Someday there will be a collection of Dahlia stories. I love Dahlia.—Charlaine Harris, Official Charlaine Harris Community Board[1]
| Dahlia Lynley-Chivers | |
|---|---|
| [1] Dahlia as presented in Dying for Daylight game |
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| Created by | Charlaine Harris |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Dahlia |
| Species | Vampire |
| Occupation | none particular mentioned |
| Family | Todd Swiftfoot (husband, deceased) |
Dahlia ( /ˈdɑːlɪə/) is a fictional character from The Southern Vampire Mysteries/Sookie Stackhouse Series by author Charlaine Harris. However, the only time Dahlia appears on the same page with Sookie Stackhouse is in All Together Dead.[2] Dahlia is the main character in a growing number of non-Sookie-related - though set in the same fictional universe - short stories and a computer game.
She is a vampire and lives in the city of Rhodes.
It is mentioned in Bacon that her original name was too difficult to spell and pronounce for the XXth century and around 1925 she changed it to 'Dahlia' for her own convenience. In 1940, staying in London during the Blitz, Dahlia adopted a surname to get new papers. Since that time on her full name has been Dahlia Lynley-Chivers.[3]
In Dahlia Underground she tells humans that she "perhaps" has been a vampire for nine hundred years, but it is repeatedly said that she is very old, even ancient.
Dahlia... is an extremely old vamp who's gone through many personas.—Charlaine Harris, Official Charlaine Harris Community Board[4]
Readers can get a couple more hits about her actual age. For example, she considers her knowledge of some no-longer-spoken languages really advantageous.[5] It is also said (in the same short story) that her friend Thalia, who is also originally from Greece and even older than Dahlia, is so ancient that she came across Odysseus "a time or two".
Contents |
Dahlia is Greek, and it's pretty much everything we know about her. As a little girl she shared a tutor with her brother, but that stopped after it was decided that a girl didn't need any more education.[6] She was brought over (made a vampire) at the age of eighteen.[7]
Dahlia is petite and beautiful. The author states in Sookie's words that the vampire has got "the straightest back and longest rippling black hair" she ever saw (All Together Dead).
Dahlia has big green eyes (Tacky) and her face is described either as round or as heart-shaped. Dahlia is really tiny: 4 feet 9 inches tall (A Very Vampire Christmas).
She wears stilettos whenever it's possible and is very particular about her clothes.
She possesses a rare ability to fly just as her nestmate Glenda (Tacky) or Sookie's vampire husband Eric, Sheriff of a fiefdom in Louisiana.
Sookie sees Dahlia as very "direct in her judgement". She also mentions that Dahlia behaves "regally" in the company of the Queen Sophie-Anne. Dahlia is supremely confident in her strength, wits and lethality. She is usually very composed and has a violent, vengeful nature. Dahlia is rarely seen smiling (usually before a good battle), but she has got a dark sense of humour. Straight after her husband's death she experiences difficulties with controlling her temper.
In The Sookie Stackhouse Companion ,[8] it is said that Dahlia "loves her men and her high-heels". Readers always witness Dahlia either involved in a romantic relationship or eager to get involved. In spite of her pronounced disgust with all non-vampiric, she is equally ready to notice strength, courage and physical beauty in all males: vamps, "breathers" and Weres.
In Tacky, she meets her future husband Todd, a werewolf, a second-in-command in the Swift-Foot pack. After about two years of happiness Todd is murdered and avenged by Dahlia.
In A Very Vampire Christmas, a reader sees her dating Matsudo Katamori, a vampire.
Dahlia has got a vampire best friend Taffy, married to Don Swiftfoot, a werewolf packleader. It is said in Tacky that Taffy and Dahlia have been friends for about two centuries and share a lot of memories. Dahlia is the maid of honour at Taffy and Don's wedding and is responsible for security on the bride's side.
After mutually saving each other's lives in Dahlia Underground Dahlia sort of befriends firefighters of Thirty-four Company.
The nature of her occupation is not mentioned, but she tells her husband-to-be Todd that she does her nest leader's bidding and contributes to his wealth. The nest leader and vampire sheriff of Rhodes is Cedric Deeming. By the time readers first meet Dahlia in Tacky she has lived under his rule for about 20 years and plays the role of the nest reinforcer. Dahlia is respected enough among vampires to be on a judges panel (including Bill Compton and an unidentified blond vampire) at the vampire summit in Rhodes in All Together Dead. After the explosions at the 'Pyramid of Gizeh' hotel (Dahlia Underground) Dahlia and her friend Taffy are appointed by Cedric to conduct the investigation. In the Dying for Daylight game Dahlia once again performs as an investigator. Later on (Death by Dahlia) she and former policeman Matsuda Katamori are chosen by Joaquin, the new sheriff, for yet another investigation.
I have simply never thought of trying to write the Dahlia stories to tie in with the chronology of the Sookie stories. I'm sorry if I've given contradictory dating, but I don't doubt that it's a possibility I have done so. Dahlia is ageless and unchanging and as far as I'm concerned, the stories might take place a year or two apart.—Charlaine Harris, Official Charlaine Harris Community Board[10]
Charlaine Harris... has placed her stake in the casual gaming arena.—Merlina McGovern, Adventure Gamers[11]
Game description
I think Dahlia makes such a great character because she's very action-oriented, she's very physical and she's very visual... She never hesitates to take direct action, and I think that's a really good characteristic of someone who is the protagonist of a video game.—Charlaine Harris, Dying for Daylight: An interview with Charlaine Harris at Gamezebo
Plot
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