Actrise

"It's a simple matter... sacrifice the life of 100 children. I slew my own child to attain the prize of eternal life!"

- Actrise's unsettling notions of the value of life

"How pitiful! I love no one in this world, other than myself!"

- Actrise

Actrise is a major antagonist in Castlevania 64 and its remake Legacy of Darkness. She is a powerful, vain and disturbingly selfish vampire witch, and a high-ranking follower of Count Dracula, who played a big role in his returns in 1844 and 1852. Her name is similar to the word "actrice" which is French for "actress".

Some sources state that Actrise used to be a famed stage actress, who wished to remain young and beautiful forever. To that end, she learnt Dark Magic and ended up sacrificing one hundred children, including her own daughter. This particularly gory crime turned her into a vampire, granting her the eternal youth she desired all along. She eventually became a Mistress Witch and a follower of Dracula, frequently providing him with the souls of children she slain, which she encased within magical crystals. There, she forged a close relationship with the vampire Gilles de Rais. (Based on the creepy child-murderer from French History.)

In 1844, right before the event of the game Legacy of Darkness, Actrise, Gilles de Rais and Dracula's right-hand man Death performed a ritual to resurrect the King of the Night. (Though, whether this is really Dracula remains a matter of debate among fans.) Then, they recruited the rogue beast-man Ortega, who brought them Ada, the adoptive sister of his former friend Cornell, so that they could use her as a sacrifice to fully resurrect the Count. Actrise and Gilles de Rais also turned a nobleman named Master Oldrey into a vampire, and made him the lord of the Mansion within the Castlevania.

When Cornell storms the Castle to rescue his sister, he reaches a crypt in the mansion's garden, where Gilles de Rais attempts to stop him, but to no avail. Just as Gilles collapses, Actrise appears to take him away, commending Cornell for this victory. When Dracula (?) is defeated, he captures Cornell's werewolf power and sends it to Death, Actrise and Gilles de Rais; who promptly sacrifice it, ensuring Dracula's return eight years later and leading to Henry Oldrey's, Reinhardt Schneider's and Carrie Fernandez's quest.
 * Despite Actrise's praise, Gilles de Rais is ridiculously easy to defeat. Like all vampires, he attacks with claw swipes and vampiric bites. (The latter replenishes his life bar and inflicts the "Vampire" status that must be cured.) He can also launch a stream of fireballs that must be jumped over, but all in all, he poses very little threat.

In 1852, Dracula's three followers send their armies raiding nearby villages and kidnapping many children, looking for the one inside whom Dracula's soul was resurrected. In order to distract the vampire hunters, Gilles de Rais disguises himself as Dracula and serves as a decoy until the real Dracula could rise again.

As for Actrise, she takes an interest in Carrie Fernandez, descendant of the powerful magic-wielding Belnades Clan, and sets out to convert her to Dracula's side. As such, the witch only appears in Carrie's story, serving as her primary foil. Actrise first confronts the young magic-wielder when she enters the Castle Center, but fails to persuade her.

Within the Castle Center, Actrise sets up a battle to the death between Carrie and her cousin Camilla, best known by the fans as the Fernandez Warrior, whom she turned into a vampire when she herself attempted to destroy Count Dracula. Actrise confronts Carrie for the last time, atop the terrace of the Room of Clocks. There, she makes a final attempt to sway her nemesis into Dracula's side, proudly revealing her gruesome backstory. However, Carrie starts pitying the disturbed witch, for never having been able to be a real mother. Enraged, Actrise attacks Carrie, swearing to offer her heart as a gift to Dracula, but she in turn falls under the Belnades' magic she coveted so much. Shortly before dying, Actrise's beauty fades away, revealing a hideous, demonic face that mirrors her own twisted soul.
 * Camilla Fernandez is not that hard to defeat. She can strike Carrie with her staff, release a cloud of blue smoke and fire three energy ball, but her most common (and most bothersome) attack releases three homing energy balls that must be dodged repeatedly until they vanish. Attacking at long range, mostly with repeated homing energy balls, while running without stop never to escape her own spells is the best way to deal with her.

As a boss, Actrise is not to be taken lightly, although she can be dealt with without major problems if Carrie proves cautious enough.

She stands at the center of the terrace and constantly surrounds herself with a defensive barrier of crystals. Carrie must destroy the crystals before she recreates them to get an opening, and must only target the smaller ones that get destroyed in one homing ball. (The bigger ones needed two or three homing shots to break.) Actrise will make crystals erupt from the ground right below Carrie's feet, forcing her to move constantly. She can also fire a cluster of crystal shards, two energy balls, a flurry of energy balls falling from above, and a powerful energy beam that will bounce against crystals, to target Carrie whenever she dodges it.