Santino (The Vampire Chronicles)

Santino is a fictional character in "the Vampire Chronicles" universe created by Anne Rice.

Santino was the leader of a coven of Satanic vampires, the members of which held a common belief that they were meant to be the scourge of humankind. He approached Marius de Romanus in Rome, a some 500 years before Marius met Lestat, and confronted him about the "father and mother." This startled Marius greatly, but he decided to scare the young Santino, by setting his cloak on fire and telling him to leave. He did not kill Santino, but dismissed him.

Marius did not hear of Santino until sometime later, when Mael told Marius of his meeting with Santino. Santino and his satanic coven ultimately ended up attacking Marius' Venetian home, his followers burning his house and killing the boys he harbored. Marius was badly burned from this incident and his fledgling Amadeo, was taken along with a number of Marius's boys. The coven burned the boys alive in a giant fire and threw Amadeo in too. Santino rescued him, claiming to his followers that the young fledgling had a heart for God.

Amadeo did not come over to the darker life of the coven so easily though. With the help of his follower Alessandra they kept Amadeo locked up in their crypt, starving him for days on end before allowing him to feed. Eventually Amadeo gave in and was accepted as Santino's apprentice. After some time Amadeo was chosen to become the leader of the Paris coven, whose former leader went into the fire. Alessandra picked the name Armand for him, as a new name and she then went with Armand to Paris.

Santino was not heard of again until in the novel The Queen of the Damned he accompanied Pandora to rescue Marius from the icy wall Akasha had entrapped Marius in, possibly hoping to redeem himself in his eyes for the wrongs he had done to the elder. After the events of Queen of the Damned, he stayed for a time on Armand's Night Island, occasionally playing chess with Armand. He is also mentioned in the novel The Vampire Armand, when Armand, after going into the sun sees, both his old master, and his old coven master destroying evidence the Talamasca had of Vampires existing.

Marius never actually took his revenge against Santino for destroying his life in Venice and taking his Armand from him. Marius harbored a deep hatred for Santino though, and centuries later he told his story to a vampire companion named Thorne. When Marius and Thorne met Santino later, Thorne instead slew Santino with the Fire Gift, so that Marius' heart would be at rest. This resulted in Thorne's confinement.