#forgive me if this is a little rambly or the formatting or links are wonky

[mechanismslorearchive]

hi i have a question because i'm uh stupid and ur my last hope for an answer since yk ur an lore archive for mecha, WHO IS DR CARMILLA? HOW DO I FIND ANY INFORMATION ABOUT HER??

Hello! This is a fantastic question, actually, because it gives me a chance to infodump about my beloved Carmilla.

I don’t know how much information you have, so I’m going to start at the very beginning.

In-character: Dr. Carmilla was the scientist who invented the mechanization process and created (some of!) the Mechanisms. She traveled with them for a while before departing under mysterious circumstances, which the crew claims was a tragic accident involving her falling out of (read: one of the crew shoved her out of*) an airlock. She is loosely inspired by the titular character of the 1872 vampire novel Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu.

Since her time with the mechs, she’s been up to vague and mysterious shenanigans, and last I heard was working with a forthcoming band called Dr. Carmilla and the Void Quartet.

Out-of-character: she’s another musical artist named Maki Yamazaki who originally formed the band as Dr. Carmilla and the Mechanisms, before they decided to go their separate ways. She still makes music, both as Dr. Carmilla and as herself!

It’s worth noting that while the Mechanisms don’t discuss her in a flattering light, they do canonically lie to the audience (source with spoilers to Death to the Mechanisms), and that there are two sides to every story. Carmilla has been a… let’s say, a controversial figure to the fandom, in the past, but, if I can editorialize a bit, she is no more evil or violent than any of the Mechanisms (which is to say, she’s done many terrible things, but no worse than they have).

If you want more information about her, the two starting points I’d recommend are this fantastic and extremely thorough post by lucky-sevens, and checking out her music, which you can find on her Bandcamp here or on YouTube here! There’s also Lashings, which is the only live show we have a full recording of where she appears with the Mechs, and is well worth a watch!

(*The crew canonically shoved her out an airlock on at least three occasions, but according to word-of-god canon from Maki her final departure was not via the airlock! Still, I’m including these sources for informational purposes)