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.

The forest where he lives is called Eternal Night, as it is covered in unending darkness thanks to a jewel created through alchemy, the Ebony Stone. Due to this jewel, Walter is virtually invincible; it infuses his body with the same energy that perpetuates the pall of darkness covering the forest, providing him formidable protection.

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 indulges in games of cat-and-mouse with brave warriors who he finds interesting; to lure them to him, he frequently kidnaps someone important to his intended target in an attempt to force them to come after him, as was the case for when he lured Baron Leon Belmont to his castle by kidnapping his fiancée, Sara Trantoul. 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.

Background
Description given on the Official Japanese Konami website:

"The vampire who controls the forest called Eternal Night. His origin and his age are not clear. To distract himself from the boredom of eternal life, he enjoys playing life and death games with brave humans, to raise the stakes of the game, in order to make the human be interested, he steals that which is most precious from his target."

Description from the official guidebook:

"Walter is a dark king who rules over Eternal Night. Even among the vampire clan, he is the strongest. He cannot even be scratched by inferior weapons."

Walter was manipulated by Mathias Cronqvist into stealing Leon's beloved. Mathias hoped to use the companion to the Ebony Stone, the Crimson Stone, to capture Walter's soul when he died. He was well aware of his friend Leon's skills, of Rinaldo's presence in the forest and of his aid to Leon, of Walter's usual manner of "raising the stakes" for his opponent by biting their loved ones (as he did with Justine Gandolfi, Rinaldo's daughter), and that in biting Sara, he could potentially set up a situation where Leon could defeat Walter, through the use of the Vampire Killer.

Abilities

 * Anger Fist
 * Walter lunge his anger with his close combat that dealt a heavy damage.


 * Dark Powers
 * Walter has control over various dark powers, such as control over demons, Hellfire, Dark Inferno and other abilities.


 * Invulnerability
 * Walter, although not immortal, could not be harmed with normal weapons, so only the Vampire Killer could damage him.


 * 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 shapeshift, like Dracula.

Battle Quotes
Behold my strength, now this is power!

Other Information

 * His name, Walter Bernhard, is like that of many characters, of German origin.


 * Though his name seems somewhat "un-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 honouring 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 him 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.