Immacolata (character)

Immacolata was a powerful witch, who was born as a member of the secret race of the Seerkind – mystical beings whose magical abilities have made them the object of fear and hatred by humans. The powers and appearance of the Seerkind have led humans ("Cuckoos", as the Seerkind derogatorily call them) to portray these beings in myths and fables. Immacolata claimed that she was the only descendant of the first pure genealogical line of sorcerers, being a direct descendant of Lilith. While an embryo in her mother's uterus, Immacolata manifested her inherent evil for the first time, using the umbilical cords of her triplet sisters in order to strangle them. As a result, she was the only one of the triplets to be born alive. However, even though she murdered her sisters, the young Immacolata also bound them with a spell that forced both of them to constantly accompany her in the form of ghosts throughout her life and protect her. Indeed, the two sisters (the Hag and Magdalene) were forced to serve their sister as ectoplasms, although they were granted the promise that as soon as their assistance was no longer required in her ploys, she would instantly dismiss them to find death and eternal rest. Immacolata spent most of her childhood wandering around graveyards and having a morbid interest in death and pain.

As an adult, Immacolata longed for power and control over the magical world of the Fugue, the world of the Seerkind. She started gathering loyals, who worshipped her as a goddess and committed several horrific crimes in her name. Her attempts to take over the back-then disorganised Fugue bore no fruit. After many bloody encounters between Immacolata's devotees and her enemies, the witch was found guilty of her crimes and was sentenced to exile by her peers. She was then forced to abandon the Fugue and started wandering aimlessly to the human world (The Kingdom of Cuckoos) for many centuries (she did not age, thanks to the power of the menstruum). Even in the human world, Immacolata started gathering a secret circle of fanatics who worshipped her and called her by several aliases, such as Black Madonna, Lady of the Sighs and Mater Maleficorium (mother of evil). Eventually though, she grew bored and always felt, in sharp contrast to the Cuckoos, to be able to fit in human society one day. At some point in the late 20th century, she met the greedy human known as Shadwell. The two decided to cooperate in order to find the rug within which laid woven the world of the Fugue. Immacolata even gave Shadwell a suit by use of which he could mesmerise others and control their will. At the same time, she kept having visions of the Scourge, the destructive force that had once almost destroyed the Seerkind, which was now lost in profound slumber, though the possibility of its reawakening filled the Incantatrix with terror. Immacolata later battled Suzanna Parish, granddaughter of the last guardian of the rug, Mimi Laschenski, but quite unexpectedly, when Suzanna was struck by the menstruum, the ethereal liquid force Immacolata wielded, she acquired it herself. After obtaining the rug, Immacolata wanted to destroy it but Shadwell insisted on performing a secret auction for some interested billionaires. Eventually though, the world of the Fugue was unleashed. Amid the chaos, Immacolata and her sisters wandered in the world where the witch was attacked by one of the lions of Romo, a Seerkind man who happened to be Mimi's first man. Romo wanted to exact revenge from her and his lion gravely injured Immacolata and deformed her face, before she killed it. The Incantatrix escaped but later both of her sisters were "slain" and she herself was betrayed by Shadwell who abandoned her (after she seemingly went insane, following the death of the Hag). Immacolata, half-mad and in a pathetic condition, was captured by the Seerkind. After Suzanna accidentally met her again, she tried to remind Immacolata of her past. Her effort was met with success, as Immacolata regained sanity, killed everyone around her (save for Suzanna) and flew towards the Temple of Loom, the centre of the Fugue, with the purpose of killing Shadwell and thus contaminating the temple with blood so as to bring forth the destruction of the Fugue. Instead, it was her blood that was shed after she was mortally stabbed by Shadwell, an act which indeed unmade the Fugue.

After all three sisters had expired, they merged into a unified ghost being which haunted the Shrine of Mortalities, an underground crypt storing the bones of those Seerkind who were killed by the Scourge.[1] These series of underground crypts were located in the catacombs of a small church, hidden away in London and dedicated to Saint Philomena and Saint Callixtus. The place used to be a favourite hideaway for Immacolata when she was alive and the priests of the church had formed a secret cult, with the purpose of worshipping her. At the time the Three Sisters started haunting the catacombs, the cult grew even more loyal, now dubbing Immacolata with the novel name Lady of the Night. Later, Suzanna went to the church to meet with the Three Sisters (Immacolata still being the dominant personality) who warned her of the upcoming threat of the Scourge. Eventually, Shadwell and the Scourge (who had possessed Hobart) invaded the church, with the purpose of burning it down, since it was renowned for being a sanctuary of magic. The Three Sisters mocked the two villains and apparently disintegrated forever, after Uriel (the Scourge) used its holy flames to incinerate the walls of the tomb.