit Ramses and Ostraca and entombed them in the Queen's burial sarcophagus. They were rescued five days later, but by then they had turned vampiric - starved of blood, they were wizened and insane, and would stay that way forever.
In Necropolis: as Purgatori
Sakkara left the city and set about a new task: having learned that the blood of gods, and especially a god in torment, holds extreme power, she began work to attract the attention of LuciferLucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
. He eventually came to her, entranced by her dark and savage nature, and took her to Hell. He intended to marry her, but she had other ideas: as soon as he joined her in his bedchamber, she bit him and drank from him. Infuriated, but impressed by her spirit, he cast her through the Nexus of All Things, exiling her to the city of Necropolis. Lucifer also gave her a new name: Purgatori.
Purgatori stayed in Necropolis for millennia, feasting on its occupants and acquiring a pet chimera
Chimera (mythology)
The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
. She was unable to pass through the Nexus, but one day she saw the soul of Marion, Lady Death
Lady Death
Lady Death is a fictional character, a comic book goddess created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 by Eternity Comics in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct...
's mother, passing on its way to Heaven. She intercepted it with the help of her chimera, and kept her in Necropolis for over 400 years, studying her and the Nexus to see if there was a way she could return to Hell. Her hand was forced by Lady Death: with the disappearance of Lucifer, the Fallen Angels were moving on Hell in a bid to rule it. They attacked Necropolis first and Purgatori was forced to flee. Risking all, she used Marion's soul to travel through the Nexus and ended up in Hell. This was the home of Lady Death now, and Purgatori knew all about her from studying Marion. She knew her blood would be rich in power, and she wanted both her blood and the soul of Lucifer, now trapped inside Lady Death.
In Hell: Against Lady Death and Lucifer
Camping by the River Styx with her new jackalJackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
pets, she located Cremator, lost after the battle for Hell, and entranced him, turning him against Lady Death and setting him to forge a magical sword for her to reclaim Lucifer's soul. Casting a spell to sever the psychic link between Lady Death and Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie
Evil Ernie is a fictional character, an undead, psychotic killer with his own series, published by Chaos! Comics and Devil's Due Publishing. Originally, Evil Ernie was part of Eternity Comics. He made his debut in December 1991. He was created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes.-...
and dealing harshly with Mary Young
Mary Young
Mary Young was a Pitcairn Island-born granddaughter of Mutiny on the Bounty survivor Edward "Ned" Young and his Tahitian wife Toofaiti...
who had turned up in Hell to kill Lady Death, she set about tormenting Lady Death in order to make her blood all the richer and sweeter.
After getting Cremator to attack Lady Death, Purgatori attacked her herself. In a long battle she lost her jackals to the Nameless Wolves but beat Lady Death. When she impaled her with Cremator's sword, her magic backfired, hurting her and allowing Lady Death to escape. Lady Death plunged Purgatori into the Styx, impelling her to tell her the truth, and Purgatori revealed that Lucifer's soul had never actually been inside Lady Death. He reappeared at that moment to confirm the point: he had been playing her for a fool as one of his games. Annoyed at having his hand shown, he took Purgatori to Dis
Dis (Divine Comedy)
In Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, the City of Dis encompasses the sixth through the ninth circles of Hell. The most serious sins are punished here, in lower Hell...
and tortured her while taking Lady Death and turning her into a creature of evil — Lady Demon
Lady Demon
Lady Demon is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Chaos! Comics. Her first appearance was in Lady Death: Between Heaven and Hell #3. Lady Demon is Lady Death's much darker and evolved form.-Fictional character biography:...
.
The next day, she was forced to fight Lady Demon in Hell's Arena. Still very weak after being tortured, Purgatori lost the fight, but still refused to submit to Lady Demon and reveal to her where Marion's soul was. Lady Demon drained her of her powers and cast her through the Nexus, sending her to the one place she loathed more than any other: Earth. With her power gone, the Separation spell began to erode.
On Earth: Against Jade, Kabala, and Rath
Her arrival back on Earth had been noticed: Jade and Kabala contacted her psychically
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, telling her of their intention to kill her, and Rath too began to track her. Realising she was too weak to fight them, Purgatori stowed away on a freighter and made her way back to Alexandria, hoping to confront her enemies on home turf. She was ambushed by Jade, who mindprobed
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
her to find out what both she and Kabala wanted to know - why they had been made into vampires. Purgatori managed to force an image of Lucifer onto her, a vision that horrified Jade and knocked her off-guard. Purgatori drank her blood but lost it almost immediately when Rath chose that very moment to attack, draining her of her newly-acquired power and taking her to be interrogated.
Rath offered to save her from her enemies if she would accept him as her master. She refused, and he left her to be captured by Jade and Kabala. Taken to Africa, they probed her mind and were enraged to find that they had been created as a mistake, in a moment of passion. They tortured Purgatori, trying to make her beg for her life, but she denied them too. Rath arrived and told her he had just been testing her limits. When he was attacked by the samurai, Purgatori was drenched with his blood and absorbed tremendous amounts of power. She killed Kabala and Jade escaped. Rath offered to teach her again but she spat in his face, unwilling to side with someone who had used her in such a way.
Prelude to Vampire Wars
Returning to the USA, she began to come across traces of DraculaDracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
. She set off to find him, and finally tracked him down in his castle. They made love, Dracula swearing his loyalty to her.
Purgatori returned to the USA again, and set about trapping Evil Ernie, the lover of her enemy Lady Death. In the middle of a battle, she appeared through the blood of Mary Young, with whom she still had a link, and knocked out and kidnapped Chastity
Chastity (comics)
Chastity is both the name of a comic book character and series in which she is primarily featured. It was produced and published by Chaos! Comics and currently owned by Tales of Wonder.-Original Chaos! Comics:...
, taking her to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where she had already recruited The Faithless One — now calling himself The Saviour — to do her work. While The Saviour was setting up Ernie, Purgatori scanned Chastity's mind to find out about her history, and took her to a lesbian bar for purposes of pleasure. Purgatori sensed the Saviour had failed in his plan, and she took Chastity with her, attacking Ernie herself. She got inside his mind and discovered his ability to shape reality, but before she could take action, his Cyber Dead attacked the house and destroyed it, forcing her to flee. Her probing would have disastrous consequences for Ernie. She was in fact, the direct cause of his death.
She travelled to the ruins of New York, seeking the blood of the Fallen Angels. Here she encountered Metatron (named after the angel
Metatron
Metatron or Mattatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christian mythology. There are no references to him in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Scriptures...
), and met Blattidae (named after the cockroach
Blattidae
The Blattidae is a family of the order Blattaria . It contains several of the most common household cockroaches.-Selected species:*Oriental cockroach *American cockroach...
), who told her of an ancient Prophecy that detailed her life history and told of her return to Goddesshood. In her battle with Metatron, she began to have doubts about whether she would ever be more than just a common vampire, but after beating him she realised that part of the problem was that she had been wasting her time with lesser creatures like him and should have been aiming higher. She left New York to Blattidae, most of her army having been crucified by Metatron, and began plotting her Ascension.
Travelling to Necropolis, she found it in ruins and was attacked by Rubicante, Rath's brother. Knowing of her abilities he decided to test her, and teleported her to the nightmarish world of Trandaemonium. Beating off an attack by the freaks that inhabited the world, she scented Lady Death here, and tracked her down. Lady Death pretended she didn't want to fight, then used her sword to fight for her — Nightmare swallowed Purgatori. Purgatori was well versed in magic and Blood Alchemy and made the sword submit to her will, allowing her to escape. She was ready to fight Lady Death again, but realised that if she didn't leave Transdaemoniium immediately, she never would. Taking the blood energy from Nightmare she left, returning to Earth where a war between the vampire clans was under way.
Vampire Clan Wars
Having set herself up as the CEO of Isis International, she scoured the planet for artifacts of power. Her first task was to take a team of mercenaries to New York to recover her Prophecy hieroglyphs. The team was attacked by the remains of Metatron's army, but she dealt with them easily. Back in Cairo, her work at Isis International was interrupted by illusions that turned out to be the work of Satrina. An ex-lover of Purgatori's, she returned to seduce her again, and showed her visions of struggles around the world. The message was to teach Purgatori that strength was not enough - she had to believe in herself, as did any army she raised; that they must be willing to fight for her even if they knew the battle was lost. Satrina left her, secretly hiring a vampire hunter called Karmilla to assassinate Purgatori.Purgatori watched the vampire war escalate, deciding that Dracula was becoming too powerful for her liking. She was attacked by Karmilla, who had been given various powers by Satrina, but defeated her, trapping her in her dungeon to torture. Karmilla managed to escape but Purgatori deflected her teleportation spell and left her to die in the cold tundra of North America while she traveled to the Invisible Village to find out whether or not it was Rath who had given Karmilla her charmed weapons.
Karmilla followed her, freshly armed with the Spine of Eden, and attacked Rath instead, tricked by Purgatori into thinking he had kidnapped her children. In the ensuing struggle, Purgatori learned that it was Satrina who had betrayed her and was trapped and almost killed by the Spine of Eden, but escaped by turning herself into blood, a sign of her rapidly growing powers. She splattered Karmilla over most of the landscape.
Her next stop was Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, to take down Jade's empire and recover the Chalice of Regeneration. Intercepted in the Sun nightclub, she dispatched her attackers and met up with Dracula who was secretly after the same thing. Together, they assaulted Jade at her fortress home, Purgatori almost killing Jade by shoving her onto a stake. Dracula left her to fight and traveled to get the Chalice himself, enraging Purgatori at having been used. She followed him and was almost killed by Blood Sect vampires who were armed with a new type of bullet lethal to vampires. She bested them and Dracula, recovering the Chalice for her own use. Dracula fled, happy that she had inadvertently helped him - by taking apart Jade's empire, she had strengthened Dracula's position immeasurably in the war.
Ordeals with Dracula
By now, she had become fed up with Dracula. The final insult came from his name being raised in conversation with a "bimbo" at the Usher club. She teleported to his castle only to find everyone dead. Lured by the only survivor, she was trapped in a furnace and almost incinerated, but managed to escape by taking the blood of the bait and teleporting out.Weak and without blood to feed on, she found herself in the catacombs
Catacombs
Catacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
under Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, attacked by revenant
Revenant
The term Revenant may refer to:*Revenant , a creature brought back to life to fulfill a special goal*Revenant , a folkloric corpse that returns from the grave*The Revenant , a 2009 horror comedy...
s. She beat them but Dracula moved in, trying to dominate her will. He offered her the use of his army if she would join him but she refused. They fought, and ended up on the roof of the Vatican, both ensnared by the Octarine chains she had found in the Vatican treasure rooms. Dawn was coming up fast, and she was rescued at the last moment by Pope Stephen, who realised that Purgatori was the stronger vampire and stood the best chance of winning the war. She tore out Dracula's fangs, escaping just before the rising sun fried Dracula forever.
Satrina and her legacy
Purgatori took Satrina back as her lover, finding her treacherous nature arousing, and together they put down a potential uprising by Pope Stephen, who intended to take Purgatori's power. Still unsatisfied, she felt she was no nearer to her goal of goddesshood that she was when she started.She left for Cairo, to study the Prophecy hieroglyphs at Isis International, and while she was gone Satrina began an invocation ceremony to summon a demon and steal Purgatori's power, killing her to rise as the goddess herself. The spell was corrupted and she raised Gorge instead, who had been watching Purgatori's progress from his home in the Unknown.
Purgatori returned from Cairo, having discovered the betrayal, and killed Satrina, ripping out her heart. Gorge revealed that she was his blood-mother, and he would help her Ascension. Feeling she had to leave the weaknesses of her humanity behind she partially destroyed the Isis International buildings. Gorge showed her that the power of all she had killed was at her disposal. She also saw Rath's creation at the hands of Satrina and suspected that they were still in league. Tracking him to the Serengeti, she killed Rubicante by ripping out his spine, but Rath revealed that he was actually here to help her.
Final battles
Gorge transported them to the Unknown where she raised an army of dead warriors. Purgatori and her army set off for AsgardAsgard
In Norse religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard...
on a "training exercise", unaware that Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
was one of her warriors. Her army ravaged Asgard, killing some and converting the rest to her warriors. She defeated Odin and stole his powers. Vandala and Vulnavia fled the carnage, trying to take Frigga
Frigga
Frigga may refer to:* An anglicized form of the Old Norse goddess name Frigg* Frigga , a fictional Marvel Comics character based on the Norse goddess* Frigga , a genus of jumping spiders* 77 Frigga, an asteroid...
to safety, but Purgatori followed them to Transdemoniium, killing Frigga. Vulnavia cut off Purgatori's hand but she regenerated immediately and bit Vulnavia, turning her into a faithful convert. She fought with Matthias, who had been banished here by Lady Death, and took possession of Nightmare. Vandala managed to escape with the help of Brock and Grimmir, leaving to find Lady Death. Purgatori burned Transdemoniium and left for Earth, determined to find and kill Lady Death.
She assaulted Lady Death's fortress in Oblivion, but after a long battle she was stabbed through the heart with the Scythe, degenerating into a pool of blood. Armageddon resurrected her with his power and took her as a servant, ordering her to kill Lady Death. She attacked Lady Death's forces and then sneaked off to attack Armageddon, her plan all along to steal his blood and power. The raw energy and chaotic power in his blood poisoned her, and she collapsed unconscious. Nightmare was taken from her and used to attack Armageddon. He died, but in a final act of defiance unleashed an Uncreation Wave to destroy everything in the cosmos. The effect of the Wave was altered by Mitchell Wardlow, who managed to use it to create eight different parallel universes. Purgatori recovered just in time to be swallowed by the Uncreation Wave.
Purgatori Comic Series
- Purgatori: Vampire's Myth (1996)
- Purgatori: Dracula Gambit (1997)
- Purgatori (Monthly Series, 1998-1999)
- Purgatori: Goddess Rising (1999)
- Lady Death Vs Purgatori (One Shot, 1999)
- Purgatori Vs Lady Death (1999)
- Purgatori Vs Vampirella (2000)
- Purgatori: Empire (2000)
- Purgatori Vs Chastity (2000)
- Untold Tales of Purgatori (2000)
- Purgatori: Love Bites (2001)
- Purgatori: The Hunted (2001)
- Purgatori: Darkest Hour (2001)
- Purgatori: Mischief Night (2001)
- Purgatori: Heartbreaker (2002)
- Purgatori: God Hunter (2002)
- Purgatori: God Killer (2002 - Final Series from Chaos Comics)
- Purgatori: Ravenous (999 copies of an Ashcan preview was made available for this issue, the full issue was never published)
Character statistics
- Purgatori stands 5 ' 10 " (178 cm) to her head — not including her horns — and weighs in at 120 poundPound (mass)The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
s (9 stoneStone (weight)The stone is a units of measurement that was used in many North European countries until the advent of metrication. It value, which ranged from 3 kg to 12 kg, varied from city to city and also often from commodity to commodity...
8 pounds, or 54 kilogramKilogramThe kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
s).
- Lady DeathLady DeathLady Death is a fictional character, a comic book goddess created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 by Eternity Comics in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct...
's original costume was in fact the wedding dress made for Purgatori, given to her by Lucifer himself. Lady Death received it from Cremator after she renounced her humanity and entered Hell.
- Her favourite blood type is that of a god in turmoil.
- The endings for Purgatori vs Chastity were determined by the covers as ALPHA and OMEGA. In Alpha, Chastity wins. In Omega, Purgatori wins.
- Despite her and Chaos! Comics' other best-selling character, Lady DeathLady DeathLady Death is a fictional character, a comic book goddess created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 by Eternity Comics in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct...
's, storylines being heavily intertwined, she was not featured at all in the Lady Death filmLady Death: The MovieLady Death: The Movie is a 2004 U.S. animated film based on the comic book character Lady Death. This film was the first animation project produced by now-defunct anime distributor A.D. Vision. It had premiered at the 2004 Comic-Con convention. The film was released on DVD October 9, 2004 and had...
. This was due mainly because Chaos filed bankruptcy & Lady Death's right were sold to Crossgen Comics while Purgatori was sold with the other Chaos Comics characters.
- Purgatori was featured in the artwork for the album Days of PurgatoryDays of PurgatoryDays of Purgatory is an American heavy metal album by Iced Earth. It is a collection of remixes and remakes from previous albums. Most of the songs from the Enter the Realm EP, Iced Earth, and Night of the Stormrider were re-sung by Matt Barlow, and on some of the songs the drums and bass redone...
by the band Iced EarthIced EarthIced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida. Originally formed under the name "Purgatory" in 1984, Iced Earth has released a total of ten studio albums, one live album, three EP's, two compilations and boxsets...
.
See also
- Chaos! ComicsChaos! ComicsChaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1994 until 2002.-Overview:Their titles included Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Omen, Bad Kitty, Cremator, Lady Demon, and Smiley The Psychotic Button.They also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling...
- Chastity
- JadeJade (Chaos Comics)Jade is fictional comic book character published by Chaos! Comics.-Fictional character biography:Jade is a 4000-year-old vampire-sorceress who has been the leader of a powerful, Shanghai crime family for over a millennia, a position she inherited from her father. For ages, it was a position she...
- Lady DeathLady DeathLady Death is a fictional character, a comic book goddess created by Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 by Eternity Comics in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the Evil Ernie: The Resurrection mini-series published by Pulido under his now defunct...
(Her former nemesis) - List of Devil's Due Publishing publications
External links
- Purgatori cover art
- {http://www.toonopedia.com/purgatri.htm Purgatori in Toonopedia}
- Fan site with lots of Purgatori and Chaos! Comics related artwork