Much of Verna's allusions and comparisons draw back to ancient civilizations, particularly the Egyptians. She refers to several female Ushers as "Cleopatra" and also tells Napoleon about the place of cats in ancient Egypt. This could hint at her identity as a goddess perhaps from an Egyptian pantheon. This would explain why she is so fascinated with humans. She likely is connected to the underworld, having told Arthur she had to come "topside" to witness to the Transcontinental Expedition.
She likely could be the goddess Nephthys, the goddess of the dead, often associated with ravens.
Considering how rich and famous the Ushers are, and Roderick sleeping around, it isn't that farfetched to assume that both of them were already born into wealth and only later discovered they could rise even higher due to their relation to the Usher family.That could also put Napoleon's support of Prospero in a slightly different light: through Frederick's taunting, we know that Prospero's mother worked as a blackjack dealer, likely putting her among the working class. Despite us knowing nothing about Napoleon, the fact that he shies away from his true name could imply the same for him, so he knows what Prospero is going through and feels sorry for the kid (in so far any of them can actually still feel sorry/have empathy for one another).
It also puts Camille's and Victorine's rivalry in a different perspective - they are trying to best one another at being something else than either the Ushers or whatever family they came from, and it could even be that one of their families was already even richer than the other one.
- There's another possibility: Camille and Victorine weren't given the Usher surname because their mothers didn't know Roderick was the father at the time they were filling out the birth certificate, or were actively trying to conceal their daughters' paternity (perhaps if they were already married to someone else—perhaps Mr. L'Espanaye or Mr. Lafourcade).
- Victorine cries out for "Daddy" as she's dying, which is an odd name to use for Roderick whom she met as an adult. Perhaps she was actually referring to a different father figure, one who wasn't her biological father but was around when she was a child.
- Napoleon and Prospero may also have changed their names when they joined the "family," while their sisters chose not to for whatever reason.
- According to Leo and Camille, Perry didn't learn that he was Roderick Usher's son at all until he was 16. So he must have had a different last name until he joined the family and then taken the Usher name.
- Word of Saint Paul says that Camille is actually Romani and grew up doing small cons and duping people, so that is one thing to dispute your theory.
- There's also reason for Verna to believe that Camille would and could take the Lenore-like way out. Rather than showing disbelief or denial when Verna shows up, Camille's last words are "fuck it, I got mine." She responds like Lenore in showing an acceptance of what's about to happen — but, unlike Lenore, she's too stubborn, self-centred, and determined to take Verna's advice and leave Victorine alone. Unlike the other Ushers, that conversation really could have gone either way and left Camille with a painless death.
- This also makes sense with the theory below that Verna didn't have anything to do with Alessandra's death and wasn't capable of stopping it. She also had a different idea in mind of how she was going to kill Victorine (like the above), but Camille and Victorine's actions and reactions (Camille's rivalry with Victorine and Victorine's anger with Alessandra) forced her hand and contributed to both's respective in-series deaths.
It's repeatedly mentioned that with CADASIL, Roderick could have lived for at least five more years, given medical treatments. So the disease wasn't a sign that the deal was ending but a warning that the deal could be ending. Verna at Prospero's party was a test/warning to see if the Usher's protection would continue or end depending on his choice. Unfortunately, he made the wrong choice and his death officially started the Usher's downfall.
- It's mentioned that from the moment the disease starts, you're expected to live for five years, but Roderick himself says he's already at an advanced stage, so he burned through a lot of this time already.
- It could almost be argued that Vic's death had almost nothing to do with Verna either. All Verna did to Vic was present herself as an ideal patient for a human trial. Everything else—falsifying documents, illegally jumping into an unsafe human trial, dragging Alessandra into it—was all Vic's own doing. Perhaps Verna planned to push Vic into accelerating her surgical research as a setup for a chimpanzee attack (see above), but Camille fell into that trap first. After that, Verna just had to stand back and watch while Vic destroyed herself. It's also never confirmed or even really implied that Verna actually caused Vic's auditory hallucinations (unlike Leo and Tamerlane). Perhaps Vic inherited CADASIL from her father and was hallucinating all on her own, and succumbed to her own rage and then her own guilt.
So why make this grand show of killing off all Usher siblings, showing Frederick the consequences of his actions,and demolishing the whole company if in many other - equally terrible - cases she barely did a thing to the people involved? Simple. Because the complete destruction of a Fortune 500 company like Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, especially when combined with the death of all the Usher siblings (with their influence in fields ranging from journalism to video games) would, in-directly, cause an enormous amount of chaos and destruction. Probably even more than Fortunato itself could ever accomplish if it continued existing (with the switching focus on AI development, biotech and all that).
I mean, think of it. Both Napoleon and Tamerlane run giant corporations: if they die, chances are those corporations will never recover, leaving dozens of people without work and tanking the credibility of any other business that ever worked with them. The death of Prospero destroyed the legacy of a lot of very rich families, and that even disregarding the fact that he potentially had multiple A-list Hollywood celebrities in that party, tanking movies and albums. Even Victorine, the least influential of all the siblings, probably had contracts with multiple other pharmaceutical research companies and universities, all of which went up in smoke.
Verna wasn't taking her justified revenge, she was doing it for the sheer chaos that it would create in its wake.
- We don't know what kinds of deals Verna made with other people. The Kennedy family's fate over the decades certainly resembles the outcome for the Ushers. And she may have exacted just as sizable of a price, though considerably less visible, from other people—wealth, health, etc.
- Verna isn't after revenge. She's dealing in consequences. She's playing judge, not executioner.
- Roderick seems pretty convinced that they are. IIRC, he only sees Perry and Vic die on-screen - Camille, Tammy, and Frederick die alone and are discovered offscreen, and Julius is the only one to see Leo. (Lenore is a bit fuzzy, anyone could have walked in and seen her.) He could have seen them off-screen, but it beggars belief that there wouldn't be at least some cleaning up done.
Supporting this is when the jumpscares happen. As the fridge page notes, it's always when Roderick tries to deflect from the situation at hand and the role he played in his children's deaths. Also of note is how they seem to increase in intensity - Perry and Camille are really just "boo, in your face, gone now", while Leo falls from the sky and looks at him, and it only escalates from there. Et cetera.
(Annabel is a strange case, as at first one would think she wouldn't be in favor of the jumpscaring, but she only appears at the funeral and with kid Freddie, and she looks surprised when kid Freddie gets bisected. She may have not been informed about the jumpscares.)
Also, it explains the Perry scene in episode four. That scene is really, really weird - Roderick and Juno are going to have sexy time, and then boom, Perry's there and hugging Juno? And then he leans in like he's going to kiss Roderick on the lips? And then cut to Roderick in bed talking about CADASIL? And nothing like it ever happens again? The hell? It just makes more sense if it's ghosts. Perry was the most upset at Roderick when he died (presumably the rest of the kids are content in the once-an-episode jumpscares and line shots). We don't really get a read on how he felt about Juno, but it's safe to say he probably disliked her and wouldn't be above giving Roderick another metaphorical middle finger out of spite (see also: the lean).
Verna muddies the waters by saying that souls don't exist, but she tells Madeline there's an "after" to reflect in. So there's that. Given what Verna is implied to be, she might have a different understanding of what a soul is than we do.
Dupin doesn't see the ghosts because they don't care about getting a reaction out of him. Plus, it wouldn't have given him as much of a shock, since he knows how all of them died.
- The whole family seems to think they're generally layabouts, but Perry gripes to Leo about how they specifically get it harder than even the other bastards, which seems to hold up - no one really likes Camille either, but most of them at least try to be civil about it. In the first episode, Juno asks Roderick if he's ready for Perry specifically, to which he looks dismayed.
When deflecting about Perry's death, Roderick says that Monty isn't a problem, which is when the jumpscare hits. Perry and Leo were no doubt on all the drugs, but Monty especially probably came easy because it's a Ligodone derivative.
Roderick dislikes them because their drug use personally reminds him of the effect Ligodone has had, even if the rest of the world doesn't have the No Consequences shield for drug use, and that dislike filters down to the rest of the family.
