Maria Renard

Maria Renard (ja. マリア･ラーネッド Maria Learned) is a heroine from Konami's Castlevania series. She appears as a playable character in Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (the Sega Saturn port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) and all three games in the Dracula X Chronicles. She also appears as a non-playable character in Castlevania: Dracula X and the aforementioned Symphony of the Night.

Character history
In 1792, Maria, a twelve year old girl of distant kinship to the Belmont clan, was captured along with several other young women and taken to Dracula's castle. Richter Belmont saved Maria from Shaft, one of Dracula's servants, who was attempting to cast a spell on the girl. Once Maria is rescued in Rondo, she is unlocked as a playable character. Thus, there is an ending in which Maria confronts and defeats the Count instead of Richter. The reworking of this game on the Super Nintendo, Dracula X, made Richter's girlfriend Annette Maria's older sister.

Four years after the defeat of Dracula, Richter vanished. Maria immediately set out to find her brother-in-law. After a year of searching, in 1797, she finally found Castlevania. In the castle she learned that Richter was working in concert with the dark forces. With Maria's help, the half-vampire Alucard was able to break Shaft's hold on Richter and defeat Dracula. Depending on certain variables in Symphony, the player will receive different endings: In one Maria will profess her love for Alucard and go after him. In another she will resign herself to the fact that she cannot ease his torment and return home with Richter.

Maria is also playable in "Ritchter mode" in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin partnered with Richter Belmont. She has no storyline appearance in the game. There is a glitch that allows the player to play the game with Maria on her own but that would make the game unbeatable becuase Ritchter is required to gain entry to certain areas.

Maria wields control over magical creatures such as a cardinal (which turns into a Phoenix when conducting an Item Crash), a cat, a tortoise, and a dragon. She also uses a music book which throws a string of music notes and an egg which hatches into a flock of tiny birds. One of her stronger attacks is Guardian Fist, which causes a sort of doppelganger to appear and deal a devastating blow. In Symphony of the Night, the cardinal is replaced by a white barn owl.

Boss battle
Alucard must battle Maria in Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight before she helps him see past Shaft's deceptions. In the Dracula X Chronicles, Alucard fight with Maria in order to obtain the Holy Glasses.

Appearance in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
After being rescued by Richter, Maria can be selected as a playable character when continuing the game. Her primary weapon are Doves and her subweapons include a Cat, Turtle, Cardinals, Egg, Dragon, Book of Music, and a Key. Each of the subweapons has an Item Crash associated with it that consume extra hearts and are more powerful.

Appearance in Dracula X
Maria appears in this game as a girl who needs to be rescued, but is not playable in the game. When saved, she simply tells Richter that her sister is somewhere else in the castle. If Richter saves both Maria and Annette and defeats Dracula, Maria appears in the end credits, where she has an embarrassed and shocked expression on her face while Richter and sister embrace each other.

Appearance in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Maria is not playable in the original Playstation version of Symphony of the Night.

Appearance in Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (Saturn Edition)
Maria is a playable character selectable from the start of the game of the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night. Her fighting style has changed drastically in this game as she does not use animals as summons as subweapons. Her main attacks consist of kicking and punching. She is able to perform energy blasts to strike things in the distance. She is able to equip and use the same subweapons that Richter is able to use, except that she cannot perform their item crashes. She has a magic meter like Alucard and can perform spells granted from the spiritual energy from the animals that appear in Rondo of Blood.

Appearance in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Maria has no mention in the story of Portrait of Ruin, but is able to play along side Richter Belmont. She maintains most of her animal subweapons that appeared in Rondo of Blood, including the Cat, Turtle, Cardinal, and Dragon and is able to select them at will. Her primary weapon are her doves again, but she is able to send them out very rapidly in this game. She is not able to perform item crashes in this game.

Appearance in Dracula X Chronicles
Maria is playable in the 3D remake of Rondo of Blood that is included in Dracula X Chronicles. Her moves and abilities are essentially the same as they appeared in the original.

Appearance in Dracula X Chronicles: Symphony of the Night
A new version of Maria is playable in the Symphony of the Night game that was included in Dracula X Chronicles. She now uses some of her traditional animal sub-weapons again and is able to switch back and forth between two of them. The animals that she can use are the same as those she could use in Portrait of Ruin, namely, the Cat, Dragon, Cardinals, and Turtle. This time around, she can item crash these animals. She also has a doll subweapon that normally does nothing, but can be item crashed. Her primary attack doves have been replaced with Owls.

Appearance in Castlevania: Judgment
A 15-year old version of Maria is a playable character of the 3D wii fighting game Castlevania Judgment, which is her first outing in a free roaming 3D game. Her primary weapon is a pole containing a caged owl, reminiscent of the ones she used in the Dracula X Chronicles version of Symphony of the Night. She can use an attack bird as a subweapon or, like every other character in the game, use any of the traditional subweapons. The owl allows her some degree of flight in the game.

Trivia
Name origin: Voice actors: Blood Type:
 * Maria's Japanese surname was borrowed from the Learned Memorial Library, a building on the Doshisha University campus in Kyoto, Japan. The building was named after Dwight Whitney Learned (1848-1943), the first president of the University.
 * Maria's English surname is the French word for "fox."
 * Yoko Teppotsuka in Rondo of Blood.
 * Chisa Yokoyama in Nocturne in the Moonlight.
 * Kimberly Forsythe in Symphony of the Night.
 * Michelle Ruff in Dracula X Chronicles.
 * Maria's blood type is AB.