Purgatori
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 Evil Ernie: Revenge #1, published by Chaos! Comics. She has since appeared in books published by Devil's Due Publishing. Purgatori later appeared in own comic series by Dynamite Entertainment in 2014 and 2021.
History
In Egypt as Sakkara
Purgatori was born in Ancient 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 Celtic 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.
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 Lucifer. 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.
In Hell: Against Lady Death and Lucifer
Camping by the River Styx with her new jackal 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.
On Earth: Against Jade, Kabala, and Rath
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.
Prelude to Vampire Wars
Returning to the United States, she began to come across traces of Dracula. 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, and met Blattidae, 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, who 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.