Walter Bernhard was a vampire doomed to a lonely eternity, like all others of his kind. Still, Walter had a strong ambition: There were three sacred stones which when brought together would allow for alchemy's goal: They would grant to their holder eternal youth.

With eternity already at his behest, only two of the stones held any real value to him: The Ebony Stone, which could potentially consume the Earth in eternal darkness, and the Crimson Stone, a source of unspeakable power. Eventually, he located the Ebony Stone, with help from his new ally Death, and used its then-limited power to engulf the forest in darkness. These conditions ideal, he made residence within the forest's mysterious castle.

Eternal life had become boring during those years, so the vampire decided that he needed some entertainment. Walter, arrogantly, began goading vampire hunters to his castle by stealing away their possessions, a game he would play to lure them into a duel they could not win. To make the game more fun, he even allowed Rinaldo Gandolfi, a noted alchemist and a pawn in this game, to reside in the forest to assist the hunters with his goods.

Walter's most famous stunt came at the expense of Leon Belmont: He kidnapped Leon's betrothed, Sara, to force another confrontation. Walter made sure to infect her with his curse before releasing her back into Leon's arms, but he didn't expect that this act would backfire, that the Vampire Killer whip would be created thanks in part to her infection and her will to prevent others from suffering the same cursed fate. He learned this lesson well when Leon struck him down with the newly created weapon. And then Walter discovered one more cold truth--that Death had no further use for him; Death took the Ebony Stone and presented it to his real ally, Mathias Cronqvist, and then for good measuer extracted Walter's spirit into the stone to ensure Mathias' goal to become the King of the Night.