Vrah
First appears in Book 5: The Butcher’s Masquerade, chapter 1 (1)
Appearances
What you know
Book 5: The Butcher’s Masquerade
- Ch 1Vrah is a mantis hunter, a regular every season, who wears her victims' heads and has thousands of kills; she killed Ian's brother.
- Ch 6Carl reveals that Zockau's mayor is Vrah, a mantis; he hoped to kill her, become mayor and turn the guards on the hunters.
- Ch 10Vrah leaves a knife-pinned note on Carl's personal space door saying all hunters in Zockau are now protected from explosions.
- Ch 10Vrah has ordered Zockau's guards to worship Emberus, so Carl's own god would smite him if he attacked them.
- Ch 10Vrah vows that the Hive will hunt Carl and that she will place his head on her sister's grave.
- Ch 21Vrah, a mantis hunter, leads a unit of five that ambushes crawlers from the air and mounts her victims' heads on her carapace.
- Ch 33Seven mantis warriors including Vrah, all Circe's Dark Hive daughters, await Carl; an eighth, a male, stays in Zockau.
- Ch 34Vrah killed a fellow hunter a few seasons back; since then almost everyone fears and obeys the Dark Hive.
- Ch 35Vrah ambushed Lucia at her teleport destination, then confronted Carl; she is now level 74 and wears victims' heads.
- Ch 35Vrah says this is her last hunt before she births a thousand nymphs in Hive Home two.
- Ch 35Infected by Carl's arrow, Vrah must suffer the disease or pass it on to someone else.
- Ch 38Vrah ordered Edict to mate with her to pass on the disease, which would disgrace his Deep Mind hive.
- Ch 38Vrah, still burning from the disease, has shed all the heads from her back and looks smaller.
- Ch 41Vrah is trying to ride out her infection; cutting it away would ruin her chance of becoming the next hive queen.
- Ch 60Vrah summoned Emberus to Zockau so guards and hunters there could worship him and be protected from Carl.
- Ch 61Carl decides they must assume Vrah is back in action.
- Ch 64Vrah arrives at the masquerade cured and heads straight for Carl.
- Ch 65Vrah, now cured, promises Carl a coming 'present' and vows to take his head and his friends' before the night ends.
- Ch 68Elle learns Vrah's people tricked a hunter into the temple ritual that birthed Diwata, killing him to cure Vrah.
- Ch 70Vrah, Eva and other hunters gather around Lucia, apparently trying to provoke her into breaking the peace seal.
- Ch 73Vrah is torn apart by Mongo and Kiwi and finished off by Mongo; Carl gets the Ring of Divine Suffering mark kill.
Connections
Key moments
- Book 5 · Ch 1Ian's warning
Bush Elf attendant Ian warns Carl to avoid Zockau and the mantis hunter Vrah, revealing he was once a crawler.
- Book 5 · Ch 10Vrah's threat
Opening the door to Zockau, Carl finds Vrah's note warning that the hunters are protected from explosions and vowing revenge for her sister; Carl cancels the bomb plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 32Zev briefs Carl on the panel
Zev tells Carl his panel is moderated by Circe Took, mother of Xindy, whom he killed, and hints Vrah may learn when he returns to the dungeon.
- Book 5 · Ch 33Drugged Carl turns the panel
Drugged by his guards and backed by a robed sponsor, Carl provokes Circe into storming out and asks the crowd how to kill Vrah and her sisters.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Decoy tricks Lucia
Clockwork Sledges with a fake Donut trigger Lucia's teleport, sending her into Vrah's ambush; Lucia escapes.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Carl confronts Vrah
Langley's and Bogdon Ro's heads bite Vrah, Carl stabs her with a poisoned arrow, and his wheeled bomb kills the other mantises as Vrah flees.
- Book 5 · Ch 35Carl lures the Zockau mantis
Back in the saferoom, Carl has Bomo carry a note to Zockau offering the remaining mantis representative protection in exchange for his gear, aiming to reach him before Vrah does.
- Book 5 · Ch 38Edict chooses death
Trapped between ruin, dishonor and Vrah's demand to mate, Edict deliberately attacks Carl a third time and is teleported naked to a mob nest before Vrah reaches him.
- Book 5 · Ch 61Diwata enters the realm
The last hunter flees into a temple, where Diwata erupts from his body, marks Carl for death, and flies off, apparently to reach Vrah.
- Book 5 · Ch 64The masquerade begins
Inside Ballroom A, Donut meets her sponsor Empress D'Nadia, Chaco runs the prize counter, Vrah charges toward Carl, and Carl signals Bomo, the Sledge and Britney to start the plan.
- Book 5 · Ch 65Warning light disabled
While Vrah threatens Carl, Britney releases a slate butterfly that drains the ballroom's warning light without the guard noticing.
- Book 5 · Ch 68Diwata's brood revealed
Carl and Mordecai work out that Diwata is still on the floor, birthing endless mantis babies after curing Vrah.
- Book 5 · Ch 71Diwata's sabotage countered
Samantha finds Diwata had killed the guards and restored hunter magic; she replaces the crystals, foiling a draconian's attack, and prepares to fight Diwata.
- Book 5 · Ch 72The escape begins
Carl marks Vrah with the Ring of Divine Suffering and throws smoke curtains to begin the crawlers' escape.
- Book 5 · Ch 73Vrah dies
The velociraptors attack the hunters; Mongo and Kiwi maul Vrah, Samantha bites her, and Mongo finishes her off on Carl's order.
- Book 6 · Ch 1Princess Posse newsletter recap
Donut's fan club newsletter recaps the sixth floor and Butcher's Masquerade: Signet's revenge, Vrah and Diwata's deaths, deaths of friends, and buying a Faction Wars spot.