"Ah, a winged maiden. O' how thou dost please mine eye. Have a kiss before thou must die." -Ophelia to Juliet shortly before awakening the Escalus seed in her.
Ophelia(Portrayed by Jamie Marchi) is the guardian of the sacred tree of Escalus and one of the primary antagonists of Romeo X Juliet. Ophelia was an ancient being, probably as old as Neo Verona itself. Ophelia was the guardian of Escalus, the sacred life-giving tree that sustained the prosperity of the island and kept the floating continent aloft in the skies. Ophelia and Escalus were the greatest and darkest secret in all of Ner Verona. The ancient tree bloomed under the capital building in the city of Neo Verona. Ophelia lived in a secret chamber where she would maintain contact with the ruling Capulet family. For years, Ophelia maintained the health of Escalus through a dark ritual. Once a generation, the Capulet family would sacrifice their daughter to Escalus. The Capulet daughters would fuse with the tree and serve to give it life. Ophelia maintained this ritual and by extension the existence and prosperity of Neo Verona for hundreds of years. However, Leontas Montague's slaughter of the Capulet family spelled the begining of the end for Opehlia. With the Capulet family all dead, the power of Escalus began to weaken, fortelling the eventual destruction of Neo Verona.
For fourteen years, Ophelia refused to reveal the truth to Montague. However, upon Montague's capture of Juliet, Ophelia discovered a surviving daughter of the Capulet family. Ophelia implanted the seed of Escalus into Juliet. Later, Ophelia appeared before Juliet and convinced her to sacrifice herself to Escalus in order to ensure the survival of Neo Verona. Unfortunately, Romeo Montague, Juliet's lover, stopped Juliet from sacrificing herself, convincing her to choose her own life. Ophelia then resorted to forcibly sacrificing Juliet to Escalus. However, Romeo attempted to stop her. In the ensuing battle, Romeo freed Juliet from Ophelia's captivity. Romeo and Ophelia then engaged in one last duel with resulted in her death but his mortal wounding.
Origins, True Nature and Connections to Escalus[]
Ophelia's true origin and nature is unknown. On the one hand, she seems to act as a representative of Escalus' will. However, it is not known if Escalus is sentient and has a will for her to follow or if it simply has organic needs and Ophelia knows what those needs are. On Neo Verona, multiple people reference or refer to a goddess of prosperity. It is possible that Ophelia is this goddess. Alternatively, it is possible that Escalus is the goddess and Ophelia is some kind of priestess.
Connections to Shakespeare's original works[]
Ophelia is the name of the main heroine in Hamlet. The Ophelia of Neo Verona does take after some of the traits of Shakespeare's character. In Hamlet, Ophelia goes insane after the lost of her father and speaks in sing-song chants, a speech pattern mirrored by Neo Verona's Ophelia. Furthermore, the Ophelia of Neo Verona begins to mentally and physically degrade as Escalus' life weakens, mirroring the degradation of the original Ophelia. The Ophelia of Neo Verona possesses strong associations with water and with plant-life, which evokes the original Ophelia's death(by drowning) and fascination with various flowers. In terms of her role, the Ophelia of Neo Verona possesses great similarity with the three witches in Macbeth and Queen Margret in Richard III. All of them are semi-supernatural beings that give prophecies to the tyrannical villains of their stories and ultimately result in their downfall.