Caterina Sforza is the Lady of Imola in the Italian arc of Invisible Cities, who married the vampire lord of the city, Pepsico, for political convenience and was vampirized by him.
| Type | Character |
| House | Visconti-Sforza |
| Seat | Imola (her dowry) |
| Spouses | Riario (widowed); Pepsico |
| Spanish entry | Caterina Sforza |
History
- A lady of the house of Visconti-Sforza and widow of Riario — the secret son of an earlier Pope — with the city of Imola as dowry.
- During the four-month interlude, when the emissaries’ caravan moved to Imola fleeing the French siege, she became bound to them, and on Saint Stephen’s day married Pepsico, the vampire lord of the city, bearer of a solar armor turned phoenix. While the dowry held, the castle of Imola was a refuge.
- Rejuvenated by a ritual and vampirized by her own husband, she traveled with the group through space to the Kingdom of the Star and returned; her rage broke out on the return to Imola.
- When the broken dowry no longer protected anyone and the group left the castle for Naples, she ended free and hostile, parting with an open threat: “I am going to hunt you.”
Open questions
- One thread of the arc identifies her with the young woman with a Milanese accent who was mother of the child of Armagedón and returned north to her family; the source does not make it explicit.
See also
- Beatrice d’Este — the other great lady of the Milanese-Imolese arc