Stella and Loretta

Stella and Loretta Lecard​e are two vampire sisters from the Castlevania game Portrait of Ruin. They appear as the twin daughters of the game's main villain Brauner, but it is eventually revealed that he brainwashed them. They serve as a major foil during the major part of the game, until they are restored to their true, human selves by the game's protagonists.

Stella and Loretta were born some time after World War I, as the twin daughters of Eric Lecarde, one of the two heroes who defeated Count Dracula and Elizabeth Bartley in 1917, alongside John Morris. Eventually, John Morris died for not being able to handle the full power of the holy Vampire Killer Whip. The Lecarde family then discovered how to unlock the whip's potential and became the guardians of its secret. Under their father's tutelage, the sisters became powerful warriors, dedicated to fight against Evil.

In 1944, Brauner resurrected the Castlevania and planned to become its new lord, to use its Dark Powers to wage his own war against mankind. Eric Lecarde stormed the Castle to stop him, but Brauner ambushed and killed him. When Stella and Loretta ran to his aid against his wishes, Brauner grew convinced that they were the reincarnation of his late daughters and he turned them into vampires before their dying father's eyes. Brauner brainwashed Stella and Loretta into believing that he was their father, and they became fiercely loyal to him. Although he would prefer to keep them out of troubles, they insist on helping him out and confront his enemies for him. Under Brauner's influence, Stella would become rash and aggressive while Loretta would become distant and disdainful.

When John Morris' son Jonathan and his friend Charlotte Aulin storm the Castlevania, they encounter Eric's ghost who is bound to the Castle but who manages to resist its evil influence. They later encounter the twin sisters who antagonize them. Stella confronts the two in the Tower of Death but is defeated. When fleeing the scene, she drops a pendant that proves a vital clue for the heroes to learn the sister's true identity.

Stella is a very powerful and dangerous enemy; fast, spry and aggressive who can avoid attacks quite easily. She attacks the heroes with sword strikes and sword swipes, and is able to send a wave of energy along the ground and a hurricane projectile with her sword or to conjure four flying blades one after another.

Stella and Loretta later attacks the heroes as a team and put up a very difficult battle. Stella still uses her sword swipes, while Loretta casts Ice Magic to conjure a rain of ice shards, wolf heads made of ice and a blizzard attack. Most importantly, the considerably powerful vampire siblings will combine their might for devastating attacks: 1) Loretta gives her sister a huge ice sword and they charge at the heroes. 2) Loretta conjures a huge icy crystal that Stella slices into ice shards that they send towards the heroes.

The game's ending depends on the players action during the battle. If the heroes kill the sisters in battle, Brauner gives up and the game ends here. If on the contrary the heroes learnt the sisters' story and the Sanctuary spell that can reverse the curse of vampirism, they can use the spell on the sisters. The spell revives Stella and Loretta as full-fledged humans and gives them their memories back. Ashamed by their evil deeds, the sisters resolve to help the heroes and prove vital in helping Jonathan to unlock the full power of the whip.

After Brauner is killed and Dracula and Death are defeated, Stella and Loretta bid farewell to their father before he passes on to the Afterlife.