List of Underworld characters
The following list of characters from the Underworld franchise.
Vampires
Their metamorphosis is not nearly as startling as their Lycan counterparts. When they metamorphose, their eyes turn a shade of electric blue or bright gold, while their upper canine teeth lengthen to become pointed fangs. At all times, the upper lateral incisors and upper canine teeth on all vampires are elongated and come to a sharp point. Biologically immortal transgenics, the Vampires of Underworld display most of the prominent superhuman physical prowess commonly seen in popular culture, including superhuman strength, reflexes and speed, as well as an inhuman resistance to injury and accelerated healing. These abilities are maintained by feeding on blood, which is a prominent factor in their healing capabilities in addition to being strengthened with age. They do not possess any of the mystical weaknesses of mythological Vampires ; however, they are highly vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation. They can also die from a broken neck, blood loss, nightshade poisoning, dismemberment, mutilation, and other extreme physical trauma, especially if their head or heart is destroyed or removed.The oldest Vampires, the Elders, are the strongest of their race, even stronger than Lycans in Werewolf form. In the novelizations, the Vampire population as a whole is referred to as the "Vampire Nation", consisting of covens; traditionally, before the events of Evolution, the two main covens were the Old World Coven, and the New World Coven. However, the original Vampire Elders, Lady Amelia, Lord [|Viktor], and Lord [|Markus], are all deceased. Lady Amelia was assassinated alongside the Vampire Council by the Lycans. Lord Viktor was killed by Selene after she discovered he had murdered her family long ago. Lord Markus, the first Vampire, was also killed by Selene to stop him and his rampaging brother William, the first Werewolf. After many years, the leadership and organization of the Vampire Nation is once again restored following the ascension of Selene, [|David], and Lena as the new Vampire Elders.
In the post-production of the film, the pallor of the Vampires was achieved via D.I. As explained by Selene in the first Underworld film, a bite from both a Lycan and a Vampire is lethal, but Michael's bloodline allows him to survive and metamorphose into a hybrid of both species.
Death Dealers are Vampires that are specifically trained and tasked to kill Lycans.
Selene
Selene appears in the films Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, Underworld: Awakening, and Underworld: Blood Wars as the main protagonist; as well as in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans for a brief cameo. Her lover is Michael Corvin, and together they have a daughter, named Eve. Selene is portrayed by Kate Beckinsale, and by Beckinsale's daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, in Underworld: Evolution in flashback scenes as a child. Selene was created by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, and Danny McBride. According to Kevin Grevioux, Selene is based loosely on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. After the events of Evolution, Selene is no longer merely a Vampire but a Vampire/Corvinus-Strain Hybrid, now more powerful and also immune to UV radiation. At the end of Underworld: Blood Wars, Selene is not only accepted once again by the Vampire Covens but also named a new Vampire Elder alongside David and Lena.In the non-canon novel, Underworld: Blood Enemy, Selene is also the main protagonist.
Viktor
Viktor is a Vampire Elder, and the main antagonist in Underworld and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. He is portrayed by Bill Nighy. Viktor is a Hungarian general and warlord born sometime in the 4th or early 5th century. As he is nearing the end of his life, Markus Corvinus, the first true Vampire, offers immortality in exchange for Viktor's military expertise and army in fighting against the Werewolves, spawn of Markus's twin brother, William. When Markus metamorphoses Viktor, the general becomes a vampire Elder. The Death Dealers are created from Viktor's army. Viktor is a ruthless vampire Elder and, with armies loyal to him, he overthrows the original Vampire Markus and sets himself up in Vampire myth as the first Vampire. Viktor is the most powerful Vampire ever to have lived mostly because his manipulation, experience, and cunning far surpass the other Elders'. He is killed by Selene, who cuts his head in half with his own sword. In Blood Wars, Selene is hunted by the Vampires for killing Viktor. Selene's only two allies are [|Thomas], who has no love for Viktor, and his son David, whose mother is secretly Viktor's fellow Elder Amelia. Due to the threat of the new Lycan leader Marius, the Vampire Council agrees to pardon Selene for Viktor's death if she will train their new Death Dealers, but Semira, an old favorite of Viktor, frames Selene for murder to get revenge. Following the deaths of Marius and Semira, the Vampires' grudge against Selene for killing Viktor ends, and she goes from pariah to one of the three new Vampire Elders alongside Amelia's son David and the Nordic Vampire Lena.Sonja
Sonja is the daughter of the Vampire Elder Viktor, introduced by flashback in Underworld and portrayed by Jázmin Dammak. The character is heavily featured in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and is portrayed by Rhona Mitra. She fell in love with the Lycan slave Lucian despite knowing her father would disapprove. Without Viktor's knowledge or blessing, she eventually married Lucian in secret and became pregnant with his child. For breaking the Covenant, Viktor executed her and her unborn child by exposure to sunlight, and her husband was forced to watch. Viktor viewed the child as an abomination and was acting to protect the Vampire line's purity, although Sonja's death haunted him for the rest of his life. His guilt over this led him to spare Selene, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sonja, from the slaughter of the rest of her family. Sonja wore a pendant, which was given to her by her father. After her death, Lucian took that pendant as a keepsake of his beloved wife. This pendant proved to be vitally important to the events that unfolded in Underworld: Evolution. Her death started the war between Vampires and Lycans that lasted for centuries afterward.Markus Corvinus
Markus Corvinus is the first Vampire in the Underworld series, and the main antagonist of Underworld: Evolution. He is portrayed by Tony Curran. Markus also appears in the novelization of the sequel. Born sometime in the 5th century; Markus was one of three sons of Helena and Alexander Corvinus, the first immortal. Markus was also the twin brother of William Corvinus, and they each inherited the immortality strain in its active form from their father. Together, Markus and William both shared a bond as twins that Alexander never truly saw. Markus was later bitten by a bat, thus making him the progenitor of what would become the Vampire species. His twin, William, was bitten by a wolf and went on to ravage the countryside of Hungary, infecting the populace with his highly infectious Lycanthropy virus. In order to combat the growing Werewolf threat, Markus approached Viktor, a dying warlord, to utilize his military genius and army in exchange for immortality. Viktor accepted and became one of the Vampire Elders. After being revived by the blood of the Lycan Singe, Markus awakens and goes on a rampage to rescue William and metamorphose him into a Hybrid too. He kills his own father and apparently his distant relative Michael Corvin, but he is defeated and killed by an enhanced Selene in a final fight when she stabs him through the head with one of his own wing talons and knocks him into spinning helicopter blades, dismembering him.Amelia
Amelia is one of the three Vampire Elders of the Vampire Nation in the Underworld series. She appeared briefly in Underworld, appeared in a flashback sequence in Underworld: Evolution, and appears in archive footage and as a painting in Underworld: Blood Wars. She is portrayed by Zita Görög. Amelia was bitten and metamorphosed into a Vampire, most likely by the first Vampire, Markus himself, sometime around 1500 years prior to the events of the first Underworld installment, according to the first novelization. As such, Amelia was the youngest of all three Elders as well as the only female. She was elevated to the rank of an Elder, both in order to help control the chaos created by Markus's brother William and to perform the role as a tie-breaker between her fellow Elders Markus and Viktor if there was ever a deadlock in the ruling of the coven. Her original background prior to her Vampirism is as yet unrevealed.In 1202 AD. Amelia had to side with Viktor, supported him in locking up William within a coffin-like prison in a remote place where Markus could not find him, as William was just too dangerous to be allowed to roam free. The capture of William would not have happened without Amelia's help. Ultimately, Amelia did not keep control during her last reign, spending the majority of her reign amongst the New World Coven, which only allowed Viktor's regent Kraven to conspire with Lucian and Lucian to work deals with Tanis for weapons to kill Vampires. She herself was killed and "bled dry" by Lycans led by Raze during an attack on her train.
In Blood Wars, Amelia was illustrated as having been something of a 'coven-builder', founding or else supporting the founding of a number of covens. It is also later revealed that Amelia and a high-ranking Vampire Thomas had fallen in love, having fought first-generation Werewolves alongside one another, and, at some point, had entered into a secret, private relationship. Sometime during their centuries-long love in the late 20th century, Amelia discovered she was pregnant, and she and Thomas made plans to keep her pregnancy a secret. Before her pregnancy started to show, Amelia announced her intention to visit old friends in the Var Dohr coven in Scandinavia and appointed Thomas as her sole escort. They both stayed with the Var Dohr coven for the duration of her pregnancy, culminating with the safe delivery of their pure-born son David. By this point, Amelia's prolonged absence from the Vampire Nation had aroused at least some suspicion as to why she was absent, and Semira was dispatched to investigate. However, David having been born and Amelia having recovered from the birth, Thomas and Amelia had left with their son and gone their separate ways. To keep up appearances, Thomas put it out that he'd had a low-born Vampiress for a consort who had just died during childbirth, and Amelia returned to the New World Coven with no one wiser to the truth. It would seem that Amelia, despite siding with Viktor against Markus over William's sentence, didn't completely trust him, keeping the existence of her son a secret. During the main events of Blood Wars, David learnt that he was Amelia's secret son and thus her heir as the new leader of the Eastern Coven. Using some of Amelia's blood she had left behind in case anything happened to her, David was able to prove his claim as Amelia's rightful heir.
In the third instalment of the Underworld franchise, there was an unspoken allusion that Viktor was plotting to get rid of her and replace her with his daughter Sonja: Viktor kept saying "When you are an Elder" to Sonja rather than If, but he never alluded to a future when he would be gone. Touting the bonds of family and blood being stronger than anything else, as he sought to further increase and reinforce his own power base within the Vampire Nation, and believing Markus's lie about how his death would mean the immediate deaths of all Vampires, and that, as his own flesh and blood, Sonja would be a more loyal ally than Amelia if Amelia should ever side with Markus against him, Viktor, paranoid and ambitious as ever, likely sought to replace Amelia with his daughter Sonja, only to sentence Sonja to death for her affair and pregnancy with Lucian, abandoning this plan. Whether Amelia ever suspected anything about this is unknown, but it would give credence to her later efforts to keep the existence and birth of her son from Viktor and his followers.
In the non-canon novel, Underworld: Blood Enemy, Amelia, though making no physical appearance in the story, is described as having a habit similar to real-life historical Sanguinarian figure, Elizabeth Báthory the "Blood Countess", of often indulging in baths of blood, believing it to enhance her beauty.