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History

Maria was away when her son, Gregory, translated the Darkhold and accidentally reactivated the curse of lycanthropy on his family. As a result, upon her return the villagers accused her of spawning a demon and stoned her, casting her out of the village. She was taken in by a band of Romani and happily lived among them for fifteen years. One day when gathering firewood, she returned to find her adopted people all horribly slain by the nearby villagers who considered the Romani to be nothing more than thieves and vagabonds. The loss of yet another home caused Maria's mind to snap and she vowed vengeance on the villagers, as well as on the Werewolf who she believed had ruined her life.
Maria Russoff (Earth-616) from Giant-Size Werewolf Vol 1 3 0001

Maria as a Romani

Some time later, Maria captured Topaz, who had come to Transylvania to try and find a cure for Jack Russell's curse. Using Topaz as a familiar, Maria was able to reanimate her dead Romani friends, sending them into the village to enact her revenge. Topaz sent a phychic message to Jack, telling him that she was in trouble and he travelled to Transylvania to save her. Finding the caravan where she was kept, Jack was attacked by Maria and her trained bear. Eventually Topaz was able to restore sanity to the old woman, and she stepped in front of a silver knife hurled by one of her zombies and intended for the Werewolf. She acknowledged Jack as her grandson before dying.[1]

Attributes

Powers

Trained sorceress, capable of teleporting within Castle Russoff. Maria also possessed limited psychic powers, which were also sorcerous in nature. She had sufficient power to enslave Topaz, whom she used as a familiar to amplify her powers. Using Topaz, she could reanimate and control the dead, affect the dreams of others, and presumably many other effects.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Maria onced owned a trained bear who wore a silver spike-studded collar and silver-clawed gauntlets.

See Also

Links and References

References

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