Rheya Apostolous

Rheya Apostolous, a character in the Bloodbound series, was a priestess of the goddess Phampira, patron of blood and life, and the First Vampire. She is the main antagonist of Book 3. Although she is first seen in Book 2, Chapter 1, her name is not revealed until Chapter 2.

Appearance
Rheya has brown eyes, long brown hair, and tanned skin. She wears a white tunic, gold necklace, and gold armband.

When she transforms into a vampire, she gains blood-red eyes and sharpened canines.

Personality
To most humans and vampires, Rheya appears to be bold, courageous, intelligent, assertive, truly one of a kind, peerless and uncompromising. She has a "warmth" radiating from her and her words calm the doubt out of most people. However, it is a charade she plays. To you and your friends, she is a power-hungry power-driven monster with no regard for humans or vampires. She mentions her disdain for other vampires and believes that they are pale shadows of what she represents. She reveals that she seeks to become a goddess in order to give her the power to bring back what was lost, that is - her family.

Background
In the 8th century, B.C., in the city-state of Mydiea, Priestess Rheya spurned the advances of King Kaelisus. When he became more aggressive, she defended herself and clawed his face. Because it was treason to attack the King (as well as for having his advances rejected), Kaelisus wanted to have her executed. However, Prince Xenocrates spoke up on her behalf, warning his father that he and their kingdom might incur the anger of the gods if they acted in haste. Hence, Kaelisus decided to exile her, telling her that her survival would depend on the will of the gods she served. Gaius was the soldier that escorted her to the caves beyond the city. She pleaded with him to unbind her and he complied, giving her the knife he had used to cut the ropes. According to the legend, she gained her powers by drinking from the Tree of Eternal Life. She later returns to Mydiea transformed into the First Vampire and kills Kaelisus. Xenocrates pleads with her to spare his life and he and Gaius ask to receive her power.

In the early days of her rule, she was kind, pacifistic and ruled with fairness and mercy. She wanted to right the injustices of the world and to prevent others from experiencing what she had. She dismissed the idea that rebels and her enemies must be dealt with by force and instead opted to negotiate and propose deals with them to prove that she is not a threat despite her powers. She expressed regret for violently overthrowing King Kaelisus. However, this changed when her kingdom was attacked and her family was murdered by the Sons of Ares. This killed her kindness and empathy, leaving only fire, rage, and hate. At that moment, she swore to kill every last human crawling this earth, men, women and children. According to Xenocrates, grief drove her mad and awakened the darkness in her. This is when she began her murderous rampage in search for more blood in order to become a Goddess.

With the desire to exact revenge and gain power, she reached into Gaius' mind and twisted his soul. Now her faithful servant, Gaius put Rheya on a pedestal. He believed she was truly a force of nature and was the greatest vampire who ever lived, the greatest who will ever be. She knew exactly what she wanted and she vowed to move heaven and hell to achieve it. Her power was raw and infinite and her passion could level entire kingdoms. He believed all she ever wanted was a world where vampires could live free, and she became power-mad because of the pain and mistreatment humans caused her. Due to this, she didn't want others to experience the same thing so she made herself the new ruler of Mydiea after murdering King Kaelisus out of revenge. However, her enemies, specifically Xenocrates, did not share her vision and killed her because of it.

Book 1

 * Chapter 7: The Judgment (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 14: The Cabin (Mentioned)

Bloodbound: Dark Solstice

 * Chapter 4: And To All An Endless Night (Mentioned; Determinant)

Book 2

 * Chapter 1: The Calm
 * Chapter 2: The Bloodkeeper
 * Chapter 4: The Collected
 * Chapter 6: The Ambush (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 9: The Slaughter
 * Chapter 11: The Legend (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 13: The Compound
 * Chapter 14: The First (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 16: The End (Determinant)

Book 3

 * Chapter 2: The Unchained
 * Chapter 4: The Return
 * Chapter 5: The First
 * Chapter 6: The Legend
 * Chapter 7: The Bacchanalia
 * Chapter 8: The Truth
 * Chapter 9: The Five (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 10: The Test (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 11: The Mentor (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 12: The Nemesis
 * Chapter 13: The Ally
 * Chapter 14: The Revelation (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 15: The Loss
 * Chapter 16: The Beginning

Demetrius and Iola
Demetrius was Rheya's betrothed when she was human. Together, they had one child, a daughter named Iola. She doted upon her family, and they deeply loved her. After Rheya became a vampire, Demetrius became one of her closest advisors along with Gaius and Xenocrates. He and Iola weren't afraid of Rheya's new vampire nature. However, she adamantly refused to Turn them, despite her daughter's desires.

Demetrius and "Iola" were killed by the Sons of Ares: Demetrius was slain defending Iola, and "Iola" herself was burned in her mother's home. In grief, Rheya attempted to Turn him then. However, Demetrius had been dead too long, and when she revived him, he returned as a hollow empty shell that emanated a powerful and deadly energy which permeated the air around him. If exposed long enough, his energy turned humans and vampires into vicious, bestial and ravenous monsters. Unknowingly, Rheya had Turned her husband into the First Feral. Instead of coming back with Eternal Life, he had come back with Eternal Death.

She tried to keep him around because she loved him, but eventually, even with her powers, he made her ill. Thus, she set him free and he took a boat to depart. The loss of both Demetrius and Iola changed Rheya forever, the immense suffering she experienced destroyed her humanity and empathy, causing her to become mad and unleashed the darkness inside her.

Xenocrates
Xenocrates was the first to pledge loyalty to her after Rheya became the First Vampire. Like Gaius, he also called Rheya his Goddess. He became her trusted advisor, but as time went on and her rule became more violent, he began to have doubts. Rheya was able to ease his doubts for a short time, but in the end, he saw that the Tree of Eternal Life's gift was a curse and a darkness, a test from the gods that they had failed and he sought to end it. He went to the Tree to find a weapon to use against her, but Rheya and Gaius caught him there. At first, she thought he wanted to absorb power from the Tree and become her equal, but he denied that. When she tried to appeal to him, he took the opportunity to push her into a branch of the Tree, impaling her. She "died" as she became absorbed by the Tree, turning into part of the Tree itself.

Gaius Augustine
Gaius knew Rheya in the past, as he was the soldier that carried out King Kaelisus' orders before she became the First. After she returned as the First Vampire and Xenocrates pledged himself to her, Gaius followed suit and became the Second Son. From then on, he called her his Goddess and worshiped her. To him, Rheya was and is his everything because he loved her and would love her until the day he dies. Even though Xenocrates began to doubt her and her motives, Gaius didn't question her. After her petrification, Gaius continued her work until his incapacitation in the 1920s, telling his followers about her and her glory, omitting the part about her death and who had "killed" her.

In Book 3, Chapter 5, after Gaius had been petrified, Rheya expresses her sadness at Gaius’ actions in Book 2 and says he became the thing he hated most: a monster. However, in Chapter 8, after her true intentions are exposed, she reveals that all her concern was false and that she never actually cared about Gaius, seeing him as a pathetic child who yearns to be loved by someone and "asking to be broken". Rheya frees him from his petrification and restores him, and sends him to kill you and your friends. During the fight, you sense his thoughts and discover that beneath his love for Rheya, Gaius also hates and fears her.

When you dive into Gaius's mind psychically, you discover that Rheya herself is the one who turned Gaius into a monster. After what Rheya perceived as Demetrius and Iola's deaths, Rheya ordered Gaius to raze a fishing village that gave shelter to the rebels that murdered her family. She said they must be made an example, as a necessary sacrifice in their efforts to create a world where vampires could live in freedom. Gaius refused, believing that the innocent villagers and their children didn’t deserve to be punished for the sins of their elders. Rheya told him that no human is innocent and that soon they would try to exterminate the vampires. When Gaius continued to refuse, she entered his mind psychically and suppressed his empathy and decency, and molded his thoughts and personality, turning him into her personal enforcer and puppet. After you remove what Rheya had planted in his mind and free Gaius from her control, Gaius realizes that Rheya never loved him and sees him as disposable. He subsequently offers to tell you how to kill Rheya for good.

Your Character
"Blood calls to blood. Flesh draws to flesh. Soon... all will burn."

- Rheya

In Book 2, Chapter 1, you have a dream of an ancient temple, a bleeding tree, and Rheya speaking. You are not sure what it means, but when Scholar Jameson leaves a tapestry fragment for you to find in his room, you have a vision of the past and watch her being exiled. In Chapter 4, if you decide to take the fragment, you have a vision of her returning to the throne room of ancient Mydiea with her new powers.

In Book 3, when Rheya returns, you have the choice to trust her or not. Although your friends fall to their knees subservience, you can trust your instincts and doubts or fall in line. If you decide to spend time with Rheya, you see glimpses of her past including her daughter. However, in Chapter 8, you see Rheya's true intentions when you walk into her bedroom and see the humans she massacred. You feel her power emanate as everyone else seems oblivious to it or in a daze. When she finds out that you can resist her mind control, she becomes more curious about you but orders your friends to kill you. By instinct, you psychically blast her and break her hold on your friends.

Armed with the knowledge that you appear to be the only one impervious to her control, you and your friends venture to Japan first and later with Gaius, to an island in the South Pacific. There, Demetrius -now the Tree of Eternal Death- reveals that you are a descendant of Rheya and him, through their daughter Iola. You are also the first Bloodkeeper to be Turned, the "sacred chalice" - the first who had Rheya's human blood now mixed with Rheya's vampire blood. You take his sap on a dagger in an effort to stop Rheya but in Chapter 15, that becomes disastrous. In Chapter 16, you pull Rheya into the psychic plane and show her a memory of the past. You show her that her daughter grew up, got married, and had a daughter. You show her that Iola was not killed by the Sons of Ares as a child, but that Rheya herself killed her daughter years later. When Rheya realizes the truth, she asks you to kill her as she has nothing left. Even if you are hesitant, she implores you to finish her off and you do.

Vlad Tepes
Through Gaius's teachings, Vlad Tepes became obsessed with Rheya, creating a faith around her in the 1500s that lasted to the present day. Like Gaius, Vlad refers to her as Goddess and because of him, Rheya is idolized by many vampires around the world.

Vlad finally meets her, presumably in Europe, after she is resurrected and is among the vampires at her beck and call when she goes to exterminate The Order of the Dawn. He comes with her to New York City when she meets with you and your friends and is present at the opera house during your final battle.

Powers and Abilities

 * Invulnerability: In Book 1, Chapter 14, it is noted that the First did not have a "weakness to sunlight", and could survive the stake and the blade.
 * Immortality: In Book 1, Chapter 2, Adrian confirms that he does not age. In Book 1, Chapter 14, he says the First had the same powers as him, but none of his weaknesses. Thus it can be assumed that Rheya did not age as well.
 * Insomnia: A consequence of being a vampire is the immunity to drowsiness; as such, vampires are not hampered by fatigue caused by sleeplessness.
 * Superhuman Strength: Rheya was able to remove Kaelisus' lower jaw with two fingers, shortly after her transformation.
 * Superhuman Speed and Reflexes: As a vampire, she demonstrates superhuman speed when she crosses the throne room in one moment.
 * Healing Factor: Adrian's body can heal from physical injuries at supernatural speeds, ranging from closing open wounds to manually adjusting and healing dislocated bones. Vampires can heal the bite mark on their victims as well, using their own blood as a medium to accelerate the closing of the wounds. Despite this, Vampires are not averse to feeling pain. Adrian states that Rheya had all the powers all vampires have, so the same can be assumed for her. Additionally, she can heal others . She can also heal the damage caused by the sun, which is "the one thing a vampire can't recover from".
 * Telekinesis: She made several guards fly backwards with a wave of her hand . She also killed them violently without touching them.
 * Heightened Senses: In Book 1, Chapter 6, Lily mentions how she can feel the slightest air currents, how she can even see the tiniest pores and can hear the water running through the pipes three stories up. Thus we can assume the same can be said for Rheya.
 * Pyrokinesis: Rheya, like Gaius and Reinhardt III, is able to create and control fire. She was able to put out the fire of the torches illuminating the throne room of King Kaelisus without touching them.
 * Blood Link: Because Rheya's blood flows within Xenocrates' veins, she can sense his every desire and every movement and knows he will betray her. She also says that this is how she learned to speak English . She shares memories with all vampires that are living - which also makes her psychic like Serafine and Scholar Jameson.
 * Flight: She has the ability to fly.
 * Mind-Control: Because all vampires come from Rheya and share her bloodline, she can dominate their thoughts and actions . This doesn't appear to affect memories as they can later remember everything after her control is broken.
 * Power Absorption: Unlike other vampires who drink blood to maintain power, she drinks blood (no matter if human or vampire blood) to gain power . With every victim, her power grows and the closer she gets to becoming a real goddess.

Weaknesses

 * The Tree of Eternal Life: As the First Vampire, Rheya could only be killed with a stake made from the wood of the very same tree that gave her powers . In fact, it was how Xenocrates "killed" her in the past . However, this is not a permanent solution as this only destroys her body, but her soul remains alive yet imprisoned within the Tree.. When Your Character was turned into a vampire to save her from dying, Rheya was freed and she regains her physical body once more.
 * Demetrius: As the first Feral, Rheya is weak to his negative energy, and that his blood would turn her Feral. Gaius explains that manipulation and higher-level thought processes are Rheya's strengths, and being unable to use them would allow her to be overpowered.
 * Your Character: Being a bloodkeeper who is also a Vampire, Your Character shares a bloodline with Rheya both as a human and as a Vampire. As a result, she is the only one who can resist Rheya's mind control and fight against her . In Book 3, Chapter 16, your Character is able to destroy Rheya permanently by absorbing her life force.

Trivia

 * She was referenced several times in Book 1 as the First Vampire, but not by her real name.
 * The name Rheya is of Old Greek and Latin origin, which means: To flow, river, stream (Old Greek); poppy flower (Latin).
 * Similar to Gaius in Book 1, it appears that the Book 2 portrait fragments will each unlock more information about her backstory.
 * In Book 2, Chapter 4, in a premium scene, it is revealed that Rheya is the First Vampire.
 * In Book 3, Chapter 5, her surname is revealed to be Apostolous.
 * In Book 3, Chapter 7, it is revealed that she murders the humans whom she's feeding on. As such, her crimes include mass murder. Murdering King Kaelisus would also make her guilty of Regicide.
 * In Book 3, Chapter 13, it is revealed that not even she is immune to becoming Feral.
 * In Book 3, Chapter 16, her reign of terror comes to an end when Your Character shows Rheya the scene in which Rheya murders her own daughter, Iola, thinking she is a random human. Stricken with grief and realizing what she has done, she angrily and emotionally asks MC to kill her. She does so by draining Rheya of her power until she crumbles to ash.