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| “ | Welcome to my castle. Pleased to meet you. I am the master of the castle, Walter Bernhard. | „ |
| ~ Walter Bernhard introducing himself to Leon Belmont. |
| “ | Well, that power… is quite something; But I am beloved by the night. You will taste my powers. | „ |
| ~ Walter before battling Leon. |
Walter Bernhard is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Mathias Cronqvist) of the 2003 action-adventure game Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.
He is an extremely powerful Vampire Lord, ruling the Forest of Eternal Night. He abducts Sarah Trantoul to lure her fiancé, Leon Belmont, to his castle. However, unbeknownst to Walter, he is being used a pawn by Mathias Cronqvist, who has conspired with Death to take his place.
He is voiced in Japanese by Yukimasa Kishino and in English by Jamieson Price.
Personality[]
Walter is in many ways the typical vampire, cruel, ruthless, domineering, uncaring and sadistic, with a cold, creepy demeanour and an imposing, threatening presence. He acts in a very poised and dignified way, welcoming people while making clear that they are his preys, lacing his scathing taunts with a veneer of courtesy and a smug smile. However, his gloomy yet luxurious castle filled with recreational areas shows that he has excellent taste, vast culture and interest in science.
Walter is haughty, condescending, arrogant, boastful and hideously self-absorbed. He is exceedingly confident in his might, and he enjoys showing it off by letting himself open to attacks that he knows cannot affect him. Despite this, he is not satisfied and wants more, desiring nothing less than absolute power.
Nevertheless, he is satisfied with having power only to feed his ego, never displaying much ambition or putting real effort in searching for the artifact he covets. Either because he believes to have all the time in the world, or simply out of sheer laziness.
Walter's smug smile.
Walter is bored by his centuries of existence without any opposition, so he entertains himself with battles. He abducts people close to the best warriors around, to force them in survival missions against his hordes of monsters. He revels in tormenting his preys, delighting in the gruesome ordeals he forces them through, before breaking their spirits by feigning to grant them their prize, having in fact already doomed them so that they never had any hope to begin with. He cannot even fathom being bested, reacting with stunned disbelief when harmed.
Still, he remains persuaded that he can prevail, reacting with affronted rage, lashing out with insults and violently setting upon his foe. Even when dying, he alternates between stunned disbelief and gloating that he will return.
All in all, he is little more than a contemptible, overgrown bully, who delights being at the top and to lord over those he regards as inferiors. He plays high and mighty and craves for a challenge, but only as long as he remains in control. If not, all hell breaks loose.
Powers and Abilities[]
Walter spent his reign as the most powerful vampire in existence. He displays the superhuman strength and hypnotic gaze common for all vampires, but to an enormous extent. He can send flying a well-built adult with a punch, and cower even the best warriors with a mere stare. He most likely have the power to turn into a bat, a wolf or a cloud of mist, to command feral beasts, to control the weather, and to crawl on walls, but he never displays them.
Walter wields tremendous dark powers, though whether he really has them or owes it all to the Ebony Stone: the alchemic jewel that controls Darkness he wears as a pendant remains ambiguous. Considering the great dark powers wielded by other Vampire Lords and Ladies of the series, it is safe to assume that he is genuinely this powerful, with the Stone vastly boosting his might and granting him additional abilities. Mathias targeting him to gain his power is proof of his level.
The Stone also makes him virtually invulnerable, able to shrug off even the most powerful weapons forged specifically to destroy him. It also enables him to keep his domain under the eternal night that gives it his name. The stone might also be the source of the resurrection power he boasts about, the attacks Hellfire (three fireballs in different directions), Demonic Meggido (a tremendous energy blast), and the demonic form he assumes to unleash the latter. The four would later become a staple of Dracula's powers.
Biography[]
Background[]
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Close-up on Walter.
Walter's origins are unknown. He is stated to have become a vampire at forty-two years old, but how he became one and how long he ruled is never explained. At one point, he came in possession of the incredibly powerful Ebony Stone, a powerful jewel created by alchemists through a failed attempt at creating the fabled Philosopher's Stone, considered as one of the vampires' greatest treasure.
Whether he had established his rule before obtaining it or needed it to do so is unknown. (Though other Vampire Lords building huge castles and domains on their own hints the former.) He used it to enshroud his domain in an everlasting night. He coveted the second and mightiest alchemic stone, the Crimson Stone, but could not find or forge it.
At some point, he tempted a young man named Joachim Armster and turned him into his vampire lieutenant. But Joachim coveted his throne and fought him, only to be soundly beaten and having all of his attacks failing. Walter spared Joachim, throwing him in a jail blocked with a waterfall (since immersion in running water is lethal to undeads) to use as a guard whether he wants it or not.
To alleviate the boredom of immortality, he took the habit of forcing brave and powerful humans into games of hunters and preys. And to raise the stakes and force his target to go and challenge him, Walter would steal what was most important to them. He distributed five magic orbs able to open the way to his innermost sanctum to each of his lieutenants, forcing his targets to kill them in order to reach him.
Walter turned Justine, daughter of the powerful alchemist Rinaldo Gandolfi, into a vampire who slaughtered his family, forcing Rinaldo to kill her. Enraged, Rinaldo tried to challenge him but failed to defeat the Succubus. Walter allowed Rinaldo to assist future challengers, to spice up the game. A decision who would later prove his undoing.
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence[]
Walter slouching on his throne.
As Baron Leon Belmont is fighting in the crusades of 1094, his lands are invaded by Walter's hordes of monsters, ending up abducting his betrothed Sara Trantoul. Leon was forced by the Church to renounce his title in order to leave the crusades and defend his domain and his beloved. Having learnt from his best friend Lord Mathias Cronqvist where the monsters come from, Leon goes to the Eternal Night.
Leon meets Rinaldo, who offers him an alchemic whip and enchants his gauntlet to cast spells, explaining Walter's sick games, and how to reach him. Leon slays Walter's guardians, including Joachim who mentions the Ebony and Crimson Stone before dying. Rinaldo later explains that this stone can convert the souls of slain vampires into power for the owner. As he returned to the castle, Walter greeted him, dropping Sara for him to rescue. Leon attacked him at once, but the whip had no effect, forcing him to flee.
As he returned to the castle, Walter greeted him, dropping Sara for him to rescue. Leon attacked him at once, but the whip had no effect, forcing him to flee. However Walter had bitten Sara, causing her to slowly become a vampire. Rinaldo reveals that Leon must sacrifice her to save her soul and give the whip the power to slay the Vampire Lord. He reluctantly proceeds when she begs him to, creating the extremely powerful Vampire Killer Whip. Leon settles his score with Walter, who brags that the Ebony Stone would resurrect him one day.
Final Demise[]
| “ | But... With my powers, I will surely come back to life... I could not obtain the Crimson Stone, but someday, it will be mine! | „ |
| ~ Walter's dying proclamations, moments before Death betrays him. |
But right after, Walter's soul is stolen by Death, who gives him to none other than Mathias, who has become a vampire and owns the Crimson Stone. Maddened with grief after losing his wife, Mathias manipulated everyone to replace Walter and become the King of the Night, known as Count Dracula, sworn enemy of Leon's descendants.
Boss Battle[]
| “ | Not yet. The power of the night is still full. I shall teach you the meaning of TRUE terror! | „ |
| ~ Walter after Leon has pierced the Ebony Stone protecting him. |
Walter is highly powerful and his attacks are dangerous, but he is rather easy to defeat. The battle is interrupted after Leon first harms him, before starting for real. He hovers over the ground and fights exactly like Dracula does, launching magic attacks in between teleports, but he leaves himself open to attacks and telegraphs his apparitions with a pillar of light, enabling Leon to dash toward it and attack as he appears.
Walter mainly attacks with Hellfire: here three huge fireballs exploding at short distance, but he can lunge at Leon to land a powerful punch, and shoot three blue interwoven homing rays (Leon must get away and dodge at the last moment.) When down to his second life-bar, Walter will use two new attacks: several spirals of blue energy quickly erupting from the ground where Leon stands, and teleporting near his throne and turning into a giant bat-monster to unleash Demonic Megiddo: an explosion of energy nearly engulfing the room, which deals crippling damage and can only be escaped by rushing towards the opposite walls.
Trivia[]
- Walter's name, like that of many characters of the series, is Germanic in origin and means "ruler of an army", fitting his hordes of monsters. While viewed as un-vampire-like by some fans, it is of the same etymological root as Mathias' assumed name.
- His red hair is a traditional trait of vampires from Romanian folklore, namely the strigoii, who are said to almost always have red hair.
- Carmilla's Vampire Castle in Lords of Shadow was said to belong to the Bernhard family before she drove them out.
- Being Dracula's predecessor, Walter is a significant villain of the Castlevania series, as his demise set into motion its very conflict. Still, being Dracula's pawn greatly downplays his importance.
External Links[]
- Walter Bernhard on the Castlevania Wiki
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 Villains
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Followers of Darkness Dark Lords Others See Also | ||