Walter Bernhard

Walter Bernhard was a terrifyingly powerful vampire lord who served as the initial main antagonist in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. However, it is later revealed that his actions unknowingly served a higher purpose.

He is, chronologically speaking, the first vampire to be faced by the Belmont Clan and his actions would unwillingly and without his knowledge be responsible for the long confrontation between the Belmonts and Dracula.

Character's history
Walter was a powerful vampire who lived in a forest called Eternal Night, given that name as it was covered in unending darkness thanks to a jewel created through alchemy, the Ebony Stone one of two vampire treasures that he managed to obtain through unknown means. Due to this jewel, Walter was virtually invincible; it infused his body with the same energy that perpetuates the pall of darkness covering the forest, providing him formidable protection. Not content with his still incredibly powers Walter persistently sought the other vampire treasure the Crimson Stone but was unsuccessful.

As a side-effect of his sheer power - and the protection of the Ebony Stone - Walter frequently succumbs to boredom - after all, when one is all-powerful, there is only so much to do. To alleviate himself, he frequently indulged in games of cat-and-mouse with brave warriors whom he found interesting; to lure them to him, he frequently kidnapped someone important to his intended target in an attempt to force them to come after him. Arrogant and utterly without conscience, Walter will often "gift" his original kidnapping target with vampirism, just to watch the resulting horror and tragedy that surely will follow, as he did with Justine Gandolfi. Her father Rinaldo Gandolfi attempted to rescue her from Walter, but failed and was defeated by him. Walter nonetheless allowed him to live and settle outside of his castle, knowing that Rinaldo wanted him dead and that his desire for revenge would make him aid any newcomers with his knowledge and skills, thus making the game Walter himself set more interesting in his view.

He is known however to have done this with several other warriors which all succumbed to his minions, and also gifted vampirism to his servant Joachim Armster, the latter eventually rebelled against his master but failed for Walter's protection gave him the edge needed to easily defeat Joachim and eventually imprisons him instead of killing him since he was amused at his attempted betrayal and used him as one his five minions that had to be defeated for new warriors that sought to fight Walter directly.

Walter eventually met Mathias Cronqvist who convinced him of stealing Baron Leon Belmont's beloved Sara Trantoul, promising a challenge like none before due to Leon's legendary skills. Thrilled by the offer Walter did as proposed with the young knight forsaking his title in pursue of Walter after being told by Mathias who the "culprit" was. During an undisclosed period of time he also met the evil deity Death although it is never known if the two met separately or in the company of Mathias.

After Leon defeated all of his five minions guarding entrance to his inner castle the Pagoda of the Misty Moon, Walter himself welcomed Leon and could confirm himself that what "that knight" (referring to Mathias) told him was true at first glance. Leon challenged the Vampire but the Ebony's Stone protection kept him from harm. After toying with Leon he returned his fiancee back to him but with the curse of vampirism taking place in order to thrill from Leon's suffering.

Unknowingly, this act backfired heavily at him as Sara's willing sacrifice of her tainted soul gave Leon the means to defeat him, the Vampire Killer. Once armed with the complete weapon Leon ventured deep into the Pagoda and faced Walter himself who still believed he would win easily. Leon however with his new weapon was able to break the Ebony Stone and thus cancel Walter's protection. The Vampire was in utter disbelief of what happened and for the first time fearing for his life he angrily declared he would make Leon suffer beyond imagination.

The young knight however persisted and defeated the evil vampire. Walter declared that he would revive in time with his powers and when that happened he would take revenge, and that even if he could not get the Crimson Stone in the present he would get it eventually. His plans for future revenge were however brought to an abrupt end as he noticed Death coming by, he then immediately realized that the evil deity had betrayed him and took his soul which he offered to the true owner of the Crimson Stone, Mathias himself.

Mathias explained what truly happened, that he himself set up a scheme to make Walter kidnap Sara to force Leon to come and defeat the vampire knowing that Rinaldo's skills and Walter's usual scheme of "raising the stakes" by turning his victims into vampires would result on the means to defeat the vampire and acquire his soul through the Crimson Stone, something Mathias desired in order to become a vampire himself and acquire the immortality he craved for, so that he could forever curse and hate God for eternity, blaming him for the death of his beloved Elisabetha Cronqvist. Mathias offered Leon the same gift as the two had gone through the same pain but Leon refused calling Mathias a fool for neglecting the wishes of Elisabetha, claiming she would never want Mathias to commit such atrocities. Disappointed Mathias left and ordered Death to take care of Leon, something he failed to do with Leon claiming his kin would hunt him forever.

Mathias, using Walter's soul, became the vampire lord Dracula, and while Walter himself does not appear again, he indirectly does so each time Dracula reveals himself, using Walter's soul and both the Ebony and Crimson Stone as the sources of his power.

Personality
Walter, like other vampires, is malevolent, believing himself to be all-powerful. He toys with the lives of humans in order to cure the boredom of his immortality, uncaring of all damage he does and taking sadistic pleasure on the misery and suffering he spreads. As Walter's target comes closer to achieving his goals, the vampire places even more pain on his targets to delight himself on the ensuing tragedies by turning the people he kidnaps into vampires in order to see their beloved ones despair.

Not content with his great unchallenged powers, he still seeks the Crimson Stone in order to become even more powerful, and seeking stronger challenges, insatiable and unsatisfied with his current machinations. He is shown to be manipulative and cunning, as he imprisoned his servant Joachim into his castle in order to serve as a challenge for the warriors that attempted to face him. Walter also chose to spare Rinaldo, if only because he knew he would make the game more interesting by aiding warriors with his knowledge of alchemy.

Eventually, however, his arrogance and malice would prove to be his downfall, as it creates the tools that would be used to destroy him. Utterly confident of his abilities, the only time his composure is shaken is when he sees his life threatened, where he is shown in utter disbelief of the endangerment of his life and going into desperate fits of anger and plans for revenge for being defeated.

Powers and abilities

 * Anger Fist: Walter can channel his anger into a lunge, augmented by his vampiric strength, capable of dealing heavy damage.
 * Dark Powers: Walter has control over various dark powers, such as control over demons, Hellfire, Dark Inferno and other abilities.
 * Invulnerability: Protected by the Ebony Stone, virtually nothing stood a chance at actually damaging Walter. It took destroying the stone itself to render the vampire vulnerable to damage by subsequent attacks, and even then, only the Vampire Killer proved powerful enough for the task.
 * Teleporting: Walter, like Dracula, had the ability to teleport.
 * Metamorphosis: While Walter has never shown a second form, during his most powerful attack he transforms into a demon-like creature, implying that he has the ability to shape-shift, like Dracula.

Battle quotes

 * (Using Metamorphosis) Behold my strength, now this is power!
 * (Game Over) Now you join her.

Trivia

 * His name, Walter Bernhard, is like that of many characters, of German origin.
 * Though his name seems somewhat not vampire-like to some fans, it has the same etymological root as Mathias's assumed name does. The Germanic root wald and the Slavonic volod (the name-form of which is "Vlad") both mean "to rule". The literal meaning of Walter's name is "ruler of an army", which is fitting given the number of monsters he has command over. Perhaps Mathias took the name "Vlad" as a somewhat mocking way of honoring the vampire who granted him eternal life.
 * Many of Walter's attacks are similar to Dracula's, most notably the famous triple fireball "hellfire" attack. It seems Mathias/Dracula inherited Walter's powers upon stealing his soul (Dracula himself would later pass these inherited traits on to his son Alucard). When using his most powerful attack, Walter transforms into a demonic bat that strongly resembles the "final" or "demon" form of Dracula that appears in several games.
 * Walter's red hair is a traditional trait of vampires in Romanian folklore. "Strigoii" (those who become vampires after death), as opposed to the "moroii" (who are vampires from birth), are said to almost always be redheads.