Elizabeth Bartley


Castlevania: Bloodlines
 Elizabeth guards Dracula's resting place in Castle Proserpina, Stage 6, wherein she acts as a boss

Messing around with black magic can bring about disastrous results. This was the case when Drolta Tzuentes, an amateur witch, absent-mindedly entered into the ruins of Castlevania and began nocturnally practicing arcane magic for purposes of experimentation.

Her incantations instead served to raise the dead, and Elizabeth Bartley's spirit was allowed to return in all its beautiful yet devious splendor. During the late 1500s, Bartley was found standing over the body of a dead man with teethmarks in his neck. She was arrested and tried on one count of being a vampire and another undocumented count of being the niece of Vlad Tepes Dracula; she was found guilty and executed immediately thereafter.

So when Drolta granted her new life in 1917, Elisabeth immediately began plotting for revenge: She would resurrect her dead uncle and unleash him upon this world. She dug up his corpse, carted it over to England, and hid it within the Castle Proserpina. Then she inconspicuously traveled all over Europe to begin enlisting the aid of vile forces everywhere (this included the usual suspects and a whole new cast of demons). Her intent was twofold: She would use this sudden uprising to decoy would-be heroes all over the globe, even to the ruins of Castlevania, and she would harvest the fallen souls of hero and villain alike as the essential ingredient in the unholy ceremony. While the heroes, successfully goaded, scoured the globe, Bartley carefully completed the ritual to revive Count Dracula.

The vampire countess became one of the last lines of defense when the heroes arrived at the Castle Proserpina to avert his resurrection; she summoned Medusa to fight in her place, but this tactic proved to be ineffective. When she launched her own assault, as a last resort, it was only a matter of time before she met her end. Though, she successfully stalled the heroes' efforts--the ritual was complete even though she would not live on to experience Dracula's return.

(Special note: Bartley's tale is a bit different in Vampire Killer, the Japanese version, where the events [or a version of events] of World War I were more prevalent. Most disturbingly, it was actually our very own Bartley who caused the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by using a spell; this would lead to his murder, which was carried out, allegedly, by the spell's target--the Serbian terrorist group Black Hand. This act of angst set the war in motion, as Bartley had hoped. Her intent was to use the fallen souls, the dead militia [including those killed by Morris, Lecarde and the undead], as part of the unholy ceremony to raise Count Dracula.)

 
 
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