Beware of unmarked spoilers further down the page.
This page deals with the characters from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.
For Mathias Cronqvist's tropes, see Castlevania – Dracula.
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Leon Belmont
Voiced by (Japanese): Nobutoshi Canna
Voiced by (English): Dave Wittenberg
"I'll kill you AND the night!!"
A near-invincible knight active during the medieval era, and along with Mathias Cronqvist, formed an invincible team. He abandoned his position when his betrothed Sara Trantoul was kidnapped (according to Mathias) by the vampire Walter Bernhard. Leon discards his sword and takes up the Whip of Alchemy from Rinaldo Gandolfi, and storms Walter's castle, only to find Sara in process of being vampirized. The only way to save her is to kill her. Leon does the job, changing the Whip of Alchemy into the legendary Vampire Killer.
Leon swears to kill Walter and the night. He almost succeeds, only to see Walter get backstabbed by Death, and Mathias reveal himself as the Magnificent Bastard behind the scenes. Leon refuses Mathias' offer to join him, survives a battle with Death, and swears that his family will always exist to oppose Mathias.
- Badass Boast: After defeating Death, he asks him to deliver a message to Matthias that doubles as this and a Badass Creed:Leon: You have become a cursed being, and I will never forgive you. This whip, and my kinsmen, will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont clan will hunt the night!
- Badass Long Coat: As shown in his folder image, he wears a red-white sleeveless coat, and he's a former knight and professional vampire hunter.
- Break the Cutie: Good grief, the game does NOT like Leon. Sacrificed everything to find Sara and then forced to kill her, his vengeance on Walter was meaningless in the end since it played into Mathias' plans, and his best friend has stabbed him in the back and left him to be killed by Death for denying him. No words are spoken in the final scene before the credits, where he's just walking away from the destroyed castle, but you can almost feel how utterly ruined the poor man is.
- Career Versus Man: A gender-flipped example; in spite of his success in the Crusades, Leon renounces his title and leave his company of knights behind in order to rescue his beloved Sara, since the Church refused to grant him permission to bring his army back with him to fight the monsters overrunning his domain.
- Character Development: Leon enters the castle an idealistic young man, shown by wanting to do the honorable thing by leaving his sword behind and attacking the castle with only a dagger in hand and good intentions. By the end of the game, however, he has lost his idealism, realizing that he's bearing not only his own hatred and vengeance, but Rinaldo's as well, and swears to hunt Matthias no matter where he goes, the venom in his voice evident.
- Corrupt the Cutie: It's not explicitly stated, but his actions over the course of the adventure show that Leon is a completely different man by the journey's end. His Lawful Stupid decision of sacrificing his title and leaving behind his sword are feasibly what would be expected of an idealistic, honorable young man of his station, and he quickly learns from Rinaldo that he's pretty well in over his head because of it before he gets to the castle proper. He is trained in using alchemy and magical artifacts (Rinaldo states that many find it a forbidden practice) and delves into Rinaldo's past and begins to form a more ruthless attitude towards Walter, especially once he finds that his beloved Sara is vampirized and doomed to either be killed or turn. By the end, he is a hurt, angry man filled with rage against Walter and any associated with his kind, including Mathias once the twist is revealed that he orchestrated everything so he could become a vampire himself. He leaves the forest a broken shell of the idealistic young man he was when entering, fathering a family that he trains in all manner of arts (again, some considered forbidden, given how suspicious of Trevor Belmont people were) to kill Mathias someday and pass his vengeful rage down through his descendants.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": When Rinaldo recognises him as a baron after they first meet, Leon insists that the two of them are equals and asks that Rinaldo not refer to him as a Lord, since he gave up his titles in order to be able to come rescue Sara.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Towards Matthias, when the man that was once his best friend reveals that he manipulated and used not only him, but indirectly caused Sara’s awful fate as part of his plan to gain eternal life.
- Famous Ancestor: He's the founder of the Belmont family, whose descendants would plague Dracula/Mathias as long as the line continues.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Whip of Alchemy gains these powers whenever Leon defeats the respective element bosses, and even retains them when it becomes the Vampire Killer. Oddly enough, these powers rarely show up again (or at least in their full capacity) throughout the series.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blonde hair, is unquestioningly good despite the fact of being Lawful Stupid, and refuses becoming a vampire over the fact that Sara wouldn't have wanted that and his love of Sara motivating him. There's also the factor that he doesn't initially attack Matthias or Joachim. It says a lot for someone who's gone through one terrible night to not have suffered a Despair Event Horizon.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Mathias, until their "falling out."
- Kill the Ones You Love: To spare Sara from the fate of becoming a vampire, he reluctantly killed her (though with her consent).
- Knight in Shining Armor: Almost literally.
- Lawful Stupid: He comes to Walter's castle unarmed, having relinquished his sword along with his knighthood. Not entirely unarmed as he does have the Dagger subweapon upon starting the game, but he had intended on finding a new sword from a fallen warrior on the way. Still doesn't mean it was the greatest choice though.
- Leitmotif: Lament of Innocence
is considered to be Leon's theme. - The Power of Hate: What gives the Vampire Killer its incredible power is explicitly the hatred of Sara’s soul towards vampires; a power that Leon grimly accepts in order to destroy Walter and keep his promise to Sara that no other will suffer her fate.
- The Power of Love:
- Knowing that she'll eventually fully succumb to her vampirism, Leon's betrothed, Sara, willingly bonds her soul to the Whip of Alchemy, transforming it into the Vampire Killer.
- His promise to his beloved Sara is also the reason why Leon so adamantly refuses to join Mathias.
- Second Love: We're not told who she is, but he must've found a wife after Sara became the Vampire Killer (since most other games star his descendants).
- Shoot the Dog: Leon's original motive was to rescue Sara, not to gain a cool whip. This causes him to swear to hunt down Mathias as long as he still breathes.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Matthias offers him immortality for feeling the same pain as him by losing a beloved, Leon asks if Elisabetha asked he turn his back on God and become a vampire, seeing a woman like that as a person Matthias should not have loved if she did. Leon adds that Sara asked him to ensure nobody else suffers the same fate as her, so to accept Matthias' offer would be an insult to her.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Matthias. Knowing how far he is willing to go for love, as well as how Walter's boredom will pan out to make the "game" more interesting, Matthias essentially used Leon to kill Walter in order to steal Walter's soul and become a vampire.
- Wild Hair: Lacks the usual Barbarian Long Hair of most of his descendants, but it's still quite messy.
Rinaldo Gandolfi
Voiced by (Japanese): Hidekatsu Shibata
Voiced by (English): Michael McConnohie
"Don't you always? Ask away."
Rinaldo is an old man who lives near Walter Bernhard's castle. Walter turned Rinaldo's daughter, Justine, into a vampire, and she killed the rest of Rinaldo's family. Rinaldo was forced to create the Whip of Alchemy and he then killed her with it. When Leon Belmont came to rescue his betrothed; Sara Trantoul from the clutches of Walter, Rinaldo gave Leon the Whip of Alchemy, and later helped him perform a ritual which unlocked the whip's true power and transformed it into the Vampire Killer. He also provided a shop where Leon could buy or sell items.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Of a sort. He enchants Leon's gauntlet so he can use magic, and is the creator of the Whip of Alchemy.
- Cool Old Guy: He was a capable fighter before Walter bested him. Gives helpful advice to Leon, runs his store for his benefit, and even dilvulges his history to him.
- Cruel Mercy: On the receiving end of this, thanks to Walter. Rinaldo fought against Walter, but failed, and due to Walter's amusement with his talents, he was allowed to live in the Forest of Eternal Night, if only because he knows he'll help other people wanting to kill him, thus spicing up the game. Rinaldo has helped potentially dozens, if not hundreds, of people who've become part of Walter's twisted game, but in the end, the Whip of Alchemy gets left behind on his doorstep when the latest warrior fails. Unlike many sufferers of this trope, this trope ultimately gets subverted when Leon manages to kill Walter, with Rinaldo's hopes being paid off and him joyfully going "He did it!"
- Crusading Widower: Rinaldo attempted to kill Walter after his family's deaths, but the whip had no effect on Walter. Walter allowed Rinaldo to live near the castle and help other vampire hunters, as he thought it would make the "game" more interesting.
- Heartbroken Badass: His main motivation for taking Walter down? He's basically responsible for the death of Rinaldo's family.
- Offing the Offspring: A very tragic example. He killed his daughter after she slaughtered their family.
- Retired Badass: He's responsible for creating the Whip of Alchemy, and even fought Walter himself. Granted, he wasn't able to kill him, but Walter seemed amused enough to simply let him live to assist other potential warriors against him.
Sara Trantoul
Voiced by (Japanese): Yumi Touma
Voiced by (English): Melissa Fahn
"If my soul can save others, then I won't die in vain. I do not want anyone else to suffer my fate."
The fiancée of Leon Belmont.
- Big Good: She's the longest-lasting, most important protagonist of the series, since she's the Vampire Killer.
- Converted into a Weapon: Sara's soul was bound to the Whip of Alchemy to create the Vampire Killer.
- Disposable Woman: Unlike the others, she at least gets a bit of screen time. And has a lot more tropes...
- Damsel in Distress: Leon journeys to the Castle of Eternal Night to rescue her from Walter. He ends up arriving too late, as Walter turns her into a vampiress so he could derive pleasure from Leon seeing the horror and tragedy of the situation.
- Empathic Weapon: Ms. Trantoul is rather picky to whoever wants to wield her. If you're not a Belmont or in line with them, or you've been tainted by Dracula's power, she will drain the life out of you unless you prove your worth; just ask Jonathan.
- Establishing Character Moment: When she willingly fused her soul to become the Vampire Killer. She should be crowned a saint for that.
- Fate Worse than Death: She considers being a vampiress this. Also, she's still stuck inside the whip, even after Julius "permanently" kills Dracula, and later Soma deciding he doesn't want to follow in his past life's villainous path (or in the bad endings of his games gets killed again).
- Good Is Not Soft: Leon feels lucky to have met such a sweet lady, with a nice personality. Until she becomes the Vampire Killer in the hope of stopping Mathias, as the Belmonts use her to plow through his forces.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She doesn't want others to suffer her fate, so she made a pact with Leon and Rinaldo to bind her soul to the Whip of Alchemy.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Belmonts are using the soul of Leon's lover all this time.
- Samus Is a Girl: A rare weapon example; the Vampire Killer is Sara.
- Unwitting Pawn: it's implied she figured it out when Leon felt her anger, as she sensed Mathias has become a vampire.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: In a way, as she actually preferred to be sealed in the Whip of Alchemy to create the Vampire Killer, so Leon can permanently kill Walter, and later have his descendants hunt down Mathias.
- Walking Spoiler: If you haven't played Lament of Innocence, chances are you don't even know her; hell, she's not even acknowledged in recent games, her presence is only implied. But considering the Belmonts can't hunt the night without her, she is worth your respect.
Walter Bernhard
Voiced by (Japanese): Yukimasa Kishino
Voiced by (English): Jamieson Price
"Welcome. I have been waiting, Leon."
A powerful vampire who rules the forest called Eternal Night. As he finds his immortality to be boring, he seeks a challenge, playing life and death games with brave humans and upping the ante by stealing that which is most precious to them. His latest act is spiriting away Sara Trantoul, Leon Belmont's betrothed.
- And I Must Scream: His final fate; essentially he's reduced to a battery for Dracula's magic.
- Asshole Victim: After what he did to Leon, Sara, Justine, and Rinaldo, few people are sad to see him get his soul stolen by Death and used to turn Mathias into Dracula.
- Badass Cape: Coupled with his darkly-colored armor and clothing, Walter is one of the more physically-imposing (humanoid) villains.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He's the main vampire whose reign of terror encompasses this game, but considering this is a prequel, he will be betrayed and superseded by the man who would become Dracula.
- Big "NO!": When being betrayed by Death, right after giving a speech affirming he'll be brought back to life.
- Blood Knight: Subverted. He seems to seek excitement as a means to pass the time, and achieves this by playing life and death games with humans, and due to having Nigh-Invulnerability thanks to the Ebony Stone, not one has managed to kill him. He goes into a Villainous Breakdown when the Vampire Killer actually manages to harm him, showing that he has no sense of fair play at all.
- But Not Too Challenging: Walter is so bored with his eternal life that he provokes human warriors to attack his castle by kidnapping their loved ones, even sparing Rinaldo so that the alchemist will arm and assist said warriors. However, the end result of these countless escapades, up until his abduction of Sara and his resulting feud with Leon Belmont, is that the warriors will either die or have to deal with their newly-vampirized loved ones. When Leon manages to actually take him on and wound him with the Vampire Killer, Walter is shocked that he's actually being beaten in fair competition with a mortal human.
- Climax Boss: He's not the final boss, but you'd be forgiven to think so given his defeat brings a lot of the main plot points thus far to a head.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: Displays use of Dark Inferno, as Dracula does.
- Evil Overlord: Ruled the castle long before Dracula did.
- Evil Redhead: Tying in with the old tradition of vampires being redheads, particularly of the moroii variety.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks politely and courteously, but is more motivated by his desire to slake his boredom and Troll tendencies. Case in point, he turned Rinaldo's daughter into a Vampire who then slaughtered her own family, turned Sara into a Vampire when Leon got to him, and he even turned Joachim into a vampire if only to give him Cruel Mercy by locking him away into effective solitary confinement, to starve but not being able to die because of it.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Acts as a veil, a way of representing his magical powers, and separates himself from normal men.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: He wants others to come after him. See Blood Knight above.
- It Amused Me: His reason for pulling his nightly games, besides his Blood Knight tendencies. It's also why he would kidnap humans and turn them into vampires so he could get off from the horror and tragedy that would result from these transformations. This is what happened to two of his victims: Sara Trantoul and Justine Gandolfi.
- Leitmotif: Dark Night Toccata.
- Karmic Death: His death comes at the culmination of Rinaldo, Leon and Sara's combined rage, with the lattermost becoming the most necessary component to completing the Vampire Killer which would annihilate his protection from the Ebony Stone. Furthermore, much like Sara, his own soul also becomes confined into an object to empower someone else, in this case Matthia's Crimson Stone as opposed to Leon's Vampire Killer.
- Kick the Dog: He kidnapped Justine, turned her into a vampire, and let her loose on her own family until she was killed by the only survivor, her father Rinaldo. He later did the same to Sara, kidnapping and turning her into a vampire so he could derive pleasure from the suffering of her betrothed, Leon Belmont. This ends up biting him in the ass when Leon (with Sara's consent) turned Sara into the Vampire Killer and defeated him with it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He ends up defeated with a whip that contained the souls of two women who died because they contracted vampirism from him, and also loses his magical protections when Leon destroys the Ebony Stone. Furthermore, much like how Sara's soul was used to empower the Whip of Alchemy into the Vampire Killer, Walter's own soul becomes trapped in the Crimson Stone to empower Matthias.
- Meaningful Name: Walter's name stems from the Germanic root wald, meaning "to rule". Translated into Slavonic, it becomes volod, which has a name form: "Vlad"
- Not So Invincible After All: He has Nigh-Invulnerability thanks to the Ebony Stone, except when faced by the awesome power of the Vampire Killer.
- Predecessor Villain: He's essentially a proto-Dracula. His magic and demon form are less refined versions of Dracula's own, and he uses a giant castle that may or may not have become Castlevania in the future.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His armor and hair is predominantly red while his cape is black, and he does what he does because it amuses him.
- The Night That Never Ends: Thanks to wielding the Ebony Stone, his castle and the forest around it, aptly called "Forest of Eternal Night", is constantly shrouded under darkness and night. This gets subverted when Leon destroys it thanks to Vampire Killer.
- Unwitting Pawn: He was deceived by Mathias and Death into believing that the Ebony Stone would revive him after his defeat and allow him to control Death. Instead, Death claims Walter's soul and uses it to create the Crimson Stone.
- Wicked Cultured: Look at the areas in his castle. House of Sacred Remains and its semi-religious architecture, the Ghostly Theatre, the Garden Forgotten by Time and the Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab. The man clearly has some interest in the arts and sciences.
Joachim Armster
Voiced by (Japanese): Hiroshi Kamiya
Voiced by (English): Michael Lindsay
"It's too bad... You aren't Walter."
Once a human, Joachim was turned into a vampire by Walter Bernhard. He now harbors an ambition to defeat Walter and become the new master of his castle, but was bested in combat by Walter and imprisoned in the castle's prison as punishment.
- Ambition Is Evil: How he ended up in the Dark Palace of Waterfalls. Initially lured in by the promise of eternal life as a vampire, Joachim betrayed Walter and attempts to kill him in order to usurp his position and power. However, thanks to the Ebony Stone, Walter remained undefeated and proceeds to punish Joachim.
- Ax-Crazy: As a result of being imprisoned and starved. His artwork really helps drive home just how disturbed he is.
- Badass Long Coat: He wears a stylish purple one.
- Barefoot Loon: Has no shoes in one piece of concept art, and is completely mad after years of being imprisoned and tormented by Walter.
- Berserk Button: His defeat at the hands of Walter and his imprisonment are very sore spots, and he cannot stand it when anyone mentions them.
- Cannot Cross Running Water: As a vampire, water is like acid to him, and a waterfall is what prevents him from escaping his prison.
- Cruel Mercy: What was done to him by his former master. Walter spared his life after defeating him, only to lock him up in a solitary prison, leave him to perpetually starve and to unwillingly guard one of the keys to Walter's inner sanctum.
- Defeat Means Playable: After beating the game as Leon, Joachim becomes a playable character.
- Energy Weapon: His piercing mode has this as his magic attack, creating a magic circle with his swords before throwing a high damage laser beam forth.
- Expy: He's a villainous rival to a man in red, controls multiple summoned swords, relies solely on his magic and Limit Breaks to fight, and is characterized mostly by his ambitions to kill the man in red. He's got numerous parallels to Vergil of Devil May Cry fame.
- Femme Fatalons: A male example. He sports claw-like nails not only on his fingers, but according to his artwork, on his toes as well.
- Foil: To Walter. Color scheme and appearance.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the two ways he wields his swords in his playable mode, piercing them into enemies for high damage at the cost of something of a reload time.
- Kamehame Hadoken: One of his limit breaks.
- Laughing Mad: When he finally defeats Walter and becomes lord of his castle.
- Leitmotif: "Melencholy Joachim," his boss theme.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As should be expected from Ayami Kojima at this point.
- Master of the Levitating Blades: He never touches his swords when they butcher his enemies.
- Mind over Matter: Uses psychokinesis to wield five swords.
- No Indoor Voice: He tends to yell out loud when ending his sentences.
- Pointy Ears: He has noticeable pointy ears, even on his in-game model.
- Power Floats: He floats while using magic. In his playable mode, he never uses his feet. Not even to stand on pressure plates.
- Powers Do the Fighting: This is how it appears when you play as him: He just floats there while his swords hack away at everything without him moving a muscle unless he uses his Limit Break.
- Purple Is Powerful: He wears purple, and is a powerful telekinetic vampire.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes glow red before his battle with Leon.
- Reverse Shrapnel: One of his two ways he wields his swords in his playable mode, carving away at enemies with lowish damage but also a low reload time. His magic attack in this form has him increase the blades' size before spinning them around himself like a murderous blender.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Apparently he was lured into the castle by promises of immortality and vampirism by Walter. But he wanted to be the lord of the castle instead. After attempting a betrayal (and it failing due to the Ebony Stone), Walter decided to reward his desire for supremacy in the castle by making him the lieutenant who guards the Green Orb. In the Dark Palace of Waterfalls, which is basically the castle's sewer system and latrine. Where Joachim is stuck in a room that is "locked" by a waterfall at its entrance, and since it's like acid to vampires... well, you do the math.
- Slouch of Villainy: Does this after killing Walter and taking his castle in his non-canon ending.
- Sore Loser: Hints at this with his conversation before challenging Leon:Leon: Why is a vampire locked away here?Leon: [perplexed]Joachim: Damn Walter, I would have won weren't not for his ebony stone.
- Transhuman Treachery: He was initially lured to the castle by Walter offering him immortality and power through vampirism, and he clearly seems to enjoy this fact.
- Villain Protagonist: Becomes this in his playable mode. He is notably the only playable Castlevania villain.
Elisabetha Cronqvist
The wife of Mathias Cronvqist.
- The Ghost: Never seen in person in the game, only through official art.
- The Lost Lenore: To her sore widower, Mathias.
- Posthumous Character: Is dead before the game starts.
- Shout-Out: Which makes her very existence a kind of Walking Spoiler. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Elisabeta is the name of Dracula's wife whose death leads to his start of darkness. Additionally, Elizabeth of Celje was the first wife of Matthias Corvinus, the real-life inspiration for Mathias Cronvqist.
