The Saga of Larten Crepsley

The Saga of Larten Crepsley is a series of novels written by Darren Shan, published by Harper Collins in the United Kingdom and Little Brown in the United States. It covers the first 200 years of Larten Crepsley's life. The series is a prequel to The Saga of Darren Shan.

Books

1. Birth of a Killer (September 2010)
2. Ocean of Blood (April 2011)
3. Palace of the Damned (October 2011)
4. Brothers to the Death (April 2012)

Characters

Vampires

Larten Crepsley

Larten Crepsley is a child worker in a silk factory. He has orange cropped curly hair that he obtained from a dye used by Traz, his abusive foreman, to 'mark' the children's jobs. After Traz kills Vur, Larten kills him and then flees the city in fear of an angry, murderous mob. After a violent storm starts Larten seeks refuge in a crypt and begins to eat spiderwebs to try and satisfy his hunger. Seba Nile (who was already in the crypt) sees this, feeds him an apple, and listens to his sad tale. He tests the boy's blood, assures him that he is not evil, and tells him about the vampire world.He then asks Larten to become his apprentice and Larten later accepts. Larten also later becomes, Darren Shan's mentor and spawns the series "Cirque Du Freak" Larten crepsley dies in cirque du freak book 9 the saga of darren shan

Seba Nile

Seba Nile is a 500-year-old vampire, who Larten meets in a crypt and blooded him. He becomes Larten's Master.He is the second oldest vampire after the vampire prince named Paris Skyle. He later becomes the quartermaster at vampire mountain. He lies in Vampire Mountain and shows Darren Shan the spiders of the mountain, he also persuades him to release Madam Octa.

Paris Skyle

A 600-year-old vampire prince, who has, allegedly, been everywhere and seen everything and is the oldest of the vampires. He later meets up with Larten and offers to train him but Larten hesitates, and denies his request.

Wester Flack

Wester is a young man, approximately the same age as Larten, after his parents and siblings are 'drained' by a vampaneze, Wester joins Larten as Seba's assistant. He stays at vampire mountain to continue his training while Larten runs away.he becomes a guard at vampire mountain. He is also part of a vampaneze hater group. In Brothers to the Death he betrays Larten by killing Alicia in a last desperate attempt to drive Larten (who was due to become a prince) to hate the Vampaneze, this is revealed towards the end of the book and he is killed by Larten, dying in his hands.

Tanish Eul

A vampire and leader of the 'cubs' is disgraced and exiled for not accepting a duel with a Vampaneze called Randel Chayne. Years later him and Larten meet again and become very close but one night when Larten learns that Randel Chayne has been slaughtering Tanish's workers he tries to kill him. During the fight Tanish attacks Larten and drenches him in his worker's blood. Larten then flees from Paris framed under murder but he vows to hunt down and kill Tanish.Years later, Larten (who becomes a vampire general)meets Tanish in a Russian city but he spares his life. He realises Larten sent him to a trap and is ambushed and killed by Vancha March (now a vampire prince).

Vancha March

A Vampire General, who wears purple furs and has green hair (his hair became green after many years of him rubbing his own flew into it), that Larten meets at Vampire Mountain. He meets up with Larten when Larten is exploring the world and becomes his companion for a short time. He becomes a Vampire Prince and helps Larten find Tanish in Palace of the Damned.

Lare Shment

Another of the 6 Vampire Princes.

Chok Yamada

3rd of the 6 Vampire Princes.

Zula Pone

An ugly vampire cub that accepts Randel's challenge to a duel and dies in the process.

Arrow

A great warrior, who gives up being a general to marry a human. After his wife is killed, he goes on a suicidal mission trying to rid the world of every Vampaneze. Larten, Wester, and Vancha go to him, trying to persuade him not to do it. Wester ends up convincing him that he shouldn't go on a suicidal mission, and that he can get the help of many other people he hate the Vampaneze. Arrow goes back to his training, and it seems as Vancha has calmed him down a bit. He later becomes a prince.

Gavner Purl

Gavner Purl was a baby present on the ship which Larten and his assistant, Marlora, took to Greenland. After Larten's true identity was revealed to the ship, they hung his assistant and in revenge Larten murdered almost everyone on the ship, including Gavner's parents. Gavner is one of the survivors and is brought back to Paris and lives for a time with Larten and Alicia. He is later taken with Tanish to Petrograd and blooded, but once Tanish is located, he is executed by Vancha; Larten takes Gavner back to Paris.

Kurda Smahlt

A young blond vampire who doesn't hate the Vampaneze, nor likes them. He and Wester get into an argument moments after meeting each other.

Arra Sails

She is first introduced as an assistant to Lady Evanna who is charmed by Larten. She is awed by vampires and runs away from Evanna and gets blooded. She then completes her training to become a general and makes a seven-year contract to be Larten's mate. She follows him on his quest to defeat the Vampeneze. After a long 7 years, they eventually decide to not become mates again but they do still have feelings for each other. Darren Shan (author) describes her as a plain vampire and not the prettiest in the world, but a great and breath taking character all the same.

Vanez Blane

Vanez Blane is the games master at vampire mountain who only has one eye. Which after a war with a few of the vampaneze in vampire mountain he gets a crucial damage on his eye causing him to go completely blind.

Mika Ver Leth

An honourable Vampire and Arra's mentor who fights for her affection against Crepsley. He soon becomes a Prince.

Unnamed Vampire General

An arrogant vampire who defeats Larten at battle. Larten later challenges him again, this time he has lost an arm and appears to be less cocky. He later dies in a fight to a panther.

Vampaneze

Murlough

Murlough is the Vampaneze who drained Wester's family.

Randel Chayne

A vampaneze that kills Zula in a duel and disgraces Tanish Eul, it is found out in Brothers to the Death that he is killed by Wester in his sleep

Humans

Vur Horston

Larten's cousin and best friend. He is also the same age. One day, after the factory is checked by his superiors, Traz goes into a drunk-ish rage, and says vulgar things about Vur's mother, and Vur in turn calls him an obscene name. This sends Traz into a deeper rage and he dunks Vur into a vat of boiling water and holds his head under, drowning him. Larten tries to fight out against Traz but by the time Traz lets go Vur is already dead. After seeing this Larten kills Traz by lodging a sharp object in to his neck. Larten then runs away before he is caught and also killed, with his fellow workers screaming and yelling "Murderer", not because Traz killed Vur, But because Larten killed Traz.

Traz

The foreman of the silk factory where Larten and Vur worked. He was sadistic, and was the murderer of Vur. he is killed by Larten in revenge over Vur's murder when Larten uses "something sharp". but can't remember what, just that it was sharp.

Malora

One of Lady Evanna's assistants that leaves her camp with Larten. She tends to his cut and later the vampire flu that Larten catches. She also helps him survive on the voyage to America but end up sacrificing her life to give him more time to recover. She also confessed her love to Larten and that she would follow him anywhere. She could not remember her surname but died while sailing at the ship in Ocean of Blood.

Sylva

After Larten leaves Alicia, Alicia marries another man and has a daughter named Sylva. The father dies, and soon Larten returns. Sylva shows great love towards Larten even though he has no intention of being a father figure. After her mother is killed, she witnesses Wester as the killer. She grows hostile towards Larten and blames his kind for her mother's death. She later makes amends and identifies Wester as the killer. She later dies of old age.

Abraham "Bram" Stoker

The author of Dracula. He questions Larten, but gets scolded by Paris for doing it.

Daniel Abrams

A teenage worker on the pearly tornado, he is trying to get Malora to like him, but he knows she won't. He also rats out Malora after Larten in a stage of his flu takes blood from a passenger on the ship, he says Malora took blood from a few drunken sleeping sailors (which he learned from following her) which she puts in a container to feed to Larten while he has the flu. Also Daniel is held captive by Larten after he kills the whole crew of the ship. Larten also save a few others to feed on. When Larten is about to leave for Greenland he is going to free the prisoners, then he sees Daniel drinking the other prisoners blood and eating their flesh. It is heavily implied that Daniel is Spits Abram from The Saga of Darren Shan.

Alicia

A rich woman who Larten falls in love with in the name of Vur Horston. She leaves him after he tells her he's a vampire . They meet again in Palace of The Damned and sort everything out. Larten and Gavner often visit her in the start of 'Brothers to the death' but soon, she is killed by Randel Chayne, a vampaneze who tormented the cowardly Tanish Eul (it is later revealed that Wester killed the poor lady, then blamed it on Randel in order to get Larten to hate the vampaneze).

Other

Mr. Hibernius Tall

The owner of the Cirque Du Freak, and Larten's short term mentor. Mr Tiny's Son. Lady Evanna's brother.

Desmond Tiny

(aka Mr.Tiny/Desmond/Mr.Destiny)He carries a heart shaped watch and wears a yellow suit and a pair of green boots. He is known to have future predicting abilities, time travelling and other magical powers. He can travel through time and likes to meddle with it.In Palace of The Damned,he saved Larten when he was falling down an abyss in Perta Vin-Grahl's palace(Larten made himself fall into the abyss as an act of suicide). Desmond Tiny is sometimes known as the agent of the past.

Lady Evanna

Lady Evanna is both a witch and Mr. Tiny's daughter and Hibernius Tall's sister. She can change her appearance and had apprentices named Malora and Arra Sails. Arra Sails tells Larten early on in Ocean of Blood that she believes Lady Evanna 'sends' for her assistants and only has them around because she likes telling people what to do when she can in fact clean a room with a flick of her wrist and snap her fingers conjuring a hot meal. Malora goes on a dangerous journey and dies after being hanged by the crew aboard the Pearly Tornado after it is discovered that she has been gathering blood for her master. Larten Crepsley is partly to blame for her murder since he in his crazed state of flu he went on a rant about wanting to see the world and how there were vampire hunters that wanted to drive a stake through his heart when there were none.

References