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“ | My sister the moon burns brightly tonight. She's very excited of course. Soon we will force our father. Amun Ra, the sun, down on his knees to grovel in the mud for mercy. But there will be no f-cking mercy. I will cut off his head and suck out his brains and spit them into the dust. Ah, they've always worshipped him. My father, that f-cking sun, since they crawled out of caves mortals have adored him. Because they're afraid of the dark. Soon there will be ONLY darkness, and terror will be all they know. | „ |
~ Erzsebet declaring her hatred for Ra and her desire to bring eternal night to the earth. |
“ | No longer shall we be trapped on the edges of the world in pitiful shadows! The skies will break into obsidian black, and my glory will cover the Earth. And yes, she was once the humble girl who they called mad. But see! She was the messiah the whole time. And now she has the blood of Sekhmet in her veins. All will see and all will bow. She stands here, not only as your queen, but as your god! | „ |
~ Erzsebet giving her new era speech to the vampire court. |
Countess Erzsebet Báthory, also known as the Vampire Messiah, is the secondary antagonist of Netflix's 2023 animated dark fantasy series Castlevania: Nocturne. She is loosely based on both the real-life historical figure of the same name and the character of Elizabeth Bartley from Castlevania: Bloodlines.
She is a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer who became a vampire after being fed the blood of the Egyptian war goddess Sekhmet by Drolta Tzuentes. Becoming the self-proclaimed "Vampire Messiah" claiming Sekhmet's powers for herself, Erzsebet now desires to plunge the world into eternal darkness and lead the vampire race to crush the growing French Revolution and conquer the world.
She is voiced by Franka Potente, who played Diro Kesakian in The Shield, and Rica Fukami in the Japanese Dub.
Biography[]
Past[]

Erzsebet encounters Tera for the first time in her dungeon.
Erzsebet was born a human. Even in her mortal life she had a reputation for being unimaginably cruel, subjecting an untold number of young girls and boys to horrific torture and murder. Upon being transformed into a vampire, she became a countess. Gaining the allegiance of Drolta along with many other fanatical vampires and humans, she would oversee the slaughter of many settlements that had defied the vampires order in some form or another, capturing young women from these raids and locking them in her dungeon to torture for her amusement. One of her victims was Tera's sister, who she turned into a vampire during the latter's captivity. She found Tera trying to save her sister from the dungeon, Tera being forced to stake her sister in an act of mercy before fleeing the countess's castle in Russia.
At some point in her life, Erzsebet managed to drink the blood of Sekhmet, attaining her godlike power for herself. Not satisfied with this power, Erzsebet desired to kill the sun god Ra and plunge the world into eternal night so that she may conquer the world and force humanity to give her the worship she feels she deserves. To this end she rallies many vampires under her banner, including Comte de Vaublanc, using the elites fear of rising slave revolutions and the end of the status quo to join her crusade. She also manages to gain human supporters, most notably the forge master Abbot Emmanuel, who sees the French Revolution as an affront to God and views Erzsebet as a necessary evil to destroy it.
Castlevania: Nocturne[]
In 1792 in France, as the Republican Government established after the Revolution is repressing a royalist insurrection in the Vendée Région, Erzsebet sends Drolta to Europe to arrange an alliance with the abbot in preparation for her arrival.
She meets with Drolta within the week, who presents her with a young maiden whose father was a part of the Revolution, with Erzsebet taking a quick liking to the girl and keeps her by her side, slowly draining her blood away. Following a speech to her followers, she learns from Drolta of Emmanuel having a secret daughter, Maria Renard, who they can use to ensure Emmanuel's permanent loyalty. Meeting later in the night with Olrox, Erzsebet announces her intention to extend her conquest to America, wanting Olrox to serve as her guide into the New World.
Faced with Olrox's flippant disrespect for her authority and skepticism of her alliance with the Christian forge master, she announces her intent to use Maria as a bargaining chip while also conjuring a sphere of darkness in her hand as a threat to Olrox, who reluctantly bows (with a disapproving expression) before the self-proclaimed goddess. Meeting with Emmanuel in the church the next morning, she and Drolta reveal that they know Maria is his daughter and demands that he seal their alliance with the offering of Maria's blood.

Erzsebet turning Tera into a vampire.
At the Chateau, Erzsebet uses her powers to eclipse the sun, bringing about an eternal night before sending her forces to wreak devastation throughout Paris. Strengthened by the eclipse, Erzsebet transforms into an avatar of Sekhmet before travelling to the church to meet Emmanuel. Appearing before her enemies as they thought with Drolta, she walks to the center of the sanctuary. In a demonstration of her power, she is completely unfazed by her foe's attacks, even absorbing a direct blast of fire to her face by Richter Belmont, who she blasts against the wall.
Realizing that Emmanuel had been attempting to sacrifice her on the altar as a show of loyalty, Erzsebet reveals that she didn't want to kill Maria at all but turn her into a vampire under her thrall. When Emmanuel is left horrified by this revelation, Tera offers herself in Maria's place, with Erzsebet recognizing her as the Speaker woman who escaped her decades ago after killing her sister. Shoving Maria aside, she holds Tera down and bites her in the neck before having her drink the queen's blood, with Richter, Annette, and Emmanuel powerless to watch Tera's turning in horror before reluctantly fleeing through a hole Richter had blasted through the walls of the church.
Erzsebet then sends Drolta to pursue the heroes, while making it clear to a pleading Emmanuel that she had no intention of sparing their lives since they were part of the Revolution, which he is supposed to help them destroy. However, Drolta is killed by Alucard, the son of the legendary vampire Dracula, who has come to stop her.
Overwhelmed with grief over Drolta’s death, Erzsebet commands Abbot Emmanuel to use his formidable Forgemaster machine to resurrect her as a Night Creature, just as it had created others of her kind. Once reborn in a stronger, more monstrous form, Drolta became Erzsebet’s most trusted lieutenant, rallying an army of aristocratic vampires united in a crusade to annihilate the ideals of the French Revolution, all in Erzsebet’s name.
Drolta’s loyalty takes her to Paris, where she tracks Richter, Annette, and Alucard. Her mission leads her to steal the mummified body of Sekhmet and deliver it to Erzsebet. Consuming Sekhmet’s heart, Erzsebet transforms into an even more powerful being, though she remains incomplete—Sekhmet’s remaining soul now resides within Annette, who uses it to challenge Erzsebet’s newfound strength. As Erzsebet struggles to harness Sekhmet’s full power, she faces relentless resistance from the protagonists, leaving her increasingly vulnerable.
In the midst of these battles, Drolta intervenes to save Erzsebet from defeat. However, seeing Erzsebet in a weakened state, Drolta turns against her. In a final act of betrayal, she bites Erzsebet’s neck, usurping Sekhmet’s powers for herself and delivering the fatal blow to the Vampire Messiah.
Appearance[]
Erzsebet is an unnaturally tall vampire with fair skin and red eyes. Her hair is rosy-red and is styled in a way that causes it to stand upright on her head. She wears a gold tiara on her head and a blood red gemstone on her chest. Often, she wears a dark blue dress with a high collarbone and brownish outlines with arm gloves. When she travels in her chariot, she wears a set of golden armor made in the likeness of Sekhmet with a wide plain white skirt. Both outfits have an exposed cleavage.
When she transforms into an avatar Sekhmet, her facial features become much harder and rougher around the edges and her hair becomes blood red and grows out to resemble a lion's mane, along with her attaining thicker eyebrows. She grows a few inches taller as well. She wears a massive black cape with a bright yellow collar bone and her waist high dress is blue at the top with dark yellow outlines and white at the bottom, and a gold medallion in the center. Her breasts are covered by a metallic bra and her midriff is exposed.
Personality[]
“ | She will bring horror beyond nightmares. Suffering and pain beyond endurance. She won't want to simply crush the revolution. She'll want to drain it slowly of blood, before she grinds its bones to dust. | „ |
~ Tera describing the full extent of Erzsebet's sadism and cruelty. |
Erzsebet acts poised, refined, courteous and imperturbable, being cordial to her vassals as long as they do as she wants; She is an excellent orator inspiring them with grand speeches and promises of greatness, as well as a skilled manipulator, who knows which buttons to push to control people.
But she is at the same time very vain, haughty and arrogant, scorning and demeaning people at every turn. She is an atrocious sadist, who goes out of her way to keep victims awake for days as she tortures them and drains their blood. She keeps the ones unfortunate enough to strike her interest as her blindly devoted vampire slaves, whom she refers to as her "pets". She displays almost erotic pleasure in breaking and degrading them.
She is a megalomaniac, loathing the ideal of freedom and slaughtering entire settlements for the "crime" of seeking fair treatment. She regards the dominion of the nobility, servitude and slavery as the "natural order" to be preserved at any costs. So she holds Slave Liberation movements and the American and French Revolutions in utter contempt and sets out to crush it in the worst way possible.
Even worse, she only values her vassals as property, demanding complete obedience without even registering objections. She cannot stand defiance, resorting to open threats at the slightest hint of it, and demands worship and sacrifices of their loved ones as a proof of fealty. In short, she is a control-freak and malignant narcissist of the vilest kind. Gaining Sekhmet's powers worsened this into a full-fledged god complex. She delusionally views herself as Sekhmet in person and is outraged by the mere mention of worshipping other deities. She delights in the prospect to have everyone in the world no matter the rank crawl at her feet and only know terror. Her ultimate goal is to bloat out the sun and "kill" her father Amun Ra, the Egyptian Sun God, leaving her as the only object of worship.
Trivia[]
- In the games, Elizabeth Bartley resurfaces in 1914 and causes World War I. Her counterpart being featured in the adaptation of Rondo and Symphony set over 120 years prior makes sense considering Elizabeth Bartley was meant to play a villainous role in Symphony before it was axed.
- Like her game counterpart, her name is a reference to Countess Elizebeth Bathory, the infamous Hungarian aristocrat and alledged serial killer from the 16th century. She is well known for her infamous torture methods and have been rumored to bathed in her victims blood.
- Erzsebet Bathory's design seems to be inspired by Carmilla from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
- Her plan of blocking out the sun is similar to that of Walter Bernhard, who use his power to lock his castle in enteral night by blocking out the sun.
External Links[]
- Erzsebet Báthory on the Castlevania Wiki
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Dracula's Army Styrian Council of Sisters The Church Cult of Sekhmet Others |