Rayna Cruz was a recurring character and the primary antagonist in the seventh season of The Vampire Diaries. She was a Shamanic Huntress hailing around the 19th Century, the daughter of Vicente Cruz, who was a member of the Brotherhood of the Five, and was a fierce vampire huntress whose sole purpose was to eradicate and incarcerate vampires within the phoenix stone.
After being forced to kill her father by Julian, she became enhanced by a tribe of shamans to get vengeance on Julian, his Heretic family, and all vampires. Her main target was Stefan Salvatore who was stabbed by her when she attempted to kill Damon. The wound from her sword marked him allowing her to find Stefan anywhere and compelling her to kill him. She was willing to kill anyone of any species who dared to stand in her way.
After the Phoenix Stone was destroyed, she writes down the names of all the vampires that escaped and has the gang go after them. She later agrees to give her remaining life to Bonnie Bennett to save her and while the ritual to transfer is almost completed, Rayna reveals that Bonnie will become like her and stabs herself, thereby dying for the final time.
Rayna was a member of the Cruz Family.
Early Life[]
St. Malo, Lousiana, 1850s
Rayna was born to a man named Vicente and an unknown mother in New Orleans, but at some point relocated with her father to St. Malo, Louisiana. Her father was one of the Brotherhood of the Five. As he traced his tattoo for her to see, Rayna asked why she could not see the Mark, and when she would get hers, showing she admired her father and wanted to be a vampire hunter like him. Eventually, she convinced her father to train her as a vampire hunter, and Vicente gave her a short sword that would eventually be turned into the Phoenix Sword.
When she was older, while training with her father and finally besting him in a moment in their sparring, Julian attacked the settlement they lived in. Her father tried to save the villagers, however, he lost against the old vampire. Rayna interrupted Julian before he could kill her father and told him her father was one of the Five, hoping the revelation would persuade the surprised Julian to spare Vicente in fear of being afflicted with the Hunter's Curse. Julian, realizing that if he spared Vicente that the hunter would never stop trying to kill him, found a loophole to his conundrum. Instead of killing her father, and receiving the Hunter's Curse, Julian compelled Rayna to kill him. Forced to execute her father, Rayna told her father she couldn't stop, and he told his daughter he knew she couldn't, not to blame herself for it was Julian's fault, and to remember what he taught her to carry on his legacy while he would always be with her. Rayna then stabbed her father with the sword he gave her years earlier.
In order to get revenge, Rayna teamed up with a group of Native American shamans who gave her a tea of protection, shielding Rayna from any magic used to harm her, then sacrificed themselves and cast a spell on Rayna, endowing her with powerful abilities that would allow her to kill vampires, such as increased strength to rival ancient vampires, slower aging, the urge to kill vampires, the ability to find any vampire she stabbed with her Phoenix Sword, and granting her multiple lives which allows her to come back from the dead. She was also bestowed with the phoenix sword, the sword her father gave her as a girl, which the shamans enchanted for her, turning the stone in the hilt into the Phoenix Stone. This granted Rayna with two powerful and mystical artifacts that when combined together can entrap any vampire's soul within the stone where they are forced to endure a personal hell for all eternity, and allows her to find any vampire she marked with her sword.
Memphis, 1880s[]
For a decade Rayna chased a vicious serial killer vampire named Ambrose within and outside of Memphis. During this time things got personal between them with Ambrose framing Rayna for many of his violent massacres. He even went as far as to try and turn her boyfriend (Darius Salvatore) into a vampire (unaware that he was one himself), which led to her having to stake him. She eventually was able to catch and kill Ambrose and achieve her revenge. Shortly after this in 1884 Rayna gave birth to Mia Salvatore-Cruz.
Meeting Samara Gilbert[]
Rayna Cruz meeting a three year old Samara Gilbert leading to Rayna choosing Samara as her successor.
During her final day alive before she gives her final life to Bonnie she meets a young Samara Gilbert, and foresee the future Samara that Rayna marked her as her successor to be a Supernatural Huntress. She later search for eleven shamans to link their lives to Samara when she comes of age.
Physical Appearance[]
As a young woman, Rayna has long black/dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. According to Damon, she bears a resemblance to Elena Gilbert and her three doppelgängers. She also had a very dark exterior and wore a dark leather jacket.
As an old woman, Rayna had medium length gray hair and wore a mental patient's attire, given she was committed for stabbing a person who she initially believed to be a vampire.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Enhanced Strength: According to Nora, shamans endowed Rayna with enhanced strength that greatly increases every time she resurrects. This is proven due to the thousands of vampires she has defeated and sealed in the stone. Her strength seems to be able to match that of even the most ancient vampires in the world as she was able to fight and slaughter many Strix members and even frighten Klaus himself. Her strength also doesn't falter with old age, even as an old woman, she is able to restrain Bonnie with one hand while attempting to strangle her. After her resurrection she proceeded to hit the glass cell she was in to no effect, leaving her hand bloodied. However, she broke free moments later, bursting from the cell, leaving it obliterated in the wake of her escape. She is shown to be strong enough to toss Damon through the air with just one hand in a seated position, immediately after being resuscitated. Each life Rayna loses makes her stronger and was able to easily overpower a vampire with one hand when she was down to her last life.
- Enhanced Reflexes: Rayna is able to react to vampires even while they are using their superior speed, enough so that she is capable of catching them unaware. She was able to wipe out numerous members of the Strix, even catching two of them off guard and immediately killing them. She was also able to shoot several of Julian's vampires, killing them without them even being able to react.
- Immunity to Magic: Through the power of the Shamans, direct offensive magic does not work on her. This is proven to be true after Bonnie tries to use telekinesis on her when the latter attempts to kill her, but to no avail. This Immunity also seemed to be a work of the Tea of Protection. However, this immunity did not prevent Nora and Bonnie from using a locator spell to find her nor did it hinder a Shaman from transferring her life and abilities to Bonnie. In addition, Rayna could not track Stefan when his scar was blocked by the disruption spell placed on St. James Infirmary.
- Poisonous Blood: As revealed by the Armory during their experiments on Mary Louise, Rayna's blood is poisonous to witches, even those that are immortal such as a vampire-witch hybrid. Pills made from it can block a witch's power and if taken daily for a period of time, the pills will eventually kill the witch in question. This fatal effect on witches probably comes from Rayna's immunity to witchcraft.
- Marking: Through the Phoenix Sword, Rayna can mark her victims by stabbing them.
- Tracking: She can sense and track down vampires who have been marked by the Phoenix Sword.
- Link to Victims: Rayna can concentrate her connection with anyone who has been marked with the phoenix sword. This allows her to see their every move, and feel their every emotion. Once she is down to her last life, anyone still marked by her will die when she dies.
- Self-Resurrection: Rayna has the ability to continually resurrect from the dead, similar to users of the Gilbert Ring, a total of eight times. Moments after her death, her body spontaneously self-combusts only to reborn from the ashes to the age when the Shamans originally blessed her, akin to a phoenix rising from the ashes. This is achieve through the self-sacrifice of the Eight Shamans who gave their lives to her with their bodies preserved and each of her deaths would cause one of them to decay.
- Longevity: Rayna ages, just like an ordinary human, but at a slower rate and therefore has an extended lifespan.
Weaknesses[]
- Herbs: Certain herbs, when applied as a paste on the scars, can mask the signal that allows a Supernatural Huntress to find their marked victims.
- Hunter Instinct: Rayna appears to suffer from the same supernatural urge to kill vampires as the Brotherhood of the Five. The more vampires she kills, the more stronger the urge becomes. This urge is purely instinctual and seems to worsen with age and begin to affect the mind. As the desire to kill vampires has had a huge impact on Rayna's mental stability in which she accidentally mistaken a supermarket cashier for a vampire, who she staked, leading to her being confined into a secure psychiatric hospital as an old woman.
- Eighth Life: She only has eight lives, and would die permanently if she dies eight times.
- Mortality: Despite her enhanced physical attributes, Rayna is still human and shares many of the same weaknesses as a non-supernatural being (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, etc.) only to be reborn later.
- Link to the Everlastings: Should all of the bodies of the Eight Everlastings be destroyed, the spell that keeps her as a Supernatural Huntress would unravel and she would revert to as they were before.
- Victim Connection: Rayna is connected to the ones she killed using the Phoenix Stone Sword and sometimes she is hunted by them, their minds. Now that the spirits are free is a big weaknesses.
Equipment[]
- The Phoenix Stone Sword: Rayna once wielded the Phoenix Sword that was custom made just for her, supposedly by shamans that allowed her to trap the soul of any vampire she killed within the Phoenix Stone where they are forced to endure a personal hell of a past memory. The stone acts similar to the Hunter's Curse in which escapees are haunted by horrifying hallucinations from their personal hell, where they do the most despicable things in order to free themselves from the stone's influence without being fully aware of their own actions. Rayna's spirit is connected to the Sword and its stone. While in physical contact with the sword, she can sense any vampire that was marked by the sword and track them down to where ever they may hide as she can sense their location. As she draws closer to that vampire, old scarred wounds from that sword will open back up as the marked vampire's healing powers are dampened by the power of Rayna when in contact with the sword.
Relationships[]
- Rayna and Vicente (Father and Daughter/Close relationship/Former Allies)
- Rayna and Darius (Lover/Former Enemies/Close Relationship)
- Rayna and the Heretics (Enemies)
- Rayna and Julian (Enemies)
- Rayna and Stefan (Enemies)
- Matt and Rayna (Allies/Enemies)
- Rayna and The Strix (Enemies)
- Rayna and Damon (Enemies/Allies)
- Rayna and Samara (Predecessor/Successor)
Name[]
- Rayna is either a Bulgarian form of "Regina" meaning "queen" in Latin or a feminine form of "Rayno" meaning "happy, willing" in Slavic.[1]
- Cruz is a surname of Iberian origin that was first found in Castile, Spain. In Spanish and Portuguese, it means "cross".[2]
Trivia[]
- Her original casting call name was "Hannah".
- It is possible that her name, Rayna, is a reference to the video games BloodRayne which are about a vampire hunter named Rayne.
- She is a dangerous vampire hunter who returns to the world of the living after being taken out by her enemies and "fierce, driven, smart and confident – a deadly legend who literally cannot rest until her vengeance is complete."
- According to her casting sides (which tend to be false and loosely based on the character's actual story), she was being pursued by Julian in 1860 where he killed her father and she vowed to kill him with presumably the Phoenix Stone Sword. She also vowed to kill everyone Julian knew and she was in a situation where Damon trapped her but she had Stefan captured underwater, struggling to breathe.
- Rayna is one of only ten recurring characters that appeared in more than 10 episodes in their inaugural season. The other nine are Annabelle, who appeared in 11 episodes during Season One; Elijah Mikaelson, who appeared in 12 episodes during Season Two; Rebekah Mikaelson, who appeared in 17 episodes during Season Three; Atticus Shane who appeared in 11 episodes during Season Four; Nadia Petrova, Wes Maxfield & Enzo who appeared in 12 episodes each in Season Five and Jo & Kai who appeared in 17 and 16 episodes respectively in Season Six.
- Based on the actress' background and Rayna's last name, she is of Filipina descent. Her father also referred to her as Nene, which means "little girl" in Tagalog (one of the major languages of the Philippines). St. Malo was also the first Filipino settlement in the United States, which is where Rayna originates from.
- Leslie-Anne Huff confirmed that Rayna is of Filipina descent.[3]
- As Mikael was feared the world over as The Destroyer, The Vampire Who Hunts Vampires, or The Hunter, Rayna is feared as The Huntress, or The Phoenix. They are both immensely powerful vampire hunters as Mikael was an Original Vampire and Rayna was spelled by shamans to be a powerful vampire hunter who Nora describes as unstoppable.
- In the flashforwards, Rayna is one of the only vampire hunters in the series that terrifies all of the characters, scaring not just Stefan, but Damon, Caroline and most notably the Heretics. As Enzo sent the postcards to make the Heretics believe that Rayna had returned as the threat of Rayna was the only thing that truly terrifies Julian and the Heretics.
- The shamans also custom made the Phoenix Sword just for her. When combined with the Phoenix Stone, the souls of the vampires slain at her hands are incarcerated within the stone to endure their own personal hell for all eternity unless a Witch releases their soul and resurrects the vampire, such is the case with Julian, Stefan and Damon.
- Like the Brotherhood of the Five, Rayna was spelled by witches to be a superior hunter compared to the Five, granting her increased strength and powers to overpower and kill any vampire, a more powerful supernatural urge, and more than one life as she is reborn every time she dies (akin to a phoenix) therefore making her the most dangerous and formidable antagonist Stefan and Damon have ever faced.
- Her father was a member of the Five (coincidentally) before his death.
- Unlike the Five, when Rayna dies, her body is engulfed in flames and her youth is restored, just like a phoenix rising from the ashes after its death.
- The process of Rayna's rebirth is the opposite of an Original Vampire's death when slain with a White Oak Stake. When an Original dies, their body becomes lifeless and is consumed by flames. Rayna, however, dies, is engulfed in flames, then reverts to a younger appearance and rises once again.
- It is revealed by Klaus that Rayna had terrorized the Quarter for years, killing some of his best men. It is shown that Klaus is weary enough of Rayna to send Stefan away from his town. Klaus, having talked to Caroline, has a change of heart and saves Stefan from Rayna by temporarily killing her, then offers to have Freya find a way to protect Stefan from Rayna Cruz.
- Rayna is also known by the Strix, or at least Aya.
- She is the first guest starring character from The Vampire Diaries (season 7) to cross-over to The Originals (season 3).
- Rayna hold the dubious honor of being the first character to have been killed in both crossover episodes of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals.
- In I Would for You, it is revealed that Rayna's ability to resurrect is limited to the number of Shamans that died to give her the abilities as The Huntress. So she only has eight lives. However her final life is linked to all vampires she marked with the Phoenix Sword. So her permanent death would also kill all the vampires marked by the sword.
- This makes her the second kind of enemy after Klaus and the Originals that the vampire protagonists cannot kill as it would also kill either them or vampires they care about.
- She is the third main antagonist, whom major protagonists are bound to, after Klaus (vampire bloodline) and Kai (Gemini Coven), and the 7th antagonist with protagonist bound to them, of them she is the only one still living and bound to her enemies, and one of two (including Klaus) who are alive.
- Katherine: Elena in Seasons 2 and 5 (binding and passengering) and Bonnie in Season 4 (binding).
- Klaus: Elena, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and Tyler in Seasons 2-4, and Alaric in season 2 (via possession).
- Gregor: Matt in Season 5 (via passengering).
- Julian (traveler) Tyler (via passengering) Season 5.
- Kai: Gemini Coven (Jo and Liv) in Season 6.
- Julian (vampire) Lily in Season 7 (via binding).
- Rayna: Beau and Stefan (via X-mark)
- Similar to how a vampire who is inflicted with the Hunter's Curse, by killing one of The Five, if Rayna dies for good, as a failsafe method similar to the Hunter's Curse, any vampire marked by her sword like Stefan, will die along with Rayna on her final life, taking down any vampire enemies preventing Rayna from fulfilling her destiny.
- This, compared with the urge to kill vampires she was spelled with, and her being spelled to hunt vampires are all similarities to her father Vicente Cruz being one of the Brotherhood of the Five, and this is where the shamans may have gotten their ideas for their spell to make Rayna superior to The Five. The Five were spelled to hunt vampires, have some physical prowess to surprise vampires, and have a failsafe in case their prey killed them, so their prey would die with them.
- In I Would for You, Rayna stated that she had a lover who was a vampire. Though later on, she confessed to have killed him via stake. It is unknown if her Hunter Instinct played a part in her decision to stake her lover.
- In, Kill 'Em All it is revealed that while Rayna is unaffected by offensive magic (directed at her specifically), a shaman's magic can directly affect her, as in the transference of her status as Huntress to Bonnie.
Refrences[]
- ↑ http://www.ohbabynames.com/meaning/name/rayna/1066#.Wp8kE3xG3IU
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz
- ↑ Leslie-Anne Huff on Twitter