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The subject of this article is non-canonical. While created as part of licensed material, it has not been confirmed as part of the "real" Buffyverse continuity. |
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The Triumvirate, also known as the Three-Who-Are-One, was an Old One who once had been three relatively powerless minor demons who combined to become one powerful soul-drinking demon.[1]
Biography
Origins
The Triumvirate started as three relatively powerless demons who had found a way to combine together into one powerful three-headed soul-drinking Old One, that came to be known as the Triumvirate or Three-Who-Are-One. Its power became such that within its body was an infernal landscape of torment and horror, where the Triumvirate could send the souls it absorbed by touch or by having its shadow fall upon its victim.[1]
In 543 A.D., after searching for a way to gain true immortality, the vampire Veronique managed to contact the Triumvirate by journeying through time, space, and other dimensions, using elixirs created by herself and Empresses Theodora. At first, Veronique retreated from the Triumvirate, whom she sensed was ageless, eternal, and so evil that even she was terrified. However, Veronique also recognized the immense power the Triumvirate had, so the vampire returned to serve as its handmaiden, knowing that its power was such that it could grant her her desire. The Triumvirate agreed and granted her immortality in exchange for Veronique bringing it to Earth, with her immortality taking the form of her being reincarnated in the body of the next vampire in close proximity whenever she died.[1]
Veronique spent centuries attempting to bring the Triumvirate to Earth using the magics that it had taught her, but she failed every time. Eventually, Veronique sought out her own solution and realized that the Triumvirate could only be brought over by breaking it down into its components, born in hatchling form in a vessel on Earth, and reunited under an alignment of stars in a ritual.[1]
In 1862, Veronique successfully summoned the Triumvirate into a vampire vessel in Venice in hatchling form. However, before they could be born, the Slayer Angela Martignetti burst in and staked the vampire, dusting him in mid-birth. The Triumvirate was returned to its hell dimension, much to Veronique's fury. Months later, Angela trapped Veronique on the island of Kefi, where she remained for over a century, the nearest land too far away for her to reincarnate upon. As punishment for her vanity, the Triumvirate abandoned Veronique upon the island, trapped as little more than a spirit.[1]
Sunnydale
In 1999, with the next alignment approaching, the Triumvirate sent several of Veronique's descendants, led by Ephialtes, to rescue her. Traveling to Sunnydale, Veronique finally succeeded in bringing it to Earth by separating the Triumvirate into its component demons and transporting them as hatchlings through a vessel, as she had tried and failed to do in 1862. Veronique was opposed in her plan to reunite the demons into one being by the current Slayer Buffy Summers and her friends, two of whom she captured as sacrifices for the Triumvirate's Reunification.[1]
During the wait for the planetary alignment that would allow her to perform the ceremony, Veronique and her minions fed rotting corpses to the hatchlings. However, they were careful not to feed them too much too fast, or the hatchlings could grow too much to be able to reunify; Veronique feared that the Old One's separate aspects, having tasted life as individuals once again, would balk at submerging itself into the Triumvirate. With the help of Tergazzi and the ghost of deceased Slayer Lucy Hanover, Buffy and her friends were able to learn of the true nature of the Triumvirate, as Veronique prepared to combine them once again.[1]
As the Triumvirate was reunified, Buffy had Lucy call upon the lost souls in the area for help. The souls possessed Buffy, her friends, and the sacrifices and used their bodies to physically attack the Old One, alongside Angel, who was immune to its powers as a vampire. Although they were unable to harm the Triumvirate, the souls held it off and prevented it from consuming the mortal souls it needed.[1]
Weakening, the Old One searched for souls to drink without success. The Triumvirate then spewed large streams of black ichor, which doused the blazing pyre, while the fire stopped spreading and began to burn low. Finally, the Triumvirate collapsed in a heap and reverted back into the three separate hatchlings. Unlike Veronique's previous failures, which had sent the Old One back to its dimension, the Triumvirate was left trapped on Earth, with the immortal vampire not knowing how to send it back.[1]
With the Triumvirate separated, the ghosts left the bodies that they were possessing, leaving Buffy and her friends to finish off the then-vulnerable Triumvirate. One of the hatchlings charged at the Slayer, but Buffy kicked it away, jumped on the hatchling's back, and snapped its neck. A second hatchling was quickly killed by Xander and Giles, who stabbed it to death with long partially burned tree limbs. The third hatchling attacked Angel, but Tergazzi grabbed it from behind and drove his taloned hand through its back, ripping out the demon's heart and killing it. Veronique bent over the body of the hatchling Buffy had apparently killed, to find out that it was not yet dead but fast dying.[1]
Enraged, Veronique attacked Buffy but, before the Slayer could stake her, Veronique rushed back to the dying hatchling and beat it, crying that it couldn't leave her to die. Enraged by the vampire's audacity, the demon used the last of its power to revoke the immortality that the Triumvirate had given to Veronique, causing her to disintegrate into nothing. The last hatchling then died of its injuries, leaving the Triumvirate finally dead.[1]
Powers and abilities
The Triumvirate was a powerful Old One with the ability to affect its followers on Earth even while trapped in another dimension. The more souls it ate, the more powerful it got. Veronique and Lucy were visibly terrified of the Old One, even though they were both unable to be harmed by its soul consuming powers as a vampire and a ghost respectively. According to a prophecy in Peter Toscano's journal, the power of the Triumvirate was so great that it posed an apocalyptic threat to Earth had it not been stopped.[1]
- Soul consumption: The Triumvirate was able to devour living souls by getting the person within its grasp or casting its shadow upon the victim. The soul was then trapped in an infernal landscape of torment and horror contained within the Triumvirate's body. After being reunified, the Triumvirate displayed the ability to summon the souls from this landscape to act under its control.[1]
- Near-invulnerability: At full power, the Triumvirate was virtually unstoppable. Even after first reunifying and in a weakened state, physical attacks against the Old One caused it no harm other than to keep it temporarily at bay. Even after having its neck snapped, one of the hatchlings was not instantly killed and instead survived for a few more minutes before finally dying of its injuries. When one was stabbed to death by Xander and Giles, they took the precaution of continuing to stab it even after death to ensure that it was truly gone.[1]
- Pyrokinesis: The Triumvirate could generate and manipulate fire.[1]
- Power granting: The Triumvirate was able to grant Veronique immortality.[1]
- Power removal: Even while dying, the last member of the Triumvirate was able to punish Veronique and revoke the immortality it had granted her, causing her to disintegrate.[1]
- Interdimensional communication: When the time was right to rescue Veronique from Kefi, the Triumvirate was able to contact her descendant Ephialtes on Earth to send him to her aid. It was also able to communicate with Veronique over the centuries following her initial contact with the Triumvirate.[1]
Weaknesses
Despite its immense power, the Triumvirate possessed a few weaknesses.
- Lack of sufficient souls: Upon reunifying, the Triumvirate needed to immediately consume living souls to maintain its recombined form. When it was unable to consume the souls that the Old One required, it broke apart into the three hatchlings once again.[1]
- Non-living souls: Buffy and her friends were able to combat the Triumvirate by allowing the souls of the dead to temporarily possess them. The Triumvirate was unable to consume the souls of the dead, from the vampire Angel, or the demon Tergazzi, and could only fight back physically.[1]
- Separated forms: In order to be brought to Earth, the Triumvirate had to be separated into three demonic hatchlings, which lacked the power and near-invulnerability of their combined form. Separated, the Triumvirate was vulnerable to harm and could easily be killed even by regular mortals such as Giles and Xander.[1]
Prophecy
At some point, Peter Toscano discovered a prophecy about the Triumvirate and the apocalyptic threat that it posed. The prophecy, as translated by Rupert Giles, read:[1]
- "They shall come when the stars cry their tears across Orion's Belt... the Maid of the Sky shall weep... the heavens shall tremble.
- "The Three-Who-Are-One shall be born into this world as Children of Hell, feeding upon the carrion and rot of the grave. Their handmaiden will serve them, and tend them like a loving mother. And when they become the One, they will bestow upon her greater blessings and gifts than ever vampire had known: true immortality. They shall enslave the race of man, make cattle of humanity entire, until, in the end, the handmaiden will drink the blood of the last man on Earth.
- "But that is not the worst that awaits mankind beneath the shadow of the Three-Who-Are-One. Not by far.
- "It is a thing of damnation, a Hell beast like no other. Where its shadow falls over the faces of human beings, so those creatures become damned, never to see the light of heaven.
- "The Triumvirate will not bring Hell to Earth, but rather bring us all, saints and sinners, to Hell, one by one."
The prophecy, which was slightly incomplete due to parts of it being charred when Giles translated it, referred to the arrival of the Triumvirate on Earth and its Reunification under an alignment of stars. The Triumvirate was born on Earth as hatchlings, the Children of Hell that the prophecy mentioned, that fed upon the bodies of the dead and were tended to by its handmaiden Veronique as the time for the Reunification approached. The rest of the prophecy served to warn about the soul-drinking abilities of the demon, which would leave most people alive but soulless to be guided by Veronique as their shepherd until the human race was entirely wiped out.[1]