Persephone is an enemy in the Castlevania series. She is a demonic maid that served a noble master.
Origins
The Return of Persephone (1891) by Frederic Leighton.
Persephone is named after a Greek goddess of seasons and queen of the Underworld, being the wife of Hades. Due to being kidnapped and later tricked into being permanently bound to the Underworld, Persephone must spend half a year with her husband as queen of the dead (Fall and Winter), but can spend the rest of the year with her mother, the goddess Demeter (spring and summer). Her Latin name was Proserpina.
Description
Persephone is a demonic maid who serves Dracula within the castle. She is very polite and will usually bow to enemies before attacking. Persephone uses hand-to-hand combat to battle intruders. Sometimes she will use her vacuum to suck-in her victim's clothes. She is also vulnerable to vacuum-type attacks such as Soma's Devil Tornado and Magic Vacuum (which is Persephone's own soul), or Charlotte's Dark Gate and Tempest spells, as those attacks attempt to suck her skirt, stunning her as she tries to hold it in place.
Appearances
Castlevania Chronicles
These maids are rare inhabitants of Count Dracula's Tower. They initially wait patiently for the player to draw near before evading their attacks by back-flipping, time during which they are invincible. While in this flipping motion, they will sometimes throw a barrage of daggers in five different directions. If damaged without being killed, they will turn more vicious-looking and take to hovering, gaining the ability to generate blue flames from their hands which they will toss at the ground, each breaking into four smaller fireballs with homing capabilities.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Persephone appears in the Inner Quarters area of the castle, where they will do a polite curtsy and greet Soma in Japanese before attacking him. They attack by unleashing various kicks. When defeated, they collapse to their knees and fade away. Like the other enemies in the game, they also have their Soul absorbed by Soma, with their soul allowing for Soma to absorb enemy HP via a magical item.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Persephone returns to Celia's castle. Even though they've been employed by Celia to serve the Dark Lord (who actually hasn't been elected yet), they care of the Demon Guest House with extreme dedication, awaiting for one to be elected. They wear a classic purple maid dress, with simple shoes and simple maid headband. They also have blue hair in a ponytail fashion. When one is met, they normally greet the enemy before going into a battle stance and start attacking with swing kicks. She's easy to tease by using a sucking effect soul on her, or if she's near a defeated demon who is being sucked back to Hell, which causes her skirt to be pulled and embarrasses her, as she holds her skirt tightly. Defeating her will envelop her in flower petals as she disappears into the air.
Perhaps due to her loyalty to those who defeat her, and the fact that the one who defeats her is the "reincarnation" of the Dracula, who she once served, Persephone's soul may be caught by Soma's Power of Dominance and become a guardian soul. Persephone can be leveled up three times to level 9 by catching 9 Persephone's souls. Level one allows Soma to use her vacuum cleaner with teeth. Level two is an upgraded version with a powerful engine and four wheels. Level three summons Persephone wearing a blue maid's dress to personally clean the floor in front of her "master", which kills unes and other low level enemies easier. She can also absorb enemies' HP and give them to Soma, which gives a "vampire effect" to him. At full level, she can absorb 6 HP per hit with a cost of 5 MP per second while decently damaging her enemies, which increase her usefulness. She seems to flinch when attempting to vacuum harder enemies because her vacuum is easily "stuck". She can also be summoned and dismissed very fast, which gives her the same capabilities as a bullet soul despite being a guardian soul, although she has extreme lack of range at level 9.
Persephone is favored by many players due to her HP draining ability, allowing players to survive longer in harder fights for next to no MP when summoned strategically. Another interesting ability is that she can suck in some enemy attacks, like Ukoback's flames, Frozen Shade's ice and icicles attacks, Skeleton's bones, Killer Clown's cards, Catoblepas' and Gorgon's breath, Gaibon's breath and fireball attacks, Golem's rock breath, all of Malphas' crows and feathers, Alura Une's rose dart, and also Death's scythes.
Interestingly, when Soma uses Persephone's soul on her, she will let out a shriek, be unable to move, and her dress will look like it's being sucked in front of her. Oddly enough, when Soma is behind Persephone while using her soul, her dress will still look like it's being sucked from the front.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Persephone appears in the Great Stairway area of Dracula's Castle, and the Sandy Grave. Her vacuum has interesting effects dependent on whoever is being controlled by the player: While Jonathan merely gets his coat stuck on her vacuum, should Charlotte Aulin be near the vacuum, her skirt will be pulled and she will hold it down.
Enemy Data
| Enemy Data: Persephone | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Description |
Statistics | Items | Location | Notes |
|
|||||
| ' | HP: 1/5/5 Exp: 400 |
8. Dracula's Tower |
|||
|
|||||
| A demon maid that served a noble master. | Weak: Sword, Poison HP: 150 MP: 96 Exp: 55 Atk: 23 Def: 25 |
Common Drop: Scarf Rare Drop: Strawberry Soul: Magic Vacuum |
Inner Quarters |
||
|
|||||
| A demonic maid in the employ of an unearthly baron. | Strong: Dark Weak: Piercing, Slashing, Holy, Poison HP: 140 MP: 2 Exp: 82 Atk: 38 Timestop: Affected |
Common Drop: Silk Robe (8%) Rare Drop: Strawberry (4%) Soul: Magic Vacuum (3.52%) |
Demon Guest House |
||
|
|||||
| The count's demonic maid. She seems to have bought a new vacuum cleaner. | Strong: Dark Weak: Whip, Slash, Holy, Poison, Stone HP: 60 Exp: 35 Skill Pt: 2 |
Drop: Frilly Camisole, Pudding Bucket |
Great Stairway, Sandy Grave |
(Strategy) | |
|
|
|||||
| The count's demonic maid. She seems to have bought a new vacuum cleaner. | Weak: Slash, Pierce, Petrify, Curse, Poison |
Drop: Forget-Me-Not (5.30%) Heart Brooch (2.30%) Soul: Blue (2.80%) |
Chapter 2, Chapter 4 |
||
Item Data
| Item Data: Persephone | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
|
||||||||
| Warm and cozy. | DEF +2 Sell: $185 |
Find: Castle Corridor Common Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| A plump, sweet strawberry. | HP +265 Sell: $200 |
Rare Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| Absorb enemies' HP with a magical item. (Uses a magical item to absorb enemies' HP.) | Consume: 15 MP/sec |
10 ATK |
Drop: Persephone |
|||||
|
||||||||
| A robe made of woven silk. | DEF +4, INT +2 Sell: $400 |
Buy: $800 Find: Hammer's shop Common Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| A plump, sweet strawberry. | HP +150 Sell: $265 |
Rare Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| Enable "Magic Vacuum". Vacuums up enemy HP. | Attrib: Slashing Consume: 5 MP/sec |
Rarity: ** Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| A camisole with cute frills. | DEF +9, MND +5 Sell: $2,450 |
Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| A bucket full of pudding. Don't worry, the bucket is new. | HP +200 Sell: $245 |
Drop: Persephone |
||||||
|
||||||||
| Necklace patterned after a beautiful flower. | HP +2, MP +2, DEF +1, INT +2 Sell: $700 |
Rarity: ** Drop: Persephone (5.30%) |
||||||
|
||||||||
| Increases your chance of finding hearts. | Sell: $1,250 |
Rarity: *** Drop: Persephone (5.30%) |
||||||
|
||||||||
| Enable "Magic Vacuum" to consume enemy HP. | Attrib: Strike Consume: 3 MP |
ATK +3 |
Rarity: ** Steal: Persephone (2.8%) |
Effect: Magic Vacuum | ||||
Gallery
- See: Persephone/Gallery
Trivia
- Persephone's name in Japan is also "Proserpina" (or Prosperina). Elizabeth Bartley's castle in Castlevania: Bloodlines is also called "Castle Proserpina".
- In the fighting game Skullgirls, published by Konami, the main antagonist and boss, Marie Korbel, may be a nod to Persephone, being that she's dressed in maid's attire and is in possession of a demonic vacuum.