Vera Moray

Vera Moray
Vital statistics
Age	Unknown
Nation of origin	Unknown
Location	Various
First appearance	High Overseer Campbell
Role	Aristocrat (formerly)

"Careful. She treads with purpose. And is not as frail as she seems."

—The Heart on Granny Rags

Vera Moray, also known as Granny Rags, was a wealthy aristocrat living in the high reaches of society who, after an ill-fated expedition to the Pandyssian Continent, became a practitioner of black magic and descended into madness. During the events of Dishonored, she is a homeless and blind old woman who is often harassed by her fellow citizens. While she appears on the surface to be vulnerable, destitute, and senile, her true and darker nature lies underneath.

She is a powerful and partially immortal witch who, like Corvo Attano, employs supernatural powers that were granted to her by the Outsider.

Biography

Decades prior to the events of Dishonored, Vera was the revered wife of Lord Preston Moray, head of the Moray family (which was, at the time, similar in wealth and prestige to the Perth, Inchmouth, Carmine and Boyle families). It is noted by the Outsider that Vera was once a well-known figure at court; she received marriage proposals from a great variety of men, including an Emperor. She also personally notes that of her many friends, she was the only one to be painted by Anton Sokolov when he was first coming to prominence.

When she did marry, she and her husband traveled widely, "to the far ends of the Isles." At an indeterminate time, she joined her husband on an expedition to the mysterious continent of Pandyssia. The expedition was marked by madness and death, which started when Vera took an interest in the practices of the continent's ancient peoples. This appears to be where she first came into contact with the Outsider. The experience caused Vera to lose her sanity and later go blind. At some point, Vera gained a level of immortality by binding her soul to a cameo of herself, an act taken from her husband's journal notes concerning an ancient Pandyssian legend.

On her return to Dunwall, Vera's circumstances spiraled into misfortune—she lost her status in high society and began living on the streets. According to Slackjaw, when he was a young child, Vera was already well known as Granny Rags.

Dishonored

Granny Rags provides Corvo with two secondary missions during his quest to kill Thaddeus Campbell, the High Overseer. Her first mission requires that Corvo deal with a group of "gentlemen callers" who have come to collect protection money from her. The second involves infecting their elixir still with the rat plague from viscera found at the Offices of Dr. Galvani. Both may be accomplished non-lethally; however, infecting the elixir still increases chaos, and will lead to the appearance of weepers at the Dunwall Whiskey Distillery during the House of Pleasure mission.

Corvo later comes across Granny Rags' secret lair deep in the Dunwall Sewers during the mission The Flooded District, where she is preparing to murder, cook, and eat Slackjaw. Corvo can choose to assist Granny Rags, or engage her and save Slackjaw.

Although she does not appear in person, Granny Rags is also the author of four more side objectives in The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches DLCs.

Granny Rags' Cameo

"It's the Cameo. The secret is in the cameo. Just a piece of an old necklace. Understand?"

—Slackjaw, while bound in Granny's Lair

Granny Rags' Cameo is the secret to her powers and longevity, and she has enchanted it so that as long as the cameo exists, she can never truly be killed.

As a younger woman, Vera Moray first discovered the idea when perusing the field manuals of an explorer who studied a colleague’s interpretations of Pandyssian carvings. According to his journal, the explorer noticed Vera’s interest. Unwisely, he attempted to reprimand her, thinking such interest was unseemly for a woman of her station. It is implied that the explorer met an untimely fate at her hands. Afterwards, she bound her powers to the cameo through unknown rituals.

The cameo is kept hidden beneath a pair of plush red pillows on a bed near an incinerator in Granny’s quarters at her underground lair during the mission The Flooded District.

Skills

If Granny is fought in the sewers, she can be observed using Blink, Devouring Swarm and Windblast. She also possesses the ability to summon a thick cloud of mist. However, unlike other characters associated with the Outsider, she is not resistant to most of Corvo's powers. Rats summoned with Devouring Swarm will not attack her, however, and she will thank Corvo for summoning more of her "little pretties."

She is able to create runes with an ability given to her by the Outsider. She also fashions instructions on rituals used to create runes, and the Assassin Daud notes that each time he interacts with one of her talismans, "a tiny piece of [him] departed and settled in with her." It is uncertain what she gains from this act.

Trivia

• She is voiced by Susan Sarandon.
• After Corvo completes her first task, Vera insists he leave so that she may feed her "birdies." She will exit her house to a small backyard area—Corvo can peek through the keyhole of the back door to see her "birdies," revealing them to be plague rats.
• She cannot be harmed as long as her cameo, a small trinket hidden underneath her pillow, remains intact. When it is destroyed, Vera can be killed with a single hit, or rendered unconscious.
  • If Corvo attempts to kill or render Vera unconscious before he has access to her cameo, her body will turn into a pack of plague rats, which will then attack him. She will be unharmed by the attempt and will make future appearances as normal.
  • Granny's Cameo is identical to the Boyle Cameo found during Lady Boyle's Last Party.
• In The Journal of Granny Rags, Vera admits to killing her husband and making runes and bone charms out of him.
• The Royal Interrogator met her as a boy and through her was introduced to worship of the Outsider.
• Apart from the Outsider, no characters appear to be aware of Vera's true identity, referring to her only as Granny Rags throughout the course of Dishonored.
• If Corvo ignores Granny Rags during the High Overseer Campbell mission, the door in the sewers will be already open and the path to her lair will be blocked. This allows Corvo to complete the mission faster; however, he will miss several important items, such as books, a rune, and a Sokolov painting. The fate of Slackjaw in this circumstance is unknown.
• Early on in the High Overseer Campbell mission, she tells Corvo that Dr. Galvani is her doctor.
• It is stated by Billie Lurk that Granny Rags is rumored to be 100 years old.

Gallery

Veramorayconcept.jpg

Concept art.

Concept render.

Render of Granny Rags.

Full-body render of Granny Rags.

Vera Moray, as Granny Rags.

Granny Rags on the balcony of her house.

Granny Rags in her house.

Granny Rags has a proposition for Corvo.

Granny Rags in front of her Outsider shrine.

Granny Rags, feeding her "little birdies".

Granny Rags.

A closeup of Granny Rags.

Granny in her second home.

A portrait of a younger Vera Moray.

The final confrontation between Granny Rags and Slackjaw.

Granny Rags and her soup.

Granny's cameo, found on her bed.

Granny's cameo in the furnace.

Vera Moray.png

Vera's tarot card in the Special Edition Tarot Deck.

A symbol by Granny Rags.

A symbol drawn on the ground by Granny Rags.

One of Granny's symbols - a tree.

One of Granny's symbols.