CHARNIPUTRA
Classification: Presumably supernaturally altered humans
Location/Base of Operations: Native to the Himalayas, they spend virtually all of their time in flight
Known Members: Kuyuk
Affiliations: Vampire Nation (Aqueos Sect, Claw Sect, Dracula, Janus, Krieger Sect, Mystikos Sect, Nosferatu Sect, Siren Sect), other vampires;
formerly Forgiven (Ghost Blade, Inka, Raizo Kodo, Nighteyes, Quickshot, Visigoth), Jubilee (Jubilation Lee), Xarus
Enemies: Anchorite Sect, Blade (Eric Brooks), Janus, Krieger Sect (at least some of them), New Mutants (Cypher/Doug Ramsey, Magma/Amara Aquilla), Nul the Breaker of Worlds (Hulk/Bruce Banner possessed by Nul), vampire hunters (Aamshed/Divinity Drake, Benjamin Alomii, Enzo Ferrara, Lucas Telling-Stone, Noah van Helsing, Michiko Watanabe), X-Club (Doctor Nemesis/James Bradley, Madison Jeffries, Dr. Kavita Rao), X-Men (Angel/Warren Worthington III, Armor/Hisako Ichiki, Bling!/Roxy Washington, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Dazzler/Alison Blaire, Domino/Neena Thurman, Dust/Sooraya Quadir, Emma Frost, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Iceman/Robert Drake, Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Mercury/Cessily Kincaid, Northstar/Jean-Paul Beaubier, Pixie/Megan Gwynn, Psylocke/Elizabeth Braddock, Rockslide/Santo Vaccarro, Rogue/Anna Marie, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Sub-Mariner/Namor McKenzie, Warpath/James Proudstar, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett, X-23/Laura Kinney);
formerly Dracula, Janus
First Appearance:
(Behind-the-scenes) Tomb of Dracula IV#1 (December, 2004)
(Seen and identified) Tomb of Dracula IV#2 (January, 2005)
Powers/Abilities: As vampires, the Charniputra consume the
blood of humans, and presumably those slain by having their blood drained by the
Charniputra will
become Charniputra themselves.
They presumably have superhuman strength.
The Charniputra are described as "vicious flying vampires." They live in the air, alighting only to sleep, feed, and breed. They possess thick, armor-like skin, though a stake can still be driven into them, with effort.
The Charniputra's vulnerability to sunlight (probably), religious symbols, etc. is unrevealed, as is whether they possess other powers or limitations.
Traits: The Charniputra consume the blood of humans for sustenance. They are savage warriors.
History: The origin of the Charniputra vampires is unrevealed.
(Tomb of Dracula IV#1-2 - BTS) - Charniputra vampires were amongst the many vampires of the world summoned to Castle Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania to protect Dracula during his performance of the Ritual of Ascendance.
(Tomb of Dracula IV#2) - As Noah van Helsing's vampire hunters -- Benjamin Alomii, Blade, Enzo Ferrara,
Lucas Telling-Stone, Noah van Helsing, and Michiko Watanabe -- flew from the USA
to Europe, Dracula ordered Kuyuk, the leader of the Charniputra, to unleash them
against their plane.
As the plane crossed time zones and entered a night-time
region, the Charniputra appeared in pursuit of the plane.
(Tomb of Dracula IV#3) - While Kuyuk stood before Dracula, the
Charniputra attacked the vampire hunters' plane, tearing apart the hull, and
Blade leapt out of the plane and staked a few of them, buying the others time to
escape via parachutes; Ben Alomii caught up to Blade and saved him from falling
to his death. The plane crashed, but the vampire-hunters survived, and
approaching daylight drove off the other vampires, who returned to Castle
Dracula.
Though Kuyuk argued that this had just been their first
attempt against the vampire-hunters, Dracula denounced him for his failure.
Kuyuk begged for a chance to redeem himself, and Dracula called him forward to
embrace him, at which point he pulled Kuyuk into the chrysalis in which he was
developing power, absorbing Kuyuk's power and life force into himself.
The Charniputra attacked Noah van Helsing's vampire hunters -- Benjamin Alomii, Blade, Enzo
Ferrara,
Lucas Telling-Stone, Noah van Helsing, and Michiko Watanabe, as well as their
ally, Ion -- as they approached Castle Dracula. Michiko sensed their approach
seconds before they struck down Ion. Michiko explained their nature to her
allies, but a group of them abducted Noah van Helsing and brought him before
Dracula. Michiko sent the rest of her allies to continue their trek while she
used her Silver Scythe for it's purpose, sacrificing her own life to destroy the
vampire that had slain her mother.
The other Charniputra returned to Castle Dracula. As they had slain one of his opponents as well as
capturing Noah, Dracula did not destroy Juito.
(Tomb of Dracula IV#4) - The Charniputra were present as Dracula completed the Ritual of Ascendance, but Aamshed unleashed 6000 souls against Dracula, destroying him and all other nearby vampires.
(Death of Dracula#1) - Some Charniputra participated in a once-a-century vampire clan meeting on an abandoned Greek Island.
During a meeting with Dracula the current leaders of the Charniputra, Nosferatu and Aqueos sided with Dracula's son Xarus and helped him assassinate Dracula to become the new Lord of Vampires. In the aftermath the Charniputra leader carried Dracula's corpse to his crypt while the head was taken away by the Aqueos member.
Armed with new light-bending technology to protect them from sunlight, a strike force of Nosferatu and Charniputra later attacked the castle of Krieger Sect, who didn't want to support Xarus' claim. They destroyed many of Krieger Sect in their sleep while burning many others with sunlight.
Xarus and his allies later waited on the island for the other vampire clans to join Xarus' Vampire Nation, but Xarus' brother Janus had formed an alliance with members of the Anchorites, Mystikos and Claw Sect to take Xarus and his henchvamps out. The plan failed when it turned out that Claw Sect had been working with Xarus all along and that Mystikos Sect, except for Janus' friends, had also sided with Xarus. The Charniputra leader kneeled like the other clan leaders in front of Xarus, the new Lord of Vampires, while an army of Charniputra soared above the island.
(X-Men III#2) - Wolverine and Colossus tracked down a Charniputra during the day because Doctor Nemesis needed a life specimen to find a cure for Jubilee (she was infected by vampire blood in #1). The Charniputra fled from them and surprisingly survived the sunlight after it crashed through a wall in the building they found him in because he was wearing one of the light-bending medallion. Wolverine and Colossus were unable to capture the Charniputra, who fled into the sewers after Storm hit him with lightning. Colossus and Wolverine followed the Charniputra to a hidden hideout filled with more of his kin. Colossus and Wolverine fought the Charniputra and while some fled, others were killed by them and Blade, who turned up to aid the X-Men against the vampire threat in San Francisco. Blade urged Wolverine and Colossus to stake all the fallen Charniputra just to make sure they were dead, but Wolverine pointed out that they needed one of them alive. Colossus carried a captured Charniputra out of the sewers and returned with him, Wolverine and Blade to the island of Utopia off the coast of San Francisco.
(X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Smoke and Blood#1 (fb)) - Colossus, Blade and Wolverine delivered the captured Charniputra to the X-Club on Utopia. It began to burn after Wolverine removed the light-bending medallion.
(X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Smoke and Blood#1) - The Charniputra somehow escaped his cell and the X-Club were forced to protect a bunch of civilians that had been infected with vampire blood from the Charniputra. They tried several methods to stop the Charniputra while fleeing with the civilians through the dark corridors of the labs, but neither Rao's gene therapy nor Nemesis' gun proved to be a permanent solution and one after another the civilians fell victim to the Charniputra because they didn't even try to survive because they fallen under the vampire's influence.
(X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Storm & Gambit#1) - Storm and Gambit went to the vampires' secret Greek island to retrieve Dracula's body from there (the X-Men planned to use Dracula to take down his son Xarus and stop the vampire invasion of San Francisco). Their X-Plane was taken down by a few Charniputra, but due to a telepathic warning from Dracula's other son Janus, they escaped the plane before it went down.
Inside a cave complex on the island the two mutants were attacked by a horde of vampires, including Charniputra. Storm saved Gambit from a Charniputra by decapitating the vampire. They were soon joined by Janus, who wanted to help them find Dracula's body as well. On their way to his body they were attacked by numerous vampires once again and Storm ended up separated from them when a Charniputra pulled her down into the dungeons. Storm decapitated the Charniputra before starting her way back up while Gambit and Janus tried to retrieve Dracula's body only to be attacked by more vampires. Storm took down the mystic shield around the island that prevented teleportation and within a few seconds more X-Men were teleported in by Magik. The X-Men helped take down many of the vampires guarding Dracula's body with most of them dying in the sunlight after the speedster Northstar removed their light-bending medallions. In the end Emma Frost caused a feedback that freed the civilians from the Charniputra's control and Jeffries destroyed the Charniputra by taking control over the Parvodrones the creature had been injected with earlier.
Rao checked on the progress of her gene therapy within the Charniputra's corpse and she reported to Emma Frost that it didn't work. Nemesis and Jeffries brought the corpse to an incinerator to get rid of it.
(X-Men III#4) - Storm and Rogue took down a Charniputra in the skies over San Francisco in the X-Men's attempt to more proactively fight the vampire invasion of the city.
Xarus eventually gathered an army, which included many Charniputra, for an assault on Utopia.
(X-Men III#5) - Many Charniputra were slain during the attack on Utopia by Angel, who went full Horseman of Apocalypse Archangel mode. In the end the X-Men defeated Xarus' vampire army (and in the next issue Xarus was defeated by Dracula, who became the Lord of Vampires once again).
(Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1 (fb) - BTS) - The second it was decided to engage Hulk, Karrik (see comments) launched two flights of Charniputra.
(Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1) - A Charniputra was among Dracula's inner circle in the war room at Castle Dracula that tried to find a solution for how to deal with the attack on the country by the Hulk, who was under control of Nul at the time. Dracula knew that he was their problem to deal with because the rest of the world had to deal with the other Worthy hammer-wielders.
Karrik sent in the two flights of Charniputra, but Hulk easily took them down.
The Charniputra kept aiding Dracula's war council to find a solution for their Hulk problem.
(Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#2) - The Charniputra was still doing his job on the war council and followed Dracula around while they all tried to find a solution for their Hulk problem while the Forsaken tried their best to slow down the Hulk and help civilians.
(Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#3) - The war council kept planning, but when nothing else worked the Charniputra joined Dracula and the other members of the war council to capture Hulk at St. Sebastian castle.
(Feart Itself#7) - Hulk fought Dracula, Charniputra and other vampires in Transylvania.
(Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#3 - BTS) - The plan failed, but Hulk ultimately calmed down and turned back into Bruce Banner after Inka of the Forgiven posed as Red She-Hulk (Betty Banner).
(X-Men III#25) - During their search for Jubilee the X-Men (Colossus, Domino, Psylocke, Storm and Warpath) destroyed a den of Charniputra vampires in an old ruin (it looked a lot like the ruins seen in Death of Dracula on that unidentified Greek island).
Comments: Created by Robert Rodi, Bruce Jones, Jamie Tolagson, Tom Palmer, and Jay Leisten.
On a quick net search I didn't find evidence that the Charniputra are a real part of vampire mythology. Let me know if there's some alternate spelling that would have more information.
In Blade III#12 a prophecy was fulfilled that brought back all vampires that ever died. This most likely included Charniputra vampires as well. We'll have to wait if they resurface.
--Markus Raymond
|
In Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1 a vampire that is not a Charniputra was apparently the one that sent the Charniputra into battle with the Hulk. The Charniputra within the war council was right next to him and was even drawn with his mouth open like he was also supposed to have some dialogue while the other vampire mentioned launching two flights of Charniputra. Maybe both characters were supposed to have a speech bubble attached to them and the one with the Charniputra comment was accidentally attached to the wrong character? It just seems weird to me that another vampire would command the Charniputra when a Charniputra is standing right there. If my assumption is correct, this would mean that the Charniputra in Dracula's war council is named Karrik. |
Profile by Snood. Update by Markus Raymond (2010-2012)
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Charniputra should be distinguished from other types of vampires
Leader of the Charniputra, at Dracula's command he sent the Charniputra to assault the vampire-hunters' plane. When the vampire-hunters survived the assault, Dracula slew Kuyuk, absorbing his full power and life force.
--Tomb of Dracula IV#2, (named) 3 (1 (fb) - BTS, 2, 3d)
images: (without ads)
Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1, p10, pan4 (main)
Tomb of Dracula IV#3, p4, pan4 (Blade jumping at Charniputra)
Tomb of Dracula IV#3, p4, pan5 (staked by Blade)
X-Men III#2, p3, pan1 (with sunlight-bending medallion)
X-Men III#4, p23 (armored)
Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1, p10, pan3 (Karrik?)
Tomb of Dracula IV#3, p5, pan5 (Kuyuk)
Tomb of Dracula IV#3, p10, pan2 (Kuyuk grabbed by throat)
Appearances:
Tomb of Dracula IV#1 (December, 2004) - by Robert Rodi & Bruce Jones (story), Robert Rodi (script), Jamie Tolagson (pencils), Tom Palmer and Jay Leisten (inks), Warren Simons and John Miesegaes (editors)
Tomb of Dracula IV#2-4 (January-March, 2005) - by Robert Rodi & Bruce Jones (story), Robert Rodi (script), Jamie Tolagson (pencils), Tom Palmer and Scott Koblish (inks), Warren Simons and John Miesegaes (editors)
Death of Dracula#1 (August, 2010) - Christopher Hinz (writer), Steve Pugh (artist), Bronwyn Taggart (editor)
X-Men III#2 (October, 2010) - Victor Gischler (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Jake Thomas & Daniel Ketchum (editors)
X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Storm & Gambit#1 (October, 2010) - Chuck Kim (writer), Chris Bachalo (pencils), Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Wayne Faucher, Al Vey, Victor Olazaba, Mark Irwin & Chris Bachalo (inks), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Smoke and Blood#1 (November, 2010) - Simon Spurrier (writer), Gabriel Hernandez Walta (artist), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
X-Men III#4-5 (December, 2010 - January, 2011) - Victor Gischler (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Jake Thomas & Daniel Ketchum (editors)
Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#1-2 (November, 2011) - Victor Gischler (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Mike Babinski (inks), Jame Thomas & Mark Paniccia (editors)
Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula#3 (December, 2011) - Victor Gischler (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Mike Babinski & Rick Magyar (inks), Jame Thoma & Mark Paniccia (editor)
Feart Itself#7 (December, 2011) - Matt Fraction (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger & Dexter Vines (inks), Lauren Sankovitch & Tom Brevoort (editor)
X-Men III#25 (April, 2012) - Victor Gischler (writer), Jorge Molina (artist), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
First Posted: 07/13/2007
Last updated: 07/13/2007
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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