All you need to know about the Twilight saga characters

Marcus

Marcus is one of the three leaders the Volturi coven. He possesses the gift of relationship identification, allowing him to see the emotional ties between individuals. He was the husband of Didyme until her death. The loss of his wife forced him into a withdrawn, introverted state. He is only kept in the coven due to Chelsea's power over his loyalty.

Marcus became a vampire at the age of 19 and acquired the power to read the emotional ties between people. Aro first met him shortly after his own transformation. Together with Caius and Athenodora, he formed the core of the Volturi. Marcus then met Didyme, who was Aro's biological sister, and became her mate. Didyme was blessed with the ability to make people happy. Marcus and Didyme eventually became discontent with the Volturi, and planned on leaving. In order to prevent Marcus from leaving the Volturi, Aro, who pretended to give his blessing, killed Didyme because he was too integral to his plans to lose. Marcus never found out what Aro did to Didyme, and afterwards Aro had Chelsea use her ability to ensure Marcus remained loyal to the Volturi.

Physical appearance

In the books, Marcus is noted to have been transformed at the age of 19. He has black hair to shoulder length, standing 6'0" tall, with an average build and, like Aro and Caius, is incredibly graceful in his movements. His white skin is translucent with a papery texture, and his red vampire eyes have an overlying milk film. As the co-leader of the Volturi, he wears a black cloak. The loss of Didyme has made him totally expressionless and uninterested about everything else in existence.

In the films, Marcus has the appearance of an middle-aged man, exactly opposite to Caius, who appears incredibly young in the films while being in late 40s in the books. He has dark brown hair that almost appears black with the same expressionless face.

Personality and traits

As a result of losing his mate, Didyme, Marcus eventually became extremely apathetic. Marcus has never recovered from the loss of Didyme (unknowingly at the hands of Aro) and accounts for his apathetic and callous ways. He voted against destroying Renesmee in an 'almost bored fashion', not even looking at the Cullens and their allies while doing so. The others of the Volturi seem to recognize this aspect of himself, as none of the Volturi reacted at all to his vote. Marcus' personality is unknown prior to the death of Didyme, but he apparently loved her deeply. Ever since her death Marcus has sunk in to a extreme state of depression and apathy and is barely alive even by vampire standards. His state of mind seems to have been made worse by the fact that Aro had Chelsea force him to feel loyal to the Volturi and it has resulted in him being locked in a permanent state of grief-related apathy.

During the meeting to discuss the Cullen situation in New Moon he barely acknowledges the proceedings and hardly speaks; just sits staring off in an almost bored manner. Despite this he does become animate in the presence of people with strong emotional ties like Bella and Edward and defends them on several occasions during encounters with the Volturi, possibly because their love reminds him of the love he once had with Didyme.

Powers and abilities: relationship identification

"Marcus's gift is actually quite valuable in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. For example, imagine Marcus on the battle field. He sees the binding ties between the enemy the guard faces. He can tell who the leader is just by watching the way the others are tied to him or her. He can see how to destroy the resistance simply by picking off a few key people. He doesn't just see romantic relationships, but also ties of family and friends, loyalty and devotion. He can tell if any given person would die for another. Off the field of battle (as the Volturi rarely leave their home), Marcus's gift is valuable politically (for lack of a better word). It's an amazing gift in a diplomatic situation. Plus, when you're sitting on an empire, it’s nice to be able to see when someone's loyalty starts wavering. Or if anyone is getting too fond of anyone else. Can you see the potential now? Marcus didn't get where he is with some fluff skill."

―Stephenie Meyer's description of Marcus's gift.

Relationships

          Didyme

Marcus first met Didyme when her older brother Aro brought her into the coven. Meeting her changed his life and eventually they fell deeply in love with each other. They were so happy being together that Aro's ambition for domination of the vampire world became increasingly less important to them. Soon enough they began talking about leaving the Volturi to lead a life together. Needless to say, Aro was well aware of these plans. During a battle with another coven Aro took the opportunity and secretly killed Didyme in order to keep Marcus in the Volturi. Marcus was totally debilitated by her death and became suicidal but Aro had Chelsea utilize her talent to tie Marcus to the Volturi. Marcus has never recovered from Didyme's death, and probably never will since vampires never recover from the loss of their mate. To this day, Marcus still doesn't know Aro killed Didyme.