Maria Kaina

Pathologic 2=

Maria Kaina is the eldest child of Nina and Victor Kain. After her mother's death, she is heir to the title of Scarlet Mistress.

Description
"A Mistress in the making. One of the keys to the mystery of the Polyhedron (she presides over the community of the “signs”, former adolescents who can no longer get inside). Still barely more than a child, very immature, she’s deeply stressed by the prospect of soon having to assume power for which she’s unprepared. She knows what the Focus is and how it works. Das Ewig-Weibliche comes to mind. Scary and despotic, she’s the daughter of Nina, who is used to issuing commands and making the wildest demands based on what her intuition tells her. She purports to speak for the town."

- From the game's design documents

Maria Kaina is a severe woman who has little time for those she does not respect, treating them rudely and perhaps even cruelly. She is self-assured, seeing herself as above most of The Town. She sees and feels things that many others cannot and it can cloud her judgement, blinding her to the mundane.

Background
Maria Kaina appears to have been a fairly normal child, as her dark attitude and language shocks the Haruspex, who knew her as a little girl. Following the death of her mother Nina Kaina she inherited her power of clairvoyance, as well as her role in the Town. She was also very attached to Simon Kain. Maria has taken his death hard, believing that it has placed even more new responsibilities upon her.

Maria sees powerful visions and claims that if she were to kiss someone following her waking from such a dream they could see the same thing she sees - though at a great cost. The first person she tried that on got insomnia and died a week later, unable to handle the enormity of the power she wields.

Haruspex Route
"My path was called '"The Return of Magic."' I wanted the power to create a place of miracles, and precious anarchy."

Maria Kaina is to be one of the new Mistresses following the death of her mother, and takes the role very seriously. She is a rival to Capella, though she does not know the White Mistresses daughter as well as she would like.

Following the outbreak of the Sand Plague Maria is harsh, marking healthy houses to be destroyed even when she knows it would leave the tenants homeless. Upon discovering this Haruspex can either choose to allow her to continue her work, citing that Mistresses have always ruled The Town, or he may choose to speak to Victor Kain to reign his daughter in.

Maria, though used to strange dreams, details a particular odd dream - one two other women, Eva Yan and Anna Angel, share. She dreamed of Earth, seeing human bones in the snowmelt, below her feet. This leads her to question the purpose of her life.

In the Diurnal Ending Maria can be found in the Cape, overlooking the statue of her mother, Nina Kaina.

In the Nocturnal Ending Maria flees the Town alongside many of the Utopians and Humbles.

Pathologic: The Marble Nest
"No one's seen Maria in the Upper Town in two days. We can't find her."

By the events of The Marble Nest Maria Kaina has been missing for two days.

Spoken Dialogue

 * → See Maria Kaina/Spoken Dialogue

Animation Video
Pathologic=

Maria Kaina is the eldest child of Nina and Victor Kain. After her mother's death, she is heir to the title of Scarlet Mistress.

Although young, and her abilities not fully developed, she already has a considerable amount of mystical power. In particular, she shows the gift of foresight, predicting the arrival of the Bachelor.

Description
"Appearance: A very beautiful, demonic face. Huge eyes, sensual lips, spectacular artistic facial expressions. Thick copper hair. Long graceful neck, her back is like that of a ballerina. Expressive hands. Carries herself very imperiously, but without primness. Maria is very fluid in movement. She walks as though she's dancing. Her appearance is always sensual, even erotic. Pose: Walking while swaying her naked shoulders. The fingers of one hand rest on her stomach while the other hand rests on her narrow waist. Personality: Femme fatale. A beautiful, merciless woman. She inherited her father's authoritativeness and her mother's passion for mysticism and the black arts. She is intelligent, but not intellectual. Instead, she is insightful and sensitive to lies and deceptions. She can instantly see one’s true colors. Maria doesn't have a firm goal in mind. She is always in the state of some sort of trance; it is a psychological tuning to the Steppe. However, she is not "blessed" like Grace. Her reflexes are good and facial expressions are rich. Maria is not a medium, but it's as if she has a connection to some supernatural "channel" through which she receives peculiar and exciting sensations. At times she listens to that channel, but she does this delicately and stealthy. Just like when checking the time, some people put their wrist directly to their nose and clatter with the expensive watches bracelet. Others discreetly lower their gazes and slightly move their wrists in the pocket. Maria is the latter. She loves to play with people. As a child, she loved to torture animals."

- From original Pathologic character concepts 

The traits typical of her mother Nina are vividly seen in Maria: coldness, absolute self-control and total sobriety, with the ability to perform daring acts. A merciless and temperamental woman, character traits that she displays on occasions when her father grants her authority over the town, or when dealing with somebody she deems unworthy.

From her father she inherited authority, and from her mother a passion for mysticism and black magic. She is intelligent, but not an intellectual. Instead she has a penetrating mind, a sensitivity towards falsehoods and lies, and is able to immediately grasp a person's true nature. She is not a psychic, but it's as if she has a parallel channel through which she receives interesting and exciting sensations. Periodically she tunes in to the channel, but she does this delicately and unnoticeably. She doesn't have a firm goal besides a present obsession with a design she has in mind.

She spends all of her time residing in some sort of trance, a psychological adjustment to the Steppe. She loves toying with people, and as a child loved to torture animals.

In spite of her nature, Maria does not speak ill of Capella—she actually admires her.

Portrait Quotes
"Maria is concealing her true power for the time being, but it has already become apparent that she will stop at nothing when the time comes. Her sheer power will justify any despotism that would spring from it. The brilliance of her talent is going to surpass even Nina's one day. Maria will be grabbing stars by the handful while sipping earth's magma. And that means there are still things in this world worth living and hoping for."

- Andrey Stamatin's take on her

"Whenever I imagine what this town is going to become when she grows up, I feel nothing but dread. It took all of us to hold Nina the Terrible back—Victoria, me, and even the Kains themselves. Little Victoria will not be able to stand up to Maria on her own; I will not be staying in this world for much longer; and Victor adores her... so who will harness the midnight filly?"

- Katerina Saburova's take on her

Bachelor Route
Towards the end of the game, and as part of the ritual of becoming a Mistress, Maria loses consciousness. When she comes to she is to be found in her mother's mausoleum, and, according to herself, her personality begins to disappear and merge with that of Nina's, settling into her daughter's body and taking up, once again, the role of Scarlet Mistress. She then proceeds to give a detailed yet highly metaphorical description of the new town she intends to build—with the help of the Stamatin brothers—on the other side of the Gorkhon river.

Even though Maria falls in love with the Bachelor, if Vlad the Younger lives, they will enter into a dynastic marriage. His role will be to serve Maria, to be her accountant and chancellor. He will ground her: a practical hand to a mad mind.

Spoken Dialogue

 * → See Maria Kaina/Spoken Dialogue