Draga Machine is an inevitable construct from another realm who, under a fabricated biography, became queen consort of Serbia in the Uchronic Belle Époque. Her one mission is to destroy a vampire, “the one who passed beyond life and death”.
| Type | Character (inevitable construct) |
| Era | Belle Époque; queen consort 1900–1901 |
| Places | Belgrade; Biarritz |
| Spouse | Aleksandar |
| Spanish entry | Draga Machine — la Reina enamorada |
Nature
She calls herself “not an automaton but an inevitable construct from another realm, another place”, summoned to the material plane for one purpose. She passes flawlessly as a woman, “a perfect machine” wrapped in faint blue glows. She wears a wig and removes it herself to show the robotic parts beneath, “as a symbol of victory in war”. Machine and woman, she is ready to die for love, and is the only one of her kind.
The false lineage
- Czech engineering: she is the widow of a dead Czech engineer, or his assistant; accounts differ.
- France: an adopted Frenchwoman, she serves as maid or lady-in-waiting to a queen, posing as the engineer’s widow, with access to the royal chamber.
- Serbia: she seduces the future king Aleksandar, a minor ten or twelve years younger. She becomes “his adviser and his lover”, gets him made king, and becomes queen consort by marriage. The rise happened “a few years ago, only a year”.
She is not of noble birth, and the House of Obrenović hates her for it. The same passage invokes Constantine Dragás, of a noble Serbian family, without explaining the link.
Mission
The Caste of the Mayas programmed and sent her to kill the vampire, who could be reached at the Serbian court. Her existence is bound to it: “my mission and my disappearance are linked to the disappearance of that being: if it is destroyed, I return to the source.” Having lived the future, she holds that certain events are inevitable. Her pledge formula is “I promise you and give you my word and my life and my honor”. She called a company that questioned her “congeners”, and so “my friends”.
Belgrade
Without her, Aleksandar would not have become king. Her murder in Belgrade was an affair of state that drew in the king and the Serbian houses; her body lay “lifeless”, her mission unfinished. The name of Hans Sauvage is tied to the murder. Cosmic forces granted a miracle “to revive Draga Machine”.
Open questions
- What “the source” is, and who summoned her.
- Whether the Caste of the Mayas and “the other realm” are the same.
- Her inner makeup, and whether the glows are constant.
- Whether the miracle was fulfilled, and in what state.
- Whether the queen she served is distinct from the queen she became.